Archive for Bestseller
How Many Books Will I Sell? Top 10 FAQs from Authors
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As a book promotion expert and book campaign manager, I receive a LOT of requests for consultations from authors who are preparing to publish their books. Some are experienced authors who have published in the past, either self-published or through a royalty publisher. Others are first-time (and usually self-published) authors. During our initial consultation, I tend to hear many of the same questions again and again. As these questions are so key to authors before they decide whether or not to do a full-blown “bestseller launch” for their book, I thought it might be a good idea to pull together my “Top 10 Most Frequently Asked Questions” I am asked by authors on almost a daily basis.
Q1: How many books will I sell during my online book launch?
First of all, let’s define “the launch” as a 24-48 hour period of time in which we will be driving traffic to buy your book. Asking how many books you will sell during that time is really like asking “How long is a piece of string?” It depends upon so many factors that we can only, at best, give a very broad figure. I have had clients who sell as few as 50 books during a launch and others who have sold around 1000. The average self-published author tends to sell between 300 and 500 books during a launch. Those with major publishers might sell twice that amount, not necessarily because the publisher helps with your promotion, but more because people recognise the “brand identity” of the publisher and are more willing to take a chance on the title. And of course, if you are not a first-time author you will probably sell more books if people know your name already. The key to selling more books is to devote a fair amount of time well before your launch to cultivate and grow your audience. That’s why I spend the first two months of work with my clients developing strategies and systems to build their platform and mailing list before anything else.
Q2: How do I become an Amazon bestseller?
If your book sales are amongst the Top 100 in any category on Amazon, you are technically a “bestseller.” You don’t have to be in the Top 100 of all books. There are dozens of categories and sub-categories on Amazon, and if you achieve a sales ranking in the Top 100 in any of these, you can say you are a bestseller. Of course, it is always nice to hit the “Top 20″ or the “Top 5″ or (best of all) the #1 sales rank in one or more categories.
Q3: How many books do I need to sell to be an Amazon bestseller?
Again, this is not a question I can answer definitively because being an “Amazon bestseller” is a relative title, and it depends upon: 1) how well other books in your categories are selling on your launch day and 2) how competitive your categories are. Some categories like “Religion and Spirituality” or “Business and Investing” are extremely competitive with thousands of titles up against many famous authors for the top position on the list. Other categories, such as “channelling” or “alternative medicine” are less competitive.
Q4: How can I choose the category I will be in on Amazon?
If you were to ask this question of some of the top publishers (I have), the common answer you will receive is this: “You can’t.”However, I have found this not to be 100% true. Let me explain.
First of all, when you submit a book for publication through Lightning Source (for example), you choose 2 “BIC” (Book Industry Communication) categories, which are standard categories that are used by all publishers and distributors. Now the problem lies in how retailers interpret these categories. Think of the last time you went to look for a book in the shops. Sometimes it might be in the “self help” category, while other times it might be in the “spirituality” section, etc.
Amazon “interprets” your BIC categories according to their “virtual” bookshelf. To make things even MORE confusing, Amazon UK, Canada and US might not interpret your book at all in the same way. Even major publishers have told me they have no real control over this. Some authors find their books placed in very strange categories. BUT here’s the big secret I have found: I your book is not ranking in the right category, you CAN get Amazon to change it via Author Central in the US and the UK. Just write to them and ask them to recategorise your book. My book The 7 Graces of Marketing was placed in the “accounting” category at first (NOT!!). When I wrote to Author Central, they very quickly and painlessly put the book into the cateogries I requested: business ethics and marketing/sales.
If you are unsure of what categories to choose, your best bet to get your book in the RIGHT category is to do some market research to find out which categories other titles appear that you feel are the closest in content or message to your own book. Don’t go for a “top level” category like “Business and Finance” or “Health and Wellness”". Go for a sub, or even sub-sub category. Get it as precise as possible. That will not only help you increase your likelihood of reaching the top of the ranks (as it will be less competitvie) bit it will also increase the likelihood of people who are looking for your book will find it, because Amazon’s system will group it together with similar books.
Then, make triple sure you get placed correctly, do two more things: 1) make sure your title, subtitle, back cover copy and description use keywords that help point the folks at Amazon in the right direction AND 2) start putting some TAGS on your book page that help people find your book.
PLEASE NOTE: All of the above is mainly with respect to PRINT books. For Kindle, you can actually SPECIFY two categories via Kindle Direct. These bypass the BIC settings altogether, as Kindle is an Amazon proprietory format.
Q5: Why don’t I see my book listed in a category on my Amazon listing?
You won’t see your book listed in a category unless it is in the Top 100 of that category. Until that time, all you will see is its overall sales rank, which changes every hour. Amazon US and Canada tend change just past the top of the hour, while Amazon UK tends to change at 40 minutes past the hour.
