Just starting out and you want to get it right the first time? This foundations course provides the underpinning knowledge to setting up your author business. They develop your understanding of what your book offers, who is likely to want to buy your book, and how to select the right categories, keywords and distribution partners to make sure your book will sell when it’s ready for launch.
This course walks you through three important areas you need to understand before putting your book on sale.
Capitalizing on the “Value” of Your Book
The best marketing focuses on what is unique about you as a writer and the stories you choose to write. What are the “reader cookies” you consistently deliver? What is your core story? This is the value of your book—not price, not story, and not genre. But how do you find that? This section helps you do that and to capitalize on it. Specifically, you will learn to:
- Identify your core story
- Identify your unique author voice
- Describe the “reader cookies” you consistently deliver
- Write PR and Marketing copy that speaks to “value”
- Translate that marketing copy for SEO metadata, advertising, and calls-to-action
- Sketch out, find, and/or create marketing graphics that reflect the “value” of your books
Defining Your Audience
One of the most common mistakes a new writer makes is in believing their book will appeal to everyone. Or that marketing to all readers will make the most money. This is simply not true. Readers have preferences. Some don’t like certain genres. Some don’t like certain types of stories within a genre. This course will help you determine who are the most likely people to buy your book and how you can reach them. Specifically, you will learn how to:
- Determine the demographics, psychographics, and online behaviors that fit your audience
- Analyze how vendors such as Amazon, Kobo, Ingram, and Google define various book audiences
- Research your own reader audience in surveys, social media, and reader interviews
- Narrow your audience for better immediate traction
- Identify your competition by researching other authors selling to your audience
- Build author network Karma in order to help each other build an even larger audience
Book Distribution Secrets
Once you have a finished book, you need to get it into readers’ hands. Loading your book to a vendor looks deceivingly easy. However, the career author knows that each vendor has a different method for promoting books, performing searches, and identifying ready buyers. You need to take advantage of these differences in order to maximize your profits and discoverability. Capitalize on competitive retail pricing in different markets, and use effective metadata to draw more readers to your book buy pages on vendor sites. Specifically, you will learn how to:
- Add good content beyond your book blurbs for each title
- Focus on “reader cookies” in your marketing strategy at vendors
- Unlock keywords and get access to hidden category options.
- Take advantage of search algorithm nuances.
- Use aggregators appropriately to increase distribution opportunities around the world.
- Evaluate opportunities for ARCs in both ebooks and print books, direct sales to bookstores, and direct sales to individual consumers.
Our Course and Teaching Philosophy. Our Course Discounts for Groups of 4 to 7 participants signing up at the same time.