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How ONLY 12 Books Made Me $389,000 on Amazon KDP (Branding Masterclass) — Transcript

by Andrey Bernhart · 6,339 words · 872 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00With only 12 books, my main brand on
0:02Amazon KDP earned me more than $389,000
0:07US. And in this video, I will show you
0:09everything I learned in the past years
0:11about branding on Amazon KDP. Who am I?
0:14A few words about me. My name is Andre
0:15Banhard. I've been doing KDP for 2 and a
0:18half years now. I earned over $750,000
0:20US in lifetime royalty. So, you see
0:23around half of that is actually from my
0:26main brand, from the 12 books of my main
0:29brand. In total, I published over 50
0:31books in those two and a half years. And
0:33I spoke in front of hundreds of
0:35self-publishers in London, Berlin, Las
0:37Vegas, and Barcelona. And I'm the
0:40co-founder of Publish Flow AI, a
0:42software that helps you to create high
0:44quality books. Now, let's get into the
0:47topic. You see, branding was at least
0:49for me one of the main drivers for the
0:52success. And I talk with multiple
0:54publishers and not all of them but a lot
0:57of them share my opinion on the topic of
1:00branding. There are two types of
1:01publishers. I often say one type of
1:03publishers who scale with brands and one
1:06type that's scale with hype. So with a
1:08few books that have a hype topic and
1:11then one single book can make a few
1:13$10,000 in a single month. But brands
1:16have the benefit that they're steady but
1:18also slower. That's a negative. but they
1:20grow over time, over time, over the
1:23years, and you long-term profit from
1:26them. So, I use myself both strategies
1:28and I combine hype with branding, which
1:31maybe is a future video because it's a
1:33really complex topic. Biggest leverage
1:35so far was always branding and that's
1:37what this video is about. So, today I
1:39will give you a master class on
1:41branding. I structured this video into
1:43three parts. So, the first part is why a
1:45brand changes the entire game of KDP.
1:48The second part is three types of
1:50brands. I will show you what types of
1:52brand exists and you can then select
1:54which one you want to pursue. And then
1:57the third part is the five strategies to
2:00make a brand really successful. So let's
2:03get started with the first point. Why a
2:06brand changes the entire game of Amazon
2:08KDP. So first of all, how does KDP look
2:10like without a brand? That's important
2:13contrast. So first of all you need to do
2:15new niche research for every single book
2:19because if you don't structure your
2:21catalog your book production with a
2:23brand or in series then you pick one
2:26niche publish a book there then the next
2:28book you search a new niche need to find
2:30a new niche need to validate a new niche
2:32find a new concept for that niche and
2:33then publish a book there and then the
2:35next book is again a new niche and you
2:37switch niches all the time then often
2:41you have no idea about the topic the
2:43niche and the target audience. And
2:45that's a problem because even if you
2:47find a good niche, how do you know what
2:50to publish in that niche? How do you
2:52know what topic, what concept resonates
2:55with the target audience? If you don't
2:57know that, it's hard to find that out.
2:59You have often hard time finding a good
3:02unique concept for the book because you
3:04lack the knowledge of the target
3:06audience. You you lack the knowledge of
3:09the niche. then you struggle often for
3:11reviews for every new book. That's one
3:13of the biggest pain points I often hear
3:15from beginners but also from advanced
3:17publishers. So reviews is for most
3:19publishers that I talk with the biggest
3:21pain point, the biggest thing that they
3:24dislike about Amazon KDP. And without a
3:28brand, it really is with a brand it
3:31actually gets really easy and you don't
3:32even think about reviews. So there's a
3:35huge difference between getting reviews
3:37without a brand. That's the struggle and
3:39reviews with a brand. That's actually
3:41quite simple. Then starting new ads for
3:44every launch without knowing which will
3:46become successful. So it's always if you
3:49are in a new niche with a new book and
3:51you have nothing that connects multiple
3:53of your books together, then also every
3:56ad that you run has no data about the
3:59specific niche or anything else. So,
4:00Amazon needs to collect new data for
4:02each new book that you launch and each
4:05new campaign that you launch. And I will
4:07talk about how that's different with a
4:10brand and multiple books in a series or
4:12in the same niche in a minute. Then you
4:14have no email list. You often have no
4:16external traffic except if you do social
4:18media, but most people don't do that.
4:20And you have no crosselling effects from
4:22other books of your catalog. You can
4:24only create seven author profiles on
4:27Author Central, meaning you can only run
4:30video ads to books published under one
4:32of those seven pen names. If you publish
4:3410 books, for example, that don't belong
4:37to the same brand or pen names. they
4:39aren't connected in any way. Then you
4:41need to pick which book you want to give
4:43the video ads to and which book you
4:45don't because you can only run video ads
4:48as sponsored brand ads and you need an
4:50author central account for the pen name
4:53that you publish your book under. If you
4:56don't have that, you can't publish video
4:58ads. And if you know a little bit about
4:59Amazon ads, you will know that video ads
5:01are currently the most effective ads to
5:03run. So if you are not thinking at all
5:05in brands or using the same pen name for
5:07multiple books then you also struggle
5:09with this technical limitations. Now how
5:12does this change if you publish in a
5:14brand on KDP? So first of all book one
5:17has the same struggles as the books
5:20above. So if you publish the first book
5:21of a brand you obviously don't have a
5:24brand. It's just the first book. So you
5:26struggle the same as every other book
5:28that you treat as a one-off project. But
5:30starting with book two, every book has
5:33it way easier. So book three normally
5:35has it easier than book one, book four
5:37easier than book three and so on. The
5:39more books you publish, the easier it
5:41gets for your brand. Getting reviews,
5:43for example, becomes easier and easier
5:45and at one point it starts to be so easy
5:48that you don't even think about them
5:50anymore. So for my main brands, I don't
5:52even think of how do I get reviews
5:54because it's literally just sending an
5:56email and I get around 100 reviews in
5:59the first two months after publishing.
6:01So it's really fast. It's not a lot of
6:02work. It's just simple. And that's for
6:05me it was emotionally the biggest
6:07benefit of having a brand. I didn't have
6:09to care about reviews anymore. And that
6:12was also for me the most stressful thing
6:14before I had a brand. Also, new books
6:16rank higher because Amazon knows and
6:19trusts your brand. That's nothing I can
6:21prove, but I and multiple other
6:24publishers believe that Amazon looks at
6:26your account at your KDP account and
6:28judges the quality of your account and
6:31if the quality is high. So, if you have
6:33a lot of sales, good reviews, your
6:35account is is quite old, then Amazon
6:37will rank your newer books higher than
6:40previous books. And if you have a brand,
6:42for example, you already published five
6:44books in this niche and you then publish
6:47book six, then Amazon knows, okay, in
6:50this niche, this publisher, he already
6:52has five books. They all sell well. They
6:55all get positive reviews. So, it makes
6:57sense for us to push this new six book
7:00under this pen name. As I said, I can't
7:03really prove that, but it's just a
7:04feeling. and I have my own experiences
7:07where it's solid proof my own
7:09experiences but of course I can't
7:11guarantee anything I can't treat it as
7:13real proof to you who watch this video
7:15now then also new books get free traffic
7:17through cross-selling from other books
7:21that means if you have five books in
7:22your brand you can cross-promote your
7:25newest book inside the manuscripts of
7:28these five books so you can update the
7:30manuscripts of those five books and then
7:32place an image plus a QR code to the
7:34sales page of the new book, for example.
7:36I always do this for my main series. And
7:40then you can also place in the A+
7:42content, there's a comparison table
7:44banner inside the A+ content settings.
7:47And you can have one of your modules in
7:49the A+ content section to be a
7:51comparison table. And this comparison
7:53table lets you put in other books of
7:55your brand and gives you cross-selling
7:57benefits because some people they go on
7:59Amazon and then they they see your book,
8:02they're on your product page and on your
8:04product page, they then not just buy one
8:06of your books, but they see in a plus
8:08content a comparison table and maybe buy
8:10they buy a second book or a third book.
