Full transcript
0:00Hello everyone and welcome to week two
0:02of building a publishing business where
0:04I am every week reporting to you about
0:07the progress that I've made in building
0:09my own publishing business for my own
0:10work and getting that all set up and
0:13seeing how it's going. Uh some
0:14interesting things happened this week.
0:16Uh also some some rather disappointing
0:18stats. Um but they've caused me, you
0:21know,
0:22any kind of setback that you have is is
0:25a good thing because it shows you what
0:27doesn't work, which means you can pivot
0:30with data
0:31and knowing uh where, you know, what to
0:34try next. So I have some great things
0:36that have happened and I have some other
0:37great not so great things that have
0:38happened and uh I'm making a few pivots
0:41uh few big pivots here in the next few
0:43weeks that are going to change
0:45everything. So uh stay tuned for that
0:47and let's start by showing you the
0:49spreadsheet with all my stats for this
0:52week. All right, so with this is the
0:53week of October 26th. Um so as you're
0:57watching this it will have been about a
0:59week since this week ended.
1:01Um and uh zero books published this
1:05week. Uh I've I am collecting a bunch of
1:08books. I have some books from ghost
1:09writers and I'm getting ready to start
1:11publishing things and once I do they'll
1:14be published rapidly, especially if you
1:16count the public domain books that I'm
1:17working on.
1:19Uh those I could put out like several a
1:21week probably. Um but for now zero books
1:24published. Ad spend was only $1.26.
1:26That's because it was off for most of
1:28the week. I turned it on right at the
1:29end of the end of Saturday cuz I was
1:31doing something. Um but uh overall
1:34uh basically no ad spend. Uh contractor
1:37expenses were about $1,600. Uh so a lot
1:41less than the previous version. Most of
1:42this was in editing costs for her
1:44YouTube channel. Uh
1:46and I did have a little ghost writing
1:48milestone that I paid for there.
1:51Uh but it's not as big as the week
1:52before.
1:53Uh but this is probably more typical of
1:55what it will be in the future.
1:57I would say on average. So that's what
1:59we're looking at in terms of expenses.
2:01Um all right, so I have two YouTube
2:04channels I've been working on. The first
2:06one focuses on fantasy lore because I
2:08write fantasy. So I'm trying to create a
2:10channel all about fantasy lore to
2:12hopefully draw in people that would like
2:15the kind of stuff I write.
2:16Uh you can see last week, the previous
2:18week I got 104 subscribers and now the
2:21the week after I got this this this last
2:23week, I got 205. So pretty much double
2:26what I got the previous week, which is
2:28awesome. And even more than that, I got
2:30more than triple the number of views.
2:33Um and this channel is already turning
2:35out very well and I can say since I'm
2:36recording this on a Thursday
2:38uh
2:39these numbers have skyrocketed even
2:42since I recorded it for last week.
2:45So this channel's looking very good. Now
2:47it's not monetized yet, but at the rate
2:49it's going I'll be monetized within a
2:51week.
2:52And we'll start to see revenue coming in
2:55here now. The mythology channel, which
2:59is almost the exact same type of channel
3:01as the lore videos, except it's focused
3:03on mythology rather than fantasy lore
3:06um
3:07is showing a different picture.
3:10For that one the new subs are 23, so it
3:12actually went down and the number of
3:13views also went down and obviously not
3:16monetized yet, so zero revenue.
3:18Um so I actually decided to make the
3:21executive decision to not work on this
3:24channel anymore. The reason I did two
3:26channels in in the first place is cuz I
3:28wasn't sure which one was going to do
3:30better.
3:31So rather than just do one and hope for
3:33the best, I decided to do both and then
3:36see which one was doing better and then
3:37kind of put more effort into that one.
3:39And that's what I'm doing. So um this
3:41one, the fantasy lore one, is doing
3:43better.
3:44So I'm going to put all my effort into
3:46that one in the future and I can
3:47hopefully save a little money in editing
3:48costs and and get a little bit more
3:51higher quality on those videos and
3:53expand it even further. All right, the
3:54amount I got from Amazon and other
3:56retailers it was only $10, which is kind
3:58of sad. I'll even I'll admit that. Um
4:01uh but that's that's just what it was
4:03last week. Um direct sales is zero.