Q6: How can I find out in which categories Amazon will place my book?
It’s not always 100% reliable, but the best way to “guess” which categories you will appear is to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the screen until you see the words, “Look for Similar Items by Category.” There you will see several suggested categories that are likely to be where your book will be placed when ranked. If these categories look range or irrelevant, refer to Q4 above.
Q7: How can I track my rankings?
So far, Amazon does not have any legacy tracking system for rankings, which means you basically have to watch the rankings yourself like a hawk during the launch, as they change every hour. Typically, my clients and I stay up for the full 24 hour period in shifts, in constant communication on Skype, to watch the rankings. The only way I have found so far to “log” your success is to take screen shots. I use the program “Jing Pro” for this. There is a free version, but the Pro version is very reasonable, and has many worthwhile features. You can download it at http://www.techsmith.com/jing/. DO take screenshots of EVERY stage of your rankings. They make great images to add to your promotions when you are sharing the success of your book with readers, media and event managers. To track your rankings for OVERALL book sales, see Q8 below.
Q8: How can I track my actual sales?
Tracking sales is another matter altogether. Of course, the most reliable method is when you receive your royalty report and payment from your publisher or printer. However, these can some to you months after your launch. There are two ways I have discovered that can give you ball-park figure of your sales during a launch. Once is to use your Amazon Associates link on your purchase page, in which case you will see the sales appear within a few days in your Associates account. Another is to use an online tracker such as Novel Rank at http://novelrank.com, which can show sales on a daily and monthly basis. They also show, in numbers and in graph format, your overall sales rankings (not category rankings) over a given period. Bear in mind, to get the best from this service, you need to start tracking your book on their site several weeks in advance of your launch.
Another option is to sign up for Amazon Advantage, although as far as I can tell, you can only sign up for this if you will be directly supplying Amazon with inventory. If a company such as Lightning Source will be printing your books on demand or you will be using a subsidiary publisher, you will need to speak to them about whether or not you can use Amazon Advantage, as they will be fulfilling the sales and sending you the payments and sales reports (of course they will also have some sort of reporting system for your sales as well, which will tell you your overall sales, not just to Amazon).
Kindle sales are updated once a week in Kindle Direct.
Q9: How much money will I make on book sales during my launch?
This depends completely upon:
- How many books you sell
- The retail price of your book
- The cost of printing your book
- What your royalty arrangement is with your publisher (if you have one)
- Whether or not you use your Associates account for sales.
Let’s say you have a 250 page book that sells for $15 and you sell 500 books on your launch day. That is a gross intake of $7500. Amazon pays you according to whatever wholesale “discount” you have agreed to sell your books to them. Let’s say you have agreed to sell your book to them for a 55% discount off the retail price (a fairly common figure, although this can vary). That means they will pay your publisher 45% of gross, which is $3375. If you are the publisher, you will receive that money from Amazon.
From that amount, you need to deduct your printing costs. The cost of printing a 250 page book through a company like Lightning Source is around $4.15 ($0.90 per unit and then $0.013 per page), which means 500 books would cost $2075. Deduct that from what Amazon will pay you, and that leaves a net profit of around $1300.
If you are going 100% self-published, you will make the whole $1300. But if you are receiving a percentage of net from your publisher, you would take the percentage from this amount. Many subsidiary presses take 50% of net, which means you would make $650on 500 books. If you are working with a royalty publisher who pays you a given percentage of retail or net, you will have to calculate it accordingly.
If you use your Amazon Associates link during your launch, you can earn between 4% and 7% of your retail sales as a commission. In other words, if Amazon were to sell 500 books at $15 (although they will tend to sell it at a lower price), you would make an extra $0.60 – $1.05 per unit. You ALSO make a commission if your buyers happen to buy other products at the same time. It all adds up, so it’s worth making sure your links are in place during a launch.
Please note that these figures are accurate as of this edit (July 26th, 2011).
UPDATE DEC 2011: I’ll be writng another article in the New Year about chosing the right royalty structure for your publication and different ways to use eBooks/Kindle to drive traffic to your print book. Be sure to subscribe to this blog to stay on top of new info articles.
Q10: What’s the real benefit of doing an Amazon bestseller launch?
I’ll be honest with you: it costs a heck of a lot more to run a bestseller launch than you will receive in immediate monetary returns. I think you have probably already deduced that doing an Amazon bestseller launch is NOT going to make you lots of money selling books. So it does beg the question why people bother to do them at all, and why people like me are continually booked months in advance to do these launches.
