Chapter 5: Launch
Become a #1 Bestseller.
Goal:
Leverage your groundwork to sell books.
It’s finally time to launch your book but that doesn’t mean you should sit back and wait for sales to roll in. In fact, there are quite a few things you could be doing to maximize the efforts you’ve put in so far.
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1. Release the Book for Free
Using Amazon’s publishing platform you can release the kindle book at a cost of $0.00. Doing so will bring the barrier to entry down for early buyers and should lead to greater long term sales.
2. Focus on Amazon Reviews
Reviews on Amazon’s platform count directly towards their ranking algorithm. This means that the more reviews you have, the more exposure your book will get. Additionally, reviews are a fantastic method of displaying social proof which will lead to more sales and momentum.
3. Get Podcast Interviews Published
If you’ve been getting yourself interviewed on podcasts now is the time to make sure they are published. Most podcast hosts will be perfectly happy to delay the release of your episode until after the book has gone live so be sure to take advantage of this and coordinate accordingly.
4. Get Media Features Published
If you are fortunate enough to land any major media reviews or features you’ll want to coordinate the release of those articles to coincide with your book launch as well. Doing so will give their audiences a direct action they can take after they’ve decided that they want to read the book.
5. Deploy Your Launch Team
If you’ve prepared correctly your launch team should know exactly what to do today. Ensure that their checklists are prepared and optimized. Give them the resources they need to promote your book. Support them when they need it. But most importantly, don’t forget to thank them for their efforts.
6. Create a Launch Contest
For certain industries there is a big benefit in holding a launch contest where the winner gets a one on one Q&A session with you (or whatever prize you think is fitting). This will give people an extra incentive to actually buy the book and give it a read.
Get this entire post as a PDF.
By downloading this guide you’ll have the chance to go through it at your own pace.
7. Host a Local Launch Event
Coordinate with the various meetup groups and communities in your local area to host a launch event and book signing. This is a great opportunity to sell some books directly to the communities you have been engaging with.
8. Broadcast Your Launch
Using a tool like Facebook Live to capture your launch event is a great way to give your larger web communities a way to feel as though they are a part of the process as well. This could even drive new exposure with people you’ve connected with but who aren’t directly a part of your book community.
9. Promote Your Book with Facebook Ads
If you have the cash to spend consider running facebook ads to a sales page for you book. While there is a cost attached to this it can be incredibly beneficial if the right targeting is in place.
10. Advertise on Instagram
Instagram ads are the new kids on the block but thanks to their connection with Facebook you should be able to target your advertising just as precisely. Try running ads on your book’s instagram account to it’s followers, these should be the most engaged audience on the platform with the highest likelihood of making a purchase.
11. Increase Kindle Price
One semi-sneaky tactic is to increase the price of your kindle book during it’s free period. To explain why this works consider this, if a book is listed at $0.99 but is available for free there is no real incentive to give it a shot. If a book is listed at $12.99 and is available for free, the value of it being free is perceived as much higher.
12. Submit a Press Release
Press releases are a fantastic way to get additional exposure to your book launch and platforms like PRWeb make it easy for those releases to be distributed across a wide variety of destinations.
13. Host a Goodreads Giveaway
Goodreads is one of the largest digital book communities on the web and doing a giveaway on the platform is a great way to get additional exposure with a minimal amount of effort.
“Quick Win” Action Items:
- ✔ Be everywhere and spread the word
- ✔ Make sure you are seen
In this stage, you should be focusing on leveraging all of the work you’ve done so far and all of the relationships you’ve built in order to get the maximum amount of exposure to your launch as possible.
Get this entire post as a PDF.
By downloading this guide you’ll have the chance to go through it at your own pace.