4:06However, I do I will have some direct
4:07sales coming this coming week
4:09um to put in this stat. Uh but that's
4:13obviously um we're not I'm not doing the
4:16report on that week on this week
4:18uh cuz it's not over yet. Uh the school
4:20payout, so this is from remember I'm
4:22trying to build a school group that pays
4:24me money, was just over $50, so a little
4:27bit better than last week. But the
4:28school monthly recurring revenue is
4:30still 175 a month. Um so that's it has
4:35not grown. Uh that's one of those stats
4:37that I'm not too happy about.
4:40I was hoping with all of this effort and
4:42all of those page new subscribers and
4:44everything that I would have seen more
4:47growth on the school group by now. And
4:49so this is exactly one of those moments
4:50where I'm finding out what isn't working
4:52and what is. And part of it I think is
4:55the fact that I'm trying to get people
4:56to take a chance on me and join this
4:58membership that has all of my books when
5:01they don't even know if they like one of
5:03my books yet. And so part of what I'm
5:05pivoting to, uh there's a number of
5:07different things. The first thing is
5:09that I am no longer in the YouTube
5:11channel, I'm no longer trying to promote
5:14the paid version of that group. I now
5:16have a free version of that group where
5:18you get several of my novellas and short
5:20stories for free. And now people can
5:22join the group for free
5:25and then upgrade if they want to. So
5:27that's that's one of the pivots that I'm
5:28doing. Already I've seen that starting
5:30to work. Um
5:33uh
5:34I haven't changed much about it yet. The
5:35in the YouTube videos that I have filmed
5:37where I make the change in that pitch
5:40have not gone out yet.
5:42But already I'm seeing people come from
5:45the YouTube channel. I've had probably
5:4620 or 30 so far that have come and have
5:50opted into the free stuff. And now those
5:51people are on my email list and when I
5:54come out with a new book I can release
5:56it to them, sell it to them and see
5:58what, you know, if they like it.
6:00Uh plus they're part of uh the school
6:02group now, so we can interact with each
6:04other. We can, you know, I can pitch my
6:07books in there.
6:09Uh it's it's just it's a great way to
6:11have something that
6:12I own essentially where people can come
6:15and uh
6:16interact and I'm not 100% beholden to
6:19Amazon and other retailers. That said
6:22the next biggest uh pivot that I'm doing
6:26here.
6:28Oh and by the way, my total revenue,
6:30which is income minus expenses, was like
6:31$1,500 uh or negative $1,500. So um you
6:37know, still very much in the red there.
6:38But that's going to change. Um
6:40so uh one of the the the biggest pivots
6:42that I am doing, and I spent a lot of
6:44time thinking through this and I talked
6:46to my community about it to see what
6:47they wanted. And I what I eventually
6:49came down to is that I realized I was
6:51giving myself advice or I was not taking
6:54advice that I give to other people. Uh
6:57and often I will tell people
6:59that you shouldn't try to break the
7:00rules before you've mastered them.
7:02And I I use this like with my plot
7:05module book. Like you should learn the
7:07rules the rules of story structure
7:12and get really good about writing books
7:15that adhere to that story structure
7:16before you start thinking about breaking
7:19the rules.
7:20It's absolutely fine to break the rules.
7:23But if you do it without knowing what
7:25the rules are and mastering those rules,
7:27you're probably just going to create
7:28something that nobody wants to read, you
7:30know?
7:31And I realized I was making that same
7:33mistake here. Uh so
7:35while I teach people how to write books
7:37with AI and I have a solid understanding
7:39of self-publishing because of my time at
7:41at Kindle Preneur and the
7:42self-publishing work that I've done so
7:44far I do not make a livable income from
7:46my books on Amazon.
7:48And so I thought I should really do
7:50that. I should really get to that point.
