There’s the “old” way and the “new” way. I’m suggesting an uncommon approach to find your perfect reader, pull them towards you and your books, and convert them into lifelong fans. Scroll down or click the button to read more.
^^ Let’s try and avoid this…
Using an automated process to attract the RIGHT readers, nurture and build your brand, and sell the VALUE of your work without being sleazy or scammy.
“Author Marketing Hell is REAL. It's the obsession with ''random tactics'' that have no real direction or strategy - but there is another way. And that's what I want to show you - it'll change everything.”
After writing 6 novels, several non-fiction books, releasing multiple online courses, and starting a software company – I’ve learned (the hard way) what it takes to build a readership that will actually BUY from you.
It’s tempting to follow the same tired approach that everybody else is using (NB: nobody tells you the *real* numbers after all their expenses and time are deducted) but in reality the “old” approach is dead.
Let me explain a little about what I mean:
^^ we’ll get to what that means and why it’s important in just a minute. But first…
The phrase “Author Marketing Hell” is one I use a LOT. Essentially, it describes the “tactical nightmare” that so many authors go through when trying to figure out how to run effective marketing campaigns.
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, fiddling with your website, designing opt-in forms, trying to arrange book signings, responding to reader emails, organising joint promotions, running KDP free days, countdown deals…
Tweaking your cover, analysing your blurb, trying to get reviews, dealing with trolls, putting together giveaways, trying to get your book permafree…
Testing out your links, measuring your click-through rates, designing Facebook ads, AMS ads, Bookbub ads, monitoring performance of your ads, playing with keywords, categories, titles, wondering whether Snapchat is worth a go….
And then your brain collapses under its own gravitational pull.
“Author Marketing Hell” is what happens when you don’t have an overall strategy. Often, it’s a BRUTE-FORCE approach. It’s a “push” instead of a “pull”.
(We’ll cover those shortly).
You see, each one of those “tactics” listed out above can be very valuable in their own right. But if you’re randomly jumping from one to the next without any thought towards WHERE you trying to go, it all falls apart quickly.
So let’s not do that, okay?
Instead, I want to propose an unconventional approach to author marketing. One that doesn’t involve the “scattergun approach”, or a brute-force attack, or the all-time-worse-advice-for-authors-ever, which is “just write more books and success will happen”.
Ugh.
Now, the devil is in the details. And before I show you the full process, I want you to understand the strategy (remember that? The strategy is what helps you understand what “tatics” you need to focus on to move the needle).
Strategy is everything.
None of this makes the blindest bit of difference if nobody knows you exist. Your goal is to get your work in front of as many people as possible. Then, when you have steps (2) and (3) set up, you’ll convert those “random browsers” into fans and paying readers. The goal here is brute-force publicity – worry about the “sales” later.
All the exposure in the world won’t mean anything if you can’t DO something with all that traffic. So your goal is to encourage “micro-commitments” from your best readers to filter out the poor leads and focus on the readers most likely to buy. This is where we narrow down the pool…
You’ve nailed exposure and commitment – and your audience is growing. Congrats! This is where most authors fall down. Now, you’ll need to build trust and engagement with your audience and “lead them down the path” towards the sale, without being pushy or spammy.
Once you’ve installed this system, you can automate it. Meaning, you can scale your results indefinitely and properly track and measure your marketing budget to get the best ROI. No more “hoping for the best” – I want you focused 100% on the metrics that will move the needle for you.
“Nick's system helped me more than triple my email list, the first test of which was my launch of Ramsey's Gold, at the most expensive price at which I've ever tried to sell a novel. We hit the top of the charts in several popular genres on the first book in a series with no buzz.”
Understanding your strategy and using it to inform your marketing and growth efforts will instantly set you apart from 99.99% of the pack.
Where other authors are blindly throwing money at Facebook ads and complaining “Facebook ads don’t work any more”, you’ll know better.
When you read the “latest secret Kindle hack” that will somehow guarantee you overnight success (and probably get your account banned), you’ll smile and walk on by.
When other authors are dashing around trying to get 5,654,567 random tasks completed without understanding WHY they’re doing any of them, you’ll have a clear roadmap to hit your sales goals and you’ll be working calmly and steadily towards meeting them.
That’s what having a strategy gives you. But the problem is, most authors don’t have one. For most, trying to grow a writing and publishing business has become an obsession with “make as many sales as humanly possible RIGHT NOW”.
Which, obviously, isn’t very helpful.
So I want to give you an unconventional approach. One that won’t have you rushing around with a chronic case of exploding-head syndrome.
It all comes down to understanding those three pillars of the strategy I outlined above (and the extra “fourth pillar” once you’ve got all the others in place).
Write as many books as possible. Split your longer books up into “parts” to get more titles on the shelf. Enroll everything in KDP Select. Pad out your books with extra content to get more “page reads”. Put all your money into AMS Ads, Bookbub Ads, and Facebook Ads and send as many people to your Amazon pages as possible.
Retarget those people who visit your website with relentless ads. Join scammy giveaways where readers are forced to hand over their email address to 10 authors at a time. Then hammer those readers with relentless “buy my book” emails.
Woohoo!!! Your ranking just went up. Success! Break out the champagne.
Errr… cool your jets, hot-shot.
Because 85% – 95% (or more) of the people you’re paying to visit your Amazon pages WILL NEVER BUY FROM YOU.
Your multi-author-giveaway leads are fed up with being spammed and will quickly unsubscribe.
Your readers are fed up with books being arbitrarily broken up into “seasons” and “episodes” – and only 50% of them will ever finish one of your books anyway.
In short, you’re paying good money to throw the proverbial spaghetti against the wall and hoping enough sticks so you’ll make a profit.
Occasionally, something might work well – but you’re so overwhelmed with a million different tactics, you’re not sure what is was (remember that saying “only 50% of marketing is effective, the problem is we don’t know which 50%”?).
If you’re losing up to 95% of your potential readers – AND you’re going crazy trying to keep on top of everything – how do you plan on growing profitably?
Here’s an alternative path:
There’s a story behind all this.
And the twist ending is an audience of readers who WANT to hear from you and who WANT to buy your books.
We’re taking the conventional “brute force” approach and turning it on its head. Instead of trying to CONVINCE readers to buy your work, all you’re doing is talking to the RIGHT readers in the RIGHT WAY and making the VALUE of your work shine through.
You’re not trying to “trick” or “force” or “bribe” people into buying your books. Your cultivating an audience who LOVES you and letting their excitement and desire do the work for you.
This is exactly how you can build a sustainable business without relying on massive ad-spend or brute-force tactics.
I have a shed-load of proof. Here’s a few examples:
“I've gone from 180 subscribers to almost 3500. Also, I used your launch strategy for my latest mystery and I sold over 200 ebooks in one day. I actually hit #4 in hot new releases for Private Investigator books.”
“Within a few weeks, my fiction fanbase more than tripled – and conversion rates on my non-fiction website improved by over 50%. And with over 80,000 visitors a month, that makes a big difference! ”
“The result: Since January 23 my sales have more than quadrupled. In fact, I went from selling 3 books per week - to 10-12 books per day and that was just in the first couple of days. It is now one month later, or thereabouts. I am now selling (actual sales and KU sales combined) 90 - 120 books per day and that number seems to keep going up! I am amazed and truly grateful.”
I have more to share with you, if you want it. If you’re ready to try something different, I’ll lay out the entire framework for you – but only if you’re ready to get stuck in. So, my question: are you interested in learning how to do all this?