book discoverability template - everything you need to do to get found!

YOUR BOOK BY

YOU

GETTING FOUND!

THE TRANSITION FROM WRITER

TO MARKETER ISN’T EASY

AND THE LIFE OF A PROFESSIONAL

AUTHOR DOESN’T ALWAYS JIBE WITH THE

LIFE OF A PROFESSIONAL MARKETER

Professional Writer

• Wake up

• Eat Breakfast

• Write

• Take a Walk

• Write

• Eat Lunch

• Write

• Take a nap

• Write

• Exercise

• Write

• Eat Dinner

• Write

Professional Book Marketer

• Wake up

• Tweet

• Post on Facebook

• Check sales

• Eat Breakfast

• Tweet

• Pin on Pinterest

• Reply to discussions on

Facebook and Goodreads

• Blog

• Reply to blog comments

• Check sales

• Tweet

• Check Amazon rank

WHAT ARE YOUR PUBLISHING

GOALS?

Build a writing

Career?Satisfy a lifelong

ambition?Live off your

book sales?

IF YOU JUST WANT TO WRITE, YOU

STILL NEED A BASIC DISCOVERABILITY

WEB BUILT

4 TENETS OF AUTHOR

DISCOVERY

Author discovery

Get found

Get feedback

Get fans

Get Famous

TO BE FOUND DIGITALLY, YOU MUST

BE EVERYWHERE YOUR READERS ARE

Author Discovery

E-mail

inbox

Search engines

Book distribution

channels

Niche /genre-specific

sites

Social media

channels

WHILE AT THE SAME TIME ATTRACTING

THEM INTO YOUR WEB LIKE A SPIDER

TO A FLY

Your book’s

buy page

Product, price,

promotions

Website

BlogE-mail

marketing

Advertising

IS YOUR DISCOVERABILITY WEB STRONG

ENOUGH TO PULL PROSPECTIVE READERS

TO YOUR BUY PAGE?

Your Book’s

buy page

Great Product,

price, promotion

Optimized Website

Search Engine

Optimization

Blogging

E-mail marketing

Available on eBook

distribution channels

Presence on Niche /genre-specific sites

Effective

Advertising

Compelling

social media activity

GET FOUND TOPICS

Your Story

Reason to Believe

Discoverability

Pricing and Promotions

GETTING FOUND

Your Story

Reason to Believe

Discoverability

Pricing and Promotions

YOUR BOOK:

WHAT’S YOUR STORY?

• What you are selling

• Yourself

• Your book

• What is the link between your personal story and your

book?

YOUR AUTHOR PROFILE

• Who are you?

• What activities are

you involved in?

• What are you

passionate about?

Sum yourself up in three

words

Your Picture goes here

YOUR BOOK’S PROFILE

Use single words to

describe your book:

• Provacative

• Titillating

• Amazing

• Page-turner

• Thrilling

Sum your book up in 5

words – this is like your

pitch

Your Book cover goes here

THE STORY: WHAT LED YOU TO

WRITE THIS BOOK?

Interview yourself

• What made you write the book?

• Why are you the best person to tell this story?

• Why should others read the book?

• What makes this book/story unique?

• How does it compare to other books like it in the

genre?

• Who do you look up to in the genre? Why?

GETTING FOUND

Your Story

Reason to Believe

Discoverability

Pricing and Promotion

YOUR BOOK:

WHY SHOULD ANYONE BUY IT?

Positioning defined: A unique place for your book

in customer’s mind, relative to the competition

• Who are your readers?

• Who is the competition (other books)?

• What’s unique about your book?

• How do you break-through?

READER ANALYSIS

• Who are they? Who would you like them to

be? Why?

• Where are they located?

• Who are they reading?

• Why do they read?

• How will you position the book for each

customer group you are targeting?

• Does your cover and back cover copy speak to them?

• Are your blurbs from writer’s they buy?

