Selling Your Book In Today\'s Market

Copyright © 2011 by Philip Davis. All rights reserved.
Published by AlphaGraphics, Salt Lake City, UT
First Edition

ISBN 978-0-9832811-1-5

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted
under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written
permission of the Publisher. Requests to the publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal
Department, AlphaGraphics, Inc. 268 South State Street, Ste 300, Salt Lake City, UT 84111 (800) 955-6246.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts
in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy
or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of
merchantability or fitness of a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales
representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable
for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor
author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to
special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Promote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
a. Multi-channel marketing
b. Cross media marketing

Connect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
a. Who are the people most likely to buy your book?
b. Where can you find your customers?

Engage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
a. Igniting the conversation
b. Growing your opt-in mailing list
c. Creating call-to-action events

Delivering quality products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
a. Producing quality products
b. Repurposing to create multiple income streams

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Selling Books in
Today’s Market

Published by AlphaGraphics, Inc.

visit www .takeyourbooktomarket .com

To find out more about the Take Your Book to Market program

Introduction

Nearly universal literacy is a defining characteristic of today’s modern
civilization; nearly universal authorship will shape tomorrow’s.

Denis G. Pelli and Charles Bigelow,
http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/a_writing_revolution/

In 1440 Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press which allowed
authors and publishers the ability to distribute books to the masses. Prior to
1440, books were copied by hand, and as so few copies existed only the elite
were literate.

Like the Gutenberg press, the Internet is creating enormous changes to the
way we do business and communicate with each other. In the publishing
world, the Internet is enabling new marketing and distribution models.

While self-publishing has been around since the early days of printing,
ebook and print-on-demand self-publishing are two relatively new
publishing models. In fact, these two Internet-driven publishing models are
really new distribution models.

visit www .takeyourbooktomarket .com 1

The Print-on-Demand (POD) model began in the late 1990s when
Amazon introduced its online bookstore. POD companies realized that
mainstream publishers could only accommodate a small percentage of
authors so they built a publishing and distribution model to serve the
millions of authors not able to break into the mainstream.

In the past few years, ebook sales have begun to take off due largely to the
introduction of several popular ebook readers. Amazon led the charge with
its Kindle reader, and later Apple introduced its iPad and Barnes and Noble
released its Nook reader. In addition to these popular ebook readers, people
can use their smart phones today to read ebooks.

Among the nearly 2 million authors who self-publish each year is a segment of
authors called “entrepreneur authors.” These authors may use POD and book
distribution models, but they also require books printed in bulk, say 250 to
several thousand, so they can distribute these books directly through their own
website, at coaching events, at keynote speeches, in seminars and other direct
selling venues. Entrepreneur authors use a printing and fulfillment company
like AlphaGraphics to enable their direct selling efforts.

While authors today have many publishing and distribution options available
to them, they often find that getting their books published is the easy part.
Building awareness for their books, connecting with their target audiences
2 To find out more about the Take Your Book to Market program

and engaging their audiences to drive word-of-mouth sales is the biggest
challenge most authors face.

Here again, the Internet offers an opportunity. Authors today can use blogs to
launch blog book tours. Authors can create book trailers and distribute the trailer
videos on YouTube and a host of other video sites. Authors can create fan pages
on Facebook and get people to follow them on Twitter. The Internet, in fact,
offers authors so many channels to market their books that authors are often
confused as to which tactics to use to get the maximum benefit.

The solution to the book marketing confusion many authors face is to work
strategically. This small book introduces you to four key concepts that will
help you run more successful book marketing campaigns. These four concepts
form the foundation for a more comprehensive marketing program offered
exclusively through AlphaGraphics called Take Your Book to Market.

The Take Your Book to Market program introduces you to a simple seven-
step program to help you promote, connect, engage and deliver your book
to your target customers. Understanding these four concepts – promote,
connect, engage and deliver – is the key to selling books in today’s market.