7:53Uh and so I've made the decision that
7:56rather than trying to do all these
7:57direct sales things and and trying to
7:59get people to the school group, which is
8:00a brand new idea
8:03I need to start by just building an
8:05audience the traditional way going on
8:07Amazon, going exclusive to Amazon cuz
8:09that's the easiest way to do it,
8:10building my email list, building an
8:12audience and waiting until I get to that
8:14point where if I publish a new book and
8:16I send out an email to my group about it
8:18that I immediately get hundreds of
8:19sales. Once I'm at that point then maybe
8:23I can start to think of less
8:24conventional ways to market my books. Um
8:27so a lot of this is going to change.
8:29First of all, we're not going to be
8:30doing um I I'm no I'm no longer pushing
8:33the school group as a way to make money.
8:35There will be
8:37a tier that people can get inside of my
8:41school group where you can get some some
8:43pretty interesting bonuses from me like
8:45like having your name in a book or
8:47something like that.
8:49But those that will be kind of like a
8:51back end thing that I'm not pitching to
8:53everybody. It's just sort of like a hey,
8:55if you want this it's here.
8:57Instead, I'm going to be going a lot
8:59harder on Amazon and learning to master
9:01the craft of selling a book on Amazon.
9:03And in the process I'm sure I'm going to
9:04learn a whole lot about what people
9:06want. What do people like in their
9:08fantasy fiction? And just learning all
9:10of these lessons, plus also learning uh
9:12the ins and outs of Amazon ads, Facebook
9:15ads, all of the different marketing
9:18avenues that I could go down. And I'll
9:19be able to explore all of those things
9:22and uh and come up with what works and
9:25then share it with all of you guys. So
9:27that that is my thoughts there and a lot
9:29is going to be changing about my
9:31approach to this because of that. It'll
9:33probably be a couple of weeks before we
9:35start to see any interesting headway
9:37into this. So the next couple of updates
9:40here might not be that crazy.
9:42Um but that's just where I'm at. So the
9:45second part of this video is where I go
9:47through last week's video and answer any
9:49questions that you have and talk about
9:52that. So let's go ahead and do that now.
9:54All right, uh question here from Elena,
9:56do you sell your books on Amazon? Yes, I
9:58do. And like I just said, I'm going to
10:00go very hard on that.
10:02Great question here. What are the first
10:03three steps we need to take to follow in
10:05your footsteps to build a successful
10:07publishing business?
10:08First of all, I don't know entirely yet
10:10because I have not built a successful
10:13publishing business yet. But I will say
10:15a couple of things. First of all, don't
10:17see failures as a failure. Failure is
10:20just
10:21information about what not to do.
10:23And you will absolutely succeed if you
10:26keep at it long enough. And if [snorts]
10:28you keep looking at failure as feedback,
10:30that's my whole approach here is that
10:31I'm looking at every failure as feedback
10:34and as examples of what not to do. So
10:36that's number one. Number two is just to
10:38write.
10:39Uh, most people start thinking about
10:41marketing
10:42and how to market books
10:44and like, oh, should I do Kickstarter?
10:46Should I do Tik Tok? And most people are
10:48thinking about doing that before they
10:50should.
10:52Uh, they're they're analyzing problems
10:54that they don't have yet because
10:56firstly, you need to get your books out.
10:59So the only two things that I would say
11:00you need to work on in the early days is
11:04just writing, you know, writing, putting
11:05your books out there, getting a lot of
11:07a lot of them out there. And then the
11:08other thing that I would kind of keep in
11:10the back of your mind as you were doing
11:11that writing is branding. Making sure
11:14you're doing the do dash justice to the
11:16genre that you're writing in so people
11:18that enjoy that genre will like your
11:19books.
11:21Uh, making sure that your book covers
11:25are appealing to the correct reader. Uh,
11:29same with your book descriptions and
11:30your titles. All of that needs to be
11:32consistent. That's the only kind of
11:34marketing per se
11:36that I would even worry about in the
11:37beginning.
11:38Um, it is your branding.
11:41I wouldn't even worry about any other
11:42type of marketing until you have like 12
11:45books or more out.
11:48Um, ideally more like 20, right? Then
11:51once you have that level of backlog, you
11:53can start to play with things
11:55and get actual results from it. All
11:58right, here's a question. There is
11:59another aspect to consider as well. You
12:01were wanting to charge $9 per month
12:02giving access to your backlog of 30
12:04books, but for $3 more per month, people
12:06can subscribe to KU with access to over
12:08fit 5 million titles from various
12:10authors.