8:12And some people buy all of your books
8:14with the same purchase. So they, for
8:16example, buy six of your books or three
8:19of your books, for example. So that's a
8:20huge benefit with a brand. Then you have
8:23ads that are already working where you
8:25can add your new books. Five books you
8:28have already published inside your brand
8:29and you publish a six book. You can just
8:31add this six book to the ads that are
8:34already working for the other five books
8:36for example. Or you can start new group
8:38ads grouping all of the books from your
8:40brand together into a new ad or in
8:42multiple new ads and just do different
8:44Amazon ads variants with those six books
8:47in one group. So there are multiple
8:49benefits of having one ad campaign with
8:52multiple books in it. We call it group
8:54ads. And if you do those group ads, they
8:56normally have an overall on average
8:58lower acres than single as in Amazon ads
9:02where you only have one book that you
9:03promote with one ad campaign. Your
9:05knowledge of the niche and target
9:07audience gets deeper and deeper leading
9:11to you being able to create better and
9:12better books in this niche. The more
9:14books you publish, the more you think
9:16about the niche, the more you plan, the
9:18more you you craft concepts for newer
9:20books, the more feedback you get from
9:23readers, positive and negative, and you
9:25can learn from both. And then the next
9:26book you can improve further. And then
9:29you can after four, five, six books, you
9:31can create a concept that's so unique
9:33and so perfectly crafted for the target
9:36audience that it will have a unique
9:39advantage against all the competitors
9:41because only a few people go that deep
9:44into a niche. So that's a huge benefit
9:46if you're just an expert at the topic
9:49because this expertise gives you the
9:52creativity to come up with this unique
9:54concepts that then will make your newer
9:57books sell really well. I talked about
9:59this in one of the latest videos. I
10:01talked about my best-selling book. My
10:03bestselling book did more than $120,000
10:06US in less than a year after it was
10:08published. So in 12 months more than
10:11$100,000 US and the main reason why this
10:14book achieved that was because it was
10:17part of a brand and it wasn't the first
10:19book it wasn't the second book it was
10:21the seventh eighth book that I published
10:23in this brand and the all that I did
10:25before that lead to this book being that
10:28successful but it was only possible
10:30because of the ads. If you want to check
10:32out this video as the next one you can
10:34click on it at the end of this video.
10:36It's really interesting to see in
10:38practice what the power of a brand
10:41really is on this particular example of
10:43this book. Then the second part of this
10:46video, the three types of branding. Now
10:48we get really practical and now we
10:50really talk about the intensive strategy
10:54stuff. So two important vocab words to
10:57get out of the way just so we talk about
10:59the same thing. Words are horizontal and
11:01vertical. And I guess you know what it
11:04means but just so you know what it means
11:05in the concept of branding. So
11:08horizontal means broad, wide or
11:11unordered, unstructured. It's just wide.
11:14It's horizontal. It's very broad. And
11:17then vertical means deep structured and
11:19ordered. So it's vertical. It goes deep.
11:23And we can see that here in this example
11:25that I prepared. So we have horizontal
11:27versus vertical brands. And I will talk
11:30about both in detail. But just so you
11:32know, horizontal means wide. So you have
11:35topic one, topic two, topic three, topic
11:37four, any order, any single book on its
11:40own. No chronology, no clear order, no
11:44clear structure, but the same look holds
11:46it together. The same overall topic on
11:50not topic, but the same overall brand
11:53spirit holds it together. You will see
11:54it in a minute when I show the example.
