Tips to become Successful Self-Published Author

Pick a hot subject for your ebook

Check the category and subcategory of your interest on the bookselling sites what is selling best in the market.

• Use Google Search to find hot keywords that people are searching, 100K per month or more.
• Go to Amazon Best Seller List and research on top-selling, sales rank.
• Use a keyword analyzer such as https://adwords.google.co.in/KeywordPlanner (free), http://freshkey.com (paid) to find out what are the most popular searches on Amazon, Google, Youtube, etc. 
• Check the best sellers and what they are selling?
• What is selling best on this topic?
• Where do you have fewer competitors?

Look for topics that last long. Health, love and dating, business, money, hobby niches - Bird watching. What resonates best with you? Start with that.

Choose the right platform

Kindle is most happening place at this time. Start with eBooks. They are easy to produce and market.

Avoid mistakes

Keep the eBook short. People do not spend many hours on the digital screen to read the same topic for long. If you have got a really long eBook, even better. Split it up. Market them as sequels.

Price your eBook

Remember to price it for success. Price low to start the momentum. Keep the price between $1.99 to $2.99 on Amazon for consistent sales. For some of the eBooks, keep it between free to $0.99 to get the number chart rolling. Price for sale instead of value.

Test the performance before you write the ebook

Announce the book as coming soon and check how many you get pre-order sales. Now you know that people are interested. Else do not spend time on this and test a new idea/title.

Test and validate your eBook before actually you write it

• Announce your book even before you start writing the book. Wait for 4 to 6 weeks to see how many get pre-ordered. If you get more tthan25 pre-ordered sales, you have people who are interested, go get it done. Do not get attached if the number is much less. Discard it and test and validate a new title to write.
• Produce your eBook passively. 
• Get your videos transcripted, clean them up, rearrange and put it on Kindle.
• Hire a Ghost Write on eLance or Fiverr. Kindle ebooks are generally 30+ pages long.
• Have a friend who loves to write? Have him write it up and share the profits. 
• Produce the ebook
• Design the layout. Again, you may get it done on eLance or Fiverr. You may do it on createspace.com They have some great templates.
• Hire someone to convert your ebook to Kindle format on Fiverr, Elance or Smashwords. Or, do it yourself. 
• Upload to Kindle or get it done by hiring someone on Fiverr.

Write effectively

• Continue to learn and write more books. Continue to read in your area and learn how to write better.
• Detailed outlining can improve your productivity. Give it a try. 

Create compelling cover

• Make the cover page fit your genre for right emotional impact. Use right image to create the emotional impact. Use font that is clear and easy to read.

Choose from free tools for ebook creation

These are some of the tools that I recommend to create ebooks.

• Draft2Digital (www.draft2digital.com) provides free publishing service. One needs to upload Word document (.doc or .docx format), RTF, or any other file type Word can read. They don’t have a style guide or any special formatting requirements. Automated conversion process creates epub version and provides mobi file to download for Kindle.
• Scrivener
• EasyEdit (for Kindle only, PC users only)
• PressBooks
• Apple iBooks Author produces image and media heavy ebooks. 
• Microsoft Word does not provide ebook capabilities but there are many programs that provide conversion from .doc, .docx files to ebooks.  
• Line spacing 1.5 usually works best in most of the scenarios to avoid truncation of characters from top or bottom of the lines.
• These are some paid options if you like - Jutoh

File formats

• Any text file and Microsoft Word file is generally accepted. In case of MS Word, preferably unformat the file for Kindle, Nook and Smashwords for best results by their automatic conversion to ebook format. 
• EPUB and MOBI eBook formats should be sufficient generally that covers Amazon and most of the other eBook retailers.
• PDF is difficult to be converted to EPUB. Try to avoid it. 

Distribute the book

Amazon KPD, Barnes & Noble’s Nook Press distribute only through specific channels. Smashwords or BookBaby distribute through multiple channels. Many authors choose to go with Amazon Kindle Direct and Smashwords which provides the reach upto 95% of the market. Then, you may add Google Play and others if you like. 

Get great reviews for your book

You need reviews when you are starting out to sell your book. Use who you are, reflect your personality in your emails instead of just copying and pasting from templates. Email your personality. This is the best way for others to know you as who you are, kind of humor you create, etc.

• Do google search for your genre + reviews to find the reviewers. Check Amazon's top 1000 reviewers.
• Send request for review. On an average, 10% of the requested reviewers write the reviews. Initially, keep a target of 10 reviews. So, request 100 reviewers. If you want 100 reviews, request 1000 reviewers. Do it regularly, for example sending email to 25 reviewers a day should be fine. 
• Create you automatic email sequence. Set them and forget. Use this to target casual readers. 

As the list of your fans grows, they will also fill in for reviews. These are some head or subject lines that you can send to casual readers.

• The One Change You Need to Make Today.
• Set an Unbreakable Routine

Give your ebook for free for reviews. Give to your friends, associates, or anyone you know you is interested in the topic. People can get the feel by reading only some of the pages and provide their reviews. People can produce their reviews without even buying the eBook.

