Dear Author,
There's a lot we can do to help get your book in the hands of more readers.
The first year is the most critical for the 'infancy' of a book. After we've built a strong foundation, your book has the best chances for success. Like sending a child off to college, albeit in much smaller timeframe!
The good news is that your investment is only upfront - after that, you will reap rewards of royalties and other income for years to follow (as we discussed, the exposure could lead to coaching and speaking opportunities.). There's no saying exactly how much you'll earn back... I often have to remind my clients that Marketing is an effort, sales is a result. We can control the effort, but not the result.
TL;DR (aka Executive Summary)
In a nutshell... here's what we offer for book marketing. It's a 6-month engagement based on best practices learned over dozens of campaigns we started running in 2015. We are continually fine-tuning our tactics to improve results.
We'll reach out to 120 book reviewers of similar titles (30 reviewers/mo. over months 2-5). Our outreach success rate with reviewers is typically 20% or better. This means it's realistic to assume you'll receive at least 25 reviews. We follow-up with the reviewers in 30/60/90 days.
Once your first reviews are live on Amazon.com, we'll run a KDP bestseller campaign which involves paid advertising with vetted partners who will put your book in front of over 500k+ potential readers. This is typically in month 4, but may occur sooner if we can get the reviews sooner.
It's not uncommon to see over 1000 downloads in 5 days and you'll show up on the bestseller page (and most of the titles do hit number one in at least one category).
We'll also set up three AMS campaigns (pay-per-click) to leverage the momentum from the KDP Bestseller campaign.
In month 6 we'll monitor and adjust your campaigns and I'll write up a summary report.
The rest of this page goes into far more detail and you'll see that I try to be as transparent as possible. Our monthly retainer fee covers all our labor, but does not include review copy costs or ad costs for the PPC campaigns at Amazon (which is optional). Billing is setup recurring monthly (on your credit card) and you can cancel at anytime with a 30-day notice.
[end of executive summary]
I will setup your project in AuthorDock, a secure project management web app designed with the needs of book publishers in mind (more info below) and you'll get notified updates on your project as Katrina (your marketing coordinator) and I work on the marketing activities. It goes a long way to keep us all on the same page and I would encourage you to use it. Because book publishing (& promotion) can quickly become a complex monster, we'll stick to a phased (iterative) approach. Again, AuthorDock helps keep it all together - allowing us to focus on one area at a time.
Typical Timeline
Month 1
Setup ARC campaign.
During your ARC (Advance Reviewer Copy) campaign, we send your book out to book reviewers. This labor involved includes:
- Setting up a webpage for reviewers to request a copy & provide their mailing address (we'll also offer Kindle edition).
- Collaborative: Identify competitive titles to target your ideal reader. Write outreach script (ad copy).
We'll also spend time on identifying your core audience and messaging (and keywords).
Month 2
Month 3
- Outreach to 30 reviewers
- Ad placements with partners for KDP Bestseller Campaign (month 4)
Month 4
- Outreach to 30 reviewers
- Run a KDP Bestseller campaign. During this effort, we'll be getting your book in front of over 500k readers. You can expect to get over 1,000 downloads within 5 days and make it to the top of the bestseller page for at least one category.
- Set up your AMS Campaigns. This is the 'sponsored ads' section in Amazon. We'll get your account setup to run ads, yet your decision to actually run ads for your book will be your call.
Month 5
- Outreach to 30 reviewers
- Continue the ARC campaign.
- Monitor & adjust AMS ads.
Month 6
- Follow-up with reviewers.
- Monitor & adjust AMS ads.
- Review first 6 months (sales/review summary), return-on-investment reconciliation and recommended next steps.
PS: At the end of your campaign, I can also seek out a narrator for an audiobook edition. The exposure will help you gain access to a new audience.
We are committed to delivering nothing less than our very best every day (and always strive to improve on our best). We discovered long ago that our success is a direct result of the success of our clients. We strive to produce results that measures up to the appreciation we have for the work you have already done.
Additional Costs
Our monthly fee does not include (these items will be invoiced separately over the 6-month campaign):
- The cost of review copies (note: We can offer up a PDF & Kindle to save $ and you will receive back your royalty on every copy since we order them on Amazon).
- Third party placement costs for the KDP Bestselller campaign in Month 4 (estimate is $99 but varies depending on category).
- AMS (Pay-Per-Click) ad costs (optional) starting in Month 4. This will range depending on the bidding price and the number of clicks. Typically it starts very low ($10-20/week), but can increase over time. We'll monitor it closely to stay within your budget. You will be required to setup your credit card directly with Amazon who will invoice you monthly.
The Bestseller Blueprint
Phase 2: Setup your author profile pages (Goodreads, Amazon, and/or LinkedIn)
We will setup and optimize your author profile pages. Given 80% of the 20 million members on Goodreads are women, and I am confident it will become a good source of leads for you. LinkedIn is more applicable to business books.
Phase 3: Offer complimentary review copies (ARCs) to book reviewers
Our service includes setting up web pages to: collect, distribute, and track reviews. We will also send out an email blast to our 280+ opt-in reviews at ReviewerPerks.com
You can learn more about our ARC campaigns, including a short walkthrough video here.
Phase 4: Run an Amazon KDP bestseller campaign
To boost your credibility and visibility, we can run a KDP Bestseller campaign. We enlist the support (via paid placements) of partners who will feature your eBook in front of 350,000 subscribers. We guarantee a top 10 ranking (our success rate of hitting No. 1 bestseller status is over 99%) in at least one category. Many of our promotions break the top 500 overall.
Phase 5: Setup your AMS campaign
Initial setup of 6 separate targeted campaigns. Collaboration on comp titles, keywords, and ad copy. Includes 1 month of campaign monitoring and optimization (we offer a monthly or quarterly recurring option for campaign updates & optimization). Read more here.
AuthorDock
Everything we do is managed in AuthorDock. It's the ultimate project management tool that you and your entire team will be using to correspond in one central location. As a customer, you will be provided access to a secure project room to be utilized for the duration of the project. The beauty of AuthorDock is that you don't need to depend on email and everyone is always on the same page.
Authordock is the tool we've been using continuously since 2015. We developed it in-house to manage the work we do and provide our clients with updates and quick access to vital information. You'll find AuthorDock is uniquely tailored to the needs of authors and publishers! Questions? Schedule a call below!
Schedule a Call
Thank you for the opportunity to serve you.
My best,
Brian Schwartz
805-225-1251 PDT