sell « Robin Writes

Do you have a book coach? Have you ever used one? Do you know what a book coach does?

A book coach is exactly that—someone with knowledge and experience who will help you with all aspects of your book:

Story

Plot

Light editing

Advice on cover design

Help with formatting

Query letter assistance

Submission questions

Publishing options

Now of course, you have the phone-a-friend option, and many of you belong to different groups, online or in person, and all these things are discussed and hashed out and debated. But for a more personal touch, you may want to hire a book coach.

Many, including myself, don’t require contracts or long-term plans. I charge $35 per hour for book assistance, and the topics can be any listed above, or even something else you might think of that requires any help.

I usually meet with clients locally, in person, but I can also do Skype or messaging, or even email or phone conversations.

Sometimes it can be very helpful to have one-on-one coaching, tailored to you and your book, instead of general advice that you might get from online posts or conferences or blogs.

Since there was so much interest last week, I’m expanding the topic of marketing and adding some information that a fellow author sent me.

He has had an incredible uptick in sales since using some of these sites, and, as a service to all of you, I decided to test a couple of them myself, to see if it was merely a fluke, or perhaps you might want to give it a whirl too.

All of these sites involved paid promotion—and some of you will say you can’t afford it. That may well be true, but like any business, you have to spend a bit to make money. Let’s start with looking at some figures:

On one of these sites, the first one I’m testing, the cost is $25. The email blast/blog/RSS goes to 700,000 people; the cost is about .00004 per view. That’s pretty darn cheap.

Of course, not everyone will actually read it, some won’t be interested in my book, and some will forget. Some readers may even not order it for weeks or months. But, since my Kindle version is priced at .99, I’ll earn about .50 per copy sold—if I sell 50 books, I break even.

My author friend’s book did much, much better. We shall see. And I’ll update you next week!

If I sell fewer than 50 books, that’s still however many books in the hands of readers who will talk about it, maybe review it. I’m still selling, and I’m still getting promotional value.

And one more thing—a number of sales in a short period also usually results in additional sales even after the promotion. Now, no one can guarantee this, but it’s often proven to be the case.

Here are the sites he recommends, after a year of research and documentation:

Some of these have had better results than other, of course, and it’s going to depend on the author, the book, the genre, and so forth. But this list is a good start for everyone, I think.

As I said, I’m testing them—the first promo I’m doing is on January 30 with Kindle Books & Tips—and I’ll let you know how it works out!