Module 5: Findability, Credibility and Shareability

Findability 
Credibility 
Shareability

While writing your book is difficult, you will find that promoting and marketing an eBook is an equally big challenge.

What is your goal?

Will you be able to turn your eBook into a Kindle bestseller? Possibly. Does it matter if you don’t? Probably not.

Let’s step back for a moment. Ask yourself this question: what is the business goal for your book? Let’s assume that making money from your eBook (aka selling thousands of copies) is not your goal per se. Rather, you want to use your book as a credibility builder and a door opener that prompts readers to take a next step.

You want readers to know, like and trust you. You want them to visit your website for more information about your services and/or pick up the telephone to engage with you. Read or listen to book marketing expert Tim Grahl’s interview for how to prompt readers to take the next step.

If your goal is to engage readers to take the next step, what is the best way for you to promote your eBook?

I’ve given this question a lot of thought and I’ve come up with a three-part strategy for Beta Authors to launch and promote an eBook: Findability, Credibility and Shareability.

My overarching approach is that your book promotion and marketing should be all about your readers. What are they looking for? What do they need? What useful information related to your book can you give them? How can you make it as easy as possible for them to find your book and then take a next step?

In other words, don’t worry if you are not yet especially active on social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, etc. Don’t worry if you aren’t blogging. Take as many of the action steps below as you can. This will be an excellent way to start – and to maximize the impact of your eBook as a credibility builder and door opener.

Note that Findability, Credibility and Shareability overlap.

1. Findability

Action Step: Choose a killer title.

The best way for your book to be findable is for the title to reflect keyword phrases that readers are using to solve a business problem or answer a business question. So your first step in being findable is to choose a title that readers will find by Googling.

Action Step: Create a one-page website for your book.

When the title of your book comes up in a Google search, you want both your Amazon Kindle page AND your book or author website to be visible. Why is this important? Both are credibility builders, but in different ways.

Your Amazon Kindle page shows that you are a “real” published author. But you can’t engage with your readers here. You can’t collect an email address and in return offer a free sample chapter or download. Those actions are key to getting a reader to take the next step to engage with you.

New resource: How to find a web designer for an author website.

Action Step: Join Goodreads

Goodreads is one of a number of social networking sites specifically focussed on books and authors. Once you’ve joined (it’s free), sign up to use the Goodreads’ Author Program. Your book will need to be published on Amazon Kindle in order for you to promote it through your Author page (in other words you will need the link to your Amazon sales page).

There is lots to learn in order to use Goodreads effectively. Here’s a useful article by literary agent Rachelle Gardner: How Authors Can Effectively Use Goodreads. And 7 Splendid Articles on Using Goodreads as an Author.

 2. Credibility

Action Step: Join Amazon’s KDP program

KDP stands for Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon’s free platform that enables anyone to publish an eBook. The reason the Beta Author program focuses on publishing via Amazon is that it is the easiest, quickest and most credible way to promote and sell your book.

To prove to you how dead simple it is to use KDP, click here to see screenshots of what the KDP interface looks like.

Action Step: Enroll in Amazon KDP Select and launch your book at $0.00

This action step belongs in both Credibility and Shareability. Bear with me.

Once you’re signed up for KDP, enroll in Amazon’s KDP Select program. This is what will enable you to take the greatest advantage of publishing on Amazon.

KDP Select means that you are agreeing to publish your eBook exclusively with Amazon for at least 90 days (i.e. you will not sell it on BN.com, Kobo, etc.)

AND during this time period, you are allowed FIVE days during which you can set the price of your eBook to the magic $0.00.

Note the slash through the regular price of $27.99 in the screenshot above. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll set the price of your eBook that high. But you get the idea. The $0.00 promotion – with the regular price slashed out – is hugely compelling.

Drive enough people to your Amazon page and you can prompt hundreds or thousands of downloads of your eBook at $0.00.

No, you won’t make any money from sales during your promotion. But you are getting your new eBook into lots of readers hands and on their devices. You are establishing credibility with dozens or hundreds of new readers, a handful of whom might turn into customers.

Your book could become an Amazon “category bestseller”

It’s possible, if you get enough downloads right away, that your eBook will become what’s called a category bestseller. This happened to Beta Author Vishwas Lele when he published The App Economy: Coming to an Office™ Near You. He timed the launch of his eBook to coincide with SharePoint’s mega annual conference. By mentioning the $0.00 promotion at the end of his presentation, he prompted hundreds of downloads over a period of about 72 hours. This pushed his eBook, briefly, to category bestseller in Kindle eBooks -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Software Design ->  Software Development.

Action Step: Price your eBook high enough to be credible, but not too high

Pricing an eBook is tricky. Price it too low ($.99) and it will look like it has no value. Price it a lot higher than $2.99 and, as an unknown and first-time author, you are throwing up a barrier to readers who might otherwise click and buy. Remember, your business goal is to get your eBook onto as many e-readers as possible.

