Lindsey Smith

Thank you. Thanks for having me. I’m excited to chat with you.

Lindsey Smith

I see many of these cases and work with authors on a daily basis. It’s challenging to turn your ideas into words.

My advice would be to get support i.e. community support or some leverage. Be sure to tell your community that you’re writing a book.

I know I did this for my first book because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and I need the support that I couldn’t give myself.

Lindsey Smith

So I simply wrote in Facebook “Hey guys! I’m writing a book. This is what the topic is going to be about. I’m hoping to launch it in February.” And it actually helped me accountable to that goal. Now I had people in my community that were expecting me to write and publish this book. So I kind of had to do it. Facebook is the best platform if you are looking into how to become a bestselling author.

Lindsey Smith

I love your book Road To Love. It’s amazing and surely going to help somebody. I appreciate that you wrote it.

Lindsey Smith

If you have a rough draft then I definitely recommend seeking out an editor or someone that can help you refine it. Even a book coach or someone that can just work with you to finalize so you can move in to the next stages of your book. A big part of that is releasing any perfectionism in a sense to what you have.

Many times, I notice authors are often attached to these ideals when in reality it just may not fit with that specific book. I see this many times with self-help authors. We write about our past experiences to help people and are still learning along the way, so we want to include some of those newer learnings but it may not fit with where you were at and where you want to help during that specific time in that book. And it is the big answer to question “How to become a bestselling author”.

I think you just have stay a little bit unattached to the part of the editing process and releasing the perfectionism because there are a lot of things that you’re going to want to change.

It’s like a deep secret of mine but I have never re-read my first book after it published. I fixed a few things just based off of what people would write in but I never re-read it because I know that I’m evolved now that I would look back on that and want to change many things.

Lindsey Smith

I just have to let it be what it is and continue writing in the new fresh way,  rather than focusing on making everything perfect.

I think those 2 things are crucial in the process when you have that book manuscript because there can be a lot of fear that comes up around that.

Lindsey Smith

I see this comes up a lot too. It’s the fear of failure, fear of success paradigm.

Lindsey Smith

You have to think of what your goal is beyond the book. By getting clear with that right off the beginning can help because for some people, simply writing a book and having it published is enough.

You have to get clear with yourself because people don’t understand your accomplishment with just getting a book published.

There’re a lot of tears that go into it. There’s a lot of emotional baggage that goes into it. There’re a lot of beliefs just around writing, publishing, what you think, and how you feel about that process. Additionally, if you’re doing it yourself, you have to think about every single step of the way; cover design, layout, fonts, and photos.

So in a way, I think it’s a huge accomplishment just to get a book published and to take it a step further. You have to ask yourself “Okay, what if no one does?” “Is the accomplishment of getting it published is going to be good enough?” All these questions are co-related to your main goal i.e. “How to become a bestselling author”.

Lindsey Smith

The great thing about self-publishing is that there are many different options. You can give up your book away for free and thousands of people can download it for reading.

There’re tons of different ways to get your book out there. It just may not be that romanticized feeling that we have been taught about the publishing world. And it’s all in perspective of how to become a bestselling author.

Lindsey Smith

Once you go through the editing process, then you would go into the design process. You can start your cover and layout design. You just need to find a designer to get it printed.

Lindsey Smith

Yeah! Absolutely! It’s just promotingnaturalhealth.com. We have some templates and things available for people that want to take a more DIY approach as well. There are all kinds of fun stuff happening there.

I also suggest people to search local. They may find someone that they know. I mean, I’ve seen people get really creative with this step and get to know how to become a bestselling author.

When I launched my first book I had no money to invest in anything at all and I ended up finding someone. Actually, it’s my business partner now in the publishing company but she ended up helping me with my layouts and the cover design. She had invested in the project and contributed.

I always encourage people to get creative as it can work with no matter what budget you have.

Lindsey Smith

Then I would say you’re ready to upload to some sort of self-publisher. There are many different self-publishers out there you can go with. There is CreateSpace, IngramSpark, Indie Publishing, and like my company.

