Phenomenal Book Sales

Phenomenal Book Sales

By Israel JP Warner

Smashwords Edition Copyright © 2011 by JP Israel Warner

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Before you begin writing your manuscripts

Chapter Two

Book Titles, Book Covers & Genre

Chapter Three

How to write highly compelling Plots

Chapter Four

Shopping For Your Publisher

Chapter Five

Post publication…how to kick-start effective marketing campaign

Chapter Six

Two recipes for phenomenal book sales

Chapter Seven

Demystifying Amazon, your no. 1 selling point

Chapter Eight

Publication Formats that sells your books

Chapter Nine

Make phenomenal book sales socializing

Chapter Ten

High-yield Book marketing strategies

Chapter Eleven

Effectively marketing offline…3 effective strategies

Chapter Twelve

Connect & Link

Chapter Thirteen

Become a professional book reviewer

Chapter Fourteen

How to easily reach millions of readers

Chapter One

Before you begin writing your manuscripts

Brief summary of writing, publishing trends and introduction to book writing basics.

Writing and publication…there exists no better way to put down your thoughts and creativity and preserve them for future reference. For ages this time-tested art had helped mankind relate messages and events from one person to another and from one community to the other. Writing is an age-old practice, as old as civilization itself, according to pundits. There is no accurate record as to when writing actually begun, even though it is speculated in some quarter that the Greek gave birth to this craft. Even mankind’s creator, the greatest author of all time, had also chosen to put down His thoughts and communicate with his creatures using writing. The bible is considered the world’s oldest written record, the most translated and, no doubt, a living testimony of the value of writing as means of preservation and, or dissemination of information.

Writing, and of course, publishing a work of art, or a book, could be an exerting, awesome venture involving many nights of lost sleep, hours, weeks, sometimes even months of unending researches and even seclusion from public and in some cases, from loved ones, including family members and friends. In view of the foregoing, it is understandable the frustrations, shocks, disbelief and, less frequently though, feelings of low self-esteem that results from a low—or no book sales. Many a writer will give up at this juncture and stifle their career, thereby failing to fully realize their potential by not exploiting this remarkable craft to a logical end.

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.—Steven King, bestselling writer.

How popular is the art of writing…and reading…with man? The truth is, for generations untold man has often turned to books for entertainment, for information and of course, expansion of their knowledge base. As a means of relaxation, reading an engaging piece of work is second to none. Great writers have successfully preserved history and cultural heritage through this noble profession of writing and publication. Many of the world’s religious practices and teachings of great men and philosophers who once influenced and ruled the world of men were actually preserved in and handed over from one generation to another in book form. Interestingly, some of these writings in published form still exist.

The art of writing could be argued to be as old as civilization itself. Therefore, there can be no overstatement the joy and feelings of self-fulfillment that often results from a successful book publication. Sadly, as statistics show, only a percentage of published works record phenomenal sales; this category will eventually make it to the bestseller list, while the larger percentage of published works dwindles into obscurity. While some authors smile to the bank with mouthwatering book contract deals, many others bow their heads in sorrow from frustrating realities.

That leaves us with the questions, what could a writer do to give his work the much needed leverage? How would he get noticed in a flooded, highly competitive market? What strategies work better and which are truly result oriented? Are there shortcuts or short-term measures to becoming a successful writer?

Before we advance, it would be pertinent to state a self evidenced truth here, and that is that for any writer to climb the successful bestseller list, and sell phenomenal copies of his or her books he or she must be willing—and ready—to get involved in book promotional strategies. It does not matter whether you are traditionally published or self-published. Granted, a traditionally published writer often have his work done many of the time but this trend is quickly changing. It is no longer unusual for agents and publishers include, as part of submission requirements, that every aspiring writer have a feasible book marketing proposal prior to submission. The bleak truth, as noted by one celebrated writer, is as follows:

Many publishers, with their resources stretched as thin as they are, don’t have enough time to pursue all opportunities for you, so you pretty much have to do it yourself.

