August, 2019
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A Powerful Way to Increase Your Credibility Grow Your Business and Sell More Books
D’vorah Lansky is a colleague of mine in the book world. I have followed her and been a fan for a long time. I recently discovered that she has been helping authors and content creators to easily design and publish actionable guides that help them grow their business and their reach. I asked D’vorah to answer key questions on this topic.Be sure to check out D’vorah’s full course, which has helped many new and existing authors to publish their first or next book. To check out D’vorah’s course (and the special offer she is making available to New Shelves Book followers) go to www.ShareYourBrilliance.com/amy
Q: D’vorah, what exactly is a take-action journal?
A: Traditional journals typically have lined or blank pages for people to write on. A take-action journal is much more. In essence, it’s a cross between a journal and a workbook.
Your take-action journal can guide people through a process and provide them with a way to track activity and results. This will allow them to accomplish a great deal while positioning you as an expert in your field.
They are quick and easy to create!
Your journal can become a companion to your products and services, providing people with a blueprint to help them overcome challenges they are seeking solutions to. This can increase customer testimonials and lead to future sales.
A take-action can also provide people with step-by-step activities and gives them a way to journal about their experience and results. Your take action journal can also serve as a “big business card” that can help you grow your credibility, visibility and business.
Your take-action journal can become a companion to your products and services, providing people with a blueprint to help them overcome challenges they’re seeking solutions to. What you take as second nature, other people are thirsting to know, and you can help them in the process.
Q: How can readers benefit by using a take-action journal?
A: Readers can benefit from take-action journals in many ways. Here are a few examples:
- It can help students and clients document their progress and experiences.
- It will help people take daily steps towards their goals.
- It can encourage people to put into practice what they are learning.
- It can give them a place to record their answers, thoughts and results.
- It can help readers get more out of your books or programs.
Having a way to track activity and results, by following a step-by-step process, can create a winning formula and allow your students and clients to accomplish a great deal. Your guidance, in the form of your take-action journal can inspire action and help create positive transformations. This will reflect positively in your favor and in addition to helping your readers, can have positive benefits for you.
Q: How can authors benefit by publishing a take-action journal?
A: Having a published take-action journal can increase your visibility and credibility. It can also boost the sales of your other books or services, as it can serve as a companion to existing content. In your take-action journal you can promote your book (or course) and in your book (or course) you can promote your take-action journal.
Your take-action journal can introduce people to your services, or it can give you a product to refer people to as a way of getting started with you. It can also serve as a companion to or the foundation of an online course or challenge experience.
If you are already a published author, publishing a take-action journal will help to increase your book sales. If you are not yet a published author, publishing your take-action journal will qualify you to be able to set up an author page on Amazon. This can provide you with another way for clients and readers to find you.
Having a take-action journal positions you for your expertise and this can lead to online and in-person speaking opportunities.
Q: What action steps can our readers take, to get started with developing their ideas for a take-action journal for their clients or business?
A: Readers of this blog, here’s an exercise which I believe you’ll find helpful. The first step is to get a pen and paper and jot down your answers to the following questions. By doing this you’ll develop the foundation for your publication.
- What is the topic of your book or area of expertise?
- What would your audience love to achieve or overcome?
- What topic would you love to have your take-action journal on, that would help your audience?
- What could having a take-action journal do for your audience and for your business?
Q: Can creating and publishing a take-action journal lead to the creation of related products or programs?
A: Yes! Your take-action journal can form the foundation for an online course, a 30-day challenge, blog posts, image graphics, a top-tips series, worksheets, and more. Having a take-action journal can also pave the way to online interviews and guest appearances on podcasts.
Your take-action journal provides your readers with a roadmap to help them achieve their goals, overcome challenges they face, and more. If you were someone who could benefit from a take-action journal on your topic, what other types of support materials or training would you find useful?
Q: How can we find out more about your course on this topic – and what does your course cover?
A: I’ve developed a course which has helped many established and brand-new authors to get published. A take-action journal is one of the easiest types of publications to create and can lead to many opportunities.
The course is called: Create and Publish a Take-Action Journal for Your Audience. It is a comprehensive, self-paced program that walks you through the process of developing your idea, creating the content, preparing for publication and publishing your masterpiece.
