How to Sell A Lot of Books
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How many books did the guest sell during their launch week?
For people that want to understand what that launch looks like, a concentrated volume of sales in a week, can you share some numbers around volume in that week for the one thing launch? Was it more or less than 20,000 units sold?
Uh, more, more. Okay. When we peaked, we peaked, we sold 27,000 copies in one week and we had to build up to that over the course of the month, but we had done some research and we had figured out that we would have a really good chance of making it if we sold about 20,000 copies. Okay. And Gary, of course, we made a plan to be bigger, and he doubled that again. Because if you plan your activities around your minimum needs, you're probably going to fall short. So we had a huge plan. We had all kinds of promotions. At that time, we had about... I want to say 43,000 associates of which I would say about 4,300. Usually I look at about 10% of the total agents in our network. They're going to be really engaged.
And so some of them bought one, some of them bought more, but we use them, right?
What strategies did the guest use to achieve high sales volume?
We work from the inside out to help us seed the market. So it was a huge strategy to launch a lot in a small period of time and then hopefully sustain it over time.
So you just gave the top tribe one gold nugget and we'll lay out all the numbers and data and a link to the book in the show notes at nathanlatka.com forward slash the top three, six again, forward slash the top, the number three, the number six, but Jay, You just gave us one brilliant strategy, which was, again, start seeding from the inside. So for people, you know, the top tribe listening, that might be your employees. It might be family, you know, anyone you have a great relationship with. For Gary and Jay, it was 4,300 agents. That's one. Jay, can you give us two other, you know, you said you had a bunch of marketing activities, but two other high impact marketing activities that helped you hit that 27,000 units sold mark in one week?
You're going to have a list.
I think almost everybody here has the ability to build an email list. You do. Almost all the media entrepreneurs out there do. I'll tell you, all of my research, there's no more effective way to sell your books than to get a bunch of people who subscribe to your blog or your writing who want to hear from you. They've invited you into their inbox.
How important is building an email list for book sales?
So pure and simple, build your list. We also launched with live events. So we leveraged local sponsors. And we had 35 events over a fairly short period of time. And here's how we did it. We only said it was, I think, $25 to get a day of training. We got the sponsors to cover the hotel rooms. And then everybody who showed up got a book. And we fulfilled those books through a bookstore. If you don't fulfill them through a bookstore, they don't count towards a bestseller list. So that month... We were speaking like crazy. Both of us were on the road and we were trying to get as many people in the seats as possible. And everybody in their seat was waiting for them was a copy of the book. So that was a big part of our launch strategy to get a lot out in one month.
What role do live events play in a successful book launch?
Wow. Of those 35 events, add up all the people that had butts in seats at every event. Would you say there was over 10,000 people across 35 events?
I want to say that we averaged about, I want to say 450. Gary averaged higher than I did, but that was a huge part of our base. So 16,000 people total about. There you go. Boom.
That's a big part of our launch. Wow. That's amazing. So that was number three. Again, number one, you said... 4,300 agents, you know, some amount of them bought, you had a list and then the launch strategy, just for people that, again, have their own lists thinking about writing a book and if their list is big enough yet or if they should keep lists building before launch, how big was your guys' list when you launched the book?
I mean, I was counting our associates, right?
How did the guest leverage their network for book sales?
Today, our list is about 35,000. It's bigger than it was then. So we just weren't as focused on it. And now I know it's absolutely the tool. Let's put it this way.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How many books did the guest sell during their launch week?
0:00–1:00
2
What strategies did the guest use to achieve high sales volume?
1:00–2:08
3
How important is building an email list for book sales?
2:08–2:53
4
What role do live events play in a successful book launch?
2:53–3:35
5
How did the guest leverage their network for book sales?
3:35–4:12
6
What are the benefits of permission-based marketing in book promotion?
4:12–5:13
7
How can authors ensure their book has long-term sales success?
5:13–5:46
8
What advice does the guest have for aspiring authors?
5:46–13:06