Bootstrapping eBook Marketing/Promotion Advice – this is a long blog, chock-full of important and practical marketing and promotion strategies and tactics that really work – so buckle in and read this – it’s the real deal.
All of this is based on my forthcoming book:
Write Now! Write, Publish and Sell YOUR BOOK To Attract … New Clients, Well-Paying Expert Witness & Public Speaking Gigs … And Become a Subject Matter News Media Expert
Note: This blog contains the essentially verbatim advice I sent to a friend, the author of a new faith-based eBook that wasn’t selling as well as he’d hoped. He sent me a list of what he’s been doing to promote his book. I first critiqued his current approaches, then offered additional advice. As you read this, keep in mind that this is in the form of a discussion between me and the author. Also note that this blog is published with that author’s permission.
First, the book is apparently only available via Kindle. While Kindle is incredibly popular, this Kindle-only approach dramatically limits the market-ability of the book. I know what stats say about the number of books that are read electronically, but those stats are – at least in part – misleading. These stats includs all free downloads (assuming they’re even read), as well as all books that have been bought digitally to be read, but which never got read. For instance, I have bought more than 100 Kindle books from Amazon, but I’ve only read a dozen of them, cover-to-cover. The first one I read was 19 pages long (a 19-page book – imagine! ). Kindle doesn’t suggest or imply that a book is book-length, and that alone puts buyers on edge.
Here’s what can happen for a book launched only as an eBook. Note that it was not sold on Amazon, which was a huge impediment (I told the author it was a mistake, but he didn’t want to share royalties with Amazon). I launched a book at the National Press Club, and had 40 reporters and four TV crews there. I then got the book reviewed in the Washington Enquirer, I got the author on a cable business program and Sirius Satellite Radio, as well as via online print interviews. In total I secured at least 500 online press mentions (reviews, articles about the book or the launch, etc.) – others may have appeared after I did my Google review. I even got Greta van Susteren pissed at me over one of my launch tactics, teasing the book – and in this case, that should have boosted sales, as it put the book front-and-center in front of her fan-base and her anti-fan base (her website was, at that time, very confrontational).
For anything but a Stephen King book, that level of coverage, all of it within a three-day period, should have sent books skyrocketing. Except … the book was available initially only as a download. With but a single source and a single format, that eBook sold TEN copies. Ten. 10. As in “less than 11.” The author was so pleased with his success that I had to file two police reports concerning several death-threat emails he sent me. He chose to blame me, but keep in mind, I got 50x more press coverage than he got books sold. The usual ratio is 50x more books sold than press coverage generated. The reasons for this difference for a book that was (based on the media coverage) topical and timely were that it was only available as an eBook and only available on the author’s website. Kindle would have made the book much more salable, but the lack of a print-on-demand (POD) book also severely restricted sales. Some people still love paper instead of electrons.
I’m sure that’s not what you wanted to hear, but I think that’s important when you consider what you’ve done to sell your book. Having an eBook – even one on Kindle – rules out all readers who prefer paper over electrons.
Beyond that, here are some observations and questions.
- Sometimes, you can get fewer sales because of a low price – and for the quality of what you offer, I think your price is too low. That’s just a gut call, and really doesn’t have a lot to do with promotion – except that some media judge a book by its cover (price). A $4 book isn’t a serious book. I know your book is strong on humor, but you still want your target audience to take it seriously.
- You offered the book as a free download to four targeted audiences. Did any of them actually download it? If so, how many? Can you divide them by category? The reason I ask is that sometimes “free” does not impart value, which seems counter-indicated, but it’s another sad-but-true issue. However, with the proper promotion to your base (or to a base you buy for this occasion), you can use a free-day event to earn you an Amazon “Best Seller” flag, which remains forever on your book’s listing. That’s one of the best reasons for a free or a $0.99 day. Note: When I do this for my clients, my go-to-guy to get it done right is Richard McCartney. He’s the author of three on-target books on eBook promotions, which are (in my opinion) among the best in the field.
- I’m guessing that you didn’t “pre-sell” the book by asking any of the hosts, columnists, pastors or reporters if they’d like a copy before you sent it to them. People generally respond better to something they asked for or agreed to receive, rather than something that was given to them unbidden. At various times I’ve set myself up as a book reviewer, and I review books in the following hierarchy:
- First, those books that I asked for
- Next, those books from authors who contacted me, asking if I’d like to review it
- Books that come in over-the-transom
- Digital or eBooks
Yours was a blend – I almost never review eBooks, but you’re a friend, and you asked, so I did review it (and I’m glad I did). But as a “book guy,” I didn’t personally feel any sense of value to it – because it’s not a printed book. Still, it was a great read, very informative and entertaining.
