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Direct Sales Mastery for Authors: The Definitive Guide

Created by Writer MBA

Learn how to sell your books directly to readers with crowdfunding, live events, your website, and subscriptions and memberships.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Digital Rewards Added to BackerKit!
10 months ago – Wed, Feb 07, 2024 at 09:49:43 PM

Hi! Monica here.

As you may have noticed, we’ve updated BackerKit with many of the digital rewards from the campaign. There are a handful of items left to send out, which I will list below. I’ll also answer some FAQ we’ve been getting to help you out!

FAQ

  1. Where is Teachable? Our Teachable account is at https://writermba.teachable.com. When you log in there, you should see most of the courses you have access to.
  2. Why am I not seeing my courses? Two reasons. One, there are three that we are still setting up that we hope to get you set up with in the next week. Two, we added you to Teachable based on your Kickstarter email. You may have a Teachable account under a different email. We can rectify this very easily, so just email us at [email protected] with the email you want us to use.
  3. Where are my bonuses? All weekly perk, stretch goal, and flash goal bonuses should have been delivered. If you are missing something, please email us and we can sort it out.

In Process

A number of items are still in process, so I wanted to list them here for your inventory purposes:

1. The Direct Sales Mastery for Authors books in all three formats (ebook, audiobook, paperback). 

These are currently with the formatter and we’ll keep you updated on the progress! We expect and hope to deliver these within the next several weeks, barring any issues.

2. Three ebooks that need to be finished:

  • GYBS on Barnes and Noble
  • GYBS on Google Play Books
  • GYBS with Subscriptions and Memberships

The new editions for B&N and GP are being finalized for another Kickstarter and retailers in the next two weeks, so you should have those soon.

The Subs and Mems book is completely new and is unlikely to be finished before April 2024. I’ll keep you updated!

3. Four Courses:

  • Website Stores Unbox mini-course  (Monica)
  • Subscriptions Unbox mini-course (Monica)
  • Russell's Kickstarter mini-course (Russell)
  • StoryUrge course in June/July (Monica)

I am planning to record the first two mini-courses in March. I will chat with Russell in the next few weeks to get a date on when he is recording his mini-course. And StoryUrge starts in June/July as stated originally (we are still working on exact dates and times).

Outside of this list, we think we’ve delivered everything else in the campaign, so please reach out if you’re missing something or have a question.

We set the first round of delivery for April 2024, and as of now we are on track to deliver all the remaining items early or on time.

Sincerely,

Monica

Surveys in Review
10 months ago – Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 07:10:53 PM

Hi!

The BackerKit survey is in its (hopefully) last review round and should be out sometime in the next few days.

At that point, you’ll start to receive most of the digital rewards as I upload them! These go out through BackerKit. You need to complete your survey before you receive them. For each item, you will receive either a digital file or a link to download, or both!

Most of the digital rewards are completed (besides the two volumes of the main book). That includes all the weekly perks and stretch goals. Please note that I have limited time in front of a computer right now (the baby is 2 months old) and it may take me a few days to get them all uploaded and sent out. I am doing my best!

The 2-volume book is with the formatter right now, and Russell and I are also finalizing some chapters inside still. We expect to complete the finalization of both volumes of the book throughout the first half of February.

We have also hired a fulfillment company that will be sending the books. Turnaround time seems quick from when they receive it!

We’ll keep you updated as more specific timelines begin to fall into place.

Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,
Monica

P.S. Russell's fiction campaign for the Obsidian Spindle Saga is running right now. Check it out here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/russellnohelty/toss3
 

Woohoo! We funded. 🎉
11 months ago – Sat, Jan 06, 2024 at 03:37:22 AM

Thank you so much for backing the campaign! We funded, and the books are now making their way into the world thanks to you.

Good news: in the last few hours of the campaign, we hit our last two stretch goals! We unlocked a new video interview with T. Taylor about universal fantasies, and we unlocked our ebook, Get Your Book Selling on Print.

Next steps: we'll be setting up the survey through BackerKit next week. It normally takes a few days to set up, then a few days to run the smoke test. We expect the survey to hit inboxes in the next two weeks.

At that point, most of the digital rewards will go out quickly. The books are going through formatting and final edits, at which point we will order from the printer.

Important: The Author Ecosystems live course starts on Tuesday. If you intend to be in it, please contact us at [email protected]. We will also reach out to those who backed at the course level to make sure that you get in if this is your intended course choice.

Additional to do: Make sure your pledge has gone through. We will send a few messages about errored pledges, but Kickstarter will automatically kick you out next Wednesday/Thursday if you haven't fixed your credit card.

On a different note, I've also just learned the term "Slacker-Backer Option." Yes, we have one 🤣, so if someone you know didn't back the campaign in time, or if you forgot to increase your pledge to get bonuses, etc. in time, we can adjust this manually in the survey in the coming weeks. Just email [email protected] and we will get this done through the BackerKit survey.

