How Seeding Your Book In the Marketplace Can Generate Sales
You’ve invested a lot of time and effort to produce your book, and it’s almost done. The last thing you want to do is give away free copies, because you finally want to see some return for all of your effort. But, seeding your book before you’ve officially released it is one of the smartest things you can do to ensure it gets buzz. Hayley Radford, Co-Founder and Director of Marketing at Authoright strongly believes that benevolence marketing is an easy way to garner some eyeballs, and spread the word about your new book. “Once the book has launched, making a chapter available for free or giving away some free copies can make a huge difference.”
1. Drive reviews pre-launch.
Even if a print book is your ultimate goal, you’ll definitely want to make an ebook as well. Aside from being able to offer two different types of readers the ability to purchase your book once it’s for sale, an ebook also gives you the upper hand pre-launch as it allows you to easily—and without cost—share your book with interested parties willing to review it.
For example, if you used beta readers to help edit and proofread your book, then now is the time to thank them by sharing the finished version, and invite them to write a review for you if they like the book. It could also be advantageous to share the ebook version with avid bloggers in your peer-to-peer network, with the hope that they would favorably review your book on their blogs. In general, make reviewing your book as easy as possible. So along with a link to download a free copy of your ebook, you might also provide them with a small digital press pack containing a high-res professional headshot, a short author bio, your book description, and your current contact details.
With Blurb, you can create an ebook from the same file from which you create your print book. Once you’ve completed your print book, published it, and ordered your first copy, you’ll be ready to get started on your ebook. When logged into your Blurb account you’ll see an option underneath your book to convert it to an ebook. Click on the link, and follow the steps. You’ll be able to edit your ebook and add or remove content if you’d like. Adding a special introduction or dedication might be a nice way to differentiate your digital book, especially since it will become your passport to reviews and garnering buzz. You can also make the list price of the ebook free and then manage who has access to it. You can make it accessible by invite only, limiting a free download to a select group of your choice. How do you do all this? Simply click on Sell My Book when logged in and change your settings.
2. Create buzz ahead of your book launch.
You can easily drum up some buzz ahead of launch by releasing a downloadable chapter (or portion thereof) as an ebook. Choose the chapter carefully, as well as how much of it to include. You want to provide enough content to hook your reader and leave them wanting more—if there’s a natural cliffhanger in the narrative, consider using that part of the story. Once a reader finishes your sample, they should want to read the whole book and be eager to purchase it. To create an ebook with Blurb, download the free application BookWright, and once launched, click on View and select Covers. Then choose the last option, which is ebook. Add your sample chapter and upload it to your account in the top right-hand corner of the application screen. This way, you can create an ebook of only one chapter, and distribute it separately from your full ebook.
3. Attract new readers at launch.
Consider giving away the first 100 books for free. Or better yet, all ebook downloads on launch day could be free. You’ll easily gather a much larger audience than you otherwise would. Noah Lukeman, a literary agent, author, and publishing expert, said in an article for Book Insider that free promotions are an easy way to grab new fans, since there are some people who are browsing for free and would not have come across your work otherwise. You can spread the word via social media, your website, your blog, and through your peer-to-peer network.
Ryan Holiday, book marketer extraordinaire who has worked on promoting Tucker Max and Timothy Ferriss’ books, suggests partnering with another email list to get the word out. Think of those in your network and see if there are any natural and advantageous lists that would be interested in your one-day freebie. The best part is you will gather some much-needed download numbers right off the bat. Once the dust has settled a few weeks after launch and you start to see numbers decline, consider making a chapter available for free on your website. Or, as Abbi Glines did, make a chapter from your next book available for free so your audience also gets a preview of what’s next. The whole goal is to generate buzz and amplify your reach outside of your own followers and network.
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