So here are some of the real advantages of doing an Amazon launch:
- It builds your online platform significantly, which ultimately leads to more business for you
- It establishes long-term relationships with dozens of networking partners
- It raises your credibility as a professional, which has an impact upon your income
- It establishes you as a leading expert in your field, making you a sought-after media guest and keynote speaker
- It just plain feels great to say you’re a bestselling (especially a #1 selling) author
Deciding to do a bestseller campaign should not be an impulsive decision, nor should it be entered with rose-coloured glasses. My most successful clients are those who entered our work relationship with this level of understanding. They did not have unrealistic expectations, and they took the “kudos” of their bestseller status to build stronger and more viable businesses that could only have come about as a result of their Amazon bestseller campaign. I think most of these would tell you their decision to do a launch made a positive difference in their business.
I hope this article is useful to any of you who are currently preparing to publish a book in the coming year. Please do leave comments below and feel free to contact me via the contact form at http://spiritauthors.com/contact if you have any questions about this content, or you wish to discuss an upcoming launch.
And, as always, don’t forget to subscribe to the Spirit Authors blog for regular tips for authors, both established and aspiring.
Lynn Serafinn is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host and bestselling author of the book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self, as well as the upcoming book The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell. She also works as a campaign manager for mind-body-spirit authors and has produced several #1-selling book campaigns. She is the founder/creator of Spirit Authors, a virtual learning environment and community that offers training, coaching, business-building and inspiration for mind-body-spirit authors, whether established or aspiring. As part of her work with spiritual and self-help authors, she also regularly hosts large-scale online virtual events (usually free of charge) with world-class speakers on a range of mind-body-spirit topics. Subscribe to her Spirit Authors blog at http://spiritauthors.com/category/news/ so you can receive more useful tips and news about upcoming online events. While you are there, do check out the excellent and affordable online courses for authors available.
If you are an author seeking 1-to-1 support or campaign managment for your upcoming book launch, you are also invited to request a free consultation by filling in a contact form at http://spiritauthors.com/contact. Please note that full service campaigns require a 6 to 8 month lead-in time, so be sure to contact Lynn well in advance of publishing your book.
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Unlocking The Secret in an Amazon Book Launch
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Book promotion coach and campaign manager Lynn Serafinn reflects on the Law of Attraction when her client, Luis Diaz’s book Memory in the Cells hits Number 1.
I learn so much every day of my life.
Let me set the context. Just a little over 24 hours ago, my fantastic client (and I really mean that), Luis Angel Diaz, launched his book Memory in the Cells: how to change behavioral patterns and release the pain body. The book, which was originally written in Spanish and has only now been translated into English, is about healing your emotions at the deepest level of your being. I first met Luis on the Ning networks, and have watched his work for the past few years. When he first approached me to be the campaign manager for his book, I knew that he already had cultivated a widespread, loyal audience in the Spanish-speaking world for decades, and that the release of this new translation of Memory in the Cells would be his first real introduction into the English-speaking audience at a global level.
Over the course of the past 5 months or so, I have been working closely with Luis and his team to create a wonderful promotional campaign that would reflect his personality, his values, and the true essence of what he does. That is really the fundamental principle behind all the promotional campaigns I co-create with my authors. My campaigns aren’t really about the book so much as they are about the author (and, yes, we create them together—that is absolutely vital). In this way, the campaign becomes something unique that cannot be duplicated by anyone else. It is my experience that when the heart and soul of the author is fully present within the core of the campaign, the campaign has a special sparkle to it that “magically” makes it work—even if it is a first-time, self-published author.
I call this approach “the path of least resistance to the Self” and it’s my fundamental principle to how I approach life. My core belief is that when we are truly and visibly authentic in the world, then all that is meant to flow into our lives comes to us with ease and grace.
“Ease” doesn’t mean we don’t WORK for it—heck no! Frankly, during these Amazon book launches, I have to block out 3 solid days because there is simply so much to do and so much promo copy to write that I’m pretty much “on call” 24 hours of the day during that time (I didn’t go to bed last night until 5am, and then I got up again at 9am). When I say “ease” I mean that the ideas are flowing, the energy is flowing and you just plain feel fantastic (even if you ARE in serious need of sleeping for about 12 hours straight after the launch is all over!).
Now, a lot of people might say that this sounds like the “Law of Attraction.” But the funny thing is, I never have used that term to describe my approach to life. In fact, I’ve pretty much shunned the term because I found the film version of The Secret to present things in a way I couldn’t really relate to. It all looked too simple—desire, believe, receive. I remember the scene in the film where the girl looks in the shop window at a very expensive necklace and it’s suddenly around her neck—well, I must confess it put me off the whole film because it seemed shallow to me (I do admit I have never read the book; I am told it is much better).
Well, what is so funny (or at least I think it is) is that yesterday I came face-to-face with The Secret, and I’m feeling like it’s a real test of my own power of intention!
Within a few short hours of the release of Memory in the Cells, it SHOT up like rocket to the #1 place in Canada in three categories including Mental and Spiritual Healing and New Age (which is a massive category, and VERY hard to get to #1). Luis’s book even surpassed authors like Louise Hay and Eckhart Tolle and so many others you would recognise. Moreover, it achieved an astonished rank of 14th of ALL books in Canada. That means, out of something like 2 million titles, his is the 14th bestseller of ALL of them in any category. It’s remarkable to say the least, and I am really feeling pretty pleased with myself today, especially as (as of this writing), the book is STILL holding strong to the #1 place.
Have a look at the illustrious company he is in:
And again #1 in New Age in Canada…
But here’s where The Secret comes in.
The book also got as high as #5 in the UK and a very impressive #3 in the US, and the rankings in the US were just a few books shy of the top 100 of all books, which is, frankly, astronomically good for ANY author, what to speak of a self-published (and first-time in English) author like Luis. But you know how it is… once you have a taste for #1 you want it all. I WANT his book to go to #1 in the US. Like a hawk I’ve been watching the rankings every hour and I see it creeping up 1 notch at a time… holding at #3 for hours and hours and hours…
So then I thought I’d take a look to see what’s sitting in front of him at #2.
Can you guess?
Yup. Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret!
Ironic, isn’t it? It is sitting there like a big giggling challenge for me, seeing if my desire for Luis’ success is powerful enough to “attract” that elusive #1 slot in the United States. It’s asking me, “How much do you really want this?” “How much to you really believe you will receive it?”
Ok, here’s my answer: Totally on both counts.
I REALLY want this for both Luis and myself:
- For Luis, I believe reaching that pinnacle in his genre would give a real push to his speaking platform in the United States, and worldwide.
- And for me, well, I just keep aiming to get higher and higher on each campaign I create because every time I push the boundary that much more, it brings in more energy and potential for my future clients and makes my business stronger. It’s also creating more abundance not only in my life, but also in the lives of others, because the more my business grows, the more people I hire to work on campaigns with me!
So right now, I actually have come to a completely different relationship with The Secret and the idea of “Law of Attraction”. I am viewing both as a wonderful opportunity for me to create a solution to my desire for Luis to move into the #1 slot on Amazon US today.
And so I wrote this article.
And seeing “obstacles” as not being obstacles at all, but rather as opportunities for creating new solutions to what we most desire in life is, I suspect, what “The Secret” really is, after all.
So, as I said, I learn so much every day. 
Let’s see what happens.
You can find Luis’ wonderful #1-selling book Memory in the Cells at http://memoryinthecells.com. And just to “attract” you to check it out, if you buy the book TODAY, you can receive over 30 free downloadable gifts from an array of international experts in many fields of personal development. I’m also offering my mini eCourse “Making Friends with the Monsters Under Your Bed.” I’ve received well over 100 requests for the download in just the past day. Certainly attracting something!
About Lynn Serafinn, Creator of Spirit Authors
Lynn Serafinn is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host and bestselling author of the book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. She also works as a campaign manager for mind-body-spirit authors and has produced FOUR #1-selling book campaigns, and another #2-selling campaign, in 2010 alone. She created Spirit Authors to offer training, coaching, business-building and inspiration for mind-body-spirit authors, whether established or aspiring. Contact Lynn about YOUR book project at at http://spiritauthors.com/contact.
Be sure to subscribe to this blog for regular book writing and promotion tips (just fill in form at right of your screen).
Sign up for Lynn’s bi-monthly newsletter Creative Spirit (fill in form below) packed with inspirational articles, broadcast guide to her radio show, and news about upcoming spiritual author book releases.
Throughout the year, Lynn also hosts large-scale telesummits with world-class speakers on a range of mind-body-spirit topics. Your subscription to Creative Spirit will ensure you’ll be the first to know how to attend these free events.
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A Rising New Star in the Spirit Author Universe
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Patrick Ryan’s New Book Number-1 in Spirituality
Recently I’ve been telling you about a new book called Awakened Wisdom: A Guide to Reclaiming Your Brilliance by my friend and colleague Patrick Ryan. Well the book had its official Amazon launch yesterday, and I simply had to write to you to tell you that within the first few hours, Awakened Wisdom became a bestseller in spirituality in both the US and Canada.
Most impressively, the book reached an amazing rank of 29th in overall books, out of many millions, and took the Number-1 slot in Canadian spirituality sales (click to see a screen shot), and the #3 slot in self-help, sharing the very same page on Amazon with top-selling spirituality titles such as Don Miguel Ruiz’s Four Agreements, Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love. At one point, Patrick and Eckhart were dancing back and forth in the top 5 spots on the Canadian list, which is interesting because so many people have compared these two writers even before the book was released.
In the US, where the competition is even steeper, the book reached the Number-2 rank in Kindle spiritual self-help titles, and the paperback was the 18th most popular spiritual title yesterday. I have high hopes that today, that figure will soar up later today, as news of the success of the book starts to spread.
Not too shabby for a first day, don’t you think?