Concept #1 – Promote
For most self-publishing authors, building awareness for their books is the
number one challenge they face once the book is published. Successful
marketers know that the key to building awareness for any product is getting
in front of their target audience multiple times. Traditionally, companies use
TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, Bus signs and a host of other channels
to promote their products. This type of marketing is called multi-channel
marketing.

However, these standard marketing channels are rarely used by mainstream
publishers to promote books because the return on investment just isn’t
strong enough to justify these channels. Just ask yourself the last time you
saw a TV ad for a new Stephen King or John Grisham novel. Mainstream
publishers have learned that best-selling authors are created through
passionate word-of-mouth advertising.

Luckily for both traditional and self-publishing authors alike, the Internet is
changing the playing field. Authors can now use Facebook, Twitter, personal
Blogs, YouTube and a host of other channels to build awareness for their
books and all these channels are free to use. Using these channels, authors
can connect with thousands of people in their target audience.


These Internet channels allow authors to launch multi-channel campaigns.
But these channels enable an even more powerful promotion technique
called cross-media marketing. Cross-media marketing is the art of
connecting all these channels together.

Here’s a simple illustration. Let’s say John has a book that teaches people
how to grow herbs in box gardens. John starts a blog to promote his book.
John also creates a Facebook fan page and a Twitter page. Every time John
writes a message on his blog, the message is automatically delivered to his
Facebook page and his Twitter account. People following him on these two
social networks see his message and are directed back to his blog to read the
article and leave comments.

John then creates a series of short videos to show people how to grow
herbs in box gardens. John creates a YouTube channel to host his videos
and he puts the videos on his blog which then distributes his videos to his
Facebook and Twitter sites. Everything John does is connected to give him
maximum reach.

Like traditional multi-channel marketing, John needs to get his message in
front of his target customers multiple times and he needs to use all the media
his target customers are using. John’s goal is to get people to visit his website


so they can buy a copy of his book. John is off to a good start, but now let’s
take his multi-channel, cross-media marketing campaign up a notch.

Now that John has his online presence in place and is selling books directly
from his website, he shifts his focus to some offline, direct selling tactics.
John approaches local nurseries and home supply stores and asks them if he
can do a book event. At his event he will demonstrate how to create herb
box gardens and he will have copies of his book to sell.

To motivate the local stores to work with him, he shows the store managers
all the people following him on his social networks. He explains how he
will announce his book events to these people and encourage them to
come to the event. John will also purchase a mailing list of people in his
target audience and run a direct mail campaign.

The direct mail motivates people to visit a personalized website where they
can take a short survey to receive a free gift. This gift might be a miniature
herb box or a free ebook on how to grow herb box gardens. When a
prospective customer takes this action, John captures the prospect’s email
address. John puts this data into an email program that allows him to send
automated messages to his prospects multiple times.


John has now created a solid multi-channel, cross-media marketing
foundation. With this foundation in place, John will be growing his database
of prospective book buyers, generating sales and, most importantly, creating
the opportunity for word-of-mouth advertising.

This simple illustration about John demonstrates that you have a wealth
of channels you can use to promote your book. Finding places on the
Internet to promote your book is the easy part. Even getting all these
channels to work together as a coordinated cross-media campaign is fairly
straight forward. The key to running successful multi-channel, cross-media
campaigns is connecting with the right people and engaging them to take the
actions you want them to take.


Concept # 2 – Connect
The new media available to authors today has some unique advantages over
traditional media. Not only can authors connect directly with their target
audiences, they can also connect with market influencers in their genre.

A “target audience” is defined by the Direct Marketing Association
(DMA) as:
A target audience is people of a certain age, group, gender, marital
status and other demographic data. A certain combination, like men
from twenty to thirty is often a target audience. Other groups, although
not the main focus, may also be interested. Discovering the appropriate
target market(s) and determining the target audience is one of the most
important activities in marketing management (Niewenhuizen, et. al.,
2000). The biggest mistake entrepreneurs are making is trying to reach
everybody which ends up appealing to no-one.

