How I Sold Over 70,000 Ebooks (and How You Can Too)

Note from me: I will be away this week speaking in Kenya, Africa. My good friend Dan Black will be moderating my comments. Thank you Dan! Be WARNED! This is a long post and as a result it will be my only post this week.

On a daily basis I get at least ten emails asking me how I sold my ebooks and how someone can sell an ebook they just released. I understand wanting to know how to sell because self-publishing is VERY HARD! You would think there would be people out there willing to get the valuable information we write and put out to the world, but it’s not easy to get their attention. This post is meant to be a help with that.

I have spoken literally all over the world about the two main components of successfully self-publishing: using the power of your story and making REAL connections with people. Unfortunately I had to learn this lesson the hard way when I first started out.

I wanted so badly to sell my ebook so that I could get away from a job that I absolutely hated and live a life I only dreamed about. So instead of making connections and spreading a message, I became a spammer. I flooded social media and even my real life relationships with my book, I told everybody that would listen that I had a book and why they should buy it.

If you have followed me for anytime then you know my story, if not you can go to my about page and read my story or listen to the many interviews I’ve done and get the full story :) for the sake of time I will move on.

After the first two months of my book being released I sold five (eight total but three were from friends) copies and not only was I crushed, I couldn’t figure out why. It took me two weeks before I even looked at a computer again and got back to trying to make my dream a reality. I did some research and this is what I found:

What I did wrong

I was a spammer.  I mentioned this a little but I really tried to cram my book down people’s throat. I would post once every hour on Facebook and twice an hour on Twitter. I called people I hadn’t talked to in ten years and told them about the book. I told anybody I saw at work or anywhere I went about the book, everybody in the world knew about my book
I only focused on the money. I had to get away from this miserable job and I needed income ASAP! The money was all I could think about and it motivated what I did. Every post I wrote on my blog led to buying the book. Every post I had on social media led to a link about the book. In the end I lost most of my readers and most of my friends and fans on social media. When the money didn’t come I was crushed and wanted to give up, I lost faith in my dream.
I was impatient and took shortcuts. The process of successfully self-publishing requires a lot of patience and time, it’s just not going to happen over-night. I read so much information on how to do this so I thought I could speed up the process. It really made everything I did very sloppy and it wasn’t even close to my best work. When the sales didn’t come right away, I would go back to my default move: spamming.
The 20 reasons posts. I’m a writer so I was convinced that I could write my way into some books sales. I would write posts like “20 reasons to buy my book” or “1o reasons you can’t live without my book”. These posts were a completely FAIL! I know you want to sell your book and you want to write to show people the benefits of your book but this kind of writing completely turns people off!
I lost sight of the message. I originally started writing to help people and show them that there is hope. I wanted to be a voice for the little guy and give them options. When my book came out I lost sight of that message and just focused on selling the book. The message was lost for a long time and it makes me wonder how many people I missed out on helping.
I didn’t have a real campaign. When the book first came out I would promote it hard-core, two weeks later I didn’t bring it up at all. Then I would read a story that inspired me and I would be back to promotion mode. I continued this see-saw ride and promoting and forgetting, there was absolutely no consistency. If your book is going to be successful you must have a consistent way to promote the book even going forward.

What I did right (after I learned)

“People don’t buy with their minds they buy with their hearts” Peter Drucker

The main thing that I finally figured out that made the books start selling was the power of real connection and a good strategy. For too long I talked above people and they couldn’t identify with me or what I was writing about. This turned people away from my website and away from my books.

As far as my strategy? I had none! I didn’t have any traffic to this website and a small following on social media, no one shared my message. No one knew I was alive and that I wrote any books, so how could anybody buy them?

When I researched strategy I knew that the best way to get traffic was to guest post. I started sending out guest posts to anyone and everyone. The very first guest post I landed was on Dan Black’s blog (thank you Dan Since then I have guest posted for blogs like: Michael Hyatt, Dan Miller, Jeff Goins, Jon Acuff and many, many more! A BIG thank you to everyone who has let me guest post, I owe you BIG time!

After all the guest posting I finally got the traffic, then it was about giving people more once they visited my website. I had to give people more than they got everywhere else, it had to be an experience. I stopped focusing on the money and started spreading a message, a message of hope. Even though I hadn’t arrived where I wanted too, I still wanted to help people who were in the same situation as me.

I started writing about what I was going through, the good times and the really bad times, I started sharing my story. I told myself I was a writer so I wrote, wrote and wrote! I didn’t bring up the book at ALL! I had the traffic and I figured if people were interested, they could find out about the book on their own.

I didn’t check my stats or book sales for two months and just helped people, after two months I was surprised to see that I had sold thousands of copies, what?? I started hitting things harder, guest posting more and doing interviews all over the place, I really got the word out.

Once people identified with my story and I made that real connection (an emotional connection), they started to help spread the message. People would share my posts and books on social media and write reviews on their blogs, it was unbelievable!

The rest is history as they say. More people started buying the book and I self-published a second book. By this time I figured out the power of networking and I meet some amazing people online. We hit it off because we were spreading a similar message. When the second book came out I asked them to review and share a link to the book on their blog and social media.

