We've Unlocked Stretch Goals 2 & 3!
almost 1 year ago – Sun, Dec 03, 2023 at 10:33:15 AM

Hey there!

Monica here. Big news (for me): I had my baby! I shared a public announcement on Instagram if you’re interested.

Between the birth, US Thanksgiving, and getting into a new routine with my kids, I’ve gotten behind on Kickstarter updates I was supposed to send. Apologies!

We unlocked Stretch Goal #2!

We smashed our second stretch goal! Since we’ve surpassed $20k+, we will send out a very cool interview from our paid content vault about How To Create an Amazing Membership on Ream with Michael Evans and Emilia Rose!

This one interview (before they even launched Ream—which is crazy!) was incredibly insightful for me personally, and made me even more excited about subscriptions and memberships!

This is for backers who backed at $20 or more, so make sure to adjust your pledge if you’d like to receive this bonus!

We also unlocked Stretch Goal #3!

We broke through 500 backers! Whoa. Everyone who has backed at $25 or higher gets Russell’s How To Be a Successful Author in ebook and audiobook. This book is filled with the best mindset and strategy tips that got Russell to an engaged audience of 25,000+ readers. Russell credits his audience-building for his ability to make around six figures a year in direct sales during the latter part of his career.

500 backers is also about the most we’ve ever gotten on a campaign, and now we’re not even halfway done and have nearly matched our record!

None of this would be possible without all of you, so thank you for backing the campaign!

Stretch Goals #4 and #5

Stretch Goal 4 at 600 Backers - Free copy of Story Symmetry in ebook

Want to write fiction stories that use psychological triggers? Here's another early and foundational version of this work! In my early days of writing fiction I read 80+ craft books and decided to distill the core concepts in one single volume. What I ended up with is nine distinct layers of storytelling, many of them mirroring each other...Hence why I eventually named the framework the Story Symmetry Framework. Originally published as Nail Your Story, this book is said to have "literally unlocked storytelling" for multiple authors! As we dive deeper into StoryUrge and psychological triggers, this framework informs how to use them in the characters, thematic elements, worldbuilding, and more of your story.

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When we hit 600 backers, this stretch goal will unlock and we will send a free copy of this ebook to anyone who has backed the campaign at $30 or more!

Stretch Goal 5 at $30k - Universal Fantasies with T. Taylor Bonus Video

Theodora Taylor is one of our favorite people, and she has so many smart things to say about hooking readers. We recently interviewed her for our membership and had the best conversation with her about sticky stories, universal fantasy, and more. When we hit $30,000 on the Kickstarter campaign, we will send out this interview from our paid vault of content!

This will be sent out to anyone who backs the campaign at $35 or more.

Thank You!

It's been such a joy to run this campaign, and we still have so many additional bonuses and surprises that we hope to get to! We're at just about the halfway point of the campaign, and it's really up to you all how many bonuses we can continue to pull from the vault.

Make sure you share it with other authors who might be interested! This is the best way to help us hit stretch goals. Share with a mastermind, accountability group, local group, Facebook group...Share wherever authors gather! (With permission from the group leaders, of course!)

Thanks again for supporting the campaign.

Sincerely,

Monica and Russell

Stretch Goal Announcements! Plus Week 2 Backer Perk
about 1 year ago – Tue, Nov 14, 2023 at 02:30:18 PM

Hey there!

Today we've got a new backer perk and two new stretch goals!

Week 2 Backer Perk: Getting More Traffic and Signups Bonus Video

We did a survey last week and about 20% of you answered it—thanks! You can still take the survey on what we should do for perks and stretch goals here: https://forms.gle/k54ApFygY5XCRDJDA

One of the biggest resources people asked for were more videos/books about TRAFFIC. How do you get traffic to your direct sales offers? So this week we pulled some stuff from our paywalled Vault and catalog to help people out with this question.

The first is a video for everyone who backs before Saturday and stays backed through the campaign. (You get the reward in BackerKit at the end.) It's a bonus video from our paywalled Vault called "Getting More Traffic and Signups!"

Stretch Goal Announcements!

Announcing the first two stretch goals! How these work: we do backer # goals and $$$ goals, and usually have one of each running at the same time. The stretch goals also require you to be backed at or above a specific amount tier to get them. These will go up in $5 increments throughout the campaign. Remember, you can change your reward tier at any time, or you can also always let the stretch goal reward pass you by if you're happy at your current tier—totally up to you! 

