There are SO many places you can get stuck during the publishing process. Maybe you’re struggling with creating your content. Maybe you don’t know which formatting software to use. Maybe it’s editing, uploading your files to KDP, getting your listing set up correctly, or figuring out how to actually promote your book once it’s live. Sometimes you don’t need another YouTube video or another week of Googling—you just need someone to look at where you’re at and tell you what to do next. 🎥 Inside Premium, we have a full step-by-step video series that walks you through creating and publishing your first book. We’ve had members use those trainings to publish their very first book and then go on to create even more! But if you’re still stuck on something specific, I also offer 1:1 Strategy Calls right inside the Classroom. 📞 For $60, you can book a private 30-minute call with me where we can focus specifically on YOU, your book, and whatever is holding you up. Bring your questions. Bring the thing you’ve been stuck on. Let’s use those 30 minutes to figure out your next move so you can stop spinning your wheels and keep moving forward. 💪📚 👉 You can find the 1:1 Strategy Call inside the Classroom when you’re ready to book.

I'm thrilled to announce that one of my Premium members @Kimberly Morris who was in a secret "Build a Book" private course has published her book, Shadie Cray's Patient Day! Hopefully, she'll have an ebook too. I'm sure she is excited to see it in print. I'm ordering her book now! Let's give her some love!!!! I know that @Jim Flach and @Cheri Reynolds is also enroute with their books and we'll let you know when they arrive on the scene!

Baby...

I have been working on something that brings together several parts of what we are building at Oasis Builders. Lila and the Sleeping Seed is the first book in the new Backyard Nature Stories series, and the Kindle edition is now available for preorder. At first, it is a story about a little girl planting a bean seed. Underneath that simple story, Lila begins learning that caring for a living thing does not mean controlling it. Sometimes we help. Sometimes we observe. Sometimes we wait. The heart of Book 1 is patience, supported by trust, curiosity, compassion, grace, and thoughtful care. The larger goal of Backyard Nature Stories is to create stories that teach both the child and the adult reading with them. Each book will combine a natural learning experience with a deeper value: - Book 1: Patience — germination, observation, helping without forcing - Book 2: Generosity — seed saving, continuity, and sharing - Book 3: Kindness — friendship, compassion, and learning across generations - Book 4: Responsibility — caring for living systems - Book 5: Belonging — seeing how soil, plants, wildlife, food, family, and community connect Those later values will remain flexible as the stories grow naturally from Lila's experiences. The child gets the adventure. The grown-up sees something deeper. They discover it together. Lila and the Sleeping Seed releases September 21. Kindle preorder: https://amzn.to/4gvDsEZ As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. A special Thank you to @Krista Brea and @Nick Nebelsky for their teaching and motivation to pull me through. What value would you most like to see Lila explore in a future story?

Lots of changes have been coming down the pipeline lately when it comes to audiobooks and Audible, and I’m still feeling out what some of these changes are going to mean for us as authors. But when I logged into my Amazon Ads account today, I noticed something NEW… 𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝘂𝗻 𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀. This officially rolled out in the U.S. at the end of August, and authors — including ACX creators — can now advertise Audible titles using both 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗱𝘀. Before this, authors could only directly advertise their print and digital book ASINs. Personally, I’ve never really 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥 to advertise my audiobooks separately. I would run Amazon Ads to my paperback books, and readers could see that an audiobook version was available and simply choose that format instead. And that strategy has worked pretty well for me. But now we have another option. You can add the audiobook format into new or existing campaigns alongside your paperback and ebook. One thing I find particularly interesting is that Amazon says this will also help with 𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀-𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴. So if someone clicks on an ad for one format of your book but ends up buying another format, that sale can show up in your campaign reporting. That could give us a much clearer picture of how our Amazon Ads are actually contributing to sales across paperback, ebook 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸. Amazon says we’ll also be able to track the usual metrics like impressions, clicks and attributed conversions. ⚠️ 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲: Right now, Amazon says audiobook advertising for authors is available in the 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀, and you need to have your pen name claimed through Amazon Author Central before you can begin advertising. I’m definitely going to be playing around with this because audiobooks have been a significant part of my publishing business, and I’m curious to see whether directly advertising the audio version actually moves the needle — or whether I’m better off continuing to advertise the paperback and letting readers choose their preferred format.