D E V E L O P E R T O A U T H O RB L A I R WA D M A N

BeFused.com/Wroclaw

from

T O D AY

• Why write a book?

• What do you write?

• How do you make money from it?

• Case studies from other authors

• Tools

photo: arbyreed

A B O U T M E

• 7 years Drupal experience

• Wrote Master Drupal 7 Module Development

• Blog at BeFused.com (mostly about Drupal)

• Live and work in London

• @blairwadman

W R I T I N G A B O O K I S H A R D W O R K

photo: Dave C

W H Y D O I T ?

W H Y W R I T E A B O O K ?

• Additional income

• Increased exposure

Decide on main goalEffects pricing strategy

W H AT D O Y O U W R I T E ?

photo: ed_needs_a_bicycle

S E R V E Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y

photo: Drupal Association

S E R V E Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y

• Study them, understand them and their problems

• What are they frustrated by? What are their pain points? Are they frustrated by existing books?

• Can you help them?

BookCommunity’s

ProblemsYour knowledge

& experience

I N T E R S E C T I O N O F Y O U R K N O W L E D G E & C O M M U N I T Y ’ S P R O B L E M S

S E L L I N G Y O U R B O O K

photo: Michael Hurst

O P T I O N S

Get a publisher

15% royalties Less control

Do they really promote? Not your customers

Amazon’s cut: 30 to 70% Competing on price Lots of competition Not your customers

Sell on your own website100% revenue Total control

Your customers

Amazon Kindle

N E E D 2 T H I N G S T O S E L L A B O O K O N Y O U R W E B S I T E

• Attract customers

• TrustMarketing}

M A R K E T I N G F O R D E V E L O P E R S

photo: Kathleen Murtagh

Content Marketing

• You solve problems all day long

• You learn new things all day long

• Teach those things

• Educate your community

B E C O M E A T E A C H E R

photo: Ben Russell

W R I T E E P I C P O S T S

• Long posts (2-3000 words)

• Tutorials, how-tos, guides, video tutorials, cheat sheets

• Tend to convert well

• Get shared a lot

• Can take a long time to write

W R I T E S M A L L E R P O S T S

• 200 to 1000 words

• Code snippets, quick tips, short tutorials

• Do this on a regular basis

T R A F F I C

photo: J P

W AY S T O S P R E A D Y O U R W O R K

• Connect with people. Help people.

• Syndicate e.g. Planet Drupal

• Guest posts

• Write on 3rd party sites like Medium, Quora

• Podcasts

• Conference speaking

• YouTube videos

L I N K E R AT I

• People who link to and share content online

• Developers are natural Linkerati

• Write great content

What happens when someone visits a blog?

photo: Alfred Hermida photo: miss insomnia tulip

N E E D T O G E T P E O P L E O N Y O U R E M A I L L I S T

B L O G G I N G I S N O T E N O U G H !

Call to action

H AV I N G A N E M A I L L I S T I S N O T E N O U G H !

O F F E R M O R E VA L U E

• Email frequently

• Start and build relationship with your audience

• Ask them questions to understand their problems

• Build trust

A S K F O R T H E S A L E

… B U T N O T T O S O O Nphoto: Steven Depolo

S E L L B E F O R E Y O U F I N I S H W R I T I N G T H E B O O K

P R E S E L L

• Write 50% of your book

• Be honest

• Offer a discount

• Offer unlimited updates

• Ask for feedback

P U T T I N G I T A L L T O G E T H E R

★Solve a real problem for your community

★Start blogging and building your list

★Start writing your book. Keep blogging and building your list

★Offer a presell to your list

★Finish writing your book. Keep blogging and building your list.

★Publish the first edition. Keep blogging and building your list.

★Keep blogging and building your list.

P R I C E I T R I G H T

• Solve a real problem for professionals, people don’t mind paying for it

• Businesses > Consumers

• Don’t compete on price

• Compete on quality and value

$$

E X A M P L E S - S E L F P U B L I S H E D

$25 $49$19

P R I C I N G T I E R S

• Additional value for those with bigger budgets

• Offer 3 options

M A S T E R D R U PA L M O D U L E D E V

A U T H O R I T Y N AT H A N B A R R Y

A N C H O R P R I C E T O B E N E F I T

Book $69

Book + accountability course + video interviews $199

C A S E S T U D I E S

B R E N N A N D U N N

Time to write: 120 hours (over 2 months)

Most successful marketing: Education (newsletter, podcast, blog) + podcast appearances. Autoresponders.

Revenue Stats: US$2K per month

Additional benefits: SaaS talks helped high price consulting engagements

Most important piece of advice: Write constantly and consistently even if the words aren’t made public

!

D O U B L E Y O U R F R E E L A N C I N G R AT E . C O M

J O S H E A R L

Time to write: 150-200 hours (Sublime Productivity)100 hours (Writing Sublime Plugins)

Most successful marketing: Converting twitter followers to email+ contest to email + paid twitter ads to email EMAIL IS EVERYTHING!

Revenue Stats:Total US$27k, US$1.5k last month

Additional benefits:New world of marketing + made great friends

Most important piece of advice:Make sure there is a market for it first. Customer research. Write a long 2000 word blog post and see if you can attract visitors - if you can’t, it will be hard to sell a book.!

S U B L I M E P R O D U C T I V I T Y. C O M

N O A H G I B B S

Time to write: 10 months (part time)

Most successful marketing: Blog posts+ classes

Revenue Stats: Total US$20K. 5-10 copies per moth

Additional benefits: 25% pay rise in next job (15 year career)

Most important piece of advice: Figure out who wants to buy your book and why before you write a word.

!

R E B U I L D I N G - R A I L S . C O M

T O O L B O X

Word processor Publishing to pdf, .mobi, epub

Collaborating with editors

Blogging

Email newsletters

Shopping cart and delivering files

Scrivener

draftin.com

Drupal!

Campaign Monitor, Mail Chimp or AWeber

FastSpring, Gumroad, DPD, Drupal Commerce

M O R E I N F O

• How do you create a product people want to buy (Amy Hoy)

• http://unicornfree.com/2013/how-do-you-create-a-product-people-want-to-buy

• How to launch anything (Nathan Barry)

• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/06/28/how-to-launch-anything/

Q U E S T I O N S

@blairwadmanBlair Wadman

Stay in touch

BeFused.com/Wroclaw