11:56And then vertical means deep. That means
11:59you for example publish one book for
12:00beginners. The second book is the same
12:02topic but for intermediates. Then the
12:05next book is the same topic but for
12:07advanced people. So it just goes deeper
12:09on the same topic. So let's dive deeper
12:13into the horizontal. Brands that mainly
12:16scale horizontally. So the example I use
12:19here are cookbooks. Book one could be a
12:21low carb cookbook. That's the first book
12:24that you publish in your brand. Then the
12:26second book can be an air fryer
12:28cookbook. It doesn't really have
12:30anything to do with low carb, but it's
12:32another cookbook. And you can have both
12:34in the same designs with similar
12:36concepts. Maybe you have a video course
12:38for both of those books. And that's the
12:41thing that makes your brand unique
12:42because you are the one who films every
12:45recipe that is inside the book and then
12:48puts it into a video course as one
12:50example. Then book three could be a
12:52Mediterranean cookbook. And then you
12:54have three books inside that brand. They
12:56don't have any structure. There's no
12:58rule that they first need to buy the low
13:01carb book, then they need to buy the air
13:03fryer book and then they need to buy the
13:04Mediterranean book. There's no order in
13:06it, but they can buy just one book. Some
13:08people maybe liked one book and then
13:11also interested after they they read the
13:13Mediterranean book, they may be also
13:15interested in low carb and then because
13:17they liked the first book, they buy also
13:19the low carb book. And that's how the
13:21cross-selling effects of horizontal
13:23scalable brands work. So there's no
13:25structure, but still if they like a
13:28book, they buy multiple of those books.
13:30So we can see it here. Same brand look
13:34across all books, but they aren't
13:37ordered. Other examples are facts and
13:40trivia books, coloring books, self-help
13:43books, travel guides, dog breed guides,
13:46and so on. So they are all unstructured
13:49but they have the same topic. It's
13:50always about cooking something. It's
13:53always about facts and trivia. It's
13:55always about coloring books but the
13:57specific books inside the brand are all
14:00different subtopics. Now let's get to
14:02the second type of brands brands that
14:05mainly scale vertically. And here the
14:07example is learning chess. The first
14:10book could be beginner chess. How to
14:12learn chess or how to play chess as a
14:15beginner. The second book can be
14:16intermediate chess and then you guessed
14:18it the third book is advanced chess. And
14:22that's a very logical ladder. A lot of
14:24people first buy the beginner guides and
14:26then if they liked it they buy the
14:28intermediate guide and then if they like
14:29the intermediate guide they buy the
14:31advanced guide. Or some people see your
14:33beginner guide on Amazon like how it
14:35looks and it just tells them it's
14:37trustworth and a good product. They
14:39haven't bought it yet, but they just see
14:41it and it looks professional and then
14:42they think, "Okay, I want to treat chess
14:45seriously, so I buy all three books at
14:48the same time." And there are people who
14:50do that. And that's the power of
14:52branding. And some people may only buy
14:54the first book, then they love the first
14:56book, and then they buy the other two
14:58books together because the first one was
15:00so good. So, beginner chess, next level,
15:03intermediate chess, next level, advanced
15:06chess. So, wide pace. A reader who
15:08finishes book one has a reason to buy
15:09book two. Same customer, higher lifetime
15:12value. So you only need to pay ads once,
15:15for example, to sell the first book. And
15:17then the first book sells the second
15:19book or the second and the third book.
15:22So you only had to pay Amazon ads once,
15:24but you get money for selling two or
15:26three books. And the bigger your brand,
15:28the vertical brand that you have, the
15:29series that you have, the higher the
15:31lifetime value of the customer gets. The
15:34other examples I have prepared are for
15:36example fiction books. So Harry Potter
15:39for example you read the first book then
15:42the second book, the third book. Nobody
15:44starts with the fourth book and then
15:46reads the second book then the third
15:48then the seventh and then the first.
15:50Nobody does that. Maybe there is like
15:52one crazy person who does that but no
15:54normal person does that. Then learning
15:56chess the example here and then learning
15:59an instrument for example piano or
16:01guitar. One last important thing here,
16:03each of those books don't completely
16:06rely on each other. So if someone is not
16:09a beginner anymore and he looks for a
16:11chess book and he's for example already
16:14very advanced, then he may find your
16:16brand and only buy the third book. And
16:18the third book since it's for advanced
16:20people is a fit for this advanced
16:23person. So they don't need to have the
16:25other two books. Each of those books
16:28also sells completely on its own. That's
16:31always important with vertical brands.
16:33That's what makes non-fiction vertical
16:35brands different than a fiction series.
16:39But Harry Potter, for example, you
16:41normally don't start with book four.
16:44Except maybe you watch the first three
16:46movies and then you start with the
16:47fourth book. But else you normally start
16:49at the beginning. And for non-fiction
16:52books, that doesn't has to be the case.
