Launching Your Book and Going for Best Seller Status

The launch plan from my recent of Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing

The theory for producing a best selling book is to drive as many people as you can to buy your book through the narrowest time frame in a book category that doesn’t have very many books in it. You also want to pick a category that doesn’t have a popular best selling author or big selling book at the top that you have to take on.

This is why building your platform is important; you need fans to do this. If you can do this it is very likely that you can create a bestselling book. Maybe even a #1 category best seller. It won’t last long so be sure to screen capture the Products Details area of the Amazon sales page for your marketing. Generally this technique works best with Kindle books because you can lower the price down to $.99. But I have also seen it work with paperback books but the per book price will by much higher.

Picking Categories for Your Book

___Research your categories.

___Select specific categories that have under 5,000-7,000 books in them, better if you can find one with low thousands or even hundreds of books.

___Try to find a category that doesn’t have books in the top 2,000-4,000 overall Amazon sales rank. You also don’t want to have a superstar or best selling author sitting at the top of your category. You are never going to beat Oprah.

___When you upload your book, select the BASAC book categories as close as you can to the Amazon categories. Be sure to include the Amazon categories in your description and keywords. One of the issues that happens is that the BASAC book categories don't really match the Amazon sales page categories. What you do is select categories, 2 for Kindle and 1 for CreateSpace, that are as close as you can get them. You then try to let Amazon know where your book sits by putting some of the final categories in your book title/subtitle, in the description and in the keywords. Once the book starts to sell Amazon will drop your book into its real categories. This is all kind of a mystery. You can also email Amazon and ask them to reassign your book to a different category from the one they picked.

Launch Your Book

___Prepare and send out your launch announcement or any articles that you might be releasing to your Blog and Influencers network.

___Send press releases out to PR sites, free and paid.

___Prepare a book trailer or announcement video that you can share on your social media site and book website. Host it on YouTube.



 Here is the book announcement trailer that I made for my book.

___E-mail your list that you are launching your book and would love to have their support. Give them the book link and instructions on when to buy.

___Lower your Kindle price to $.99.

___If released over CreateSpace lower your price a little.

___Announce the upcoming release through all your social media

___Release your book.

___E-mail your list that your book is now live.

___Announce your book is live on your social media sites, include a cover shot and the link to Amazon.com.

___If you are giving away a free bonus gift tell everyone how to get it.

    One of the questions I am asked is can you get the e-mail addresses and names of your book buyers. The answer is no, Amazon doesn’t reveal this information. But there is a way to get some of the names using a technique call the Amazon Receipt Strategy. Remember your buyer is your most valuable connection, this is someone that actually put down money and bought your product. You want to be connected to this person.

___Conduct a Virtual Launch Party on Google Hangout.

___Release your Virtual Book launch and tour.

___Post your progress in your social media accounts during the launch day about what is going on, how exciting it is. Encourage others to join in, get your fans involved to get you over the top to a #1 position.

___Be sure to screen capture your Amazon ranking as you climb, don’t try to guess the top, just keep recording the screen during the day. This information is located in the Product Details section of your Amazon book sales page.

___Re-email your list about your launch, be sure to not burn out this list.

Amazon Receipt Strategy

This is an advance strategy for collecting the names of your buyers

• First you need to pull together a bonus gift for buying your book, a pdf report, a short video series, extra training, something you can give away. This is a great way to develop a list of your buyers.

• Second instruct your readers to sign-up on a e-mail sign-up form on our website using their book receipt number to gain access. There are a variety of services that you can use for this. I use AWeber.com

• Third send them a link to the offer or whatever the gift is. You now have their e-mail address and often their name.

The above text is from the International Best Selling Book by J. Bruce Jones, Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing is available at Amazon in Print and Kindle. J. Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 40 books and training courses for authors who are self-publishing their books.

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