DEVELOPING A PITCH FOR YOUR

BOOK

For readers who love Stephen King and Anne Rice

<Target Audience>

My book is a supernatural suspense novel (genre)

<Summary Statement>

that will provoke, titillate, and thrill

<Customer Benefit>

[because] there is an ending they will never see

coming

<Reason to Believe>

GETTING FOUND

Your Story

Reason to Believe

Discoverability

Pricing and Promotion

YOUR BOOK:

WHERE WILL READERS FIND IT?

Authordiscovery fact: There is no clear format preference between

ebooks and print, although younger readers are leaning towards

digital reading more than older readers. Regardless of whether

reader preference is ebooks, print, or both, Amazon is the clear

leader in book procurement with over 65% of the book market.

SORRY, BUT OPRAH CAN’T HELP

YOU

There are nearly

300,000 books

published a year in the US

Oprah has picked a total

of 68 books since her

book club’s inception in

1996

BOOK-SIGNINGS CAN BE HIT OR

MISS

Average sales at an

in-person book-signing

is 4 books

BUT FIRST,

YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE

Independent publishing “Assisted” self-publishing

SOME PROS AND CONS OF

INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING

Independent Publishing

Pros Cons

• More control over the publishing

process

• Need for strategic outsourcing:

cover-design, typesetting,

content-editing, copyediting,

proofreading, printing &

distribution

• Ability to set own prices and

therefore control profit margins

• Marketing/promotion is 100%

dependent on you

• 100% royalties • Have to manage inventory,

process orders, and pay taxes

• Control of production and

distribution

• Costs of start-up

SOME PROS AND CONS OF

“ASSISTED” SELF-PUBLISHING

“Assisted” Self-Publishing

Pros Cons

• Speed to start-up: just write the

book and write the check!

• There is a cost for convenience:

you could do most of what they

will do for less

• No inventory management, order

processing, and tax payments

required

• Marketing/promotion is still

100% dependent on you

• Higher royalties than “traditional”

publishing

• You will have no clue how many

books you are selling until you

get the report from your

publisher

• Get to rely on people with

industry expertise

• You give up significant control

over the process or have to pay

the price tag for the better

options

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN

ROYALTIES AND PROFIT MARGINS

• Royalties are a percentage of net book sales paid by the

publisher to the author after subtracting printing and shipping

costs and discounts to wholesalers.

• If you have a contract for 20% royalties on a 200 page book that

retails for $10.00 with a wholesale cost of $5.00 your royalty per

book will be around .30 cents.

• Profit is the percentage a publisher makes after all costs

(printing & shipping, discounts, royalties) are accounted for.

• In the above example, the publishers profit is $1.20/book or roughly

4x what the author makes

THE (NOT SO) NEW

PUBLISHING MODEL

• Bookstore/booksnore: To sell your book in a bookstore you

have to give away 40-60% discounts, accept consignment

conditions, and lose control of your pricing

• No Inventory Allowed: With print on demand technology you

as the publisher never need to hold inventory unless you are

sending out signed copies of your books to readers.

• Demand is The Man: Your job is to drive traffic to your online

retailers so your book can be found.

• There is an Imbalance in the Force: Ebooks are fast

overtaking print books in online bookstores. This is a great

thing! Embrace this trend. It means more money for you at

the end of the day!

PERSONAL WEBSITE SELLING

FALLACIES

• I will drive a tremendous amount of traffic

to my website

• People will spend hours everyday

perusing my awesome content

• My promotions will catch everyone’s eyes

and will motivate them to buy my book on

my site

SOCIAL MEDIA SELLING

FALLACIES

• People care about my status updates

and/or tweets

• They care enough to pull out their wallets

and buy my book before the latest

youtube video of dancing cats distracts

them

• All of my 3,000 or so “friends” will surely

buy my new book and I will be an instant

best-seller

KEEP IT SIMPLE: SELL BOOKS

WHERE PEOPLE BUY BOOKS

WHERE YOU SHOULD BE SELLING

PRINT BOOKS ONLINE

PRINT DISTRIBUTOR

RECOMMENDATIONS (FROM WILLIAMSWRITING.COM):

CreateSpace, www.createspace.com

Pros: No setup costs. No costs to upload revised files. No annual catalog fee.

