Want to Attract More Readers? – Publishing Sales Coach Offers Helpful Insight
By mid-2014, self-published authors began taking home the bulk of all ebook author earnings generated on Amazon.com.
Meanwhile, authors published by all of the Big Five publishers—Penguin
Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, Macmillan and Simon &
Schuster—combined slipped into second place, according to the January 2015 Author Earnings Report. As a direct result, more and more authors are in the driver’s seat when it comes to the sales and marketing of their books.
“I’ve
received several emails via LinkedIn over the years from newly
self-published authors who were promoting their books, trying to
convince me to buy them. If you’re one of these authors, I genuinely
applaud you for taking that important step toward self-promotion,” says
Staflund, founder and publisher at Polished Publishing Group (PPG), www.polishedpublishinggroup.com.
“Unfortunately, 99 percent of the contacts you emailed never purchased
your book because your message was flawed in one or, perhaps, all of the
following ways.”
WIIFM: What’s In It for Me?
This
is what all our customers are asking themselves, whether consciously or
unconsciously, whenever they consider making a purchase: what’s in it
for me? All salespeople need to be aware of the WIIFM acronym and be
sure they’re answering that question in all of their marketing
materials, in a clear and concise manner that speaks to customers in
their language.
Being “clear” means
telling them what’s in it for them in a manner that addresses their
needs directly. Will your book increase their joy? If yes, how? Will
your book decrease their pain? If yes, how?
Being
“concise” means telling them what’s in it for them in as few words as
possible. We live in an “instant soup” society filled with customers
that want quick and easy solutions to their problems. Your materials are
best received when someone makes up their own mind to review them—not
when they've been interrupted by a long, drawn out, unsolicited email on
LinkedIn or elsewhere.
And “speaking
to them in their language” means communicating what’s in it for them in
a manner that they will understand and appreciate most. Two of the
marketing languages you may choose from are price-based marketing and
value-based marketing.
TOMA: Top of Mind Awareness
Your
target market is a fluid and ever-changing stream of old and new
customers. You need to stay in front of them so that, when they’re ready
to buy whatever type of book it is you’re selling, they’ll recall your
book ahead of all the others. In the world of advertising and marketing,
this is known as creating top of mind awareness.
Some
of the traditional ways that businesses create top of mind awareness
are to place regular ads on television, radio, and billboards, or in
print media outlets such as magazines and newspapers. Repetition is the
key to success in any advertising campaign, and this can get pretty
expensive in these traditional arenas. We’re talking hundreds, maybe
even thousands of dollars per month to run enough ads to achieve top of
mind awareness with the general public, depending on how large a trading
area you’re trying to reach. Luckily, authors have a virtually free
online alternative known as blogging that utilizes the power of keywords
to draw people in from anywhere in the world that has Internet access.
And, authors also have the benefit of free social media websites to
super-charge those blogging campaigns.
An Attractive, Accessible Storefront
All
your blogging and social media marketing efforts will be profitless
unless you’re using those vehicles to consistently redirect people to
the webpage where they can buy your book. Make it quick and easy for
them to find the place to buy your book once they’ve read that
compelling blog post or viewed that interesting tweet on Twitter. Make
the page so attractive that they will want the book even more.
Convenient, User-friendly Purchase Options
Some
people are more comfortable with online shopping than others. Where one
customer may want to pay for a purchase using PayPal, another will
prefer to pay via their favourite credit card. Some still prefer an
old-fashioned “pay by cheque or money order” option. The more purchase
options you can provide, the more convenient and user-friendly your
online storefront will appear. It’s the equivalent of casting a much
wider net to catch a greater variety of fish.
About Kim Staflund
As the founder and publisher at Polished Publishing Group (PPG), www.polishedpublishinggroup.com,
Kim Staflund works with businesses and individuals around the world to
produce professional quality audiobooks, ebooks, paperbacks and
hardcovers using a supported self-publishing business model. As a
bestselling author and sales coach, she shows authors how to sell their
books using all the effective traditional and online tricks of the
trade. Staflund has a substantial sales and sales management history
combined with over 20 years of book publishing experience within the
traditional and new publishing markets.
Amazon Vs. Kobo: Which Is Better For Price And Value?
By Kim Staflund
Last
year, a major milestone was reached in the ebook industry:
self-published authors began taking home the bulk of all author earnings
generated on Amazon.com, eclipsing those represented by major traditional publishers.
There
has never been more opportunity in human history to publish a book.
However, many questions linger for how to maximize a book project.
What’s an appropriate price point for an ebook?
Many
authors incorrectly assume that consumers make ebook buying decisions
according to different criteria than their paperback buying
decisions—that it’s based solely on price ahead of value because of the
format of the book. They mistakenly suppose that the ebook version of a
book should be priced cheaper than the paperback version because of its
reduced production costs (i.e., no printing involved). This is a flawed
premise because buyers have various motives and reasons for buying
ebooks.
Some customers buy ebooks based on price:
•
They prefer downloading ebooks to their laptop, desktop computer, or
ebook reader that they received as a gift, because ebooks are cheaper to
buy than paperbacks or hardcover books.
