POPULARITY
Tim Lewis joins me on the Learning on Fire podcast and explores the most important learning and educational moments that shaped his life. Our guest – Tim Lewis (https://www.educationonfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/1179F-08-225x300.jpg) Tim Lewis is a former IT manager who, after the death of his wife, decided to try and become a successful author, writing time travel and then later fantasy books. In his efforts to try and work out how to sell books online, he became fascinated by using social media for business and to improve your life. He runs the Begin Self-Publishing podcast and in his #1 Amazon Bestselling book Social Media Networking he explores how to use social media to build connections to get ahead in your career, personal life and business. (https://www.educationonfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Social-Media-Networking-Ebook-188x300.jpg) Questions asked on the Learning on Fire Podcast Interview 1. Who are you? 2. What does your life look like now and how is it different from when you were growing up? 3. What was valuable about your school experience? 4. Which teachers do you remember and why? 5. Who did you admire when you were young? 6. What was it about that person that had such an impact? 7. What was the best piece of advice you have ever been given and who gave it to you? 8. What advice would you give your younger self? 9. What does your future look like? 10. What podcast, book, video, film, song or other resource has had the biggest impact on your life and why? Website stonehampress.com (http://stonehampress.com/) Social media information Twitter/Instagram: @Stonehampress LinkedIn: timothylewis/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothylewis/) Resources mentioned Write Publish Repeat – Sean Platt (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Publish-Repeat-No-Luck-Required-Self-Publishing-Success-ebook/dp/B00H26IFJS)
It's Gay Pride on the day we record this 8th episode of Harper Bliss & Her Mrs. We start by professing our love for Pride and talking about the criticism it sometimes gets. This week we took time to make the necessary updates to our empire in order to comply with the upcoming GDPR. We also finalised the royal romance, which wil be out next week. And our interview on the Begin Self-Publishing podcast came out this week. We binge-watched Season 4 of The Bridge and we're going to miss Saga Noren so much. Finally, we talked about the book we're co-writing at the moment, which is a sweet romance, so no hot scenes *gasp*! We have a live discussion on if it's a good idea to have both our names on it, or do we risk alienating Harper Bliss fans who have come to expect heat in her books. Tune in again next week for a new episode of Harper Bliss & Her Mrs. Get in touch with us with your questions, comments or suggested topics at harperblissandhermrs@gmail.com. For more on Harper Bliss visit www.harperbliss.com To get a weekly newsletter with discounted lesbian books sign up HERE.
Tim LewisTim Lewis was a happily married man in 2009. Like many men, he worked in a job that left him feeling unfulfilled, however. Work was so bad that he had a dresser drawer filled with letters of resignation that he never turned in.Unfortunately, Tim's wife Rachel suffered from a stroke that later died from in 2011. The time spent lovingly caring for Rachel in her final years made it clear to Tim how short and delicate life truly was. It was time for him to pursue his dream rather than waste away his life in work that did not matter to him.At the time of this episode, Tim Lewis has self-published six books and even helps people do the same through advice given from his podcast, Begin Self Publishing.In This Episode Tim's tea recommendation for Rob Lowe How Tim was faced with an unfulfilling career and what inspired him to take a leap What we can do if we financially stop trying to keep up with the Joneses The challenges of working from home Financial sense/advice - Would you choose to receive a $1 million lump sum or $20,000 a month? Which would mean more money for you? How the finance system is set up for the biweekly paycheck How royalties work on Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) The value of using social media to connect with peopleResources and LinksBegin Self Publishing Podcast - Listen for advice on how to publish your own book.Stoneham Press -Tim's Advice - How to Use Twitter Cards and Twitter Ads to Boost Your Indie Author BusinessConnect with UsEmail: info@beyondtherut.comVoicemail: 361-596-3788Twitter: Twitter.com/beyondtherutFacebook: Beyond the Rut
Copy That Pops: Writing Tips and Psychology Hacks for Business
We’ve got an expert in self-publishing today all the way from the U.K.! Tim Lewis is a 6-time author and pro podcaster who is ready to dish book writing advice and dispel myths around self-publishing. And today’s interview is a great example also of getting more active on social media! Find out how I met today’s guest online! A few exciting highlights include: - Can you guess on which social media platform did I meet today’s guest?? - Find out where Tim and I had our first meet-up with other podcasters! - Tim breaks down why it’s so important to get the first draft done! - How to increase sales with the help of Amazon! - Tips on marketing your book! First timer in the self-publishing game? Tim has some great ways to improve book marketing! - Apple vs. Kindle?! - Selling your book nationally vs. internationally Take Action Now! Copywriting for Podcasters? Yep! Grab my Amazon Best Selling Book now! Begin Self-publishing.com – Tim’s website! Check out Tim’s books! Guest: Tim Lewis (@stonehampress) is the author of six fiction books, host of the Begin Self-Publishing Podcast and Social Media Marketer. With over 18 years experience in IT development and management in Financial Services Industry, Tim is now working in the world of writing fiction and publishing, looking to provide solutions for other self-publishers. Company: Stoneham Press Ltd (@stonehampress) is a London-based company formed to publish books by its founder and provide services and tools to self-published authors to allow them to publish, market and manage their publications more successfully. Founded by Tim Lewis (publishing under his full name Timothy Michael Lewis), Stoneham Press is dedicated to providing information and services to other self-published authors. Tim is the host of the Begin Self-Publishing Podcast – which you can find at beginselfpublishing.com. Great Quotes: “Getting that first draft out is very important.” – Tim Lewis “Once you have the first draft done it means that you then have a project that you’re working on and your much more likely to get it finished.” – Tim Lewis “How you start self-publishing depends a large amount on what you are trying to achieve.” – Tim Lewis “Most of the money is in e-books.” – Tim Lewis “The actual margins in book store distribution is actually very, very, very low.” – Tim Lewis “Amazon in terms of e-books are not that big in the rest of the world.” – Tim Lewis “Success breeds success.” – Tim Lewis “Amazon itself is a marketing engine.” – Tim Lewis “If you can get that jumping up from category to category and get more and more sales, Amazon itself will generate sales for you.” – Tim Lewis Links to Mentions in This Podcast Episode: Stoneham Press Podcast Movement 2018 Scrivener Write, Publish, Repeat Create Space Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon's KDP) IngramSpark KOBO NOOK from Barnes and Noble Smash Words Draft2Digital PublishDrive StreetLib Instafreebie Publish on Apple Book Bub Fiverr UpWork Vellum (for Mac) Reedsy Read more: Shownotes for How to Begin Self-Publishing with Tim Lewis
1) This week's writing progress - 5125 words: 2) This is my PayPal HERE card reader - it links to my phone via Bluetooth and allows me to take book payments at training events: 3) My current InstaFreebie Giveaway: https://freebie-books.com/crime-thrillers-may2017/ 4) My appearance on Begin Self-Publishing podcast here 5) Reminder! Amazon Academy event in Edinburgh on 23rd May http://selfpublishingadvice.org/amazon-academy/ 6) Reminder! The Newcastle Writing Conference on Saturday 20th May http://newwritingnorth.com/projects/newcastle-writing-conference/ [Waiting list only] 7) Reminder! ALLi Indie Author Fringe event on June 3rd http://selfpublishingadvice.org/6-weeks-until-bookexpo-indie-author-fringe-2017-are-you-ready-to-sell-more-books/ 8) Sarah Painter's Worried Writer podcast: http://www.worriedwriter.com/ 9) Self-Publishing Formula recommended interview with TS Paul https://selfpublishingformula.com/episode-62/ This Week’s Self-Publishing News The Alliance of Independent Authors news update: http://selfpublishingadvice.org/self-publishing-news-ebooks-are-not-in-crisis/ [wp_ad_camp_5] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/self-publishing-journeys/message
1) This week's writing progress - 5125 words: 2) This is my PayPal HERE card reader - it links to my phone via Bluetooth and allows me to take book payments at training events: 3) My current InstaFreebie Giveaway: https://freebie-books.com/crime-thrillers-may2017/ 4) My appearance on Begin Self-Publishing podcast here 5) Reminder! Amazon Academy event in Edinburgh on 23rd May http://selfpublishingadvice.org/amazon-academy/ 6) Reminder! The Newcastle Writing Conference on Saturday 20th May http://newwritingnorth.com/projects/newcastle-writing-conference/ [Waiting list only] 7) Reminder! ALLi Indie Author Fringe event on June 3rd http://selfpublishingadvice.org/6-weeks-until-bookexpo-indie-author-fringe-2017-are-you-ready-to-sell-more-books/ 8) Sarah Painter's Worried Writer podcast: http://www.worriedwriter.com/ 9) Self-Publishing Formula recommended interview with TS Paul https://selfpublishingformula.com/episode-62/ This Week's Self-Publishing News The Alliance of Independent Authors news update: http://selfpublishingadvice.org/self-publishing-news-ebooks-are-not-in-crisis/ [wp_ad_camp_5]
In this show I discuss how I have started using a new technique using tailored audiences to allow me to start making successful use of Twitter Adverts. The post How to Unlock the Magic of Twitter Adverts appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
While listening back to the audio of the last show I realised that I have gone a bit native in the world of Marketing Buzzwords, happily talking about "Return-On-Investment Rates" with no extra explanation as to what that means. So I'd thought I'd do a quick show on explaining this and some of other business/sales/marketing related terms and what they all mean. The post What Do All these Marketing Buzzwords Mean? appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
In this show I talk to the author of "How to Get A Meeting With Anyone", Stu Heinecke, about what he calls Contact Marketing. This is where you focus on a small number of customers/influencers and personalise campaigns towards them. The Return on Investment of this can be amazing. The post Getting that Meeting with Stu Heinecke appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
Well I've completed NaNoWrimo again! 50,000 words of a first draft written in November. But more significant than that is that it is the final book in my three book Magpies and Magic series. So now I am faced with a common problem : what to work on next. In this show I discuss the options and my thinking as to which to use. The post Choosing your Next Project appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
