How should I promote my new book?

[billy]

Hey I just wrote a book about a very large common psychological disorder. I know a lot about this topic because I have struggled with it for many years but figured out how to overcome it with some unique techniques. I built a large email list first before I spent the time writing the book now I am ready to sell it as of 10:05P.M. everything is ready to go. Website, book is in pdf form, and ready to press play and send the people who subscribed an email letting them know it is complete.

I was wondering if you could give me some tips as to how I should sell it. Via clickbank, amazon, ibooks, etc.

I want affiliates to be able to sell it as well, but I figured they wouldn't be as likely to sell it if it is through amazon because of the low amount they would make off of it. Do you think clickbank would be my best bet? Should I sell it through amazon and ibooks?

I am not sure, but can I sell it through all and keep the same price? I tried searching through clickbank to see if they had any rules regarding selling through multiple networks but I could not find any.

Your help is appreciated.

 

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[TheTruth]

hey Billy,


First off, congratulations on writing a book!


I have a lot of questions right of the bat, but I will try to be short and concise.

The e-mail list you built, is it cold ? (i.e. have you been e-mailing the people in it or did they just opt-in once and have been waiting for the book you promised?)

Even if you have been e-mailing them, do they know that the book is coming out? Did you put together a product launch? How are you going to introduce the book? (i.e. will it be 1 e-mail or do you have something set up like providing them with a video explaining it and creating hype before actually releasing it?) --> I know you said they opted in for the completion of it, but I am just trying to see how you plan on introducing it and the steps you have taken up to date.

Is your list in contact with you in any other way? You said you had a site ... is it a blog and has it already been building this book up? Do people see you as an authority in this field?

IF the above questions have been answered and you do have hype and are active with your list etc etc, are you going to be offering your list a discount? (If your list is inactive, it would be best to put together a product launch, i.e. through 4 e-mail or 4 videos)

Your means of exposing the book will really depend on the product.

Are you OK with your book being on any site? Do you want everyone promoting your book without you knowing how? If this is of no concern then Clickbank will work for you.

However, I know that some people really care about their name and who promotes their products(for good reason). Basically, they don't want some random marketing their book the wrong way which tarnishes their reputation(if they so choose to have one).

If this is something you were contemplating, than amazon is the better choice. Also, you cold still have affiliates sell the book, but you would be choosing them.... Which could be great if you know people or other bloggers that are in your particular market(If you do, than I would hold off on the launch IMMEDIATELY and get in contact with them....)

If you got other "experts" on board they could promote you and you would grow your list as well.


I just do not know the details of your plan so it is hard for me to give out any more advice.


Lemme know what you were thinking of doing with the product and how you were going to do it and I can dish out some more ideas if you like


Regards,


The Truth

 

[billy]

I did a few youtube videos that gave people advice. Then I sent them to a simple website that gave them a few more free tips, and told them to enter their email if they would like more information. Because I actually never planned on writing the book, I knew it would take MONTHS, and I didn't want to waste my time writing something that may not even be worth my time.

the email form had a name, email, and comment form... I built up ~700 emails in 3 months and people were going nuts! Begging me for more information. So I responded to some of the people but could not respond to all, it was taking waaaaay too much time. But the ones who i did respond to, were so happy that I helped them and told me that my information is very valuable to them. So I decided it was time to write a book.

The site where the actual book will be promoted was just recently built... The one that had the email signup form was honestly just a simple weebly website / single page that took 5 minutes to put up, because again I didn't want to waste any time.

The actual website has a forum, blog, and sales page... No one has seen it yet.

 

[TheTruth]

Ok, cool


So, with what you have given me, I would approach this in the following manner:


1. Hold off the product launch and work your a$$ of answering the questions that you have gotten(all of them, even if it takes time).

2. Having caught up on those, Create a 4 video product launch series ( Think of the 4 questions someone would want answered and answer them in the videos. Each video answers one of those questions and provides some insight) MAKE SURE you tell them your story and struggle!

3. While you are putting together the series, contact other people who are selling to your market and tell them you have something they might like (perhaps send them a chapter you feel they would "get"). Get them to be your affiliates--> IMPORTANT and you will see why in the next step

4. After you have your affiliates and the product launch set up, as well as no having a receptive list because you have been answering them PERSONALLY, you are ready to roll.

Here is what you do, You Roll out your 4 video launch and allow your affiliates to do their thing as well( the launch should take you a week).

Now, here is where you pull in the big guns, When you finally allow them to access to the product, MAKE SURE that as a BONUS you give them


BONUS #1 : "A Free Forum, where like minded people can help each other out"

BONUS #2 : " FREE Monthly Updates(which would be your blog posts) "

Why does this make sense? .... Because the customers your affiliates send will opt-in to be part of the BONUSES and thus you grow your list.

Now you have a huge growing list and can keep selling them products


Hope that helps, let me know if you need any more help, I am glad to do so!


Cheers!

 

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[billy]

Very very cool! I will follow this and let you know how it does. It's going to take longer than a week to do all of this answering questions, contacting affiliates, making videos etc.

How should I mention the book in my videos? Do they need to see my face? I ask this because this psychological disorder is kind of embarrassing.

Basically how should the videos promote the book.. I have already built a large list of affiliates and put them into an excel sheet when I decided to write a book, forgot to mention that.

