I’m often asked:

If you only had the time, energy and money to do one thing to market your book, what would it be?

Simple answer…write the living daylights out of the book. There seems to be a growing ethic, especially in the world of information and the internet, that good enough is good enough. That you should make it a slight bit better and a whole lot longer than a brochure, then focus the real effort on getting the word out.

Bullshit!

If your benchmark is good enough, and you really want to sell a truckload of books…might I suggest some antipsychotics?

Good enough won’t cut it. Nor will really friggin’ good. Or, even borderline great. You’ve got one shot in a sea of 500,000 books to leave people breathless. And, all the marketing on the planet won’t turn a good enough effort into an enduring homerun. Sure, you can drop a mint to force sales in the beginning, but to what end? To watch your sales vanish the day after your ad-blitz wraps?

Write because you give so much of a damn, you can’t stop thinking about your book. Write because your heart tells you it’s a soulful, cognitive or moral imperative. Write because God told you this is why you’re here. Write because there’s something that’s gotta get out that nobody else can say. Write because you’ve got something to say that will leave people changed.

But, more than anything else, write the #$@% out of your book.

Write to blow minds, rip open closed hearts, illuminate the human condition or otherwise move life’s needle forward in a profound way.

Write as if this is your last book. Ever. Your legacy.

That’s what I’d do if I could only do one thing.

Today, I’m sharing a quick roundup of one cool book marketing campaign that’s going on right now and two great resources:

1. Book Marketing By Handing Your Cover Over to Your Tribe – David Wood gets creative with his book marketing by bringing his readers in to help choose the cover. Noted speaker, trainer and coach, David Wood is a little more than a month away from launching his new book, Get Paid For Who You Are. And, he’s done something pretty cool as a book marketing strategy to build buzz, involve his tribe and help assure a big release.

David is giving his tribe a chance to vote on the cover of the book, then get a free copy as a thank you for voting. He started out with a bunch of different covers and is now down to the top two.

So, if you’re inclined, go vote for David’s cover, then follow what he’s doing to roll-out the book. If nothing else, you’ll something from a pretty good marketer.

2. Seth Godin Talks About Leveraging eBooks and iPads to Market Books – Seth Godin, who you should be following if you want to watch leading edge tribal author marketers, just released his new book, Linchpin. The book’s great, but, even better, he’s once again set the bar for online-only launch strategy, releasing review copies only to online media, then organizing more than 50 coordinated posts, interview and videos.

Recently, the The Reading Edge Podcast had Seth on to talk about book marketing and what he did to launch Linchpin. But, Seth spent the majority of the time laying out some powerful next generation ebook publication and marketing strategies.

Go give it a listen.

3. Chris Brogan Talks Book Marketing – Chris did a great interview about how authors can build online listening stations and build relationships using social media. I love how he focuses on the relationship as the core, rather than the technology.

Great tips, go check it out.

I recently had the chance to jump on skype with my friend and bestselling author, Jennifer Louden. We spent 40 minutes talking about he she’s built a bigger business around her core love of writing books that’s kept her supported for almost 20 years. Here’s what unfolded in that conversation…

Learn more about Jennifer, her books and very cool upcoming virtual retreats and live events at JenniferLouden.com and ComfortQueen.com.

There’s been a lot of talk about how to leverage the single hottest growth sector in both software, portability, ease of access and mass adoption to sell more books.

How can we tap apps, more specifically iphone apps to condition the market, build buzz, push pre-orders, then drive sales?

The answer is still evolving, but today, eBookNewser shared a fascinating insight about the Wallace & Gromit claymation comic app that may hold tremendous insight:

…Wallace & Gromit, that claymation pair–a cheese addict and his dog. Of course, they’ve got an iPhone app or two–comics–and one of them, the free one, called ‘The W Files,’ has hit half a million downloads since its launch on November 7. According to a press release from the publisher, Titan, the app is number one in the UK free books app store, as well as in the US and Canada. Other issues of the comic are available for $.99 in the App Store.

Classic “free-first” funnel. The first one is free and it’s downloaded half a million times in 7 weeks. And, as the download page states, it’s only free “for a limited time!” It will be interesting to keep an eye on how many people convert from the first free episode to future paid ones.