Amazon availability will be “In Stock.”

Cons: Independent bookstores may refuse to order from them. E-book distribution is

a separate service. Returns aren’t permitted.

IngramSpark, www.ingramspark.com

Pros: Automatic entry to Ingram catalog; CoreSource distribution available for e-

books. Publisher may opt to accept returns.

Cons: Setup fee of $49 per book. Annual catalog fee of $12 per book. Fee of $25 to

upload revised files. Amazon availability may be “Usually ships within 2 to 3 weeks.”

Lightning Source, www.lightningsource.com

Pros: Automatic entry to Ingram catalog; CoreSource distribution available for e-

books. Ability to set discount as low as 20%. Publisher may opt to accept returns.

Cons: Setup fee of $75 per book. Annual catalog fee of $12 per book. Fee of $40 to

upload revised files. Amazon availability may be “Usually ships within 2 to 3 weeks.”

Note: Ingram is the major book wholesaler. CoreSource e-book distribution makes e-

books available to more than 150 online bookstores.

2 TYPES OF EBOOK

DISTRIBUTORS

Description Formatting Channel Distribution

Single ChannelFormat for a single

device

Distribute to a single

channel (i.e. Amazon or

Barnes and Noble)

Multi-Channel

Format for multiple

devices

Distribute to most or all

ebook retailer (except

Amazon)

MOST POPULAR EBOOK

DISTRIBUTION PLATFORMS

THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE

UPLOADING YOUR BOOK TO AN

EBOOK DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM

1. Rights: do you retain your copyright once you sign the distribution

agreement?

2. Royalties and Pricing: do you set your own pricing? What are the

royalty implications of different price points. How often do you get

paid? How can you track sales?

3. Requirements: each ebook distributor has their own set of criteria for

inclusion into their digital catologue…read this information clearly or

your book may never see the light of day.

4. Reach: each ebook distributor has their own marketplace and reaches

thousands if not millions of potential readers, understand the reach

and contemplate this in your marketing plans.

5. Resources: what tools are available to interact with readers on the

ebook distributors site ? do they enable social media integration?

KDP SELECT HAS MADE THIS

A MUCH HARDER CHOICE

• Amazon owns >60% of

ebook market

• Barnes and Noble and

Apple troubles

• Provides an additional

revenue stream for

authors – pay for lending

• Built in promotional

mechanism with free days

• 90 day exclusivity required

GETTING FOUND

Your Story

Reason to Believe

Discoverability

Pricing and Promotion

YOUR BOOK:

HOW MUCH WILL READERS PAY FOR

IT?

Authordiscovery fact: Those who prefer ebooks appear to be

more price sensitive or conscious than those who prefer

other formats (could be reflective of diversity of ebook price

points).

FINDING THE RIGHT PRICE

FormatSales Channel

Researched

Average List

Price (top 10)

Average sales

price (top 10) –

discount free

books

My book’s

price (less

than previous

column)

Paperback Amazon,

BN.Com

$23.29 $15.00 12.99

E-Book Amazon,

goodreads

$9.99 $6.99 4.99

Take the top 10 selling books in your genre by format and

complete the following table. Your books price should be in

line with or slightly less than the overall average.

