by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Mar 28, 2017
This is the first article in a series.
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Corporate executives can purchase your books in large, non-returnable quantities. However, the process to convince them to buy is not short, nor is it easy. These people are spending their company’s money, so they must justify their decisions to those higher up the organizational ladder. The decision makers negotiate with you to get the best deal and to confirm they know the answers to the right questions. Much of your sales success will be the result of making the buyers feel they are making the best decision.
by Brian Jud
Bowker | Wed Mar 22, 2017
Problems are the bane of all businesses, and solving them is a constant battle as publishers fight to succeed. Spurred by a penchant for action, they quickly switch into solution mode and in many cases address the wrong issues. The secret to winning the struggle is not simply solving problems, but first knowing what the real problem is.
For example, a publisher may begin brainstorming with employees by saying, “We have a problem with poor sales. What can we do about it?” A staff wanting to appear enthusiastic and helpful responds with recommendations for solutions. These might include publishing more books, increasing publicity, changing distributors or selling through more bookstores. Unfortunately, low sales are just a symptom of the real problem, and the solutions offered are analogous to re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
by Brian Jud
Bowker | Wed Mar 15, 2017
Should You Use Your Book As A Freemium? A premium is an item given away to attract, retain or reward customers. It may also be provided as an incentive to purchase a particular product. Can companies use your book as a premium? Yes, and you can earn substantial revenue that way. Can you use your book as a premium for your own business? Yes. When your book is a “freemium” it can generate a valuable source of revenue for your other services, such as speaking or consulting. Here are the Top Ten Factors to Consider When Using Your Book as a Freemium.
1. Your book has to have value in itself to recipients, meaning its content should be useful to them
2. The form should portray value – a high-priced hardcover book will have greater perceived value than a low-priced ebook
by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Mar 7, 2017
Significant benefits accrue to the astute publishers that grow their businesses through non-bookstore marketing. Here are the Top Ten Reasons You Can Make More Money Selling Books to Non-Bookstore Buyers.
1) Increased revenue. Increase your sales in a marketplace somewhat larger in size than the bookstore market. You could double your sales with additional marketing effort directed to non-bookstore markets.
2) Recurring revenue. In non-bookstore marketing, your customers may place a standing order (a given number of books to be shipped automatically on some predetermined schedule). This recurring revenue improves the predictability and velocity of your cash flow.
by Miral Sattar
Bowker | Thu Mar 2, 2017
At every conference I speak at, the most common question is "How do I get visibility for my book or website?" One good way is by having an SEO strategy that converts into book sales.
I’ve helped numerous authors and professionals with their SEO optimization, so we packaged all the information into one webinar. Our last webinar on SEO for Authors was so popular that we thought we'd give anyone who missed it another chance to attend. Plus, our SEO homepage audits were a hit!
During our LIVE Webinar on Wednesday, March 8 at 12:00pm EST, I’ll be teaching you tips and techniques on how to up your rank in Google and other search engines TO SELL MORE BOOKS.
by Brian Jud
Bowker | Wed Mar 1, 2017
The Top Ten Places to Sell More of Your Books
By Brian Jud
This is the second in a series of Top Ten lists about selling to special-sales (non-bookstore) buyers. The best way you can benefit from this opportunity is to divide the total market into two segments, and sell them according to their needs. The first is the retail segment where you reach buyers through distribution partners. The second is direct sales to non-retailer buyers (businesses, associations and schools) who use books as marketing tools to sell more of their products or help their employees, members or students. Here are the Top Ten Places to Sell More of Your Books (five retail and five non-retail).
by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Feb 21, 2017
Authors and publishers hear the word “No” frequently. It could be said by the media, distributors, buyers in retail stores or corporate buyers. However, that doesn’t have to be the final answer. People who say no to one thing may be more likely to say yes if asked again. Use that fact to your advantage in a sales situation. If your prospect says no, think, “I heard what you said but it’s not what you meant.” You can more easily get to yes when you recognize the top ten tips for getting to yes after you hear No.
1. Show how you can solve their problems. Begin with an attitude of how you can solve peoples’ problems instead of thinking about how many books you can sell. Producers want a good show for their audiences, retail buyers want products moving off the shelf and corporate buyers want to sell more of their products.
by Miral Sattar
Bowker | Wed Feb 15, 2017
Do you feel like your book is getting lost in the millions of titles currently for sale on Amazon? There’s a lot of competition for readers’ attention and that will only get more difficult as more authors embrace the freedom of self-publishing.
Did you know that you can laser focus your marketing efforts and sell thousands of books within a month of launch with virtually no email list, no Facebook friends, and no Twitter followers.
In our next LIVE ONLINE WEBINAR on Thursday, February 23rd at 12pm, Karen Dimmick will outline how she sold 1000 books and got 43 reviews within a month of launch, with an initial email list of just seven people. Karen Dimmick is co-founder of Bookthority, the host of The Book Marketing Summit, and the co-author of the international bestselling book 47 Mind Hacks for Writers. Here's what you’ll learn:
by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Wed Feb 15, 2017
Regardless of the site you’re using to sell your books, book descriptions are more important to sales than most authors realize. Many times I’ll see blocks of text pulled from the back of the book and while, in theory, that’s not a bad idea, you’ll want to make sure that your book description is powerful, and keep an eye on formatting – things like spacing, bulleting, and bolding.
Since my largest focus is on Amazon, this article is going to focus on how to maximize your book description efforts specifically on that e-tailer, but you’ll likely find many of the ideas relate to other e-tailers as well.
by Brian Jud
Bowker | Wed Feb 8, 2017
The traditional path for selling books is changing. There are more books available to fewer readers every year. Bookstore shelves are crowded with undifferentiated books viewed as commodity items, and shoppers increasingly base their purchasing decisions on price. Yet prices are increasing, not because of greater value to the reader, but because of increased costs partially due to shorter print runs.
Unfortunately, publishers continue to produce more books to sell through bookstores even though competing in this environment is increasingly less profitable. However, there is a real opportunity to create new sales in uncontested market space among non-retail buyers in corporations, associations, schools and the military.