Publish your eBook. Then, you can give it for free for up to 5 days on Amazon. Use this time to send your eBook to friends to review. Ask them to review the eBook. you can yourself write the review for them and ask them to use for reference or copy and paste if they like.

Market your book

Make a connect with your readers through regular email communication - weekly, fortnightly or monthly and on occasions such as festival seasons. Long story short, following are the steps that is all that you need to market your book.

• Offer a free gift or a bonus – another book, audio, etc. to get the traffic
• Convert the traffic into email address with a good email service provider – Mailchimp, Aweber, etc.
• Establish your online brand with solid web presence through a website.

Promote your ebook

Promote your book before you actually publish or even start to write. Continue to do that after as below after you have published the book.

• Provide the book for free to get exposure and reviews. 
• Get great reviews for your ebook. Check for book bloggers on internet. Have a look at http://www.goodreads.com 
• Get promotions at BookBub (www.bookbub.com). Millions of readers have registered and rely on them to get the updates on new releases.
• Offer some free giveaways to increase traffic to your fan-catering-platform.
• ‘Talk to Give your ebook for free for reviews. People can produce their reviews without even buying the ebook.
• Keep the target around 10 people giving 5 star review to your ebook to get impressive sales. Reviews done by the person who buys the eBook and then provides review has more weight as it is tied to a verified purchase.
• Promote on free Kindle eBook sites, facebook fan pages, free days 
• Run marketing promotions such as BookBub, FreeBooksy, Ereader News Today etc.
• Join communities, groups to attract traffic to your blog, sites…
• Network with other authors and social media events
• Publish an easily accessible link to subscribe to your mailing list.
• Maintain an easily usable list of subscribers and places - Email List, AWeber, MailChimp, etc. MailChimp is free for first 2000 users on your email list; AWeber costs approximately $19 per month.
• Make it friendly for your users to share their information on sign-up forms on your blog, site, landing page
• Offer some articles, books for free to generate the interest.
• Set automatic emails, responses for queries.
• Create a series of emails that automatically go to your new subscribers.
• Optimize your sales pages with better design and content.
• Pay, if you like, to promote your eBook to their lists on Fiverr
• Do NOT spam groups in social media.
• Do NOT send emails to random email addresses.

Resources

• There are many options and software that you can use. I recommend using the free ones.
• Use Google Docs to prepare the document for Kindle. Save it as HTML file.
• Use Sigil to convert the HTML file to ePUB format.
• Use Calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com) to convert ePUB to desired eBook format.
• Use Canva https://www.canva.com to create designs, cover page, image with text. Images with text can be posted on social media to generated traffic.
• Self-publish eBooks and paperbacks for free with Kindle Direct Publishing (https://kdp.amazon.com) and reach millions of readers on Amazon.
• Offer your free magnet book.
• Store the free book on Google Docs or DropBox or OneDrive and share the link. Or,
• Use an ebook aggregator like www.Draft2Digital.com to upload your freebie book on Nook, iTunes, and Kobo.

Using Gamification in eLearning

Gamification is not just implementing Game Theory of Points, Badges and Leaderboards. Gamification is about learning from the Game design fundamentals with the fun element. While playing a game, for the player, rules of the game are more real than the real world. As soon as the player is in the game, unnecessary obstacles must be removed from their way.

Perhaps every eLearning program should have a module that triggers the learners' thoughts to bring to surface if there is anything bothering the learner. Still, if feeling short of ideas for gamification, survey the learners. It could be called something as 'Oh But My Concern?' Present questions to learners whether that could be their problem. For example, Ask the learner what motivates them and how do they think they can enhance their interest in the course.

Build: Build your own model using the concepts such as fruit juice or as good as a space craft.    
Common Goal: Achieve a common goal by organizing yourselves to play the game.
Community: Participate for the things that affect you personally and your community.
Discuss: Start discussing right away with fellow learners.  
Documentary: Learners reflect on their participation and understand the learning pattern and progress.
Game: Play the game using knowledge of the content. Playing Pirates is a good example of this concept.
Innovation: Collaborate and contribute to ideas bigger than you.
Point of View: Behave as if you are someone you would be after the course. For example you can be the expert in the game and use/share your expertise.
Research: Become the subject matter expert to research the content to implement the task of building implement the game idea.
Situational Leading: In this game the learner takes the lead to remove the doubts of the fellow learners. This is a generic gamification idea that can be applied to any area. This will be a branching scenario that gives the learner the wider experience based on their needs and concerns. This is my favorite learning style where people can learn with and from one another in the community.
Technology: Achieve the target using simulated software.
Unpredictability: Such as Solitare on Windows    

Gamification - The New Instruction Design Technique

Gamification is a wonderful Instruction Design technique. Just imagine how would you feel if your company announces on the company intranet leader board that you have scored highest on green initiatives.

Why it works?