 

[sam22]

Hey Billy,

Check out this guide on Forbes called "The Tim Ferris Effect: Lessons From My Successful Book Launch."

Michael Ellsberg talks about how being featured on Tim Ferris' blog helped his book rank #45 in books on Amazon and #1 in the Job Hunting and Career Guide section. He says those are better results than being in the NY Times or even primetime CNN (his book was mentioned in both).

Okay, so you're probably not going to get your book on Tim Ferris' blog. But why does the "Tim Ferris effect" work? The key is find an audience who cares about the topic you are writing about. Ellsberg quotes Ramit Sethi, who says, "You want to find an audience that is highly targeted. I would rather be able to reach 5,000 people who are exactly interested in my topic than let’s say 100,000 who are only marginally interested."

Read the post, it'll help you a ton.

 

[billy]

Very cool post learned a lot! Have you Tim Ferris' book before? It may be a top seller but I wasn't really as enthused about it after reading it. I don't know just my opinion. I like how he teaches how you can virtually live your life without having to be there, but that's about all I really enjoyed with his book.

So anyway where I was getting with that, I guess if you can promote your product right you can get plenty of sales.

 

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[sam22]

I've only scanned through it/read it really fast. I don't think people building a fastlane business can ever work only 4 hours a week. Yes, you can outsource some of the mundane work and save yourself time and some money, but it's not practical to work so little if you want your business to grow.

 

[AndrewNC]

Could you give a free copy of the book to an expert in that field who runs a popular blog and have him write a book review on it with a link to your sales page?

 

[billy]

Could you give a free copy of the book to an expert in that field who runs a popular blog and have him write a book review on it with a link to your sales page?

Yeah I actually thought about giving a free copy to a couple of different experts / websites owners with great content on their site and letting them do a review / hopefully be an affiliate.

How does everyone else feel about that?

I used to be an affiliate to the popular ebook "Truth About Abs" and I personally talked to Mike Geary about the book and he is a really nice guy, sent me a copy of the book and all of the extras that he gives away in larger packages and it gave me the ability describe the book to everyone in greater detail.

He also told me to give the customer a couple teaser pages of his book, said that he did not mind at all. Of course the book makes 1,000,000 a month literally so why would he care.

I just recently talked to him a few days ago and he told me to find my Unique Selling Point (USP) and get everything completed and then come back to him and show him what I have done and he would give me his advice when he got a chance. So I have been taking my work very seriously here and I hope he has some good pointers to give me as well with everyone here on the forum.

 

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[TheTruth]

How should I mention the book in my videos? Do they need to see my face? I ask this because this psychological disorder is kind of embarrassing.

Basically how should the videos promote the book.. I have already built a large list of affiliates and put them into an excel sheet when I decided to write a book, forgot to mention that.

Sorry, been busy all day!

Alright, for the videos, remember that your list is Cold at this point so it would be unwise to pitch them something out of the blue. You need to offer value before you can sell them things.

IMO, the best way to sequence the videos is like so:

1. Video one talks about who you are and your story/struggle and that answers 1 FAQ question. Tell them to stay tuned for more.

2. Videos 2+3 answer another FAQ/provide insight (Each video answers 1)

3. Video 4 could answer one more thing or just simply talk about those 3 things and more. Bring up related problems and then pitch your book and how you compiled it all for them. Mention the bonuses that you will be throwing in for them.

Make sure, you give them a limited time offer as they are your exclusive list. Set a time limit on the offer.

4. Your affiliates Should be people who have read the book as Andrew mentioned. They would launch your book much in the same way you are to your audience. Except they would frame it differently than you because their audience isn't laser targeted as yours is(at least they should lol)

I see that sam22 also mentioned Tim's book launch, now, although I haven't read that Forbes article, I will assume that it's because it mentions something like getting 20,000 people that are laser targeted is better than 1,000,000 random people.

I think you have this covered with your list. (Of course I could be wrong about my implications of the article, so do let me know if that is the case)

P.S. If you are comfortable with showing your face, I think it would pay huge dividends in your case. Since the issue is embarassing and psychological, by you showing face, would give you a huge credibility boost. Not to mention that you portray a "expert position" frame by doing so.


All the best, ( Of course hit me up if anything is unclear)


The Truth Has Spoken ! ( Yup, I just went there...)

 

[billy]

I think you have this covered with your list. (Of course I could be wrong about my implications of the article, so do let me know if that is the case)

My video, the one that I sent everyone to the sign up page was a video that told everyone about me and my story and my struggle... Just like you said video #1 should be. I told them that I could only help them if they were absolutely positive their issue was psychologically related not physical, so I feel I was being pretty targeted - and for legal purposes I told them that I could not be the one to diagnose them and to please check with their doctor first

Then when they hit the one page weebly website - the form had "name" "email" and "comment" and I gave them a free tip.

They signed up like crazy and I got a lot of people that filled the comment area out and told me that my tips were very helpful and to please keep emailing them more tips and that they could relate to my same situation. So I stayed in touch with them the best that I could they kept emailing me over and over and I was literally spending each day just answering questions but, looking back now it helped me A LOT when I was writing this book... If I forgot something I would just refer back to one of the many emails.

But anyway yes I think these people are very targeted... And I sort of already have small credibility with these people...

What do you think about me sending a few of the people who emailed me a copy of the book and ask tell them to give me a testimonial?