In the 3 Core Skills post we talk about the 3 Skills that make Authors Successful
- Knowing What to Write
- Writing Very Well
- Marketing Very Well
There are different levels of mastery for these skills. If you want to succeed, you have to keep increasing your levels of mastery in each of these 3 Core Skills
- Ignorance
- Absolutely Rubbish
- Decently Good
- Very Good
- Mastery (Great)
- Supreme Mastery
- Absolute Best in the World
- One of the Best of All Time
Levels of Mastery – Ignorance
The lowest level of Mastery is Ignorance
- Knowing What to Write – Ignorance in this Skill is thinking that whatever you write will sell. Not realizing that readers buy what they want to buy and you have to make sure you are writing something they will buy
- Writing Very Well – Ignorance in this Skill is being painfully unaware that your writing is not worth reading. Sorry, there’s no other way to put it
- Marketing Very Well – Ignorance in this Skill is either thinking Marketing doesn’t matter OR thinking Marketing will be magically done by someone else
This is a very dangerous level to be at. Ignorance means the author usually thinks they are amazing at everything. That means they might never find out they need to improve and keep getting more and more frustrated at ‘why is my book not doing well’
Levels of Mastery – Absolutely Rubbish
Most authors start off being Absolutely Rubbish in the 3 Core Skills. The biggest challenge new authors face is that it is incredibly difficult to admit you are lacking these skills
- Knowing What to Write – Absolutely Rubbish means that you have absolutely no idea what markets are good markets to write for and what markets are black oceans of death (i.e. no sales)
- Writing Very Well – Absolutely Rubbish means that at the beginning your writing is not really worth readers’ time
- Marketing Very Well – Absolutely Rubbish means that you don’t know marketing at all, and we mean the type of marketing that effectively sells books. It does not help to know other types of marketing – in fact, it can be a hindrance if you come in thinking you already know marketing
This level is difficult and most authors give up at this stage – once they realize there are THREE entire new skills they have to learn to be successful as an author
It really is up to you to decide whether the effort involved is worth it for you, or not
Levels of Mastery – Decently Good
- Knowing What to Write – Decently Good means that you can find markets where your book will get a decent number of sales AND you do the ‘find the right market’ part BEFORE you write your book
- Writing Very Well – Decently Good means that readers enjoy reading what you write
- Marketing Very Well – Decently Good means that you know enough about what marketing works for your books and can get break even on what you spend on marketing
This is a very interesting level. If you can be decently good at all 3 skills you can get to 10,000+ book sales. If you keep writing books and keep using your resources well you can even get to a considerably higher figure such as 50,000 sales
Levels of Mastery – Very Good
- Knowing What to Write – Very Good means that you can find markets where your book gets good sales AND where there is relatively less competition AND where readers buy your other books
- Writing Very Well – Very Good means your writing is compelling. The reader after finishing your book is not just happy, they search for your other books and also considers leaving a review
- Marketing Very Well – Very Good means you are getting positive Return on Investment on multiple marketing channels and can keep a steady marketing effort going from just a part of your book sales revenue
This is a very dangerous level to be at. If you are not careful complacency and Ego will start creeping in and prevent you from getting to actual Mastery level
If you get all 3 of the Core Skills to Very Good level, you can easily sell a few hundred thousand books
Even getting 2 of the Core Skills to Very Good Level, provided the third skill isn’t at Absolute Rubbish level, can help you get 50,000 to 100,000 book sales
Levels of Mastery – Mastery (Great)
- Knowing What to Write – Mastery of this Skill means that you can find very good markets that have lots of readers and very little competition AND where readers buy all/most of your books after they buy 1 book
- Writing Very Well – Mastery of this Skill means that your writing is very good and very compelling. Readers after finishing your books actively hunt out your other books and leave reviews and even search for more about you
- Marketing Very Well – Mastery of this Skill means that you can get good sales even with a decent book. With a very well written book you are able to get very good sales. You not only have external channels that can drive sales, you even have your own marketing channels will drive a good amount of sales
Mastery in 1 Skill and being Good or Very Good in the other 2 skills is enough to sell 100,000 to 300,000 books
Mastery in 2 Skills and being Good or Very Good in the third skill is enough to get you to 1 million+ book sales