That's all! Thanks so much again for backing the campaign!

Sincerely,

Monica and Russell

New stretch goal at 700 backers!
11 months ago – Thu, Jan 04, 2024 at 12:24:41 PM

Well, I didn't expect to be writing another update, but here I am with an important additional piece of news!

As I'm writing, there are only about 7 hours left in the campaign. But in the last few days, we've gone from barely having 600 backers to nearly having 700 backers!

​https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/writermba/dsa​

This prompted me to post our planned stretch goal for 700 backers, since there's a possibility that we may hit it!

We may not hit it still, but if we do, we have another bonus ebook for you! This time, it is Get Your Book Selling in Print. There is so much great stuff to know about selling print books both at retailers and direct, and we have written a lot of it down for you in this book that doesn't get nearly enough love from us.

Please note that if we hit it, this is going to be for those backed at $40+. This seems to be the magic number of this campaign:

  • It's the most popular non-book tier
  • It's the one that gives you all the weekly perks regardless of when you backed (see my last post)
  • It's now the one that will get you all the stretch rewards we end up unlocking in these final hours of the campaign

I've seen that many of you have already upgraded to that tier, but if you haven't and want to get all the extras, make sure you finalize your pledge in the next seven hours.

That's all! Thanks so much for backing the campaign, and we are looking forward to sending you these books!

Sincerely,

Monica and Russell

Three important notes to close out the campaign
11 months ago – Wed, Jan 03, 2024 at 08:32:33 AM

Hi there! The campaign is ending soon and I wanted to let you know a few last exciting things! Three total. Please read.

#1 - Want All the Weekly Perks/Rewards?

Everyone who backs at $40 or more will receive ALL the weekly perks (nine total!), regardless of when you backed.

If you are backed at $40 or above, you get so many things! Including:

  • Direct Sales Mastery V1 and V2 in ebook
  • Direct Sales Mastery V1 and V2 in audiobook
  • Three ebooks for aspiring authors: Novel Writing Prep, The 8-Minute Writing Habit, and Write Better, Faster!
  • Subscriptions Unbox with behind-the-scenes of our subscriptions and memberships
  • Website Store Unbox with the behind-the-scenes of our website setups and landing pages

...And so much more!

If you are backed at under $40, that's okay...You'll get the weekly perks/rewards according to when you backed!

You can also change your pledge now to back at a higher tier. There is a ton of great digital content at the $40 tier and under, making $40 one of our most popular non-book tiers!

You can see all nine perks under "Weekly Rewards Unlocked" on the campaign page here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/writermba/dsa

#2 - Story Symmetry For Everyone Who Meets the Threshold

We unlocked another stretch goal! This one was at 600 backers and means that everyone on the campaign who backed at $30 or above will get my ebook, Story Symmetry.

As a note, if you back at $30 or above, you also get all of our other stretch goals too!

You can see all the stretch goals we've unlocked under "Stretch and Flash Goals Unlocked" on the campaign page here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/writermba/dsa

We have one final stretch goal to unlock our special interview with T. Taylor about universal fantasies! This was such a good video. It may be one of the harder ones to unlock, as we need about $3k more to get there...But I think we can do it!

#3 - Reminder! Two New Courses

As you finalize your pledge, I want to remind you that we have two incredible live courses as part of the campaign:

  •  Author Ecosystems - $300 - This course starts in January just after the campaign ends and will have five live calls led personally by Russell and myself. It's an important course for anyone who intends to continue a career as an author in the midst of big industry shifts that are coming. There is one thing that everyone can agree on regarding the future of publishing—and that is that we will each need to lean into who we are rather than relying on algorithms and rapid release to succeed.Author Ecosystems tells you which parts of the marketing and sales process you naturally excel at, based on the traditionally funnel + flywheel model. We are going to explain how to use your Author Ecosystem to specifically excel at marketing and sales in the future of publishing—and we are so excited to teach this never-before-seen material that no one else is really understanding yet!
  •  StoryUrge - $300 - StoryUrge is our deep-dive course into building psychological triggers into your books, your messaging, and your offers. We are digging into both fiction and nonfiction to sprinkle the marketing in from the beginning, at the product level.This brings the marketing into alignment later with messaging, ads, and more! This program is scheduled as a series of live calls in May-July 2024. We have a few pieces of content in the course already, and we'll continue to add content over time, even after the calls end. Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, you are a storyteller and you do need to bake some of your marketing and sales efforts into your books! I think this course is really special and ideal for writers at all levels, even if you haven't written a book.

You can get one of these courses at the $300 level and both at the $500 level, which is a steal! They are the two main courses we are running live in 2024. And don't forget...When you back the Kickstarter you also get all the digital rewards below these tiers. And there is soooo much included that it's a great way to receive a lot of our work at once.

The campaign ends shortly, so please finalize your pledge ASAP! The offers really do go away when the campaign ends.

​https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/writermba/dsa/​

Sincerely,

Monica and Russell