Book Marketing Just Got A Whole Lot Saner…

SPECIAL NOTICE – IN SEPTEMBER 2010, WE’LL BE ANNOUNCING A FANTASTIC NEW VIRTUAL FORMAT FOR THIS PROGRAM AND ADDING A BUNCH OF NEW OFFERINGS.

IN ANTICIPATION OF THIS, ALL LIVE PROGRAMS, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF OUR IN-HOUSE, ENTERPRISE-LEVEL TRAININGS, ARE CURRENTLY SUSPENDED.

SO BE SURE TO JOIN OUR EMAIL TRIBE FOR ADVANCE
NOTICE OF THE NEW PROGRAM LAUNCH!

Not long ago, I was talking to a friend, actually a blogger who’s been more or less stalked by big New York publishers for the last three 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 publisher.

We ran the numbers every way we could and, in the end, realized that unless he got a six-figure advance, he couldn’t make it work. Because he could do it in half the time and make just as much if not a lot more by publishing it himself and leveraging his own platform and relationships.

And, the fascinating thing is…

You literally couldn’t have done this just 5 years ago.

The notion of authors like us being able to harness a giant community of die-hard fans, talk directly with them whenever we wanted then, when the time was right, inspire them to not only buy our books, but pre-order and then evangelize…well that was just crazy talk. Unless you were a celebrity or other form of rarified media titan.

But, technology has now opened a window for us. It’s shattered the glass and the steel bars that kept us down for decades. Truth is, life as an author or aspiring author will never be the same. Because we now have the ability to reclaim power and control over the process like never before.

But, there’s a big, BIG “IF”

IF…you know how to leverage that technology to do two essential things:

• One - Cultivate what I call your “Tribal Love Triangle,” the social media trifecta that taps the 20% of social media that delivers 80-90% of results (without you losing your mind or giving up your life), then
• Two – Build and launch a leading-edge, 3-stage launch campaign designed to explode pre-sales, compress early live-sales into the first few weeks, then keep your book humming along for months or even years.

I learned how to do this through personal experience (and making a whole lot of mistakes, lol)…

A few years back, I was an entrepreneur, recovering mega-firm lawyer and marketer with a secret jones to become an author. Then, I landed my first deal with Random House/Broadway, but I didn’t know squat about the world of publishing. So, I decided to tap the work ethic and research abilities I’d developed in the law to devour everything I could find on book marketing.

It didn’t take long to realize the online world would need to be a big part of every author’s marketing efforts if they wanted to survive in a market that was changing at breakneck pace. So, I immersed myself in the worlds of social media, online marketing and began to build my reputation not just as a soon-to-be author, but a well-known blogger, social media presence and online marketer.

I was ready to go, but there was a big problem…

My book was set to hit the street in January 2009 and it’s core message urged readers to leave their jobs to start a new business…in what is now considered the worst economy since the great depression. At that time, nearly every person was clinging desperately to the job he or she had, no matter how much it sucked. Nobody wanted to hear what I was saying.

By all rights, this book should’ve been a massive failure. Dead in the water!

But, I wasn’t giving up. I hunkered down and…

Launched a cutting-edge online and offline platform-building and launch campaign that:

• 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
• Built a substantial platform as a blogger and social media presence with thousands of amazing friends, potential readers and devoted evangelists
  
• Built a an incredible, worldwide tribe of readers, listeners, collaborators, friends, evangelists and partners.
• Landed nearly 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, by all rights, should’ve been pulped on arrival!

In fact, that book is coming out in Chinese this summer and I’ve been pursued by top publishers to both give them next books and teach their authors how to sell more books. (Secret – I just sold my second book to another major NYC publisher in a preempt – announcement coming soon).

As much as I love to write, though, I also love to share what I’ve discovered…especially when it’s:

• Knowledge that’s insanely hard to acquire, would cost of ton of money, take a ton of time and force you endure a ton of mistakes along the way (all of which I did, lol), and
• Information, ideas and strategies that will help a lot of authors sell a lot more books, get paid a whole lot more money and have a lot more control over their careers.

So, I decided to share what I’ve figured out with a small group of insanely motivated authors and aspiring authors…

[NEW EXPANDED VIRTUAL PROGRAM TO LAUNCH IN FALL 2010]

Tribal Author Camp is an intimate, 3-day book marketing immersion designed
to empower you take charge of your writing career and sell a lot more books.
It’s limited to only 25 authors and aspiring authors

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 no

Day 2: Building Your 3-Phase 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 reviewers
• 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 hyper-creative 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: This is what I call the ultimate “integration” day, where it all comes together. Guided by me, individually, in small groups and hotseats, you will create your own platform-building strategy and 3-stage launch campaign.

You’ll also learn how to avoid some of the biggest mistakes and money pits made by aspiring authors, established authors and even mega-publishers, 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

Here’s What Recent Camp Grads Are Saying…

So, what’s this gonna cost you?

There are no fake bonuses worth a pretend zillion dollars, you won’t be forced to endure a parade of people pitching you from the stage to spend thousands more to get the “real” secrets. Nor will you have to fight for personal attention in a ballroom full of others.

If you hired a publicist or marketing firm to to this for you, you’d drop between $12,000 and $45,000 for a three to four month retainer. And it’d be a one shot deal. You’d have to spend the same insane amount every time you launched a new book. And, in exchange for that monster sum, you’d get zero promise of success (and, often…zero success). Buh-bye retirement fund and books sales.

Truth is, most of the people you’d hire won’t even know how to do a fraction of what I’m about to teach you.