Effectively using the tools that help you connect with your audience requires
you to have a clear idea about your target customer. When defining your target
customer, think about the people who are most likely to buy your book.


By defining your target customer you will discover some unique marketing
channels that will help you grow your audience. For example, let’s say you
have a book on how to lose weight. You do some research and discover
there are 152 million US adults who are overweight or obese. You can say
that all overweight and obese people are your target audience and start
marketing to them, but what channels are you going to use? This question is
harder to answer if you have not narrowly defined your target audience.

Now let’s say that while it’s true that all overweight and obese people are
your target audience, you now narrow it down to the people most likely to
buy your book. After a little thinking, you conclude that 50 year-old women
living in the suburbs who make over $100,000 a year and have little time
to exercise are your ideal customers. With this definition of your target
audience, you can start looking for social networks that attract this type of
person: you can find groups on Facebook that attract this type of person;
and, you can write blog posts that appeal to this type of person.

Without a clear picture of who your target audience is you will struggle finding
the right marketing channels and creating the right messages. Another very
important point is that you need this target audience to love your book so much
they tell all their friends about your book. Best-sellers are created because a core
group of people like a book so much they start telling others about it.
Once you know who your ideal customer is, the next step is finding as many

of them as possible and getting them to buy and read your book. As there
are literally thousands of ways to find your target customers, the challenge is
deciding what tactics to use.

For example, consider these 20 marketing tactics:
1. Send free online press releases to get worldwide media attention
for your book
2. Do a book trailer and post on your web site and on YouTube
3. Get your book distributed in bookstores world wide
4. Get your book listed on Amazon.com
5. Place your book cover image on the flip side of your business card
6. Convert your book into an ebook
7. Get your book in the hands of the decision makers of book clubs
throughout the world
8. Sell books at the back-of-the room table after speaking
9. Offer buy two books, get one free promotions
10. Always leave a copy of your book on your dash board of car for
others to see
11. Place business cards with book cover displaying on all community
bulletin boards

12. Have friends sell your books at their point of purchase displays


13. Sell book to seminar companies who will give it away to attract
attendees
14. Partner with entrepreneurs who will give your book away in their
marketing efforts
15. Get your books in the hands of all top performers in MLM
(Multi-level marketing) companies
16. Sell books to corporations
17. Send out 5-10 review copies of your book daily to people who can
buy in volume
18. Send press releases of your book to newspapers
19. Send your book to editors of magazines to review
20. Write articles for magazines after editor reviews your book

These are examples of book marketing tactics used by authors all over the
world. You can find many other great ideas by just searching the Internet.
The million dollar question is, however, will these tactics produce the results
you want. Understanding the results you want to achieve will help you decide
what tactics to use.

Selling books in today’s market requires authors to think more strategically
about the book selling process. A key concept in the Take Your Book to
Market program is to shift your thinking from just selling books to growing a


strong author platform. Your platform is made up of both your audience –
or your database – and your credibility.

Selling is a numbers game. Ask yourself this question: What is the size of my
audience right now? When answering this question, think of the following:
• How many friends do I have on Facebook?
• How many people are following me on Twitter?
• How many email addresses do I have in my email account?
• How many people visit my website and/or blog?
• How many connections do I have on LinkedIn?
• How many other people am I connected to?

If you add all these people up you begin to get an idea of your audience – or,
in other words, your ‘reach’. What you want to do is increase this reach to
develop the largest pool of target customers possible, and you want to get
these people talking about your book.

Now let’s go back to those 20 book marketing ideas. Most authors use these
tactics with the single purpose of selling books. Selling books is, of course,
the primary purpose, but here’s where we want to challenge you to shift your
thinking. What if you were to deploy these 20 tactics with the primary purpose
of growing your opt-in mailing list?


