I am working madly on my next big, in terms of pages, non-fiction book. It fits my primary field of professional expertise, athletics, but unlike most of my books is broader in scope and is applicable to any team sport. My expressed plan in writing the book was to help basketball coaches, the sport I have expertise in, and widen my potential sales base by writing the book in such a way the contents were applicable to more sports, increasing the number of coaches who might want to purchase the book.
Time and time again I have read comments by successful non-fiction authors and book marketing gurus stating a successful book launch and marketing strategy was planned before and while writing the book. And so it is with four months left to my target launch date I am not only working furiously to finish the manuscript but to also have everything in place for the book's launch.
The book will be printed using POD by CreateSpace and I plan to take advantage of the Expanded Distribution offered by CreateSpace. The book will be available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and a Sysko's books, a coaching product retailer specializing in direct sales of DVDs and books to coaches. The book will also be available in a Kindle and Nook version as well.
I plan to take maximum advantage of the long tail effect of Amazon in driving sales. While sales from Syskos are steady, they are wholesale and not nearly as large in number as sales of my other titles from Amazon. The store on my website will have been converted to an Amazon store. I will no longer sell books directly but steer all sales to Amazon. Using Amazon Affiliate status I can drive sales from my website to Amazon and benefit from both the long tail effect and the commission from books purchased on Amazon through my website.
For this book, I plan to seek out reviews on a scale I have never engaged in before. If time permits, I hope to have a review by Midwest Book Review. I plan to send out a generous number of review copies to coaches in a wide range of sports in hope of collecting blurbs, positive reviews and if possible, positive Amazon Reviews.
Currently I am working to amass a list of bloggers who might be interested in the content of this book and who blog about sports other than basketball. I have a good list of bloggers who cover coaching and basketball now. All of these individuals will receive review copies and a request to consider being part of a virtual book tour in mid to late August.
Excerpts from the book will be prepared as magazine articles and provided to a range of coaching related magazines in hopes of generating interest from a broad range of coaches at different levels of coaching and in as wide a range of sports as possible.
My own e-newsletter will be used to announce the POD and e-book versions. The book will also be included in the direct mail and e-mail promotion for the annual fall coaching clinic I organize and administer.
Some of the chapters will make for nice spin-offs as short Kindle books I plan to sell for .99. These books will promote the larger print and Kindle version of the book as well. I also plan to offer the Kindle version at a much lower introductory price initially in an effort to drive early sales and boost the book's Amazon sales ranking.
Finally, a traditional press release will be sent out to as wide a range of media as I can generate in the time available between now and the day the book appears on Amazon for sale.
This will be the most comprehensive effort on my part to launch a book. I am sure I will make mistakes but it is also my hope the effort will pay off and this book will be my most successful title yet in terms of sales. I will keep those of you who are interested informed.
For this book, I plan to seek out reviews on a scale I have never engaged in before. If time permits, I hope to have a review by Midwest Book Review. I plan to send out a generous number of review copies to coaches in a wide range of sports in hope of collecting blurbs, positive reviews and if possible, positive Amazon Reviews.
Currently I am working to amass a list of bloggers who might be interested in the content of this book and who blog about sports other than basketball. I have a good list of bloggers who cover coaching and basketball now. All of these individuals will receive review copies and a request to consider being part of a virtual book tour in mid to late August.
Excerpts from the book will be prepared as magazine articles and provided to a range of coaching related magazines in hopes of generating interest from a broad range of coaches at different levels of coaching and in as wide a range of sports as possible.
My own e-newsletter will be used to announce the POD and e-book versions. The book will also be included in the direct mail and e-mail promotion for the annual fall coaching clinic I organize and administer.
Some of the chapters will make for nice spin-offs as short Kindle books I plan to sell for .99. These books will promote the larger print and Kindle version of the book as well. I also plan to offer the Kindle version at a much lower introductory price initially in an effort to drive early sales and boost the book's Amazon sales ranking.
Finally, a traditional press release will be sent out to as wide a range of media as I can generate in the time available between now and the day the book appears on Amazon for sale.
This will be the most comprehensive effort on my part to launch a book. I am sure I will make mistakes but it is also my hope the effort will pay off and this book will be my most successful title yet in terms of sales. I will keep those of you who are interested informed.
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