Copyright 2015 Ryan Leonard / Inner Circle Self Publishers ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This PDF Report Is Completely Free and may be shared freely. It may not, however, be sold, nor may any part of this document be altered, modified or omitted. To report abuse, please email: [email protected] If you know someone who can benefit from this information, do not hesitate to share it with them! COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Big Drop (before and after) N eil was watching his earnings plummet. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED It was December 2014 and life was hectic. Being an impersonator of Henry VIII is a busier job than one might expect. Traveling from city to city and school to school to speak in front of crowds has its perks, but “lots of free time” isn’t one of them. As much as Neil loved his job, it wasn’t enough. Back in 2010 Neil got a bona-fide book deal (with an advance!) and serialization in the nation press. It was for a biography. Neil had gone through some pretty harsh stuff through the first thirty years of this life and it left him with an addiction that was killing him. By taking radical action, he managed to transform his life. It was this book publishers were interested in. But despite writing 80,000 words and having extensive press exposure, the book didn’t do very well. It seemed that his dreams of making money from writing were gone for good. Then he read about self publishing on kindle. Using his free time wisely, Neil worked tirelessly to brainstorm, research, outline, and finally write non-fiction, “true crime” type books. A couple of these books sold very well, and he had several two and three thousand dollar months... but then things changed-- fast. He couldn’t put his finger on the problem, but his royalties were dropping like a stone, and it was demoralizing. With all the work it took to create just one of these books, it was hard to witness them slip down the ranks in the amazon kindle store. What was once working wasn’t working so well anymore. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Neil began to feel something we’ve all experienced and what many refer to as “getting kicked in the balls”-- that sick, empty, gnawing feeling that starts low in the gut. That feeling of impending failure... or hopelessness. So he did what any sensible man would do... he started working less on his books, and with his numbers sinking faster than concrete shoes, who could blame him? A few months slipped by, and the direct deposits he had grown accustomed to from amazon shrunk further. It wasn’t until the advice and gentle nudge of a friend re-inspired him and he made a decision... actually, it was a goal. ...a big hairy goal.. ..a goal that wasn’t “realistic”... ..a goal that many might scoff at ...the goal he set was: HAVE AT LEAST ONE $20,000 MONTH ON AMAZON KDP IN 2015. He set the goal, and didn’t think too much about it... until he received an email from me. He had no idea who I was, but he read the email and was intrigued. When I asked Neil about how he found me he laughed and said he had no idea. He also said it was a stroke of luck that he took me up on my offer and gained access to a brand new, private mastermind group I had just put together. “Usually,” he said “those things all look like big scams to me.” COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED He was talking about my pitch. Neil wasn’t a big believer in spending money on products or training... or “masterminds”. Even still, he decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, his initial thoughts of the mastermind being a bad idea resurfaced as soon as he read “The Smoking Gun” report I gave him upon joining. Although the intel looked solid enough, Neil had an overwhelming sense that his investment had been a mistake. In fact, during a private skype video call a couple months later, Neil confessed his initial reaction upon reading through the information had been: “What the hell did I just buy?!” ..and that thought was promptly followed by the feeling that this “opportunity” wasn’t anything more than a pie-in-the-sky dream. I was just another snake oil peddler who had managed to dupe him. There was simply no way it was going to work-- not for him at least. Then he remembered his goal, and since he had already made the purchase (to which there were no refunds) he decided it wouldn’t hurt to at least give it a try. Fast forward a few weeks later and Neil can’t believe what he’s looking at: Those magic little graphs on the KDP select dashboards that self publishers are obsessed with, weren’t showing a downward trend. They were going up! BOOK SALES At first just a trickle, then it started picking up. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED “Oh boy, I’ve got something here.” he thought. The sight of numbers showing up where there had been only empty space a short while ago, gave him all the motivation he needed. He promptly buckled down and got to work. By month’s end, he couldn’t believe the results. He had made: £3700 GBP Or if you prefer: $5,500 USD Yes, in a single month (give or take a couple days), Neil had earned some serious dough. This month was a game changer, and now he focuses exclusively on the information he obtained through the mastermind. Now, this is all fine and dandy, but any reasonable person is going to want to look a little closer. What EXACTLY had he done to achieve such astounding results so quickly? What was his total investment? ...and perhaps most important of all, was it just a fluke? Was this nothing more than pure dumb luck, or was it something that could be repeatable? COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED First, let’s look at exactly what he did and how much money he spent to achieve such stunning results so rapidly. First, he hired someone to write a short story of just 3,000 words to publish in the genre exposed in the mastermind. This story cost him a grand total of: $25 To be honest he was just using this as a test to check the quality of any potential writers. But the short story started selling. He immediately re-hired the writer to repeat the process. While this was happening in the background, he used the template I gave him to rapidly write his very own novella length “book” to publish in this same secret genre. As far as money was concerned this cost him: $0 Time cost: 7 days give or take. He said that he wrote 75% of it in 3 days, then dilly-daddled for a couple more days before finishing it up. He spent $30 getting the piece edited - as you will read later, editing is not Neil’s strong point. Editing Cost: $30 (Neil, like many of us struggles with grammar, syntax, story and that sort of thing) COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED In the mean time, his meager $50 investment (For two short stories) had quickly made him his money back plus profit. Seeing this, he hired the same writer for another 6 short stories. Six short story costs: 