Make A Bundle With A Bundle

This practice admittedly works far better for authors who have produced quite a bit of writing, maybe a few products and have a decent fan base already built up. It won't work so well if you don't have much content. But if you have a good amount of content--even if you do not have a major fan base already built in, this can still earn you more than you would expect--and increase your fan base by making your old readers and a few (maybe more) new ones happy. 

Everyone loves a bargain--especially in these tough economic times. And you can score some serious points with existing and new fans by giving them what they want--a good deal. Say that you have a new book coming out for example (I use book because it is the most common form of product with writing but it could be a single story, a booklet, ebook, just about anything.) If you're been doing the right thing with it, you would have a blog or a website up where your fans would know well in advance of its near approach. Assuming you have any sort of already existing merchandise (and if you don't you can plan on this for the future) a good way to drive up some sales would be to throw a few books, ebooks, booklets, stories, audio books, etc together into a limited time bargain bundle. It works for Stephen King Novels online, it's worked in brick and mortar book stores (buy 2 get the 3rd free!) it can work for you as well. The advantage we all have today is that in the digital age--nothing spreads faster than the news of a bargain. 

There is also the possibility here of working with other authors in your field. There is a common saying that when it comes to partnerships, 1 plus 1 equals 3. The idea simply meaning that together you can be worth more than either of you can separately. If you have author friends in your field--(or even across field, genre, medium lines) what is to stop you from combining your books, audio books, comics, or whatever it is you have into bundles together? Especially digitally--you can reach both your audiences and sell maybe double what you would sell normally. But the greatest things about bundles is that word of them spread like wildfire--word of mouth, link sharing etc. This admittedly works better if both of you (or heck all of you--you could have a bundle of 5-10 authors--the sky is the limit) have your own audiences and therefore can spread it to more people inherently. But even if your audiences are only a few each--it's still extra exposure. And the few in your existing audiences are far more to spread word of mouth about a deal--especially a limited time deal . (I have found that bundles that last 2-3 weeks tend to work the best--remember, customers are lazy, there has to be a call to action without looking like you are overly trying to sell something. The most successful bundle producers I have seen are those who offer each specific bundle option only once for a period of 2 weeks--sure they will have other bundles in the future, but never exactly THIS bundle again--the urgency shakes the apathy out of most potential buyers.) 

Now before you start to worry that all this would be nearly impossible to set up--it is actually quite easy. Assuming you or any one of your partners in this bundle has a website that is up and running--you can easily put together a digital release using a quick, cheap and easy resource like e-junkie.com along with a shopping cart button from Paypal.com to receive payment. And the great advantage of a digital bundle is the fact that you can give serious discounts on your prices without feeling the burn yourself--other than paying transaction and hosting fees, the only thing a digital bundle costs you is the labor you put forth to create it. 

The bundle idea, like so many other options we can consider in the age we currently live is represents something more--both sides of the equation are winning. Equilibrium: the customer gets something of extended value and the author gets to sell more. And in the case of partnerships, more people benefit. This is just one example of the way in which the creative world of writing has changed quite a bit. One product one sale might not do nearly as well anymore--especially with the overwhelming amount of competition out there. But with the infinite amount of tools available to all of us today--there is no shortage of creative solutions to reaching more people, and creativity is something that authors, when they put their mind to it, do very, very well.

Why Some Authors Sell 2 Copies of Their Book and Others Sell 2 Million.

Have you ever wondered why so many authors who dare to put out their books for sale to the public tap out at 2 sales (the average number for a self-published title) and others can sell 2 million or more? Ok--stupid question. Of course you've wondered that. Is it just fancy promotional material or a good sales campaign? To some degree--but the marketing is really just a means to an end.

The truth of the matter is--knowing what sells and what doesn't sell is as simple as knowing the hidden truth about the human condition. Alright--on the surface that sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is. But the truth of the matter is when we think for a few minutes it becomes very obvious what the base human condition is in relevance to this: humans like what is familiar to them. Humans NEED what is familiar to them. Humans seek out the familiar even if the familiar is harmful to them. Think about all the people who end up in toxic relationships over and over again--thin kabout all the people who buy the brand name loaf of bread or cereal even if the store bought brand is exactly the same thing and three dollars cheaper. Humans have a weakness for the familiar--and the same thing applies in marketing.

The reason that marketing campaigns spend so much money on blasting their names on the radio, on television commercials on busses, at football stadiums and in papers is to get you to be FAMILIAR with their product or brand. For example--when sitting at a football game--you might have no need to look at the plastic surgery sign on the wall there. But two weeks later after a car accident--and plastic surgery seems ideal...the one you will seek out first most likely will be the one advertised at the stadium--why? Because the name was stuck in your head and it was FAMILIAR to you.

Now, anyone with enough money can get the blast attention of all these people through advertising however--we are going to assume here that the writers reading this do not have bucket loads of money to burn through on an advertising campaign. And that's perfectly alright--because familiarity more than any singular method has to do with forming a RELATIONSHIP between you and your readers. Think about it--the teenager who throws their novel together in two weeks and self-publishes it quickly with no previous writing experience and no existing fan base might still sell a handful of copies to their family and friends. And by the same token--the best-selling novelist could presell 100,000 copies of their book thanks to an email before it is even finished yet. The only difference between these two people--or at least the only difference that ultimately matters when it comes to sales--is that the group with which each author has a RELATIONSHIP with is vastly different in size. The best-selling author might not be family or personal friends with the 100,000 people who pre-ordered their book. But they already have an existing relationship with them thanks to interviews, previous publications, mailing lists and book tours. The first author simply doesn't have a RELATIONSHIP with a large enough group of people to sell their work widely.

Now here is the good news. Thanks to the age we live in ANYONE can developed a RELATIONSHIP with thousands or even millions of people via the internet. We might not all go viral and get millions of readers--but it is definitely possible to get a few thousand people to follow whatever you are doing if you are consistent enough. The key is to position your writing in a way so that it develops a relationship with people that will eventually lead to them being interested enough to go through with a sale.

The best way to get people FAMILIAR with your work to the extent they develop a RELATIONSHIP with you and your writing is to put as much of it out there as you can. If you are a fiction writer or a poet--a blog that you frequently post on would be a good idea. Eventually a website where you post free content for people to read. Consistent content is the key thing to remember because it is through this method that readers will keep on coming back. Plus, the way online marketing works, the more your blog or website has, the easier it is to pick up in search engines and to generate traffic. As people become familiar with your work, you might start to consider having them join an email newsletter or subscription service--they give you their email in exchange for free content. If they trust you enough to give you their email--they must like your content. You can use the newsletter to send the some more free work and then eventually offer products for sale--a self-published book, an audio book, a paid subscription to a section of your website that offers exclusive material to do with a favorite character, or an e-version of a story or poetry collection.

The trick here is that whatever it is you are offering for sale--by the time you offer it, your readers have already developed familiarity with what it is you are writing and a relationship with you--the author. Having both of these things formed--and having enjoyed the free content you have provided for the period up until this, they might just be willing to part with a few dollars to see more.

 

 

Of course, these methods work quite a bit better if the writing you are posting is quality--adds value to their lives through entertainment, information or emotion. And it helps when you post your writing consistently and are generous with the readers--in which case not only will traffic flow to your site through search-engines, but also through word of mouth. In which case you can expect the number of readers with which you have a relationship to continue to grow--and grow steadily.