Srinivas Rao said
7 months, 3 weeks ago:
Earlier this week we launched our first big self published title Blog to Book Deal: How They Did It. Here’s the description below:
Blog to Book Deal: How They Did It is a collection of interviews with bloggers who have become published authors. Bloggers like Chris Guillebeau (The Art of Non-Conformity), Ramit Sethi (I Will Teach you To Be Rich), Julien Smith (Inoveryourhead.net) and Jenny Blake (Life After College) tell you in their own words how they’ve gone from starting a blog to becoming published authors. The shared dream of multitudes of bloggers and one of the ultimate credibility builders of the writer, the book deal is often considered to be an elusive achievement reserved for only a few select individuals. This exclusive look into the minds of some of today’s brightest authors reveals that the path from blog to book deal is more attainable than most people realize. BlogcastFM host and co-founder Srinivas Rao focuses on how his interviewees write New York Times best sellers, develop incredible marketing plans, and overcome the challenge of smaller platforms by building fiercely loyal audiences.
After a week of being live we’ve learned some really valuable lessons.
1. Treat it Like You’re Working with a Publisher: This is actually a prelaunch lesson. When you self publish you already have a strike against you because there are some really bad self published books on Amazon. So, hire editors, designers, copywriters any anybody else that might be involved if you were working with a publisher.
2. Build a Launch Team: This is something I learned by not doing it. I have a fairly substantial network online, many of who actually helped spread the word about our book. But I realized a smaller group of people who were more involved would have been far more valuable than the scattergun approach to sharing and promotion.
3. All marketing Efforts are not Created Equal: We had a number of different marketing ideas (guest posts, interviews, video trailers, etc) for the launch of our book. Some of our guests post didn’t come out yet, and some efforts weren’t as effective as we’d hoped. Unfortunately the only way to find out which ones are more most effective is to through a launch process.
4. A Book is a Long Term Play: We had a friend who is a literary agent write the foreword for our book. When I told her I was a bit disappointed by sales from the first day, she told me that this isn’t about one day or one week. It’s a small part of a much bigger picture and long term strategy. Many people have had self published books open the door to traditional publishing. A self published book done right should be part of a long term strategy. It could lead to mainstream publishing, consulting opportunities, speaking gigs, and many other things. It also enables you to reach a new audience you might never have otherwise connected with.
After this week I’m realizing that book promotion is an ongoing effort. You can’t just ship it and forget about it.
Have you launched a self published book and been successful with it? What worked? What didn’t?