Because this stuff is so new, it’s literally evolving and changing by the day. You need to live and breath it. Blink and you’re left behind. Plus, one of the core unspoken rules of getting social online is…you can’t outsource the relationship. Well, you can…but, man, will you pay the price.

So, when you join me at camp, it’s just you, me and a small group of people working hand-in-hand. I will teach you what you need to know to build a big, engaged tribe that you control for as long as you choose, keep it growing and devoted, then craft a custom campaign designed to launch and sell a ton of books.

Learn it once, leverage it forever. The fee is [FEE FOR NEW VIRTUAL PROGRAM TO BE ANNOUNCED IN FALL 2010].

Compare that to the $60,000 to $225,000 you’d have paid someone else to attempt (most often unsuccessfully) to launch your next five books, before you were a Tribal Author Camp grad…and learned how to do it 10 times better yourself, while spending next to nothing.

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?

This intensive weekend experience is not for everyone.

• If your book is a dud, a platform won’t do much for you. All the eyeballs in the world won’t turn a bad product good. And, this training will not teach you how to write.
• It’s fine if you don’t have your book written yet, but you must have a clear idea about who you are writing to.
• If you’re looking for a quick-n-easy, work-free fix, go away. This will take some serious time and some serious work (though, it’ll cost you very little). The longer you have the better. If it’s a few months before your launch, you can get started, but it’s doubtful you’ll have anywhere near the level of platform juice you’ll have 6, 12 or 18 months down the road…unless you’re willing to work very hard.
• If you’re a seminar junkie who loves to keep blowing money on trainings but never acts on anything you learn, please give your seat to someone else who’s ready to take action, make real money writing and change their lives.
• If you’re so strapped for cash that the price will set you back months or take food out of your kids mouths, please keep your money. The process takes time, there is not such thing as an instant return. I am going to try to set aside one or two scholarship spots for the November event. if you’re interested in one, just complete the form below without payment info and let me know you’d like to be considered and why (the decision on this likely will not be made until the week before the event).
• If you write fiction-only, yes, this approach will still works, but you’ll need to approach it differently, get hypercreative and be willing to potentially get personal. Truth is, too, it likely will be harder to pull of than if you write nonfiction. We will go through some very cool case studies that reveal how fiction writers have made this work well for them during the training, but nonfiction is definitely easier.
• If all you want to do is write, then step aside and let your publisher do all the marketing without being “troubled” to hustle like crazy to make your book a success…stay far, far away. In fact, you may also want to hone your table-waiting skills while you’re at it. Like it or not, the simple fact is the publishing industry has changed in a huge way. And, if you’re not willing to participate in marketing your book, don’t expect anyone else to step up, either.

So, remember, there are only 25 seats, when you reserve yours, please just be sure you’re ready to take action on what you learn. This training is for do-ers, not watchers or complainers.

FYI – Why only 25 seats?

Is this some slimy scarcity thing? Nope. Two reasons we cap the camp at 50 max. And, we may actually drop that number this time around, too:

One - It’s a live event, so, unlike online events, teleseminars or info-products where the “virtual seats” are endless, we actually have to reserve a physical space with “real” seats. Once those seats are gone, they’re gone for real.

Two – There are a bunch of book marketing mass-conferences that make people pay for the privilege of being packed into the biggest airport hotel ballroom they can find with hundreds (sometimes thousands) of others, then barraged by a parade of marketers who give up 25% of their “magic power” tactics, then pitch you on paying thousands more for the rest.

I’ve been to those events. And, I have one word word…YUCK!

I limit TAC to 25 people max because that’s a large enough group to create tremendous energy and mastermind ideas, but it’s still intimate enough for a lot of personal attention and breakthrough moments. So, if you’re looking for a giant, glittery book marketing pitchfest with fancy people looking to sell you more stuff, please do not take a seat in Tribal Author Camp.

The ball’s in your court…

In the end, it really comes down to one question–

“Do you want to sell a lot more books, reclaim control over what you write and take charge of how much you earn?”

If you’re answer is yes, then its time to build your digital tribe and custom launch strategy.

So, what’s the call…

Will you BE the crowd…or LEAD it?

RESERVATION LINK TEMPORARILY DISABLE WHILE WE PREPARE TO EXPAND AND RE-LAUNCH THE VIRTUAL VERSION OF THIS PROGRAM. BE SURE TO JOIN OUR E-MAIL TRIBE FOR ADVANCE NOTICE

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.

P.P.S. – If you’re waiting until next time I offer this training, um, get off your butt and come this time. The longer you give yourself to build your digital platform, the more power you grow. The less time you give yourself, the less power you’ll have. I’d rather launch a book on a year’s platform power than a month’s.

P.P.P.S. – This is killer information for both aspiring and established authors. If you’re not yet signed, it’ll give you way more bargaining power with publishers or give you enough juice to decide to publish yourself and collect a way bigger piece of the pie. And, if you’re established, it’ll help you build a bigger tribe, sell more books and steadily increase your standard advance.

P.P.P.P.S – (I just loved typing all those P’s) – Rather than gunking up this page with all kinds of screen shots and blah blah blah images to “prove” I know my stuff, just google my name, Jonathan Fields, or my book’s name, Career Renegade. The results alone should be all you need to believe I don’t just talk the talk, I walk the walk.

P.P.P.P.P.S. – Can you imagine how much less stressful it is to build a large, friendly, devoted audience and simply let them know “it’s time,” than to have to pay a lot of money to interrupt mass number of strangers with ads that try to shove your book down their throats.