Anyone can write a book, but not everyone can become a bestselling author. I should know, I’ve been fortunate enough to watch both my books sell thousands of copies in the first that they were launched and tens of thousands since then, at one stage ‘Rise Of The Youpreneur’ was even ahead of Sir Richard Branson in the bestseller charts!
I’m telling you this because YOU TOO can make your book a bestseller! In this video and blog post, I’m going to share 5 simple strategies that’ll help you achieve just that, and help you get lots of reviews in the process!
So, you want to become a bestselling author? Excellent. So first things first – and this might sound obvious but it’s worth stating. The first thing you need to do is write a really good book. In case you didn’t know, this is the fourth video in a short series that’s focused on helping you write, publish and market your book into the world. So far we’ve covered how to figure out what your book topic should be, how you can start the writing process itself, as well as how you can start selling your book before you’ve even finished writing it – yep, you heard me right!
So, if you’ve not seen my earlier videos in the series, please make sure you check them out, to close the loop on everything for you. The thing is, you want to write a book that people are going to talk about and SHARE with other people. It needs to create that ripple effect.
Whether you go with a traditional publisher, or you get your book out there yourself, through self-publishing, make no mistake, YOU will be the one selling every single copy of your book in some way, shape or form. You need to make book marketing your full-time job – at least for a certain period of time, anyway! Fact is, you’ll get out of your book launch exactly what you put into it.
So, first things first, for your book to be a bestseller, you’ll need to get your book in front of people in as many ways as you can. No-brainer activities such as telling your friends and family about it are a given obviously, but let’s look at a handful of strategies that work really well nowadays, especially if you already have a community of people following your work online.
Step 1: Share your launch
Share your launch with people you have worked with in the past. Whether they be colleagues, clients, customers or simple acquaintances, they might just be interested in your book. If you’ve written a book that sings to the industry that these people are in, all the better.
Step 2: Hold a virtual launch party
Hold a virtual launch party for your online community. This one is HUGE! I did this for both my book launches and they proved very successful indeed. You hop on a live broadcast, talk about the book, why you wrote it, who it’s for, and what people can expect when they pick up a copy. Run a real-time competition for those that purchase on the live broadcast, ask people to post about it on social to spread the word. It all works brilliantly!
Step 3: Don't forget traditional advertising
Living and doing business in the digital/online era is amazing. But, we mustn't forget about the traditional press, such as newspapers, radio, TV and magazines. Although you’ll need to be doing this outreach a fairly good time before the book is launched, it could be a real needle-mover in the initial splash that your book makes.
Step 4: Go on a podcast tour
Go on a podcast tour. Getting yourself onto as many relevant podcasts as possible will have a massive effect on the launch of your book. The important word in that sentence however is RELEVANT. It’s pointless spending hours and hours being interviewed by a whole bunch of podcasts, if their listenership isn’t a good fit to the person you write the book for, obviously!
Step 5: Reviews
And lastly, we’ve got to talk reviews! Look, it’s easy to get reviews from friends and family, but what about people picking up the book who don’t know you so well? You can still short-cut this and speed things up a little, but you’ll need to do something to encourage people to leave you reviews.
When I published Virtual Freedom (which was traditional published through a publisher in the US) and Rise of the Youpreneur (which I self-published) I told everyone via my website, my email list and on social media, as well as on my podcast, to send me a copy of their Amazon receipt and I would send them some bonuses. I emailed everyone who did that, and said thank you to them for buying my book. I told them how much I valued their support linking to the various bonuses I had promised. I also asked that, in case they’d like to support the book even further, to kindly review it on Amazon.
The results were almost instant. Hundreds of reviews came in, pushing the books up the rankings and helping more people to discover it, buy it, review it… and that circle of book life continues today!
To make it easier for you to write and market a bestselling book, I’ve put together a FREE guide that’ll help you navigate the in’s and out’s of successfully writing and marketing a book to bestseller status.
Give people an incentive to leave a book review, this could be sending them a personalised email or giving them a few extra bonuses. Reviews will push your book up in the rankings and enable more people to discover it! #Youpreneur Click To TweetWrap Up
If today’s video has helped you in some way, perhaps answered a few questions you’ve been having, or helped you develop a new idea or two, let me know what your biggest takeaway was. in the comments! I’d love to hear from you, tweet me @chrisducker!
Chris founded Youpreneur® in 2015. He is a serial entrepreneur, keynote speaker and author of the bestselling books “Virtual Freedom” and “Rise of the Youpreneur”. He hosts our podcast, live events and coaches our clients inside the Youpreneur Incubator. Chris is based in Cambridge, UK.
