30 Comments on I’m selling a book, and I have a question

Zed on Mon, 1st Dec 2008 7:28 pm


Having read some of your tweets, I believe I would like to read the book. However, it’s hard to say if I’d buy one to give to friends or not until I’ve read the book. Is there any way for you to know when someone buys more than one book? Say if someone buys five books, can you be notified by your seller?
Then you could maybe send them one free one yourself. It’s all I can think of.

Tawnya on Mon, 1st Dec 2008 7:37 pm


Not knowing anything about your shopping cart or bookseller, I couldn’t advise you on discounts you might offer.

But, I will say you should use the bitch out of facebook to sell the book. And perhaps a website and/or page devoted to the book. Also – you could do your own book signings at local coffee shops. Kind of time extensive, but if you can get the word out by people who would really pimp you it would really help. Word of mouth is the best.

Once it’s actually selling, I’ll take a look at the setup you have and see if I have more ideas.

Good luck!

Johnny Truant on Mon, 1st Dec 2008 7:45 pm


@Zed – Just look through the archives. It’s most of the posts that would translate into book form. So if you read through some of these posts, you’ll know exactly what’s in the book.

@Tawnya – You can offer discounts, but not under an affiliate arrangement. So I could give everyone 10% off, but not give someone who refers anyone a discount by themselves.

So how do you think it would work at coffee shops? Nobody would know me there, so I’d just be the jackass in the corner with the stack of books. I always feel sorry for those people when I see them.

Tzaddi on Mon, 1st Dec 2008 8:00 pm


Maybe you could do something like this…

Create your own promo site promoting the book for sale via e-junkie – http://www.e-junkie.com/?r=35526
…e-junkie has an affiliate program.

Make the product at e-junkie virtual – e.g. “bundle” it with something like a pdf or something.

When you are notified of the order from e-junkie, you go to your book’s shopping cart, order + pay for the book yourself, but ship to the purchaser.

The bundle might let you bump up the price a bit to account for any cost you have in doing the double transaction thing, and if they get a download there’s immediate satisfaction + incentive for buying there instead of the other place.

I’m sure you totally wanted MORE work to do on this. You can thank me later.

Ginger on Mon, 1st Dec 2008 8:18 pm


Sometimes local bookstores (even the big chains) will work with local authors on in-store signings/readings..even if you’ve self-published. You’d likely have to promote it yourself, but generally they’re pretty open about talking with local authors. (or they were a year ago when I worked with authors…who knows what the economy hath wrought these days).
As to the discount thing…I got nothin’. I think it’s a good idea, but don’t know how you might accomplish it.

Andy Pels on Mon, 1st Dec 2008 8:52 pm


Tzaddi has most of the same ideas I had. She has got to be the smartest person I know whose name starts with Tz.

I’ve been thinking about similar stuff for my own inevitable career as a famous author.

Assuming you are going with a full service print-on-demand place like cafepress so you won’t have to handle any of the packing-shipping-billing hassle, you could stick with that and use Tzaddi’s idea of collecting orders another way (like ejunkie), and then just entering them into the P-O-D yourself, to ship direct as a gift would.

Variation – you could stick with the P-O-D for all order processing and make one of those “email your payment receipt(s) to me and I’ll send you x” offers, (hey – Godin’s done it) and then handle just the free book as mentioned above. (Jane buys 5 books the print-on-demand site, emails the payment receipt(s) to you, you order and pay for one book on the print-on-demand site for Jane.) That way, at least you are only taking time to process the freebie. And if volume demands – you could even hire one of those VA’s in India to do that part for you.

orrrrr – I just thought of this — do as above, but have a few books on hand that you will mail direct – AUTOGRAPHED! (Zeke buys 5 books through the print-on-demand site, you get your 49 cents or whatever in profit for each book, Zeke emails his payment receipt from the print-on-demand site, you autograph a copy complete with a hilarious inscription -the pressure is on to be funny- you have your kid stuff it in a padded envelope and slap a stamp on it, and Zeke is tickled pink at the personal attention.

I am a frickin’ genius. I am going to use that autograph idea myself when I publish my first volume about – Fastener Marketing. ooooooo.

Good Luck!

Andy

Tzaddi on Mon, 1st Dec 2008 8:58 pm


Aww, thanks Andy. I’m flattered considering the masses of people you must know with “Tz” names.

