Other than finding unique and creative ways no one has ever thought of, my answer to this question is to find experts on the subject of book marketing. I was lucky to stumble on an expert summit about just that.
For 5 days, I watched 12 videos from experts through the Book Marketing Experts Online Summit. The wealth of information provided was astounding and the quantity of free bonus material overwhelming (a lot of information in a short amount of time) but awesome.
I managed to watch all the videos while they were free. Now that the summit is over, a subscription option is available, if you’re interested.
First Impressions
Those who watched the summit will have taken away something different. As authors or aspiring authors, needs vary. In my case, there were things I already knew and some things I am already doing. There were things I was aware of but not doing yet. There were things I learned that I needed to improve on. And I learned new things.
The material received is applicable to fiction authors but I felt there could have been more examples and strategies specific to fiction authors.
Once it starts, “attending” such a summit is daunting. The day’s videos were available for only 24 hours.
All experts practiced what was preached. To get free bonus material, you had to provide an email address and thus became part of the expert’s email list. Given the content of the summit, this came as no surprise. That said, when auto-responders kick in from 12 experts (to varying degrees), emails started coming in by the truckload. In many instances, further free material or courses were offered, as well as paid material. Again, not a surprise. These are tactics explained by the expert.
My favorites
1) Alinka Rutkowska presented the 4Ps approach (product, place, price, promotion). Her book How I Sold 80,000 Books is available for free for Kindle and as a PDF.
2) Kelsye Nelson Your First 100 Fans: I loved her simple approach and easy to watch style. She also offered to become a subscriber to anyone who sent her a link to their opt-in! That’s quite generous!
3) Dave Chesson Mastering Amazon Categories:– I am already a subscriber of Dave and already knew the material but going over it again didn’t hurt as there were some new tidbits or things I didn’t remember. Categories were mentioned by multiple experts so keep that in mind.
Most valuable takeaways
1) The simplest advice I took away from the summit was this:
When asking for someone to provide an email in order to get something free, start with the “offer” rather than the “action” the user has to take. Give before taking.
I’m not absolutely certain who provided that powerful tidbit and it may have been mentioned by multiple experts. This is very simple to implement: it’s basically a tweak to a sign-up page, or a tweak on how to get to the sign-up page. Based on how I got the free bonus material, I believe in all cases, there was no mention of having to provide an email address to get the free material until after I had clicked the link to obtain the bonus.
2) Have one or more item that can be given away: a free gift, a free book (such as the first book in a series), anything free that encourages a conversion of a visitor to an actual email subscriber since building an email list is one of the best way to sell books.
Conclusion
Every expert had great advice and great material. Taking even one small piece of advice from each one can make a huge difference. Depending on where you're at, some or all may apply to you. And it's not just for self-published authors. Any author can make use of the advice.
The hard part has been choosing what to start with.
Summit list of topics and experts:
The Bestseller Framework with Geoff Affleck
How to Prioritize Your Book Marketing with Christopher Van Buren
4 Things to Make Book Marketing Fun with Kathryn Kemp Guylay
Mastering Amazon Categories with Dave Chesson
How to Sell Books by the Truckload with Penny Sansevieri
The Fan Base Formula with Adam Houge
How You Too Can Sell 80,000 Books with Alinka Rutkowska
How to Generate Book Sales on Autopilot with Derek Doepker
Get Your Next 10 Book Reviews with Debbie Drum
Free Book Giveaways to Build Your Fan Base with John Tighe
Your First 100 Fans with Kelsye Nelson
Grow Your Email List with Online Summits with Jesse Krieger
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