The Upside Down of Book Promotion
And the Inside-Out of Bookfunnel
Plus Bookmotion updates.
The world of book promotion is backwards and non-intuitive, and in my early efforts, I tried to follow the vagaries of popular advice only to feel lost and impotent. Some of that advice was sound: build an email list, write an author newsletter, promote on Bookfunnel and social media, advertise, and have your own website so readers can find you. I did all that and paid good money for it, too, but how am I supposed to build a mailing list? “Put a link to your newsletter in the back of your books.” Sure. Great advice. Only, people need to read the book first to find my mailing list, and I need the mailing list to get readers. It’s backwards.
I needed—you need—to learn to make sense of:
The Upside-Down of Book Promotion
The fault wasn’t in the advice. Instead, there were a number of issues that either time has resolved or that were a factor of my ignorance.
Cost need no longer be an issue:
The email list and author newsletter are provided free by Substack, and it comes with its own social media where people are actually interested in what you write and occasionally even throw a little money your way. Substack gives you a newsletter-focused website, of sorts, which you can attach to your custom domain for $50, and for any needs beyond that, Google sites has surprised me with its versatility. Combine that with PayHip or Fourthwall for sales, and you have yourself an author ecosystem.
Advertising is expensive:
Set advertising aside unless you have enough money to experiment, and then—in my non-expert view—focus on areas that can multiply the initial effect. Push a book on Amazon across several consecutive days, and Amazon will see the sustained interest and help promote the book. If you advertise on Facebook, consider promoting your Facebook page. Initially, that’s counterintuitive—you’re spending money for a “like” instead of a subscriber or a sale. The multiplying effect here is that once they like your page, that’s a warm lead, and they now get the posts you make to the page—which is free advertising—and you’ll get more people responding to your page than you’ll get making a purchase off the ad.
Advertising for the sale is expensive because it’s a direct connect to the intended purpose: a book purchased and presumably read—and it’s that end-of-the-funnel prospect that you’re paying for.
Welcome to the concept of the funnel. Big on the top. Small on the bottom. We extend our reach by promoting one another's notes in the Literary Salon chat. That gets us more followers, which gets us more subscribers, which gets our newsletters more readers.
Some of those readers will click through to the bookstore. Some will buy books—especially when you’re making a big push for your upcoming new release.
The problem? Funnels leak. There's a whole lot more people at the top than at the bottom of the funnel. So we have other funnels that draw people in from other sources. One time-honored way to draw from outside sources (to grow your subscriber list) is Bookfunnel.
It’s time we talk more about how Bookfunnel works.
The Inside-Out of Bookfunnel
go.bookmotion.pro/horrorsciencefiction
If you’re not familiar with their promotions, you can click on the link above. Now, if you are familiar with them, you may have noticed something different about the link. Some of my authors can now share their promotions using a go.promotion.pro link, instead. Unfortunately, it will require some growth before all authors have that choice.
I operate on Bookfunnel as a micro-publisher. Actually, two, and it will soon be more. This need for multiple accounts is why not everyone can get the Bookmotion link. When we get to a hundred, I’ll be able to merge everyone into the biggest account Bookfunnel offers, and at that time, you’ll all have your choice of links.
When you join me at Bookmotion, I sign you up as one of my authors on Bookfunnel. I enter your book(s), create a landing page, and enter you into upcoming promotions, either ones I’ve created or those created by others.
When the promotion is live, you share your link with others, asking them to check out the collection of free books, and the system tracks how many people visit through your link. When the promotion ends, you’re allotted a promotion score: how many promotions you’ve been in / your average contribution.
If you’ve been in 10 promotions with an average score below 20, that’s considered poor, and you might not be allowed to join promotions run by others.
In total, my authors are currently in 12 promotions.
Each participant shares the link in their newsletters and on social media. Readers browse, knowing that instead of paying, they’re agreeing to subscribe to a newsletter.
The Lowdown on Bookmotion
I’ve just completed installing a system to have subscribers delivered automatically to a Google spreadsheet which I share with that particular author. That way, you can check your list and download whenever you want.
It’s downloaded as a CSV, which is a spreadsheet of Comma-Seperated-Values, and can be easily uploaded to Substack. I shared my video on how to do upload subscribers here.
If you’ve recently sent me a book to promote, I apologize for not getting to you sooner. Between my stepfather’s passing, hurting my back, and getting this delivery system running, I’ve fallen behind. I will rectify this between now and November 15th.
Upstart Amazon Sales Promotions
Another project delayed has been the start of sales promotions, both through Bookfunnel and via the Newsletter. This is a call to action for anyone who would like to participate in an Amazon sales promotion. DM me or email me at contact@thadeusthomas.com.
I’ll need the book cover, where to find it on Amazon, blurb, and genre. However, I don’t need the contents of the book itself.
This will be for a KCD—Kindle Countdown Deal, which can last up to 7 days. You drop your book price to a dollar, but Amazon will let you keep your 70% cut.
This first sales promotion will be aimed at Black Friday, so we need to move fast. We’ll do another in December. Choose one book for Black Friday and one for the pre-Christmas sale.
Black-Friday Dates: 11/27 - 12/3.
Pre-Christmas Dates: 12/19 - 12/25
—Thaddeus Thomas
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