Book Marketing

SPQ 039: 30 Days Post-Launch, What’s the Best Way to Revive Sales?

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Hands are making indecision signals

The Question…

Ted asks via email:

“I published a book recently – Sugar Detox – and it did very well at the start but has now tapered off quite a bit. Do you have any secrets on how to revive books that have slowed down after the initial burst? It’s been about 3 weeks since publication, and I followed the Free – .99 cents – $2.99 format in KDP.”

Biggest Takeaway…

[Tweet “The “one and done” book model no longer works. “]

The Answer…

For self-publishers, making sales and reviving flagging sales are two of the biggest concerns. There is increasing competition on Amazon, even though there are a lot of gurus who say Amazon is full of opportunity and infinite abundance. There are a lot more writers who are writing for the same audience, so Steve says the Kindle “gold rush” is over. Gone are the days of throwing a book on Amazon and making a lot of sales without doing any work.

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SPQ 037: How to Build Assets with Your Self-Publishing Business

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Designer's Desk with Architectural Tools and Notebook

Introducing Self-Publishing Assets

In episode 36, Steve talked about some of his favorite books. One of those books is “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. Although Steve disagrees with a few aspects of Kiyosaki’s brand, he does agree with the idea of building assets.

Steve defines an asset as any item that generates cash flow. Your goal should be to build as many assets as possible. At the time of this recording, Steve technically has about 90 published assets, from Kindle books to audiobooks. He would like to add about 50 more assets to his portfolio in 2015.

Biggest Takeaway

[Tweet “Your goal should be to build as many assets as possible. “]

Joanna Penn covered this topic in a blog post titled “It’s Not Just One Book: Your Rights and How to Exploit Them.” She talks about how you can exponentially grow you portfolio with just one book. You can put the book in Kindle format, print format, or audio format; leverage foreign rights to the content; use the books to create information products; turn small pieces of content into apps; or license your content to other people.

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SPQ 034: Disappointing Book Sales – How Do I Increase Them?

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The Question…

Julie from TrulyMadlyDeeplyHappy.com has had disappointing results with her book marketing. She wants to know what she can do about it.

Biggest Takeway…

[Tweet “Focus on one income strategy until you master it. “]

Steve’s Answer…

When Steve checked out Julie’s website, he noticed she is a doing a lot of the right things to build an author platform. She has her own podcast, writes blog posts, and has a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and Google+.

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SPQ 033: How to Write an Author Bio That Sells Books

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Author Bios as Landing Pages

In episode 17, Steve explained how to use an easy-to-remember URL to direct people to your Amazon author page. His URL, HabitBooks.net, redirects to his author profile and makes it easier for people to find his books.

Your author bio is your personal landing page, or a page designed to sell something, so it should always be helping you sell more books. It’s easy to set up your author bio on Amazon; simply go to Amazon Author Central and follow the steps. You should also set up author pages at Kobo, iBooks, and other platforms.

No matter where you have a bio, you must write something that engages readers and (hopefully) gets them to buy more books. Many readers check the “About” section of the author bio first, so you need to think carefully about what you write.

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SPQ 029: My Presentation – The 80/20 of Building a Nonfiction Author Platform

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spq29 author platformSteve’s Presentation

In one week, Steve is participating in the Author Marketing Live event. The virtual event, which runs from January 26 to January 30, has 20 speakers giving one-hour presentations. Learn more or register for Author Marketing Live at www.amlticket.com.

Steve will cover the following topics during his presentation:

  • How to identify what works for your business
  • Email marketing
  • Which platforms to focus on
  • How to maximize your book launch
  • Simple marketing tricks that have a long-term impact on sales
  • How to scale your business into a full-time income

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SPQ 024: Increase Book Sales by Testing One Variable

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SPQ 024: Increase Book Sales by Testing One Variable

Simple Book Marketing: Testing Variables

This is the first episode in a series called “Simple Book Marketing,” where Steve covers simple strategies to help increase your book sales.

In July 2012, Steve had two books in the marketplace. One of them was selling about five to 10 copies per day. He decided to update the book cover, change the keywords, write a new book description, and change the categories on Amazon. As a result, book sales plummeted.

Biggest Takeaway…

[Tweet “Before you can test any variables, you need to know your baseline.”]

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SPQ 020: How to Craft Compelling Book Titles

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SPQ 020: How to Craft Compelling Book Titles

The Question…

Thomas Lau of Kindle Bestseller Empire asks:

Can you share your thought process when deciding on the titles for your books? What tips can you give for authors who can’t fit keywords with high search volumes into their titles?

Biggest Takeaway…

[Tweet “Spend time finding the right title for your book. Make it compelling and memorable.”]

Steve’s Answer…

The title of your book is really what helps it sell on Amazon and other ebook platforms. In episode 19, Steve explained why he doesn’t think keywords are all that important. He advises authors to avoid creating keyword-rich titles with a bunch of random words.

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