The Bestseller Book Marketing Strategy Workbook
by Joan Marie Verba
copyright 2010 by Joan Marie Verba
http://www.joanmarieverba.com
FTL Publications
P O Box 1363
Minnetonka, MN 55345-0363
www.ftlpublications.com
mail@ftlpublications.com
ISBN 978-0-9825232-4-7
All rights reserved.
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Disclaimer: The Bestseller Book Marketing Strategy, as with any marketing strategy, cannot guarantee that you will sell any number of books. Your level of success is a result of many factors, including luck and the amount of effort you put into it.
References:
These references have more information about the bestseller book marketing strategy.
Books that explain the bestseller campaign in more detail:
http://www.thebestsellersecret.com/amazon/
http://www.mrfire.com/article-archives/copywriting-samples/amazon-selling-secrets.html
http://www.myamazonbestseller.com/
My Bestseller Course:
http://www.bestsellerstrategy.com
John Kremer's Bestseller course:
http://www.bookmarket.com/nytbests.htm
Lynn Serafinn's bestseller course:
http://spiritauthors.com/category/module-4/mod-4-overview/
If you want someone else to do all this for you (for a fee):
Hasmark Services
http://www.hasmarkservices.com/
Overview
The Bestseller Book Marketing Strategy is a strategy of promoting a book through e-mail lists. The e-mail list owner sends out an e-mail to the list promoting the book with a link to the book's landing page. The landing page has links for the reader to click on to purchase the book and instructions for the reader to come back to the site once the book is purchased in order to claim free bonuses. The object of the strategy is for the bonuses to provide an incentive for the reader to purchase the book.
The steps are as follows:
1. Publish the book and get it on Amazon.com (or BN.com)
2. Set a date for your campaign
3. Search for partners/list owners who have newsletters.
4. Contact partners/list owners
5. Create the sales letter your partners will send out on that date.
6. Create a landing page and a bonus page.
7. On that date, your partners send out a message promoting the book.
8. If everything goes well, the book's sales rise!
9. Thank everyone who helped you.
Step 1: Publish the Book and Get It on Amazon.com (or BN.com)
There are three basic selling goals you may wish to pursue:
A. Getting on the Amazon.com Bestseller list for your category
B. Getting on the New York Times Bestseller list
C. Selling as many books as possible from any source.
A. If you want to try to get on the Amazon.com Bestseller list (for your category)
i. Make sure your book is listed on Amazon.com
The most advantageous way to do this is through Amazon's own printer, CreateSpace
https://www.createspace.com
This way, you know you won't run out of books.
Another way to do this is to publish through Lightning Source
http://www.lightningsource.com
and have them list the books on Amazon.
This is another way to guarantee a supply of books.
If you use another printer, you can get on Amazon through Amazon Advantage
http://www.amazon.com/advantage
However, they may only order a small number of books. That means that if those books sell out, Amazon.com will put up an "out of stock" message and your campaign could end right there.
ii. Make sure you have the correct category for your book. This is determined by scrolling down the book page.
iii. It helps a lot of you have a lot of positive reviews of your book posted on Amazon.com
B. Getting on the New York Times Bestseller List
This is possible only if you have your book not only on Amazon.com, but also on BN.com or other sellers, as the New York Times will only list bestsellers based on more than one selling source.
If the book was issued by a traditional publisher, there's no problem. If the book was printed by Lightning Source and you contracted with them to list on Ingram, then it also should appear on BN.com.
If you self-published through another source, you either have to get BN.com to list your book (difficult) or settle for being on Amazon.com's Bestseller list.
C. Selling as many books as possible from any source.
If you don't have your book listed on Amazon.com, but it's on Lulu.com, or you sell from your own website, just put in your own selling button and sell that way.
2. Set a date for your bestseller campaign.
You need a date to give list owners/partners. So you must set a date before proceeding further.
Allow yourself at least 38 days from the time you start working to the date you set; 60-90 days would be even better. (Why? Because it may take that long in order to get the number of partners that you need.)
3. Search for (joint venture or JV) partners/list owners.
It is VITAL to be sure that the e-mails sent out are NOT SPAM. In order to insure that they aren't, you need to contact people who send out regular e-mail newsletters to subscribers who have requested the e-mail newsletter. This is called an "opt-in" list. ("Double opt-in lists" where potential subscribers must confirm a subscription are highly recommended.) DO NOT BUY LISTS.
Partners you want are websites that have a newsletter. How will you know? Either they announce it on their site (you see a button that says "newsletter" or the text on the site refers to a newsletter) or you see where you can sign up right on the web site.
Where do you find newsletters?
Google Search
Keywords + "Newsletter" or "ezine"
(Example: you have a book on knitting. Then enter "knitting newsletter" or "knitting ezine" into the Google Search engine.)
Directory of Email Newsletters and Discussion Lists (FREE)
http://tile.net/lists/
This has a list of e-mail newsletters and discussion lists. Find ones that match the topic of your book.
Directory of Ezines has a fee:
http://www.directoryofezines.com/members/memonly.php