And, it makes you wonder how to potentially tap the app market as a way to offer something for free that has a high perceived value as a way to not only build interest and reciprocity, but be able to get mass distribution, branding and have the potential to reach back out to a potentially massive pool of people to announce upgrades, more free stuff or the launch of the actual book.

I’ll definitely be brainstorming potential apps in advance of my next book.

How about you?

Everyone’s clamoring about the rise of the Indie author. Editors, designers, publicists, printers and even sales people can be hired. Real ones. Good ones. Often the very same ones you’d have worked with in house.

Couple that with blended printing and distribution channels, like LightningSource, who’ll spank out print on demand books so fast, they’ll let your book remain listed as in-stock online, and you’ve got a recipe for Indie author world domination, right?

Not so fast…

There are still a few major missing pieces of the puzzle.

1. Distribution.

It’s true, more and more sales are being funneled through online channels and ebooks are fast growing into the real elements of the bookselling mix. But, traditional publishing is still the fastest and easiest way to get your book on the shelves of the big box stores. And, those shelves, revered or reviled, still sell a ton of books every year.

Not that it’s impossible to get books there yourself. Build a strong enough platform to push your book to the top of amazon and bn.com for a few weeks or months and fuel an endless sea of people to badger local managers enough, you’re very likely going to end up on the shelves. Slowly, but surely. It’s doable. Witness Peter Bowerman and his still indie, yet widely distributed and always stocked Well-Fed Writer series.

2. Mega-Filters.

Here’s where one of the real value propositions of traditional Publishing is right now. It may not be there tomorrow, but for now, a book that’s out from a major publisher AND is on brick and mortar shelves is assumed to have been vetted and filtered. Meaning, it’s worth the read.

Is that assumption always true? Not a chance.

But, in a world where we’re constantly bombarded by millions of bits and bytes of shiny new units of information and entertainment, filters have value. And, a lot of it. If something comes out from one of the bigs, we’re often more inclined to pony up our precious minutes and dollars.

But, here’s the thing about filters. Used to be, the houses themselves were the ultimate filter and the major newspaper book section and occasional magazine served as second-level vetting engines. But, nowadays, the filtering function is becoming massively diluted by websites and bloggers.

And, here’s my prediction, as more and more great authors go indie, the most powerful people in publishing will be the marketing-minded authors and filters. Because, properly armed, authors can build an army of evangelists, hire a production team and the right filters can help drive enough buzz and sales to allow you to back your way into brick and mortar distribution.

3. Pay to Play.

This is still a major benefit for a lot of authors. With traditional publishing, you get your money on the front end, instead of the back end. Publishers have essentially become joint venture partners. Authors create the product, publishers fund the venture, pay along the way for development and roll-out, then have a substantial say in the the way the product is packaged and brought to market.

For a lot of authors, there is still a lot of value there. The vast majority of authors I know would still opt for an advance, even when $40 large is the new $75 large. Because they’re not venture-minded. They’re fundamentally risk averse.

But, with an estimated 70-80% fail rate, you’ve gotta ask why publishers keep on funding so many projects by authors who want only to write, then walk away. Name me one VC who’ll write a check to a start-up when the team launching the business openly proclaims wanting nothing to do with the business after the product has launched.

Yes, I get that most authors just want to write and cringe at the thought of platform building or marketing. I want to live in 3,000 square foot photo loft in the West Village for $600 a month. Doesn’t mean I can. The world is changing in a profound way. Publishers are struggling to find their place in the new book economy and will very likely have to endure huge, painful change.

But, it’s not all about the publishers.

Authors, yes, we who love nothing more than to craft great stories and change the world, need to own up to a new writing economy, too. We need to do what’s necessary to own not only our craft, but our businesses and lives. Because, rare will be the 21st century hermetic author who lives beyond the life of an ascetic scribe.

Truth is, nobody in the world of books and publishing has all the answers right now, save one.

Those who bury their heads in the sand will surely end up buried.

Question is, how far down the Indie rabbit hole are you ready to go?

It’s the rally cry of publishers, Want a book deal? Show me your platform.

