What are 5 big author pain points which authors can eliminate?

Here are 5 big author pain points, which authors can actually eliminate themselves

Not Getting Reviews

Here is how you can eliminate this pain point

First, just accept 100% that you are not getting reviews because

1. Either your book is not polished enough
2. Or you are selling it to the wrong readers
3. Or Both

It has to be one or both of those reasons. Otherwise, people who read books, usually review books. A normal review rate is between 1 to 10 reviews per 100 books sold

Less than that and you’re selling your book to the wrong readers, or you’re selling it before it is ready

Consider doing the following improvements for every new book that you write

1. Make sure you do at least 2 rewrites of your book after finishing it
2. Make sure your book is well edited by a professional editor
3. Make sure you categorize it in the right genres
4. Make sure you promote it to the right readers
5. Make sure you get a cover from a professional cover designer
6. Make sure you Ask for a Review
7. Make sure you Ask for a Review again at the end of the book

Do these improvements and you will start getting reviews at a rate of 1 to 10 reviews per 100 books sold

Being Frustrated at External Factors limiting their Success

There will always be external factors that will limit your success

1. The store will stop giving you visibility, until you ‘buy advertising’ in the store
2. Promotion channels will become saturated and expensive
3. Readers will give unfair reviews
4. Editors and Cover Designers will be late with their work for your book
5. The banks will mess up things and delay your payments
6. The store will show other people’s books on your book page
7. Authors will steal your best ideas, and try to steal your readers

If you go down the rabbit hole of letting external factors determine how you feel, you will never be able to focus on your work, and will needlessly limit your success

The only solution is

1. Focus exclusively on things you control 100%
2. Get them all working perfectly
3. Gradually, add more and more things to your domain of control
4. Get them working perfectly (or close to perfect)
5. Then expand your domain of control further
6. Throw away everything that is outside your control
7. Focus on finding ways to be successful by leveraging only the things you do control

This means that instead of letting someone external determine your fate, and being reactive, you become proactive

This is not easy as there will be lots of ‘toll collecting entities’ blocking your direct path to your readers. However, it is well worth it

Struggling with Marketing

Marketing is a Skill

It is just as important as writing

The Main Reason authors struggle with marketing is because they have wrong beliefs about marketing. You should embrace the truths about marketing i.e.

1. Marketing is not easy and no one can make it easy
   1. Lots of people make a living by selling you ‘magical and revolutionary marketing courses’ that will show you a shortcut, or give you an easy button
   2. None of them work
   3. If they worked they would be writing 10 to 30 books a year and making $20 million a year
   4. They would have no time left for anything other than writing books and counting their money
   5. How do they have the time to create and sell marketing courses
      1. These people are marketers, selling marketing magic to you
2. Marketing is not something you can do at the last minute
3. Marketing is an ongoing task, and not a one time thing
4. Marketing is Just As Important as Your Book
   1. Do not fall into the typical author trap of thinking the only thing that is important is writing a great story
5. Marketing is a marathon and you have to pace yourself
6. You have to make sure you give some part of your budget to marketing
7. You also have to make sure you don’t give too much of your budget to marketing

The minute you treat Marketing with respect, and stop thinking there is some secret trick to avoid marketing and/or make marketing very easy, you will start learning real marketing

That puts you at an advantage over 99% of authors

Authors hate to do marketing, even though it is a Core and Critical skill for all authors

Learn to love marketing and your chances of success go up dramatically

Not Knowing What to Write

If you are struggling with finding a market, it is usually because of one of these mistakes

1. Not doing market research
2. Doing market research but doing it without actual data and facts
3. Writing ‘what you want to write’, without confirming whether people buy books in that category or not
4. Not creating a product that the market is asking for
   1. Even after finding a good market, you have to LISTEN to What the Market Is Telling You i.e. What Product it is asking for
   2. Please do not find a great market, and then try to force the market to buy what you think it should read
   3. Just write what they are asking for
5. Not creating a high quality product

The 5th reason is a surprisingly common reason

1. Ask yourself if you would buy a movie/game/app that is of the same level of polish as your book
   1. If the answer is No, that means your product is not yet of high enough quality to sell well
2. If the answer is yes, look for an actual purchase of some content or product of that level of quality
   1. If you cannot find anything, then you are lying to yourself and your product is not yet polished enough to sell
   2. If you can find just a few examples, then instead look at the quality level of products you buy a lot of
      1. Aspire to that level

Not Knowing Why Their Book is Not Selling

The 3 Core Skills authors need to master are

1. Knowing What to Write
2. Writing Very Well
3. Marketing Very Well

If your book is not selling, then most probably it is lacking in one or more of these areas

1. If you do not Know What to Write, and write for a market that does not exist. Then it doesn’t matter how good your marketing is, or how well you write. There is no market and your book will not sell
   1. First, before anything else, research and confirm that the market exists
2. If you are not writing well and not creating a polished product. Then readers will not have any reason to buy your book
   1. If you have confirmed that a market exists
   2. However, you are not seeing sales
   3. Then Improve the Quality of Your Product. Not your definition of Quality of Product
      1. Our Definition i.e. your writing needs to be as good and as well polished as the Top 100 bestsellers in your biggest category
      2. If your product is not as good as the majority of the Top 100, then first fix the product
3. If you are writing well and writing for the right market, and still not selling. Then it is almost certainly a lack of marketing or the use of ineffective marketing
   1. Firstly, are you doing marketing?
   2. Secondly, are you doing an adequate amount of marketing
   3. Thirdly, are you marketing to the right readers for your book

The biggest mistake authors make is that they always find a reason or excuse

1. Who decided what to write? You did
2. Who wrote the book? You did
3. Who polished the book? You did, hopefully with the help of professional editors and professional cover designers and professional proof readers
4. Who chose your marketing? You did
5. Who tracked the effectiveness of your marketing? You did

So, the minute you start taking 100% Responsibility, you will start fixing these things. you need to, because no one else can

If you try to attribute it to someone else, the issue will never be found, never be fixed. And you will continue to not sell your books