Top 10 Takeaway’s from “Your First 10K Readers” – Part 1

I am writing this the first week of 2019. The first week of the ‘New Year- New Me Plan’ I established. It has already faltered. The new diet? I started it every morning this week and restarted it again the next day. The exercise plan? I made it through one-quarter of the first day of Jillian Michael’s “Six Keys” workout and haven’t been able to bend over since. The work smarter plan?  A total success!

Yep, you read that right. Despite an entire month away from writing, despite a sluggish beginning to 2019, derailed completely by daily Hallmark Channel movies every weekday, I have managed to outline this blog, schedule a promotion, begin editing a book, and start a journey toward more successful marketing of my romance novels. I also laid out a plan to share with you my favorite tools and courses. Today, I am sharing Your First 10K Readers.

Why am I succeeding in this arena while failing in every other? It’s a simple answer: Your First 10K Readers. Nick Stephenson, successful author, and bookselling guru has created a soup to nuts course that contains 62 videos – that is a not a typo, really 62! – chock full of outstanding advice and the steps necessary to execute on it. Your First 10K Readers provides a much-needed roadmap to building traffic, networks, readers, and fans. Nick promises to help you put your book sales on autopilot and to sell without being ‘sleazy’. Sharing the method he used to go from zero to over $1M in sales, this bestselling course does exactly what he promises.

Yis not an inexpensive course, but in my opinion, it is far less money than many inferior education packages out there, and it is worth every penny. I tried reading books, following blogs and downloading worksheets. Believe me; I still do all of those. But none of those would be as effective for me without one course that tells me where I am going and how to get there.

Here is the first of two posts citing my favorite lessons from Your First 10K readers.

MY TAKEAWAYS 1-5 FROM YOUR FIRST 10K READERS

1. Independent authors will inevitably partner with overwhelm.

Do I build that website before I build my email list? What about keywords? Do they matter and if so, how do I optimize them? For a solopreneur, especially one new to this, determining all that needs to be accomplished and in what order can derail a career. I went to a party over the holidays and met an author of children’s books suffering from just this problem. “I just want to write,” she lamented. Don’t we all?

Minimizing the time we spend on marketing, publishing and building our brand with key influencers is a daunting task even after we have established ourselves. For the newbie, it’s a high wall that seems impossible to scale.

Nick says otherwise, sharing ideas and automation – complete with swipe files – that will allow you to passively sell more books while doing the things you love. Honestly.

2. Advice without execution is just an exercise in frustration, or don’t breeze through this

Nick reminds you repeatedly to complete this course at your own pace. You will be tempted to rush, to get to the good stuff, to get to the end. If you are like me, you will be looking for that magic bullet. Let’s me save you some frustration now: there is no magic bullet. There is just hard work.

But, Your First 10K Readers tells you step by step what to do and when to do it. In order! For me as an author, figuring out what to do first, second and third was the most significant source of my crazies. Website before email? Landing page before building my email list? Just start at module one, learn, do and then move on. It is a blueprint for your success.

3. eBooks are a different animal – treat them accordingly

Amazon is a powerhouse. I have felt pretty helpless in the face of their requirements and the decision to go exclusive or wide. Just for the record, I started wide before becoming Amazon exclusive to take advantage of Kindle Select on all my books. Understanding the benefits and effort required to succeed on each retailer is the first topic tackled in this course.

With good reason.

First, you understand after completing the first module that you control your destiny, and you need to make the best, most informed decisions you can. Your First 10K Readers can certainly help here. Second, once you decide, he reminds you to monitor what works and what doesn’t and shows you how to do that! His step by step guidance is worth its weight in gold. 

4. Who you know is as important as what you know

Nick knows an awful lot, including what he doesn’t know. Seriously, anyone in this business knows that there are certain people you learn from because they are the experts in their fields. In the area of Amazon Ads, that person is Dave Chesson from Kindlepreneur.

We know that, and so does Nick. He hands the reins of his AMS ad module over to Dave and even includes a pointer to the free Video Training on AMS Ads from Kindlepreneur. In fact, the course contains a substantial list – with links – to some of Nick Stephenson’s most highly recommended resources.

5. “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.”

Neither Nick nor I can take credit for saying this. The speaker was Henry Ford, who – for better or worse – brought us the automobile, the industrial revolution, and even suburbia.

Henry Ford seems to have understood that just completing a course – great as it is – and stopping there is not enough. Nick realizes this too and brings you updates, webinars, and a lively Facebook mastermind group that keeps you learning and growing beyond the six modules and incredible bonuses of the original course.

I get regular emails and Facebook messages from Nick pointing me to his most recent pearls of wisdom. And they are consistently pearl-like, offering me a glimpse of what I should be and could be achieving and sending me back to the basics from Your First 10K Readersto make sure I am learning from my mistakes and adjusting accordingly.

Watch this space for Takeaways 5-10 from Your First 10K Readers by Nick Stephenson coming soon.

GEM OF THE WEEK

Want to learn more about this outstanding all-you’ll-ever-need-to-succeed-selling -books course? Want to see for yourself if Nick’s teaching process that has helped so many authors succeed can also work for you?

Here’s your chance.

Nick Stephenson offers a FREE three-part video series. You will learn several of the secrets to Nick’s success. He shares them generously. If you want to dig deeper, Nick will show you how to buy his fabulous Your First 10K Readers course. No pressure. The video series is entirely free. 

Sign up for the video series here.