If you are writing a book, you are working hard to create something that will bring value to others. You may be writing to inform, inspire or entertain, but odds are you are fully vested in your material and want nothing more than for others to consume it. As you may have read in the preamble to this three-part series on the launch of my new book, Twitter Power 3.0: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time, this first entry is all about preparing to launch the book. It’s my hope that this behind-the-scenes commentary will give you a better idea of what goes on before the book goes on sale. As mentioned in the previous piece, I enjoy taking different approaches to all my book launches. Experimenting with new ideas is great fun. It had been five years since the launch of Twitter Power 2.0. While there was certainly some social sharing involved in this launch, the book sold well mainly due to brick & mortar bookstore sales. However, since that time social media has become a ubiquitous part of our daily activity. I thought it would be interesting to go full-steam ahead on an online launch that would seek to create a great deal of chatter around the book. The Players On this third edition, I invited my good friend Dave Taylor to co-author with me. He’s a prolific author in his own right and also super smart. Together, we were able to bring Twitter Power up-to-date and introduce many new elements into the manuscript. The two previous editions included a foreword by Tony Robbins. Since Dave and I were doing a major overhaul of the book, we thought it time to bring in a new contributor for the foreword. We invited Guy Kawasaki to take up the challenge and he graciously said yes. I also recruited Matt Clark of Tweetpages.com to update the cover and handle all graphic design related to the official site at TwitterPower.com and all related promotional banners. Matt’s the very talented guy who designed my blog as well as all my social profiles. With my project manager, Amber Vilhauer, up to the task, I began formulating a plan that wouldn’t be a complete time suck, yet would accomplish the goals of bringing attention to, and sales of, the book. The Promotion Being a book on social media, I opted to contact my friends, peers and associates in the social space to assist with the book launch. While the list could have been as long as 500 people, I choose to send a direct message to nearly 275 of the people on my list. I am not a “you scratch my back, I scratch yours” person. I believe every promotion needs to be viewed on its own merits. This means not every promotion is a right fit for everyone. I am not offended if someone doesn’t wish to promote my products. Nor will it preclude me from considering a promotion of their product or service in the future. If it’s a fit, it’s a fit. If not, no problem. My message asked if they would like to receive a review copy of Twitter Power 3.0 in advance of release. It also provided information about the book launch and gave options for participating in a number of different ways. 1) An honest review at Amazon.com. It’s a good idea to prime the pump for launch day and having legitimate reviews on the site is always a good idea. 2) Contributing a photoquote (like the ones in my book Social Poetry) for a multi-author effort that would feature an educational, inspiring or entertaining message. The idea was to create a bonus for those who purchased Twitter Power 3.0 which would bring together a community of social media and business leaders in one book. We also encouraged sharing of images from within the PDF so others could easily post their favorites on Facebook and Twitter. 3) Sharing a photo of themselves with Twitter Power 3.0 on the social sites. 4) Sharing the book via social media on launch day, which was April 2, 2015. We would provide images, tweets, Facebook posts and pre-written email copy to make it easier to share. 5) An invitation to share in a Thunderclap campaign, which would automate the social sharing on launch day by prescheduling it so that all tweets and shares would hit at one time. In retrospect, the message to my friends and peers was too long. If I could go back, it would have briefly asked if they wanted a review copy and if they wanted more info on how to share the book on launch day. If they answered affirmatively to the latter, a more detailed “here’s how to participate” email would have been sent. I’ve been in this business for twenty years and I’m still learning. I persuaded my publisher (John Wiley & Sons) to send 230 copies of the book to those that said they would like to receive a review copy. My hope was that enough people would share on launch day to drive significant sales to TwitterPower.com, where people could learn about the book, the multiple bonuses we were offering and how to purchase online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million. Apart from some of my peers that signed up for the Thunderclap campaign, I also invited my Facebook friends and Twitter followers to participate. 218 people signed up to share via Thunderclap with a promised reach of 7,112,923 people. With review copies sent and all prep work done, we would be ready for launch day on April 2nd. To be continued…
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