In this show I talk to David Neal, who is someone I met on now defunct #futurechat publishing chat. He has self-published the appBook Alice Winks and has quite a large amount of experience with Richer Media books, that is those books that contain more than just text and pictures. They can contain interactive elements (that is choices), videos and other graphical elements. The post Rich Media Books with David Neal appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
I'd heard about Dave Chesson and Kindlepreneur quite some time ago, but have always been slightly put off by companies with Kindle in the title, as they have tended to be get-rich-quick schemes. However I heard an interview Dave Chesson gave on the EOFire podcast, and with a recommendation from another friend, decided to have Dave on the show. It turns out Dave knows a lot about SEO, and Amazon SEO in particular! The post Amazon SEO with Dave Chesson appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
In this episode I talk to Twitter expert, and host of the #TwitterSmarter twitter chat, Madalyn Sklar. Personally I had great success building up publishing industry specific twitter followers by taking part in the now defunct #futurechat Twitter chat. In this show I talk to Madalyn about what twitter chats are and how to use them. The post Twitter Chats with Madalyn Sklar appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
Why I do NaNoWrimo. For the uninitiated NaNoWrimo is an event coming out of the US that challenges writers to write 50,000 words in the month of November. I've done it the last two years and in fact the majority of the last two books I've written have been in NaNoWrimo. In this episode I tell you why I do it. The post Why I Do NaNoWrimo appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
I met Alison Morton in person for the first time at the Triskele Literary Festival. While there, former guest Debbie Young put her forward as a potential guest for the show. At the time I didn't have an idea of a potential show topic, but looking at her website I saw how many speaking events she had done. So then I thought that would be a good topic to talk about, especially as I've done exactly zero speaking events myself. The post Author Events with Alison Morton appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
Something we often forget to do is to check things that we already think are working. Sadly with Wordpress, Mail Providers and eBook Retailers things outside our control (usually a change somewhere else) can break things without you doing anything. So you need to check things occasionally to ensure they are still working. The post Check, Check and Check Again appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
Why is Writing a Book Important? There's a reason why you want to write a book...in this episode I examine those reasons. There are good and bad reasons to write a book, but by listening to this podcast you are showing that it is important to you. Understanding why can help you in your writing career. The post Why is Writing a Book Important? appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
In this episode I talk again to Alex Newton from the firm K-Lytics about the trends he has recently seen in the Amazon eBook market. His company K-Lytics scans the Amazon charts and looks for the number of books, their prices and how they rank relatively. In this way he can work out what areas are the easiest to chart in and which are the areas with the most potential sales and least competition. The post What’s New on Amazon with Alex Newton appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
In this show I talk to Jay Baer about how to handle reviews. Jay Baer is an international speaker and author of multiple books about marketing and customer service. It is a real honour to have him on the show. I saw him speak about the concepts behind his book Hug Your Haters at Social Media Marketing World 2015 and was blown away. It's been a long process to get him on the show, but his contrarian views on how to handle reviews for books, backed up by research, meant that I hope you will agree it was worth the wait! The post How to Handle Reviews with Jay Baer appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
This week I interview Leslie Samuel about Blogging. Leslie Samuel is a former university professor and the creator of the Become A Blogger - a blog dedicated to the craft of professional blogging. He has a passion for education and has taken on the mission of "Changing The World One Blog At A Time". The post Blogging with Leslie Samuel appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
In this show I talk to businessman and author Tony Brown about standard procedures and how they have helped him become much more productive. Tony had a situation where he had a new contract that he could not fulfil on his own without dropping an existing contract. He decided to instead look to write down his procedures so he could get someone else to fulfil the new contract. He developed worksheets, templates and checklists allowing him to employ someone else to do the work he used to do. Going on from that he got to the point where he had his business to the level where he could go on an eight week holiday without any effect on his business. The post The Benefits of Standard Procedures with Tony Brown appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