An opt-in mailing list is a better definition of your audience than friends on
Facebook and followers on Twitter. For example, when a potential customer
“friends” you on Facebook, he or she has not given you permission to sell
your book to them. If you begin hitting your Facebook friends with messages
asking them to buy your book, chances are many of them will “de-friend”
you. So, your objective is to get your Facebook friends to visit your website.

Generally speaking, each of the 20 ideas listed above are focused solely on
selling books at a one-time event. Multi-Channel, Cross Media Marketing
(MCCM), on the other hand, has several objectives. The primary objectives
of MCCM campaigns are:
1. Grow a database to increase your reach
2. Generate leads
3. Send multiple messages to the target audience
4. Develop rapport
5. Engage the audience
6. Create referrals
7. Connect all the channels together – known as cross media


The sequence this model follows is:
Step 1: People find your website through social media,
publicity and direct selling.
Step 2: Once people are on your website they either take an
action you want them to take or they leave. When
they take an action like downloading a free product,
buying a product or contacting you, you now have
their email address and maybe other information
about them.
Step 3: Once you have a prospect’s email, your email
system sends an automated response asking your
prospect to opt-in to your database.
Step 4: Once you capture their data they become a member
of your tribe.
Step 5: With your prospects’ data, you can send automated
e-mails to move them through the sales cycle to
buy your book and other products, broadcast emails
about upcoming events and send direct mail pieces to
them if you have their mailing address. You will also
use social media at this step to announce your events.


An underlying concept in this process is permission-based marketing, a term
coined by marketing guru Seth Godin, the best-selling author of the book
Tribes, among others.

Having an audience of people who have given you their permission to
interact with them is powerful. How you choose to communicate with your
audience is a critical success factor. If you bombard your audience with
messages to buy your book, these people will most likely opt-out (remove
their permission) of your database. On the other hand, if you never ask for
the sale you will be the tribal leader of a worthless tribe.

With a foundation in place to capture and use your prospects’ data, you
can now focus your efforts on growing your database. The Take Your Book to
Market strategy advocates starting with the following four tactics:
• Social media marketing
• Publicity marketing
• Direct selling
• E-mail marketing

The sequence is to first build your online platform with social media,
blogging and publicity to drive leads to your website. With your online
processes running, the next step is to focus on direct selling, and a big part


of direct selling is to create customer-facing events. You then use email
marketing, direct mail and social media to get people to your events.

Your AlphaGraphics Marketing Communications Expert can assist you in
the execution of all of these strategies to connect with your audience.

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention broad-based distribution. One of
the first tactics many authors do is list their books with Amazon and Barnes
and Noble. When you list your book on Amazon then market your book
and tell people to go to Amazon to buy your book, what happens?

First, you did all the work getting people to buy your book, but Amazon
takes a percentage of the proceeds.

Second, Amazon has a program called ‘Buy X, Get Y.’ When you buy a
book on a particular subject on Amazon, Amazon recommends other books
on the same topic. Amazon keeps the customer data and cross-sells your
COMPETITORS’ products to YOUR customers.

These are two large distribution channels you can’t ignore, but let Amazon
and Barnes and Noble find customers for YOU. Then they deserve their cut.


Concept # 3 – Engage
The tools to run a successful multi-channel, cross-media marketing campaign
are accessible to every author and many authors are using these channels to
market their books with varying degrees of success. One reason an author
may not see the results he or she wants is that the author is not using the
channels in a coordinated fashion as we’ve discussed so far in this book.
Another reason may be the author is not effectively engaging his or her tribe.

While every authors has his or her own style, there are a few key points to
keep in mind as you engage with your audience:
1. Know your subject matter: As an author, you are an expert in your field.
Continually read books, blogs and news relevant to your subject matter.

