get rid of front matter in your book: 3 secrets, 2 links, 1 quote

Reader,

I missed you last week!

I was in Dallas getting to nerd out about book marketing at Top Gun Author.

On another note…
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We’ve just finished launching a very up-and-coming author in the mental health space, exceeding our initial expectations given the marketing assets available.

Our task was to take all of Mike’s marketing assets (email list, Amazon followers, relationships) and maximize the sales and impact of those assets with the launch of The Mind Rewired.

Thanks to Mike’s generosity, he’s cool with me sharing all the secrets with you. Thanks Mike!

Stay tuned for next week’s newsletter, where I’ll share my three biggest takeaways, along with what worked well and what didn’t.

3 Secrets:
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​1. Is your pitch even being opened?

Use software that lets you see who has opened your emails.

This lets you see whether the podcast host, blog owner, influencer, or author you’ve been trying to reach is even seeing your email.

This way you know if you need to try another subject line or if your message is what needs changing.

It also helps you identify whether it’s a deliverability issue with your email.

​Here‘s one option.

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​2. Get rid of as much “front matter” as possible

Get rid of endorsements in your front matter.

The first thing someone reads in your book should surprise them and entice them to keep reading.

For example, in the first paragraph of The 21 Day Miracle, Ed Rush writes that the age old story of the tortoise and the hare is WRONG.

He writes, “You’ve been told slow and stead wins the race….they don’t.”

Russell Brunson also says the way to get people to pay attention is to dismantle a false belief of theirs.

From then on, you have their attention.

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3. Seeding IS putting yourself in a position to get lucky
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Jim Murphy spent 15 YEARS getting 9,000 copies “into the wild”.

Then during an NFL Wild Card game last year, AJ Brown of the Philadelphia Eagles was seen reading his book on the sidelines.

That day Jim sold over 100,000 copies.

When you pick a number of copies to seed, you’re not just kick starting word of mouth for more sales.

You’re also kick-starting the opportunity for serendipitous handoffs to occur.

Eckhart Tolle (A New Earth & The Power of Now) took off when a friend of a friend (of a friend) passed the book to Oprah.
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2 Links

1. BEFORE THE BESTSELLER IS BACK!!! 2M+ Copies Sold: Michael Bungay Stanier on The Coaching Habit, Hybrid Publishing, and Building a Business Beyond Book Sales. Listen here.​
2. Meetup groups can be a great way to seed copies of your book into tight-knit communities. Find some local groups to share your book with here.​​

1 Quote

“I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.”
​~Coleman Cox

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with love and sincere appreciation,

Alex
​BeforeTheBestseller | ShelfLife​
alex@getshelflife.com
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