Born in the Canadian prairies, and surviving a near-death experience in his youth, Patrick Ryan has been a life-long spiritual seeker. He spent some time as a Buddhist monk in Burma, and has studied the world over with healers, shamans and other indigenous wise people. The culmination of his multifaceted experiences, from the home-spun to the esoteric, is to be found within his unique, and inimitably down-to-earth, system of spiritual development he calls “Awakened Wisdom”, which he has taught in workshops throughout the world for several years. The essence of those teachings, along with practical exercises for cultivating them in your life, may now be found within the pages of his newly bestselling book.
I should also mention that I consider Patrick to be one of my personal mentors. I studied with him for nearly a year on the Co-Active Leadership programme, and I also took his internationally acclaimed Awakened Wisdom course. I can say without any reservation that my life would not be where it is today had our paths not crossed. I was my great delight and pleasure to be able to give something back to him by acting as his campaign manager for this thrilling Amazon book launch.
The Awakened Wisdom launch continues today and tomorrow, and in celebration of its official release, Patrick Ryan and a group of his colleauges, including authors, coaches, entrepreneurs and spiritual teachers are giving away over 40 exceptional personal development and spiritual growth gifts when you purchase a copy the book during the launch.
One of these gifts is an unprecedented 2-session “Awakened Wisdom Virtual Experience”, in which author Patrick Ryan will take participants on a journey through the “8 States of an Awakened Life” via webcast in May. This is a rare opportunity to learn directly from a world-renowned spiritual teacher—and now top-selling spirituality author.
I myself am offering four never-before-offered audio meditations from my Garden of the Soul Workshop, on the Four Principles of Give, Receive, Become and Be.
To pick up your copy of the Awakened Wisdom, get all those free gifts, and sign up for this very special event, which is open ONLY to those who purchase the book this week, go to:
http://www.awakenedwisdom.com/Public/Amazon/BookLaunch/index.cfm
Make sure you do this as soon as possible, as the launch ends this Friday, April 23 (extended from April 22). And if you are reading this AFTER that date, you can still find out how to buy the book by clicking the link above.
Thanks for your support in helping this rising new star in the spiritul author universe shine so brightly! I wish ALL of you Spirit Authors reading this a future where YOU are shining even more brightly.
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5 Steps to Create an Amazon Bestselling Book Campaign
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Many people hire me to create and manage their Amazon book campaigns, or to support them as a book promotion coach/consultant. In either case, I have noticed many of my clients experience a steep learning curve at the beginning of their campaigns, as they try to get their heads around all the components and how they work together.
For that reason, I thought it might be a good idea to write a short article giving an overview of the initial steps I use when I put together an Amazon campaign, so you can become an Amazon bestseller like my clients.
The basic concept of an Amazon book campaign is to drive people to a special page you will create that tells them about your book, and to get them to return to that page to buy your book on the specified day of your launch. The reason why you want them to come on a specified day is to drive up your Amazon sales rank. The reason why people will want to return to your page (as opposed to just going to Amazon to buy your book) is that after they buy your book, they can come back to your page to claim some great bonus gifts.
Who is offering the gifts? A group of “JVPs”, or “Joint Venture Partners” you have brought together. Finding and choosing JVPs is a topic I cover in the first week of Module 4 at Spirit Authors. For now, let’s assume you already have a good selection of JVPs who have confirmed their participation in your launch, and let’s move on to our 5 steps to get your campaign going.
Step 1: Design the Timeline and Components of Your Campaign
First off, you will need to choose the components of your campaign, and construct a timeline showing when all these components will occur. Here are a few examples of components that go into a typical Amazon campaign:
- Bonus gift offers from JVPs
- Email/ezine blasts
- Twitter campaign
- A Contest
- Virtual Blog Tour
There are different strategies, technical aspects and creative elements to each of these components, which would take too long to discuss here. For now, let’s say that you decided you were going to utilise all of them in some way.
Step 2: Coordinate Your JVP Materials
Assuming you have already determined the level of commitment promised from your JVPs, your next step would be to gather relevant materials from them, such as headshot, bio, and bonus material information, including a link to the opt in page where people will sign up to receive their gift.
A word of advice: It is highly likely you will need to guide many of your JVPs as to what is an appropriate bonus gift. A good bonus gift should be a downloadable entry-level gift. A not-so-good gift is one that requires the customer to buy something else to receive it, or requires them to travel to specific geographic location. The bonus should also not be an offer of free or discounted coaching or consultation, because if they have a high number of requests, they might find it impossible to honour them all. You, as the manager of your campaign, need to guide your JVPs to choosing the right kind of gift.
As you collect this information from your JVPs, make sure you use some sort of tracking system to cross check you have received all the info. I use an Excel spreadsheet for tracking.
