Summary: Derek Doepker is the #1 Amazon Bestselling author of Why Authors Fail, and several other books. Derek leads hands-on training workshops, courses and retreats to teach authors how to turn their passion for writing into a sustainable business.<br> Derek began his self-publishing journey as a serial entrepreneur trying to turn his passion for health and fitness into an income he could live on. He tried blogging and YouTube videos before turning to Kindle publishing.<br> Derek gained success with his third book 50 Fitness Tips You Wish You Knew . Derek says that book was successful because he shifted his intention for the book. Rather than just wanting the book to be an Amazon bestseller, he focused on writing a book that he would be proud of. “If I died in 30 days… I wanted to leave something behind that would be great.”<br> That book went on to do almost $6000 of royalties in 11 days (in December of 2012). At that point Derek realized he turned a corner. He knew he had to share his experience with others so they could avoid making the same mistakes he did.<br> Derek created Kindle Bestseller Secrets and has published several best-selling Kindle books since he started.<br> Our conversation covered several topics all around author mindset. Here are some of the takeaways.<br> <br> * The things you might classify as failures are simply steps on your journey.<br> * You only fail if you give up and stop trying.<br> * “Overnight Successes” usually take longer than we see.<br> * Most people don’t need more information, they need more implementation.<br> * In order to succeed you actually have to act on what you know. Just reading books and gathering information isn’t going to help you.<br> * The only way to learn how to write books is to try writing, and learn what works and doesn’t work for you.<br> * Another mistake authors make is to only go half way in their efforts. For instance, they spend all their time writing, editing and polishing manuscript and then they don’t want to spend the money on getting a good cover.<br> * Having a good cover is one of the most important things you can do to help your book be a success.<br> * Be yourself. Don’t try to please everybody. Who you are and how you write is what makes you different from everyone else. That’s how you find the audience who wants to hear from you.<br> * The principles of success are timeless. Study success principles to future proof yourself.<br> * In order to be a success you have to be willing to fail. Our failures teaches us the most valuable lessons.<br> * The Key to Success: Always do the best you can and learn from the results, whatever they are. Then move forward.<br> * Professional authors are persistent. They keep going until they get the book right.<br> * in order to get good at something you have to be willing to be back first. No one is going to see your first draft except you.<br> * When you’re writing just write. You can edit and be critical after you get your first attempt down.<br> * Have the willingness to do something that’s below your potential. That way you have created something. Then go through the process of perfecting it.<br> * Never compare your first draft to someone else’s final draft. And never compare your first draft to the final draft of your last book.<br> * Readers aren’t buying what you say as an author, they’re buying how you say it.<br> * Readers are buying your perspective, not your information.<br> * The first step to getting over a fear of rejection is to acknowledge that you care what other people think. After you acknowledge it,the next step to getting over a fear of rejection is to answer the question: what do I care about more than my fear of rejection?<br> * You can choose what you focus on. Rather than focusing on people who don’t like your work,
