Yesterday another piece of Seth Godin art came to my door. Here’s a look.
You can get a few here – http://www.yourturn.link/
Why a free chapter is a lousy thing to give away if you want to sell a book
Post 3 of 26 of The Self-Publishing Series
The days of being teased are over
Do we really want to play the warehouse food sample game? I appreciate that you want to show me a bit of your book but you’re going to give me one chapter? First, it’s not hard to write one good chapter. Second, giving away a chapter of your book is like giving someone one digit of your phone number (Tweet That). Is it really your number? Sure. Does it move the relationship forward? Not really. My advice is to be stupid generous and see what happens. We’ll get to that later.
Why your free chapter has absolutely no value
Giving one chapter away has lost its value because of, you guessed it, Amazon.com. I can download a “free sample” of every book in the Kindle library and Amazon doesn’t require me to join your email list. I also get to see the reviews of other people who have already purchased the book to help me decide if I want to download that free sample.
What else you should give your readers
Two things are usually happening in the exchange for the chapter. Most authors, if they’re smart, are using the bait of a free chapter to get your email address. As the book gets closer to release or when the author develops other products related to their book they can communicate with you. The first benefit of the free chapter is creating a relationship. The second goal of giving away the chapter is to sell more books at launch. This is where I think authors miss an opportunity. If authors really want to sell more books at launch they must out give Amazon. They should give away different forms of those chapters (audio specifically) or some of those products they were going to deliver later.
Here’s an example.
Click here to see the example
Jeff Goins – Empowering you to make great stuff – 031
Running Time: 41:20
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We visit with Jeff Goins, a writer from Franklin, Tennessee who empowers you to become a writer too.
Customers want it yesterday so act like Hyatt
Sales person: “When would you like your product delivered?”
Customer: “How about yesterday?”
I purchased Michael Hyatt’s new book Platform a few days ago when it launched and even though I’m an Amazon Prime member (free 2-day shipping and $3.99 for overnight shipping per item for $79 a year) the delivery was delayed because they didn’t carry enough inventory. That’s Amazon’s fault by the way, not Hyatt’s. I spoke to his “people” and they assured me that Amazon just didn’t believe the demand that the Hyatt team told them was coming. Mike’s a smart guy so I wasn’t upset when I had to wait for the book to arrive because I got it that day. OK Andy, did you get it that day or was it delayed? Both.
When I bought the physical book I followed the directions on this page and I got the book FREE on Kindle and on audio and a ton of other freebies. Mike understands that when we buy something we want it immediately. That’s one of the few reasons people will still drive to Best Buy or their local Apple store. We want it now. Next time you want to sell something, even if it’s a physical product that requires shipping, offer something right away for your customers to consume. We want it…yesterday.
You can get the bonuses till the end of the day (May 25th) at this page.
I’ll be reviewing Mike’s book in a few weeks on the Books For A Better You Show.
Check out the first two episodes where I reviewed $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau and Love Does by Bob Goff and subscribe if you like it!