12:11The value proposition if they aren't
12:13fans of yours you and your writing will
12:14be as
12:16will present a significant challenge,
12:18but I hope you are successful with this
12:19endeavor. Yeah, I I appreciate that. And
12:21I this is something I've given a lot of
12:22thought.
12:24The [snorts] reason why I thought it
12:25would work and clearly it's not working
12:27great. So so take this with the grain of
12:29salt.
12:30Um,
12:31the the reason it's not working great is
12:32cuz I think I haven't built up an
12:33audience yet. I think this is something
12:35for down the line once you have an
12:37audience. This person's right in that if
12:39it's just getting more books for a
12:42monthly price, that is not enough. But
12:44thankfully, as a individual creator, as
12:47as a single person business,
12:50I can do things that Amazon cannot. And
12:52this is something that like Alex Hormozi
12:54talks about this a lot. A lot of people
12:55talk about this. Is that if you're
12:57trying to do something where you're
12:58competing with really big people, you
13:00need to scale the unscalable.
13:03Uh, do the things that that the big
13:05companies can't do. So for me, my
13:07initial attempts at this is like putting
13:09their name in a book or in the
13:11acknowledgements of a book or
13:14um, giving them hardcovers
13:17uh, or what's it what's another one? Um,
13:21Oh, I like uh,
13:23calls with me.
13:25You know?
13:26Uh, so I almost look at the books that I
13:29put out not as
13:33a part of the
13:36membership
13:37but more like a bonus on top of the
13:39membership. Like the membership is this,
13:42it's the interaction with the fantasy
13:43community, it's the close access to me,
13:45it's all of these other bonuses that
13:47Amazon can't give you in KU.
13:49And then you also happen to get my books
13:51on top of all that.
13:52Right? That that was kind of the the
13:54mindset I was going for. And I think
13:56that still works.
13:58It's just like trying to cold pitch
13:59somebody on that is really hard. You
14:01need to have an audience who already
14:02likes you a little bit. Um, so that's
14:05that's why I'm making the pivots that
14:06I'm doing.
14:08How about offering a teaser chapter for
14:09free and add book descriptions and other
14:11promos via PDF? Yeah, I am doing that.
14:13So that's not really an issue. So a
14:14couple of questions here from Podcast
14:16Bard. Great name.
14:18As a reader, I like physical media best,
14:20books and MP3 CDs. Whoa, MP3 CDs. Okay,
14:24Podcast Bard, I'll take your word for
14:25it, but I can't understand why anybody
14:27would want that these days.
14:29I'll try things in the digital format to
14:30see if I like it and if if I do, I'll
14:32get the physical media. Physical media
14:33is also good in sharing books. I believe
14:35this is how people expand their
14:36audiences is sharing physical media. The
14:38physical media is definitely a
14:41uh, still going strong side of things.
14:44But I do know that most self-publishing
14:46authors make their
14:48make their money from ebooks and
14:49audiobooks. Like it it's not even close.
14:52But print books are great. And uh, and
14:55he asks again or or she, he or she,
14:58uh, your competition is all those other
14:59author YouTube videos. Do you advertise
15:01in your home community or your state?
15:03Um, no,
15:05uh, not currently. And uh, YouTube is
15:07great at finding people that that like
15:10what you put out uh, if you're niched
15:12down enough.
15:13As you can see, my YouTube channel is
15:14doing very well.
15:16In fact, it's going to be monetized
15:18faster than the Nerdy Novelist was than
15:21this channel.
15:22Um, so that's pretty exciting. Like I
15:26it's been really validating for me to
15:27know that I can repeat the success I've
15:29had on YouTube. Cuz I've always wondered
15:31if I only found success on the Nerdy
15:33Novelist because I started talking about
15:34AI at the exact right moment. Now, don't
15:36get me wrong,
15:38learning to identify the opportunities
15:40like that is also a skill.
15:42But it's always been interesting to
15:44like, oh, can I replicate the success?
