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“Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.”- Jim Rohn
Patrick King is a self-published author, dating coach, consultant and a front man of an eighties cover band. Steve knows Patrick as one of the best book sales description writer on Amazon.
Patrick used to be a corporate lawyer and he hated it. He began writing online dating profiles for friends to help them out. Eventually he decided to write down everything he knew about dating and publish his first book. The book miraculously started selling well without any promotion which prompted him to write more and begin being a dating coach.
On being a prolific author of quality books
Patrick releases a new book every three to four weeks. He looks at the self-publishing business as a volume business. His training as a lawyer helped him “grind with the best of them.”
He also treats the business as a startup: He approaches it as a scrappy startup: Write. Get feedback. Adjust. Repeat
He enjoys the topics he writes about and learns more about it because he coaches people on these topics. This system creates a great synergy (writing and coaching) and different income streams.
On finding out the pain points of your audience
You should have a clue of where your audience hangs out. A person-to-person communication is very helpful in determining what you should write about. Even if it’s just asking your friends.
Check out: 13 Proven Tools for Discovering Bestselling Book Ideas (Part 1)
Ask them about their three biggest problems: 1. What you excel at 2. What you’re bad at 3. What you want to fix.
Ask open-ended questions so they can answer in their own words. Then use the words they use in your writing.
On choosing his niche and building his business
The dating and online dating niche is one of the most popular niches that he got into when he started now. He now focuses on conversation and social skills, which is also a great niche.
On coming up with a title
It’s all about the hook not the keywords. People don’t browse Amazon the way people browse Google.
Patrick views the title as the most important part of the book.
- The first step is to sum up the book in one sentence.
- Then think about the main pain points the book is trying to solve and what people will take away from it.
- Third step is to brainstorm like crazy. Patrick takes weeks to come up with a title.
- The fourth step is to think of imagery or graphic association with your book title.
- Sanity check. Don’t try to be cute with your title or cover.
Example: Superhuman Focus
- This book will help you create more focus and get more done.
- Beat procrastination, manage time, double output, better productivity.
- The book used to be called “Punch Out Procrastination”. It didn’t resonate well so I republished it. Since he already has a book called “Superhuman Eye Contact” so that gave him an idea to create a min brand.
- Patrick chose an image showing a guy in a business suit with four arms.
On cover design
If you’re a self-published author, you have to make your book cover really attractive.
- Make it readable and clear, specifically from a thumbnail perspective.
- Have contrast in colors.
- Have one main graphic element that adds something interesting to the cover. For example, Fearless Public Speaking, which Patrick did himself on Canva.
On using Fiverr.com: Be exact and detailed in your instructions.
Book cover inspiration: Check out the Amazon bestsellers list and look through their book covers. Patrick has a folder full of book covers by self-published authors that he refers to for inspiration.
On copywriting
It all comes down to what your book is going to give people and how you tell them about it.
Know what your audience want, what language they use, what makes them happy or unhappy, what are they worried about, etc.
Ask people you know who qualify for your audience to learn what language they use.
Patrick’s Links:
- Patrick’s Website
- Conversation Tactics – Patrick’s course
- Amazon Author Page
Turn your idea into a bestselling book!
Download your free copy of The Bestseller Checklist at APChecklist.com. Learn the 46 steps we personally follow when self-publishing our bestsellers.
Looking for a supportive community of writers and authors?
Be an Authority and join the Authority Self-Publishing Facebook group.
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