And you are a genius. Can’t wait for that book that’s sure to be… riveting!

Andy Pels on Mon, 1st Dec 2008 9:07 pm


okay I am a little bit hyper today and jumped the gun a little, but the 5 copies thing WILL work if somebody wants to buy 5 copies and give them out.

As for affiliate-type incentive, maybe it won’t work so well since the 5 orders might be separate, but it’s getting closer. Remember that most people won’t want to recommend the book if they haven’t read it, so offering a free book after the fact might not do much.
You might send a free pdf version to some choice potential “recommenders” and then offer the autographed real book as incentive.
I know you flirt with Havi enough (what is it with you two?) on Twitter that she will probably recommend your book anyway.

Andy Pels on Mon, 1st Dec 2008 9:09 pm


@Tzaddi – you are very tzilly! I’m stealing that “riveting” line for the dust jacket!

chat blanc on Mon, 1st Dec 2008 9:17 pm


Congrats!!! It’s exciting that you now have your own book in PRINT!

Johnny Truant on Mon, 1st Dec 2008 9:59 pm


Ha, Havi’s getting a free copy regardless. I’ve already handled that bit of respect. She’s championed me so much that it’s the least I could do.

Actually, the least I could do is nothing. So I guess I’m like a hero or something.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I’m thinking that asking the referrer to collect order numbers from the people he/she referred may be the way to go. That would work (but be somewhat annoying) even if all five copies were separate.

I also like the idea of autographing them… thanks, Andy!

Tzaddi …. too much work! But thanks for the suggestion regardless.

So will it be a problem that the referrer will get his/her (autographed) copy only AFTER getting the needed referrals?

Hell, I suppose if I spell it out, they can either participate or not.

Bruce Wayne on Mon, 1st Dec 2008 11:50 pm


You have enough material for 132 pages? Is it going to be size 30 font?

Oh and I’ve got jack all on the referral problem.

Pace on Tue, 2nd Dec 2008 1:02 am


Well, you know what we did. Shipped 100 of ‘em to us and did a special signed and numbered limited edition offer, then as for the rest we’re completely outsourcing everything to Amazon. It’s a bit frustrating as marketers, because we can’t do any of that cool stuff you’re talking about, like affiliate programs or special offers. It’s all in Amazon’s hands. We were disappointed to tell the folks in our partner program that we couldn’t give them any appreciation monies for the book. But we decided that in the long run it would be better to outsource all that stuff than to handle it all ourselves and to do a better job of the marketing.

As for buying one or giving it as a gift, it’s not the usual genre of book I read, and I don’t give people presents. (I have guilt and obligation issues, so I need to generate some raw material for me to work on.) But I’ll definitely buy one just because you’re cool. (:

Johnny Truant on Tue, 2nd Dec 2008 7:23 am


@ Bruce – No, it’s a surprisingly moderate font. Just prolific, I guess.

@ Pace – Yeah, I weighed some of that. Ultimately I don’t know that there’s any point to a true affiliate arrangement because the profits to the affiliate would be so small. This is more about a “thank you” for spreading the word.

I do think the autographed copies thing is the way to go.

Tawnya on Tue, 2nd Dec 2008 12:51 pm


I know someone that basically filled the coffee shop with people who knew her. So, it looked like she was very important. It’s all in perception. If people there see that you’ve had lots of people signing buying books, they’ll come over to satisfy their curiosity. And you won’t look like a jackass. (I know what you mean, btw.)

Mad Asthmatic on Tue, 2nd Dec 2008 4:58 pm


I would definitely consider buying a copy as long as the p&p costs to the UK weren’t too high. Think it would make a great coffee table book which would create alot of interest and conversation.
Have you got any free newspapers and or local papers to your neighbourhood? we have them in the uk and an idea would be to write a press release and see if they would publish it, you could also advertise book signings etc. Same applies to local radio stations.
The referrals idea is a good one but I can’t think of a way of making it work out better. I think the idea of getting order numbers from the referrer might be the way to go in the first instance even though it is a little annoying.
does any of that make any sense :0 I think my brain is a little dead tonight.
MA

Johnny Truant on Tue, 2nd Dec 2008 5:02 pm


MA: I don’t remember international shipping, but some of the shipping costs were ridiculous. It remained sensible if you’re willing to wait 5 days or so, but if you wanted it fast? Some of the domestic shipping costs topped $100! It’s actually good blog post fodder for me. “I’d like this $10 book, with the $100 shipping.”

