Between you and me, I have watched so many webinars by established authors, indie writers, bestselling authors featured on Amazon, that I’m all tuckered out.

I signed up for a lot of webinars on kdp (Kindle Direct Publishing) to help me coordinate my self-publishing journey and get my name and books out there. I mean, it’s what every writer wants, right, if we’re all being honest. With all the webinars I’ve attended, I took notes and adjusted my book preparation and presentation accordingly. I followed lots of advice from ‘proven’ kdp authors… still waiting for the fruitful results. 🤞

So, on Thursday, February 25, 2021, at 10:00 am, I joined another webinar I had registered for with kdp University titled ‘at home with Aja’. I grabbed my pen and paper, ready to get more ideas on how to move my self-published books ahead of the pack on Amazon, and visible to more readers. The webinar was a question-and-answer session.

This was the first time I listened to a webinar, and I rarely took notes. Why? I learned that Aja and I are on the same wavelength. Imagine my surprise that with over 6 billion people on the planet, I found my doppelganger on a webinar. How cool is that?

I found the following similarities between Aja and myself:

Aja finds inspiration in music and arts. I do the same, especially in music lyrics. ✔️

We are similar because writing has always been with and in her, and in me too. ✔️

One of her favorite authors is Beverly Jenkins, and mine is Beverly’s friend, Brenda Jackson. The two leading African American romance writers in the country. ✔️

Aja started by self-publishing her books; I did the same thing. ✔️

Aja uses the kdp platform, as do I. ✔️

Aja writes 6 books last year and her goal is to publish 4-6 books per year for ✔️ (I will self-publish my fourth novella in May).

Self-publishing involves both the writing and business parts, and Aja is still learning the business part, same as me. ✔️

Aja loves freedom of self-publishing, as I do. ✔️

Aja’s first book was self-published “Unexpected” a novella, mine was ‘Expelled From Hell’. ✔️

Marketing–one word she hates, and not great at. As am I.✔️

Aja shares visuals with readers on Social media… Facebook, Instagram. As do I. ✔️

She consistently shares her newsletter and puts it on your website. I do the same with my blog on my website). ✔️

There were, of course, some differences or sometimes things I’ve done differently.

Aja’s stories come through her characters first. She’s very visual, character-driven- different idea. I’m plot-driven, then my characters grow from the plot.

Aja started by writing blogs, while I did the opposite. I wrote my novellas first and started writing blogs as of a month ago.

Aja has a brand, while I’m working on mine. As a multi-genre writer, branding is hard for me.

Aja sends out newsletters twice a month, I currently write my blog once a week.

Aja offers a free book–I plan to do the same with sign-ups for my blog.

Aja’s promotional strategies and opportunities to get in front of readers include cross-promotion, paid promotional things like ads, e.g. Amazon ads.

More about Aja: The Winner of The Beverly Jenkins’s Author of The Year Award for 2020, A national best-selling author of women’s fiction stories that create realistic, passionate, and soulful interactions. Check out Aja on Youtube 

Aja is a talented writer, and I hope to be in her sphere soon.

Be good to each other.

Toodles!

Writer’s challenge: Write at the same time every day for one week.

Next Blog: Mentor - do you have to know them personally to be their ‘mentee’?

Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog.