Infinity
Peter J. Fogel is not just the author of the critically acclaimed book, If Not Now… Then When? Stories and Strategies of People Over 40 Who Have Successfully Reinvented Themselves, but due to a strong Internet campaign he spearheaded, he can now boast that he’s a best selling author, too! Peter did his version of the bestselling author amazon.com program, where he joint ventured with other list owners and offered loads of great FREE bonuses to their subscribers so they bought his book. Considering that Peter reinvented himself from a top late night television comedian into an in-demand copywriter, he knew he was up to the task to make his dream a reality.
Peter says if you’re writing copy for a non-fiction book, you have to focus on the benefits of how your baby will solve your readers’ problems. You can do that my presenting bulleted lists of your benefits. Then you strategically place the FREE bonuses the reader is going to receive within the body of the copy. You’re taking the reader on a journey of what they’re going to receive when they order by a certain date. For best results, you should have a 48 hour deadline. You want the most books bought it the least amount of time to increase the book’s ranking.
You’re going to have to invest sweat equity. Give yourself 6 weeks before you’re ready to launch your campaign. Go to chat rooms, forums, do a Google search of popular websites that are in your particular self-help genre to locate marketers who might team up with you. To reach bestselling status, you need ezine list owners that are a compliment to your book. Be prepared for some list owners to not respond. Be persistent.
Make no mistake: If you wrote a self-help book for women, an Internet marketer with mostly male biz-opp names is NOT going to want to get involved with you! It’s not a good marriage. Peter says, “To get to #1 on Amazon, you have to have a list of 500,000 to 2 million names for your campaign. It’s truly a number’s game. And the list owner that donates a freebie MUST participate in sending to their list, period!”
When they give you the freebie without mailing to their own list, they’re being selfish and piggy-backing off your hard work. This is a joint venture where everyone that’s helping you will also benefit when buyers of your book become subscribers of their ezine. It’s a win-win for everyone. Also, instead of using text copy in an e-mail, Peter employed Jan Carroll, a terrific web designer to create an inviting, pleasing landing page so everyone could get the offer. Peter says, “You want to attract, not distract the reader. You can’t put 8 pages of copy in an e-mail message. People will not read it. Tell more…sell more by using an html format for a professional look.”
Jan also handled all the tech concerns for Peter, so if certain subscribers had problems downloading the over $1700 worth of bonuses, she handled it all via e–mail. Peter states, “We made a good team. I didn’t hit number #1, but I had just enough names and riveting copy that made my dream a reality. And that was becoming a bestselling author on amazon.com.” So for you to duplicate his success, to become a bestselling author yourself, to get people to open their wallets, you need:
When you make it all happen according to your plan, then you can brag to family members, friends, and foes that you’re a best selling author!!! Won’t that be fun?
To see Peter’s sizzling copy that got subscribers mesmerized to buy over 750 books in a few short days, visit his website at www.peterfogel.com. Click on the self-help sample button and look for the amazon.com promo PDF. While at his site, sign up for Peter’s Direct Response ezine and get the FREE e-book, Marketing Secrets of the Masters. Jan Carroll (www.jbcr-virtualsolutions.com) did a terrific job of designing Peter’s website.
{mospagebreak title=Amazon Fame - A Financial Comparison}
We are delighted to confirm that over 750 books were shipped to amazon.com and Peter’s ranking did briefly break into the top rankings. However, you really need to do the math to figure out if you want the higher 30% royalty from direct sales via our on-line bookstore or 15% paid on the deep-discount selling price to amazon.com.
Amazon.com buys Infinity Publishing books at the deep-discount price of 55% off the cover price. The 750 copies of Peter’s books with a cover price of $16.95 ordered by amazon.com cost $7.63 each and we pay royalties on the selling price. At our previous 10% royalty that was in effect when Peter did his blitz, he earned 76 cents per book for an approximate total of $570 in royalties based on the deep-discount selling price of the book sold to amazon.com. Under our new royalty structure of 15% his per book royalty on deep-discount sales increases to $1.14 and his total earnings would be approximately $855.
However, if Peter had NOT gone after the fleeting fame of being an amazon.com bestselling author and directed those orders generated by his successful blitzing efforts to Infinity’s on-line bookstore, his earned royalties would have been significantly higher. At the former rate of 20% on direct retail sales his royalty per book would have been $3.39, producing total royalties of over $2,500. Under our recently increased royalties, that jumps to $5.08 per book and over $3,800 in earned royalties, if those same orders had come in directly to www.buybooksontheweb.com. In fairness to the established brand-recognition of amazon.com, they do make it very attractive and easy to order discounted books on-line – and they ship almost as promptly as we do. Let’s say Peter’s efforts only produced about 500 direct orders; that is still a significantly higher earning in royalties for the author.
You have to decide if the notability of being a bestselling author on amazon.com is worth the loss in higher royalties. Personally, I’ve found fame to be grossly over-rated and thusly I’d go for the money. Fleeting fame doesn’t spend well at the super market when only cash will do.
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