Misc

Course Review: Self Publishing 101 by Mark Dawson

Like I mentioned last week, I’ll be doing a mini-series of reviews about courses that I’ve taken and what I think about them. Just a quick note upfront, I have no affiliate links with this course so I do not financially benefit if you decide to purchase it.

So, this first course I’m reviewing is also the first paid course that I bought! It’s also the most expensive course I’ve bought to date (I think? I need to check this other course that was priced in pounds). Anyway, if you’re looking at self-publishing courses, Self Publishing 101 is guaranteed to come out and even though I’ve bought the course, I still get a barrage of emails every time it opens from other people in the self-publishing scene. So let’s jump into it:

Course Content

Self Publishing 101 is hosted on teachable, and the course consists of eight modules and the tech library. The modules are:

  • Building your platform – an introduction to author websites, mailing lists, and social media
  • Pre-publication – covering front and back matter, blurbs, pricing, author pages, reading magnets and your mailing list onboarding sequence
  • Whether to go exclusive with Amazon or Wide (being on multiple ebook platforms) – this is actually spread into three modules (one introduction and two in-depth modules covering each option).
  • Generating traffic to your book page – talking about organic traffic, paid ads, as well as list services like Bookbub and newsletter swaps like ProlificWorks.
  • Advance teams and launching your new book
  • Getting reviews

Apart from the core content, which is delivered in the form of lectures, transcripts, and handouts, the course also includes:

  • A private Facebook group – It’s pretty active, with people updating about their publishing journey and offering advice/answering questions. I personally found this to be very useful.
  • Self Publishing University – Bonus content, consisting of 19 lectures (at the time of this review) covering topics such as: covering readthrough, creating box set images, mailing list tips, using Instagram, etc.
  • VIP Bonuses – basically extra coupon codes if you decide to use some of the tools/services that are mentioned in the course.

My Thoughts on the Course

I will have to admit, I’m not a successful self-publisher. Marketing is my weakness (just asking: did you even know that I wrote books?) and it’s one of the things that I want to work on. I bought Self Publishing 101 intending to use it to force myself to actually do marketing and… so far I’ve only changed my back matter and newsletter onboarding sequence, both of which don’t really mean much if I’m not getting traffic.

Personal results: not much, because I didn’t put in the work

The next thing to consider is how much of this info can be found for free or cheap. Answer: Quite a bit, but you’ll have to sieve through a lot of information. I remember a point someone made – why should we pay money to get email templates when we can sign up to different author’s mailing lists and copy what they do? That is true but it’s also true that having a sheet I can copy off and someone walking me through the process is a lot easier and saves time compared to having to wait for emails to come in and then collating the information before you implement changes to your newsletter.

Because I like bullet points, here are what I think are the key reasons to buy, or not to buy, Self Publishing 101.

Why you should buy the course

  1. You are completely new to self-publishing and you have no idea where to start/you don’t want to sift through all the free information (and there is a lot out there)
  2. For the Facebook Group – honestly, this is so useful!

Why you shouldn’t buy the course:

  1. You’re already following all the big self-publishing podcasts and you’ve read the books that are out there and you’re sure you’ve got the basics right.
  2. You already have an author support group that you can bounce ideas and questions off.

Having gone through most of the course, would I buy it again? Yes, but even earlier on in my self-publishing journey. The information here is good and Mark, James, and their team do a good job of keeping it up to date. Not much of it was a surprise (no surprise, given that when I started listening to podcasts, all I listened to were self-publishing podcasts) but it is useful to have everything in one place. If I could change one thing, I would try to pair it with a course like 15 minutes magic that prompts me to work on each section (maybe I’ll take a day and just schedule many, many reminders).

Free/Lower-Cost Alternatives

If you don’t want to shell out the money for the course, I think you can get a lot of information from the following sources:

  • Self Publishing Podcast (by the same team)
  • The Creative Penn Podcast
  • Sell More Books Show
  • Newsletter Ninja by Tammi Labrecque
  • Books by Mark Leslie Lefebvre
  • Books by Chris Fox
  • Books by David Gaughran
  • Wide for the Win Facebook Group (if you plan on going wide, not for Amazon-exclusive strategies)

You can also sign up to the Self-Publishing Formula’s mailing list and receive a bundle of short guides about book marketing – I think this is a great way to get a taster for the course and see how much information you actually need.

I hope you found this review helpful! Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to start scheduling author-related tasks into my calendar (probably to finish my current WIP and then I’ll work on marketing – more marketing procrastination, I know!)

Featured Image: Photo from Canva

8 thoughts on “Course Review: Self Publishing 101 by Mark Dawson

  1. I think it’s such a good point that although the info can be found for free, it takes a lot of time. If you really can’t afford the course then you can put in the time, but if you can it might save you valuable hours!

  2. Super helpful, thank you. I suspected I’d have picked up most things from having read/listened to the podcasts and books you mentioned, but there’s always a nagging suspicion that there’s a magic secret hidden in a course somewhere XD.

    1. No problem! I also was wondering if I missed a magic formula somewhere, but I realised that people are right when they talk about how much information is already out there. I do think that this is great for beginners, but if you’re already in the self-pub environment and/or you’re a disciplined person (not me!), then you might not need this.

  3. From understanding the nuances of book cover design to mastering effective marketing strategies, each module provided invaluable insights and practical tips that are crucial for any self-published author. What sets this course apart is the level of support and engagement. The interactive community forum and live Q&A sessions created a collaborative learning environment, Additionally, the course material is regularly updated to keep pace with the ever-evolving publishing landscape, ensuring that students have access to the latest industry trends and best practices.

What do you think?