- I’d be interested in the Google Ad Words you chose (and your success), as well as what you advertised, and where. I’ve had no luck advertising online – I’m a partner in a business that (as an experiment) bought a one-month ad in an online publication that has (for our market niche) a very high readership – and we got almost nothing back for our $350 investment. I think we paid about $40 per click-through. It was a big waste of money. However, Facebook boosts are low cost and often vastly expand your potential readership. Use the right Google Ad Words and the right Facebook boosts and you will get results.
Now for my recommendations. Some apply to your eBook, and some apply to my next recommendation (which is to get it printed by Amazon’s POD service, the KDP Print – CreateSpace is about to be buried, so don’t waste your time there). Let’s start with the best way of using social media to get your name and your book’s name out there.
- Begin blogging, based on the content of the book. Each blog should have a “excerpted from ___, available from Amazon” with a hot link
- For each blog, create a video blog on the same topic. Don’t “read” the blog on camera, but use a white board behind the camera with bullet points to help you keep focus. Keep video blogs from 90 seconds to 3 minutes, and post them on your website, but most especially on your YouTube network
- Find other blogs about your topic, and “haunt” them (read them closely) – then whenever you can, post a comment to every possible blog post. When you do this, post one of two ways:
- Agree with the author, but add two or three additional, reinforcing points; or,
- VERY respectfully and non-confrontationally, disagree with the author, then give two or three well-reasoned justifications for your alternative view on the subject
- On all your posts, note that you are the “author of ____, available on Amazon – follow me at …”
This is the only known and widely-accepted way of “borrowing” someone else’s followers, and this is highly ethical under the blogging rules of the road (if you do it right
- Follow the news – then, whenever you see a breaking news story that relates to one of the topics of your book (or of any chapter or sub-chapter), write a blog about it – about your “take” on the news issue, keeping in mind that you’re a book author, not a consultant. Then record a related video blog, too.
- Follow all the promotion steps below, that apply to all blogs and posts on others’ blogs, but do one more thing.
- Write to the producers of talk radio and talk TV (and to reporters and editors), and say the following: Regarding this breaking news story (briefly describe the news story), I can help you put it in perspective for your audience. I am (name), Author of “(title)” and you can see my “take” on this story (briefly describe) in my just-published blog and video blog here (url) and here (YouTube url). I am available to appear on your program (or be interviewed for your publication – online or offline).”
- If your comment on the breaking news story is really important, consider sending out a press release announcing it. Sure, that costs money, but it will also do wonders for your SEO, especially if you use one of the press release wire services, which have content aggregation agreements, meaning releases are automatically picked up by hundreds of news aggregator sites, from Yahoo Business to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. This will help get the word out, but do it sparingly for financial reasons.
- This is how I got on Neil Cavuto’s snd Imus’ programs 5x each during a recent election campaign. However, I published my blogs in American Thinker instead of my own website (that helped, but it was my message that was decisive). But you don’t have to do that to catch the media’s attention.
- Related, when you see an online news story, if it has a reader comment section, post an intelligent comment in that section, with a link to your blog and a mention of your book, with a link to Amazon.
- I do this (more or less) and continue to successfully promote a book originally published in 2003 by me and my late wife under her pen name. When it went out of print, the rights reverted to me, so I posted it on Amazon as an eBook. It’s a novelization of a true-fact UFO sighting/encounter in Kentucky in 1955 (my late wife had a relative who was involved in this bizarre incident), and whenever I see a UFO story in the news (and I get a Google topic-search on UFO each week), I wind up selling more eBooks. So it really does work, not just for generating news coverage, but for getting those who follow the news to find you.
- Promote each blog and video blog post (and all of your comments on others’ blog-posts) extensively on social media, (especially the ones you’re posting to focus on breaking news stories, but really, do it for all your blogs, video blogs, and comments on others’ blogs). Your promotion should include:
- Email – your “platform” – people who’ve given you their email address and agreed to receive emails from you – send them a blast, inviting them to check out what you’ve accomplished
- Facebook
- Don’t just post on your FB page – join every group you can think of and find that relates to your book topic, and post there. I currently maintain memberships in more than 100 Facebook Groups, half of which exist to help authors promote their books. Collectively, I can theoretically reach a million people, which is a huge “virtual platform”
- Don’t post exactly the same thing on each post – change the first sentence or first paragraph – VERY IMPORTANT – since some of your audience subscribes to more than one group, and will see an identical post multiple times and get turned off
- Again regarding multiple posts to different groups, space them out – no more than five at a time, and ideally with two hours between postings – in this way, members of multiple groups won’t get five or ten or twenty-five emails announcing your posts at the same time. That’s not (technically) spam, but it sure feels that way. I wrote a blog about this here. This is no-shit advice. Follow it or face the consequences (people will start ignoring you).