2. Be relevant: Help your audience understand how your expertise
can be applied in their lives.

3. Be interesting: What is your target customer interested it? What
conversations are taking place on social networks that you can engage in
and get your audience to engage in with you?


4. Offer calls-to-action: Examples may include: take a quick online
survey; download a free ebook; or, submit questions to you via your
website or email.

5. Make compelling offers: Invite people to sign up for your free
e-newsletter, offer free webinars so people can learn more about your
subject matter, offer a free CD or DVD. People love free things and you
can provide free items for zero or little out-of-pocket expense.

One of the best ways you can engage with your audience is with a blog.
Your blog is your communication hub. As you constantly write about your
subject matter, search engines will begin to recognize your content. When
people search for your subject matter, these search engines will direct people
to your blog.

As a general rule, people will not stay on a website for long. They want to
get relevant and interesting information quickly.


For example, if you were to search the topic of how to write compelling
blog messages, you might find an article by Debra Murphy with Masterful
Marketing that provides the following list of tips to effective blogging:
1. Develop a List of Post Topics
2. Craft Post Titles that Get Attention
3. Write for Scanning, not Reading
4. Use a Casual and Friendly Tone
5. Link Out to Relevant Content
6. Eliminate Unnecessary Words
7. Stay on Topic

http://masterful-marketing.com/how-to-write-compelling-blog-posts/

Because Debra wrote an article that was relevant to the subject of writing
compelling blog messages, her article is highlighted in this book. Everyone
who receives a copy of this book will now be exposed to Debra’s website…
and yes, she sells books from her website, as well as asks people to connect
with her so she can send them emails about her coaching programs.


Concept #4 – Delivering Quality Products
The POD publishing companies helped spur on the growth of self-
publishing by offering authors a quick and affordable model to publish their
books. However, a negative result of the POD publishing model was that
the quality of books published by these companies was generally inferior to
books published through traditional publishing companies.

Delivering a quality book and other products is the most important element
to creating word-of- mouth advertising. The purpose of connecting and
engaging with people in your target audience is to get these core people
talking about your book to their friends. Without a quality book, fostering
word-of-mouth sales is difficult, if not impossible.

For the sake of this discussion, we’ll assume that all books are written
with valuable content for a particular target audience. The reason for this
assumption is that only you, the author, control the message if you are self-
publishing. Mainstream publishers get much more involved in the contents
of an author’s book, but if you are self-publishing you control the content.


So putting aside the content – or story or message if you will – the quality
of a book can be defined as follows:
1. A book that has been edited. Editing is not proofreading. Editing
is a creative process performed by a professional editor who has
experience in your genre. Editors offer suggestions on plot, message
and other elements of your book.

2. A book that has been proofread. Editors may catch many
grammatical and spelling errors, but they won’t catch them all. You
need at least one other set of eyes to go through your manuscript.
Proofreading is less creative and more technical. Proofreaders won’t
make suggestions, but rather just make sure your book is free of
misspelled words, typos and poor grammar.

3. A professional cover. A professional cover is one that appeals to
the right target customer and is designed by someone with experience
designing book covers.

4. Professional layout. The interior pages also need to be designed to fit
the target customer. Non-fiction books often have break-out text boxes and
graphics and novels use a certain font and spacing between the lines.


5. Quality printing and binding. Covers should be printed in color
and on a heavy coated stock. The covers should also be coated, either
with a UV coating or a gloss film lamination. The inside paper should
be on a heavier 60# offset stock. Your AlphaGraphics project manager
understands what it takes to produce a quality book and will guide you
through the process.

Remember, an author’s platform is made up of both audience and
credibility. If your book is riddled with errors or falls apart when a customer
opens it, your credibility will be damaged and your readers will most likely
not recommend your book to their peers.

Another important concept when it comes to delivering quality products
is that your book can be turned into multiple products. This concept is
referred to as “repurposing.” Repurposing is the process of taking your
book and turning it into several products: soft cover books, hard cover
books, ebooks and audio books.