25 x 6 = $150 (this was money he spent KNOWING it would pay for itself and profit, rapidly) Once he had the stories in hand, all he needed were covers. He purchased some stock photographs for a couple bucks and created the covers himself. (it’s important to note that Neil is NOT an experienced graphic designer) Total cost: $20 (rough estimate) + time (about 10 - 20 minutes per book is what he told me). Next up, he created a simple little facebook ad for the short novella he had just released. Facebook ads were something he had never tried, but he said the process couldn’t have been easier. It went something like this: He wrote a quick one paragraph status update using the facebook page he had created for his pen name. He added a link to his book at the end of the paragraph and “boosted” the post to just one group of people who liked the kinds of books he had just released. He set the budget to £3 (about $5 - $6 USD) A couple of days later and his little “book” was selling like hot cakes-- and so were his short stories! He did a little facebook boosted post for everything he released. Most of the time COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED spending about £5 per title, and occasionally, if he was feeling particularly adventurous he would spend £10 or £12. Here’s a breakdown of Neil’s month one numbers: Short story 1: Sales: 498 Borrows: 276 Short story 2: COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Sales: 334 Borrows: 214 Novella 1: Sales: 607 Borrows: 503 Short story 3: Sales: 281 Borrows: 200 Short story 4: Sales: 45 Borrows: 41 Stand alone short story 1: Sales: 131 Borrows: 101 Stand alone short story 2: Sales: 296 Borrows: 180 Stand alone short story 3: Sales: 83 Borrows: 60 COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Novella 2: Sales: 342 Borrows: 109 TOTALS: 2,617 BOOKS SOLD 1,684 BOOKS BORROWED COMBINED TOTAL: 4,301 UNITS MOVED IN MONTH 1 $5,500* USD ROYALTIES EARNED (or £3,700 GBP) IN JANUARY *A small portion of this came as residual sales from the other non-fiction titles he had released in the past. If you’re skeptical, who can blame you? There’s a fair amount of lying and “exaggerated truths” floating around the internet. That being said, I’ve given you the real facts and the real numbers. There’s nothing to hide or exaggerate. However, for the super skeptical, here’s some additional information that may or may not be relevant: We’ve sited all these numbers as “MONTH ONE”. We consider January 2015 to be month one, even though the group was founded in December. This is due to the fact that almost nobody started working until January (some much later). Neil did start working on his first short story and novella at the end of December. However, he didn’t really get going until after the holidays, in January. That’s also why some of his titles didn’t move nearly as many units; they just weren’t published until later in the month! COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Now, let’s dig a little deeper and get to know Neil... Who is he, and exactly what super power does he posses to have been able to see so much success so quickly? Neil is actually a professional speaker. He makes his living giving pep-talks and historical re-enactments to groups of people-- typically schools. This is a very impressive career when you consider that at age nine Neil had a stammer and couldn’t COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED string more than two words together without his face going bright red as he fought to spit out the words. He was bullied on the school playground; children can be cruel. But Neil found a new friend in this time of darkness…..FOOD. Food, was his friend, his mentor, his comforter. As he grew older, his new friend accompanied him on the ride. After years of bad eating practices, Neil ended up weighing in at 703 pounds. No, that is not a typo. He couldn’t walk further than a few yards. He could barely fit in his car. He was suffering from sleep apnea that was causing him to wake up every 60 seconds at night. In short, he was a wreck travelling on the fastlane to an early grave. Neil isn’t stupid, he has a degree in aeronautical engineering. Neil isn’t lazy, he worked 16 hour days to build up his business. He was simply a man with an addiction. The problem was, unlike drink or drugs, this was an addiction that he couldn’t switch off. Unlike drink or drugs a human being simply can’t abstain from food indefinitely. After an appeal from his wife and daughter who were convinced they were going to lose him, he agreed to life changing surgery. He was a frightened man the morning of the surgery (703 pounds doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to surviving the surgeons knife); but he got through it. Now he’s almost shed half of his body weight! Neil readily admits that it was his headline grabbing story that landed him his book deal, not the fact that he was the next J.K Rowling. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Recovering from his operation he decided he was going to beat his stutter. Not only that, but he also decided to become a professional speaker. A pretty bold move for a man that would normally quiver like jelly before making even a phone call. Hard work, persistence and practice paid off. Neil now makes a living doing something he was once mocked for. Neil says that these are the only qualities you need to be a success at anything. 1. HARD WORK 2. PERSISTENCE 3. PRACTICE No-one can do the hard work for you. No one can motivate you on a daily basis. That has to come from you. Everything else can be learned. If you’re willing to work hard, persist and practice, you can be a success with self publishing. Neil’s day job is mainly based around school term time, and he found that there were big periods of time he wasn’t bringing money home. It was after a short period of illness that Neil decided to take a stab at kindle as a second source of income. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED He knew he needed a way to make money around the clock, even if he couldn’t “punch in”. Residual income gives you security, and that’s what Neil wanted... though he never imagined he would attain it through fiction! Fiction?.. I can’t write fiction! N eil never seriously thought about writing fiction. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Fiction is long. It’s complicated with plot twists and characters having their own voices. With Fiction you have show, not tell (whatever that means), and then there’s grammar and spelling-- the list goes on. It’s scary. Because of this, Neil discounted the idea of himself publishing fiction as somewhat of a fairytale, and instead, he wrote non-fiction books on a wide range of subjects. He wrote and he published. He never even thought of promoting his books. Some were a success, and some weren’t. One book took him just 7 hours to write and at one stage was selling 80 copies a day at $2.99. However, for every success there was a failure. He didn’t think about market research. Nor did he check to see if books were selling in a niche. He simply thought of a subject and then he would write. This flip-flop success wasn’t enough, so he did something different. If it isn’t already evident, let me say it simply:Neil doesn’t seem to have a background or history that would give him an unfair advantage... except for the information in the mastermind, and the willingness to work hard and persist. In fact, Neil has some struggles that might make self publishing a strange and difficult road for him. Let’s take a look at some of the things Neil struggles with: ● Dyslexia Neil is dyslexic. Although his condition isn’t super severe, it’s enough to turn easy tasks into more difficult tasks that frustrate him. When he gets frustrated COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED he tends to slow up. ● Budget Now, let’s be straight. Neil has a job that pays for all of his expenses, but he didn’t have a big budget for his books. He’s naturally averse to taking financial risks, even small ones. His total spend for his $5500 month was in the region of $180 which includes the outsourcing costs and the promotion on Facebook. It’s very important to remember that Neil, like most people who are trying to turn self publishing into a lucrative reality, did not have an endless amount of money he could just throw at his books with the hope he would hit a homerun. ● Grammar Although a smart egg, Neil is not a fan of Grammar. In his own words, he’s Grammatically challenged, give him an equation and he is fine ( This can make the writing process more challenging, but with the help of free and affordable software and tools, this “big problem” becomes a little problem. ● Proofing Neil confessed that this is one of the most frustrating parts of the process for him, due mainly to his dyslexia. Although a nuisance, it’s not enough to hold him back, and he finds creative ways around this hurdle (like getting family or friends to help him or simply investing a few extra dollars). ● Plotting/Structuring Neil is more of a “panster” which makes the notion of using a template or plotting an intimidating prospect. “My plots are naturally about a paragraph long” he confided, “It took a little fidgeting and discomfort to get past this dilemma, but I did, and it wasn’t that big of a deal”. Now that he’s done it several times, it’s easy. ● And more... like most people who have no experience writing or publishing fiction, Neil has faced and overcome many obstacles. These are issues many of us face, but now you know it’s possible to overcome... How would you like to do the same thing Neil’s done? COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED How To Replicate Neil’s Success: Neil and I have spent a few hours via skype video chat, discussing what we believe is responsible for success or failure, and how we can help more people achieve results they simply don’t believe are within their reach. We’ve gone over a lot over the past weeks, but there are a few things we felt contributed highly to Neil’s success. We’ve listed them below. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Market Is Everything! “Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” -Seth Godin I t all comes back to your market. It all comes back to your genre. Market is everything = Genre is everything. If you hit a broad market with tons of competition (think general romance/erotica) you’re going to have a real tough time. If, however, you search for the low hanging COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED fruit, you can make real progress, real fast-- and see results faster than you currently imagine possible. Now, to be completely transparent, the chances of Neil having done this without the special intel, tools and support group are slim. In his own words: “Unless you’re pointed to this genre, you don’t know it exists. You know hot fiction genres exist but you have no idea these little genres exist.” Neil later confessed that even if he had found this genre on his own, he never would have given it a second thought. If you’re going to sell anything --I don’t care what it is-- you need to carefully choose your market. In the case of selling ebooks on amazon, it’s imperative that you select the right genre. Otherwise you’re pretty much shooting blindfolded, hoping to hit a bulls eye. I’m not a big numbers guy, but I do know how to spot potential and it really isn’t that difficult. I don’t use any fancy software or tools. I just dig and look for patterns. You can do this too. Set aside a few hours to dig down into genres you find interesting or intriguing. You might be surprised at what you find. If you want to take this a step further, hire someone to gather market/genre intelligence for you. I’ve done this numerous times and I always spend under $100. Give your freelancer criteria to look for, then have her manually dig down through genres and subgenres, listing the information you’re looking for. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Have him deliver this intel in a manner you find easy to read. I have them list it visually, with a picture of the cover, the rank, related books, page count, etc. When I see it in this format, I’m able to skim through it and look for patterns easier. When you find a potential fishing hole, it’s time to test the waters. This requires work, and requires the possibility of “failure”. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Volume Is Key “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.” -Bill Gates I n the beginning, volume is KEY. Quality is important but volume is necessary. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED [/begin tangent] I know when some of you hear me say that, you’re going to immediately accuse me of suggesting people start churning out low quality books enmass. I want you to pay very close attention to what I say next: That’s not at all what I’m suggesting. On the contrary, doing that will hurt you and everyone else playing the game. You may make some money, but I promise you it will not last, and if you actually put the extra attention and effort required to turn something from sub-par to good, your rewards will be immense. I’m talking about REAL, monetary rewards, as in: you will make way more money if you do things the right way. That is a guarantee, not a maybe. It’s a definite. You might “trick” readers once with your crap books, but they won’t be fooled again, and instead of having an income that snowballs, you’ll have only a temporary flash of cash, that once spent will never return. [/end tangent] What Neil, myself and other successful people from our exclusive mastermind have noticed, is that your sales and borrows will be somewhat sporadic and slow until you have a few titles released under the same pen name. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED There are different ideas and theories as to why this is, but the why isn’t so important right now. Just know that by testing, we’ve discovered this to be the case. There have been numerous group members who were initially frustrated, wondering why their one or two short stories weren’t garnering the sales/borrows they were looking for. Many of these members didn’t let that stop them, instead they put their head down and continued forward. When they do this, something miraculous occurs: SALES AND BORROWS SPIKE! ...and then begin to climb upwards, sometimes slowly until it reaches a tipping point, and then rapidly-- with some of these members moving (sales + borrows) literally thousands of books per month. There are always exceptions. I happened to be one of them. I released a single 25,000 word novella and made $1400+ month one with it. However, I was willing to push my facebook promotion harder than most, and I enjoyed a nice rank between 1K - 2K for a month or more. That being said, you should anticipate the former scenario. It’s the more likely of the two. It’s what Caroline, Joshua, Neil, David, Nathan, Rahul and others have experienced, and it’s what will generally occur. Caroline only had a handful of sales her first month. Now she’s moving 5K+ every month, and she’s picking up speed like crazy. When she saw that the books were selling, and she realized how easy it was to write/create them, she threw her weight against “the machine” and started releasing more short stories and novellas. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The breakthrough she’s experienced the past three months have been life changing for her (in her own words), and I hope to feature her in the next case study-- as well as record an interview with her so you can listen in as she explains how she felt before and after joining my mastermind. It’s also imperative that you realize that it’s unlikely your first attempt will be a success! It happens, but it’s not the rule-- for anything in life-- you’re likely going to fail before you succeed, which is why most people give up. Keep your eyes forward and do not scrutinize too closely your results until you have several titles up. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Double Whammy " Working hard and working smart sometimes can be two different things. " - Bryon Dorgan N eil made a smart move right from the beginning. He did something that allowed him to speed up his success exponentially, and if you model him, you may also reap the rewards. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED What’s funny is that this one smart move was actually an easy one, and it cost him very little in both money and time. In fact, it saved him time, and in doing this, he basically bought money. Neil took The Two Pronged Approach... Like a general gearing to move his troops into battle, Neil didn’t place all his eggs in one basket. He used the expertise of another individual to leverage his output and his earnings (this has never failed to profit him), and it cost him under $100 to try. Instead of taking on the full workload himself, Neil took my advice and hired someone to write 3K word short stories for just $25 each. The writer worked fast, producing two stories each week for several weeks, and the stories needed very little polishing up when finished. Once a story was submitted to him, he would proof read it, create a very simple cover very quickly, and publish it. This small investment of time and resources has earned him THOUSANDS-- in both royalties as well as sales and borrows. Now, there is a “catch” to this, and it is simply the fact that to do this you must actually do something! This isn’t meant to be condescending, I’m just telling you like it is. Believe it or not, there are people who actually delude themselves into believing someday things will miraculously change on their own, or that one day, someone else will do all the work for them. We’ll talk about that in a moment, for now just understand that even though to take the two pronged approach requires minimum investment for maximum return, the investment still exists! COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED It means you’ll likely have to test several writers before you find who can produce writing good enough to publish, but so what? * If that’s enough to stop you from achieving a second income (or a primary income) then you are not a good candidate for this. *Of course, the caveat to this is that you don’t like the idea of hiring other writers and you’re willing to write and release everything yourself (like Joshua and Caroline who don’t employ the two pronged approach and still manage to move thousands of units every month). If you’re like me, and don’t want to write your own fiction (and can afford not to) or if you’re like Neil and you just want to maximize your output while minimizing your time investment, the two pronged approach is an excellent way to double, triple, even quadruple your output (and if done correctly, your income). Consider taking the two pronged approach with all of your self publishing endeavors, and especially with your fiction books. We’ve seen it work, and common sense dictates it’s a viable strategy-- yet it is only employed by those who who are serious about creating a real income stream via kindle and are willing to make calculated risks. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Art of Doing " Do or do not. There is no try. " - Yoda N othing gets done unless you’re getting things done. Seems simple enough, right? COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Wrong. Taking the leap from pondering an idea to taking action is scary, especially if you aren’t accustomed to making uncomfortable decisions, and/or you’re averse to taking calculated risks. Hundreds of thousands of information products are sold every day, but where are the hundreds of thousands of new businesses blooming every day? Take action. Having an idea is easy, turning it into a reality is a struggle, and it doesn’t happen overnight. If you’re serious about changing your financial situation and you want to do so with self publishing to kindle, it absolutely can be done, and depending on your attitude, the information you have, your support group and your work ethic, it can be done very, very quickly. I’ve experienced it personally several years ago ($1K+ my first month after 4+ years of struggle and failure with “internet marketing”). I’ve seen my mastermind members experience it. WE know, as a collective body, that it’s not only doable, it’s actually pretty simple when you make the decision to really DO IT instead of just thinking about it. Taking that leap--from thinking to acting-- will separate you from about 70 - 80 percent of the world. Most people have ideas, few people put the work in to turn those ideas into a reality. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Bare Bones Model You Can Use NOW (a farewell to complexity) “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” -Eleanor Roosevelt I n general, self publishing really only consists of 3 steps: COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 1. MAKE 2. “MARKET” 3. REPEAT 1. MAKE The words: Set a word count, draft a simple plot modeling what works, and either write the story yourself or hire someone else to do it for you. While working with my mastermind members, I realized this step was an obstacle for many, until they understood how simple the process was. I gave them a couple “cheat sheets” and templates that made everything “stupid simple” and that really seemed to help. Having a framework to draw from will help you tremendously, so make sure you have a plot template to work with. If you’re a customer of mine, you likely own “The 25 Minute Fiction System” which has my “Universal Plot Creator” template included. This template can be adapted to just about any genre quickly and easily. The Cover: DIY or hire it out. Many a book fail due to bad covers, so make sure yours looks good. If hiring it out, ALWAYS show your artist what you’re looking for. Give them 3 - 6 covers you like, and tell them what you do and don’t like about the covers. Give them some idea as to what you want yours to look like and don’t be afraid to ask for a revision or three. Another crucial point to remember is that perfection isn’t possible. If you’re like me, you struggle with perfectionist tendencies. It’s imperative to remember that these tendencies will actually sabotage you. If you think it’s impossible or very unlikely for anyone to publish two novellas and six short stories in a months time, then you’re very COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED likely a perfectionist, and it’s killing you. The good news is, by making one simple shift in your thinking, you can open the creative and industrious reservoirs of your mind for a flood of output. This is Neil’s biggest secret... This is the often overlooked aspect to those who prosper fast: They throw perfection to the wind, narrow their focus to the one or two most critical components and laser target all available energy on their strengths while finding creative ways around their weaknesses (like hiring it out affordably). Neil kept things “stupid simple”. He used the template and intel to quickly (very quickly) write up a short novella. He hired a woman to write him a few stories, and he quickly made some covers. A few uploads to amazon later, and viola-- he saw results! The potential he saw gave him all the extra motivation and drive he needed to plow forward. When you break down the three step self publishing model, it can either be complex and daunting, or it can be simple, straight forward (for the most part) and completely doable. I prefer the latter, but continually fight the temptation to believe the former. When you start to feel overwhelmed, bring it back to the drawing board and break it down again. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2. “MARKET” Everyone’s favorite subject, right? HA! If one thing sends self publishers running in fear, it’s the word “MARKETING”. There’s a common line of thinking surrounding marketing, and it’s the idea there is some elusive, mysterious, secret that either requires a ton of time and work, or a ton of money. I understand this because it’s what I once believed, it’s also something I’ve seen my mastermind members get real worked up over. The fact of the matter is that your market is more important than your marketing. Contrary to what many people have been spouting, amazon is STILL a marketing machine. They do all the heavy lifting, and for the most part, they do it well. They didn’t become the number one online store-- selling billions of dollars worth of physical and digital goods-- by accident. They know what they’re doing, and they will gladly be your marketing machine. All you have to do is fuel it a bit; which brings us back to what I just told you: MARKET IS EVERYTHING. If you can do the initial legwork of seeking out genres with high demand, low competition and a relatively short barrier to entry, all you have to do is release books/stories people want and bring some initial momentum-- they’ll carry you after that... better said: THEIR READERS WILL CARRY YOU. This is the “secret” formula: ● WRITE (or pay someone to write) BOOKS PEOPLE WANT COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ● CREATE A DESCRIPTION, COVER, AND SAMPLE THAT MAKE PEOPLE PUSH “BUY” ● SEND YOUR MARKET TO YOUR BOOK Not much of a secret, really, yet it’s so overlooked and overcomplicated in the self publishing industry that it would appear there’s some mysterious power at work. If you understand these three simple steps, as some of you definitely do, and you’re still struggling... then it’s likely you’re getting hung upon the nitty gritty of step three (getting eyeballs to your book). There are is a lot of talk about the most effective way to bring readers to your books, but one of the cheapest, most simple ways to do it is through facebook advertising. If the idea of advertising on facebook scares you, you aren’t alone, which is why it’s still such a viable option. Most self publishers mistakenly believe it’s complicated, expensive and scary. Because of this, the competition (as of 2015) is way lower than it should be. Self publishers have an unprecedented opportunity to target millions of potential fans, and they can get started with as little as twenty bucks. Neil got started with a daily budget of about $5. In total (for his first novella) he spent about $25 to get the book boosted high in the charts, as did Caroline (who’s had even MORE success than Neil) as have other members from my mastermind. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Now, I’m not saying all you need is five bucks, I just want to stress the fact that it can be done starting with a very small investment. Like anything else, there’s a measure of testing and “lost” money (it’s not lost if it’s contributing to your education and future success) with facebook ads. Just don’t believe the lie that you can only do ads if you’re an experienced marketer with a big bank roll. I’m not going to give you a detailed lesson in facebook ads in this case study, but the idea-- in a nutshell-- is to understand your market (who buys books like yours) and then find and target them on facebook through interests. Your ad should be a promoted post featuring a nice looking image of your book cover, with a very simple call to action and maybe even a benefit (marked down from $2.99 to $0.99, etc). The body (text) of your promoted post should be simple and relatively short with a strong, but simple call to action that isn’t full of hype, or traditional sales language. The route you’ll want to take with your ad will vary depending on your market, but sincerity, honesty and brevity seem to work well. If you come across as someone who’s desperate to make a couple bucks with a shoddy book, your ad won’t convert. If your ad is good, and you’re targeting the appropriate market with a book similar to books they’ve already purchased, your ad will get some viral exposure. It could be a lot or a little, but almost all of my simple ads have had thousands of views I didn’t pay for due to people sharing and liking the ad. Once you have a winning ad, and assuming your book has a good cover, an engaging description and a sample (what potential readers see when clicking “Look Inside”) that is well written and compelling, you’ve now set yourself up for a torrent of sales that will boost your book high in the charts. Once there, you’ll get all the free exposure you could ever want. If readers like your book, you’ll continue to sell lots and lots of copies, and your book will stay high in the ranks for weeks, months-- even longer. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Once your book drops in the charts, you can schedule a “kindle countdown deal” where the book’s price is temporarily lowered (you still receive 70% royalties) and you can be boosted back up. You can couple this with another ad highlighting the discount, or just let it be and see what happens. The last time I did this, I didn’t do any outside promotion, yet the book sold hundreds of copies in a short period of time, and consequently rose in the charts. This can be done once every 90 days, and I suggest you take advantage of it. Once you’ve done this once (MAKE & MARKET) and you’ve made it successfully around the learning curve, all you have to do is rinse and repeat. As you do so, you’ll become faster and more efficient, and repeating the process will be simple and easy. You’ll face some initial doubt and frustration. You’ll have some failures, but if you’re smart, you will persevere and prosper. It REALLY is that simple. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Miracle of Laser Focus " If you chase two rabbits, both will escape " - Anonymous If you’re reading this right now, and you’ve decided to make this a reality, then the next thing you’ll need to do is FOCUS. Set all other projects on hold, craft a very simple game plan detailing exactly what you’ll need to do to get your first book/novella/short story published and then get to work, immediately. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED If you struggle with focus, then you’re a lot like me. Although I don’t believe in all the “ADHD” hype, I do believe we all have different ways of working, and for some of us, focus is very, very elusive. It’s been one of my biggest struggles for the past eight years, and it’s a battle I’m winning slowly but surely. I can tell you without a doubt, that it is one of the single biggest keys to success in anything. It is one of the single biggest keys to earning massive royalty checks very quickly. The more focused you are, the faster you’ll get to your desired destination. Focus is so critical to success, that it can literally change your life-- fast! Remember, without a goal, you have nothing to aim for, and nothing is what you’ll receive. You’ll wander, you’ll waste time, you’ll get fed up and you’ll quit. Set the goal. Create the plan (keep it simple!). Get to work. Focus. If you struggle with setting the goal, reverse engineer from where you want to be to where you are, and come up with an immediate action step you can take right now. If you want to make a living self publishing, what needs to happen in order for that to be a reality? Start from the end (your desired outcome) and work your way back. Set the goal: Example: “I want to earn $10,000/mo via amazon publishing within 6 months” COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This means I need 10 stories or books that each earn $1K per month; or I need 20 stories that each earn $500 per month (these are both very realistic numbers by the way, if you’re in the right market and you’re giving readers what they want). If I need 10 books, or 20 books, that means I need to start with book one... Create the plan: Brainstorming For A Plan - Example: - I need a book that sells which means I need to do some basic research to discover what people want (ACTION STEP!) Once I know what people want, I then need to give it to them which means I need actual words on a page, I need a story which means I need to write or hire a ghostwriter (ACTION STEP!) - If I write, I need a plot which means I need to use a template to create one (ACTION STEP!) now that I have a plot, I need to write (ACTION STEP!) - my story is finished, now I need a book cover which means I need to pay a professional an affordable fee to create one for me which means I need to hire said professional and explain what I want (ACTION STEP!) - Now that I have a story and a cover, I need to publish to amazon which means I need to upload the word document, select my categories and write my description (ACTION STEP!) - With my new book published on amazon, I now need to bring some initial momentum to the book which means I need to run a paid ad on facebook so I’ll need a facebook “fan page” for my pen name (ACTION STEP!) and then I’ll need to create a simple, but attractive ad image (ACTION STEP!) and write a short 1 - 6 paragraph facebook post and boost it (ACTION STEP!) - COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - - Now I need just need to sit back and see what happens If the ad doesn’t perform well, I will need to tweak (ACTION STEP!) If it performs well, I’ll need to see if potential readers are buying my book once on they hit the amazon page if they’re not, I’ll need to determine if it is due to my cover, description, title or sample-- or if it’s just due to not enough people seeing the ad (ACTION STEP!) Now that my ad is performing well, my book is moving quickly up the bestseller chart and it’s now time for me to repeat the process. Whew, when it’s all written out like that, it sure looks like a ton of work. Would you believe me if I told you that you could do all this several times in just a week or two, without killing yourself with work? What if I went a bit further and told you that you could do all this in that short time span, and it wouldn’t be anywhere near as hard as it sounds? I hope you’d believe me, because it’s the truth. I’ve done it and so have numerous members in my mastermind group. SIMPLIFIED: ● Research to find out what people want in my genre ● Write or hire someone to write short book ● Create cover ● Publish ● Run a facebook promoted post ● Repeat COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED What’s funny is that even if you simplify this further and simply: create a book , create a cover , and publish , you can still achieve awesome results (the ad will increase your chances and your speed!). Get to work: Take action on step one. That’s it. Don’t worry about step two or three. Get started on step one immediately. Even if you can’t get yourself to sit still and work for more than fifteen minutes, take those fifteen minutes and use them! Focus: Step 1. Put ALL other projects on hold for a pre-determined amount of time, and do not resume working on ANY other project until that time