- Include a link – certainly back to your blog – but also include a link to the Amazon book sale page (the first link will have a mini-display illustration, so pick the link wisely)
- BTW – as noted above, I monitor more than 100 FB groups and I get measurable thousands of FB links back to our site whenever I do a post … but I spend the time to personalize the posts, usually by (in the opening sentence) alluding to how my topic aligns with the group’s topic
- Linkedin
- I don’t use Linkedin much, but they have groups, too – to maximize their use, do as suggested for FB (although the posting parameters are different)
- Twitter
- Make sure your Twitter account is linked back to your FB account
- ALSO, using Hootsuite, create a month’s worth of Twitter posts related to your book topic, but timeless – post 3x/day on weekdays, 2x on Saturday and 1x on Sunday – rotate them by time of day, keeping in mind time-zones (for the business day posts, stay within the 10-3 Eastern time to cover all major time zones – so like 10:38, 12:45, 2:15 (or something like that). Vary it each day. Use a #hashtag in each one to link to your book topic (when I do this, I begin each one with #PRPro)
- Then, because nobody archives or really remembers Tweets, keep recycling these, just vary the order (people tend to follow Twitter at certain times of day, but not others, so varying this will reach more people over time)
- Instagram
- Not being particularly visual, I never use the last two, but all the experts say you should, so I’ll tell you that, too
OK – that’s what you can do with PR and Social Networking.
Other things you can do include reaching out to organizations that have meetings, and pitch yourself as a speaker. Authors are generally more credible than non-authors as guest speakers.
Now, this leads to your need to have a printed book. With all the POD (Print On Demand) “publishers” out there, especially the new Kindle KDP Print, you can do this relatively inexpensively. As noted (and recommended ad nauseum), Amazon has a print-on-demand service you could use for very little money. If you want to be in bookstores or libraries, also have IngramSpark POD your books, (see below for more on this). You can do both (Amazon Kindle Print and IngramSpark), and should. There are lots of reasons for doing this, including:
- Lots of people like me value printed words on paper, and prefer books to eBooks. It will open your market.
- When you send out printed/published review books, it looks like you really have something (eBooks are just electrons, after all)
- You can autograph those books, which gives them added value (I don’t know why, but people really do like that)
- As noted, if you have your book produced by IngramSpark , your book can be picked up by any bookstore. They are owned by Ingram, the largest book distributor, and any book IS manufactures appears in the Ingram catalog –which means B&N can order it, Books-a-Million can order it, and every mom-and-pop store out there can order it, and libraries, too.
- If you have your book published by Amazon’s Kindle KDP Print you can get a discount price buying copies of your book for promotion and publication book review purposes. For my late wife’s and my UFO novel, when it was still in print, we could get review copies cheaper from Amazon (at retail) than we could from the publisher, with their “author’s discount.”
- If you have a printed book, join the Independent Book Publisher’s Association – it’s about $128 a year. They are basically a clearing house for publishing support services – but more important, they are set up to help self-publishers and micro-publishers to promote their books to libraries, bookstores and even foreign reprint markets. They have special promotional mailings to public libraries, for instance, or to specialty bookstores (including Religious/Christian). They also attend the major book fairs, and you can have your book on their display table, where bookstore buyers (and foreign rights buyers) can see it. They even do the American Booksellers Association annual event and the Frankfort Book Fair in Germany. All of these are fee-for-service, but they are inexpensive and cost-effective – I’ve been using them since the mid-90s, and clients have always enjoyed the benefits of their services.
- Whenever you travel, contact the local bookstores and chain stores and see if you can’t do a reading and autograph books. Then use your PR skills (or mine) to promote this, so you get an audience.
- Check out my blog on book publishing and promotion for more ideas: http://barnettonpublishing.blogspot.com/
I make part of my living helping authors do all of this – but they don’t have your PR skills, so there’s no reason I can think of (other than greed – mine) for you to retain me. But if you really insist, I’ll give you a good deal. But basically, if you follow my advice here, you’ll start moving books. These strategies really work, but (pardon the cliche) only if you work these strategies.
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