Selling My First Book via Amazon

Another update:

1) the book is finished, have to edit one more chapter and I'm ready to send it to the two proofreaders

2) I'm kind-of-sort-of dreaming about hitting a bestseller list; for example, someone managed to hit the USA Today one with only 2,500-ish sales over a 7-day period. Easier said than done, I know but not outside the realm of possibility

3) To reach my goal, I'll need a ridiculously strong launch. If you guys own a website read by people who make money online in one way or another (my target audience: freelancers, SEO guys, Internet marketers and so on) or know someone who does, PM me and we'll work something out.

Feel free to add me on Skype, my ID is domainingtips
 


Haven't seen if you mentioned anything about it, but let me know if you have any questions about turning it into .mobi/.epub format for all the stores. I don't offer any services or anything for it, I just mean for input or if you run into an issue.
 
Buy a ton of copies like every other author does to get to best sellers.

Get free publicity.

If book is good, sit back.

If not, sit back and cry.

LOL :D
 
JulianTrueFlynn said:
Haven't seen if you mentioned anything about it, but let me know if you have any questions about turning it into .mobi/.epub format for all the stores. I don't offer any services or anything for it, I just mean for input or if you run into an issue.
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I'll pay someone to handle the formatting for me, including aspects such as making it <insertpopularstorename>-friendly. Won't be selling on a huge number of venues though, just Amazon + BN + a handful of others.

ToddW said:
Buy a ton of copies like every other author does to get to best sellers.

Get free publicity.

If book is good, sit back.

If not, sit back and cry.

LOL :D
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The thing is, my #1 goal is making money. The bestseller status would be a bonus. Maybe I'll manage to do it, maybe not. Probably not but this doesn't mean I won't try.
 
1.3) By doing something similar to what James Altucher (guerilla mentioned this guy a while ago, I highly recommend reading his blog) did, in other words giving people their money back if they email me their honest opinion about the book. That way, I'd receive additional Amazon sales which would help me increase the book's rank (I assume) as well as a few honest opinions about my book, sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Now I know I'd be losing money each time due to Amazon's commission but again, I'm willing to spend some cash initially
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And that is the reason why Amazon reviews for self-published books are worthless.
 
Charlie, care to share an update on your launch?

You don't have to reveal data, of course. But did the number of sales/downloads/opt-ins/reviews meet your expectations?

What lessons did you learn?
 
I have a quant-book on amazon that has sold $60K (publishing receipts) over the last three years. 70/30 favoring Kindle. I'd have to look, but I've made a bit under $15K. Barely a day's pay.
 
JakeStratham said:
Am I right in assuming it's priced above $10 and you did minimal marketing for the book?
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Correct on both counts. It's $90 in print and $78 (variable) in Kindle. There are quite a few terminal math errors (topology/DiffGeometry) which need to be fixed in the revision. It's a 4.5/5 on verified purchases (180 reviews).
 
JakeStratham said:
Charlie, care to share an update on your launch?

You don't have to reveal data, of course. But did the number of sales/downloads/opt-ins/reviews meet your expectations?

What lessons did you learn?
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Not quite there yet :)

The two proofreaders I mentioned have finished and now, while I'm waiting for the voiceover artist to send the final chapter of the audiobook, my better half is going through the book one final time. So far, she's been far more thorough than the two editors, she's a really avid reader and her opinions helped a lot.

As far as the marketing dimension is concerned, I'm still raising capital. I want to sell my best domains (Fanboys.com, Instability.com and so on) as well as my best websites (AffiliateMarketers.com, MegaSites.com and Articles.biz). I'll keep my existing clients but that's pretty much it, want to focus on the next phase of my career.

If any of you guys know someone who would be interested in the domains and/or websites, PM me and I'll gladly let you broker them for me. Motivated to sell, so my price expectations are more than reasonable.

I'm currently negotiating with lots and lots of website owners who have active mailing lists, already sealed the deal with three of them but I need to up my game. I'm also writing at least one guest post per day so that I have as many of them as possible lined up and negotiating with sponsors for a contest I will be organizing to celebrate the launch. I already have an iPhone 6 as well as a few more awesome prizes, should be interesting. My target audience consists of people who earn a living online, maybe some of you guys (service providers, network owners, etc.) would like to become sponsors. PM me and we'll work something out.