In this guided, take-action program, you’ll get step-by-step training, time-tested, fill-in-the-blanks templates and writing prompts to help you create the ideal publication for your niche. This program is designed to help busy authors and entrepreneurs create and publish a take-action journal for their niche.
To get started or find out more – Here’s a special link for New Shelves Readers
www.ShareYourBrilliance.com/amy
D’vorah Lansky, M.Ed. is the bestselling author of over 20 published books and 40+ online training programs. She has been marketing online since 1994 and teaching book marketing, journal publication and course creation to thousands of authors across the globe, full-time, since 2007.
Here’s a photo of some of the latest course graduates, alongside photos of their publications.
Walmart Discount Pricing Sparks Threatening Letters from KDP
Written by Keri-Rae Barnum
Threatening emails from Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) have the author community abuzz with talk of how Walmart pricing is ruining indie authors. But, is it really?
Lately, New Shelves is getting questions and notes like this every week.
“Walmart discount pricing is killing me.”
“How can I possibly control what other people are selling my book for?”
“Do I have to choose between Amazon and Ingram Spark?”
While many authors have received these emails from KDP within the last 3-4 weeks, this isn’t a new issue. In fact, I’ve been seeing these emails for months and they always seem to go out in clusters. (I would guess we have Amazon bots to thank for that.) A rash of emails go out and suddenly writing communities are flooded with panicked authors who think they need to raise their price on Ingram Spark or, even worse, remove their books from Ingram Spark all together. After all, wholesale opportunities are great, but the average indie author makes the majority of their sales on Amazon.com via KDP.
If you receive an email from KDP questioning your distribution through other channels, don’t panic.
Below is an email received by a New Shelves Client in January 2019. The email specifies that the author’s book was being offered for a lower price through a third-party distributor – specifically Walmart.
The immediate fear, of course, is that KDP is going to pull your book from distribution on Amazon. However, if you take a closer look at the wording of the letter, nowhere does it actually say that. They do say, “Our Member Agreement requires the Amazon list price to be equal to or less than prices provided to other distributors.”
The question authors need to ask themselves if they receive this letter is, “Is my book set at the same retail price across the board?”
For example, if your retail price on Ingram Spark is set at $14.99 with a 55% discount but you sell your book on Amazon for $16.99, you are in violation of the KDP Member Agreement. However, if your retail price is $14.99 on Ingram Spark and KDP you aren’t violating the terms of your agreement.
So, what gives? Why is KDP sending these emails out and why does Walmart always seem to be the third-party causing problems?
Any store or retailer can choose to discount your book at their own discretion.
For example, it’s common for a book on Amazon to be offered for slightly less than the retail price. Generally, this is made known with the price being marked through and the sale price being shown in red.
Walmart, on the other hand, does things differently. Rather than showing the retail and sale price, Walmart only shows the sale price of the book.
Can you do anything to avoid this issue? Not really. After hours spent on the phone with Walmart customer service and multiple email request, I can confidently say they have no plans to change the way they present pricing on their website. To call this an inconvenience for authors is an understatement but, unfortunately, it’s an inconvenience we’re going to have to live with.
Could KDP cease distribution of your book? Yes. Although, technically speaking and according to their terms of service, KDP is “entitled to terminate” your agreement and access to your KDP account at any time. They also reserve the right to “suspend your Program account at any time with or without notice to you, for any reason” in their discretion.
Will KDP cease distribution of your account? Probably not. As one author aptly noted, “They [KDP] would be cutting off their nose to spite their face.”
What should you do if you receive a compliance email from KDP? Fred Stuvek, the author in my example who received an email in January 2019, chose to respond with a snapshot of his retail price on Ingram and a letter stating that he was in compliance with the KDP terms of agreement to the best of his knowledge and ability. His KDP account was not suspended and his book, It Starts With You, is still being distributed to Amazon by KDP.
If you received a similar email, I would encourage you to take Fred’s lead.
- Ensure you have set the retail price of your book(s) the same for every distributor.
- Send a nice note back to KDP confirming that you are following their terms of service.
- Go about your merry way.
Don’t let these emails keep you up at night and don’t be bullied into removing distribution via Ingram Spark. As the British would say, “Keep calm and carry on.”
D5 Creation