In my first full-time job I worked for a small financial software company and had to learn this odd computer programming language that only they used. As a new employee I was given the manual but most people just expected me to do what they did and just pick things up as I went along. But for whatever reason I read the manual. What surprised me was that I learnt an awful lot of things that many of the "old hands" didn't know by just reading Chapter 1 of the manual. The post Always Read the First Chapter of the Manual appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
An often talked about option for marketing books (especially fiction books) is eBook discovery services like Bookbub, where readers sign up to regular e-mails of discounted books and authors pay to have their books listed. But how good value are these services? What do you need to get listed with one? Which are the best for which genres? I talk today to Alli's watchdog John Doppler who has done a comparison of these services about what he found out. The post EBook Discovery Services with John Doppler appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
Joanna Penn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers under the name J.F.Penn. She also writes non-fiction for authors and is an award-winning creative entrepreneur and international professional speaker. Her site, TheCreativePenn.com is regularly voted one of the top 10 sites for writers and self-publishing and in this episode I talk to her about self-publishing audiobooks. We discuss how to use Amazon's ACX platform to find a narrator and arrange a royalty split, the issues of narrating the book yourself and the issue with Audible having the audiobook market sewn up. The post Audiobooks with Joanna Penn appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
Calvin Wayman has recently written the book Fish Out of Water. One of the central themes of the book is the benefits of having mentors on your progression into the entrepreneurial world. I talk to him about these concepts and the interesting way he promoted the launch of his book. The post The Benefits of Mentors with Calvin Wayman appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
In this interview I talk with the host of the MyKitaab Podcast and self-published Indian Author Amar Vyas about self-publishing in India. The post Self-Publishing in India with Amar Vyas appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
Despite having a desire to test out the latest marketing techniques all the time I've recently discovered that often simpler techniques help provide the greatest results. This has mainly been in the area of marketing this podcast rather than my books. In the previous episode How do you revive sales in a book that doesn't sell? (Episode 37) I mentioned that I was going to try and do a marketing push for my book Magpies and Magic. It was as much of an opportunity to try out some new marketing avenues as anything else. As is often the case with new things I wasn't expecting success, which was good because I didn't have much. Some the things I tried showed real promise, while others I will probably not repeat. The post In Marketing, Simple Is Often Better appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
In my first solo show for a while I use the information I learnt from my interview with Emmanuel Nataf about how much self-publishing costs to create a spreadsheet to work out exactly how many eBooks you'll need to sell to cover these costs, get these costs plus a minimum wage and to a comfortable "average" income from an individual book. The post Author Income : How Many Books Do You Need to Sell to Make Money? appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
I have seen Phil speak at both New Media Europe 2015 and New Media Europe 2016 and he's always been an amazing speaker. He's a globe-trotting brand expert who has worked with a host of celebrities and small business people. I ask him to talk about author branding in this interview. The post Author Branding with Phil Pallen appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
In this episode I am blessed to have on one half of the duo who make up the core of the EOFire organisation, Kate Erickson. Together with her partner John Lee Dumas they released the Freedom Journal at the start of this year to great success after running one of the best ever book Kickstarter launches (7,063 backers pledged $453,803) and have continued their success after the launch. The post Organising a Mega-Book Launch with Kate Erickson appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
In this episode I talk to Orna Ross, Director of the Alliance of Independent Authors about selling publishing rights. She has recently co-authored the book How Authors Sell Publishing Rights (ALLi How-to for Authors Guidebook Book 4) with previous guest Helen Sedwick on this topic. The post Selling Publishing Rights with Orna Ross appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
Paul Teague is a successful non-fiction author and host of the Self-Publishing Journeys Podcast. He is now attempting to move solely into writing in fiction, which is where his passion lies. The post Moving from Non-Fiction to Fiction with Paul Teague appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
In this show I talk to Martin Shervington, who is an author, speaker and marketing consultant at PlusYourBusiness.com. He coaches on marketing, specialising in things to do with Google. The post Using Google for Business with Martin Shervington appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.
In this show I talk again to Emmanuel Nataf from Reedsy about a blog post he wrote about how much self-publishing costs, in terms of editing, cover design and interior layout. The post How Much Does Self-Publishing Cost with Emmanuel Nataf appeared first on Begin Self-Publishing.