Step 3: Creating Your Pre-Launch Page and Follow-Ups
Next, you will need to assemble all your JVP information, along with key info about you and your book, onto a webpage we are going to call your “pre-launch page.” On this page, people will find out about you, your book, the date of the launch, and the bonus gift offerings. Make sure you standardise the format in which you will publish the JVP content on the web, so everyone’s entry looks similar.
Apart from the JVP information, the key ingredient on this page is a sign up form, where they will sign up to receive a reminder about the book launch. This sign up form should be connected to an auto-responder that sends them a follow up message saying something to the effect of, “Thanks for your interest in my book. I’ll be sending you a reminder the day before it comes out so you can get those great bonus gifts you read about. Be sure to mark your diary.”
Step 4: Create Promo Copy
The next thing you will need to do is create some great promotional copy for your JVPs to use for your campaign. There are basically 3 types of promo copy you will prepare for your JVPs:
- Newsletter/ezine articles
- “Tweets” (for Twitter)
- “Virtual interviews” (if you are planning to do a Virtual Blog Tour)
I usually make two contrasting pieces of ezine copy for my JVPs per month, to give them diversity and choice (they are likely to send only one per month).
I usually make 50-100 Tweets for my JVPs—and I try to make them 120 characters or less. It’s really not as complex as it might sound, and it can make your campaign vibrant, fun and very effective.
A “Virtual Interview” is when your blog tour hosts send you a few questions in advance before the date of their “stop” on your tour.
I cover the details of how to create all these types of copy on Module 4 at Spirit Authors. In fact, I dedicate an entire week to EACH of these types of copy.
Step 5: Create Clear Instructions for Your JVPs
The last step to getting your campaign off the ground is to create a set of clear, written instructions for your JVPs. I always include a timeline, a description of the components, and a break down of how everything will run. I write it in such a way that it is visually easy to read, and convert it into a PDF document. I give them tips on how to use the materials, and how to increase traffic to their bonus.
Follow a Real Live Launch
As I am currently the project leader for the upcoming Amazon campaign for Patrick Ryan’s book Awakened Wisdom: A Guide to Reclaiming Your Brilliance, the easiest thing you can do to understand the things I have been describing would be to look at the page we have put together for that launch at http://www.awakenedwisdom.com/Public/Amazon/booklaunch/index.cfm. As of this writing, we are still finalising some details on it (and there are a few more JVPs coming along). Of course, I also hope you’ll check out Patrick’s book and sign up for a launch reminder while you’re on that page (I made the video, by the way. Do you like it?).
And if you are on Twitter, follow me at http://twitter.com/LynnSerafinn and you can see some of the Tweets I’m sending out about the book. Hopefully they will give you ideas of how to make your own. Most everything I have learned about online promotion is the result of watching others who know what they are doing, so now it’s my pleasure to invite you to do the same (hopefully I know what I’m doing!).
This article has been a very brief overview of the 5 steps needed to put together your Amazon book campaign. If you’d like to know more about creating, running and benefiting from an Amazon book campaign for your upcoming book, have a look at my 8-week course on the Spirit Authors website: Module 4: Your Book Launch – Designing and Delivering. For a limited time, you can take a 14-day test drive for only $1, and receive some special bonus gifts that are yours to keep just for trying it out.
If you feel you need a more personal touch, fill in a contact form on the Spirit Authors site to request a 1-to-1 consultation. Please be aware that I only take on a limited amount of book launch clients throughout the year, and that we will require 4-6 months to work on your launch, depending upon the strength of your online platform.
I hope you found this whistle-stop tour useful. Drop me a comment below to let me know what you think.
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Synchronicity, Desire and Manifestation – Formula for a Number-1 Selling Book
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SIDEBAR NOTE: If you haven’t yet gotten your copy of Allison Maslan’s Number-1 seller, check it out at http://myblastoff.com/booklaunch.
This is a true story of how one small thing can change your life.
Back in September 2009, a fellow named Tony Eldridge, whom I had met on Twitter, asked me to write an article for his book marketing blog, talking about the promotional strategies I had used that enabled my book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers to unearth the Self to become a bestselling title. I was a first-time, self-published author. I wasn’t exactly rich, and I had next to nothing to spend on promotion, so I did just about all of it myself. But somehow, by dint of my having spent the previous two years attending dozens of live seminars and teleseminars and reading hundreds of articles and eBooks on the topic of book promotion and Amazon launches, I built my online platform, designed my campaign and found some truly wonderful joint venture partners to assist me. As a result, my book became a bestseller in the UK in spirituality and mind-body-spirit categories, as well as in self-help category in both the US and the UK. I couldn’t have been happier. At age 50-something, it really was the dream of a lifetime.
I knew that the success of my launch had come from building my platform at least a year before my book had come out. So when Tony approached me to write the article, I decided to call the article “Pre-Natal Care for your Book,” with the aim of encouraging authors to start building their platform months before they even finished writing their books. When he published my article on 6 October 2009, Tony announced it on Twitter, and continued to ReTweet the link to it throughout the month.
