Wednesday, July 27, 2016

How To Sell Your Self-Published Book

Written by Zackary Richards for Ari Communications

I hate writers.



Being one myself, I know that they are, for the most part, delusional, egocentric maniacs with a bizarre sense of entitlement. They think that just because they wrote a book, it must be a masterpiece of word and phrase and that people will buy it.
Just try telling them it needs editing and watch their dismissive response.

They can’t be bothered by the business of publishing, or the marketing, or developing a list of faithful readers.

No! They believe the publishing industry is like it was back in the days of Hemingway, Steinbeck and Faulkner.
They need only write the book and the peons in editing, marketing and distribution can deal with the details of selling it.

They, instead, need to refresh their muse. To travel to Paris
so they can mingle with other novelists, painters, and composers, with whom they can exercise their witty banter and drink to all hours of the morning.

If you tell them it doesn’t work like that anymore, they will turn on you like a cornered rat.
Like I said, delusional, egocentric maniacs.

It’s not until they discover that nobody is buying their book or the few who have, write a review giving it two stars. That’s when they start telling anyone who will listen that it’s not the book’s fault. It’s that those who read it are too stupid to appreciate its brilliance. I tell you it’s absolutely hilarious to watch them go from haughty aristocrat to pathetic sad sack when the ice water of reality points out their need of some professional seasoning.


How do I know this? It is because I was that delusional, egocentric maniac with a bizarre sense of entitlement. And it wasn’t until I collected a considerable number of rejection letters
that I began to wonder if perhaps I might need to learn something about writing for today's publishing industry. So I joined a writers group, met one of the best editors in today’s publishing industry (he was just starting out then too) and learned, through considerable trial and error, what I needed to do to get a book published.

Shortly afterward I won an award for a young adult novel I wrote and used it to garner an agent and publisher. Two years later after a successful run and with my follow-up about to be published, the Great Recession hit, the release was delayed and eventually my publisher went out of business and my agent was let go.

So I opened my own publishing business and discovered its harsh realities. Then came the writer’s strike and thousands of professional writers took that time to write novels and saturated the market with them. It took years before I was able to live on my royalties again.

Another problem with writers is they expect a free education.
I know of no other profession where those looking to enter into its ranks expect to succeed using only the tools they learned in grammar school.

I’ll give you an example. I wrote a book that explains exactly what you need to know and do in order to increase your odds of getting a publishing contract. It is 176 pages of pertinent information received from successful professional novelists. The kindle version sells for 5 dollars. If you are interested you can read the first chapter for free by just clicking on the cover  HERE

The book received great reviews so when I joined one particular social media group that focused on writers and publishing, I wrote an article explaining how the industry worked, the services my company offered and a link to the book.

The response was startling and vicious! I was ridiculed, called a hack, and likened to a used car salesman.
Yet when I googled my detractors, not one of them had a book published. In fact, they had no social platform at all.

Yet they still cling to the insane notion that a publisher will sign them to a lucrative contract without any proof whatsoever that readers would be interested in their book or writing style. Unfortunately, they have developed a belief system that you need only write a book and if you submit it enough times a publisher will sign you. And ANYTIME you challenge a person’s belief system, they are going to attack you. That’s human nature.

As for the next part, if you don’t have any money or are unwilling to invest any to learn how to improve your odds of getting a publishing deal, stop reading and go back to writing and submitting because as we all know, doing the same thing over and over will get you different results every time.

Or so you believe.

Okay, hopefully, the lookie-loos are gone so the professionals can get down to work. So if you’re serious about getting a publishing deal, get my book. It's only 5 dollars and it really explains how the industry works and what you need to do to be taken seriously.



Next, go to my website and see what my company offers regarding self-publishing. There is no hard sell but it details what book marketing is and what you need to do in order to get readers.

And lastly, there is the book sales page. I can’t begin to explain how necessary this is when it comes to selling books.

What all professional authors NEED TO KNOW it that your novel is a product and it needs to be sold as one. The sales page makes that possible as well as creating a list of constant readers who anxiously await the release of every novel.

Here’s how a sales page works.

You create a Facebook ad (for about 5 dollars a day for a couple of days) and when they click on the ad they are taken to your sales page.

The Sales Page starts with an immediately engaging paragraph. Something that will hook the reader's interest enough to read down to where you present your Book cover. Then you add more content, to further engage the reader.

Okay, you have them interested but it’s unlikely they will buy a book from an author when they are unfamiliar with his writing style.
You know this yourself. There are some writers who’s style you enjoy, and others you find boring.

You solve this issue by offering what is called a Lead Magnet. A Lead Magnet is a free sample you give to them in exchange for their email address. Here’s an example that was created for one of my company’s authors

As you can see, it gets right to the point and promotes the novel in an exciting fashion as well as giving away a free short story to pique their interest and to get their email address for future sales.

If you want us to create a sales page for your novel, with the same structure as the one you just viewed, we will need you to provide a jpeg image of the cover for your book and for the short story. If you want to provide copy for the sales page that’s fine, if you want us to do it, that’s fine too.

If you already have an autoresponder, email us the HTML raw code to insert into the sign-up box to collect email addresses. If you don’t, we’ll set one up for you but understand that it comes with a monthly charge of 19.95 from the autoresponder company, not us.

The cost of a Sales Page is $247 dollars. 


Email the information requested and how you want it to read. If you have questions or need additional services like a book cover, you can email us at ariservicedesk@gmail.com or call 518-636-6046.  

Please note that we have enough steady business and can only take on a few new customers at this time. If you email us or call, we will not try to sell you something or badger you with offers.
If you are interested, act now. We hate turning people away but we can only fill so many orders at a time. That email again is ariservicedesk@gmail.com