~ Margaret Atwood

Why this trend? Reasons abound, actually. Publishing is an expensive venture; Books are expensive to produce, package, distribute and market. Structurally, publishers are limited in the number of new titles they can publish in a given year. This is as a result of finance each book requires in editing, artworks, promotional flaps, author tours and events, signings, production, sales support, inventory management and shipping & handling costs. In fact, recently released data from the AAP stated overall decline or stagnation in book industry sales.

In every writing niche or field, there are over a million titles in the market jostling for the reader’s attention. The competition is fierce; getting a book to stand out from the crowd, so to say, could mean a herculean task to the writer who is sorely lacking in enterprising spirit. On the other hand, this feat, though by no means easy, is achievable, if the writer is willing to make necessary adjustments and deploy a few basic time proven skills that have actually helped shape the careers of many a successful writer. A savvy, focused writer who wishes to make a mark in the book writing and publishing industry must thereby adopt positive and feasible marketing and book promotion plans that would result, or lead to increased traffic to book, and ultimately huge phenomenal sales.

Through his persistent determination and marketing genius, [Richard Paul] Evans parlayed his self-published novel into a $4.25 million advance contract from Simon & Schuster and established himself as one of the most financially successful [self-published] authors… of our time. -Carolyn Campbell, writing-world

One of the cheapest means…and interestingly…the most effective of all book marketing strategies is the use of the internet.

Online advertising is currently undergoing a revolution and changing the way we see and do things…happily, for the better. At the rate and speed of online technological advancement, media and information experts predict a time when eprints will revolutionize and completely change newspaper reading the way we see it today. That remains to be seen anyway. Nonetheless, the book industry has undergone far-reaching transformations. What with eBooks, blogging, PDAs and other dedicated electronic manuscripts’ devices that has flooded the market and more recently, the ground-breaking Amazon kindle presently redefining the way we see and read our books. The internet is replete with hundreds of marketing and book promotion plans.

However, one needs to be cautious when reaching for any of these plans, because many are actually unwieldy and not at all feasible in the area of book marketing and author promotion. The pertinent question therefore, in light of the foregoing is, where does an aspiring writer fit in all these? How can he choose, not just the best, but the right platform? Where does he begin his author promotion and book marketing campaign? How will he achieve the ultimate bestselling writer status?

Know the market

Every enterprising writer should take time to learn and acquaint himself with the market, discover his target audience and be able to draft a workable book marketing plan before he can even attempt publication. He should be able to answer the following, depending, of course on the objectives behind his work. {Some authors have not written for commercial purpose but as means to preserve legacies.} What have I written about? How commercially viable is this topic/subject? What genre is my work? How unique is my plot, and or storyline and who are my target audience?

When you have answers to these and other questions, then you can be said to be making thrusts in the right direction. It means that when eventually your title hits the marketplace, you would not be cowed into retreat when you come face to face with the real world of publishing, namely marketing and promotion, which are the two indispensable keys if you must sell yourself and your book.

Know Your Book

Next, of course, is the book itself. Many a new writer will nurse the erroneous idea and believe they have written another Gone with the Wind. Understandably, self-esteem and belief in your work are essential ingredients to a successful outing but you need to pause and ask yourself, is this truly justifiable assessment? Be fair to yourself…do you really think that you have written another Gone with the Wind? Interestingly, Jane Austen did not think so; not until an editor told her she’d written a compelling read on assessment. Therefore, on whose assessment do you base your judgment? Have your work been proofread by a third-party? There can be no substitute for a well edited script; have you had your manuscripts professionally edited? Have you foraged the market to understand its workings, or do you plan to leap, without looking? How compelling are your book’s synopsis?

A book’s synopsis, or back cover details, sums up your writing using compelling phrase and or attractive words. Synopsis are critical, hitherto overlooked marketing tactic that, like a fine title, can be quite alluring, with the power and capability to pull a prospect to make instant purchase decision. Many a beautifully composed synopsis had helped to attract the attention of an editor or book publisher. It often helps to seek professional evaluation of your synopsis before you push your book to the market.