has passed. You may extend the time, but you may not subtract. Give yourself at least 30 days to focus SOLELY on this endeavor. This means you forget about all the other opportunities and shiny objects that are begging to steal your time, attention and money, and you (for the first time, perhaps) focus solely on doing the work that will make you money. Step 2: Create a 2 item “to do list” before bed for the following day. Make these two items are “mission critical”, meaning: LIST THE TWO TASKS THAT ARE NEEDED TO MOVE FORWARD. It doesn’t matter if these 2 tasks will only take a few minutes to accomplish, if they’re needed, they need to be done. Write them down on a sticky note and stick it on or beside your computer screen where you can look over at it throughout the day. Do nothing else until these two tasks are complete. After that, you may 3 more items on the to-do list for other things you would like to get finished that day, but it isn’t mandatory. EXAMPLE “MISSION CRITICAL” LIST: 1. Use template to outline plot 2. Write chapter one COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Step 3. Set short deadlines for your work. Set few deadlines. Don’t make the mistake of coming up with twenty ambiguous daily/weekly tasks or goals. Use just a couple (1 3) and set an unrealistic deadline (if you would normally feel comfortable setting the deadline to one day, make it two hours). Set a timer and try to meet the unrealistic deadline. This kind of pressure is powerful, and will absolutely force you to focus. It will kill procrastination and allow you to do way more in a shorter period of time than you might believe. Once you have some experience under your belt, your work time will become shorter and unimaginably productive. A project that once felt impossible, you’ll be able to knock out grace and speed. Truth be told, I don’t always follow my own advice, and I NEVER follow it flawlessly. I cheat. I make excuses. I procrastinate. I lose motivation. I become discouraged and I fail. All the time! It doesn’t matter though, because I no longer measure my progress daily, I measure it over time. I have bad days-- heck, I have bad months!-- but I keep getting back on the horse, and every time I do, I stay on a little longer... ...and I make more money as a direct result. You too will fail. You will attempt to follow this advice and feel like you’re doing it all wrong. That’s great! It means you’re well on the way. It means you’re truly getting closer to turning your dream into a solid reality. This is a process, and it won’t happen overnight-- but it will happen, and the faster you get back on the horse, the faster it will happen! COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Wait Is Over! (Action Over Everything) On the Plains of Hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions who, at the Dawn of Victory, sat down to wait, and waiting—died! ” - Sam Ewing A s my good friend Lynn Johnston says: COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED “ACTION KILLS DOUBT”. Action is the antidote for fear, doubt, and an empty bank account. It’s the answer to paying debt, getting a new car, starting a business or leaving the 9 - 5 behind for good. As my close friend Chris Ice likes to remind me: “Move gracefully through uncertainty.” You will never feel ready. You will never feel like you have it all together. The emperor is naked, and that’s OK. You have far more knowledge in this little PDF than I had when I got started. I was clueless, frustrated and lost. Fortunately, perseverance and action are more powerful than any emotional state. They’re more powerful than any secret knowledge. Combined, they’ll allow anyone to improve their circumstances. If you possess the will, you will find the way. It’s an unfailing law. I’ve witnessed it and experienced it too many times to ever be convinced otherwise. You know it to be true, so now own it. Get to work NOW. Literally, as soon as you finish reading this, take step one. Like I said previously, even if you can’t get yourself to sit down to do the work for more than fifteen minutes-- sit down for fifteen minutes! Those fifteen minutes can change your life. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Neil’s Excitement For The Future N eil says that the really exciting thing about all of this, is that he is never going to be in a worse position than he is now. He will never have fewer books than he has now. He will always be increasing the number of books he has for sale and not only will be serving readers that already love his books, but he will be attracting new ones. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Neil can immediately see that this business is scalable. If you can make $1,000 a month from Kindle. You just need 10 times the books to make $10,000 a month. Neil has said is basically a case of deciding what income you would like to make, and then finding a way to produce the number of books which are required to reach it. He says: “It’s brilliant to constantly break my own records: 50 books sold in a day, 100 books sold in a day, 200 books sold in a day, 250, and most recently, 300 sales/borrows in a single day! Where next? $500 dollars while I’m in bed sleeping? Even $1000?!” Neil says the potential for his kindle business is only limited by his imagination. He also says his imagination can do very big things! If you’re thinking “This is great, but Neil’s just one guy.. this is just one success...” you’ll be happy to hear that Neil is actually NOT our group’s most successful member, and he’s definitely not the only one. The past 3 - 4 months have yielded some truly incredible results, and I hope to share the stories of Caroline, and Joshua (who I believe are both outselling Neil at the moment), David, Nathan, Rahul, Don, and many others very soon. These are normal people who are having extraordinary results. All of these folks are incredible, and they’ve all overcome obstacles to get to where they are now. If you want to hear more about them, get their case studies, interviews, etc, then pay close attention to this last bit below. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Potential Future For You The Reader “ Where do I go from here? “ - You T hat’s really the only question you should be asking yourself right now. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED If this case study doesn’t inspire you-- and show you the reality of what can be achieved quickly with kindle-- then I’m not sure anything will. I’ve tried my best to lay everything out in a manner that makes sense, while keeping things as simple as possible. I’ve also have given you the basic ground work to do this yourself-- without buying any other product/training/course, I hope you take hold of it. Now, if I don’t address this here and now, I can guarantee I’ll be receiving a flood of emails-- and I simply don’t have the time to answer hundreds of questions... ..about the mastermind... I know you’re wondering, so let me lay it out here: The mastermind/support group/information Neil (and many others) have used to achieve these results is not currently accepting new members. Big bummer, I know. The good news is, Neil and I are currently putting another group together, and to be perfectly honest, I think this second group will be 2X better-- if not more. The genre shows more potential, and after seeing what folks struggled with in my first group, I’m making every effort possible to make success even faster and easier for members of group #2. I’ll be streamlining the information in a way that is more intuitive, and will have a basic cheat sheet or syllabus that simplifies the process and shows you exactly which steps to take and when-- so wasted time is eliminated and you always know what needs to be done next. With Neil’s help, I’m able to do more, and we’re putting a heavy focus on teaching by example. COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED I believe that watching someone actually DO what they’re teaching makes everything easier. When you can say: “Look, this is exactly what I did, now you can do the same thing!”... and you can do so transparently, the mysterious veil falls away and the barriers that once stood between you and the TRUEgame-changing information are removed. This is something I’ve had trouble I’ve had doing in the past, as it was difficult to balance the time spent helping customers/students/members/coming up with ideas/creating products/setting up systems/etc while balancing a self publishing business at the same time... it wasn’t just difficult, it wasn’t doable. Now, that I’m becoming better at leveraging my time, I’m happy to say I am able to devote more time to actually practice what I preach! Neil and I have just recently started to test this market, and we’ll know more soon, but early signs are looking very positive. It looks like we’ve found a VERY lucrative opportunity. Perks Of The Model I asked Neil what he found appealing about my model, and this is what he told me: ● There’s a system you can follow (so you aren’t wandering around lost) ● It’s fast to go from blank page to published (short and simple stories -- nothing complicated) COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ● It’s super simple (limited number of characters - same story structure for each book - you can regurgitate in a slightly different manner) ● It’s scalable - you can scale quickly and easily - the more you produce, the more you make ● The audience genuinely LOVES what you produce I’m no fool. I know there will be hundreds (thousands?) of people who will want to get into the next group, and as much as I hate to say it, it’s simply not possible. Group #2, like group #1, is going to have a pretty low cap. Since the genre looks to be a good bit bigger, we’re hoping to allow more members in than group #1 (80 members), but we want to ensure we don’t add too many members too quickly. We haven’t completely decided, but it’s looking like we’ll only be allowing 100 - 125 members in up front... and quite possibly-- total. I believe in treating my tribe with the priority and preferential treatment they deserve, which is why group #1 members will have first access to join group #2. After they’ve joined, we will allow new members in. If you would like to be notified as soon as seats open up, enter your email on this page. You’ll also be notified when new case studies and information is released: MASTERMIND OPENING NOTIFICATIONS COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Please understand: I have no interest in having you on my list if you don’t wish to be on it, hence the reason there was no forced optin to download and read this report. This goes against mainstream marketing advice, but I’m of the opinion that you aren’t actually “sheep”, you’re determined, intelligent human beings who can make decisions for yourselves-- and that your instincts will push you in the right direction. Please understand: If you think I’m going to “hard sell” this opportunity to you, then you’re in for a disappointment. I know what I’m offering is incredibly valuable, and I know smart self publishers will see that. If you’re fortunate-- and fast!--, there will be a spot for you when we open, and that’s that. My aim since the formation of my first group has been to help as many self publishers achieve life changing results as quickly and easily as humanly possible. We are literally still at the infancy stage, but the results I’ve seen many of my current mastermind members achieve already have motivated and inspired me more than I can tell. THEY have inspired me to get back on the self publishing bandwagon with a newfound vigor and resolve, and I sincerely hope I’ll have the privilege of working with them in their continual success, as well with you and your future success. Perhaps I’ll be seeing you around? Peace, -Ryan Leonard COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED A NOTE: “You can’t do this without me-- you need to buy my stuff...” That’s the mantra you hear from most marketers every day. I just want to assure you that the information you received for free in this report can be used without purchasing anything from me, now or in the future. I’m not looking to convince you success like Neil’s is only achievable IF you buy something from me. On the contrary, I’ve designed this case study to give you a massive leg up, even if you can’t afford to invest in any of my products or training. I know what it’s like to feel helpless and lost. I know what it’s like to want freedom from a 9 - 5 job. I know what it’s like to be in dire financial straits-- without a job! For this reason, I want you to understand that if you are unable to join our next mastermind group, you should not lose hope. Do whatever is in your power to succeed with the information you have at your disposal. I’m a firm believer that if if there’s a will, there’s a way. I am not a trust fund baby. I started from the bottom, and in many cases, I started with many less advantages than many of you who feel like you’re at the bottom. I’ve struggled and toiled for years on end feeling like I would never make it into the promised land and I just want to reassure you that if you’re willing to put the work in and never give up, there’s virtually no way you can fail. If you want to increase your speed to success exponentially, and you can afford to join the high caliber mastermind when it opens, then you should jump on it without hesitation. If you can’t however, then you can get yourself prepared for the next COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED opportunity, because there will be plenty more. It’s easy to feel like you’ve missed the wave, but there will be more waves, and if you can’t ride the current wave, get yourself ready to catch the next one! I wish you Godspeed on your journey! COPYRIGHT 2015 INNER CIRCLE SELF PUBLISHERS / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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