KINGA JENTETICS: FOCUS ON BUILDING YOUR AUTHOR BRAND

KINGA JENTETICS, founder and CEO of Publish Drive, an innovative eBook distribution platform that can get your books in +400 stores worldwide, is our special guest for the latest episode of the Self-Publishing Mastery Talks Vlog.

A great conversation that will give a ton of useful information on what you want to know the most: book marketing, book distribution, and how PublishDrive helps you to write more and worry less. We selected for you some of the key takeaways.

Go global or go wide

• There is much talk these days about going global. Since the Internet permeates the remotest place on the Earth, once you publish your book on Amazon, you go global. In her conversation with Kinga Jentetics, A.G. Billig talks about going wide. Going wide means that you don’t put all your eggs in one basket (Amazon) and take advantage of other eBook stores that perform well outside the US.

Know your reader

• Many people read in English although it’s their second language, and they don’t want to wait for the translation
• Understand the needs of different people from different countries in different cultures.

Find a way to maximize your book royalties

• If you want to be a full-time author you need to find a way to maximize your royalties. Self-publishing is meant to help writers become full-time authors. You need to have a plan on how to write more books, release your books, and find the time to do it.
• Plan on releasing at least 3 to 4 books a year, every three or four months.
• One of the advantages of writing a series is the marketing tools at your disposal. You can play with the pricing – offer the first book in the series for free or at a lower price to build your audience.
• The smartest way to start out is to release a series within a year.

Publishing shouldn’t be a lonely process

• Writing is a lonely process, but publishing shouldn’t be. You need to find your team, your people and friends who can help you with various aspects of self-publishing, including book marketing.
• Book ranking, awards are an incentive for ebook distribution platforms to push your book and include it in their marketing programs as well as those of bookstores.
• If you’re a first-time author, it is essential to focus on building your author brand and your characters (if you write fiction).

If you write fiction, people fall in love with your characters. If you write non-fiction, with your expertise.

• Be active, talk to people talk to readers, get their feedback. It takes time and energy.

2018 market trends

• People want to get content faster. They are getting a bit impatient. Readers are hungry for content all over the world. The bestsellers in China come from the Western culture. Readers consume content in various formats- ebook, paperback, audiobooks.
• Romance and self-help work well. In China and India educational and non-fiction work well while the US is more fiction oriented.