You can also create workbooks, planners and CDs for your customers.

In addition, you can take the concepts in your book and create a coaching
course. This course may be a program you deliver through live seminars,


through online webinars, through online courses or through all three
products. You might also create T-Shirts, calendars and a host of other
consumer goods.

Creating multiple products for multiple income streams is an important
part of your marketing roadmap. Take Janet (real name not used), for
example. Janet came to us one day to help her print 250 copies of her
book on helping people improve their marriages through better financial
management. Janet’s research showed her that money, or rather, poor money
management, was the leading cause of divorce.

As we began working with Janet, it became clear that Janet’s expertise could
be turned into many different products. The first new product Janet created
was rewriting her current book. Janet had written her first book with women
as her target customer and the book’s cover design and the content itself
appealed to women. Janet wanted a book cover that also appealed to men
and she decided to “tweak” the contents a little to speak more to the men in
her target audience.


Over time we helped Janet create a host of products she had not envisioned
that first day she came to us to print her book. Here is the list of products
Janet created:
1. Perfect bound (soft cover) book targeted to women
2. Perfect bound book targeted to men
3. Audio book version of her book
4. An ebook
5. Subscription based website for continued education
6. Wall poster her customers use to see their financial plan at a glance

A year into her business Janet discovered that larger organizations were
interested in having her come in to speak about her program to their
employees. Employers know that the productivity of their employees
depends largely on how happy they are in their personal lives and that
financial stress at home can sometimes relate to poor productivity at work.

To meet this new market opportunity, Janet needed some additional products.
Following are some of the products Janet created:
1. A hard bound version of her book to present to company senior
executives
2. A step-by-step coaching program
3. A full-color workbook to use when coaching executives


4. A black and white version workbook when coaching managers and
other employees
5. A keynote speech presentation to use when presenting at company
functions

Janet’s book — her expertise — is a good fit for creating these types of
products. However, until we began exploring the possibilities with Janet,
she didn’t see these opportunities. Most books can be turned into multiple
products. For fiction writers the obvious channel for additional products are
writing more books or turning a current story into a series. However, most
fiction authors do a fair amount of research when creating their story and
it is possible that this research could be turned into a non-fiction book and
that non-fiction book could lead into yet other products.

The best way to create additional products is by listening to your customers.
Your multi-channel, cross media marketing plan allows you to get direct
feedback from your target audience. Successful entrepreneur authors spend time
listening to their audience. As you get feedback from your customers, you learn
of the needs they have and you get ideas for new books and other products.


Conclusion
Best-selling books are created primarily through word-of-mouth advertising.
The marketing channels available to authors today make it easy for people
to share books with their friends and peers. These 21st century marketing
tools, like social media and blogging, are free to use and therefore accessible
by all authors. The key, however, is to use these new channels strategically.

Strategically using the tools available to you today requires you to launch multi-
channel, cross-media marketing campaigns designed to connect you with your
target customers. Customers need to see your message multiple times before
they take action. All your marketing channels need to be connected together
for maximum benefit. In addition, authors today need to shift their focus from
just selling books to growing their permission-based email lists.

Just connecting with your target is not enough to sell books.
You also need to engage with your audience by writing relevant and
compelling messages. You need to make exciting offers that motivate your
customers to take the actions you want them to take. And most importantly,
you want your core segment of target customers to start talking about your
book and referring your book to their friends and peers.


Fostering word-of-mouth advertising relies heavily on the quality of
your book. Investing up-front to have your book edited, proofread and
professionally designed will pay huge dividends down the road. In addition,
the finished bound quality of your book reflects on your credibility.

This short book gave you an insight into the general concepts behind
the Take Your Book to Market program distributed exclusively through
AlphaGraphics.

To learn more about this product visit www.takeyourbooktomarket.com


Selling Your Book In Today\'s Market

Selling Your Book In Today\'s Market

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