If you want to do an eBook first, you can simply do it on Amazon or The Nook. There’s a ton of different resources out about getting your book on eBook, which is pretty fast. I think you may able to get an eBook up within 24 hours if you do with Amazon. And then from there, you can order a proof copy and can go back through. It is the best way to learn how to become a bestselling author on amazon.

Sometimes, it’s nice to go through again whenever it’s in printed form to make those tweaks and re-upload! A published book!

Lindsey Smith

Yeah. I love that. My husband is also an author and a musician. He’s on tour right now and he sells a ton of books on tour. He texted me this morning and said “Hey, can you order me 200 copies so I’d have them when I get home for the next run?”

And it’s just simple. I was able to go order 200 copies and it will be at our home next week. It’s just great, simple and highly effective. In that way, we don’t have thousands of books taking up a ton of space in our house.

Lindsey Smith

That’s one thing that I love about the industry changing is it made it so much easier for people that have important messages to get their message out in a big way.

Lindsey Smith

I look at my husband whose goal is not to be on Amazon or in bookstores. His goal is to write music, express himself creatively, and be able to share with people in an intimate way through travelling and being on tour. He’s able to take his book and that’s how he sells it. I think that’s incredible.

Lindsey Smith

I knew I wanted to do speaking and wanted to be a speaker. So, I was using my book as leverage on how to become a bestselling author.

Now, when I go to conferences and do speaking engagements, I not only charge a speaking fee but also sell additional books for each of the attendees. As you can see, those are 2 very different goals.

Some people are just having a book for their friends and family. That’s great too. Other people may want to hustle and get into bookstores. Some people are only digital. They only want to do eBooks and want nothing to do printed books. You just have to find what works for you.

Lindsey Smith

Do you know how much was the shipping price of Tony Robbins’ by chance?

Lindsey Smith

Okay. So they’re still making a few dollars off of it because they’re buying their book in bulk. Their cost is probably a dollar or less and shipping.

If you do media mail it’s about probably I would say $3 to ship the book. So they’re still making a couple of dollars. You’ll learn how to become a bestselling author and build relationships with people.

Giving away free books

1. It shows passion in their community.

It shows that he is willing to give his book away for free because he cares about the message and wants more people to have it.

2. It helps with overall rankings.

The more books that he can sell and get out there, the higher his rankings will be not only Amazon and Barnes & Noble but on different lists; The New York Times list, The USA Today list, The Wall Street list.

3. End goal of higher upsell.

It’s his end goal to learn how to become a bestselling author and make more dollars. Maybe the book is kind of the gateway or the introduction to other services. So if no one has ever heard about him before, this is a great intro. Or if you have heard about him before, you feel connected like “Wow. He’s giving me this book. Let me see what else he is going on. Maybe there’s a newer program that I can take that he’s offering.” And then there’s usually a higher up sell.

Lindsey Smith

I will teach you how to become a bestselling author.

This just happened to me a couple months ago. My husband’s on tour for months. I just got off of a big speaking hoorah that I was doing all of the fall. I got back and was like decompressing. When I decompress, I like to be creative because I felt like I had no time to be creative during the several months while travelling.

So, I decided that I was going to write some free eBooks and give them away to my community just to do because I was just feeling extra giving and I was like I really want to do this. I started writing this free eBooks and I did end up giving one away to my list and to my website and it’s on Amazon now actually. I think it’s still free. So then, I also decided to write this other book that I was going to give away for free as well.

As I was writing it, I literally sat down and said “I want to write like tips on how to love your body and yourself more.” So I started writing tips until I stopped. I ended up stopping at 52. I looked at them and I refine them a little bit and then I said “I’m going to call this eBook 52 Ways to Love Your Body More.” And I figured it’s going to be like a simple PDF, two pages with the tips written.

Lindsey Smith

But then I got the idea “Why don’t I take each tip and put them on just a different color background. That way it would serve 2 purposes. I give this eBook away for free but then people can Instagram these quotes and images and share them with people. And it works if you want to learn how to become a bestselling author.

That literally took me 30 minutes to write and do. Then, I sent it to an editor, which took her like an hour. She had it back to me and then I had it off to a designer. When I got the designs back, it ended up being way cuter than I thought. It just looked so good that I said “I have to print this and make it a coffee table book and if for anything just my friends for the holidays.”

