Tag: marketing

If You Want Word of Mouth to Work You Have to Teach Your Fans How

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/959135 by Martin Lundgren http://www.sxc.hu/profile/alvaspappa” width=”158″ height=”256″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-2160]Word of mouth is the best marketing you can get — if, like free, it’s done right.

What are you doing to help your fans share your books? Do you teach them what to say, so they’re doing real marketing? If they’re just saying “This is a good book” that’s not marketing, it’s just talk. They need your guidance.

You need to craft a message simple enough for them to say something like my fans would say about my first mystery: “Joel’s book is like meeting someone you love for a laugh and a pint at the pub.” Folks hear that, and they’re hooked (or repelled, which is also fine.)

My fans won’t know to say that if I don’t teach them.

… more … “If You Want Word of Mouth to Work You Have to Teach Your Fans How”

10,172 Words of Free Marketing Advice About Marketing Free

Posted on by Joel D Canfield
Since going live in September of 2013 this has become my most popular post ever, by a wide margin. I’m updating it in May of 2015 and will give it a polish every quarter or so.

Marketing Tips & Tricks

Here’s that list of 13 27 posts. The first is at my personal blog. The rest are here at Someday Box.

  1. 5 Business Lessons Nobody Taught Me (But I Sure Wish They Had)
  2. Free: It’s Not a Price, It’s a Strategy
  3. Growing Followers
  4. Would You Like Someone to Sell Your Books for You?
  5. What Does It Cost to Make a Living as a Writer?
  6. You Don’t Want Fans of Your Book
  7. Why Authors Must Have a Blog
  8. But I Just Want to Write
  9. Marketing Your Books in the New Age of Publishing
  10. Book Marketing: The Long Game Wins
  11. 6 Quick Marketing Tips for Authors
  12. 4 More Quick Marketing Tips
  13. Engineering Best-Sellers (Are Your Pants on Fire?)
  14. If You Want Word of Mouth to Work You Have to Teach Your Fans How
  15. Advertising Only Amplifies Visibility
  16. 5 Ways to Provide the Fresh Blog Content Your Fans Crave
  17. 6 Tools to Help You Find and Develop Your Blogging Voice
  18. Marketing: No Budget? No Time? The One Thing I Would Do Is . . .
  19. You Are What You Measure
  20. 6,000 Copies Sold: But How?
  21. Personal, Anticipated, and Relevant: Keep Your Email List Up to PAR
  22. Do One Thing
  23. Free: Here, There . . . Everywhere?
  24. Marathon, Not Sprint
  25. Can’t Hurry Love. Or Marketing.
  26. The Magic Formula for Marketing Your Books
  27. Learn to Love Marketing, or Give Your Books Away (or Both)

It’s doubtful the book I originally envisioned here will ever see daylight.

But I’m willing to be convinced otherwise.

Who Does 99¢ Pricing Hurt?

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/570269 by Andy Reid http://www.sxc.hu/profile/RockinDad” width=”166″ height=”256″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-2107]If first books were universally priced at 99¢, the only folks who’d lose are authors who won’t write or can’t sell a second book. I say, let’s set that expectation!

99¢ is a good price for a single “taster” book so folks can be sure if they like your books. If so, they’ll pay full boat for the others. If not, you don’t have a frustrated reader who feels ripped off, you just have someone who quietly goes away. Folks who pay $12 for a book they hated are far more vocal than folks who only paid 99¢.

Be clear with your readers that’s exactly what you’re doing. “This book is the taster sample. If you like it, here are 6 more!”

Everyone in traditional publishing mourns the loss of the gatekeepers. This is built-in thresholding. Don’t set the bar artificially from the outside, set the bar at “Do you want to write a book badly enough that you’re willing to sell it for 99¢ because you know you’ll be writing more?”

99¢ Samples Aren’t New

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

You’ve seen 99¢ samples of toiletries in stores. For less than a buck you can know, unequivocally, whether it works for you. They make enough, and you’re out very little.

[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/189883 by Lotus Head http://www.pixelpusher.co.za/]

… more … “99¢ Samples Aren’t New”

Sharing the Profits vs. Hiring Assistance

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: I'm sure there's a metaphor about paths and choice in here somewhere” width=”200″ height=”395″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-2066]I’ve long been opposed to sharing profits with the traditional publishing world after an author has done all the work to build a following.

Lately I’ve been thinking there’s middle ground.
… more … “Sharing the Profits vs. Hiring Assistance”

Commonsense zero-cost DIY marketing for authors

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/784024 by H Berends http://www.sxc.hu/profile/hberends” width=”200″ height=”409″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-1994]I mentioned this a few days ago.

It’s a book, but first, it’s a project.

I believe that the marketing methods which have made my businesses successful will work for my books — but I haven’t tested them yet. (Alex Zabala, author of Treasure of the Mayan King certainly has. Over 3,000 sales to date.)

I need to test and prove these methods, using anodyne as a guinea pig. When I know what works and what doesn’t, I’ll codify it in the book which will be called, surprise, Commonsense Zero-Cost DIY Marketing for Authors.

Here’s Where You Come In

What have you tried that didn’t work? What worked, but not well enough? What have you heard of folks doing, and wonder about it?

Please, tell me anything and everything you think or believe or don’t believe or tried when it comes to marketing your book. Wild or conventional, curious or convinced, tested or tempting.

I have hundreds of ideas, but it’s easy to create an echo chamber, especially if you’re someone who talks REALLY LOUD like me. I want more than my own ideas to experiment with.

What Does It Cost to Make a Living as a Writer?

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

picture http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1220297 by Guillaume Riesen http://www.sxc.hu/profile/thegnome54Some authors hope their first book will make enough money to encourage them in their writing dreams.

Not likely.

More likely, you’ll spend a lot of time, money, effort to get it finished, and see very few sales.

If you’re writing to make money, go ahead and give up now, before you waste all that time, money, effort.

… more … “What Does It Cost to Make a Living as a Writer?”

Fifteen Thousand Words: Self-Publishing 101 Q&A

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

Fifteen thousand words about self-publishing. That’s the conversation I’ve had with Cheryl Campbell, answering her questions about self-publishing. Being a newbie, her questions were basic. Being a smarty, her questions were insightful and clear.

Fifteen thousand words. I’ve written books shorter than that. While most of this content will make it into Getting Your Book Our of the “Someday” Box, 2nd Edition you can read it all here absolutely free.

… more … “Fifteen Thousand Words: Self-Publishing 101 Q&A”

Media Kits, Live Appearances, Second Book? What, When, and Why

Posted on by Joel D Canfield
Cheryl Campbell

Cheryl Campbell

Continuing our conversation with author Cheryl Campbell

Cheryl Campbell
Mon, Aug 12, 2013 at 10:22 AM
To: Joel D Canfield

Hi Joel,

Hope you had a great weekend. I was reading on this link (again) and was looking at the Media Kit piece. Is this something you do?

What’s the difference between a book summary and the description on the back of the book?

I saw your weekly email with the start of my loooong run of questions. Looks like I still haven’t run out so I’ll keep giving you plenty of fodder for that. 🙂

Cheryl

… more … “Media Kits, Live Appearances, Second Book? What, When, and Why”