Some customers buy ebooks based on value:
•
They bought an ebook reader for all their ebooks for the convenience of
having them all in one place (i.e., so they don’t have to cart around
lots of heavy books with them).
• They
see significant value in the content of the book (i.e., it contains
priceless information and instructions that can help them to earn more
money or to better themselves and their lives in some measurable way).
• Going paperless to help save trees is more important to them than saving money.
•
They want to have the latest technology in their hands before anyone
else has it. (These people will almost always pay more to stay one step
ahead of other people.)
Additional factors for judging an ebook’s optimal price are content and consistency.
Readers buy books for content, not paper. An ebook’s content could
change a reader’s life, but if no one knows about the content, then it
won’t do anyone any good. That’s why authors need to be proactive with a
marketing campaign. A key to a successful campaign is consistency of
messaging, which is just another reason why authors should consider
pricing their ebook the same as a paperback copy.
Kindle is Best for Price-Based Ebook Marketing
Amazon’s
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform allows publishers and “indie”
or self-published authors to upload interior book files specially
formatted for their e-readers; and it has a generic,
front-cover-generator option available in cases where the client hasn’t
already had one designed. This is a prime example of the vanity book
publishing model in that vanity publishers promote themselves as the
fast, cheap and easy self-serve way to “publish” (or, more accurately … format) a book without any mandatory professional editing, design, proofreading, et cetera, involved whatsoever.
Like
many other vanity publishers, Amazon’s Kindle does its best to maintain
control and ownership over the files uploaded to its site by enticing
authors into an exclusivity contract via its KDP Select program. In
addition, Amazon strongly encourages authors to price their Kindle
ebooks at $9.99 or lower by providing greater incentives
(higher royalties) on the lower-priced books; and they will only allow
authors to connect their POD paperback books with their Kindle ebooks
online via their “Kindle MatchBook” option so long as that ebook is
reduced to as low as $2.99 per copy.
Recently, French publisher Hachette was victorious in negotiating a deal. Now, Amazon cannot force
authors to price their books on their ecommerce site at $9.99 or less.
Amazon, however, continues to strongly advocate for such pricing,
arguing that low costs are good for all parties and citing the pre-World
War II invention of the paperback, which made books accessible to more
people. Opponents to the price ceiling say Amazon’s stance is arbitrary.
It will likely take an author forever to make back the money it cost to properly publish a book if the retail price is set at $2.99 per copy. Additionally, such a low price truly devalues content.
Kindle’s
KDP platform not only prices ebooks very low, but it also allows
authors the choice of offering their books free of charge for two to
five days out of every 90-day period to try to bolster new readership.
In other words, interested readers can simply wait it out and get a book
for free. For many, a rhetorical adage may come to mind: Why bother
buying the cow when you can have the milk for free? A much more
effective way to entice new readers into buying a book is with a “Sneak a
Peak” option that allows them to look inside a book to read only a
small portion of the content for free, instead.
Kobo is Best for Value-Based Ebook Marketing
Luckily,
many other ebook retailers out there will happily sell various ebook
formats for their clients worldwide without exclusivity contracts, while
also letting those publishers (self-publishers) determine their own
recommended retail prices. Kobo is one of these retailers. When authors
upload files to Kobo Books, they can set their own prices from the
start. However, Kobo can put the book on sale if they choose to as it is
with all retailers across the board.
This
is the traditional relationship of all manufacturers and their
retailers. The manufacturer (self-publisher) knows its own production
costs and, therefore, sets its own recommended retail price based on
those costs. The retailer, in turn, lists the item at that suggested
price and may or may not provide discounts based on their own projected
profit margins. Obviously, a book that is professionally published by
including professional editing, graphic design, and proofreading into
the process has a higher production cost (and higher quality) which
commands a higher price.
Many Kindle
authors mistakenly believe that their books need to be priced low or
given away for free in order to become a bestseller, but that’s
inaccurate.
The digital POD paperback version of my book, How to Publish a Book in Canada . . . and Sell Enough Copies to Make a Profit!, became an Amazon.ca bestseller only a short month and a half after it was first published, as did my next book titled How to Publish a Bestselling Book ... and Sell It Worldwide Based on Value, Not Price!.
The recommended retail price for both of these books is $19.99 USD.
They reached bestseller status because of their quality content combined
with using various online and traditional marketing techniques—not
because of low pricing.
Amazon or Kobo?
Authors
need to determine whether they offer the best value or the best price.
They need to decide who they are early on—what the core intention of
their book truly is—and then be true to that vision through and through.
Authors should understand their target market—their customers’
preference—before designing a sales and marketing strategy, and
then make sure that the strategy is consistent with their preference in
every single way, including the retail price they’ve set for every
format of their book. By taking these steps, authors will sell far more
books over the long run.
About Kim Staflund
As the founder and publisher at Polished Publishing Group (PPG), www.polishedpublishinggroup.com,
Kim Staflund works with businesses and individuals around the world to
produce professional quality audiobooks, ebooks, paperbacks and
hardcovers using a supported self-publishing business model. As a
bestselling author and sales coach, she shows authors how to sell their
books using all the effective traditional and online tricks of the
trade. Staflund has a substantial sales and sales management history
combined with over 20 years of book publishing experience within the
traditional and new publishing markets.