If only they knew how easy it’s become to fake a monster platform in a 2.0 world…

A few years back, proving your platform meant whipping out your big black book of media clipping. You know, the ones that proved you could get into the media at will. Not any more. Now, publishers want to see a different set of metrics.

But, many publishers don’t realize in today’s digital world…platforms can be faked.

Why and how, you ask? The answer to why is money. Bigger platforms lead to the attention of bigger publishers and very likely bigger advances. The how, though, is a bit more complex.

When editors and agents talk platform, what they are really asking in the 2.0 age is:

• How many people are on your email list or subscriber to your blog?
• How many followers do you have on twitter?
• How many Facebook friends or fans do you have?
• How much monthly traffic do you get?

Problem is, the answer to all of those questions can be easily faked. Here’s how…

The art of building a big, worthless list.

There are a million ways to drive people to your email list. Most often, it involves some variable of creating valuable content, then adding an opt-in form on a landing page, web-page or blog page and relying on some combination of advertising, organic search and social media to drive traffic to the page with the form. The value and relevance of your content, bundled with a strongly worded offer and even a relevant giveaway to incentivize subscribing will build a nice sized, genuinely interested list. But, it’ll take time.

So, what if you wanted to build your list to a giant size faster in the hope of landing a bigger deal?

No problem. There are plenty of ways to essentially buy a list that appears to be yours, but has very little loyalty or genuine interest in you or what you write about. Two examples include co-reg and bundling irrelevant yet irresistible offers.

Co-reg, which is short for co-registration is the fine art of paying to have an offer listed on someone else’s confirmation page that asks a viewer to sign up for your list at the same time they’re signing up for someone else’s list (there are many variations on this, too). You usually pay 25 cents to a dollar for each name. At 25 cents a name, then, you can buy yourself 50,000 subscribers for $12,500 fairly quickly. Plunk down $40 large and you’ve got a seemingly monster 100,000 person list.

Problem is, lists built this way are often one ER room “clear!” away from needing to be resuscitated. Not always, but often. Because they’re based not on a deliberate decision to get more of what they came for, but rather a spontaneous decision not to uncheck a box that subscribes them to your list.

Bundling an irrelevant yet irresistible offer with a request to subscribe nets you a similarly large, but worthless list. Here, you offer viewers the chance to win some outrageously appealing prize for simply subscribing, even though the prize bears no relation to the topic you write about. I wonder how many people, for example, would pony up their email addresses for the chance to win a Macbook Air, roundtrip flight anywhere in the world or $1,000 amazon gift card? Hmmm, let’s just say thousands of people would be tripping over each other. And, if you let people accumulate more entries by not only subscribing, but then evangelizing your giveaway across social media, your list grows even faster.

But, here’s the problem…just like with co-reg, the list gets giant fast, but it’s often useless, because the people don’t really want to be on your list or care what you write about. They just want to win a prize. So, when it comes time to market your book, you’re efforts fall largely on deaf ears. Plus, by then, you may be considered a spammer and reviled by the larger social media community for pushing people to pimp your earlier list building efforts.

So, if publishers are looking to reduce their risk exposure by going after writers with bigger lists, it’s not enough to know the size, they’ve also got to know:

• How those lists were built,
• What the average open rate is (a measure of responsiveness),
• What the average click thru rate is for any included links or offers (measure of engagement), and
• What the unsubscribe and spam notification rates are per message

But, what about traffic?

Doesn’t a high traffic blog or website betoken a popular content creator?

Maybe. If the traffic is generated largely by direct links, organic search and social media linking to high-value content. BUT, just like you can buy names for your list, you can also buy traffic. Pay per click is the most popular option, but let’s looks at an even less well known play. StumbleAds, for example, will include your page in it’s database. Then, for 5 cents a pageview, your page gets displayed when a web surfer clicks on a browser button that auto-feeds new pages which are supposed to be relevant to a stated preference.

This can generate a ton of pageviews for you in a short period of time.

But, the truth is most people speed-click that button like an ADHD 11 year old playing Asteroids in a 1979 pizza shop. The pages fly past in a second or two, and though the viewer did not consciously seek out the specific website or page, it counts as a hit in your web stats. Five grand will get you 100,000 views. And most of those people will never come back. They’ll be largely worthless from the standpoint of building a loyal devoted community of potential book buyers. But, they’ll bump your stats nicely.