Mastery in 3 Skills and you should be aiming for 1 million to 10 million book sales
One Very Important Point: Mastery in 1 Skill will get negated if you are absolutely Rubbish or Ignorant in another Skill. It’s critical to accurately assess your skill level and try and get to at least Very Good skill level in each of the 3 Core Skills
Levels of Mastery – Supreme Mastery
- Knowing What to Write – Supreme Mastery means you can find amazingly good markets. It also means you can create your own decent sized markets – markets which did not exist. It also means you can defend those markets to an extent
- Writing Very Well – Supreme Mastery means your writing is so compelling that readers are actively checking for when your books are out. There are a non trivial amount of readers who think you are one of the best authors in your genre
- Marketing Very Well – Supreme Mastery means you can market any book well (even bad ones). For a very well written book you should be able to get it 100,000+ sales or more across its lifetime. You have very strong INTERNAL marketing channels which are creating steady sustainable sales. You have at least 1 and ideally 3 external marketing channels that are driving consistent sales and profits
At this level, you will start developing arrogance and a feeling of superiority. You should push through this arrogance and Ego very quickly as it will only be a hindrance
With Supreme Mastery in 1 skill, provided you are at Very Good or higher level in the other skills, you should be able to sell 1 million to 10 million books. Exception: You choose to write in a small genre
With Supreme Mastery in 2 skills, you should be able to sell 5 million to 20 million books
There might not be anyone on the Planet who has Supreme Mastery in all 3 skills. However, you should seek out a person who can provide Supreme Mastery in the 3rd remaining skill. For Example: If you have Supreme Master in Knowing What to Write and in Writing Very Well, then partnering with a Big 5 Publisher who has Supreme Mastery in Marketing Very Well, is an almost unbeatable strategy
Levels of Mastery – Absolute Best in the World
- Knowing What to Write – You are the Absolute Best in the World when you can create a massive market all by yourself. 50 Shades of Grey is a great example of this. People bitching about ‘the writing is not that good’ should instead focus on the absolutely massive book market she has created with 50 Shades of Grey. That is what ‘Absolute Best in the World’ level of mastery looks like
- Writing Very Well – You are the Absolute Best in the World when your writing is the absolute best in the world. At any given time there are just 10 to 100 authors at this level (even accounting for all the different genres)
- Marketing Very Well – You are the Absolute Best in the World when you can consistently get 1 million+ book sales for a very well written book (written for a good, big market). Most of the people with this level of expertise are working for large Publishing houses or large Technology companies
Becoming Absolute Best in the World is exceedingly difficult
Quick Note on Resource Constraints
Here we run into one of our resource constraints – each of us has a limited amount of time and energy and cannot focus on 3 Areas all the time
- As you have limited time and energy and money, you are restricted to achieving Supreme Mastery in only 1 or 2 Skills
- For the same reason, you can become Absolute Best in the World only in 1 Area. It is almost impossible to become Absolute Best in the World in multiple areas
- Achieving Mastery in all 3 Core Skills is very possible. It, however, comes with the penalty/downside that spreading yourself across these 3 areas means you can at most achieve Supreme Mastery and that too in only one area. You will never have the time to achieve Supreme Mastery in 2 Areas. Additionally, you will almost certainly not be able to achieve Absolute Best in the World level
What is the Best Strategy?
You have to decide what is the best strategy for you
- Achieve Mastery in all 3 Core skills. Understand that it means giving up becoming Absolute Best in the World at one Skill. It also means you can at most achieve Supreme Mastery in 1 Core Skill
- Focus on achieving Supreme Mastery in 2 Core Skills. Get the third skill to Good Level, or find an expert to handle that
- Focus on achieving Absolute Best in the World at 1 Core Skill. Get the other two skills to Good Level, or find experts to handle that for you
Each choice/strategy has benefits and costs. Choose carefully
Levels of Mastery – One of the Best of All Time
Unfortunately, it is hard (perhaps impossible) to understand and explain this level of Mastery
- Knowing What to Write
- Writing Very Well
- Marketing Very Well
We can go back and try and figure out how the great authors achieved a level of writing that lasted for thousands of years. However, we have not yet been able to figure it out. So we have nothing to share about this level, except that it exists
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