Customer Reviews

The Wealthy Author: The Fast Profit Method For Writing, Publishing & Selling Your Non-Fiction Book

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Traditionally published and self-published authors alike will benefit from this handy guide. It provides a realistic plan for authors who truly want to sell books and make money. I enjoyed the irreverent tone of this easy-to-read book.

Divided into six practical steps, the first three cover coming up with a winning book idea and then getting it down on paper. Even those with a book already in hand will benefit from the tips on creativity, including the WWWD (What Would Walt Disney Do) approach. Word association and Mind-Mapping are also discussed at length. If you don't already have a finished manuscript but just an idea, this chapter will help you determine whether or not it has bestseller potential.

Step four thrashes out the options for getting your book published. The authors go over the pros and cons of traditional publishing, self-publishing, and subsidy/vanity publishing. (I think my favorite line in the whole book is "I'd basically said, `Vanity presses are a complete waste of space!'") They weigh-in highly in favor of self-publishing for nonfiction books, and they explain why--basically because authors retain intellectual control and they have the potential to make a lot more money this way. The practicalities of self-publishing are also covered, such as obtaining an ISBN, using Lightning Source as a printer, and getting distribution.

Final chapters get into the specifics of "selling loads of books." There are a lot of lists (the authors seem to favor these and they are peppered throughout the book), such as "3 Reasons Why Brick and Mortar Stores Aren't Worth It," "5 Reasons Why Self-Publishers Should Focus On Selling Through Online Bookstores Instead," and "44 High Impact Book Marketing Tactics That Work."

Final sections of the book list useful publishing and promotion links, as well as a bibliography. Although the table of contents is quite extensive, that does not take the place of an index, which the book doesn't have. I am a strong proponent of all nonfiction books having an index.

This book should be on the shelf of every author who wants to avoid mistakes and make money.

As a fiction writer, I was surprised to receive this book from a friend. Written for those looking to self-publish non-fiction, I thought: "This couldn't help me." Was I wrong. Gregory's insights and advice about the different ways to publish and the importance of marketing struck a cord because of how obvious they were and how it's something that authors pay too little attention to. Read this book to see why that's a mistake and for advice that even fiction authors can use to reach the goal of becoming a paid writer.

I was lucky enough to be given a review copy of this book before publication. Before starting I had the idea that this would be a good book but without much new material for me personally. I could not have been more wrong.

This is a book every author, at what ever stage of their career they are at, needs to read. It has a wealth of information for every stage of the process from coming up with ideas and market research though how to write and finally to the all important how to sell, get paid and become wealthy.

One element that completely blew me away was the matrix on page 45 demonstrating demographic niches for a book topic. Within a minute of seeing this page I had 55 new ideas for selling my existing book and more new book ideas than I can count. That page alone was worth more than the price of book but there is so much more usable information than this.

The best thing for me about this book is not just the information but how it is presented. It is a witty, conversational and easy read with lots of checklists, charts and graphs. It is a short but very powerful book that I can see me coming back to and time again as I climb the publishing ladder to becoming a wealthy author.

I just published my first book "To be or not to be - the choice is YOURS!". Before I got "The Wealthy Author" I really struggled to find all the information I needed and lost at least one full year in the process. Debs Jenkins and Joe Gregory know what they are talking about. They know the steps because they have taken them several times themselves and have helped others successfully take their books to the market too. I love the no BS direct language and clear pros and cons in the different sections. That way the author can make an educated decision and follow the steps as suggested. If you take all the steps in the Wealthy Author, your book will be a success. I am taking them - step by little step. It's a longish process but well worth it. Because of their suggestion of having famous people in your niche write a blurb I went out of my way to ask several of my role models if they would write a foreword for my book and finally got T. Harv Eker to write it. Hurray!!! Thanks guys. Great source of information. Very, very helpful!
A MUST HAVE book for the aspiring author.

Barbara Hofmeister
[...]

If you have aspirations of taking your writing from the manuscript phase into publication and beyond on your own, your first step needs to be to read this book.

The Wealthy Author is part pep-talk, part practical advice from a duo who have been successful on both sides of the publishing game--being publishers and self-publishers. This puts them in a unique position and makes their guidance worth heeding. The most impressive thing about the book is, even though they are publishers, they advise self-publication as the best way to make money with your writing. And they have real-life examples to back that up.

Consider this: even if you manage to get a contract with a major publisher, you will have to sell over 66,000 books to earn the same amount of money you could make selling just 3,000 books you produced yourself. And they tell you how to do it, step by step, from coming up with ideas, to writing the book, to designing the cover and so on.

This book contains all you need to know about the entire process so, even if it doesn't make you wealthy, it will at least save you the time and money of buying six books in order to gather all of the information you can find in this one.

Joe's book "The Wealthy Author" is just what I needed as an author, publisher and marketer. I enjoyed reading this book and learning to not only create better books, but how to determine whether or not an idea has merit. I have just read his book in the last week and now am already on chapter four of a new book. Yes, his book also showed me how to more organized and focused in my writing. I enjoyed his writing style as well as book details. He is also quick to respond to email questions. Joe is insightful and cares for his customers.

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Get Rich in a Niche-The Insider's Guide to Self-Publishing in a Specialized Market

An excellent book, written by someone who clearly knows their stuff. You will not be disappointed.

I received a copy of this book for review and I must admit took a while to getting round to reading it. I already have a book published and wasn't sure that it would teach me anything new. How wrong I was, it is a really great book packed full of useful ideas, from developing ideas for a book, through to how to find a publisher and more importantly how to promote and sell it. You often think that your book is the best book on the market and will sell itself, whilst you might come up with an amazing best seller, most of the books published each year need promoting and marketing to make them a success. Debbie and Joe have written a book full of common sense advice for authors that gives you the essentials you need to make your book a success. I would recommend it to would-be authors as it will give you a realistic view of what can be achieved and some great tips for what and more importantly what not to do. If you want to make money from being an author, then you need to read this book as it gives you the hard facts on what it takes to make your book a success.

I love this book. It is crammed full of useful ideas and advice that is essential for the modern non-fiction author. The book itself is a fantastic example of how to write and format non-fiction and the experience of the authors shines through. If you want to actually sell your books rather than be a 'hobby writer' you need look no further than 'The Wealthy Author'.

The Wealthy Author is wildly over priced for a paper back book full of exclamation points and "you can do it" cheer leading. The authors appear to know what they are talking about, but are unable to write about it coherently without falling back on salesmanship. I bought the book, you don't have to continue to "sell" it to me on every page. Simply tell me what you have said is in the book.

Physically, the book is a graphic design horror: the cover is ugly; the margins are too small; the text is too big; the gutter is too small; the diagrams are crowded by text. While they encourage readers to get a good graphic designer to design the covers of the reader's books, they failed to take their own advice.

I don't mind books like this in general. There is good information buried in there. But it is really little more than a magazine article stretched and padded into something with enough pages to call a book. What galls me is the price. I wouldn't be nearly so critical if the book cost $12 - $16. But $22 at Amazon and a suggested retail of $25 is outrageous for a slim paperback like this. Reexamine that price point, folks!