15:45Can I get another channel doing well?
15:47And already it's looking like that is to
15:49be the case. I'm going to have a channel
15:51monetized
15:52way faster than the Nerdy Novel than the
15:54Nerdy Novelist was monetized. And I'll
15:56probably get to 10K subscribers much
15:58faster than the Nerdy Novelist did,
16:00which was like 5 months.
16:02So that's pretty cool. Uh, as far as
16:05advertising in the home community in my
16:06state, um, I don't think that's really
16:08the most effective way to to advertise
16:10books. A lot of people do find success
16:13selling in like local markets and comic
16:15cons and things like that.
16:17I don't particularly like doing that,
16:19but I probably will experiment with it
16:21in the in the future. We have this like
16:22regular farmers market every Saturday
16:24near where I live.
16:26And uh, and we like going all the time
16:28and I see authors there. Most of the
16:30authors, not not to
16:32ho- hopefully none of [clears throat]
16:33those authors are watching this right
16:35now, but most of them
16:37are not like they're not great with
16:38their branding. Their book covers don't
16:40look great. But they still do pretty
16:42well. And so I think there is
16:44opportunity there. Is it enough to
16:46really
16:47compete with the sort of scale that one
16:49can do on Amazon or just any kind of
16:52digital site? I don't know, but it can
16:55still be fun.
16:57You can also learn a lot about what
16:58sells a book too if when you're doing it
16:59in person.
17:01Um, so yeah, that's that's something to
17:02keep in mind. All right, so this person
17:04says, interesting vid. It sounds like
17:06you don't know what does and doesn't get
17:07conversion to your paid school group.
17:09What about a survey? You can you have a
17:11lot of people in Story Hacker Silver and
17:12repeat viewers here and we know what is
17:14stopping us from subscribing presumably.
17:16So survey might get you to some useful
17:17data, just a thought. Yeah. Um,
17:19definitely when you have an audience,
17:22and this is the problem I think is that
17:23I don't have a warm audience to my
17:26stuff.
17:27You should be surveying them and seeing
17:29what they want and use that to build
17:30your your offer.
17:33Um, I do not have nearly the same
17:35conversion problem with my Story Hacker
17:37communities and this channel as I do
17:40with
17:41uh, this fiction thing so far.
17:43And I think that's because you guys have
17:45warmed up to me a little bit more and
17:47I'm solving problems for you. But it's
17:49also a completely different situation.
17:51Like fiction is a completely different
17:52business model
17:54than anything non-fiction.
17:56And [snorts] what works for non-fiction
17:57doesn't always work for fiction as as I
17:59am learning. So
18:01uh, once I have a warmer audience, I
18:04will start I will definitely start
18:06surveying people. I might also run ads
18:09um, where the each ad will say something
18:11the equivalent of like
18:14um, would you like XYZ? And then each ad
18:18will have a different thing and I'll
18:19just see what the click-through rate of
18:21those ads are and
18:23through that
18:24determine like, oh, this seems to be
18:26more popular.
18:27But I I don't know if I I I want to do
18:29that right now with these changes I'm
18:31making. So we'll see. Uh, this person
18:33says,
18:34if I were to offer any advice, it would
18:35be to run the following prompt on the AI
18:37of your choice. Please provide me a
18:38summary of slow productivity and its key
18:40principles by Cal Newport. When I listen
18:42to you, I get the feeling that you were
18:43trying to do everything everywhere all
18:44at once and I worry you will burn out. I
18:46appreciate
18:48your your concern.
18:50Uh, I have actually read slow
18:51productivity by Cal Newport. I love
18:53everything Cal Newport puts out. I read
18:55it religiously.
18:56Um, he is great. In the case of slow
18:58productivity, I think much of that is
19:00really intended more for people who are
19:03further along in their career because I
19:05don't think it applies as well to people
19:07who are just beginning. I think when
19:08you're beginning, you need to hustle.
19:10When you're like if you're in your 20s
19:11or 30s, you need to be hustling until
19:13you
19:15find your your rhythm in what works.
19:18Because volume is the most
19:21um, like it's the most likely indicator.
