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.

Websites: The 21st Century Author's Best Friend

This would seem like an obvious statement--that a website would be essential to an author's campaign to get their work noticed and ultimately purchased. But you would be surprised at the percent of authors who maintain almost no online presence at all. The truth of the matter is that in the 21st century--even brick and mortar retail businesses need to have a website in order to stay competitive. For entrepreneurs--which is essentially what start-up authors aiming to sell their writing are, websites are essential to their success.

The most common responses I get to this statement from authors who have yet to have a major web presence in the form of a website is something akin to this:

"Isn't it enough to have my book on the lulu marketplace store, or amazon.com?"

"I post about my writing on facebook, isn't that enough?"

"I'm active on a forum and have a link to buy my book in my signature when I post, wouldn't that work?"

While all of these practices might help to increase awareness, a blurb, mention or article promoting something--even something of extreme value and worth, is rarely enough to hold attention these days if there isn't somewhere else to refer the readers to. Part of the procedure of building up a relationship with the readers like I discussed in the previous post:


http://makemoneywriting21.blogspot.com/2012/10/why-some-authors-sell-2-copies-of-their.html

is to have enough content for your readers to get an idea of what your project, book, blog, newsletter, posts and writing in general is all about. A website of some kind is the best and most efficient way to do this for several reasons. First and foremost, when people consider the idea of making any kind of purchase--and we are assuming here that you are aiming to make a little money off of your writing, they often want to find out more about it and it is very hard to sell anything to anyone if they can't do further research about it online.

Something that keeps a lot of authors away from putting up websites is the illusion of the complexity required for web building. The truth of the matter is it is easier than ever to put up a a website. Blogs that function almost as well as websites are literally a dime a dozen and can usually be gotten for free. A fully functioning website can be put up for free as well--and going one step further to buy a domain name is very cheap. And with the ease of building that most of the leading websites now allow--you don't need to be fluent in any kind of coding or HTML for what you really need to put up the website. (If you need bits of HTML most things you need for widgets and buttons come pre-made and there are forums where you can post what you need in HTML and people online will provide it for you for free.)

Remember this simple motto for the 21st century: you can find a way to do ANYTHING on the internet. Don't let fear of the unknown hold you back from researching and pushing forward because a website is absolutley essential to author success in 99% of cases in the times we live in.

One you have a website up that has your writing on it, driving traffic to your writing becomes increasingly easy. The website serves as your online headquarters and you want to get as many people there as you possibly can. The more traffic you get, the more readers you aquire, the more readers you aquire, the better the chance of you selling your products, newsletters, subscriptions, and other products that have to do with your writing.

You can use the common approach of business cards to get people to your website as you meet them in person. (For a way to get your hands on some free business cards see my post on it here: http://makemoneywriting21.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-sneaky-way-to-sell-few-more-of-your.html ) And once the website is up, post it in your email signature, in your signature on forums you to go, on any social networks you are a part of and in your bios for any publications you achieve at magazines or anywhere with a readership. As long as your content is genuine, catchy and consistent, you should start to see the traffic flow, your readership growing and the beginnings of a steady place for you to begin to kick off your projects and products from.

Some resources below for websites or blogs:


www.weebly.com


www.wordpress.com


www.godaddy.com


www.inmotionhosting.com


www.blogger.com

A Sneaky Way To Sell A Few More Of Your Books And Get The Word Out For Free

Vistaprint.com has taken over the universe as far as business cards go. But they also print just about everything, including post-cards. They are by no means the only printer available for such things, but one thing that vistaprint (and a few others) do that is very enticing and rewarding is offer you deals where you can aquire 250 free business cards or 100 free postcards, and you just pay shipping. The offers vary from time to time but it is definitly worth looking into if you are an author with a product.

Say for example, you have a self-published or a small press book. It could be anything, fiction, a memoir, poetry--it doesn't even have to be a book for that matter, but let's just use book as a prime example. Assuming you have a link online where the book can be found and/or purchased (and if you don't--there is a serious problem!) then taking advantage of these free offers can do you absolutly no harm at all!

I find postcards tend to work the best because you can fit more on there than just the name, a line or two and the website. Assuming your book aquired any kind of favorable blurbs or testimonials either before or after publication (and if it hasn't yet, start working on that because blurbs are a very good marketing tool!) you can take a picture of your book's cover and put it on the postcard, along with a good blurb or two about the quality of the book. Couple that with the web address where one can aquire the book, maybe an email address for those interested who want to know more and a breif description of what the book is about and bingo--you have a perfectly sound marketing tool available to you for nothing more than a few minutes of time and the shipping costs required to send them to you.

You can hand these postcards or business cards out everywhere. Not only does this send a message that you are a published author--but a serious one, but it gets people interested because word of mouth is one thing--seeing the picture of the book and what people say about it is something else entirely. You can bet that a decent number of people who recieve the post cards will at least visit the website.

Like I said, vistaprint is the first one that comes to mind for this type of free offer but there are plenty more out there. Don't hesitate to look around and take advantage of all these offers where you see them. Even if the end result only yields one or two additional sales of your product--it was well worth it.