Sure, we all want to look on the shelves at Barnes and Noble and see our books there. It's thrilling. But it's really not necessary. I see so many authors waste their time and money paying distributors and driving from store to store, delivering books when they should be selling directly to the public. The Internet makes it possible.
In fact, there are many good reasons NOT to be in bookstores:
In most cases, selling direct to the public, or through bulk sales to institutions, is a much better way to turn your book into a revenue stream. With the Internet, tradeshows and other events, and seminars, you have multiple ways to sell direct, pocket 100% of the profits, and save yourself the hassle of trying to get into Borders.
I also recommend selling on Amazon.com. They do take a substantial chunk of your sales price, but it's a wonderful way to generate buzz about your book. Otherwise, unless you can truly benefit from the prestige of being on the bookshelves, leave the bookstores to John Grisham and Stephen King.
Pursue bulk sales.
Ninety percent of new authors are only focused with getting people into bookstores to buy their book. And it's great if you can do that, but I give them all the same advice: do not overlook bulk sales. They can turn your book from a money-loser into a profit center in a few months. Bulk sales are a gold mine.
What do I mean by bulk sales? I mean selling your books in large quantities to an organization, which could mean anything from a corporation to a school district to a non-profit group to a church. You'll have to give the organization a price break for buying in bulk, but you'll get dozens, hundreds or even thousands of your books into people's hands, which dramatically increases your word-of-mouth and viral marketing.
Promoting bulk sales is a pretty straightforward deal. Simply look at your book and ask yourself what companies, organizations or affinity groups would be interested in the book for their employees or members. If you've written a book on corporate team building, make a list of corporations where you have personal contacts. If your book is about exercise for seniors, try contacting AARP. And so on. Marketing bulk sales is usually about personal contact, either by letter or direct mail.
When you're going after bulk sales, try to get to the "gatekeepers," the people who can make the decisions for a large organization. It makes much more sense to talk to 20 people who have the potential between them to order 10,000 books than to sell them one at a time. Even if you only get orders from three of those gatekeepers, you'll sell a few thousand books.
Be sure to offer a good bulk rate discount for your bulk buyers. The more books they buy, the bigger the price break. If they buy over 1,000, give them 50% off. You'll still make money and you'll start winning readers.
Always build your mailing and e-mail lists.
There are two kinds of lists: physical mailing address lists and e-mail lists, and you should always be building both. They are your promotional lifelines to your potential readers and customers, and everything you do to market your book should have some component that gathers contact information of prospective buyers.
The best way to build your list is quite simple: get people to come to your Website, offer them something of value, and require them to give you (at a minimum) their name and e-mail address to get it. The kinds of things you can offer:
Be creative. Is there something that pushes your target audience's buttons? Offer it to them. This kind of "opt-in" list, where people consent to receiving future information from you, is the gold standard of marketing.
Some other reputable ways you can build your list:
But always, always be building your list. And make sure that your database software is solid, proven, regularly maintained, and backed up weekly.
Adding to your level of health is the key.
Here is a continuation of the light and darkness metaphor: a bucket of water. The bucket represents you. The water represents your level of health. What happens is that we all come into life with unique buckets. Written on the inside of your bucket is a list of all the symptoms and diseases that you are predisposed to.
True Health - Following Your Inner Knowing
Your Non-Conscious Mind is 98% of your full power. Over the last couple lessons we taught you how to use your conscious mind to actively create the directions for your non-conscious mind to follow.
Getting your target
What is health? Everyone wants this thing called health, and yet most people have never thought about what their “target of health” actually looks like. If you and your family were healthy, what would it be like?