I was very pleased with the article, and very pleased Tony seemed to like it too. I had no idea, however, that this one small thing was very soon going to be the catalyst that would change my life.
A few days after the article was published, an author from California named Allison Maslan saw one of Tony’s ReTweets (bless your tweet heart, Tony), and clicked the link to read my article. She was intrigued with it and contacted me through my website, asking me if I would “coach” her to create a book promotion campaign, because she had just landed a book deal with Morgan James Publishers for her book Blast Off! The Surefire Success Plan to Launch Your Dreams into Reality.
I asked, “What do you want me to do?”
She replied, “Exactly the same thing you did for your own book. I want to do all of it.”
Without thinking, I heard myself saying to her, “OK. Except it’s not enough. My book made it to Number 18, and that was great at the time. But I want your book to do better than that. I want it to go all the way to Number 1.”
Reaching Number 1 was something I had a difficult time imagining, but I really meant it when I said it. Over the months Allison and I worked together, I found myself saying, “I want your book to be a Number-1 bestseller,” again and again. The desire was so powerful I could feel it in my gut.
I have to admit, though, that somewhere in the back of my mind I could hear a voice chiding me, “Number 1, you say? Uh-huh. Well we’ll just see about that!” But in spite of my occasional self-doubt, my logical mind told me if I simply applied all the learning I had amassed from having completed my own launch several months earlier, I could avoid all the pitfalls I had encountered and easily surpass my previous achievement. It seemed perfectly “do-able”.
And while such logic is a wonderful thing, the greater thing I have learned is that when you set a sincere intention, the Universe conspires to ensure it comes to fruition. So honey, let me warn you—before you open your mouth and speak loudly enough for the Universe to hear, you’d better be sure you are ready for outrageous success. But when you say it, you really have to mean it. Don’t just wish it. Don’t just say to yourself, “That would be really nice.” Feel the desire so powerfully that you will not accept anything less, and then commit to doing the work that will make it come true.
Over the following months, I worked closely with Allison to design, coordinate and deliver her campaign. First we tightened up her platform by building a strong online infrastructure and integrating all her social networks. Then, I showed her how to operate many new software programmes. She got to be a real pro at them in no time and soon she was off and running and gathering new followers every day. She was a natural at it, and because she was such a nice person, people simply WANTED to be connected to her.
Then I introduced her to an excellent communications coordinator, Yvonne Perry from Writers in the Sky, whom I had met on my Garden of the Soul Ning group. Together, we three assembled a truly vibrant team of spirit-based joint venture partners. We then designed all the timetables, promotional copy, strategies, sales pages and so many other things. As the day of the launch approached, we worked out tracking systems and a rota for watching the sales. There were some pretty hair-raising last minute “tweaks” behind the scenes and Ali, Yvonne and I were writing emails to each other so rapidly, it was almost like talking in real time.
The day of the big launch finally came Tuesday 19 January 2010. As I live in the UK, I was up hours before Allison or Yvonne. Soon, Britain woke up and started shopping online. I found my heart pounding when I first saw Allison’s book get into the Top-20 bestseller lists in the UK, alongside and even AHEAD of celebrities from Britain’s show “Dragon’s Den”. I frantically started sending out blogs and newsletters and tweets to tell people about this great news. Then, as North America woke up (Allison amongst them), and I started to see her book climb the US and Canadian charts, I could feel my heart pounding even louder. Heck I think I could even hear Allison’s heart pounding all the way from San Diego! Wow! Suddenly Blast Off! was soaring up the charts into the Top-10. Unbelievable. She had indeed passed my own book’s rank, just as I had said I truly wanted.
Behind the scenes was a FRENZY of emails, Tweets, Skypes and on-the-fly blog posts. We analysed. We strategised. It was total madness! I think if I could pick one thing I am most proud of about the campaign, it would be when Allison got to the Number-4 ranking, just behind Gary Vaynerchuk and Michael Gerber—two monumental names in the charts. We looked at the sales figures and estimated that we were very close to the Number-3 position, and all we needed to get over the “hump” was another 15 book sales. At that point, I sent out an appeal to all our members on Spirit Authors fan page on Facebook, as well as my blogs, and Allison sent out emails to her lists, telling them exactly what was going on. Yvonne started Tweeting like crazy. Within minutes, people responded with messages of support, telling us they had just bought the book.
I watched as an amazing truth became evident—people WANTED Allison reach Number-1. Their desire was just as strong as ours… except now there were hundreds of people all desiring the same thing.
And do you know what? With all that passionate desire being sent into the cosmos, the Universe could not help but fulfil our collective wishes. It was like an ocean of desire flowing into cyberspace.