In case you’re wondering why you see $2.99 so often, it’s because $2.99 is the lowest price you can set on Amazon and still get 70 percent of each sale. In other words, set the price below $2.99 and you will get 30 percent of each sale.

Here is a very smart article on How to Price Your Kindle eBook to Get the Most Sales.

Action Step: Tap your beta readers to write Amazon reviews for your eBook

We talked about including beta readers on your publishing team. These may be work colleagues that you interact with face-to-face. Or, if you are active on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and/or Google+ you can ask your followers if they would like to offer feedback while you are writing.

Tip: you can go one step further with your beta readers. Once you have the .mobi and epub files for your eBook in hand, you can email these files to anyone who is willing to read an “advance copy” of your book. Be sure to use  a professional eBook conversion and formatting service like eBookArchitects or 5Novels so you are sending them a clean file. This way, your group of beta readers can see and read your eBook on their Kindle or iPad before the official publication day on Amazon.

Then email these folks again on the day your eBook goes live on Amazon. Ask them to leave an Amazon review on your page.

Of course, you’re hoping for some 5-star reviews. But the point is that you want to get some reviews immediately when you publish your eBook.

Action Step: Review the basic requirements of a credible eBook

We’ve talked about this before but it bears repeating. Here are the non-negotiables that will make your eBook credible in a reader’s eyes:

• A killer title that hints at the answer to your target reader’s business problem
• Professional editing and proofreading
• A professionally-designed cover
• Professional eBook formatting

Even though we covered these steps in Module 3 and Module 4, they are crucial to the successful launch and promotion of your book.

3. Shareability

Action Step: Time the launch of your book to a conference or event 

Will you be presenting at a conference in the next few months? The old-fashioned way of sharing news via an in-person event can be hugely effective. See above for how Beta Author Vishwas Lele did this. He told attendees at SharePoint’s annual mega conference in Las Vegas about the publication of his new eBook.

By timing the KDP Select $0.00 promotion to the span of the three-day conference he was able to get hundreds of downloads and push his eBook to what is called a category bestseller – in his case, Software Development.

Action Step: Send a message to your email list (if you have one), telling them about the release of your book. Give them a useful tidbit or two from the book. Then ask them to go to your Amazon page to buy your eBook to support you. Here’s an example of an email sent from self-published author Andy Traub. Don’t forget to ask readers to leave a review on your Amazon page.

Action Step: Announce the publication of your eBook via a press release 

As you would probably agree, traditional PR is not dead. But you need to know how to leverage it.

I recommend PRWeb for online press releases because their pricing is reasonable and their distribution is very wide – every news outlet and major search engine. They can also help you write or edit your press release.

Publishing a release through an online service like PRWeb means that journalists (and anyone) can find what’s newsy and new about your book. PRWeb builds sharing tools (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Email) into your release. You can also add the press release link to your book website. And send the link to editors at industry pubs who might be interested in your book.

Take a look at the Aug. 3, 2006 PRWeb release for The Corporate Blogging Book. Your press release lives forever on the Web.

Here’s a less traditional press release [links to PDF] written by Guy Kawasaki’s publicist.

Action Step: Feature “share” widgets on your book website

Make sure sharing widgets for the major social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ – are front and center on your book website.

Guy Kawasaki requires visitors to ApetheBook.com to “share” before accessing the otherwise free downloads (Word template, Consultant contract and more). To see how this works, click Tools and Resources on ApetheBook’s navigation bar. Then scroll down to Downloads.

Action Step: Use social media to take full advantage of your $0.00 launch promotion through Amazon

See above for how to use Amazon’s KDP Select promotion.

Of course, when your $0.00 promotion is active you’ll want to tell as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.

This is where social media can be very effective. Post to your Facebook page. Post to your LinkedIn page. Tweet about it.

Tip: ask “influencers” with much bigger followings than you to spread the word about your $0.00 promotion. This is how Tim Ferriss launched his first book, The 4-Hour Workweek.

Useful Resources

How to Price Your Kindle eBook to Get the Most Sales by Kristen Eckstein

10 Questions You Need To Answer Honestly If You Want To Sell More Books by Joanna Penn

Smashwords’ Secrets to eBook Publishing Success [free download in multiple formats: PDF, epub and .mobi]

How (Beta Author) Vishwas Lele turned a boring topic into a compelling eBook

How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months by John Locke ($2.99). Ignore the hypey title. There is some really useful info in this eBook about contacting and following up with readers.

Crush It With Kindle: one of dozens of self-published eBooks on Amazon that tell you how to… sell more eBooks. This one is new and quite good. It includes information on category bestsellers and  intriguing suggestions for monetizing your eBook via serialization, bulk sales and corporate sponsorship. Definitely worth $2.99.