16:54So normally you start at the beginning
16:56if you're a beginner but if you are
16:58intermediate you immediately buy the
16:59intermediate book and then after that
17:02maybe the advanced book but you never
17:03buy the beginner book because you aren't
17:05a beginner and that's what's different
17:07between non-fiction vertical brands and
17:10fiction series. Now the struggle is
17:13vertical brands are limited. So you
17:15naturally start thinking of ways to
17:18scale this brand further once you hit a
17:21limit. What means limit? limit means you
17:24can't really publish 50 books in a
17:27chronological vertical series. Doesn't
17:31make sense for most niches. I at least
17:33can't imagine how you could stack, I
17:35don't know, 50 levels of chess on top of
17:38each other. It doesn't really make
17:40sense. So, that's the catch here. That's
17:42the biggest issue. You are limited to
17:43how many books you can publish. So, a
17:45natural way to deal with that is to add
17:48some horizontal books to that. And here
17:51the example would be chess for kids. So
17:53you have your main series, chess
17:54beginners, intermediates and advanced.
17:57And around that horizontally you now add
18:00a chess for kids books. And it's not
18:02part of this horizontal series but it's
18:04still part of the brand. And now it's to
18:07differentiate between a series and the
18:10brand because one brand can have
18:12multiple series. And series are normally
18:15topic based or vertically based. So you
18:18have 1 2 3 four entire brand can have
18:21both. They can have vertical elements
18:23but also horizontal elements. Another
18:25example would be chess for seniors. I
18:27don't know if that's a thing but it was
18:29just convenient to think about after I
18:31came up with chess for kids. Now this
18:34leads logically to the third type of
18:38brands. And the third type are brands
18:40that scale both ways. And here's the
18:43example learning an instrument. Series
18:46one of this brand can be piano learning.
18:49The first book of series one is learning
18:52to play the piano for beginners. Book
18:54two is learning how to play the piano
18:56intermediates and the third book is
18:58advanced. So far so good. We know that.
19:00Now what changes for this type of
19:02brands. We now add complimentary piano
19:05books. Piano for kids and piano for
19:08seniors. So the same examples as above.
19:11But now instead of stopping here with
19:13the piano topic. So we have now
19:15everything covered for piano. We now
19:17went really deep and vertical into
19:19piano. Everything that plays a piano we
19:21have a book about. Not with those five,
19:23but you could scale vertically and make
19:26around any piano topic a book. And now
19:29we have piano solved. And now we move to
19:32another instrument. And that's the
19:33vertical scaling that we now add on top
19:36of vertical brand we already created. So
19:39the next step is a second series. And
19:42the second series can be drums. And the
19:44drum series has exactly the same books
19:47as the piano series, but for drums. It's
19:51beginners, intermediates, advanced, and
19:53again kids and seniors. I guess there
19:55are way more. Then you can add a third
19:57series, for example, the guitar. And
20:00then you have three series. They're
20:02horizontal, but the series themselves
20:04are vertical. And here's a visualization
20:06so it hopefully is easier to understand.
20:09So first of all you have the piano
20:11series here and we have beginner
20:13intermediate advanced plus the two
20:15complimentary book kids and seniors. So
20:17this is the first series. Then you have
20:19the second series with again drums for
20:22beginners, drums intermediate, drums
20:24advanced for kids and seniors and same
20:26for guitar. So now your brand has 15
20:29books and you can even scale that more
20:31horizontally or more vertically and add
20:35one new type of book to all three series
20:38or add a new series that again has five
20:41books. So that's how you can scale into
20:44both directions. Now let's talk about
20:46the final part of this video in detail
20:49and that's the five strategies to make a
20:52brand successful. Now it gets really
20:55practical and I want you to not just
20:56listen but also to execute what I now am
20:59about to share with you. So the first
21:01strategy is just start. Don't aim to
21:03make the first brand that perfect. It
21:06doesn't need to be the perfect brand.