Stretch Goal #1: Get Your Book Selling with Cross-Promotion 

The first stretch goal reward is for if and when we hit 400 backers! To be honest, I was supposed to announce this a little bit ago and we are almost there already :). So we are starting with an easy one.

This book, Get Your Book Selling with Cross-Promotion, is chock full of ideas for how you can send more traffic to your direct sales offers.

I think this book is actually one of my favorites in the series since it is so fun and practical. We do a lot more with traffic beyond cross-promotion, but this book covers so much in detail so both aspiring and established authors can get to work.

Related Tier Highlight: $100 tier - DIGITAL ONLY: 3 General Marketing Courses - Get our three most popular marketing courses that serve as a foundation for our direct sales work! Build a Superfandom, Plan Your Book Launch, and List Building for Authors. You also get all previous digital tiers.

I'm surprised more people haven't backed this tier! But if you do, you will get way more ideas for driving traffic to your direct sales offers than you will ever need.

Stretch Goal #2: Create an Amazing Subscription or Membership Bonus Interview

Throughout the campaign, we also hope to unlock a few of our recorded member calls from this year through the Stretch Goals. This one is about Subscriptions from Emilia Rose and Michael Evans! We recorded this back in March 2023 or so, before their software platform Ream even launched.

Now Ream + their Facebook group, Subscriptions for Authors, has really blown up even more since just a few months ago. I believe there are 2500+ authors on the platform already...But my numbers are probably out of date!

Back the campaign to help us unlock these special bonuses, and check out ReamStories.com as well! ReamStories.com 

Related Tier Highlight: $35 - DIGITAL ONLY: Subscriptions Unbox - Want to see the behind-the-scenes of our subscriptions and memberships? We've combined our best stuff on running subscriptions from across all our platforms and created a mini-video series to go along with it! You also get all previous digital tiers.

Share the Campaign!

We are in Week 2, which means now is the time that we ask backers to share the campaign with their author friends if they are feeling called to do so!

Why share? It makes the campaign more fun, it helps other authors find resources they might need or appreciate, and it brings in more backers and the reward funding goes up too! 

While we are so early in the campaign that both of these stretch goals will likely unlock, keep in mind that later stretch goal announcements depend on how fast early stretch goals come to fruition. The more we unlock now, the more we unlock through the campaign. More resources, more fun!

You can share the campaign by sharing this link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/writermba/dsa/

Hope you're having a lovely week!

Sincerely,

Monica and Russell

P.S. Our friend Orna Ross from ALLi is running a campaign for authors called Go Creative! Planning Program for Authors & Poets! Definitely check it out!

Bonus Tiers Ending + We Passed Two Major Milestones!
about 1 year ago – Thu, Nov 09, 2023 at 11:32:07 AM

Hey there!

Last night we passed two major milestones:

• We surpassed $10k on the campaign and we're officially into the 5-figure range!
• We are 250+ backers strong! I'm amazed by this...Our largest campaign was a little over 500 backers, and this campaign is at over half of that in its first week!

I think the latter number especially speaks quite a bit to us growing our audience this year outside of Kickstarter, but maybe speaks more to the importance and popularity of direct sales in publishing right now. It's a huge and long overdue trend, and even if you are just direct sales curious, it makes sense to grab the books.

As you know, Russell and I use current numbers to trend to future numbers. Our campaign has been really steady and predictable this week, and we expect to finish launch week somewhere between $13000-15000 and somewhere between 325-350 backers. It would be great to exceed those numbers, of course! All in all, this has been a great launch week with few surprises, which is just where we wanted to be.

Thank you so much for showing up and supporting these books right out of the gate. We are absolutely thrilled to have you as part of the campaign!

Reminder: 100-Hour Bonus and Discount Tiers End Tomorrow, November 10th at 1pm Eastern / 10am Pacific 

Quick reminder: We have surprise bonus tiers and discount tiers at our higher backing levels that are expiring on November 10th in the morning.

Now, obviously you've already backed! So why am I telling you this?

Well, because you are able to upgrade throughout the campaign at any time without losing your backer number or any backer perks/rewards you've received by being an early bird backer!

Just to be clear, we are so happy you backed—there's no need to change tiers if you are happy at your current tier.

But if you want to change tiers, we want to let you know that it's possible and you'll keep all of your rewards!

These tiers expire automatically and there won't be any opportunity to join them after they close!