So, publishers need to drill down beyond unique visits and pageviews and ask:

• Where is your traffic coming from?
• What is the bounce rate?
• What is the average time on site?
• What percentage convert to your list? And,
• What percentage come back and how often?

Same thing with twitter.

Ever hear the word “churn?” It means something nefarious in nearly every context, save the rarified art of making butter by hand. On twitter it means following large numbers of people, knowing that a certain percentage will follow you back even though they couldn’t give a damn who you are, simply because they want to be known as someone who “autofollows” so more people will follow them. Then, a few days later, unfollowing anyone who hasnt’ followed you back and starting over.

Twitter hates this, but they still permit a certain below-the-threshold level. And, churning can build a ton of followers fairly quickly. But, again, a following created largely through churn is a following that doesn’t have significant value in the context of marketing your book. Because they’re not following you in panting desperation for your next morsel of linguistic loveliness, they’re following you because they want more followers themselves.

Other examples and tactics abound, but I think we’re all getting the point here.

Numbers do not automatically translate to engagement and value from a book marketing standpoint.

Nor do they reveal what is often the more powerful aspect of a 2.0 savvy author’s platform…who else they know.

When I launched Career Renegade in January 2009, I had a smallish, but incredibly devoted blogging and twitter community. Generated by real, live hard work, a quest to create and share high-value content and build interesting conversations around it. But, I’d also developed a deep set of relationships with many people, including a largish handful of influential bloggers whose platforms made mine look silly. And, because these relationships were genuine and not merely built for the purpose of commercial exploitation, when my book launched, many of them enjoyed it and shared their thoughts on their blogs, exposing it to millions of viewers.

You can’t fake that. And, you can’t measure that up front. It didn’t appear in any numbers.

So, two pieces of advice…

• Authors - build a REAL following of people defined by mutual adoration and a shared love the content, the conversation and the ideas you bring to life. And, spend time developing, genuine relationships with like-minded people across the social web.
• Publishers - if you’re purpose in signing writers with platforms is to lower your risk of loss and increase potential book sales, stop chasing numbers and start asking where those numbers came from.

Kapish?

Book | The Art of Manliness
Tribe | ArtofManliness.com

Husband and wife team Kate and Brett McKay started the Art of Manliness blog back in 2008 while Brett was a second year law student. In two years they’ve attracted over 50,000 subscribers and their site receives over a million page views a month.

In addition to developing a large blog following, the McKay’s worked hard to create a tight knit and active Ning community. The Art of Manliness Community boasts over 5,000 members. The members are the site’s biggest fans and evangelists.

The McKay’s also worked on developing an Art of Manliness presence in other areas of the web like Facebook and Twitter. Their Art of Manliness Facebook Page has over 6,000 fans and they have thousands of Twitter followers.

When the McKay’s published their book, The Art of Manliness: Classic Skills and Manners for the Modern Man in the fall of 2009, they leveraged the community and network they had nurtured for the past two years to get the word out about the book. Readers were invited to blog about the book, request the book at their local bookstores, and put an overlay of the book on their Twitter avatars.

To help drive up sales when the book was launched, the McKay’s offered a free 72 page ebook called Man’s Guide to Holidays to customers who bought a book in the first week. The promotion was a success and The Art of Manliness book reached #33 on Amazon.com bestseller’s list. Since the initial launch, The Art of Manliness book has been hovering around #1,000 on Amazon’s bestseller list.

The McKay’s plan to give the book another push in a few weeks. Teaming up with Saddleback Leather company, they plan to hold a contest called “Where in the World is the Art of Manliness?” in which entrants can submit pictures of themselves reading the Art of Manliness book in interesting and manly places. The contest is designed to promote the book and encourage those who haven’t yet bought a copy to do so in hopes of winning one of Saddleback’s highly sought after leather bags.