At lightwordreview.com, Bernie P. Nelson offer writers a free professional evaluation and critique of their outline synopsis. The free evaluation will present you with bright ideas about how to make your book more eye-catching to a commercial publisher. The evaluation will also take into cognizance such writing skills as style and content. http://www.lightwordreviews.com/manu.html

The phenomenal Author…is a success oriented manual in ebook form designed…and guaranteed…to present to you, in simple, logical and easy to understand terms, the many different ways and effective methods that you can implement to achieve phenomenal book sales as many self published writers have done. It is a point-by-point study guaranteed to shoot you up the bestseller list.

Discover ways to boost your book sales at Amazon, your number one selling point; unravel techniques that would help drive traffic to your product’s page or website using social networking sites as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and a host of others. Learn ways you can amass friendship at Facebook and acquire thousands of Twitter followers and convert these to potential customers. You can make huge sales offline! See how you can promote and sell hundreds of titles using this highly effective but grossly underutilized book marketing terrain. Reviews? Learn practical ways that ensure you amass professional and effective reviews for your self-published books. It is possible to reach millions of readers with your ads; learn where and how to build your waiting and ready list of loyal customers.

However, you do not just jump into book and marketing promotion without taking into cognizance such essential elements that make up a good book as your publisher, i.e., is he new in the industry? Does he have an effective distribution system? You would also do well to consider a copyediting service that would bring the shine to your manuscripts; what about your titles and covers? Do these also tell your story as does the plot? Would they sell your book?

Are all these necessary for a book marketing campaign, you wonder? Of course not; but they are necessary for a successful book campaign! These points, if taken into account, would ensure that your marketing campaign goes hitch free. As simple as these may seem, they can make or mar your prospects if you do not take them into account. Any marketing plan not grounded on the foregoing, is, to state the obvious, heading for disaster.

What about copyediting your work? It does not matter your literary prowess, there is bound to be grammatical and spelling errors in your mss and these diminish rather than highlight your creativity. Only a professional can pick through your mss and correct these flaws; it is only a perfectly edited, proofread book that will eventually stand out from the pack; only such a work could sail through a feasible marketing plan. This is one basic weakness exhibited by most self-published authors, and there is a handsome price to pay. Why professionally edit your manuscripts, you wonder?

The answer is simple; to enhance its chances during book promotions and in the marketplace. Book reviewers, publicists, marketers, editors, agents and readers, are all out for beautifully edited scripts. Unedited scripts could mar the prospects of a good story, that’s how bad it is. Happily, hordes of professional copyediting sites thrive online.

Jacqueline Simmons of Beagle Bay and Jim Cox of Midwest Book Review agree that a quality book is the first essential requirement to getting a review.

Consider, then, another ‘tiny’ aspect of book writing that’s never failed to attract a prospect.

Chapter Two

Book Titles, Book Covers & Genre

What is the book’s title, please?

How many times have some friend enquired of you the above question and how many times have you been lured to a book by its title? Possibly for hundreds of times. Actually, nothing sells a book more than its title. Put in another way, a few things in a book, succeeds in influencing a buyer to make spontaneous purchase as a compelling title. It is reported that writers as James Hadley chase and Agatha Christie made huge sales of their incredible books using pitch titles that literally wowed and seduced millions of readers worldwide. Therefore, it goes without saying that a good writer must be creative in witty, catchy book titles.

This does not mean, or require that you give your works bogus or incomprehensible titles that are out of context with the body, the main story that you went out to tell; do not end up driving your prospects away with unwieldy titles and subtitles. It does mean, however, that you take time to generate seductive titles that pulls your target. Your potential reader will not be disappointed if after he picks up a copy of your work and finds, besides a catchy and endearing title, a well edited and compelling piece of work. In all respects, therefore, always have it at the back of your mind that a seductive title complements but never replaces