The Difference a Year
Makes
My Journey to Self-Published Success
By Eva Pohler
After years of rejection from
agents…
Dear Eva,
You are a talented writer, but…
Dear Eva,
I love your voice, however…
Dear Eva,
I’m on the fence with this one, but…
I took the plunge in August 2012
I read books about publishing.
Resources for Self-Publishing
Smashwords Style Guide, by Mark Coker (free)
Building Your Book for Kindle, by KDP (free)
Self Publishing 101, by Shelley Hitz (free)
I Assembled a Team
 Professional Editor
 Professional Cover Artist
I Chose My Publishers
Ebook:
Kindle Direct Publishing
Smashwords
Paperback:
Createspace
Lightning Source
And then I watched my sales
dashboards.
AndI waited.
And I waited.
And I waited.
Nothing happened.
In June of 2013, I went to a
writers’ conference called
EVERYTHING
CHANGED!
My Amazon Author Rank Increased
Author Rank
0
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
120,000
140,000
160,000
180,000
200,000
Author Rank
Feb-14
Jan-14
Dec-13
Nov-13
Oct-13
Sep-13
Aug-13
Jul-13
Jun-13
May-13
Apr-13
Mar-13
Feb-13
Jan-13
Dec-12
Nov-12
Oct-12
Sep-12
Aug-12
My Book Sales Increased
Numbers of Books Sold
2500
2000
1500
1000
Numbers of Books Sold
500
0
And Now I’m a Fat Cat
Rolling in Money
Well, maybe not…
But I have doubled my monthly teaching
salary, and I did it in less than a year.
What did I do to achieve this
success?
I will tell you, step by step.
Make the First Book
FREE
Your first book becomes
your very best marketing
tool. People who like it will
buy your other books.
Buy a BookBub Ad
Hundreds of thousands of
ebook lovers subscribe to
BookBub.com. When you
make your first book free,
buy an ad, and you will get
thousands, and sometimes
hundreds of thousands, of
downloads. This will also
increase the number of your
reviews.
Exchange Back Matter
Find an author in your
genre who will exchange
first chapters with you. At
the end of your book, you
can say, “If you enjoyed x,
you may also like y.” Then
provide the first chapter
from your exchange partner.
You can also recommend
one another on your
websites.
List Your Free Book
List your free book on
every free and cheap site.
Develop Brand
Awareness
Create an image for
yourself and use it on your
website, marketing
materials, and social
media sites. Try to make
your image recognizable
to your readers.
Build a Following
Make your website
informative and
entertaining.
Interact on social media.
Book a virtual blog tour.
Join forces with other
writers.
Create a Street Team
After you’ve published two
or more novels, find book
bloggers who love your
work and invite them to join
your street team. Create a
secret Facebook group and
give monthly missions and
rewards.
Publish Often
To take advantage of
Amazon’s algorithms, you
should publish something
every three to four
months.
Experiment with
Advertising
Try using targeted
Facebook, Goodreads, and
Google Adwords ads to
reach specific audiences.
Keep the Buzz Going
Use teasers, cover reveals,
giveaways, and frequent
releases to keep people
interested in you.
Develop a
Marketing Plan
Consider your immediate,
future, and distant goals.
Let me show you mine as a
sample…
http://www.evapohler.com/
wpcontent/uploads/2014/02/M
arketing-Plan-Sample.pptx