]]> http://tribalauthor.com/book-marketing-case-study-mckay/feed/ 1 http://tribalauthor.com/book-marketing-case-study-mckay/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TribalAuthor/~3/WItRaULL0YM/ http://tribalauthor.com/book-marketing-call-how-to-drive-book-pre-sale-orders/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:00:26 +0000 admin http://tribalauthor.com/?p=366

When I released The Truth About Book Marketing last month, I included a few tidbits how about how I pre-sold a serious chunk of books before Career Renegade was ever released, leading my publisher to increase the initial print-run by more than 50%. I’ve also discovered that online pre-orders may be a big factor in your ability to increase brick & mortar bookseller orders and distribution, too.

Since then, a lot of people have asked me to share what I did and why in a lot more detail, so I’ve decided to share more in a totally-free, 1-hour conference call on Tuesday night (yes, tomorrow). And, if I have time, I’ll also talk a little about what some other authors I know are doing to pre-sell books.

Here are the details:

Free Call: How To Pre-Sell Books & Get Bookstores Onboard

• Date | Time: Tuesday, 10/27 at 7pm EST (NYC time)
• Call-in Details:
  • Call #: (712) 432-1699
  • ID code:  530844#

The call is totally free (except for your standard long-distance fees, if you don’t have unlimited calling), but the lines will be limited, so you’ll probably want to mark your calendar and call in at least a few minutes early to make sure you don’t get bumped.

I’ll be sure to leave time at the end for Q&A, too.

Talk to you tomorrow!

Want to get an instant eye-roll from a traditional book editor or reviewer?

Just say the words, “self-published.” Not that there aren’t killer books that go the self-publishing route, we’ve all heard about the monster bestsellers that started out that way. But, for the most part, self-publishing still gets a bum rap. And, truthfully, much of it is deserved. Especially now.

Because technology has made it so simple and affordable for anyone with an idea to turn it into a book. And just like a paintbrush and a canvas doesn’t an artist make, an idea and a keyboard doesn’t an author make. Most self-published books are, well, um, not good. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be written, though. If you’re drawn to write and you love the process, go ahead and write. And, if you want to see your labor turned into a book, go ahead and print it. Won’t cost you much these days. But, there’s often a huge difference between the product that’s the result of your own edification and the one that survives editorial acquisition, development and scrutiny.

Which is why self-publishing has gotten such a bum rap…until now.

Enter IndieReader.com, the brainchild of traditionally and self-published author and publicist, Amy Edelman. Edelman’s vision is to create an online hub that spotlights the best of the best in the world of self-published books and give readers a high-quality alternative source of great books from standout self-published authors.

Edelman shares,

“What so many people don’t realize is that self-pubbed writers are not a group of frustrated, no-talent writers. Rather they include established authors like Stephen King, intellectuals like Noam Chomsky and Lisa Genova and Brunonia Barry, writers who couldn’t find anyone to publish their books, did it themselves, and landed on the NY Times bestseller list. It is my belief that there are many more great works and writers out there, just waiting to be found by adventurous readers.”

Edelman does concede, though, there is geometrically more noise in the self-publishing world than signal.

Which is precisely where IndieReader.com adds value to the process.

On the author side, IndieReader charges authors a $99 annual fee, which includes a $25, non-refundable submission fee (much like film competitions and colleges). If your book is not accepted onto the site, you get all but the $25 back. The fee covers the time it takes to do reviews, maintain and publicize the site. In return for the fee, authors get their own web pages on IndieReader.com to sell their books and the IndieReader.com crew works hard to establish themselves as the premier destination on the web for great indie books.

On the consumer side, readers know that the self-published authors who “make the IndieReader.com grade” have been vetted, hand-picked and anointed cream of the crop. Which begs the question, exactly who IS this mystery board of self-publishing tastemakers and why should we listen to them?

The core group includes Edelman, who is herself a big-house and self-published author, publicist, PR/Marketing Director, Claire McKinney, also a former acquisitions editor from a mid-size house, and Editorial Director, Carrie Cantor.

All have strong editorial experience and years of understanding both what’s good and what readers value. But, Edelman is quick to point out,

“we are absolutely NOT replicating the kind of vetting process that publishers do. The primary focus in mainstream publishing is not so much on the quality of a book or the information it offers but rather on whether it has a market of a particular size that can be easily reached and whether the author has a substantial “platform.” At IR, our one criterion is: Does the book offer something of value to some readers? We do not consider the marketability of the book at all. We are looking only at its content.”