• Appeals to natural instincts for fun
• Helps create stress-free learning environment leading to better concentration
• Promotes active involvement in the learning process
• Maintains high motivation level
• Makes the learners do the job themselves resulting in 90% retention

Consider using following elements to effectively incorporate game based thinking and mechnics.

• Aesthetics
• Avatar
• Challenge
• Feedback
• Freedom to Fail
• Levels
• Mystery
• Replayability
• Rewards
• Story
• Time based

Just bring out the children ;) in your employees while they are learning. 

Try Again or Do Again?

Either you do it 100% or don't do it.

If one says, he or she is going to try again, means previous failure is dominating the mind more than the learning from the feedback for the previous attempt.

So, should we get rid of Try Again statements? Just do your best, Do Again, take the learning, and move on.

SWOT Analysis of Lectora 16

Should you go for Lectora 16 or should you not? Make an informed decision. Sharing couple of my observations here.

Strengths

• Responsive course development for desktop, tablet and phone 
• Provides both options - fixed and responsive layouts
• Single source file for all three layouts
• Uses same source content to display on various screen sizes
• SnagIt image editing
• Camtasia video recording and editing
• Supports all features of Lectora 12, Lectora 12 source can be used in Lectora 16
• Customization friendliness similar to earlier Lectora versions

Weaknesses

• Increased effort to develop pages separately for five screen sizes
• Every new page reloads all the assets causing blank screen and delay during navigation from one page to another (same as earlier Lectora versions)
• Does not use some best practices such as image sprites for button states (same as earlier Lectora versions)
• Leaves some glitches on mobile devices

Opportunities

• Build courses responsive courses catering to small screens in cost effective manner
• Enable Instruction Designers to do image edits, powered by SnagIt included in the software
• Quickly prototype responsive courses
• Transition smoothly to responsive courses for clients where Lectora is already in use

Threats

• Inability to compete with SPA (Single Page Application) approach

Questions to Ask Before Proposing eLearning Solution

Client may not have answer to all the questions we ask them. But, it is our responsibility as eLearning professionals to find out the real needs and propose appropriate solution. If need be, educate your client why you are recommending a particular solution.

1. Scope
1. What is the business problem you are trying to solve?
2. What are the critical success factors?
3. Who are the primary audience profile of the course?
4. What is the expectation of the audience from this course?
5. What are the milestones and dates to meet?
6. What is your budget? 
7. What are the biggest priorities among cost, time, and quality?
2. Content
1. What existing content can be leveraged?
2. Will the Subject Matter Expert support be provided by client?
3. Who is the target audience?
1. Are they computer savvy?
2. What is their age group?
3. Are they white-collared or blue-collared employees?
3. Localization
1. Will the courses be localized to any languages other than English?
2. Will the translated content be provided?
3. Will the recorded audio be provided?
4. Will there be content/graphic changes for each region?
4. Course Tech specs
1. How will the course be deployed - LMS, standalone, CD?
2. What are the targeted devices (desktop, tablets, smart phones) and OS-browser versions to access the courses?
3. Which are the target devices and platforms that the typical learners are expected to use for learning?
4. Which are the device-OS-browser combinations on which we should perform QC?
5. For mobile delivery, are there any apps or will the course run in browser?
6. What file formats, object and source files will be delivered?
7. What type of connection speed can we assume for the learners? Will they access course on internet or intranet?
8. Are there any existing courses that may need to be converted to newer formats such as HTML5? Will vendor get some samples for source code to analyze the existing courses?
9. Are there any file size limits that need to be followed for compliance or technical reasons?
5. Compliance, Tracking and Reporting
1. What are the tracking and reporting requirements?
2. Which eLearning standard such as Tin Can, SCORM needs to be supported? 
3. Are there tracking and reporting requirements other than standard Tin Can, SCORM features?
4. Is 508 compliance required?
6. LMS
1. Will the client provide LMS documentation?
2. Will the client provide credentials to test the course on their LMS?
3. Is it a standard Moodle installation or with optimizations done to it?
4. Will the on-line interaction happen within LMS environment or will it include external social media such as Facebook and Twitter?
5. Will vendor have access to LMS for course upload and launch testing?
7. Development related
1. Are there any technology or authoring tool that should be preferred to create the courses?
2. Are there any tools, technologies that need to be avoided for any compliance or security reasons?
3. What tools do you leverage for training and content management?
4. Will course development templates be provided by client for consistency across courses? 
5. Can we customize the templates provided by client?
8. Printing
1. Will courses or parts of courses be printable?
9. Maintenance
1. Will the client prefer to make the changes themselves after project delivery?

Make Standards Compliant eLearning Courses

I am always in favor of standardization as it provides so many benefits. My main reason for standardization is that it makes life so easy. Standards make it future compliant giving a longer shelf life. Standards make it easy to integrate the content seamlessly with various platforms, knowledge sharing across teams and with client and so on. At least, this is the way, I look at it.

For Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 requirements (success criteria) and techniques go here http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/