Here are the limited tiers and why you might consider upgrading to them:

 #1 - $150 and $200 - FIRST 100 HRS: Digital Only Mini-Courses 

GET THREE VIDEO BONUSES: Making an offer from an email sequence, Designing funnel messaging, Q and A call - Messaging a direct sales offer. The $200 tier also includes the two paperbacks!

Why join? There are a ton of bonus mini-courses added (because the tiers cascade down, so you get all the digital rewards from previous tiers). Some include Subscriptions Unbox, Websites Unbox, our three most popular mini-courses (List-Building For Authors, Plan Your Book Launch, and Build Your Superfandom), and our Direct Sales: Special Offers course which is great for putting together really good offers, email sequences, and landing pages.

You also get the two books in ebook and audiobook (digital) and print (if you get the paperback version of this tier). BUT that's not all...There are actually TWELVE (12) additional ebooks included from our back catalog: 3 writing faster books, 5 retailer books, and 4 direct sales books. These are all digital rewards in previous tiers, which means you get them too!

It's a fantastic way to get a ton of our work (both mini-courses and books) without joining any of our large signature courses. Perfect for the budget course shopper!

And as a note, you can also peruse lower tiers if you only want some of the items listed here.

 #2 - $600 - FIRST 100 HRS: All Three Courses 

THREE FOR THE PRICE OF TWO - TAKE AN EXTRA $150 OFF! Get all three new courses! Direct Sales Accelerator (direct sales), Author Ecosystems (funnel + flywheel archetypal framework), StoryUrge (using psychological triggers in writing, marketing, and sales)

Why join? You'll get everything we've already discussed, plus the three courses! The Direct Sales Accelerator is being offered at $300 for the last time and covers website sales, landing pages, and subscriptions and memberships at a great depth. We are continuing to add resources to this course, but it's a fantastic course on direct sales already.

Our Author Ecosystems class is happening in January/February live and this will likely be one of the few or last opportunities to be a part of the live coaching component of it. Author Ecosystems can help you improve your book sales and book marketing plans so that they are more suited to your personality and the work you gravitate toward naturally. We also unlock the secrets of all the other ecosystems, so you can better steal from them around what's working and what's not!

Our StoryUrge class is happening in May/June/July live and once we record it, we likely won't open a live round again. This course is almost purely about psychological triggers and:

• How they can be inserted into your books/products (nonfiction or fiction)
• How they can be used to design sticky and more easily sellable offers
• How they can be used in your marketing messaging to drive more sales

We see psychological triggers as the bedrock of what makes us really good at marketing and sales, and we want to completely unlock that for authors so they can sell more of their books.

 #3 - $1000 - FIRST 100 HRS: Full Course Bundle  

GET OUR NEW COURSE, STORYURGE, AS A FREE BONUS! Also get the Direct Sales Accelerator course, the Kickstarter Accelerator, and Go Wide Grow Wide, and Author Ecosystems, plus 10 other mini-courses!

Why join? If you don't have any of our classes yet, this is easily our best deal. The courses run between $699-$999 a piece otherwise, and the newer classes that are still in beta are $300.

 #4 - $4000 - FIRST 100 HRS: FOPM Ticket + Consulting 

TAKE AN EXTRA $1000 OFF! Join us in New Orleans at the Future of Publishing Mastermind, plus get 8 consulting hours with us (4 with Russell, 4 with Monica).

Why join? This is definitely a premium tier, but it's also a really, really good deal!

If you haven't considered the Future of Publishing Mastermind event recently, or you don't know what it's all about, definitely check out the page here: futureofpublishingmastermind.com

We've got a number of knowledgable speakers and thought leaders coming to this event and many of the most exciting software companies in the industry coming too!

You get everything in lower tiers, which is pretty incredible as it is thousands of dollars worth of books, courses and other materials. We want you to feel fully supported and have access to all our work, plus our private community where you can ask us questions as you work through the materials at your own pace.

The event ticket alone is normally $3000, so for an extra $1000 you can get 8 hours (basically a full year!) of one-on-one calls with Russell or me.

*****

Whew! That is a lot of information, but hopefully it gives you a better idea of whether any of these tiers might be a good fit.

Thank you again for being a backer and thanks for helping the campaign surpass it's first major post-funded milestones.

Sincerely,

Monica and Russell

THANK YOU! Plus, Oops…We just added a ton of extra rewards to your tiers!
about 1 year ago – Tue, Nov 07, 2023 at 05:23:10 AM

Hello there!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

• We funded the campaign in 17 minutes–a new record for us!
• We passed 150 backers on Day 1—another first. Woohoo!
• We got Projects We Love! We had it before the campaign started, but it's always nice to see it!