21:08The first brand that you start. So
21:10getting experience is more important
21:11than winning in the first brand. I
21:13always talk about that. But it's okay to
21:16have one, two, three, four, five books
21:18that fail if you learn from them and
21:21gain experience from them because
21:22experience is also a currency like
21:25money. And it's better to not earn money
21:28for the first books, but get a lot of
21:30experience instead of get a lot of money
21:32with the first book or brands, but no
21:35experience. So I always in the beginning
21:37prefer experience over money. In the
21:40best case, you obviously get both. But
21:42especially for beginners, experience is
21:45long-term way more important. Then
21:47starting now is more important than
21:49planning it and waiting three more
21:51months. So if you have something one
21:53idea in mind, just use that idea and
21:56build your first brand with it. And
21:58maybe it fails and after half a year you
22:01need to not delete the brand but move on
22:04and create a new brand. But in those six
22:07months where you built this first brand,
22:09even though it wasn't perfect, you
22:11gained the experience that I talked
22:12about. And I personally have five big
22:15brands and your first brand doesn't have
22:18to be the winner. Start with the brand
22:20in the next 30 days. Or if you already
22:22have one, use the strategies from this
22:25video to improve it significantly in the
22:27next 30 days. The second strategy is
22:29build an email list starting with book
22:32one. I only had an email list when I
22:34started working on book three. So I lost
22:37dozens I guess hundreds of emails just
22:40because I waited with creating an email
22:43list until book three and then book
22:44three I thought maybe it makes sense to
22:46make an email list to get emails from
22:47the people and then I updated book two
22:49and book one to also add the email list
22:51there. But that's a lot of work that you
22:54need to go back to the books instead of
22:57just publishing. important. If it's your
22:59first book, so not your first brand, but
23:01your very first book, then don't trust
23:04this advice because for your first book,
23:06it's just important to publish the book.
23:08And don't think about branding or email
23:11lists or anything like that. Just
23:13publish your first book. That's the most
23:14important thing. And after you
23:16published, I don't know, five or 10
23:18books, then you can think about more
23:20complex stuff like building an email
23:22list. Next point, reviews won't be a
23:24problem anymore the sooner you start
23:27building a list. So, the email list is
23:29the secret behind not having any
23:32struggle anymore with reviews. So, the
23:34sooner you start building an email list,
23:36the better. Even if you don't have a
23:37bonus to offer, just place a QR code
23:40saying if you want more books like this
23:43one, scan this QR code, enter your
23:45email, and I will contact you as soon as
23:48I publish a new book. So, normally you
23:51use a bonus as a lead magnet to capture
23:54the emails from people. But if you don't
23:57have a bonus and you don't need a bonus
23:59necessarily, and for some books a bonus
24:01doesn't really make sense, then it's
24:04enough to have [snorts] in the
24:05introduction chapter and at the end of
24:07the book a sentence or maybe even an
24:10explanation that you are currently
24:12working on book X and then a few
24:14sentences about this new book you're
24:15working on. And if that's interesting,
24:17scan this QR code, enter your email
24:19address, and I will contact you as soon
24:21as the new book gets published. And if
24:23you do that with all of your books in
24:25your brand, you will after a few months
24:27have a few hundred emails in your email
24:30list. And that's often enough to solve
24:32the review problem entirely. So a few
24:34hundred emails in your email list is
24:36enough to never ever struggle with
24:38reviews again for this particular brand.
24:40So select and start to use one email
24:43capture mechanism. And that's either a
24:46bonus or this simple phrase. Now,
24:49strategy three, place your books in A+
24:53content and inside your manuscripts.
24:56Cross-elling is one of the most
24:58underestimated benefits of having a
25:00brand. If you have a brand with 10
25:01books, there will be some people who
25:04actually buy all 10 books. So, there are
25:06those crazy people that just buy all the
25:09books you offer. And I even know people
25:11who have a thousand books in their brand
25:14in one single brand. And I don't know if
25:18there is a crazy person who buys all
25:20thousand books, but I strongly believe
25:23that there is at least one or two people
25:25that bought hundreds of books from this
25:28big brand. Maybe there even more people.
