Why look for a contract with a big traditional publisher when you can raise your own money for an advance and control your project start to finish? Jim Kukral can’t think of many good reasons.
I thought I’d begin podcasting with a bang! That’s why I decided to make my first interview with Jim Kukral of Digital Book Launch. As Jim likes to say, he “knows a thing or two about book marketing.” He has five books on the market – one of them, Attention! This Book Will Make You Money, was traditionally published by Wiley – and has six in the works. He’s taken his titles to the top of Amazon in his categories and made them best-sellers. He’s also raised over $30,000 in just over 30-days for books that he hasn’t even written yet.
Shortly after Attention! This Book Will Make You Money was published, Jim realized he did not need to have a “big publisher” to have a successful book. So, he decided to write books and publish and market them on his own. He says he hasn’t looked back and he’s been self-publishing his own books ever since.
Not only that, Jim looked forward to the needs of other authors and created Digital Book Launch, a company that helps writers self-publish their books as well. Digital Book Launch offers authors such services as professional book covers, landing pages to drive awareness and pre-sales, and marketing strategies to ensure they maximize their chance for a successful book. With his background in PR and sales and marketing, and his experience as web-entreprenuer coupled with his successful author status, Jim had a lot to tell me.
During the interview Jim discussed how he landed his traditional book deal. Although it did offer him a few advantages, he said as an entrepreneur he soon realized he wanted more control. For him, traditional publishing did not offer as many benefits as self-publishing.
He also described how authors can apply to Kickstarter to raise funds, much like an advance, on their own to write their books. If their project is not accepted by Kickstarter, they can instead do what Jim did: Seek donations on their own. Crowdsource your project. With the money he raised – his “advance” – he is now writing a series of books. He writes about how to do this in his book, No Publisher Needed – Crowdfunding Your Book – How I Raised Over $30k in 30-Days To Pre-Fund My New Book
Jim also discussed how to make a book successful and the importance of a good cover design. Digital Book Launch offers a phenomenal service whereby authors can get a cover not only designed with their content in mind but with marketing in mind as well; that means you get a cover that sells books. And it only costs $199. To find out more about this service, click here. (I’m proud to be an affiliate for Digital Book Launch’s cover design program, an inexpensive way for authors to procure an effective cover design for their books.)
Last, but not least, Jim offered his 2012 predictions for the publishing industry. You can listen to the interview or download it below. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Would you rather take the self-publishing route? And would you rather create your own advance?
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