Tag: book categories

Will your book become a bestseller? Take the Quiz

Will your book become a bestseller? Does your book have what it takes? Or perhaps the question is “do you have what it takes?”

I’ve thought long and hard about what’s required to produce a sustained bestselling book and reap the rewards that go along with that status. You know… paid speaking gigs, a large engaged following, high-end clients, and making a global impact.

After years of analyzing the successes (and failures) of my mentors, private clients, and students I’ve distilled it down to three things.

I call it the Bestseller Framework and I explain it in this video.

Will your book become a bestseller?

After watching the video I invite you to take my “Bestseller Indicator Assessment”. Just answer a few multiple choice questions about your book (whether it’s published yet or not) to see what your potential is to become a #1 bestselling author. It’s fun and informative.

After you take the quiz, I’d love for you to post your scores in the comments below so I can give you my personal feedback.

After you’ve taken the quiz and have read the assessment based on your score then you’ll have a good indication of your chances for bestseller success. The maximum you can score is 90 points.

If your score is 15–29, sadly a bestseller is improbable. If you scored 30–44 then a short-term bestseller is possible with help. A short-term bestseller is likely if you score between 45 and 59. A #1 bestseller is highly likely if your results are in the 60–74 range. And if you scored 75–90 a #1 sustained bestseller is guaranteed along with exponential business growth.

For ideas on how you can increase your score (and become a bestseller with certainty) download my bestselling eBook 5 Things Every First-time Author Needs to Know or order it on Amazon.

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Geoff Affleck is a 5-time #1 bestselling author and creator and facilitator for the eBook Bestseller Bootcamp for aspiring self-help authors.

Post a comment or question below. I'd love to hear our thoughts on this.

How to format a book for Kindle

How do you format a book for Kindle? Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing is the most popular way to publish eBooks. It is relatively simple to take your manuscript and publish it with KDP. The easiest way is to write your book using good old Microsoft Word. Even though I’m a Mac Pages fan, I don’t recommend writing a book in it because Amazon can’t convert it to an eBook format.

Using Microsoft Word Styles to Format a Book for Kindle

Before you start typing your eBook you should set up your Word document using Microsoft Word styles. Styles are simply pre-formatted settings for your chapter titles, sub-headings, second level sub headings, bullet lists, numbered lists and quotes. Using styles helps you easily format your book for Kindle.

For example, your chapter titles you’ll use “Heading 1”. Your sub-titles are “Heading 2”, etc. Heading 1 might be a 20pt font while heading 3 is 16pt and your main paragraph font is 12pt. It doesn’t matter which font style you choose because KDP will convert it to a standard style. And besides, when people read their eBooks they can often decide on their own preferred font styles and sizes.

Formatting Tips for Kindle eBooks

Don’t use your spacebar to add extra spaces or indents
Set your paragraph text style to add a 12pt space after each paragraph rather than hitting the “Enter” key twice at the end of each paragraph
Use numbered lists rather than typing numbers
Use styles for your headings rather than manually bolding text or increasing the font size
Insert hard page breaks after each chapter (but remember that you can’t control the way your eBook looks on an eReader so don’t bother trying to end your chapter at the end of a page.
Don’t use page numbers for an eBook!
Don’t use Headers or Footers for an eBook
Do use Word to create your Table of Contents (page numbers are unnecessary)
Do include links in your eBook to your opt-in page, website, or other resources

Other Supported eBook Formats for Amazon

Amazon does support other formats besides word including HTML, MOBI, EPUB, RTF, TXT and PDF. RTF and TXT files are fine if you don’t have any images. PDF has limitations too.

Here are some recources you will find helpful:

Amazon Supported eBook Formats

Amazon Formatting Guide
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Geoff Affleck is a 5-time #1 bestselling author and creator and facilitator for the eBook Bestseller Bootcamp for aspiring self-help authors.

Post a comment or question below. I'd love to hear our thoughts on this.

How to find a good editor for your book

How do you find a good editor for your book? Judy from Australia wrote “the trickiest thing I found about writing and book self-publishing in the non-fiction genre is editing and finding an editor.” Thank’s Judy. I’ll give you a few tips in the video.

The best ways I know to find a good copy editor—one who is professional, fast, proficient, affordable, and most of all, doesn’t lose your authentic voice are these:

Look in the acknowledgements section of books that you really like in your genre for the name of the editor. Then contact them.
Ask for referrals from other authors who LOVED their editor.
Ask me for a referral. I’ll be happy to refer you an amazing editor who meets all the criteria above.

One thing I didn’t talk about in the video is using gig sites like fiverr.com to find a good editor. While editing gigs are a-plenty on these sites, finding a good one is a crap shoot. If your budget doesn’t allow you to hire a recommended professional editor then this may be a good option. Here are some tips for hiring gig editors:

Find one whose first language is your language
Look for one with lots of 5-star ratings and read the comments
Try them out with a short sample such as your introduction or first chapter to assess the quality of editing and turnaround time
Do this with two or three editors and compare results

If you have no budget for editing then ask a friend to help you (again, quality may suffer) or see if you can trade services with a professional editor.
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Geoff Affleck is a 5-time #1 bestselling author and creator and facilitator for the eBook Bestseller Bootcamp for aspiring self-help authors.

Post a comment or question below. I'd love to hear our thoughts on this.

When should you submit a book proposal to a publisher

Lisa asks, “When writing a creative non-fiction self-development/memoir book, how soon in the process does it make sense to write the book proposal? i.e. Do it from the get go to crystallize the idea and be ready to submit to agents off the bat (I know landing one can take a while!!!) OR get into the writing flow and do that once I have at least say 3 chapters I am happy with, and know the overall book structure. Does this question make sense?!”

In this post you’ll learn:

What is a book proposal
Who should and who shouldn’t submit a book proposal
Who should you submit it to
What are the best self-publishing options

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Geoff Affleck is a 5-time #1 bestselling author and creator and facilitator for the eBook Bestseller Bootcamp for aspiring self-help authors.

Post a comment or question below. I'd love to hear our thoughts on this.

How to leverage a book to grow your holistic practice

Every holistic entrepreneur should write a book. It’s the business card of today and publishing is easier than you think. Today, Geoff Affleck explores how to leverage your ebook to build your email list and grow your holistic practice.

Click here to listen to the interview

Bonnie Groessl, host of “The Holistic Entrepreneur” is a best-selling author, international podcast host and success coach. She is recognized as an expert in helping people attain their goals, by focusing on clarity, mindset and the most effective ways to achieve their desired outcome. Bonnie helps entrepreneurs quickly grow their online presence so their ideal clients can easily find them.

Geoff Affleck is a 5-time #1 bestselling author and creator and facilitator for the eBook Bestseller Bootcamp for aspiring self-help authors.

Post a comment or question below. I'd love to hear our thoughts on this.