25:30And there are people out there that have
25:32like a bookshelf that's full of the
25:35books from this publisher. As crazy as
25:38this sounds, but that's just the reality
25:40and how people sometimes behave. Not all
25:43people, obviously, most people only will
25:45buy one book. A lot of people will buy
25:47two books. Then a lot of people will buy
25:48three books and so on. And there are
25:50those crazy people who will buy dozens
25:52of your books if you have dozens. Many
25:55people buy not just one book, but two,
25:57three, or four or more if you display
25:59them in your A+ content. So the first
26:02place to put your other books from your
26:04brand is the A+ content on your product
26:06listing. you have this comparison table
26:08and you can place their multiple asins I
26:10think up to six or or eight um I think
26:13it's six and then customers or potential
26:15customers see it on your product page
26:18and often add multiple of those and then
26:20not only buy one but multiple books at
26:22once and that's important a lot of
26:25people underestimate that use the
26:27introduction and the last few pages of
26:29your books to talk show and link to the
26:32other books of your brand so if you have
26:34four books in your brand place at the
26:37end of each of those four books the
26:39three other books. Just make an image
26:42and the QR codes and maybe even the what
26:45they need to search on Amazon and that's
26:47enough. A lot of people just if they
26:49have the book, if you flip through it,
26:51you often just see the last page because
26:54it's the last page and it's normally
26:56present. If you hold a book by accident,
26:58often you at least once see the last
27:00page and then they see, oh, okay,
27:02there's more from this publisher. And a
27:04lot of people through that will also buy
27:07more of your books. For me, that's
27:09really powerful for crosselling. Go
27:12through your catalog and pick books that
27:14you can crossromote in the plus content
27:17and the manuscript of your other books.
27:19If you don't have a brand yet, that's
27:21hard to do. But if you already have a
27:23brand or a series or just two books that
27:25are not too far apart in terms of the
27:28content, then you should implement that.
27:31Consistency is the actual product that
27:34you're selling in a way. So your loyal
27:37reader base expects you to deliver
27:39consistently. So if you start building a
27:42brand and you have four books, you will
27:44have people who read all those four
27:46books and they will feel like a personal
27:49connection to you because you are the
27:50author or at least the publisher. Maybe
27:52you work with authors or experts and
27:54they are the author but they will feel a
27:56personal connection to those books and
27:59some will feel it more strong and others
28:01not that strong. But still, some people
28:04build a real connection. And that's
28:06important because if you use this and
28:08really deliver, then you have really
28:11loyal people that read all of your books
28:13and a lot of them also review all of
28:15your books. And that's I think the most
28:18valuable asset you can gain in
28:20self-publishing. If you have a hundred
28:22royal readers, I think you will never
28:25ever struggle with getting the initial
28:27sales or the initial reviews ever again
28:30because those people are always there to
28:32buy your book, read your book, give you
28:34honest feedback about your books and so
28:36on. So that's very very powerful. And if
28:38you want to treat them well, you need to
28:40deliver consistently. Else if you don't
28:42publish a book for a year, they maybe
28:45just forget you. Amazon's algorithm
28:47rewards consistency. That means if you
28:50publish for example once a month,
28:51Amazon's algorithm knows okay this
28:53publisher um is predictable. I can plan
28:56that he publishes one book a month or
28:59one book every two months and based on
29:01that I can adjust my algorithm. And as
29:03we already talked about Amazon pushes or
29:06at least it's what I and other
29:07publishers believe. Amazon pushes books
29:10in your brand. new books you publish in
29:13the same pen name because Amazon has the
29:15data from your previous books to support
29:18this new launch right away and it keeps
29:21your brand alive and growing. If you
29:23don't publish a book for over a year,
29:24then it just doesn't feel alive anymore
29:27and the books you already published will
29:30slowly decline. But if you keep publish
29:32consistently, then normally also the
29:34older books will stay steady or
29:37sometimes even increase in sales. But if
29:40you stop or publish very inconsistently,
29:42then also your older books will decline
29:44over time. My recommendation, try to
29:47publish in a rhythm. No matter what
29:49rhythm, for example, once per week.
