Angela Lauria's webinar was titled "How to have a $100,000 Book Launch". A fabulous title and even more so after hearing Angela, because she makes it seem simple.
She's the author of The Difference: 10 Steps to Writing a Book that Matters. Two weeks after the launch of her book she had made a hundred thousand dollars. How? By following the formula she's been using for her clients. Curiously, she says that making this kind of money is a mindset, though you also need a product to help you get there.
The first step of her formula is getting really specific with what you're going to write about and with where you want your reader to go. But you also want to know who you (the writer) are - a teacher? a mentor? a coach? - and to be consistent with your voice. In addition, you need to focus on what you want the reader to do or where you want to have them go. Finally, how you want your reader to be different at the end of the book. A point Angela kept coming back to.
Let's move on to the marketing side of things. Once you have the right book, you want to do a book launch that's going to help you build your list and have a product - it can be a coaching program - that's ready to go, ready to be launched right after the book. Why? To be able to solve the readers' problem by taking them to the next level.
You need to have a free offer (freemium), which can be a chapter you wrote that week. And to get it, people need to opt in: get their email address, which is key. [Brilliant!] Angela even recommends that while you're writing your book, you offer one of the products at half price. This generates "urgency and scarcity", because that 50% discount is only valid until the day before the book comes out. This will lead people to your sales call or sales page, the two main ways her clients convert. And some of these people who are converting can be your testimonials when your book comes out.
Angela gave some great examples of things that can be used to convert people and make them go to her website to give their email before getting them:
- audio or video of something they need to get before they start reading the book: without it the book won't make sense
- case studies in video (about each chapter)
- a course based on the book (that you can get for free right after you buy the book)
- workbooks that are related to the book (but don't work well in it, so they need to go to her website)
- an audiobook.
Basically, we're talking of things that are book-related, but not in the book for some reason, and readers need to go elsewhere to get it.
What sort of things can get leads and traction? Find a group of people to help you promote you book - your book launch team - through their blog, website, Facebook, Twitter, email list. Another way to get email addresses is by organizing a virtual launch, a free event that can be easily organized through EventBrite. This can be a one-hour webinar or interview where you try to get as many people to register as possible (with the help of your book launch team). Talk about your book and the most important ideas in it. Give attendees the value proposition: how you want your reader to be different at the end of the book. And give away something for free. It can be a .pdf version of your book. Angela says they'll still go buy the real book. This launch is how you're going to build your email list. Finally, record the webinar and make it available to those who couldn't make it.
And relaunch the book. When? When you publish version 2.0 or go from e-book to paperback. When you get a new cover or write a new (bonus) chapter with all the new materials. It's a good idea when, 6 months later, you need new leads and to refresh the system
Advice on the monetization side: start the launch process while you're writing the book. Why? Because you aren't going to pay anybody to market your book. And because people are interested in hearing from you. They want to build a relationship with you. They want to hear the passion in you.
An interesting final comment from Angela: after reading Eric Ries' The Lean Startup she understood that she had it all wrong. It's sell it, then build it! That's when she changed her strategy.
Angela, I loved your energy, creativity and passion for what you do. Thanks for a great webinar!