Thanks so much for showing up on the first day—especially as I know so many of you are at the 20Books conference right now! (Say hello to Russell if you see him!)

Ready for TWO fun surprises?

You probably already noticed our first surprise—that we have surprise bonus tiers and discount tiers at our higher backing levels that are expiring on November 10th.

Here are the limited tiers:

• $150 and $200 - FIRST 100 HRS: Digital Only Mini-Courses - GET THREE VIDEO BONUSES: Making an offer from an email sequence, Designing funnel messaging, Q and A call - Messaging a direct sales offer. The $200 tier also includes the two paperbacks!
• $600 - FIRST 100 HRS: All Three Courses - THREE FOR THE PRICE OF TWO - TAKE AN EXTRA $150 OFF! Get all three new courses! Direct Sales Accelerator (direct sales), Author Ecosystems (funnel + flywheel archetypal framework), StoryUrge (using psychological triggers in writing, marketing, and sales)
• $1000 - FIRST 100 HRS: Full Course Bundle - GET OUR NEW COURSE, STORYURGE, AS A FREE BONUS! Also get the Direct Sales Accelerator course, the Kickstarter Accelerator, and Go Wide Grow Wide, and Author Ecosystems, plus 10 other mini-courses!
• $4000 - FIRST 100 HRS: FOPM Ticket + Consulting - TAKE AN EXTRA $1000 OFF! Join us in New Orleans at the Future of Publishing Mastermind, plus get 8 consulting hours with us (4 with Russell, 4 with Monica).

So here's our second surprise…We left off some tiers for launch day.

We've now revealed these new tiers and guess what? There are not one, not two, but SIX new digital tiers between $20-$125!

Why? So we could surprise you after you had already backed with more rewards BEYOND what you thought you were backing, and at no additional $$$ to you!

Remember, the tiers stack, so you automatically get either all items below your tier or all digital items below your tier, unless stated otherwise. This includes for new tiers! We stack very carefully around here 🙂 See the FAQ for more explanation of this, or reach out.

Here are the new tiers:

• $20 - DIGITAL ONLY: Aspiring Author Starter Bundle - You'll get three ebooks: Novel Writing Prep, The 8-Minute Writing Habit, and Write Better, Faster. These are perfect for getting through your first draft of attempting a NaNoWriMo-like challenge!
• $35 - DIGITAL ONLY: Subscriptions Unbox - Want to see the behind-the-scenes of our subscriptions and memberships? We've combined our best stuff on running subscriptions from across all our platforms and created a mini-video series to go along with it! You also get all previous digital tiers. This series has never been included in our Kickstarter campaigns before!
• $40 - DIGITAL ONLY: Website Store Unbox - Want to see the behind-the-scenes of our website setups? We've combined our best stuff on running websites stores and landing pages from across all our platforms and created a mini-video series to go along with it! You also get all previous digital tiers. This series has never been included in our Kickstarter campaigns before!
• $60 - DIGITAL ONLY: Five more wide retailer ebooks - It's no secret that we think it's easier to sell direct when you also leave exclusivity that ties up your digital assets.Get all previous digital items + five more wide retailer ebooks: Get Your Book Selling on Apple Books, Get Your Book Selling on Your Amazon, Get Your Book Selling on Kobo, Get Your Book Selling on Google Play Books, Get Your Book Selling on Barnes and Noble.
• $100 tier - DIGITAL ONLY: 3 General Marketing Courses - Get our three most popular marketing courses that serve as a foundation for our direct sales work!Build a Superfandom, Plan Your Book Launch, and List Building for Authors. You also get all previous digital tiers.
• $125 tier - DIGITAL ONLY: Russell's 2024 Kickstarter Campaign Mini-Course - Kickstarter has seen some changes in the past two years and Russell is re-recording some material for the Kickstarter Accelerator. Get a full walkthrough of how to run a great campaign—with all the 2024 updates on Kickstarter! Plus, you'll get all the knowledge bombs he's going to drop in this brand new Kickstarter mini-course! You also get all previous digital tiers. This series has never been included in our Kickstarter campaigns before!

If you didn't back at these levels, well, you still have time! You can change your pledge at any time and we will still know when you originally backed for your early backer rewards.

Thanks again for backing the campaign and we may have a few more launch week surprises up our sleeve... 🤔

Sincerely,

Monica and Russell