INTRO TO AMAZON EBOOK

PRICING

Description Implication

Set your own price

Prices below $1.99

• Amazon takes 65% of each

sale

Prices above $1.99

• Amazon takes 35% of each

sale

Control* your price

Takes 2-3 days for Amazon to

adjust your price on the buy

page

Lowest price matching

Amazon will reset your books

price to the lowest available

ebook price for your book on the

web

INTRO TO SMASHWORDS

EBOOK PRICING

Description Implication

Set your own price

Smashwords takes 40% of sales

through iBooks, BN.Com, and

other e-retailers

Smashwords takes 15% of sales

through smashwords.com

Control your price

Prices adjust immediately on

smashwords but can take weeks

to reflect across all other

retailers

Lowest price matching N/A

YOUR PROFIT/EBOOK -

AMAZON

8.99 65% $5.84/book

Example:

YOUR PROFIT/EBOOK –

APPLE, BN, OTHER

8.99 40% $3.59/book

Example:

YOUR PROFIT/EBOOK –

SMASHWORDS

8.99 85% $7.64/book

Example:

YOUR BOOK:

HOW WILL YOU PROMOTE IT?

WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT ONLINE

AWARENESS?

Your Website (s): how many

visitors/month?

Your Blog: how many

visitors/month?

Social Media:

• How many Facebook friends do you

have?

• Do you have a FB page for your author

brand or book?• How many likes do you have?

• Do you have a pinterest page for your

author brand or book?• How many followers do you have?

• Do you have a twitter account?• How many followers do you have?

• Do you have a Google + account?• How many in your circles?

• Do you have a youtube page?• How many followers do you have?

E-mail lists:

• How many e-mails do you have?

• Have all these people opted-in to

receive promotional e-mails from you

Social Reader communities:

• Are you on

Goodreads/Librarything/Shelfari/Scribd?• How many total friends do you have?

• How many groups are you in?

• How many people in the groups you are in?

Online forums:

• How many online forums are you a part of?• How many people in these forums?

PROVEN WAYS TO AUGMENT ONLINE

AWARENESS OF YOUR BOOK

Make sure your website is Optimized for Search Engines

Set a regular blogging and posting schedule and communicate

via social media, e-mail marketing, etc.

Distribute a free preview of a section of your e-book (Scribd,

Smashwords)

Send out e-mail blasts to friends and family

Conduct a blog tour on genre-specific sites

Hold a Book Giveaway on goodreads

Connect with Indie author communities (web, google +,

linkedin, facebook, twitter, goodreads) and let other authors

know you have a book coming out

Send out a press release to local media outlets

PROVEN WAYS TO AUGMENT ONLINE

AWARENESS OF YOUR BOOK CONT.

Request and conduct author interviews on genre-specific sites

Promote your author or book page on Facebook to drive up

your “likes”

Begin tweeting book or subject matter related tweets on a

regular basis

Advertise on goodreads, genre-specific blogs, and websites

with good reader traffic

Begin collecting opt-in e-mails and send out regular updates on

your book

Integrate video and pictures into everything you do (video

interviews, book trailers, Pinterest pins, Vlogs)

Win book awards and contests

TURNING A SAMPLER INTO A

BUYER

• Deliver irresistible content

• Your website, blogs, pins, tweets, book cover,

and book descriptions on e-book buy pages

should make readers itch to press the buy button

• Leverage the power of “social currency”

• Garner positive reviews from readers, bloggers,

genre-websites

• Continually increase the number of

Likers/followers on social media sites

• Earn blog followers, opt-in e-mail addresses, and

loyal fans

• Price strategically

• Reference the top 25 books in your given

genre/category and consider pricing your book at

a discount either temporarily or full-time

• Incentivize the purchase

• Give to get incentives such as, the first 100

buyers get something of value or advertise bulk

discounts to book clubs

WHY (GOOD) BOOK REVIEWS

MATTER

• Only non-sales way to boost

visibility on Amazon (the

Average customer review filter)

• Reviews get shared

(goodreads, facebook, blogs,

genre-specific websites, etc)

• Reviews provide “social

currency”