I even gave away free copies for their audience, asking the winners to share on social media, the whole point being the exposure. More people were exposed and shared and bought, before I knew it the sales started to add up into some pretty big numbers.

After selling over 30,000 copies I got offers from several publishers and ended up signing a book deal with an amazing publisher. So that’s what I did, it isn’t some magical secret it just takes hard work and time.

If you are on or going down this journey I want you to brace yourself for a long and sometimes frustrating ride. However, I want to give you the strategy I would use if I could go back in time:

Find your audience and connect with them ASAP. Way before your book comes out, when the book is a thought in your mind, you should start working on building your following. The key here isn’t building the biggest audience in the world that includes anybody, the key is a targeted audience of people that identifies with your message. When you reach out to people who aren’t really interested and convince them to check out your work, you’ll get a response from them like “your prices are too high” or “you write too long”. Your goal is to connect with your audience and go over the top for them and not waste your valuable time trying to convert everybody else. If you don’t have a blog or website, get one ASAP. You need a place to start spreading your message and letting people see what your work is all about. You need to make REAL connections, when someone comments on a post: respond. When someone shares a link to your latest post on social media: thank them. When someone takes the time to send you an email: write back. This may take time but it’s worth it and you’ll help people and inspire them in their journey. If you can do this people will see that you’re real and that you care, when they have a way to support you and your work (like by buying a book) they will. You can even get feed back for your book as you write it and see if you’re on tack with the message by posting it on your blog, people will feel like they wrote the book with you and they’ll be excited for it!
Network with other like-minded people. There are awesome people online that would make great friends and promotional partners. Brendon Burchard has said he wouldn’t be as successful as he is without his promotional partners. As you’re writing and read other great blogs take note of the ones that talk about the same message as yours, reach out to those bloggers and share your story and start that connection. Just remember that it works both ways and real networking is about helping each other out, promoting each other (as long as the material is good and you agree with the message). Before your book comes out you should be making these networking connections and organizing things WAY ahead of time.
Drop little teasers and build buzz. Two months before the book comes out you should drop lines from your book, quotes, pictures, whatever. The point is for people to know the book is coming and that it’s going to be awesome. Tap into your friendships and ask friends to share some of the teasers on their social media pages, you’re trying to create a viral effect.
Build a launch team. This is an idea that’s becoming standard for releasing books and it works. I myself have had the privilege to be on the launch teams for Chris Guillebeau, Michael Hyatt and Jeff Goins. If you don’t know what a launch team is all about, read about it here. The point is to form a team, usually 50 to 100 people who will help tell the world about your book. This group will also help with a very valuable part of the process, getting reviews for your book. When your book comes out and there’s a bunch of reviews, people will read them and are more likely to buy. This team can help not only help on their blogs but also create a huge buzz on social media. Put a call out on your blog and social media pages, ask what creative ways they will help you launch the book.
Give away FREE bonuses. In our society today we love to get free stuff. If you want to give your book the best chance for success, give something away when someone purchases it. It doesn’t have to be something big and elaborate, you can create an information product that’s along the same lines as the book. It can be a little work-book, it can be an audi0 guide, it can be a series of interviews. You can take the 10 most frequently asked questions about your topic and answer them and give that away as a bonus, don’t be afraid to give away multiple bonuses.  Mix and match the book with bonuses and services and whatever else you have on your site. People will love it and they tell others!
Get the word out everywhere. There are a wealth of opportunities out there to guest post, do podcasts and interviews. There is a lot of content that has to be created for all these places so they’re glad when they see great content that they can feature. The key is you can’t be shy, don’t be afraid to email someone, share your story and ask if they’re interested in having you. If you do land interviews and podcast, don’t turn them into a commercial for your book, make the interview about the message. Don’t know where to find places to interview? Check out the H.A.R.O. reporter there are thousands of places looking for great content. Get at least one link back to your book
Have an official launch date and make a big deal about it. For most of us writing and releasing a book is a dream come true, so why not go over the top. With my second book I gave away a Kindle Fire to one person who bought the book the week the book launched. You might not want to go that far but make it fun, create a little buzz. If you can even have a little dinner or something, take video and share it on your website. Make the launch that whole week and come up with something fun everyday.
Use video more. One thing that is really popular right now is video. Make a video about your story and how that led to writing the book. Video will help you get that emotional connection you need and it’s another way to get the message out, if you can why not make a book trailer?
Have some patience. The truth is even with the best strategy you’re probably not going to be an over-night success. It’s going to take time for the word to spread and the message to get out, the sales will come just at a slower place. Have the best, most positive attitude, you’re chasing your dream but just give that dream time to develop.

Wow, that’s a mouthful! I hope you can learn from my failure and successes and use these tips to help your book become a best-seller and a good source of income. If your dream is to become a writer then I pray that you reach that goal!

So this is what I did and what I’m continuing to do to sell my books and spread a message. At the end of the day my goal is to start a movement of people who don’t settle, who don’t make excuses but chase after the life they truly deserve! I pray you are one of those people