THE EBOOK

MARKETING FORMULA

From Script to Sales in 30 Days.

A 30 Day Intensive Marketing Plan to help Launch your eBook and reach your Ideal Audience – Fast!

Do you have a dream of sharing your work with a worldwide audience?

Then this is the marketing plan for you!

This formula was created for any author who wants to give their eBook the very best chance of reaching an audience and being a success.

Do you have a manuscript which is polished and ready to be published online?

Whether your work is fiction or non-fiction, this guide will help you to create a professional marketing plan to support the launch of your eBook.

This Guide includes:

Four Core Work Strands which weave together to create a unique and comprehensive Marketing package;

A Practical Step by Step Guide using Reliable and Proven techniques;

A Weekly Action Plan with Milestones along the way, to help you customise your launch plan.

Instead of being overwhelmed by all of the details, you are going to feel in control of your launch and enjoying making it happen.

This is what you have been waiting for! Your eBook. Your success.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS THE EBOOK MARKETING FORMULA?

WEEK ONE

STEP 1. Establish Your Author Brand. Your Website and Blog

STEP 2. Develop an interesting Blog and Website

STEP 3. Create a Compelling About Page

STEP 4. The Contact Page

STEP 5 Complete and Format your Manuscript.

STEP 6. How to use Social Networks

STEP 7 Customising your Plan; Fiction and Non-Fiction Authors

WEEK TWO

STEP 8 Create your Online Author Profile on each Publishing Platform

STEP 9 Upload your Book onto the Publishing Platform

STEP 10. Create a Compelling Sales Description

STEP 11. Social Proof. Request Endorsements and Book Reviews

STEP 12 Download a Kindle preview file and an ePub file for Reviewers

STEP 13 Build a dedicated Landing Page for your eBook on your Website

WEEK THREE

STEP 14. Guest Blogging

STEP 15. Create your eBook Launch Kit for Guest Blogs and Interviews

STEP 16. Position and Target your book to the ideal audience

WEEK FOUR

STEP 17 Write your Blog Posts and Articles pre-Launch

FINAL LAUNCH WINDOW

STEP 18 The Soft Launch.

THE COMBINED 30 DAY CHECKLIST

THANK YOU MESSAGE FROM NINA

MORE RESOURCES FROM NINA

COPYRIGHT

ABOUT NINA HARRINGTON

INTRODUCTION

Dreamcatcher by Dyaa Eldin

HELLO AND WELCOME.

My name is Nina Harrington and I am the author of 19 novels with sales of over one million copies in 28 countries around the world in 23 languages.

I know how hard it is to take that first step on the publishing ladder and become a published author.

It took me six years to win a contract with a major publisher, and I had countless rejections along the way.

But I didn’t give up.

Instead I decided to learn everything I could about the craft of creating a compelling novel and also about the business aspects of being a professional author.

What conclusions have I come to?

To build a career as a professional writer in today’s complex publishing world, any author has to do four things:

First. You have to write a fantastic high quality book that you are proud of, that will delight your readers.

Secondly. You have to take total responsibility for the promotion and marketing of your book – even if it is traditionally published.

Thirdly. You have to select the best publishing model for that book and your target audience.

And lastly. You have to become prolific. Working faster and smarter than ever before. Creating a catalogue of books, whether they are fiction or non-fiction, is the best way of building a successful career as a published author.

You know that you have written a book that will entertain an audience or provide them with enormous value in their lives. Don’t deny your audience the opportunity to enrich their lives. Get that book published!

Many authors have discovered that digital books are an amazing way of sharing your work with an online audience around the world at a click of a button.

But I know that the whole idea of launching and marketing your own book can feel totally overwhelming.

Where do you even start?

That’s why I have created this eBook. I have brought together everything that I have leant into a step by step marketing plan which will support the launch of your eBook.

This guide will give you the best chance of being discovered and valued by your audience.

And the best thing? This road map to marketing will take you from your manuscript to your published book and your first sales in specific, action steps in 30 days. Or less!

I want you to launch your eBook in 30 days and be generating sales and income from all of your hard work.

It is your first step on the journey to becoming a truly Prolific Author.

And you can start today. Right now.

Get ready for a 30 Day Intensive Marketing Plan to help your eBook reach the ideal audience – Fast!

Quote: As Jack Canfield, co-author of "Chicken Soup for the Soul", said, 'Writing the book is only 10% of the work, now you must figure out how to sell it'.

WHAT IS THE EBOOK MARKETING FORMULA?

Shutterstock

This method consolidates all of the individual marketing steps for your eBook launch into four easy to follow work strandsThis 30 Day eBook Marketing Formula is a proven and tested way of weaving together the four different project strands that need to take place in parallel to market your eBook, into one easy to understand complete launch plan.

You still have to do the work! That’s a given.

But the marketing plan templates and checklists in this course will make sure that you have not missed a crucial step, or feel knocked off track when you suddenly find out that an action takes longer than you expected.

The Four Separate Strands are:

Strand One. BUILDING Your Author Platform

Strand Two. CREATING your eBook Data

Strand Three. REACHING out to your Audience

Strand Four. CUSTOMISING your Marketing Plan

All four strands have to be woven and meshed together from day one through to your launch day to complete the overall marketing plan.