• The more people who “like”

something, the better it must be

MAKE BUYING YOUR BOOK EASY

• Targeted advertising linked to

buy pages

• Creation of buy pages on

social media sites and your

own blog or website

• Buy links on author profiles

and genre-specific websites

and blogs

• Leverage pricing promotions

across your sales platforms to

drive sales

PERSONAL RECOMMENDATIONS MAKE

A HUGE DIFFERENCE WITH BOOK

DISCOVERY

TAP INTO THE INFLUENCE CASCADE

Power

Readers*

Book bloggers and genre-websites**

Book clubs, Social reader communities***

Sta

rt f

rom

Bo

ok C

lub

s a

nd

mo

ve y

ou

r w

ay u

p

Ide

ntify

Po

we

r rea

de

rs a

nd

wo

rk y

ou

r wa

y d

ow

n

* Read 90-100 books a year

** Review hundreds of books

*** Read a book or 2 a month as a collective

WHY YOU SHOULD GIVE AWAY YOUR

E-BOOK (TO THE RIGHT INFLUENCERS)

• Puts your book on their radar

• If they like the book, chances are they will share it

with others

• Depending on their level of influence, this sharing

could be with 10’s or thousands of readers who rely

on their recommendations

• Those readers know other readers and so on and so

forth

WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER

AMAZON’S KDP SELECT PROGRAM AND

USE THE FREE PROMOTIONAL DAYS

With an effective free promotion on

Amazon:

• Noise level around your book goes

up

• Engagement with your book goes up

• Amazon rankings go up

• Likes on FB go up

• Followers on Twitter go up

• Goodreads bookshelves with your

book increase

• Reviews go up

• Social currency goes up

• Sales go up (post promotion)

CHECK OUT THESE GREAT ONLINE

RESOURCES ON BOOK MARKETING

AND PROMOTION

Author Discovery

World Literary Café

The Creative Penn

The Pantheon Collective

Book Market.com

Book Marketing Maven

Be the Media

The Book Marketing Network

BUY THIS BOOK AND PUT DOWN IDEAS

YOU THINK WILL HELP YOU REACH

YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

BUY THIS BOOK AND PUT DOWN IDEAS

YOU THINK WILL HELP YOU DRIVE

WORD OF MOUTH

BUY THIS BOOK AND LEVERAGE YOUR

OWN POWER TO PROMOTE YOURSELF!

Authordiscovery.com

DISCOVERY RECOMMENDATIONS

EDITING IS NOT OPTIONAL

Readers don’t recommend books they don’t finish and they don’t

finish mostly due to dull storyline, slow pace, and typos

• Read this blog for some basics on editing

FORMAT FLEXIBILITY IS KEY

Consider offering print versions of your titles in addition to ebook

18%

ebook only

32%

print only read in both

formats

50%

MANIPULATE AMAZON’S GRAVITY IN

YOUR FAVOR

Having an optimized Amazon presence and using their best in class

discovery tools like KDP Select are essential to your success

• Read this blog to find out what you need to do and how

STRIKE THE WRITE BALANCE

Don’t overpromote a single title. Get back to writing and keep

feeding your readers more content

• Read this smashwords survey for the latest trends in selling more

ebooks

USE THE POWER OF FREE

Readers complete over 50% of free e-books they download

• Maximize your free promotions by using this approach

MAKE IT EASY TO PASS IT ON

8 ways of recommending books (in person, social media, writing

reviews are the top 3)

• Encourage sharing by using some of these tactics

DON’T SWEAT THE GENRE

All genre’s sell – your job is to write the best book you can.

• The Top 10 questions you need to answer are here

FINAL MESSAGES

1. If you find this content valuable,

please pass this information on

• Discuss, like, share, tweet, e-mail, text,

pin

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3. Subscribe to the newsletter

CONTACT

• Website: http://www.authordiscovery.com

• E-mail: authordiscovery@gmail.com

• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bookmarketing33

YOUR BOOK BY

YOU

GETTING FOUND!