Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was one semester away from my bachelor’s degree when I decided to start writing articles online. I got hooked on writing and, to my mother’s chagrin, dropped out of school. Was it the right decision? Who knows. It’s been fun, though.
I’ve written 8 books. My first book was about simulation theory – which is the idea that the entire universe is a computer simulation created by an advanced alien race. It’s a crazy sounding idea, I know, but I was fascinated by it and the pages wrote themselves.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My last book is The Power of Self-Awareness. It was inspired by my own lack of self-awareness, really. My understanding of reality has been proven wrong countless times. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing, in my opinion, your ability to accept the possibility that you are wrong is going to determine the quality of your life. Intellectual rigidity leads people to make terrible mistakes. When we get caught up in our we can’t see the problems in our life objectively.
People who can admit when they are wrong get much further in life than those who cannot. Unfortunately, we all think we’re self-aware and honest with ourselves, even if we’re not. That’s why I wrote the Power of Self-Awareness.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I use the app Cold Turkey to block Youtube/Hulu/Netflix etc. during the day – otherwise I wouldn’t get much writing done.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness showed me that a psychology book can be hilarious. Mark Manson, author of the Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck, taught me how to explain complicated concepts in a way that anyone (even me) can understand.
What are you working on now?
I’m considering writing a book called “Kill Yourself: The Secret To Lasting Fulfillment” – the title is meant to be provocative, but it may be TOO provocative.
The book is about how the ego controls our life and prevents us from being happy or even successful.
Other than that, I just started building a publication on Medium called “The Upward Spiral”, you can check it out, here: https://medium.com/the-upward-spiral
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Hopefully Awesomegang.com!
Giving my subscribers free copies of my book has been a useful way to get some reviews.
In terms of promoting, the most effective method for me has been writing articles that target low-competition keywords (that are related to the topic of the book). At the end of the article, I mention how the book takes what you learned in the article to the next level. Some people buy it, it’s pretty cool.
I use the Firefox addon, Keywords Everywhere to find SEO terms. You type something like, “How to open a pickle jar,” and it’ll show you how many people search that term per month while also showing you similar keywords and how much traffic they get.
Reddit has also helped me get traffic. One of my articles got me 50 new email subscribers in two days – but afterwards, I got banned for self-promoting. You can share your articles/videos on a lot of different subreddits, but you have to share other content so you don’t get in trouble for spamming.
Quora is also good for generating traffic. If one of your answers goes “viral” it will get you a lot of traffic. The basic strategy is to just post an answer on Quora and to have a link to your website/book/etc. at the bottom of your answer (obviously the content you’re linking should be relevant to the answer).
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Get feedback. If you’re not getting feedback for your writing, you’re a hobbyist. And that’s fine, but if you want to make money as a writer, you’re going to have to put it in front of people to be judged.
If someone criticizes your work, don’t get defensive. Ask them to explain why they don’t like your work as specifically as possible. You may determine their feedback is B.S., but you may also gain some incredibly valuable information.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“I’m not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be outworked. Period. You might have more talent than me. You might be smarter than me. And you may be sexier than me. But if we get on a treadmill together there’s two things that’ll happen. You are going to get off first or I’m going to die. It’s really that simple. I’m not going to be outworked.” – Will Smith.
What are you reading now?
The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts.
The Upside of Stress by Kelly McGonigal (not the professor from Harry Potter).
What’s next for you as a writer?
Writing books, mostly.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
– “How To Get Unstranded.” (Hopefully it wouldn’t involve building a boat out of wood.)
– A really large Encyclopedia that I could use to make a smoke signal to get the attention of passing ships.
– “How To Have Interesting Conversations With Imaginary Friends” (I would need to pass the time somehow).
Author Websites and Profiles
Avery Hayden Website