Jimmy Buko on EBook Marketing 101 #TBSU

Hello Readers,

This is Jimmy Buko. You may know me as the half-billionaire from Twelve Nights. Well, a little more than a half-billion now, but who's counting. If you're trying to picture me, think of a young Harvey Keitel. Here's a candid shot that's floating around the Internet of Harv that looks a lot like me. If you know who took it, let me know and I'll give them credit.

On to the point of this post, marketing Ebooks. Carole is a good friend, and she and I were having a coffee a couple of days ago and she asked me for help. The way she described it was that she feels like she's sitting in a boat in the middle of the lake (nice lake, beautiful view, BTW) and has just now figured out that maybe she could use a paddle. I'm the paddle.

Brand Name

First step to marketing widgets, er books, is the brand name. People buy Kellogg's cereal automatically because they trust the name Kellogg. Rightly or wrongly, but that's not the point. Your brand identity as an author is your NAME.

To back up that brand name, you must have the second element of success, quality.

Quality

The first component of brand quality is the books themselves. All I'll say here, not being a writer myself, is... EDIT! Don't rush to print just to be in print. Sticking with Kellogg's as an example, they started with a quality product, Corn Flakes, about 100 years ago. Still on every supermarket shelf today. Make sure your first book is top notch. Hire an editor if you need to. Since Carole is an editor, with twenty or so proteges' books in print, I'll let her add a few sentences here.

My advice to first time novelists is the same as Stephen King's: CUT! 

and Agatha Christie's: MURDER YOUR DARLINGS! (If you looove it, 

delete it!) Try to eliminate one third of the words in your manuscript. 

Much weak writing is simply overwritten, and would be improved

by cutting unessential words!

This blog post by Wm. Luke Everest has a succinct 
summary of Stephen King's advice.

The second component of quality is in every other scrap of writing that goes out with your name behind it! Yes, that includes Tweets (keep it real and personal), Facebook postings, and most especially blog posts.

Google Love

So, now you have your brand and your product. The next step is to get it out there. Carole gets points here. (Don't worry, the demerit points are coming...) Type Carole Remy in Google Search and you get five pages of listings. Go ahead and try it. Impressive, eh?

How do you get love from search engines? You can find tons of articles out there about SEO, Search Engine Optimization. Read them all if you want, but I'll tell you the key in a single word, and it's the same key word. Quality. Write interesting, durable blog posts, not just advertising and what you ate for breakfast. Write interesting, durable guest posts on other blogs. Going on a book blog tour can get you started on the guest posting circuit. What's durable? That's an article that the reader opens up five months after it was originally written, because it says something that she's now interested in reading.

Now It's Time to Sell Books!

I told you there were demerit points coming, right? Carole has the platform down solid. If you want to pursue the first metaphor, she's built herself a sturdy little boat! But in terms of actual book sales, she's still one oar shy of a pair. Here's the next step.

Understand the Market

Amazon Kindle is a very specific market. It obeys different rules from a grocery store, and different rules from a brick and mortar bookstore. Here are the basics for Kindle:  

• a great cover that fits the type of book, but perhaps isn't totally stereotypical (think cereal box), 
• a catchy blurb that pulls readers into the story,
• correct placement (don't put your cereal in the canned veggies aisle).

Keep Your Book Visible

Amazon determines what books show up where in the listings. You want your book to at least be visible on the first page when someone types your title! Amazon uses a complicated formula that nobody understands (probably not even Amazon), but there are three aspects you can manipulate: likes, sales and reviews.

• Ask everyone you can think of to LIKE your book! It costs them nothing, and it helps your rankng.
• When sales dip, GIFT the book yourself. Make a list of people you could give your book to, people who would actually enjoy receiving it!, and GIFT through Amazon a few copies a week. Up front, it costs you a few dollars per book, but you get back 70%, right? So a $2.99 gift book only really costs you $1. Your friends think you're generous, you feel generous (Law of Attraction, anyone?), and it actually costs almost nothing.
• If you want REVIEWS, you want to think up some way to reward reviewers. Free books is the traditional route. It works, so give away all the advance reader copies you can. But there are other forms of rewards. Reviewers want publicity. That's why they review in the first place. So give them all the publicity you can. Tweet and FB your little heart out, not just for your own but for friends' reviews. Create and advertise a Pinterest board with excerpts and links to every good review. Use your imagination, and find ways to entice reviewers to wait in line review your books!

Free Days

Another marketing tool that's if not unique, then is certainly identified with Kindle, is free book days. Carole hasn't tried this yet, but I'm urging her to.

Okay, Jimmy! Stop twisting! 

Twelve Nights is going on a free promotion soon! Promise!

Giveaways are an age-old marketing tactic. The basic marketing principle is to elevate the perceived value of your product ahead of the giveaway. I read a couple of articles about Kindle free days, so I could advise Carole how to proceed. You can read the same articles and learn how to actually set up the days. I'll just summarize a few key marketing points.

