We all like to think we are special. It may not necessarily be the case, but we continue to be undeterred. We like to think we have something to bring to the table, something unique, our slightly off colour humour, our beehive hairdo, pulling off the underwear outside the pants look. But when every single person in your field is using the exact same mechanism as you, printed words, it is a lot more difficult to prove just how special you are to everyone else. Oh yes, of course you will eventually prove it with your words, but the reader has got to get that far first. In a world were first impressions count, how do you convince people within the time span of 2 mins (max) that your book offers something no-one else’s does? With a digital product you just can’t slap a piece of fur on the front cover to appeal to the senses, you can’t add shimmery gold lettering to dazzle the eyes. It’s about features. So the question is, how can you generate demand? Promising to complete a particular humiliating dare and stream it on YouTube if you get over 10,000 downloads MIGHT get you started, however, I’m going to say it’s not going to sustain you in the long term. Just a hunch.
To truly succeed in producing an e-book, you need to generate demand and make your novel unique. Cory Doctorow is a master at this. Simultaneously, his novel With A Little Help, can be downloaded as a free e-book, purchased as a $15 POD paperback in four different cover designs, or as an audio book download or CD. In addition he created 250, limited edition copies of his book each with their own individual features such as special end papers, illustrations, and SD card with digital specials such as the full text and audio of the novel. Each copy he sells for $275. By making his work special (and determining that there was a significant fan base for his work) he was able not only to generate a significant sum of money, but connect with his readers on a different level creating a fever around his words. But imagine taking that further and having one special edition made that had the only available copy of a certain story. What would that retail for? $2000? $5000? $10000? The above is particularly important for popular and established authors with large fan bases. By releasing such limited editions you are not only making more money, but you are creating a rarity and a fever around your work.
Authors and even publishers can take this further with the lowering costs of print on demand. Customising books to include a personal greeting from one person to another is a fantastic way of making your book unique (and allow you to retail it for more). It could be of a personal nature with a message from the gift-er to the gift-ee, or it could be of a corporate nature. By corporate I mean you could customise a particular book for a company by including the company’s logo and a greeting from them on the front page of the novel (anything from a Merry Christmas to a Hope You Enjoy Your Flight). For a publisher this could be a fantastic marketing ploy, allowing companies to customise a greeting for the start of a highly anticipated novel to give to their clients several days before its release. The company would, of course, pay for the exclusive pleasure.
Why is generating demand important? Other then increasing your profile, it also allows you to charge more money for your novel then if it was just a simple e-book. We will go into more detail with this on Monday in the second to last post of this 31day blog.
So, I challenge you. You think your e-book is special… Prove it.
TOMORROW: The Media Machine: How to recruit an army of readers to sell your work.
SUCCESS?? Have you started to apply the tips in this blog yet? If you have had success, I would love to hear about it! Please feel free to tell us in the comments section below.
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