With an estimated 200,000-300,000 largely unedited and unvetted self-published books flooding the market every year, sites like IndieReader.com offer a strong value proposition. They give book lovers who seek to support undiscovered, talented writers a way to wade into the waters without spending all their time dodging duds.

A few days ago, I get a call from an acquaintance who’s looking to put out a book. The idea behind it is, according to all in the know, stunning. A virtual guaranteed bestseller. I haven’t seen it yet, but going on the quality of this guy’s ideas, I’m betting it’s good.

So, he fleshes it out, gets the proposal done, then hands it over to his agent. She reads it. It’s good. But, before she’ll shop it around, she tells him, “Here’s the deal. Advances have gotten a lot smaller since the time we first talked. A lot smaller. For this to be worth our while, I just need you to do one more thing. Go make some videos, put up a blog and get yourself viral. Then, we’ll get the advance we need. Kapish?”

Hmmm, well if kapish translates to WTF, then kapish it is.

I’ve talked to a lot of authors about building digital platforms over the last two years, spent gobs of time building my own and deconstructing others. I’ve even created content that’s gone “modestly” viral. And, through this process, two things have become patently obvious.

One, those who tell you “you need to make something that’s gonna go viral” don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. There is no magic formula, no button you get to push and nobody you pay to get there. You have control over what you create, but the world has control over how far and how fast your creation travels. And, two, the more you make something with the express purpose of “going viral,” the less likely it’ll be to happen.

Because going viral isn’t a push button phenomenon.

Especially not for authors and aspiring authors. Unlike traditional media, you don’t buy or trade your way into viral. Sure, you may be able to buy enough early traffic or tap your network to “seed” your content and drive early views. But, that’s not viral. That’s bought or traded. And, you still face the challenge of making the leap from a discrete cluster of bought buzz to a massive landslide of evangelized magic.

So, next time an editor, publisher, agent or publicist says, “do something on video that’ll go viral,” it’s a pretty good sign they’re a few cards short of a social media deck. Luckily for you, though, I’m going to let you in on the real secret to making yourself instantly viral.

Be insane…

• Insanely creative
• Insanely valuable
• Insanely funny
• Insanely offbeat
• Insanely provocative
• Insanely musical
• Insanely deep
• Insanely emotional
• Insanely beautiful
• Insanely evil
• Insanely controversial
• Insanely goofy
• Insanely angry
• Insanely pained
• Insanely confrontational

Kinda won’t get you there. And, 99.9% of the time, insane won’t even get you there. Because, these days, the market is already flooded with insanity. But, at least it’ll put you in the game.

And, this tends to be the shortfall in nearly every book trailer or author video I’ve ever seen. Brad Meltzer’s “worst book ever” trailer was seriously funny. Gary Vaynerchuck’s recent video with College Humor was a crack-up. And I absolutely loved Dan Pink’s ultra-cool Johnny Bunko manga movie. But, did any of these come close to going “viral?” Nope.

Funny, quirky, offbeat and pretty-engaging rarely reach the threshold of viral.

Plus, even if they did, there’s something about them that stops people from hitting the make-this-sucker-viral button. They’re commercial. Every book trailer is a clear pimpfest for a book. They’re fun. They may add to the bigger book marketing funnel. But, the moment you add in a commercial call-to-action, most videos become dead in the viral water.

So, what’s an author to do?

First, unless you’re willing to get publicly insane, don’t put all your promotional eggs in the viral video book marketing basket. Ain’t gonna happen. Make it because it’s fun. Make it because it’s one element in a vastly larger initiative. And, if you are willing to get insane, don’t put your call-to-action in the video.  Either do it on a subtler level (in the description field on youtube.com) or wait until the video has been shared before adding any kind of commercial element to it.

And, the next time one of your trusted book-marketing advisers tells you to do something to make yourself viral online…be afraid. Because that person has just tipped their “I don’t get how social media works” hat.

In next week’s column, I’ll bring this all together with my last post on reinventing the publising model with an example of an alternative publishing model that uses privately-hosted video to not only sell a lot of books, but make an entire publisher “go viral.”