• Raise the price a day or two before the free days. Make people think they're getting an even bigger bargain. Leave the price higher for a few days after the sale, to reap the maximum benefit from sales.
• The day before you raise the price, GIFT a bunch of copies, say ten or twenty. You want to go into the freebie days with as high an Amazon ranking as possible. Don't wait until after you raise the price, or you've just cost yourself some extra cash!
• Write a post on your blog a day or two before the free days. Be creative. Maybe a couple of your characters are super excited about the sale. Maybe they have a funny conversation about buying shoes on sale at DSW. (Stop giving away all my ideas, Jimmy! Don't you just love DSW, ladies!)
• Scramble to get as many reviews as possible posted. Wait until your novel has at least six solid reviews before you do a giveaway. More is better.
• Contact the media outlets, now known as Twitter, Facebook, etc, and let them know about your upcoming freebie days. Click the articles link for lists of who to contact.

During the Freebie Days

Now your book is free on Amazon Kindle. Relax and watch the downloads flow in? Not quite.

• Without being obnoxious or a spammer, let people know your book is now free for a limited time.
• All the great contacts you've nurtured on Twitter and Facebook? Count on them to help you spread the word!
• Ask your friends who haven't already bought the book to download a copy, even if they received a free non-Amazon copy earlier directly from you. Ask your friends who have already bought the book to download copies and give them as gifts. 
• Write a post on your blog on the first freebie day. Again, something fun. Not a blatant ad. Something that a reader will enjoy reading even after the free days are over.

Okay, NOW you can relax and watch the downloads mount!

Whew! Enough for Now!

Thank you so much, Jimmy! My brain is on overload.

You're welcome, Carole. I'll come back after the first set of Kindle Free days for Twelve Nights and we can do a postmortem. In the meantime, readers, if you have any questions or comments, I'll stick around for awhile. What marketing strategies have you tried? How have they worked out? I'd say Carole needs all the help she can get, but then she's punch me.

Darn right, Jimmy!

Ouch!

Bye for now!

Check out these related posts:

• Can I Use the Law of Attraction to Boost Book Sales?
• Publish or Perish vs the Law of Attraction

Some great blogs, courtesy of The Blog Scratchers' Union! #TBSU

• Seumas Gallacher (the original scratcher...)
• Vibe Shifting (all things Law of Attraction, plus gluten free baking!)
• Life, For Instance (philosophy on the porch)

Can I Use the Law of Attraction to Boost Book Sales?

Note: I've removed some images from this post, and am searching for ones I can use without infringing copyright. Thanks for your patience!

Or animal adoptions, or whatever measure of abundance you want? The simple answer to this question is, Yes of course! The more complicated answer contains the proviso: as long as you understand how the Law of Attraction really works. If it were obvious, we'd all have the sales of John Locke or Laurel K. Hamilton.

Two Key Principles of the LoA  

How does the Law of Attraction really work? The first thing to understand is that from the Universe's point of view, everything is energy. Even things are energy. Physicists know this. For the rest of us, it takes a little getting used to.

The second principle is that, believe it or not, the Universe wants to and always does give us exactly what it thinks we want. That's because the Universe acts like a giant reflector, reflecting back and amplifying energy. You've heard of like attracting like? Magnify by a gazillion, and that's the Universe.

What Does This Mean for Us Humans? 

For us, the Law of Attraction translates into a huge tool that we use all the time, either consciously or, more often, unconsciously. Here are a couple of examples.

Unconscious Attraction (Unpleasant Example)

A waiter brings a scrumptious piece of cake to the table. Your emotional reaction is — Why did he bring this cake to the table? I can't possibly eat this cake! I'll get fat. 

What the Universe hears: I like feeling fat. I like feeling envious. I like feeling angry. I like feeling powerless (from the Universe's strictly physics POV).

What you get in the future: more opportunities to feel fat, to feel envy, to feel anger, to feel powerlessness. Arggg!

Unconscious Attraction (Happy Example)

You see a puppy in someone's arms. You feel joy! You want to cuddle the puppy! You remember how much you love your own dog!

What the Universe hears: I like joy. I like touching. I like loving my dog.

What you get in the future: more opportunities to feel joy, to feel physical closeness, to feel love.

How to Attract Book Sales

Now we get to the nitty gritty. What will attract book sales? Number one, the Universe doesn't have a clue that you want book sales. Not. A. Clue. No matter how many vision boards you make, wishes you express, tears you shed, the Universe doesn't know Amazon from a strong lady, or Kindle from a fire. 

What the Universe does know is emotion, and it will bring you more of whatever emotion you feel. There are some pretty obvious emotions you want to avoid, because you don't want more opportunities to feel them. Envy. Anxiety. Desperation. Despair. The list is pretty long, and the emotions are pretty common. What we need is an antidote.

What emotions will bring book sales? Anything that makes you feel good brings more opportunities to feel good!

Appreciation. To me, gratitude is the best tool we have. You cannot feel down when you are feeling appreciative. Try it. Can't be done! The more you feel grateful for what you already have, the more things/people/book sales(!) the Universe will bring you to appreciate .  

