Description:
Now, for the first time ever, John Locke reveals the marketing system he created to sell more than 1,100,000 eBooks in five months!
His Credentials:
John is the eighth author in the world—and the first self-published author in history—to have sold 1 million eBooks on Kindle!
He is the first self-published author to hit #1 on the Amazon/Kindle Best Seller’s List, and the first to hit both #1 and #2 at the same time!
He is a New York Times best-selling author!
He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and Entertainment Weekly!
He has had 4 of the top 10 books on Amazon/Kindle at the same time, including #1 and #2!
He has had 7 books in the top 34 and 8 books in the Top 50 at the same time!
These numbers are not positions within a category. They are positions that include all Kindle sales including fiction, non-fiction, magazine subscriptions, and game apps!
By the middle of March, 2011, it had been calculated that “every 7 seconds, 24 hours a day, a John Locke novel is downloaded somewhere in the world.”
…All this was achieved PART TIME, without an agent, publicist, and at virtually no marketing expense!
(please note this description is directly copied from Amazon…I’m not so into exclamation points myself)
Review:
So it’s true– across several titles John Locke was able to sell an enormous number of Ebooks in a short amount of time. According to this book Locke’s previous dribble of sales had not responded to the $20,000 investment Locke made in advertising and marketing. In this book he shares the steps that he believes created his breakout success.
1. As a successful businessman in other ventures, John Locke had the wherewithal and capital to try many marketing techniques to sell his book.
John Locke tried a whole bunch of ways to sell his book: ways that cost money, and ways that didn’t work. Some examples of things that sounds like they might work (but don’t) are hiring a PR guy, advertising on a kiosk in the mall in front of a book store, and appearing on radio interviews.
Most people don’t have the resources to throw money around like this. It’s pretty awesome that there is someone willing to share their failures so that others may benefit.
2. Locke creates a step step outline of how another author can mimic his technique for success.
When I say Locke outlines his method, I mean he numerically outlines his method.
The major gist is: know your reader, write for your reader, and get your readers attention with blogs and social media.
It’s a familiar equation if you’ve been reading around on the Internet already, but Locke really delves into the example of his own work to provide clarity. He gives pages and pages of what he knows about his reader. He provides the pivotal blogposts that exploded his brand.
And there is something special about what he is doing. He posts once every few months with something emotionally powerful.
3. The moral message of the book is admirable. The key to selling books is– provide great entertainment for readers.
This book is not about using the nitty gritty of using amazon to sucker people into sales. It focuses on presenting a genuine and compelling image to your fans.
Locke’s advise is to blog about the things you love, and hopefully readers will transfer their loyalty over to you because you have things in common.
Locke is all about pleasing the fans and doesn’t encourage manipulating them for gain. It has to be something true to really inspire long term loyalty.Seriously, you can check out Locke’s blog and see how he does this crazy thing. I had tears in my eyes at his latest post and clicked the book on the bottom. I think I’m going to send it to my Dad. He used his method on me! It’s so simple.
**Update**
I should also note, for honesty’s sake, that although John Locke does not mention this, but he paid for reviews of his book two months before his sales skyrocketed. I don’t believe in paying for reviews, I think there are plenty of people out there who will read good books for free (like I do). It was not OK that he did not mention this.
That being said, I still think there is worth in this technique just from personal observation. Locke is really good at using his blog to connect emotionally with readers. There is something to be learned for in that.
I try to keep my reviews to the book themselves and not other things an author has done. So I can both frown upon payment for reviews, and enjoy a book an author has written separately. As a stand alone book, I really liked “How I Sold” before I knew about all this. I think other authors can still profit from reading it.
4. There does seem to be some filler here.
Locke goes deeply into his history. I could have done with less of that, and less reiteration that the book is not about Locke’s ego. I get it.But at the same time I found his journey interesting, and I can understand why he put his success on certain methods over others.
In sum:
All in all. I’d say this is a great book for author-bloggers, as well as authors who have not yet pinpointed their audience. It is a good companion for the very different How to Make a Killing on Kindle.
