Episode 124: Book Marketing Experiment

[00:00:02] [SPEAKER_01]: What you want when you want it, where you want it. This is The Mesh.

[00:00:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to, I'm so ledger here. Let's get started.

[00:00:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to another episode of The Written Compass. I am so excited you're here. Today is going to be a really fun episode because we are talking about

[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Wait for it. My new book. Yes, I finally have, I say, finally because just like all of our authors,

[00:00:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I have been writing this book for several years now. It is definitely a big book baby for me.

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm very excited to announce that the ebook version of my new book writing is not that hard,

[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_00]: is now available for pre-order when this episode drops. But I want to talk today about how

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_00]: did I get here? Because I have already hit number one bestseller for this new book and it hasn't even

[00:01:24] [SPEAKER_00]: released it. And the reason is I've been doing some book marketing experimentation and I want to share

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_00]: everything that I've been learning and that I've been doing because I really believe that marketing

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_00]: is all about connection. I have from the start of my business, really tried to

[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_00]: cling to that and hold to that because if you are anywhere remotely in the entrepreneurial world,

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_00]: you know that if you aren't selling something, you're not having clients. You don't have a business.

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of things can happen as you are trying to put yourself out there whether it's your

[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_00]: book or a product or a program or a service or an offer and we can get really wrapped up in that

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_00]: big-im marketing word. It's not that it's not important. I just think there has been some injustice

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_00]: in how we think about marketing. So I really try to stay connected to the idea that marketing

[00:02:19] [SPEAKER_00]: is all about connection. And so when I went into wanting to do some new strategies and

[00:02:26] [SPEAKER_00]: try some new things with marketing. My book, I really wanted to play. I wanted to get

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_00]: you know some experimenting happening. So I want to talk about that today. So some of the things

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_00]: we're going to talk about is how early did I start kind of marketing and sharing? I want to talk

[00:02:45] [SPEAKER_00]: about the power of activating your network. I want to talk about direct messaging. I want to talk

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_00]: about how I became a number one best seller before the book is even available. I want to talk

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_00]: about all of these things and much, much more. So grab wherever you like to take notes and let's

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_00]: dive in. So almost every single one of our clients, either reach number one new best seller

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_00]: in multiple if not all three of their categories on Amazon or and or number one best seller. And

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to get to how that's possible. It is a little bit of it feels a little bit like a mystery

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_00]: and it's really not. And so I really want to pull back the curtain there. There are lots of tools

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_00]: now that will really allow you to activate that with your book. So I'm going to get to that just

[00:03:36] [SPEAKER_00]: know. So first one of the things I started to do as I was still writing my book as I would use

[00:03:45] [SPEAKER_00]: my posts on social media, emails even in this podcast and I would share excerpts from my book.

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: That allowed me two things. One, it started to help me get people noticing, oh,

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Shane is writing a book. Let's pay attention, right? It was a very low stakes way for me to get

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_00]: feedback on what I was writing. People would leave a comment and say I'm so excited for this.

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_00]: When is it out? People might even author like, oh, are you going to talk about this in the book?

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_00]: It was almost like having some beta, very light beta readers of sorts. So I cannot say

[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_00]: enough about sharing the fact that you are writing a book that a book is coming. What the book

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_00]: might be about? Even if it changes because guess what nobody remembers. Even being willing to share

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_00]: a blurb and by a blurb, I mean a couple of sentences, right? A paragraph. Not full chapters or

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_00]: no pieces or anything like that. It doesn't have to be able to can, but you want people to start

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_00]: to know this is coming. Think of it as creating this nice runway. I want you to do it in a way

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_00]: that feels aligned to you so if that's just word of mouth, if that is sending emails, if it's social

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_00]: media, if it's running ads, like you really need to lean into. I don't think there's one right

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_00]: way that, oh, if you do this, then this is guaranteed. But the most important thing is that it's

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_00]: aligned for you and it feels really good to you. Having conversations with people talking about

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_00]: it as you're out and about, as you're sharing your other work that you're doing. Hey, by the way,

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_00]: my book is coming. My book is coming. Do you want to read it? Do you want to be a part of it?

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_00]: All that kind of stuff. One of the other things I did once my book was completely drafted,

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_00]: but not professionally edited yet is I did get some people to read it and give me

[00:05:48] [SPEAKER_00]: some what I call reviews, right? There are lots of different places where you can go online

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_00]: and you can pay for reviews. And I have no problem with that. I probably will wind up doing that

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_00]: at some point anyway for my book. But one of the things that I think is so powerful is to

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_00]: it doesn't really matter who it is just to show people that this is how people are

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_00]: interpreting my book. This is what they're saying about it so far. Again, it's getting

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_00]: others excited about it and activates its part of activating your network. Now let's fast forward

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_00]: to when you are self publishing and you are using Amazon KDP as one of your places to self publish.

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_00]: One of the things available to you as a marketing strategy is you can have pre-orders for the ebook

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_00]: version, the Kindle version, the e reader version of your book. KDP does not allow you to have pre-orders

[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_00]: for the print and the only thing you need, you're going to want to write this down, the only thing

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_00]: you need in order to have pre-orders going is you need a JPEG of your cover. You need your book's

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_00]: description, information, you need your categories selected. Amazon allows you three categories.

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_00]: That is the when you're on Amazon looking in their books. That's the big category. There's all

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_00]: the sub categories underneath that, right? Like business and money and marketing, right? Or business

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_00]: money writing skills. I'm not going to remember all of mine right now. I think I have one where it

[00:07:23] [SPEAKER_00]: widows down into high school and college resources, teacher resources, something like that.

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_00]: You're also going to want to have your seven keywords chosen. Now we do this through a

[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_00]: really helpful software tool. This is I'm going to come back to this later. This is how we become

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_00]: number one new releases and number one best sellers is we are able to see what categories have

[00:07:49] [SPEAKER_00]: a relatively low threshold of sales needed in a day because the number one best seller thing is

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_00]: day by day, right? You can say it forever. Hey, I was a number one best seller but it could happen just

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_00]: one day and you get that ranking and then it could go away and never happen again. It could stay for

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_00]: multiple days. But the category selection is what is going to help you activate that potential for

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_00]: number one new release and number one best seller in those categories. So you need all the things

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_00]: to be ready to go and sell the book officially as the ebook. But you do not actually need the final

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_00]: ebook file yet, the interior. You can do pre-orders with just the image and all of the book

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_00]: details. So I just want to make sure everybody understands that. So I have started that process

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_00]: about three months out from my release. Some people do it a whole year. It's really up to you.

[00:08:48] [SPEAKER_00]: It is a really fun way because if you're doing live events or you're going to be on podcast,

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_00]: this is something for you to start to have sales and then when the book is released, right?

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_00]: It's got all this momentum behind it and it just just carries it on for it. So it's been

[00:09:03] [SPEAKER_00]: really fun to see my book hit number one best seller. Number one new release. It hit number one best

[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_00]: seller in all three categories at one point. I think that was on day two of me sharing the pre-order

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_00]: was available for the ebook. So really, really exciting stuff to play with. And again,

[00:09:21] [SPEAKER_00]: this is exactly what we do with our legacy authors and our embodied writing clients who are

[00:09:25] [SPEAKER_00]: writing their books. We support them through all of this marketing strategy and actually helping

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_00]: them become number one best sellers in number one new release. So that is all you need to start a

[00:09:38] [SPEAKER_00]: pre-order. You do not have to have your book finished. So keep that in your back pocket and use as

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_00]: you see fit. And again, just a reminder, this is just for self publishing ebooks on Amazon KDP.

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Once you have a cover, you want to start to experiment. So I did have a cover teaser,

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_00]: meaning this ice-shared that my book was coming soon and a d-end and texted friends. Then I said,

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_00]: hey, would you be willing to share it with your audience on social media as a story? All that sort of

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_00]: I really learned that I needed to manage my expectations because people read quickly,

[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_00]: don't read all the details. I probably if I do this strategy again with the pre-order,

[00:10:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I probably will forget doing a coming soon and just do straight. The pre-order is available.

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_00]: The coming soon when people were sharing it, some of them put, go buy the book now and it wasn't

[00:10:38] [SPEAKER_00]: actually available for pre-order yet. I had a date for pre-order, but I was playing with creating

[00:10:44] [SPEAKER_00]: momentum for the pre-order and that kind of stuff. It was something that felt a little bit wobbly

[00:10:51] [SPEAKER_00]: to me. It worked. I still again was number one best seller. All three categories. All that kind of stuff.

[00:10:57] [SPEAKER_00]: But I think I would have been maybe sold a few more copies even if I as soon as I announced it,

[00:11:03] [SPEAKER_00]: pre-order was available. Even if you're going to do a coming soon, you might want to go ahead

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_00]: and have the pre-order already going. Just in case people go ahead and go look for your book,

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_00]: even though it says coming soon and your network shares it. I direct message to people and

[00:11:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I said, hey, I created a post and I said, would you please be willing to share this post?