Confidence. If you feel secure and confident, the Universe will keep proving to you over and over that you are right to feel secure and confident. How cool is that!

Optimism. If you wake up in the morning expecting a wonderful day, guess what you're going to get? A wonderful day! That doesn't mean that nothing will go wrong. What it does mean is that the optimistic, confident you will see mishaps as bumps and not crashes.

Generosity. Being generous is good not because it's morally or inherently right, but because it flows from a feeling of abundance. When you are generous, you are telling the Universe that you feel abundant, and you can take it to the bank (literally!) that you will get more and more opportunities to feel abundant.

I'm sure you can think of many more uplifting and helpful emotions. When you find yourself shifting into an unhelpful emotion, one you don't want more of, the quick fix is to find something to appreciate. Don't try to go from despair to joy. It's too big a leap. Just find something small to enjoy. I love the feeling of soap suds on my hands, and that gets me through the dishes with a smile every time. 

Or Something Better

The bottom line is to do the best you can to produce great books and to promote them with enthusiasm and vigor. You do your job of focusing on the emotions you want more of, and let the Universe do its job of bringing you more opportunities to feel them. 

When you enjoy the process, you get more joy. If one person retweets you, Wow! Feel the connection! When you feel abundant, you get more abundance. One person bought your book? That's fantastic! When you feel supported, you get more support. You got one 5-star review - Wonderful! How amazing and sustaining that somebody loves your book!

Whenever I wish for something, I always tag onto the end, "or something better." Great book sales would be fun, but who knows? Maybe the Universe has a different path, something that absolutely fulfills my soul's desires in a way that I can't even imagine right now!  

So I'll end by wishing you all amazing book sales, or something better!

Have you experienced the Law of Attraction in your life? What other feel good emotions can you add to the list? What's your method for lifting yourself out of unhelpful feelings? As always, I'm eager to hear your thoughts, and look forward to a great discussion.




Check out these related posts:

• Banish the Anxiety — Focus on the Fun! 
• Royalty vs Self Publishing: a Law of Attraction Perspective

Confessions About Book Covers

True confession time: When I got the approval copy of the cover for Beauty of the Beast from the publisher, my initial reaction wasn't pretty. The cover photo had nothing to do with the book. The woman on the cover is clearly a 'beast,' and in the book, the beast is the man! She has weird 80's hair, and the book is set in 1950. She looks clinically insane, and in the book she's a respected journalist.

Beauty of the Beast page on Amazon

After about 30 seconds of outrage, my brain clicked. Way to go, publisher! This cover will SELL BOOKS. And it did. The paperback sold out in six months, twice as fast as anticipated. At one point, copies of the $6 paperback sold used on Amazon for over $120. Fantasy Impromptu, my second novel, is on sale today for $136.88! Woohoo! I like to think the books sell because they're fun and well-written, but the covers clearly helped get them into readers' hands.

The huge lesson I learned back then is that the cover is only there to get the reader to pick up the book, whether in person in the bookstore or digitally on the Internet. From there on out, it's the author's responsibility to capture the reader with the actual words on the page.

The Cover for Twelve Nights

I forgot that essential lesson over time. I have the rights back from the publishers for my five previously published novels (getting your rights back is a post in itself!), but the covers belong to the publishers. Can't use them! When I started to prepare the first novel for digital re-release, the cover the designer and I created for Twelve Nights was exactly what I wanted and reflected the book perfectly. Trouble is, as Cassandra pointed out in a comment on the previous post, it won't sell. Ooops! Thank you a million times, Cassandra!

The big reveal on the new cover for Twelve Nights is tomorrow. I promise to post it as soon as it's ready, and you can all weigh in on its market potential.

Create a Brand Identity

If you plan to release more than one book, think in advance about the overall look of your first cover. You want to create a brand identity, so that hopefully when your faithful reader sees your next cover, they immediately recognize it as yours.

Using the Beauty cover as an example, you might want to replicate the border, though not necessarily in the same color. You might go with a centered photo, with the title and author name below. You could still use a different title font for each book.

For the new releases, I've decided to go with one main photo on each cover. They're each a little suggestive, but not over the top sexy with abs and boobs. The position of the book title varies to suit the photo, but my name is always at the bottom of the cover. The words Sexy Fun Erotic Romance tie the titles together and serve as a brand identity. At least, that's the plan!

Two Cover Designers

Here are two book cover designers who've befriended me through Twitter. I've checked out their pages, and the covers they design are beautiful and, more importantly, effective.

DLC Designs

Melchelle Designs

Generally you can get premade or custom made covers. They cost less than you might think - premade from about $45. If you're not sure about designing your own cover, or don't want to invest in the imaging software, look at the work of several designers and choose someone you are comfortable working with.

So, bottom line. The cover gets the reader to pick up the book. It's marketing, only marketing, and nothing but marketing! Write your incredible, beautiful, beyond words awesome novel, and then put a cover on it that will SELL!

Thanks for joining me here on the blog. I look forward to your comments.