29:51That's a very high frequent rhythm and
29:53only applies if you have a team behind
29:55yourself. I, for example, publish once
29:57or twice a week at the moment, but I
30:00have multiple people that work for me.
30:03But the normal more normal rhythm is
30:06once a month, maybe once every two
30:08months. But that's really something I
30:11would aim for. And maybe you start slow
30:14and you start with once every 3 months.
30:16But then after you have done that two,
30:18three times try to scale and try to
30:21reduce it from once every 3 months to
30:24once every two month to once every one
30:25month and so on because that's where
30:28where scale is in Amazon KDP. Now,
30:31strategy five. It is okay to lose money
30:34with one book if the others do well. And
30:37that's a little bit complex, but it's an
30:40important lesson I learned after, I
30:42don't know, published four books inside
30:44my brand, I think. And I learned it
30:45quite late, but it's important to
30:48understand. Book two of my main brand
30:50earns around 2 to 3,000 a month, but it
30:54spends 90% of that on ads. And first,
30:58you would think that's a failure, not a
30:59good book. It costs a lot of ads, but
31:02the ROI, the return of investment is
31:04quite bad. So, why would you support the
31:07book? Why won't you reduce the ad spend
31:09and use the money to push other books
31:11that maybe have a better ROI? And that's
31:12a good question, but you only ask that
31:15question if you don't get this point.
31:16Because meanwhile, some other books of
31:19my brand spend way less on ads, and 90%
31:22is profit. Book three of my brand, for
31:24example, earns around $1,000 a month in
31:28royalties and only spends $50 a month on
31:31ads. So, how is this possible? It's not
31:34the ads who drive the sales, the cross
31:35sales from the other book. So, all sales
31:38it makes or most of them are organic and
31:42through cross sales. Let's imagine you
31:44spend $2,000 a month to push one of your
31:48books and this book gets thousands, tens
31:51of thousands of impressions. And in the
31:53A+ column of this book, you link the
31:55other books from your brand. A lot of
31:57people who see this book that spends a
32:00lot will also see the other books and
32:01then will buy the other books or they
32:03will first buy the first book and then
32:05the other book. So it makes sense to
32:07acquire new customers and to spend a lot
32:09of money for one book just to get more
32:11reach to get more customers and then get
32:14those customers long-term to buy the
32:16other books of your brand. So it makes
32:18sense to spend a lot for one book if
32:21three or four of your other books profit
32:23through that. So be ready to pick one or
32:26two books of your brand depending on how
32:28big it is. If you have a brand with 100
32:29books, you normally have five to 10 of
32:32those books. 90 to 95 of those will then
32:35have a great ROI. Let's say this is book
32:38two of my brand as I said and book two
32:40of my brand earns $3,000 but it spends
32:44$2,700 as example. So the net is really
32:47low, but it's benefiting the other
32:50books. So this book spends nearly
32:53nothing, $50, but earns 1K. And this
32:56book also earns like $800 or also only
32:59spends a little. So the ROI here is
33:02huge, and the net royalty here is huge.
33:04They won't make that much net royalties
33:07if this book wouldn't exist. And that's
33:10why that makes a lot of sense. The
33:11so-called spearhead exists for most big
33:14brands. So let it be the main access
33:16point for new people to get to know the
33:19brand. Even if you spend a lot, other
33:21books will profit from it. So if you
33:23talk with publishers who have big brands
33:25and normally know the word spearhead and
33:28this spearhead serves the purpose of
33:30getting a lot of traffic and through
33:32that traffic it benefits other books
33:35from your brand and overall it benefits
33:37all the books from your brand because
33:39just people get to know your brand more.
33:42And this is it. This is everything I
33:44wanted to talk about branding. I hope
33:46you you learned something and as the
33:49next video I can recommend this one
33:51right here. You should see it somewhere
33:53on the screen. And as I said I talk
33:55about how one of my book made six
33:58figures in only 12 months after it got
34:01published. And the main reason also was
34:03branding but on top of branding the book
34:06itself also had to be exceptional. And
34:08that's what I also share in this video.
34:11Thank you for watching and I'm looking
34:12forward to see you in the next

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