Book Marketing 101 – Get Ready to Pull Your Hair Out

This is what I look like when I do book marketing…

This post isn’t about growing tomatoes. If you want to know how to do that I’m sure there is someone out there who can tell you. What I’m talking about is planting seeds in your life. That’s the biggest part of book marketing. To be more specific in the marketing for your book. People always tell you the generic ways to do it. Here’s a list for posterity.

Use social media
Buy Ads on Amazon
Email the 2 million newsletter subscribers you already have

That is what I see in every article. These people try to tell these stories of how they got 10,000 preorders by doing those three things. Do you have 2 million fans already before your book is released? No? Of course, you don’t unless you are Jake Paul or PewDiePie. Even with them, I doubt they could sell 10k preorders due to conversion rates. If yes, then go promote my book Second Sight: The Decay!

Plant seeds everywhere you go. Have you ever heard that old phrase “If you build it, they will come.” That’s true, but after you build it, you have to plant the seeds for people to know it’s there. That’s why you have to do book marketing. Don’t bother buying an expensive guide on book marketing. I’ve done it already, and found them all lacking. Money in the toilet if you ask me!

Cold selling/calling is like feeding a toddler. It works 2% of the time the way you want it to. People have very small attention spans and don’t take well to random strangers shoving products into their faces. To spam your book everywhere on other sites is like screaming in a stadium. Don’t even bother.

What you have to do is go up to each customer. Smile, shake their hand and offer them a business card with a link to your book. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but make that personal connection with them. They are more likely to buy your book or other product than if you spammed it on Twitter or on a Facebook shill group.

Think outside the box. Twitter, Facebook, newsletters are all fine. You can’t just do the cookie cutter and expect a return. Everyone is reading the same articles you just did, and are doing the same thing you are right now. Go beyond the cookie cutter ideas and dig in deep. It’s going to get messy.

External websites are ALMOST useless. There is a thing in marketing called conversion rate. It means how many people saw your ad vs. how many of them clicked through and bought the item. I was talking to my wonderful friend and new business partner Rick Barr, our audiobook reader, and told him this simple concept.

“Putting your money into a platform that you aren’t selling on is like trying to sell a person a Whopper that is in line at Walmart. You may influence some to drive next door to Burger King, but it will be so few it will be a waste of your time and money. Advertise where you sell. Burger King has the giant sign outside of it’s franchises telling you the product on sale. That’s still on their property, not on Walmart’s property.

“If you throw $1,000 at Twitter (where the book isn’t sold), then turn around and toss $100 at Amazon where it is sold. You are doing it wrong. Nobody on Twitter is shopping for a book ON TWITTER! THEY SHOP FOR BOOKS ON AMAZON! You can put some money into Twitter and Facebook but don’t expect a good ROI like you would from Amazon or Bookbub. Bring your product to where people are looking to buy it. That’s why so many fast food chains have giant posters of their premium items on the menu!

Let’s do some hard numbers to illustrate this point. I am an Amazon Affiliate. I use affiliate marketing to help fund the marketing of this book. When I post a link to a product or even my book with an affiliate link I get around 50-60 clicks a day. Out of all those clicks I get about a 2% conversion rate. The amount I get depends on what people buy after they click the link.

Now, if you paid for Ads you are still going to be working with a 2% conversion rate. Except you won’t make any money back that you put in to get that 2%. Let’s be realistic you, for every $10 you throw at the ad; you will get maybe 2 dollars back. That’s 8 dollars in the hole per ad.

My point affiliate marketing and posting your product on external websites only is profitable if you do it FOR FREE. It’s passive income. It’s not something you should actively throw money at and expect an ROI. Focus your money and time on the place it is sold. Otherwise, you will go into the red immediately.

Here are a few out of the box ideas to help you not “scream in the stadium” before we continue.