I had this book turned around in 2 weeks. From the time I wrote it to the time I had copies at my house, it was 2 weeks. I had them just sitting on my coffee table and my friend came over and she saw them. She was like “Oh my goodness! These are so cute!” So I said “Here, take one. That’s why I printed them and learnt how to become a bestselling author. I had no intention of selling or doing anything with them.”

And before you know it, it got into the hands of someone else and then I had ModCloth reached out to me about featuring it on their website. ModCloth is a huge indie fashion retail company. They reached out to me and said “Hey, we want to feature this on our site. We want to buy copies and feature it.” And I had no intention of even selling it.

It just goes to show the opportunities that could come when you create something passionately. When you put it on paper just like you said so that someone can read it. For my example there, that’s exactly what happened to me. It is also one of the great step to learn how to become a bestselling author.

Lindsey Smith

It’s only 52 pages. It’s probably less than that because they’re each page behind the page. It’s a very short book but it’s just done cute.

Lindsey Smith

Yeah. It’s only available right now on ModCloth but there’s a link to it on my website.

Lindsey Smith

It can be anything. I would say 5 to 10 pages. If you’re giving away something for free on your site, you can make it very short.

People do enjoy the shorter reads.

I think we have this romantic idea in our mind of what a book should look and feel like and it has to be a certain width and height. But don’t forget that there are plenty of books that are shorter yet effective.

Lindsey Smith

Yeah! Little mini books can help if you look to learn how get it out there on how to become a bestselling author.

I think this one thing that trips people up.

Lindsey Smith

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read books that are New York Times best sellers. There was this book I was reading and was so annoyed because I specifically got the book because I wanted help with this one specific issue. I was like “Oh my goodness!” like when I read the description I was like “Yes!
I totally am dealing with this! I want to overcome it.”

And I’m reading the book and it was just you could tell that the author was trying to just fill pages because everything was repeating itself. I was just “Give me what I need to hear. I’m ready for change,” and it literally did not come until the last chapter. I could have read the first and the last chapter and being good.

It was frustrating and I see that happen a lot because people are trying to fill pages.

If you have the content and the message which is concise and clear, then page count doesn’t matter at all to have an effective book. It was top secret on how to become a bestselling author.

Lindsey Smith

Rankings are funny and I’m glad you ask this question because for my next book that launches in May, I went with a publishing company. This is interesting to me.

There’re tons of different rank systems. There’s Amazon rankings, which they have their own algorithm. It’s their own category that actually changes hour by hour.

If you can sell 100 copies in an hour, then your chances of moving up on their scaling system are pretty high. For Amazon, it’s all about hour by hour clustered selling.

So if I could sell 100 right now, it would probably boost my rankings to be in some sort of category because on Amazon, it’s broken down into a category system. There are different categories. So you can rank high in that specific category. That’s how to become a bestselling author on Amazon and more people can find out about you if you are in those specific categories because people can search within those categories.

Now, if you buy books as a self-published author, if you buy 200 books and that you’re buying them at cost that does not count in any way, shape or form with your own rankings on Amazon.

Now, the list i.e. the New York Times bestseller, The USA Today and the Wall Street Journal, they all have completely different algorithms and rankings.

The USA Today is just based on sales. I would say it is the most accurate one as it is based strictly on sales. So if you’re selling 10,000 copies and that’s the most sold that week, that’s what it’s going to show.

The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times are different because they have strict, crazy algorithms.

For the New York Times, I know that you can’t have concentrated sales in a certain city.

Lindsey Smith

For example, I’m from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. If all of a sudden I had 5,000 sales from Pittsburgh and I had maybe a thousand elsewhere in the country. Well, The New York Times, they don’t like that. That wouldn’t count because they want to see that your book is distributed among all of the different channels.

They want to see that you’re not just selling in your own community but that you’re selling elsewhere. Honestly, after that algorithm, it becomes easy to know “how to become a bestselling author” and get your book published.