19:23It's the most correlated indicator of
19:25success.
19:26As you're putting out volume. Uh, I
19:28don't know if you're familiar with the
19:29parable of the pots,
19:31but it's basically you have a a guy
19:34teaching pottery and he divides the the
19:37class into two groups. And to one group
19:38he says, your job is to make one perfect
19:40pot by the end of the semester. The
19:41other group he says, you just guys make
19:43as just as many pots as you can by the
19:44end of the semester.
19:46And by the end of the semester, the
19:47people that were just putting out the
19:48most pots were not only they not only
19:51had way more pots, but the pots that
19:53they were making
19:55towards the end were just as good as the
19:57single perfect pot that the other side
19:59was supposed to do. Cuz not only
20:03do you put out more, but you learn
20:05faster.
20:06And that's kind of what I'm going for
20:08with this. But I do appreciate the
20:09concern about
20:11um
20:12trying to do everything everywhere all
20:13at once.
20:15And
20:16I I am not ignorant
20:19of the fact that I am doing a lot now.
20:22The difference is that I am paying close
20:24attention to what is working and what is
20:26not. And I am ruthlessly cutting the
20:28things that are not working.
20:30As you saw with like the fact that I'm
20:31not doing that mythology channel
20:33anymore.
20:34And because of that
20:38the vol- like it it evens out
20:41over time. So that's that's just been my
20:43experience so far. I do appreciate the
20:45concern, but it's not going to be this
20:47way all the time. And also I found that
20:49being this focused and trying to put out
20:51this amount of work has actually forced
20:53me to be far more economical with my
20:56time.
20:57And actually I found that I am just
21:00about the same in terms of how busy I am
21:03now as to where I was before I started
21:05this goal. The only difference is I cut
21:07out a lot of stuff when I started this
21:09goal. I found that I was filling my time
21:11before with a lot of busy work that
21:12wasn't pushing the needle.
21:14And um and so I think it's good to have
21:17ambitious goals like this because it it
21:19acts not only as I mean you're not only
21:21going to see a lot of progress
21:24rapidly
21:26but you're also
21:28going to cut out a lot of stuff that
21:30doesn't actually matter. All right, now
21:32this person gave me some fantastic
21:34advice. I'm not going to read this whole
21:35thing to you, but this person had
21:37clearly knew knows my content and
21:39actually gone and looked at my
21:42um my lore channel and everything
21:45and gave me some fantastic advice and I
21:47said as much in in in my response.
21:51Uh to sum this up, basically some of the
21:54advice that I found very
21:56good here is to have
21:58um kind of a funnel with my channels. He
22:01suggested having a separate channel that
22:02was all about the lore of my own stuff.
22:06And I don't think I'm going to do it as
22:07a separate channel, but I might do like
22:09one video a week that's about the lore
22:11of my stuff.
22:12Which it's not going to do as well as
22:14the lore of these other fantasy works,
22:16but it should expose some of the
22:18subscribers and people that have watched
22:20multiples of my videos
22:23to to learn a little bit more about my
22:25world. I've also uh I think I think this
22:29person mentions it but um I've also gone
22:32with the idea of having a free offer to
22:35these people so that they can
22:37sample my work without any monetary
22:40uh risk involved. But yeah, this
22:43whoever you are E Roldan, I don't know
22:45if you're in my community somewhere. I
22:46think you probably are
22:48judging by the
22:51what you got here.
22:52Your advice was very much appreciated
22:54and and I do appreciate uh everything.
22:57Now this one I didn't quite get. This
22:59this person Amanda Waller 34 79
23:03I don't understand why you're so dead
23:05set on ignoring every common established
23:06process for building a fan base, which
23:08is what you need to get recurring
23:09revenue.
23:11Um so I understand what this person is
23:13saying and they're right. Like I I
23:15realize that that I need to develop the
23:18fan base first and kind of go more
23:19traditional routes. That's true.
23:20However, I would not say I have ever
23:23been dead set on ignoring any common
23:26common established process.
23:28Like I have been giving away free
23:30stories and chapters. Post some
23:32serialized fiction on Ream or your own
23:34website. Yeah, that that I've done that
23:36in the past. That does not work.
