March 1, 2019
Hello, booksellers (that’s you!).
Let’s talk about exclusive deals and discounts for your readers. We released our sales delivery platform a little more than a year ago so that authors could truly sell directly to their customers (without the delivery hassle) and keep the lion’s share of the profit (because we don’t take a cut).
We’ll let you in on a little secret, though. We didn’t think anyone would use it. We kept getting requests for sales delivery but thought it was a boondoggle. We eventually built it because we hated having to say no all the time. “Readers don’t want to buy direct!” we’d shout to ourselves in the shower.
Turns out, we were wrong. Readers love you guys. Some readers love their authors more than anything in this world (except their cats). And, you know what? They want to support you. They want to give their money directly to you and not the big retailers if they can.
And, the best part is, the authors who are doing direct sales delivery through BookFunnel are making readers happier with lower prices and are making themselves happier because they’re keeping a much higher cut of the profits (over 90% of every sale in most cases). Create special promotions and offer them to your fans right from your website.
Introduce New Readers to Old Stories
Discount titles from your backlist to $.99 on your website and share the deal with your newsletter subscribers only. Newer readers can snatch up your older works for a steal. You’ll get paid, and they’ll feel like they won the lottery.
Box up that sluggish backlist and offer it exclusively to your newsletter. Some of your new readers may not have read your old titles, so give them a chance to catch up! They get your earlier titles for a great price, and you get to avoid that “35% royalty for items priced higher than $9.99” rubbish.
Oh, and with BookFunnel’s new multi-book delivery actions, you don’t even have to do the boxing yourself. Just create a product for one price that delivers any number of books, and we’ll take care of the rest. You can create a discounted boxset for your fans in minutes without any extra hoops or hassles.
Exclusive Offers By Invitation Only
Have a new release in your series looming? Consider boxing up the beginning of the series and releasing it for a fantastic price on your website in the days or weeks leading up to the next installment’s release. Bargain shoppers on your list can snatch up the discounted set and will be more likely to buy the new book on release day.
Lure Freebie Seekers Over to the Paid Side
Got a segment of your list that only clicks on free book links? They’re engaged… but they aren’t buying. A super deal could convert a freebie seeker into a buyer. These folks have a lot of “Book Ones,” and very few “Book Twos,” since most authors (wisely) only offer the first book free.
If you want to prune them from your list but find yourself hesitating, use these flash deals and blue-light specials to test their willingness to pay for books. Tempt them with a steep discount or two and see if they’ll bite. If they still don’t take the bait, it’s probably safe to cull them and move on to greener cash–
Pre-Release Deals for KU Authors
KDP Select authors can use direct sales to offer the book to their newsletter before it is enrolled in Kindle Unlimited. Non-
Since you control the distribution, there’s no chance your book can accidentally remain published in some obscure bookstore. You don’t have to worry that Amazon’s spiders might discover the mistake weeks or months in the future and boot you out of KDP Select. The minute you delete the page, it’s gone without a trace.
Be strategic if you are concerned about losing rank. Try segmenting your list and only offering the deal to non-Amazon readers. Or, you know, take a chance and just make a pile of money instead.
Not Sold In Stores: Series Wrap-Up
Well, that’s it! We’ve reached the end of our series on using exclusive content to turn readers into superfans. What have we learned in these six posts?
- Keep writing
- Engage with your readers
How you engage is entirely up to you. Facebook not your thing? Skip it. Tweetybop not doin’ it for you? Skip it. Ads keep losing money and you can’t afford to keep trying this month? Pause ’em. Mailing list too annoying? Well, don’t skip that one. But, do keep it simple. If you can’t write sweeping newsletters, write more stories. Sell them, give them away, whatever works for you, experiment. Readers will always want more content from you.
Exclusive content is something readers must get from you, and they can only get it from you. Your super special fans get it first because they are the best. Let your readers know how important they are, and you might just make a superfan. It takes some effort to make a superfan out of a reader, but a superfan will buy everything you publish forever and ever (amen).
Posts in This Series
- Introduction
- Part 1: Short Stories
- Part 2: Prequel Novellas
- Part 3: Serials
- Part 4: Bonus Epilogues
- Part 5: Bonus Scenes
- Part 6: Special Deals and Discounts
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