Your Business Book Will Die on Amazon and That’s Okay
You spent a lot of time writing your book and most likely some money getting it edited and published. You’re wondering if you’ll ever see any return on your investment. If you’re depending strictly on royalties, the answer is probably not. The average book sells about 250 copies in its lifetime. The average book royalty is under $5 per copy. Obviously, your money is not in royalties (50 Shades of Grey notwithstanding).
Your money is in the business your book brings in. If your average client represents $500, $1,000 or more in revenue, bringing in a client is much more lucrative than selling a copy of your book. Just sticking your book on Amazon won’t bring your those clients. In fact, it probably won’t bring you more than a dozen or so sales.
You have to promote your book
Like any product, you have to let people know your book is available. Sure, it’s great to have your book in the biggest marketplace in the world, but it’s sharing space with literally 48.5 million other books. There’s a new eBook hitting Kindle every minute and 42 seconds. Even if you’ve chosen your categories and keywords well, unless your book is a top seller, it will be hard to find. Amazon search displays books that people are buying. Whether you’re traditionally published or an indie author, it’s up to you to promote your book.
The best time to promote your book is pre-launch and then through the launch period. The second best time to promote your book is every day after that. I do believe in actively launching a book. Making the Amazon bestsellers’ list in various categories does not necessarily mean you’ve sold a lot of books, but it does give you something to hang your marketing flag on. It’s another credibility builder. A solid launch should get you on a best seller list and create buzz around the book and you. But launch windows are short, usually three to five days. Promoting your book every day after launch is about marketing your business.
It’s been a long time since you could throw your book up on Amazon and people would actually find it. You have to actively promote your book and that’s a never-ending process. But the end goal of promoting your book is not book sales; that’s the middle goal. The end goal is to attract your ideal target market, whether it is a client, an event promoter, or podcast host. The act of promoting your book is really about promoting you and your business.
You need to learn how to leverage your book
I refer to business books as the Swiss Army Knife of marketing tools because they can be used in so many different ways. (Except opening wine bottles — a flaw for sure.) Your book is a credibility builder, a lead generator, it can be used with current clients as a guide or workbook, it can be used to find and qualify future clients. While being an author is not a prerequisite for speaking gigs, your book can be the tie-breaker between you and another speaker who hasn’t written a book.
Your book is a reason to give talks or send out press releases. It can be a raffle prize at the local Chamber meeting. (One person wins; everyone else now knows that you’ve written a book and what you do.) It can get you on local TV and talk radio all over the country. There are entire podcasts dedicated to interviewing authors. Get on them.
There are so many ways to use a book to market your business it honestly doesn’t matter if your book is swallowed up by Amazon. You can make money just by giving it away (to the right people as you’ll see below). Amazon at that point, is merely a printer and distributor for you.
You need to put your book in front of the “right” people
Have you ever been at a networking meeting (seminar, expo, etc.) and met up with an acquaintance who pushes their book on you? Some will try to sell it to you; others just want you to “have” it. Either way, if the book’s topic doesn’t interest you, it’s going to sit on your shelf until you recycle it in the next charity shop delivery.
Giving your book to people who don’t want it, won’t read it, and only take it out of politeness is not going to do you any good. If you’ve written a book to expand your business and/or your brand, you need to put your book in front of the right people.
Make a list of 50 to 100 people you want to work with. These can be sales managers, specific event promoters, the heads of industry associations, pastors, even individuals in your warm market. It just depends on your target market.
Once you’ve got that list, send each one a print copy of your book, with a personal note, and put a matching bookmark (go to Vistaprint) in a place that you think will appeal to them. Mention it in the note: “I bookmarked a section on appealing to and recruiting recent college grads that you may find helpful.” Be specific.
Then mail it to them either using priority mail or a colorful envelope. Make it stand out from the pile of mail they get every day.
Follow up in a week or two. They probably won’t have read your book. (They may never read your book.) But they probably read that section. Talk about that and don’t question them too closely on the rest of the book.
Change Your Perspective
The first thing I tell my clients is “Your book is not the product. You and your business are the product. Your book is the message delivery system.” You don’t sell your book. You use your book to market your business. Any royalties are a bonus. It doesn’t matter if your business book dies on Amazon. The real money is in the back end — gaining new clients and fielding more opportunities. Start thinking in terms of how you can use your book to bring in more business.
Haven’t written your business book yet? Need help? I have a self-study course that walks you through writing and publishing your business book: Write Your Book in 90 Days