Posted on 11/06/2014 9:34:45 AM PST by Controlling Legal Authority
I know that some freepers here have written books that have done well. November is National Adoption Month and, surprise, I have written a book about adoption. Currently it is only in ebook format. Do any of the authors here have suggestions as to how an unknown author would go about promoting an ebook?
Wear a sandwich board everywhere you go.
Several things:
First, I hope it is not free!
Second, I hope you have a grabby title. Thirdly, I hope you have a grabby title, and fourth, I hope you have a grabby title.
Have you investigated the Amazon connection on this? They may take 35% (I think) but the remaining 65% on hundreds of thousands of copies could be a serious wad in your pocket.
Do you have a blog? Be an only slightly obnoxious blogpimp.
If you have no blog and no intent to create/maintain one (it IS work) then comment on other peoples’ topic-similar blogs and if you are too shy to promote your item directly, then try to incorporate phrases particularly if the appear in your title. You sell 25K ebooks for $3 (cup of coffee = a no think transaction) and Amazon takes a buck, you could make $50K. Yes you could. it is a FABULOUS business if you can get it going and they do all the work for you.
Above all...spend some time on the title! The title could be wroth several tens of thousands of dollars to you.
And start writing your next one!
Facebook. Find pages devoted to adoption and push it. It works. I got a book deal with a publisher from Facebook networking. Also set up a page of your own book and reach out to friends and family. Good luck!
It takes time to make Goodreads work for you, but it is where a huge chunk of the ebook action is:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/how_to
You just did. Tell us more.
Matt Bracken aka Travis McGee has written several thrillers about a corrupt government that sells the people out.
Here is the first: http://www.amazon.com/Enemies-Foreign-Domestic-Matthew-Bracken/dp/0972831010
You could also try Clickbank which lists and sells digital products. Basically, you list your ebook and other people can sell it on the net through various techniques such as blogs, websites, Facebook, etc. You’re probably going to want a webstie with a sales page for the book as well.
The most successful people on clickbank have some sort of joint venture going with other publishers however. So, you may want to explore those options first and then launch it on clickbank.
I consider Travis McGee to be a foremost authority on this subject (but only after I bought all of his books on Amazon!)
I promote my physical book by writing articles for related blog sites. Also, another great idea is to participate on podcast interviews. And of course having a web site is also important.
Stick something in your tagline for a start.
My understanding is that Clickbank is more or less a bank. it can act as a receptacle into which your publishing millions are dumped, once people make the decision to buy same, but it is not “where people would go” to “look for books”. Where people “go to look for books” is obviously Amazon, but even better if there is catchiness to the title that IMMEDIATELY implants the idea that the contents of the book are pain relief.
One of the principles of modern selling is that people buy pain relief. They do not buy the actual thing that moves over the counter. People do not buy electric drills: They buy the freedom to place holes in things.
So the idea of such an ebook (to me, to my way of thinking) is to allow people to come (on their own) to the conclusion that the info contained in the book is the solution to their problem or their curiosity and besides, it’s a lousy $3. so what do you have to lose?
Multiply that * 100K and the author becomes reasonably wealthy.
Go to fiverr and google amazon reviews...I believe you can still buy them there as well if you want to add a few reviews as well. There is also a fiverr gig where you can pay someone to promote your book.
Setup google alerts for your keywords and post about the free download to as many sites as possible.
Laz you have an ebook?
Pinging Travis
Ok, to kill two responses with one stone (sort of) here we go. It is called Adoption Today, written about what really goes on in the adoption process these days.
No, it’s not a bank. It’s primary function is to act as a broker between marketers and publishers and provide order fulfillment on the back end.
For a $3 price tag however, you’re better off giving it away to build some future sale. Seriously, why would you bargain bin price something before it even hits the market?
“Seriously, why would you bargain bin price something before it even hits the market?’
This is what ebooks sell for. A BIG part of the idea is that people buy these things in mass qtys to dnload to their Kindles or ipads to read on the way to work, on the subway, and $3 is a no-brainer purchase. What are you thinking, $17.95? The purpose is to sell 65K copies @ $3 (net $2 each) instead of 3500 copies @ net $3-5 each and to be utterly free of (physical book) publisher involvement.
That’s just how I see it. I am not an expert marketer, but I do not think that a (physical) book publisher puts a book out there are test markets it for $17.95, then $13.95, then $8.95, then $4.95, then to the stacks at Costco or the dollar store. Retail space in a B&N or Borders is not like that; it gets a certain window to move and if no go, it gets dumped. And the chances of a first time author to get such exposure could be close to zero. But I don’t know that from personal experience. The whole idea of the internet phenom is to generate buzz and have masses and masses of people buy something all in a wave while it’s hot. When that wave passes, maybe he sells it for 99 cents and makes $750 a month on it.
Well, I’ve been a fairly successful internet marketer for almost 15 years. I understand the numbers. That’s about all I do. eBooks can sell for much more because they’re actually marketed. Even though I don’t deal with digital products anymore, I can tell you that the most successful eBooks have professional marketers behind them. I’ve talked to people who have had 7 figure eBook launches for crappy, rehashed content.
And, people aren’t necessarily interested in wasting their time or money on a new product they consider cheap and worthless even if it’s low priced. You might think that people say, “well its only $3, what do I have to lose” but they really don’t.
And, I’m not talking about testing markets by lowering prices. People buy from bargain bins because it contains products that were once hot sellers that have positive reviews or “buzz.” Starting out at that price for something people have never heard of and they will say, “eh, what good could it be.” That’s why I suggested you just give it away for free and collect email addresses for future promotions. People will take free things in exchange for email addresses. I do suggest you build a website about abortion with a sales page for the eBook before doing anything.
Good luck with it.
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