[00:11:30] [SPEAKER_00]: On your story, here's the link to use. Here's where to go. All of that sort of stuff and that worked.

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Really nicely. It was one just like a nice little love bomb back to me from friends who were like,

[00:11:43] [SPEAKER_00]: oh my gosh, this is so amazing. I'm so excited for you. And then to see what they would post

[00:11:47] [SPEAKER_00]: for their stories and little comments and things that they would add. It was really really cool

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_00]: just to see that. So I highly recommend who are the people that you know,

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_00]: you no matter what, and we'll share anything that you're doing and ask them. Don't be afraid to

[00:12:05] [SPEAKER_00]: ask. And I even told people, once the print version comes, I'm going to lovingly come back to you

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_00]: for support. And so what I was doing was creating a little book squat. Okay? So I was

[00:12:19] [SPEAKER_00]: asking people to make purchases and if they told me they made the purchase and there's different

[00:12:23] [SPEAKER_00]: ways you can do this, I added them to this list that I am still creating called my book

[00:12:28] [SPEAKER_00]: squat, kind of my book hype squad. This is something this group is going to be able to get some

[00:12:33] [SPEAKER_00]: early access to chapters. I'm going to offer them if they buy the print version. I'm going to be

[00:12:39] [SPEAKER_00]: offering them some freebies. There's all kinds of little fun stuff that you can do to be a part

[00:12:45] [SPEAKER_00]: of your book marketing strategies. So think about what would I love? Maybe it's something you've already

[00:12:50] [SPEAKER_00]: created that you can offer people. Maybe there's a workshop coming up that you want to invite

[00:12:55] [SPEAKER_00]: them to give them a free ticket to. Maybe it's a free coaching session, just anything. Even if

[00:13:02] [SPEAKER_00]: it's just the thank you note, right? What would you love to offer people who are going to buy your book?

[00:13:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I have another client who's going to be doing something like this with her journal and she's

[00:13:12] [SPEAKER_00]: going to have kind of, hey, if you order 10 copies, here's what this gets you. If you order 50

[00:13:18] [SPEAKER_00]: copies, here's what this gets you. If you order 100 copies, right? And she's going like all the way

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_00]: up to giving away multiple thousands of dollars in value of courses and even some coaching from

[00:13:33] [SPEAKER_00]: her for people who buy multiple copies of the book. So there's all kinds of different leveraging

[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_00]: you can do to play an experiment as part of your book marketing strategy, even with pre-orders.

[00:13:46] [SPEAKER_00]: All of this kind of stuff is possible. And also know you don't have to do any of that. You can just

[00:13:51] [SPEAKER_00]: say, I birth this baby and I want your support. Go and buy the book, right? Oh, if we're got to

[00:13:57] [SPEAKER_00]: mention two that I did have a lower price for initial pre-order and I gave people a two week window

[00:14:04] [SPEAKER_00]: to get it at that price. And now the book is at its normal. The ebook version is at its normal

[00:14:09] [SPEAKER_00]: price. So I went from $2.99 to $9.99. That was just something I wanted to play with as well. Again,

[00:14:15] [SPEAKER_00]: you could feel into that. You wanted to feel really good for people. I was just creating something

[00:14:20] [SPEAKER_00]: that was like a no-brainer. Yes, of course I'll go buy this. One thing to think about too is some

[00:14:25] [SPEAKER_00]: people don't want the candle version. They don't want the ebook. That's okay. Let me know that

[00:14:31] [SPEAKER_00]: people were interested in the book. They wanted the print version. For some of those, if I knew

[00:14:35] [SPEAKER_00]: them well enough and felt comfortable, I said, hey, why don't you buy it and gift it to somebody?

[00:14:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Because you are able to do that. You can forward the essentially forward the book to someone.

[00:14:45] [SPEAKER_00]: And I would say, hey, you know what? It's $2.99 if you feel comfortable, like just buy it and don't

[00:14:51] [SPEAKER_00]: use it. It's no big deal. It's $2.99. That was mainly because I was trying to get the rankings

[00:14:58] [SPEAKER_00]: going and get some flow going. Of course, I want people to buy the book and read it and enjoy it

[00:15:03] [SPEAKER_00]: and all of that kind of stuff. But the main thing was creating that buzz around it.