Get copies of your book and “forget them” in doctor’s offices or any office you go to.
Print business cards and hand them out to people. Vistaprint gives you a huge stack for $10 or less at this point.
Print out flyers on your printer and put them on bulletin boards around town. It costs you pennies on the dollar!
Find places you can leave a stack of business cards. Libraries, doctor’s offices, any office in general. Most of them will happily do this if you are a patron! Especially if they are a small business!
Join writing or book club discord servers. Discord is your friend. It plugs you into almost any kind of community.
Help others with their projects. You don’t have to be their co-author, but make a connection with them and help them. They may be a bestseller because of you and then you can ask for help in return later. If not, at least you made a new friend.
Tell all your friends you know in real life. Contact old friends and tell them you have a new book out. They will most likely buy it then tell their friends how great it is! You never know, but a sale is a sale!
Talk to every book blogger about your book. Reach out to them no matter how big they are. You never know who will say yes. If you reach out you have only 3 things that will happen. They will say no, not answer, or say yes and you got more publicity and maybe a new friend!
Reach out to everyone regardless of size. A sale is a sale. I have emailed the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, and got a reply from one of his assistants. A personalized reply to my inquiry. A multi-billion dollar company CEO had someone read my email and actually replied to me. You can do that if I can!

You shouldn’t see customers as numbers. See them as business associates or even partners. Your loyal fans will go out there and talk to their friends about you. Then the snowball effect happens, and keep in contact with them, and build a genuine friendship with those customers who love you. You don’t have to call them every single day but have their back. They had yours. If they eventually have a book that comes out then return the favor they did for yours. Pay it forward and back.

Always be nice to everyone you meet. Even if they hate you. This is one that many people have trouble with, and so do I. During my years as a YouTube creator I had a lot of people that hated the character I played. I was that stubborn asshole that would talk shit about your favorite e-celebs. I was essentially a wrestling heel character. It was a good time, but when someone was man enough to challenge me to a “debate” I faced them with my genuine self.

I am a very nice, polite, and calm man 99% of the time. I faced the “enemies” as Jack Pierce instead of my character. Guess what happened? They screamed like a banshee and called me a piece of shit. Then they calmed down, and we had a pleasant conversation. We became friends, and I still talk to them today.

I have quite a few friends and associates that started out as “enemies.” People that hated my guts until they were face to face with me, and realized I’m not a bad person. When you have that barrier between you two—aka twitter, text message, or facebook wall—it’s depersonalizing. You don’t see them as another person. You see them as text and a picture. That’s the same way it goes for shilling on twitter and not shaking hands in real life or calling them on Skype. Turn your enemies, strangers, and friends into business associates.

They will help you, and you help them. If they don’t help you, that’s fine still be their friend. People are busy and have other priorities. Never yell or get angry at them. That’s uprooting the seed you planted and will most likely ruin the ones you planted around it. People talk about you behind your back. So be kind to everyone even if they are a prick.

Spread seeds as far as you can. Not only should you be talking to other authors but talk to EVERYONE. Especially if someone reaches out to you, talk to them. Never get on a high horse and think “I’m too important, or they don’t benefit me enough.”

If you do that… #1 you are an asshole. #2 you just lost a potential lifelong friend and fan. Everyone has value no matter how horrible they act now.

Now that you are talking to everyone don’t bother them after that. Some people have a life. Most people do I hope. They have kids, family, school, and may even be working 80  hours a week. I’ve been there before. No kids, but I’ve worked 80 hours a week. Don’t be mad if they don’t answer for weeks or even months. You never know when that person will randomly think of you and call you. You never know who someone will be later in life. If you are nice to them and a genuinely good friend, it may pay off later. Grass takes time to grow, so does a business.

Almost all businesses operate at a loss for the first 4 years. This is due to the startup costs along with costs to advertise and get the ball rolling. You may not be successful now with your book, but in 4 years it may be a best seller. Expect nothing, hope for the best. Things take time. Gardens don’t grow overnight, but they won’t grow at all if you don’t plant the seeds and tend to them.

When I first wrote this book I kept saying “if it sells 10 copies I’ll be happy.” Well, we are far beyond that point. I set the bar low so I wouldn’t be disappointed later.

The biggest takeaway I can give you is be grateful for every fan you ever get. If someone loves your book or music be grateful. Show appreciation. Go out and shake their hands, sign their books, take pictures with them and smile. Your fans love you, and you should love them too. Ask anyone who has ever been a fan of mine. Anytime they reached out to me with an issue or just wanted to talk I put time aside to do it. I didn’t spend all night with them, but I gave them some time.

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