How does this Formula Work?

Instead of working on one strand of your plan and then moving on to the next, you have to work on all of the four strands in parallel.

This means that there are action steps every week on all four of the strands.

Don’t let this scare you!

I will show you how the step by step actions for each strand have been broken down into simple weekly tasks, so that you never feel overwhelmed or disorientated.

The activities set for each week have to be completed in order before you move on to the next week’s work.

No skipping around!

This is how you build up your effective and comprehensive launch plan and increase your sense of achievement with every step.

At the end of the four weeks you will be ready for a ‘Soft Launch’ of your eBook, with two days at the end to complete the final marketing steps and officially launch your eBook.

Why 30 Days?

One of the many advantages of self-publishing, or independent publishing as it is often called, is the fact that the author is in complete control of when their book is published. You don’t have to wait for months or even years for a print run. You can have a book loaded onto an online platform and see it on sale only a few hours later.

“Speed to Market” is a terrific benefit to any author.

But it also creates two challenges.

1. The success of your eBook is your responsibility.

The revision, editing, proofreading and formatting of your manuscript can take weeks or months of meticulous attention to detail. The second the manuscript is ready to be published, it is very tempting to rush to load your eBook onto one of the many online publishing platforms as soon as you possibly can.

A few clicks and you have self-published your own eBook.

But what happens then? Are you just a voice calling in the wind hoping that someone will find your work by chance?

To take true advantage of online digital publishing, you have to learn the skills and techniques needed to create an effective publishing strategy and then market and promote that book. And you have to do all of those steps before you click on the “Publish” button.

This is both time consuming and demanding. But you can do it in the 30 day window if you have some help.

2. Writing your next book has to work in harmony with launching this book.

Many very successful authors have found that the best way to share their work with their readers is to create a series of linked books, and have all of those books available at the same time.

If a reader loves your work, then they will want to buy the next book in the series and the book after that. Your best marketing tool will always be your next book.

It has been my experience that an intense 30 day marketing plan, using a step by step sequence of actions, is the best way to give your eBook the best possible chance of reaching the ideal reader.

If you can commit to a few hours every day, marketing your eBook in 30 days is not only achievable but realistic, leaving you time to focus on your next writing project.

But this plan is designed to be flexible. Every book has its own challenges and every author is unique, and what works for one person may not work for another author at a different stage of their career and lifestyle.

My goal is to create as comprehensive a program as possible, so that you can feel that you are on track with the marketing component of your eBook launch plan at all times.

That’s why strand four allows you to customise the plan to cover both fiction and non-fiction titles.

Set yourself a target date 30 days or less from now.

Announce that date to the world with flags and banners! Make this book launch happen!

Why it is Crucial to have a Written Launch Plan for your eBook

Why bother with a written plan? Isn’t it obvious what you have to do, to promote an eBook?

There are bound to be frustrating delays and unexpected glitches along the way for which you cannot plan, and which can lead to a lot of stress and anxiety.

You have set a target and decided when your eBook will be launched. The last thing you want to do is disappoint your readers and yourself by not publishing your book when you said you would.

The only way to feel that you can stay in control of the complex web of action steps is to have a written weekly plan.

If one action on your plan does not go as you expected, you know that the other steps are all in place and you can work around it so that when the step is complete, the project is back on track.

I know that project management may seem like a strange concept for a writer, but from my business experience, I know that a step by step implementation plan is a crucial component of any project.

Nothing gets overlooked. Your plan is the one place where you have recorded all of the steps that need to take place, who is responsible for making that happen and when it needs to be finished.

You can divide the plan into individual sections covering specific parts of the overall project.

You can create a weekly list which keeps you on track to meeting your goal.

It breaks the plan down into meaningful small chunks so that you do not feel overwhelmed by the size of the whole project. You can do this by days or weeks.

Doing things one step at a time gives you a great sense of achievement and moving forwards. Set yourself milestones and markers along the way.

You can record your plan any way you like.

For example; you can create you plan as a handwritten or printed list which you keep in sight when you work. Typed onto a spreadsheet. Or a daily planner on your email calendar system. Or handwritten in a printed diary. Whatever works for you.

Get started by asking yourself the following questions:

Have you revised, edited and proofread your manuscript?

Are you happy that your manuscript is as polished as possible and is ready to be published?

Have you commissioned or created a compelling cover image for your eBook?

Are you ready to do the work to share your work with the world?

If the answer to these questions is yes, then you ready to get started on your 30 Day Marketing Plan!

Based on "Numbers" by Andy Maguire

WEEK ONE

The activities in week one will focus on building your online identity and author brand at the same time as you finalise and format your manuscript.

STEP 1. Establish Your Author Brand. Your Website and Blog

iStockPhoto

Author Brand and Author PlatformI think that it is important to clarify the difference between your Author Brand and your Author Platform.

First - What do we mean by the word ‘Brand’ and how does it apply to creative artists such as authors?

