The *instant* I suspect someone is gaming me or some system, they just lost all their trust points, plus one extra, just to make sure they know they’re in the hole with me.

Jonathan, one of the great things you do for me is keeping the balance; you’re never one to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I’m looking forward to more about the smart way to do this, the 3rd tribe way.

–The campaigns have become hackneyed and are simply uncreative. Like lemmings, authors latch onto these because they don’t understand that really successful book launches rely on incredibly hard work online and offline. That includes a variety of other types of campaigns such as blog tours.

–These campaigns pester people who become resentful at the list owner.

–I guard my lists like a grizzly guards her baby cubs. If you want to get in front or my list, you had better offer a TON of value, even to those people who don’t want to buy.

–You’d better have a flawless system in place that I can test before I offer your promotion to my list. I can’t count the number of times I’ve tested campaigns that have led to crappy landing pages, nightmarish shopping cart experiences and other glitches that the product creator never knew about because they were too lazy to test their own processes.

P.S. At least half the books I am asked to review or promote, mostly those that are self-published, should never have been written. The cover and the writing scream “amateur.”

Sadly, there are more poorly organized campaigns than stellar campaigns. Many people don’t have even a remote idea of what it takes to launch an extremely successful campaign.

Your mention of a well coordinated campaign going way beyond simply sending out a bunch of emails and miraculously making it to bestseller is important for people to recognize.

Any author who thinks all they need to do is slap a book and a haphazard launch together is sadly misguided.

First of all, why in the world would any author passionate about their work ever “slap” something together? If this is how they would get a book to market and conduct a campaign they are doing an injustice to those authors (and joint venture partners) who see a campaign as a viable and sound marketing strategy.

A great campaign goes beyond a simple email being mailed out all on the same day. A stellar launch includes a high quality book, reputable partners, quality gifts, and a well formed marketing plan to include pre-launch, launch and post launch strategies as well as excellent communication with everyone involved.

A successful launch is much more involved than most people would ever imagine. To not allow ample time to take care of all the details is setting yourself up for disappointment.

It is not unheard of for a campaign to begin months before the actual launch date. There is more to it than getting a few partners, throwing together poor quality bonuses, and sending out a message or two.

Unfortunately, some authors and/or promoters are taking a “fast food” approach to launches. They have a “take a pill to drop 100 pounds” mentality.

This is a huge turnoff to those who enjoy top quality campaigns. As someone who has participated in all sides of online book launches I frequently receive invitations to participate in new campaigns.

I accept less than 2 – 3%. Why? Because the book is not a good fit for my market; the person asking is not giving adequate time to plan for the promotions; it is apparent quality is not a priority for whomever is coordinating the launch and the approach is more like a cattle call than a personal invitation to participate.

Think about it; when a request to participate is obviously part of a mass mailing to dozens of others this certainly doesn’t make a potential partner feel very special. Although this might be time effective for the person asking, I would venture to say the conversion rate from asking to securing partners is very, very low.

Top notch launches
There are those who take campaigns very seriously and do a stellar job. There are also those who jump on the “I’ll make you a bestseller” bandwagon because they think it’s an easy way to make a buck. It’s those who slap campaigns together that give the reputable promoters a bad name.

When Amazon campaigns began the formula was very simple compared to what it is today. If anyone is still using the “five year old” model it is no surprise they are not achieving an ideal outcome.

Nowadays the process is much more complicated and sophisticated. With the integration of social media marketing additional aspects of a campaign involve video, blog tours, web radio, and blogging to name only a handful of what needs to be considered for powerhouse marketing.

Quality partners
In addition to the tactical aspects, you also need to secure partners who are a great match for your book and are completely committed to the success of the book launch.

Anyone who is serious about coordinating a high value and highly successful campaign will select quality partners; simple as that.

Bonus offers
It is a given that those who offer bonuses do hope to increase the size of their lists. However, a poorly developed bonus won’t do much at all for anyone. The lack of opt ins for a partner may be a direct result to the quality of the bonus description, the image used and stated value. If the value is not believable you won’t get many opt ins. For example, stating that a one hour MP3 is worth $1,000 is beyond ridiculous; it’s offensive.

To not care about the quality and integrity of the bonus is doing everyone a disservice. After all, it’s not just the book that’s being judged by buyers. The bonus gifts are also a huge factor in a buyer’s overall satisfaction with the launch.

Back-end opportunities
Although selling lots of books and becoming a “real” bestseller as a direct result of the launch is what virtually an author would want, these are only two of countless benefits.

To gain the most from time, money and effort involved, you absolutely need to have a back-end plan. Consider what opportunities the exposure from a campaign can do for you.

Marketing is an investment
To think that marketing does not cost anything is a huge mistake many people are making. Because of all that is available for free on the Internet, far too many people have lost site that growing a business, a brand and an author’s visibility does take money.

Granted, aspects of how we market may have changed, but the fact we have to invest in our marketing has not.

Your marketing investment is exactly why having a long term vision will reap you untold benefit. Along with the vision comes footwork, but that’s a completely different conversation.

Hitting #1
Bravo for saying it like it is. To hit #1 in an obscure category is not much to write home about. The fact is, depending how off the wall the category is a top position in the subcategory can be achieved with very few sales.

The true test is what position the book achieves overall. Any author is well cautioned to be very careful about calling themselves an Amazon bestseller if they simply made it to #1 in a low traffic category.

Sadly, many authors are misled to believe that all they have to do is become a bestseller and Oprah will be calling. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Anyone who truly desires to develop a stellar campaign needs to have a win/win/win mindset.
-Win for the buyers.
-Win for the partners
-Win for the author.

Any author who doesn’t think in terms of bringing massive value to everyone connected with a launch is speaking volumes about their own personal character.

For the author who contracts a coordinator, the partner who participates and they buyer of the book, as with anything, if you are being promised something that is too good to be true….well, it is.

More on bonuses
If the bonuses included in the campaign are merely slapped together, shame on whomever put the campaign together and the partners. If a partner can’t fully understand that their offer is their calling card it would make me question how they run the rest of their business.

In the end…
If an author is business savvy they will look for long term opportunities. They will also realize these opportunities don’t simply drop from the sky. It is a process.

And as you said Admin… (and I quote) about when done right and without sketchy promises, they CAN:
• Sell a lot of books, both in bursts and over time,
• Deliver “genuine” benefit beyond reading the book to both readers and list-holders,
• Lead people into a bigger business funnel that generates far more money than you’ll ever make on the book, and
• Help drive sales in a way that truly opens doors to media and speaking.

Again Admin, thanks for a thought provoking post. As someone who does coordinate campaigns I appreciate when the truth is spoken so eloquently.

Kathleen Gage
The Street Smarts Marketer

This post was mentioned on Twitter by jonathanfields: Email Book Marketing: The Ugly Side of Amazon Campaigns – http://bit.ly/9UV2uI...

My friend Michael Bungay Stanier recently did a very high quality promotion of his book, Do More Great Work, showing it can be done. But you have to be very careful with the tone of your campaign and the promises you make.