I understand that the word system may seem rigid to you. But if you want to generate sales while focusing on writing a better book, then there’s no denying here that you need a book marketing system in place.
Well, I’m a firm believer in having a system in place. And that’s the reason behind this website, The Efficient You. I want my business and life to be as efficient as possible.
Just like in everything I do, I tend to take the cues from other authors before me. So, my book marketing system is no different.
Just to let you know that my current book marketing system is based on Nick Stephenson’s Your First 10K Reader.
I won’t go into detail the how-to parts and why you need to set the book marketing system in such a way.
If you’d like to generate book sales and building your email list on autopilot, then you can watch his free video training right here:
Watch Nick Stephenson’s Your First 10K Reader Free Video Training here
With that said, let’s take a look at my current book marketing system based on Nick’s system.
My current book marketing system
My current book marketing system is just like what Nick already outlined in his free ebook, Reader Magnet, and also in his free video training.
For the obvious reason, my book marketing system consists of:
Permafree book
My permafree book happens to be the first book from my Trigger Locked series, The Mind Control Assassins. I have the book available for free at all retailers since I want the book to have as widest distribution as possible.
I am planning to have all of my books on other platforms not covered by Smashwords in the future. But for now, I’m going to concentrate on the permafree book that I uploaded on Smashwords and on KDP.
Free ebook for those who are joining my mailing list
When I began to implement the book marketing system, I only had an ebook as a reward for those who joined my mailing list.
But the free ebook itself has nothing to do with the Trigger Locked series. Instead, the free ebook is a prequel to my second book, Twisted Destiny, which is in a different genre altogether.
I admit that seems like a mismatch considering that the Trigger Locked series is a technothriller, hard science fiction novel while Twisted Destiny is a sports novel.
The second part of the system was complete after the prequel to the Trigger Locked series was released.
Now, people who join my mailing list not only get the prequel to the Trigger Locked series. But they will also get the prequel to my second book, Twisted Destiny.
In a nutshell, they get three free ebooks from me including the permafree book.
Mailing list
I already have a mailing list since Day One. But I didn’t make it prominent enough since I didn’t know any better.
Thanks to Nick’s free video training, now I have the link to join my mailing list at the beginning of the book and also at the end of the book.
As for my print book, I only have a dedicated page asking people to join my mailing list at the back of the book only.
A website
If you want to get people to join your mailing list, you need to direct them somewhere. After all, you can’t place an opt-in form inside your book.
Even if you can, people will still be reluctant to join your mailing list right away.
That’s when your author website comes in since that’s where you’re going to direct people to join your mailing list.
If you don’t have a website, the good news is you can now create a landing page with MailChimp. You can create one and put the link on your book.
Nick recommends MailChimp since it’s free up to 2000 subscribers. I also recommend MailChimp not only because I use MailChimp myself.
Another reason for that is because you can also design a landing page using MailChimp. It doesn’t take that long for you to create a landing page on MailChimp since it was rather straightforward.
How I’m planning to improve the current system
Just because the system is already in place, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to work as expected.
You may be thinking what’s the whole point of having the system in place if the system doesn’t seem to work as you expect.
Keep in mind that all the things that I already implemented so far were only based on Nick’s free video training. So, I didn’t get one-on-one guidance from him since I didn’t join his premium training.
I bet that the result will be much different if I’ve decided to join his premium training.
Also, I might have made mistakes along the way without me realizing it. Anyone tends to make mistakes when they’re doing something for the first time.
So, I’m no different in this sense.
Since I have the system in place for quite some times already, here’s how I plan to improve the existing system so then it can give me a much better result.
Optimize the permafree book page once again
When I set the first book from the Trigger Locked series as free, I only did a manual keyword research. What I mean by that is I’m using Amazon suggested keyword to optimize the book page.
Nick shows you how to do a manual keyword research in the free training video. So, I did it as he suggested.
The process itself is tedious. So, it may take a while for you to find the keyword that meets the criteria. And let’s not forget that you can optimize your book page up to seven keywords.
Imagine the lengthy process to find the best keyword for your book. And you have to repeat the same thing for the rest of the keywords that are best describing your book.
Since I just got myself KDP Rocket, I’ve decided to optimize the permafree book page once again.
Even if you don’t want to invest Nick’s premium training, you should get KDP Rocket at the very least to save your time in finding the best keywords for your book.
Remove the signup form
In Nick’s free ebook, Reader Magnet, he doesn’t recommend us to put the opt-in form right away at the landing page because it will overwhelm people.
At first, I didn’t feel like wanting to change anything on my landing page.
But after a long thought, I’ve decided to follow his suggestion.
Instead of having an opt-in form, I will only add a link on the landing page that will direct readers to my opt-in form.
I won’t be using anything fancy other than the landing page feature on MailChimp. That should work as well.
Improving the email content for the existing subscribers
This part of the action plan isn’t a part of Your First 10K Reader free video training. But I feel that I should do something to improve my engagement with my existing subscribers.
I didn’t have a lot of people who join my mailing list. And it doesn’t help that none of them seem to engage with all the emails I sent to them.
It’s either they’re only in for the free ebook or I suck in communicating with them badly.
Nick also has another free training to improve the email engagement. But I’ve yet to have a look at it.
I may talk about how I plan to improve my engagement in the future blog post.
How I plan to check on the result
As usual, I’m planning to keep the test running for three months. I’m pretty sure that we may see something happened within that period.
I’ll get back to you once I already get the result.
In the meantime, I highly recommend you to have a look at Nick Stephenson’s free video training. Even if you don’t want to join his premium training, it’s still worth your time watching it.
Here’s how you can access the free video training if you’re interested:
