It’s Not Enough To Write A Great Book…

Being a great writer won’t get you there. Not today.

Nor will having a killer book idea. Or, even a few successes under your belt. There’s another giant piece of the puzzle. And, it’s the single biggest factor in your ability to:

• Get paid real money to write before you lift a finger,
• Command far higher advances than the standard $10,000,
• Sell a hefty quantity of books, not just on the first day, but long-term, and
• Wield so much power, you could self-publish at any moment and generate “mainstream-worthy” sales…

In fact…It’s the first question every agent, editor and publisher asks…and the one nearly every author dreads…“Do you have a platform?”

Every year more than 500,000 mainstream and self-published books vie for a spot on the New York Times bestseller list…and fewer than 50 make it. Most of those 50 come from people who are already well-known celebrities, previous bestsellers or captains of industry who have the ability to buy enough sales and attention to land a coveted spot.

So, if you’re a movie star or you have $200,000 to blow on your book launch, you can stop reading now. Same, if all you want to do is waste thousands of dollars to game amazon and nail the #1 spot in your category for an hour so you can call yourself a fake bestseller, then watch your amazon rank crash back to 600,000 a week later.

C’mon, we both know that’s bunk.

Nobody cares if you were #1 in your category on amazon for the time it takes to eat a burger and fries. Well, nobody but your mom. And, anyone who tries to tell you that being a momentary amazon bestseller will get you on major-market radio, TV or the high-ticket speaking circuit is selling you load of B.S. Because these days, everyone knows how easy it is to more or less buy an amazon rank for a few hours.

So, I’m not going to talk to you about a quick and easy, 1 in a million dream of being a New York Times Bestseller or paying for a fleeting amazon rank. You’re too smart for that. What I do want to talk to you about, though, is the “P” Factor–Power.

The kind of book marketing power that gets publishers to sign you and readers to buy you…

• What if you could nail the #1 spot in your niche not for hours, but for days, weeks or months.
• What if you could send thousands of people running to buy your books, not because they want some bogus mega-list of “bonuses,” but because they can’t wait to buy and read what you’ve written and thank you for giving so much?
• What if you could do it organically, without spending a dime…over and over and over? And…
• What if you could actually have fun making this happen and not feel like a slime-bucket?

Now that’s power. It’s the type of…

On-demand book selling juice every author and aspiring author dreams of…and, every publisher would kill for in a new author

You don’t buy it, you don’t cheat your way into it. You build it, step by step. It takes work. And, it takes time, but it’s not complicated…once you know how.

If you’re already a signed author, imagine how many more books you’ll sell. And, if you’re still flying solo, imagine what it’d be like to have agents and publishers tripping over themselves to sign your next book. In fact, that’s exactly what’s been happening to more and of us in the world of blogging and social media.

Tribal Author Platforms are turning the publishing power model on its head…

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a friend who’s also a Top-100 blogger. He’s literally been stalked by big NY publishers for the last two years to put out a book with them. We spent a half hour trying to figure out if there was any way for him to justify giving a book to a big publisher.

We ran the numbers every way we could and, in the end, realized that unless he got a hefty six-figure advance and a commitment to put out the book within 9 months, he simply couldn’t justify giving it to a publisher. Because he could do it in 4 months and make twice as much if not more by leveraging his own platform and relationships.

When you can walk away from a deal because you’ll make more publishing a book yourself…that’s power

The power to pre-sell enough books online to make the big-box book stores take notice and begin stocking their shelves…even if you’re self-published. To go from relative obscurity to walking into your local Barnes & Noble with your mom, dad, sister, brother, lover or spouse and seeing your work turned out on the table.

Imagine being able to harness a big enough community of die-hard fans to make real money as an author and keep doing it over and over again. To have the ability to choose whether to do it yourself 3 times faster and make 3-5 times more per book or give it to a publisher…if they can come up with enough of an advance to make it worth your while.

That’s the tribal author power we’re going to create…together

If you’re willing to get past all the gimmicky fast and easy bestseller scams and do what you need to do to:

• Generate you tribal author platform, driven largely by social media, then
• Launch an innovative, 3-stage campaign designed to turn you into a non-smarmy book selling powerhouse.