It’s interesting. It’s fascinating to learn about because this is something that we hold a lot of prestige too, including me. I used to until I found out all of this stuff and then I decided that I wanted to do my personal best and I wanted to focus more on serving as opposed to trying to make some list. But that’s just my own personal take on it because it changes by each one and there’s all kind of different algorithms and yes, it’s prestigious and it would be nice.

I’m not going to lie. If I got on one of those lists, I would be excited but it may not define the quality of your book.

Lindsey Smith

It comes down to time and effort which is something where people get frustrated. They think that once they have a book, people would just want them to come and speak.

While people do view you differently when you’re an author and teach all about how to become a bestselling author and it’s not just like you’re Joe Schmo coming off the street and say, “I want to speak here” or you’re saying, “Hey, I’m an author. I have an authority on  this topic.” I think that definitely adds value. It’s just as important to constantly reach out and pitch places that you want to speak at.

1. Target the places that you want to speak. Figure out the HR person, the Director to get in touch with and send them an email pitch about a workshop or seminar that you would like to teach.

On a good month, I send out about 50-200 pitches a month. My return on investment is probably booking. If I’m sending out 50, I’m at least booking 1 or 2. That’s good because that just like cold calling. It’s just cold emailing and those are good writes.

My goal is to get two gigs a month that keeps me sustained in for what I charge. If you’re just getting started and learning how to become a bestselling author, you can do things for a lower cost or can continuously pitch out to people.

2. One of the first things that I ask right off the bat is “What’s your speaker budget for this event?”

I always throw that in there because I hate to get to a place where maybe they wanted something for free, which is totally fine. It’s good to ask how to become a bestselling author because you can easily then lead and shift the conversation.

If someone says, “Our budget for speakers is $5,000” then you’re like “Okay.” There you go. You know what it is. Some people will say “You know what, we don’t have a budget.” And so they’ll be wishy-washy, which is a great time for you to say “Oh, I understand. Well, how about we work out something like this. How about I can come speak to, how many people do you think will be there? 40? Okay, great. I can come and speak to 40 people and rather doing a speaker fee, how about you just pre-buy 40 copies of my book and so each person gets a copy of my book and I’ll even give you a discount.”

You can essentially turn in a free speaking event to a paid speaking event. If you sell your book for $10, you just made $400 as opposed to doing it for free which I think it’s important to ask that question of what’s your budget is. Budget is important to consider if you know how to become a bestselling author.

I’ve changed many speaking offers because of that single question of” what’s your budget?”

3. The last thing is that if you don’t want to do it or don’t want to turn it down or may think it would be a good opportunity. You just need to assess what that looks like.

If you’re speaking to a group, I will still do pro bono talks to leverage and get more talks out of it.

If I go to a nutrition conference and they asked me to speak, I may speak for free because I know that in the crowd, the people at the conference are the same people that would hire me to come back to their organization.

One of the conferences I spoke out for free was the Pennsylvania Mental Health Consumers Association. I spoke there for free but out of that conference, I booked 5 paid gigs. I looked at that as an opportunity as it helped me to learn how to become a bestselling author.

If you don’t feel that it’s going to be an opportunity, I say no by saying, “Unfortunately, I don’t offer pro bono speaking but I do have a list that I can put people on. And once I get time on my schedule, I can let you know. Right now, I can’t but in the future I may so I can add you to the list if you want to have a pro bono talk. I do X amount a year then will make sure to let you know.” A lot of people are happy with that. They say that they can’t pay but they wanted to be put on the list.

For me as a speaker, I can assess how many pro bono talks I want to do out of the year. I have a list of places that I can easily go to if I have the time to. It is good to do free talks from time to time in just 3 steps.

Lindsey Smith

I think that’s great in regards if you want to learn how to become a bestselling author.

I do suggest that people try it themselves first just so they could get a feel for what they’re doing as it’s good to have that skill set for the future.

Lindsey Smith

I have this happened numerous times where someone tells me No and then a couple of months later, they’ll see something and invite me.

I always think maybe I wasn’t ready yet. Maybe I wasn’t ready to it at that specific time but now I’ve built up to this place where I can do it. Even booking PR and doing TV shows, I get excited when people tell me “No” because I feel like at least I got a response.