23:38Uh I can test it again, but I am not
23:40anticipating that it'll work.
23:42Uh send set up a website under your
23:44actual name or the name of your world.
23:45Yeah, I I have done that. Sell some
23:47merch. I've done that. Post some videos
23:49about the lore of your world not fantasy
23:50lore in general. I will do that. The
23:53problem there is that nobody's going to
23:55look at the stuff of
23:56nobody's going to care about the lore of
23:58my like I'm building an audience here
24:00and then once the audience is there,
24:01then I can
24:03start talking about the world of my own.
24:06Uh do a Kickstarter on your next novel
24:08etc. Yeah, I I I hate Kickstarters. That
24:11is one that I am sort of dead set on
24:14ignoring at least for now. I will
24:15probably test it out in the future cuz I
24:16know people want to know about it, but I
24:18I like I'm a slow and steady type of
24:21marketer person and I love content
24:22marketing.
24:24It's my favorite type. Uh because it is
24:26a slow and steady thing. The nice thing
24:27about YouTube you guys is it's marketing
24:31that's very effective and you get paid
24:33to do it.
24:35It's the only it's the only type of
24:36marketing that'll do that for you. I
24:37don't know why more people aren't doing
24:39it. Well well I I do. It's because it
24:41takes a lot of work.
24:42Um it seems like you want the monetary
24:44benefits of an active engaged community,
24:46loyal fan base without doing the work it
24:47takes to build one. I
24:49I just got to say like
24:51I
24:52I just don't agree. Uh like I am
24:54absolutely willing to do the work it
24:55takes to build one.
24:57I'm just figuring out what works.
25:01And I've learned quite a bit since I
25:03started.
25:05So we are going back to basics. We are
25:07going to try all of those things.
25:09But we'll see.
25:11Uh this person asked how are you doing
25:12your audiobooks? I'm getting human
25:14narrators for most of them. AI narration
25:16just is not enough for me.
25:19Um I don't I don't like it myself. I
25:22I don't like to read or listen to other
25:24audiobooks that have been digitally
25:25narrated, so I don't even though they're
25:27they're getting quite good these days
25:29and it's better than nothing.
25:31I just don't know I just don't think
25:32it's there yet.
25:36Um all right, this person had a
25:37misunderstanding. Showing ads to just 43
25:39people in your school won't work. It's a
25:40very small sample of people. You need to
25:41show the ads or your book to at least
25:4310,000 people to find out whether the
25:45ads of your book is working or not.
25:47Um yeah, so I
25:51was not showing it to 43 people.
25:55I don't know where this person got that
25:56idea. I my sample size you start as
26:00broad as you can when you start doing
26:01ads and then let the data let it figure
26:04out the data.
26:06Um we did stop the ads that were going
26:08cuz we spent $150 with no results
26:11whatsoever.
26:12Um
26:14I started doing some direct sales
26:16earlier this week and that was showing a
26:18much more promise.
26:20Um although I'm not going to be doing
26:22that in the future because I'm now
26:23pivoting to go more Amazon first for
26:25now.
26:26All right, this person says thank you
26:28Jason for being so transparent about
26:29your process. That can be very
26:30insightful. Yeah, no problem. This
26:32person says subscription models are
26:33profitable only if the content given in
26:35them is famous. In your case in this
26:37case your books
26:38people in general won't buy monthly
26:40subscription if they're not interested
26:41in your books. I think that is true and
26:42that's why I'm making the decisions that
26:44I am.
26:46Just cheering you on from the sidelines
26:47Jason. Thank you Plumstone. I'm cheering
26:49you on as well. All right, and that
26:51pretty much wraps it up for today. So
26:54uh if you have any questions or comments
26:57uh or armchair there's a lot of armchair
27:01experts giving advice
27:02uh I'm open to all of it uh and I'm
27:05correcting the mistake of trying to
27:07break the rules before trying to master
27:09them. So now I'm going into the process
27:11of mastering them
27:13by looking at what the successful people
27:15are doing and just modeling what they
27:16do. So that is my final bit of advice to
27:19you. Um and I will see you in the next
27:21video.