[00:15:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Right? Okay. The other thing that I want you to think about is, while if you do the pre-order,

[00:15:23] [SPEAKER_00]: you want to really be watching your rankings over on KDP and seeing on Amazon and seeing what it's

[00:15:29] [SPEAKER_00]: doing. And screenshot, share it, ask other people to reshare it. You're really, again, you can't,

[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_00]: emphasize enough of like creating momentum around all of these things. I got new followers

[00:15:43] [SPEAKER_00]: during this time of pre-order and playing around with it. So I highly, highly recommend you really

[00:15:50] [SPEAKER_00]: be in a space to think about that timing wise that you're in a space where you can kind of just

[00:15:55] [SPEAKER_00]: be focused on just sharing this pre-order process, checking the rankings, keeping an eye on it.

[00:16:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Like I was marking it as soon as it became like top 10, top 5, top 2. Number one, you know,

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER_00]: all of that. And I was using screenshots, just simple screenshots on my phone and uploading

[00:16:15] [SPEAKER_00]: those on Instagram and Facebook and all of that kind of stuff. All of that is a part of the

[00:16:21] [SPEAKER_00]: momentum. Now, the book is still in pre-order but at a different price, I will start to treat it

[00:16:28] [SPEAKER_00]: more just like the print version and continue to ask for pre-orders and also start to tell people

[00:16:35] [SPEAKER_00]: the print version is on the way. And just start to mimic a lot of what I've already done,

[00:16:40] [SPEAKER_00]: asking people, you know, activating my network, asking people to share it, sharing the rankings,

[00:16:46] [SPEAKER_00]: all of that kind of stuff as I head to launching the official print version. So I'm curious what you're

[00:16:54] [SPEAKER_00]: carrying in the strategies and things that I've shared today. This of course, again, is my process

[00:17:00] [SPEAKER_00]: that I've been playing with. None of it is a half-two and I think there's just some real power

[00:17:08] [SPEAKER_00]: in making sure you really pay attention to how you want to feel as you're sharing the book.

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_00]: And I just completely honest like it was amazing to like somebody bought my book and it's not even

[00:17:20] [SPEAKER_00]: out yet, right? And to see people sharing it. And while I haven't, you know, I'm right around

[00:17:28] [SPEAKER_00]: 40 sales and the book's been quote available for pre-order for three weeks now,

[00:17:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm totally happy with that, right? Those of you who have larger networks, you can really, really

[00:17:40] [SPEAKER_00]: amp this up in all kinds of fun and amazing ways. So take everything that I've shared with you,

[00:17:47] [SPEAKER_00]: we're a little around and make it aligned and fit for what's going to make sense for you and feel

[00:17:52] [SPEAKER_00]: really good for you. So as always, I want to hear what should up, what you're noticing, what you're

[00:17:57] [SPEAKER_00]: loving about this. And I want to make sure that you know about our amazing sponsor that we have going

[00:18:04] [SPEAKER_00]: right now, the amazing Dr. Heather Bartos is offering us a special invitation to the written compass

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_00]: listeners, whether you're female identifying or you love those who are female identifying.

[00:18:19] [SPEAKER_00]: She has the most amazing program that is actually I'm actually going through it right now and it

[00:18:23] [SPEAKER_00]: is absolutely changing my mental, emotional, spiritual, physical health right now in ways that I'm

[00:18:29] [SPEAKER_00]: just so like I wish I had started sooner. The Minipos mothership is a beautiful community.

[00:18:34] [SPEAKER_00]: She has live workshops, she can work with you one-on-one and in a larger community.

[00:18:42] [SPEAKER_00]: And in the show notes we've got a special invitation for you. One link to go and check out

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_00]: the full Minipos mothership and then another link to use if you want to sign up. And when you

[00:18:53] [SPEAKER_00]: sign up and support yourself and your health journey, you're also supporting the written compass.

[00:18:57] [SPEAKER_00]: We have a little affiliate program going on with that. So as always, we want to hear from you,

[00:19:02] [SPEAKER_00]: make sure you hit me up over on Vesena underscore v on Instagram and I'll see you next time.

[00:19:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the written compass. If you are enjoying this

[00:19:16] [SPEAKER_00]: content, do be a favor and go and review the podcast. This allows me to share and get these messages out

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_00]: to the people who really meet them, who we want to read their books in the future. You can also

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_00]: go and share your thoughts and tag me at Shena Hartman underscore on Instagram. Again, this is

[00:19:35] [SPEAKER_00]: just a way for us to get connected and share the writing love. And if you know that you are ready

[00:19:41] [SPEAKER_00]: to write your book, that message that's been burning inside of you for a long time, then I want

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_00]: to talk to you, my team, and I want to talk to you. Head on over to shenaheartman.com and click

[00:19:52] [SPEAKER_00]: work with us. From there, you'll see an application to explore and see if writing your book

[00:19:59] [SPEAKER_01]: is your next best step. You've been listening to the mesh and online media network of shows

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