In our 3-days together, I’m going to show you how to build a worldwide following, a devoted fan base of readers, buyers and evangelists and relationships that’ll put your book in front of thousands, if not millions online. You’ll discover how to sell enough books to make a nice living, become known to others as a successful author, raise the attention of agents, editors and publishers if you’re not yet signed…and do it all while spending almost nothing…even if nobody’s ever heard of you.

How can I make these promises? Because a few years back, I was you.

An unknown aspiring author with a dream. And, I am now a Random House/Broadway Books author, established blogger and marketer who’s been on a mission to figure out how to not only craft content that changes lives, but build buying frenzies and sell books without paying publicists, marketing firms, bestseller campaign hustlers or anyone else looking to drain $5,000 to $25,000 from your bank account only to do what you can do often better, faster, easier…and for a small fraction of the price.

Between November 2008 and March 2009, I:

• Created a social media driven pre-sale campaign that drove my book’s amazon rank from nearly 1.5 million to 1,443 and #1 in it’s category in 24 hours, cost next to nothing and led my publisher to increase the first print run by 50%…2 months before the book was even published.
• Landed reviews and interviews on dozens of hugely popular, often top-100 blogs and websites, exposing the book to more than 5 million people online in the first 30 days
• Scored placements in major media, including USA Today, People, Business Week, FastCompany, Adweek, The Miami Herald and more
• Sold more than 12,000 copies in the first 12 weeks, without doing a single book signing or live appearance
• Kept my amazon rank locked at #1 in its category for nearly a month, in the hundreds for weeks and in the low 1,000s overall for nearly two months
• Scored glowing cover quotes from multiple New York Times bestselling authors
• Cemented myself as a blogger and social media presence with thousands of readers and “potential buyers”
• Built a an incredible, worldwide tribe of readers, listeners, collaborators, friends, evangelists and partners.
• Nailed more than 40 major market radio interviews that were broadcast in over 2,500 markets
• Generated nearly 40 “real” reviews on amazon within days of publication, almost all 5 stars, including a number of amazon top reviewers
• Did this all while spending next to nothing on marketing and without gaming any systems

Not bad for a book that was encouraging readers to leave their jobs to start a new business during what is now considered the worst 6 months in the history of publishing, and the worst economy since the great depression where the nearly every person was clinging desperately to the job he or she had, no matter how much it sucked.

By all rights, this book should’ve been a massive failure.

And, I recently learned, we sold the Chinese language rights, so the book will soon be released into the largest market in the world in Mandarin.

I’m not the only one who’s caught onto the secret. Recent (real) bestselling authors, like Chris Brogan (Trust agents), Tim Ferriss (Four Hour Workweek), Hugh MacCleod (Ignore Everybody), Gary Vaynerchuck and Gretchen Rubin (The Happiness Project), have all tapped this same power to help sell a torrent of books.

And, countless others who’ve come to understand the power of the tribal author platform have sold large numbers of books and built substantial follow-on businesses.

Now, here’s the really cool thing. You can do it, too…

Tribal Author Camp

Tribal Author Camp is a book marketing immersion, limited to 50 authors and aspiring authors, where you’ll discover how to:

• Understand what this new “social media” beast is really all about and learn how to tap it to rapidly build an online platform capable of driving book sales, without selling your soul, doing things you hate or feeling slimy.
• Create and launch your tribal author platform power blog in a matter of hours.
• Build an evangelical online tribe that will step up and support you and your book by the thousands
• Cultivate relationships with social media influencers capable to reviewing your book, interviewing you and sending their readers to check it out.
• Find and build relationships with mainstream media, radio, TV and news reporters, editors and producers, so when the time is right, you can cash in your book PR chips
• Tap twitter to build a giant tribe of followers with a proven interest in you, what you say and what you write and the ability to continually generate interest, evangelists and sales
• Leverage Facebook fan pages to build a viral list of raving fans and early book buyers
• Create pre-sale, launch and post-launch campaigns that send people running to order your book months in advance
• Produce and release “extreme-value buzz-builders”–specially designed documents, videos and mp3s designed to provoke a fever of worldwide conversation…and sales
• Craft and release online news releases that will not only expose your message to the media, but leapfrog directly into your potential buyers’ inboxes.
• Create, promote and run online seminars, workshops, teleseminars and webcasts for little or no money to build your tribal power platform and create curiosity for your book
• Tap online forums and book review communities to spread the word about your book and build relationships with influential readers
• Run contests and giveaways without spamming, breaking the law or destroying your brand,
• Drive local traffic with street teams and special offers.
• Design a highly-effective 3-stage pre-launch, launch and post-launch campaign that’ll have influencers and readers lining up to spread the word and buy your book

In addition, you’ll also discover how to…

Avoid some of the biggest mistakes and money pits made by aspiring authors, established authors and even mega-publishers when it comes to platform building, including:

• The big lie about outsourced virtual book tours and blog tours–how they can go from being ineffective to outright trashing your reputation
• Why canned radio tours may not be what you think they are–discover what really happens after your 2 hours of rapid fire canned interviews is over (hint – they may never hit the air and the stations are often not worth the effort anyway)
• The truth about big bucks online bestseller e-mail campaigns designed to game amazon for a day–are they really worth the money and effort? And, can you still do them yourself for little or no money?
• The 5 things never to do to bloggers, twitterers or social media influencers unless you want to be ignored, attacked and potentially even publicly humiliated
• Why spending all your time and money going after mainstream print, TV and radio coverage and reviews alone is a massive mistake for most authors

Plus, just for the fun of it…Remember those amazon bestseller campaigns I talked about?

The ones people charge thousands of dollars to teach you and many times that to run for you? Well, I’m also going to reveal exactly how they work, then show you how to re-engineer them, not to game amazon, but to create a buying frenzy and sell a boatload of books in a very short time period. And, this is actually easier and more lucrative if you’re self-published.

Here’s what you’ll get…

• Day 1: Building Good Will with Die-hard Fans, Evangelists & Influencers
  
  • How to 80/20 your online platform-building efforts to get the biggest return on your efforts
  • Choosing your tribal homebase and core evangelist channels
  • Mining social media to make your book more buzzable WHILE you’re still writing it
  • Choosing between Wordpress, Typepad, Blogger, Posterous, tumblr, flickr, twitter, facebook, forums, podcasts, webcasts, teleseminars and more
  • Understanding the pros and cons between email lists, RSS, followers, fans and friends
  • The unwritten rules of online social communities; break ‘em and you’re dead in the water
  • How to choose your highest-impact form of tribe-building (video, audio, print, mixed)
  • Creating memes, linkbait and other “high-value/high-buzz content” that spreads like wildfire and grows your tribe in a fraction of the time
  • Finding and winning over the power-influencers in your niche
  • Finding the right mix between giving away your ideas and holding the really juice stuff back for the book…or not.

• Day 2: Designing Your 3-Stage Launch Campaign
  • Phase 1: Pre-Launch/Building Buzz & Pre-Orders
    
    • Conditioning the market
    • Developing your pre-order campaign to drive advanced amazon sales, brick & mortar pick-up and early buzz
    • Finding and recruiting high-likelihood amazon reveiwers
    • Creating your advance copy reviewer list
    • How to integrate traditional PR into the mix (and how much not to spend)
    • Creating flagship/viral content to drive advance buzz/pre-orders
    • Managing blogger reviews and interviews
    • Comparing types of advertising (where to spend money, if you’ve got it)
    • Recruiting email list holders (what works these days and what’s a waste of time)
    • Book tour/virtual book tours – the good, the bad…how to do them right or not at all
    • How to capture your buyers’ information and bring them into your tribe
  • Phase 2: Launch/Critical Mass
    
