How To Be SuccessFul In Self-Publishing

Last week, I spoke at the Frankfurt Book Fair on the Kobo booth and talked about what it takes to be successful in self-publishing to a small group of indie authors. Thanks to Camille Mofidi from Kobo Writing Life Europe for inviting me and also getting me a star on the walk of fame – see the picture at the bottom of the post!

kobo booth at Frankfurt — With Camille Mofidi at the Kobo booth at Frankfurt Book Fair

Here are my slides from the event and a list of notes with more links is included below.

It is 95% relevant to all authors, with a little bit of German specific info throughout.

How to be successful in self-publishing from Joanna Penn

Here's my top tips:

Where I am now, and where I was 6 years ago. The fact that it takes time to achieve anything and being an author is just like any career. You need to invest in learning and development over time. For example, here's my 3 years as a full-time author-entrepreneur lessons learned.
Define what you mean by success, as that will shape your career as an author
Thriller author J.F.Penn with AG Riddle, uber-bestselling author of The Atlantis Gene

Write more books that people want, and most authors have at least 5 books before they start making any decent money
Use a great book cover that attracts readers in your genre
Use keywords and appropriate metadata so your book is optimized for the various sites
Own your own hub and your own email list, so no one can destroy your platform, your brand and your career
Getting book reviews and identifying book bloggers in your niche

Using promotional tools like BookBub and others
Experiment with pricing and length
Exploit all your rights – think ebook, print and audio as well as countries and languages
On the walk of fame thanks to Kobo Writing Life

Consider the global market and selling in multiple countries
Attract and connect with your readers
Use content marketing
Characteristics of successful self-publishers