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as:

“...a customer experience represented by a collection of images and ideas; often, it refers to a symbol such as a name, logo, slogan, and design scheme. Brand recognition and other reactions are created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or service, both directly relating to its use, and through the influence of advertising, design, and media commentary."

(Added definition) "A brand often includes an explicit logo, fonts, color schemes, symbols, sound which may be developed to represent implicit values, ideas, and even personality."

There are a few key words in the definition that are worth exploring further.

Customer Experience.

Implicit values.

Personality.

If someone was to ask you to describe a famous brand, what would you chose?

A technology company who uses an apple with a bite out of it as a logo?

Or a type of fast food restaurant, or low cost airline?

Or perhaps an actor or athlete and the brand they project?

What feelings do you associate with that brand? Are the positive? Or perhaps you had a negative experience and just the sight of the company logo takes you back to that event. How does the brand communicate conceptual values and ideas?

Do you trust that brand to deliver on its promises? High quality or low quality? Overpriced or great value? Reliable or unreliable?

The development of any brand is a very complex process, which requires customers to be exposed at regular intervals to all of the sensory and emotional triggers and responses, which are associated with a particular brand name.

A brand is not just a logo and a trade name, but the impression the customer takes away of the inherent values of that company and the people who work there and what they stand for.

The accumulated exposure to that brand over time creates the Brand Image. That perception of the brand in the mind of the consumer, which includes all their thoughts, emotions and expectations about that brand.

And that is precisely why the CRUCIAL element of any marketing activity for your work is your Author Brand.

Think of it as the External Expression of your Personality as a Writer – interpreted through the minds of your audience.

That’s why some authors have more than one pen name. They are creating books which reflect different aspects of their personality. For example, there are many writers of contemporary romance who also write crime fiction or young adult fantasy.

It is the same author, but different mind-sets and different writing personas mean different author brands.

If you have not published before and don’t have an extensive online presence, then this is a great place to start – just as long as you recognise that a successful brand is not made overnight.

In this context, I interpret the word ‘successful’ to mean that your readers will trust you to deliver on the promise of the eBook that they are going to buy, whether fiction or non-fiction.

So how do your share your personality and create your Author Brand?

Through every image, every idea about what you stand for, and every word that you publish in print and online, both privately and publicly.

The Internet has given writers the ability to communicate directly with their readers in a way that was never possible before, and form a special one to one connection. Readers now expect their favourite authors to be accessible, no matter where in the world they live.

Some authors find the whole idea of marketing and promoting their work scary and intimidating and I understand that. Not everyone is a born entertainer.

You don’t have to be.

Because however you decide to express your author brand and your author image, no matter what media or format, or whether you have four pen names or none, there is one thing that you must do.

You have to be yourself. You have to be authentic. Real. Honest. Truthful. Authentic.

That is what is going to make you stand out.

Quote:

“Marketing is sharing what you love with people who want to hear about it. You don’t have to be hard salesy, scammy or nasty. Just be authentic and share your passion.” – Joanna Penn.

Be clear about what you want to achieve.

Part of being authentic and revealing an external expression of yourself as your author brand, is to be clear in your own mind, about what your specific goals are with this publishing project.

MorgueFile. Message Stones

There are some authors who set out from the start to hit the number #1 on Amazon, The New York Times, USA Today and other bestselling charts.

They see this as adding credibility to their portfolio of achievements, which in turn feeds into extra sales for all of their work and other opportunities for their brand as an author.

They are not too concerned if the book sales fall off a cliff the week after launch. They have achieved their objective and can say that they are a number one bestseller author.

Other authors want to create a launch plan which boosts initial sales – and then generates sustainable long term income from consistent sales.

Which category do you fall into?

The principles explored in this eBook will focus on building a platform and marketing strategy which you can adapt and use to meet either of these goals.

In my experience, many authors do not have the extensive social outreach needed to dominate the bestseller charts at that stage in their career when they are launching their first book, or looking for the tools and techniques to improve their launch strategy.

The marketing plan for these aspiring authors has to reach out to new readers who may not be familiar with their work, rather than communicating with their existing fans.

To do that, you need to work hard on the crucial first strand in your marketing formula - developing an effective and efficient Author Platform.

What is your Author Platform?

It is how you stand up and stand out and share your personality and your brand with the world.

The ‘Platform’ is simply the tools and techniques you use to stand tall so that your voice can be heard above the clamour of the thousands of other authors who are all trying to do the same thing.

You are literally going to create a “stage” where you are the star performer.

Television, social networking, audio and streaming film and video and a whole internet of very attractive and high quality entertainment options are now available online and at low cost.

But what if your book was handed to your ideal reader by a friend who loved it?

Word of mouth and personal recommendation are still powerful and relevant ways that your work can be shared.

And as Michael Hyatt says in his book ‘Platform’:

“Today’s platform is built of people. Contacts. Connections. Followers…. It could include your company website, a blog, your Twitter and Facebook accounts, an online video show, or a podcast.”

Plus personal appearances as a speaker, any articles you may have written or interviews in which you have participated.

It is the sum total of all of these activities that will help you to be heard in a world where we are competing for a potential reader’s attention with everything in his or her life.