    • Compressing coverage into your Critical Window, so that the marketing energy begins to feed on itself and get the world talking and buying books
    • Coordinating social media mentions, reviews, interviews and emails. What to work like crazy to accomplish and what to avoid like the plague
    • The pros and cons of contests, livestreaming launch promotions and the critical mistakes to avoid
    • How to stack an irresistible offer around your book to sell way more books and build your list a lot faster
    • Limited-time bulk sales launch offers
    • Leveraging online buzz into mainstream buzz
    • Street teams and local campaigns
  • Phase 3: Sustained Growth
    • Weekly strategies to fuel ongoing sales and continued buzz
    • Piggybacking major monthly news stories
    • Partnering with organizations & causes
    • Negotiating bulk sales going forward, how to tap the corporate premium market
    • Getting hypercreative and keeping your momentum alive
    • Creating a long-term marketing funnel and upselling future products, books and services

• Day 3: Building YOUR CUSTOM Launch Campaign: Guided by me, individually, in small groups and hotseats, you will create your own platform-building strategy and 3-stage launch campaign.
  

• Dates, Times & Locations:

• NYC | Roger Smith Hotel | November 14-15, 2009 | SOLD OUT
• Los Angeles | March 26-28 | Location: t/b/a | Enrollment opens soon
• NYC | Roger Smith Hotel | April 9-12 | Enrollment opens soon
• Chicago | Location/date: t/b/a (around May)
• San Fransisco | Location/date: t/b/a (around June)

These are the fundamentals that we’ll cover together. A word of caution, though…

This intensive weekend experience is not for everyone.

Here’s the part where I’m supposed to drag it out and bury an insanely hard to justify price of, say, $2,997 in a slew of largely worthless bonuses with made-up price values to try and bump up the “perceived” value. You know, the old…”Here are my zillion bonus videos and mp3s worth an insane $12,497 and I’m giving them to you when you sign up today”

Are you as tired of that garbage as I am?

Sorry, people. You’re not stupid and I’m not going to treat you that way. Here’s the deal, plain and simple.

You get two and a half information, strategy, tactic and resource-packed days of my time and experience, sharing as much as I can possibly share, getting as personal and individualized as I can get not for $2,997, not even for $1,997 or $997…but, for only $697.

Actually, let’s go one giant step further…because I am huge believer in rewarding action (since it’s a sign of what it’ll take to succeed as an author), I’ll give you back $200 when you register at least 1 month before the event date (if there are any spots left), making your total tuition only $497.

And, when you’re one of the first 5 enrollees, you will also get private 30-minute book marketing consult with me by phone or skype ($250 value)…for FREE.

100% Money Back Social Media Enforced Guarantee

My goal whenever I do anything like this is to deliver 10 times the value of the tuition. That pretty much ensures you become a raving fan. And, I like that. Because, I’m a social media guy. And, since I’ll be turning you into a social media platform building ninja, you’ll be armed with the ability to tell the planet how insanely-valuable and super-cool our time together was. And, that’s worth a ton to me.

Plus, I also know that social media ninjas can talk smack as easily as they can flatter, and since I care a lot about my reputation across social media, I don’t particularly relish the thought of having a new one torn all over the web. So, I’ve got a whole lot of extra incentive to blow you away and exceed your every expectation.

Still, I don’t want you risking even a single dollar on this training

So, here’s what I’ve done–register today, commit to kickstarting your Digital Author Tribe, then participate fully in the first day.

If for any reason you don’t feel like you got way more than your money’s worth, simply come to me in person at the end of the first day, let me know and I will refund your tuition plus 10% on the spot.

Does that sound fair to you?

So, the ball’s in your court…

In the end, it really comes down to one question–who has the power? If you’re answer right now is, “not me,” then you’ve got two choices. Fantasize about a future that’s never going to happen…or build a next-generation digital tribe that’ll give you 10 times more power to control your writing, sell thousands more books and make a lot more money doing what you love.

To your writing success!

Much peace,

Jonathan

Jonathan Fields, Career Renegade®

P.S. – Here’s where us sassy marketers stick the important stuff we know you’re going to skim down to. So, let’s just skip all the B.S. Sign up or don’t sign up, won’t change my life either way. But, it very well may change yours.