That's it for now, time to hustle!
 
Promoting a book can be really hard at times. Try getting to your customers.
I remember someone told me that he sold first 10K copies of his books by simply going to different colleges and school and giving lectures and seminars on the topic related to his book.
Can say its worth a try!!
 
guruji said:
Promoting a book can be really hard at times. Try getting to your customers.
I remember someone told me that he sold first 10K copies of his books by simply going to different colleges and school and giving lectures and seminars on the topic related to his book.
Can say its worth a try!!
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I know I'm replying to a banned user but the idea isn't necessarily bad. However, it's not exactly feasible in my case because:

1) this approach is best suited for those who live in the US or let's say in a developed country... I don't

2) the best way to reach my target audience (people who earn a living or at least make money online) is, of course, the Internet (captain obvious, I know; just wanted to point out that for a book like mine, offline marketing would be a pretty bad idea)

3) I'm currently focusing on the launch phase and on short-term marketing strategies, I really need a very strong launch; an approach like the one guruji suggested is better suited for the long-term dimension

Quite frankly, the equation isn't very complicated in my case. I simply need to sell my best domains/website so as to generate enough capital to launch the book with a bang. I have no experience whatsoever when it comes to book promotion but I'm a reasonably good marketer, so at least breaking even doesn't sound like an unrealistic goal.
 
Great thread Charlie.

Have you created a platform yet?

Over the past few months, I've written and released my first Kindle book, ran a free promotion, created a blog, email list, lead magnet, social accounts (I'm focusing on Facebook and Twitter), etc.

It's a lot of work. But it's all set up and I'm currently writing Book #2.

That's my platform so far. Care to share details on yours?

Again, great thread. :)
 
Trademark said:
Have you created a platform yet?
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I bought DomainingTips.com from LordB six years ago. The blog turned 7 back in February, LordB blogged for about a year and I've been running it for approximately six years. So I currently have a "voice" in the domaining (domain investing) industry. However, since domaining is a relatively small niche, my expectations have to be realistic.

On the one hand yes, I run a popular niche blog (IMO, DomainingTips is currently one of the top 5 domaining blogs, perhaps one of the top 3) and even have a kinda-sorta-decent email list, about 1,800 email subscribers. On the other hand though, due to the size of the niche in question, there's no way I can come close to hitting a bestseller list by relying exclusively on this platform.

If nobody wants to buy AffiliateMarketers.com from me (if someone offers me 7k today, I'd probably accept; the highest offer I've received thus far has been 7k through a broker who charges a 15% commission, so I would have only netted $5,950), I might do something meaningful with it later on but again, this would be a long-term thing and not something I can include in my launch strategy.

So as far as my platform is concerned, I have DomainingTips and that's pretty much it. I'm sure I'll generate a low 4 figure number of sales via DomainingTips but certainly not enough to hit a bestseller list (I'd need 8k-10k sales).
 
Well, time for another update.

If I wanted to, I could launch the book next week but the thing is, I'm not very happy with the marketing cash cushion I have. Didn't manage to sell my best domains/sites, I sold some marginal inventory but while it all adds up, it's hardly something I can declare myself happy with.

If you guys can help, PM me. I will list what I have and the amounts I want to net below, anything over that can be your commission. So for example if want to net 2k and you manage to sell that asset for 3k, then the additional 1k can be your commission.

Fanboys.com - $8,500

Instability.com - $4,000

As a package deal, I'd accept $11,500 for the pair, saving the buyer another 1k.

Fearmongering.com - $950

Obituarist.com - $150

Reciprocations.com - $150

Would sell all 3 for $1k.

Moving on to the sites:

AffiliateMarketers.com - $6k

MegaSites.com (customers not included) - $6,500

UnmanagedHosting.com (customers not included) - $950

Auctionpus.com (an auction platform with a catchty concept which used to be pretty popular back in the day, check it out and ignore the "untrusted connection" thing... you're seeing it because I forgot to renew the ssl cert) - $2k

That's pretty much it for now.

