Provide bonus content with your book

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Provide bonus content with your book

One great way to boost book sales �� especially if you write nonfiction and sell your titles through your own website, is to offer bonus content. That is, when a person buys your book, they get an additional book or item for free.

A bonus encourages others �� especially fence sitters �� to buy your book or product. That��s because it increases the value of their purchase. A bonus also can give you an advantage over competitors, particularly those who don��t offer one.

The first step in offering a bonus is to determine what will be a great gift. Sometimes it��s as simple as creating a second but smaller product, say a 30-page booklet instead of a 160-page volume. Alternately, if you have a really large product �� say 320 pages, perhaps you can separate a couple of chapters from it for use as a booklet that then can be a bonus.

The bonus should be something that offers the ��right answer,�� meaning it answers some important question that you anticipate your potential clients are asking. For example, if you wrote a book about how to surf, then a good bonus would be a booklet on how to pick out the best surfboard. Someone who wants to learnt o surf, after all, probably wants to know what kind of board they should get.

The bonus also should be an extension of the product, something extra that would give anyone buying the book with the bonus an edge over those who at a latter date only buy the book. If you wrote a book about coaching basketball skills to youth teams, for example, the bonus might be a booklet on how to motivate players. This also would deliver the ��right answer�� as coaches with useful basketball drills in hand might ask ��How do I motivate my players?��

Lastly, the bonus ought to be something that stands out in the crowd or something no one else is offering. If you wrote a how-to book for beginner backpackers, and your competition wrote bonus booklets about how to navigate on the trail, then you shouldn��t. Instead, make the competition��s bonus part of your main book and create a new bonus on a related topic that no one else is writing about.

The bonus you offer can come in many forms. For most authors, the obvious bonus to create is a smaller book. But also consider mixing it up a bit and giving away access to audio files, checklists, mini-courses, private communities/forums, quick start guides, resource lists, videos or webinars.

Always offer the bonus in a separate package from the product. So if you��re offering two books, don��t include the bonus at the back of the book buyers would purchase. Actually deliver to them a second book that is solely the bonus material. Customers will feel like they��re getting more when you package it that way.

Perhaps the most common way to use your bonus is to send a special email promoting your product in which delivery of bonus is automated after purchase. Sometimes to obtain a bonus, the buyer may need to log into a web portal at a membership site. For either option, you likely will need to install apps on your website.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

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