Wide Author Consulting

Hey, Wondrous Wideling! 👋

As I'm sure you read in the Wide for the Win group, I offer one-on-one consulting sessions with authors who'd like a bit of extra help in making their wide dreams a reality. Before you book an appointment with me, though, I'd like to go over what you should expect as part of that appointment.

First, let's list out the topics I have expertise and experience on, that I'd love to help you learn more about:

Starting your career as a wide author – how to come out of the gate as a Wideling, and stick to it
Making the switch from KU to wide? Let's talk through some potential strategies to make the transition as smooth as possible
Taking your career to the next level. Feel like your career has plateaued and you can't seem to get any further ahead, no matter your release schedule? Omg, so much to share
The permafree strategy and why so many Widelings use it
Increasing your chances of getting a BookBub (and which BookBub type I recommend) and how to maximize the impact once you do manage to snag one
Should you use a distributor? Should you go direct? Let's talk through the options and which one may make sense for you
The differences between a permafree and a newsletter magnet, what does what, and why I recommend you have both
A strong paid newsletter strategy – rotation, keeping track of ROI, and how to pick which newsletters to promote your books in
How to decide when to get into the production of audiobooks, translations, and/or selling direct, and which area to prioritize first
The world of print – I can answer your questions re: Amazon Expanded Distribution, IngramSpark, Lulu, BookVault, and D2D print options. ISBNs? Returns? Discounts? Large print? Regular print? Hardbacks vs paperbacks? I'll give you my thoughts.
Libraries! After seven years in the library world (including an 18-month stint as a library director), I can answer questions you may have about libraries. (Oh, and I'm currently serving as the chairman of my local library board, so there's that).
Working with other authors doing cross-promotions, multi-author boxsets, and more
Optimizing your backmatter for higher click and sell-thru rates
Writing author newsletters – what to say in them; how to make sure your open rates stay high; when to purge; and any other questions you might have on this topic
BookFunnel vs BookSprout – when to use which service and why
If you write steamy romance, serial apps could be a great fit – let's discuss which ones to focus on and how to get to them
Any "stupid questions" that you've always wanted to ask someone about the self-publishing world, but were too embarrassed to. This is a judgment-free zone. I'm happy to help; I'm happy to answer any wide publishing question you may have, no matter how little or mundane.

But if I have topics that I'm happy to help with, you're right in thinking that I also have topics where I do not have the expertise and experience to help with, and/or I do not have any interest in teaching:

How to be a successful KU author
How to be a successful author with part of your catalog in KU and part wide
How to switch your books between KU and Wide regularly in an attempt to maximize your income
How to run Facebook, BookBub, or AMS ads
How to be traditionally published and/or find an agent
In-depth discussions on writing techniques or a critique of your novel (ie, I am not an editor or proofreader)
Strategies built around Facebook parties, Instagram hops, TikTok stitching, or any other social media trend
Anything shady, underhanded, or criminal, I ain't your gal

When I first started doing consultations in late 2020, my knowledge was super deep in my own corner of the world (steamy cowboy romances) but became shallower the further you got from my genre (poetry or middle grade fiction or memoirs were almost a complete black box for me).

400+ consultations later, and I'm hard pressed to think of a genre or topic I haven't helped an author with. Nonfiction, fiction, adult, children's, ebooks, serialization, offset printing...I've helped with it all. There are absolutely some topics where my knowledge base is deeper than others, but what I've found after all this time is that the foundational concepts do not change, and so much information cross-applies between genres, strategies, and heat levels.

I've done chats with authors ranging from those who haven't published yet to authors who have hit the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and/or USA Today lists with every new release. If you're worried I haven't helped someone in your particular situation before, worry no more. Chances are, I have.

All right, fine. If you're wanting to spend 60 minutes discussing launching Portuguese audiobooks that will be exclusive to Audible, well now you've strayed waaayyyy outside my knowledge base, and my advice is going to be of limited utility. 😄

Bottom line? I'm happy to tell you when I can help you, and when I can't. The last thing I want to do is take your money and not actually help you. The guilt for me would be unbearable! So if you're curious if the question you have could be answered by me, hop on over to my contact page and shoot me a message. The one thing I won't do is bullshit you.

Instead of giving general advice that may or may not be applicable to you, I can look at your catalog and your writing speed and your level of expertise and give you my absolute best advice on what I think you should do. You can always ignore any advice you don't feel is accurate of course – you're in the driver's seat. But I will tell it to you straight, and walk you through what I think your best next moves should be.

In short, I'm here to help.

Here are the steps to follow (please be sure to do ALL of them!)

Here's the link to my Calendly page to book your session with me. I only allow up to two author sessions per day in order to allow for me to still get my writing done, so don't be surprised if the next opening is a ways away. The form will ask for your PayPal address; be sure that it's accurate.
Immediately head on over and fill out this intake form on Typeform. I ask a lot of questions there but that's because I want to maximize our time together. Fill it out with as much detail as you can possibly muster. The more detail you give, the more I can help you, so help me help you. I will not send you a PayPal invoice (and thus will not consider your appointment to be finalized!) until you fill out the intake form! I look them over before I send out an invoice, because I want to make sure that I can actually help you before billing you. Thus, filling this intake form out ASAP is very, very helpful. Please and thank you. 🙂
Once I know I can help you, I will send you a PayPal invoice for $199 for our one-hour session. It is after this invoice is paid that I consider our appointment to be finalized.
Please show up to our Zoom meeting on time (or even five minutes early!) Please note, I will be there for the full hour, whether or not you show up. If I spend that hour cleaning out my belly lint and singing the ABC Song backwards, so be it. I'll be in that Zoom room for 60 minutes. If you choose not to show, you'll have missed an amazing rendition of ZYX, what can I say? And no, you don't get your money back or another appointment scheduled for free. I'll have fulfilled my end of the bargain. The rest is up to you.
NOTE: I do allow appointments to be rescheduled up to 3 hours beforehand at no cost to you; within 3 hours of the planned start to the meeting, you can reschedule but there is a $25 reschedule fee that will need to be paid before the appointment can go forward.
NOTE 2: I do, sadly, suffer from chronic migraines and some other not-so-fun health issues. If I end up rescheduling our appointment because of a health issue, I promise I will make this up to you in the rescheduled appointment.

Please understand – more important than anything else I've said so far – is that I can give you the best advice on the planet, but if you choose not to implement any of it, there's not much I can do at that point. If you book an appointment with me, you're also booking an appointment with yourself – an agreement with yourself that you'll put in the hard work to make success happen.

If you aren't willing to do that hard work, save yourself the 150 bucks.

Truly.

Not to put too fine of a point on it, there are well over 15,000 Widelings in the group at the time of me writing this. I could help 8 authors a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and it'd still be well over five years before I was able to help every single Wideling who is currently in the group (not to mention anyone new who joined in the next five years!)

I promise you, I'm not hurting for people to help.

Thus, I want to prioritize those who are willing to do the hard work after our meeting, because that's where my time is best spent.

If you feel like you're that person, please head on over to my Calendly to book an appointment and then immediately fill out the intake form. I can't wait to work with you. ❤️

Hugs,