After 2+ years of hard work, I'm finally ready to launch this baby but there's no way I'm doing it without enough cash set aside for a kick-ass launch. Want to sell all of the assets above within 10 days.
 
charlie.simm said:
Fearmongering.com - $950

Obituarist.com - $150

Reciprocations.com - $150

Would sell all 3 for $1k.
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himZD0M.gif
 
charlie.simm said:
Well, time for another update.

If I wanted to, I could launch the book next week but the thing is, I'm not very happy with the marketing cash cushion I have.
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Charlie, forgive the invasiveness of this question, but would you be willing to list your presumed expenses for the launch?

Here's the reason I ask...

I've watched a lot of Kindle launches and I don't remember ever seeing a marketing budget that rivals the one I'm inferring from your posts. And that includes James Altucher's launch.

I'm curious to know how you're planning to spend the cash.

I won't be offended if you say "mind your own business."
 
JakeStratham said:
Charlie, forgive the invasiveness of this question, but would you be willing to list your presumed expenses for the launch?

Here's the reason I ask...

I've watched a lot of Kindle launches and I don't remember ever seeing a marketing budget that rivals the one I'm inferring from your posts. And that includes James Altucher's launch.

I'm curious to know how you're planning to spend the cash.

I won't be offended if you say "mind your own business."
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No problem at all Jake, let's get started.

First and foremost, I might have left you guys with the impression that I'm throwing money around left and right like an exuberant monkey, that's hardly the case.

Thus far, I've spent money on:

1) Cover (ebook cover, audiobook cover and createspace cover) - Person 1

2) Website - Person 2

3) Intro video - Person 3

4) Audiobook voiceover - Person 4

5) One round of proofreading - Person 5

6) Another round of proofreading - Person 6

Up until this point, 6 people have worked on this project and I've chosen them very carefully, each time with price/quality ratio optimization in mind. I haven't gone with the most expensive "pay for the brand" providers, I haven't gone with low-end providers either. I've negotiated. Fiercely, in some cases.

All in all, my expenses for everything I've referred to thus far have *barely* hit mid 4 figure territory.

James Altucher worked with a really good editor, so the editing part alone cost him more than everything I've spent so far :)

As far as the let's call it pre-marketing dimension is concerned (so design, editing and so on), he spent considerably more money than me.

As far as the marketing dimension is concerned however, yes, I think I will spend more money than him. While it may seem weird, it's actually logical.

Why?

Simply because James Altucher has waaaaaaaaay more connections than me. Connections with access to eyeballs. He appears on TV, can ask people who run huge sites/blogs for favors and the list could go on and on.

Therefore, he doesn't always have to reach for his wallet, unlike yours truly :)

Furthermore, as Trademark pointed out, his own platform is pretty impressive and while mine is ok-ish, there can be no comparison.

Yet another reason why I have to reach for my wallet more often than him. Way, way more often.

Marketing will be my biggest expense by far, everything else pales in comparison.

I've reached an agreement with inetinteractive, they will be sending a direct email to their lists about the launch of my book: webhostingtalk, abestweb and a couple more.

Again: my target audience consists of people who make money online. If you have a website with such visitors, I'm interested in advertising. Plain and simple.

I've also sealed the deal with a few not-as-popular newsletters and am looking for more.

All of this costs money... a lot of money.

Now sure, I have my blog, which is pretty popular. And I'll be writing lots of guest posts, organizing a contest (I already have a bunch of awesome prizes lined up thanks to a few sponsors, an iPhone 6 for example) and doing my best to generate free traffic.

But I don't have the kind of influence James has, so there's no way I can launch this baby properly without a solid marketing budget.
 
JakeStratham said:
Wow. Thanks for the details Charlie. Your plan of attack is very interesting.

It's an ambitious plan. And costly. I hope the cash outlay generates the results you're looking for.

Side note: I didn't realize Altucher's editor was so expensive!
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That's my main problem, the marketing dimention.

If I don't manage to generate at least 20k by selling Fanboys.com + Instability.com + AffilitateMarketers.com + MegaSites.com + the others, I'll have to delay the launch.

Go big or go home :)
 
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