I did find out that ordering multiple copies greatly reduces the per-unit shipping cost. So I’ll tell you what… if the shipping to the UK through the supplier is too high, I’ll ship you one of the copies I order and you can just pay through PayPal.

I was thinking about a press release. I actually got a half-page feature on me in our local paper once before. I could almost pitch it as a “follow up” to that one years ago.

Anna Lefler on Wed, 3rd Dec 2008 2:03 am


Hey, JT -

Are you on GoodReads.com? That’s one of the best ways to legitimately pimp your book to all kinds of readers/potential customers. It’s free and I think great place to start getting the word out…

Hope that helps and congrats on the book!

~ Anna

Johnny Truant on Wed, 3rd Dec 2008 6:47 am


Anna… I will be now! Thanks.

All, I’ve decided that the best way to do this by far will be to order them MYSELF and then re-ship them out to people who want them. That will actually give me control and allow me to track who refers whom. And I can offer signed copies if anyone wants one.

I don’t think it will add much to shipping times, but the manufacturing process is a bit slow so it will take some time to get them out. I’m now thinking that rather than suggest people order early next week from the printer and then wait for the book to be made and shipped, they order from me AFTER the books are made and then only have to wait a few days for shipping.

Hopefully I can be shipping toward the end of next week.

lastminuteacademic on Wed, 3rd Dec 2008 8:56 am


I’m a poor student. Give me the book for free, I’ll pay shipping costs to the UK. Then in return I’ll promote it bigstyyyeeee P (that doesn’t look annoying now, does it?!)

Johnny Truant on Wed, 3rd Dec 2008 6:55 pm


How you gonna promote it?

Actually, you’d be a good candidate for the promo I was describing. If you refer five people who buy, I’ll send you a copy (but yeah, you have to pay that ridiculous international shipping)!

Mike on Thu, 4th Dec 2008 10:14 pm


If you want other people to advertise the book or your blog on their site you can create banner ads for them to use. I just googled standard banner sizes and got this
http://www.simplygraphix.com/banners_sizes.html
(idk who simplygraphix is but it looks about right)

If you create the banners you have control over how it’s marketed. The only thing you’d eat would be the bandwidth to host the images.
Let me know if you do create a banner ad. I’ll toss it up on all of my stuff.

Johnny Truant on Thu, 4th Dec 2008 10:47 pm


Is that a for-free offer, Mike? I’m not at the stage to pay for banner ads, but I’ll take anything for free.

Mike on Thu, 4th Dec 2008 10:55 pm


HAHAHAHA! Yes I’ll post any banner ad you come up with for your book on my blog / myspace/facebook/what ever else I can add some html to.

Mike on Thu, 4th Dec 2008 10:58 pm


To avoid seeming mental, I was laughing at the thought of anyone paying me to put ads on my stuff. I don’t pull in enough traffic to make it worth doing it for money.

Chris C on Fri, 5th Dec 2008 1:25 am


Congrats on the book

Got an idea about how to track referrals but it only works if the company allows buyers to enter referral codes.

What I was thinking is anyone who wants to try for the free book gets a referral code specific to them. Anyone they refer uses the code when they purchase the book. You then have a way to find out how many qualify and how many referrals they have.

If this doesn’t work look for anything in the framework of the retail site that allows you to track purchases in some way.

Johnny Truant on Fri, 5th Dec 2008 7:48 am


Yeah, that won’t work. The endogenous checkout sucks in terms of any frills or customization. I’ve already checked with support and I can’t track a thing.

But I have it solved anyway. Even though it’s more work, I’m going to have the books shipped to me and then send them back out. This allows me to control it, track sales, and sign the books if people want it. I don’t know why the hell anyone would want MY signature, but I’ve actually had requests.

Pace on Fri, 5th Dec 2008 10:50 am


It can be helpful for identity theft.

On an unrelated note, I’d like mine signed!

DANA on Sat, 6th Dec 2008 3:29 am


STUPID QUESTION: Did you do this yourself as from a Vanity type press, or did you submit it to a company: if so WHO? WHO? WHO?

Johnny Truant on Sat, 6th Dec 2008 8:30 am


Pace: Thanks!

Dana: Let me reply back on the H.B. thread. A lot of folks seem to be interested there!

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