In less than an hour, the book Blast Off! by my wonderful client (and now dear friend) Allison Maslan not only moved into the Number-3 rank, but within the next couple of hours, it also rose in both US and Canada to become Number-1 bestseller in entrepreneurship and was dubbed Number-1 “Hot New Seller”. It also made the top 5 in several other categories including “motivational” and “self-help”.
As you might imagine, Allison is over the moon and she is getting a lot of media attention. I spoke to her this evening and she has FOURTEEN radio interviews tomorrow! I can’t imagine that many interviews in one day. And I have to say, it couldn’t happen to a nicer person.
As for me, I’ve been living on not much more than adrenaline all week. But I really wanted to come back down to earth to tell you about the exciting things that have been happening in my life since the success as Allison’s campaign.
My first big announcement is that “Lynn the author” is now being represented by Waterside Literary Agency in Los Angeles, who also represent an array of illustrious spirit-based authors such as Eckhart Tolle, Neal Donald Walsch, Barbara Marx Hubbard, and of course my own client, Allison Maslan, amongst many others whose names you would undoubtedly recognise. Together, we are getting ready to approach publishers with a proposal for a NEW book I am writing. I’ll be telling you more about it over the coming months.
The second bit of news (and this will probably come as no surprise) is that, ever since the launch, I have been approached by a steady stream of authors requesting I help them with their book campaigns. Some of these are truly BIG and exciting projects. I’ll be telling you all about these wonderful books over the coming months.
All of this truly takes my breath away and, of course, I am absolutely thrilled so many people are approaching me about managing their spirit-based book campaigns. But there is a flip side to all this that also needs to be considered:
a) There’s only one of me and there are hundreds of authors who need help with their book projects and
b) Private campaign managers are simply not a financial option for everyone.
But here’s the beauty of the situation. The Universe is so incredibly wise and clever, it has been orchestrating a solution to this dilemma for the past two months, long before any of these events had occurred.
What is the solution? My new Spirit Authors site, of course!
For the past two months, I’ve been very excited about my new project Spirit Authors, which is a membership site that allows me to combine my professional experience as a teacher, coach, author, online promotion expert, WordPress “techie” and non-stop talker (!) in one place. I call it a “Virtual Coaching and Learning Experience” for mind-body-spirit authors—including those who simply have a dream to write and be a published author in the future. What Spirit Authors will offer authors is the opportunity to learn from myself and a range of other industry professionals about writing, social network-based promotion, self-publishing, Amazon launch campaigns, and making the most of your success, while always retaining your spirit-based focus, and being true to your personal values. It is also an online community, offering you the opportunity to make close personal and professional connections with others of like mind, for friendship, support, ideas sharing and business partnerships.
I originally set up this project because it resonated with my own values and interests. It also fulfils a long-term dream for me, because I have an MA in adult education and distance learning, and for many years I wanted to create a really fabulous online course, using all the principles I have learned in my many years as an educator.
But what I now understand is that the real importance of the project is that it will be able to help HUNDREDS of authors get the information and support they want and need for their projects. I couldn’t possibly do that as a one-to-one coach.
Click to find out more about our Spirit Authors Grand Opening VIPs
I have arranged a Grand Opening Webinar Week, Monday 22 through Friday 26 February. I’ve got over a dozen industry professionals from authors, marketing specialists, publishers, editors, etc., coming along to share their wisdom and experience on the air. And, yes, Allison Maslan will be amongst the guest line up to tell us what life has been like since becoming a Number-1 bestselling author. It’s all going to be FREE in celebration of the Grand Opening of the new Spirit Authors site.
Click HERE to read more and to REGISTER for FREE.
So there you have it. It all started by someone asking me to write a simple little blog article. Less than six months later, so many things I wanted to achieve in life are all joining together. It has truly been a dance of synchronicity, desire and manifestation.
If you follow my work, you know that one of my key messages is that there is great learning to be found in every story of our lives. So for this story, let me offer you these two “thoughts for the day:”
a) Never underestimate the power of an opportunity you are given, even if it seems very small. You simply do not know how far it will take you.
b) The more you desire to fulfil the dreams of others, the more your own dreams become fulfilled.
Thanks for reading. I really needed to share this story with you. Just by reading these words, you have become a part of my journey. Even if we have never spoken in person, I know on a subtle level that your presence in the world is impacting my life in ways I cannot yet measure. Similarly, I truly hope my presence in the world is impacting you in some small but positive way.
Warm wishes,
Lynn Serafinn
Transformation Coach, Book Promotion Coach,
Author, Teacher, Talk Radio Host
Lynn, it´s been wonderful working with you on Luis Angel Diaz's campaign for the launch of his book "Memory in the Cells," which became a #1 bestseller!
“I was truly blessed when I found Lynn Serafinn, best selling author of 
Lynn was hired for the Amazon book launch of my book 
