When Kathleen Gage’s assistant contacted me to see if I would help with her book launch and blog tour for Power Up for Profits: The Smart Woman’s Guide to Online Marketing, it seemed the perfect opportunity to support a fellow author and help readers of my book writing and publishing blogs get a look at a veteran author’s book launch secrets. Here is our interview:
Lisa: In Power Up for Profits: The Smart Woman’s Guide to Online Marketing, early in your introduction, you refer to people living in the someday, as in “Someday I will write the book; someday I will play bigger.” I enjoyed seeing that, since I think the two go together (writing a book and playing bigger) in a very powerful way. Is this something you often recommend and, if so, why?
Online marketing strategist, speaker and author Kathleen Gage
Kathleen: The majority of my clients would benefit from writing a book.
One, they are experts, and a book is a great way to position their expertise and their message and make a difference. If what you do even remotely heals the minds, bodies, spirits, finances and relationships of your tribe, you absolutely must do all you can to get your message out to market. A book is a great way to do this.
Two, most people have dreamed of writing a book for years, but get caught up in day-to-day activities, which push their dream to the back of their priority list. In reality, time slips away very quickly. Before we know it we’ve hit 40, 50 and, in my case, nearly 60 years old. The older I get the more I realize how precious life is and how important it is for us to be willing to stop playing small. The only reason we play small is we let imaginary fears hold us back. Playing big means different things to different people, but bottom line is it’s about giving life our all. And if writing a book is part of giving our all, then by all means write!
Lisa: So, I hear you saying, “Don’t wait for ‘some day.’ Write the book now.” In Power Up for Profits, you mention mindset as a key to online success.
Kathleen: It’s one thing to be positive, upbeat and grateful when everything is going our way. The greatest test of our beliefs is when things are not going our way. When you write a book and are working on getting the word out, you will often come up against roadblocks. What helps me to stay the course with any book I write is to keep showing up every day and take at least one action to get the word out about the book. Whether it be contacting a blog owner, a journalist, a magazine publisher, a radio show host or an affiliate partner, action is the answer. But not just any action—inspired action. Inspired actions are those we take when we get a thought to do something and then do it.
Lisa: What are some of the most successful strategies you’ve used to market–and sell–your books?
Kathleen: One of the most effective strategies for selling books is third-party endorsements. This is where others say how good a book is rather than the author blowing her own horn. Don’t get me wrong, I believe we need to blow our own horn, but as in the case of Power Up for Profits, I have the likes of Suzanne Evans, Peggy McColl, Dr. Joe Vitale, Eva Gregory, Adam Urbanski, and Steve Olsher who gave glowing endorsements.
Another effective strategy is letting my opt-in subscribers know about any new book I take to market. When you have a responsive list you will have a percentage of them, who will buy any book you write because they love your stuff. But you need to keep in touch with your subscribers. Create value on a regular basis and when it comes time to promote your book, you will have eager buyers.
One of my favorite ways to sell books is with live presentations. I love when I connect with my audience. When you are in your zone and you connect with an audience, they are eager to buy your books.
Lisa: What are some of the strategies you are using to market Power Up for Profits?
Kathleen Gage’s Book, Power Up for Profits
Kathleen: I began the marketing of Power Up for Profits some months ago, using a multi-pronged approach—a pre-launch, a launch and a post-launch.
- Pre-launch included several high-value giveaways, including an expert series where 36 global experts shared short business-building strategies. This was very well received.
- I then gave away a couple of chapters of the book with the possibility of one person winning $1,000 worth of marketing strategy time with me. We hit a home run with this one.
- Then there was my three-part video series people opted in for – The Fastest Route to Building a Profitable Business. Again, people opted in for the series.
The idea with each of these is to continue to fill our funnel with potential book buyers. With each group we can market the book specific to what they opted in for.
- During the actual launch, we have lots of people spreading the word through solo messages, social media messaging, tweeting, blog posts and interviews.
- Post launch, we will be doing more promotions to those who opted in for the pre-launch offers. Additionally, there will continue to be guest-blogging opportunities and radio interviews.
In addition to all we have done online, I have done an incredible amount of outreach to the media. I am also doing live presentations, teleseminars and webinars for the purpose of raising awareness about the book.
Lisa: Are you finding any of the old strategies for book marketing don’t work as well as they used to and are you trying any new strategy that you are particularly excited about?
Kathleen: Years ago, I specialized in teaching authors what used to be called, “How to Become an Amazon.com Bestseller” and I now call it “the old model of becoming an Amazon.com bestseller.” This was where you would get a bunch of partners to contribute bonus gifts, and they would all email their subscribers about your book on the same day to promote the book.
The main reason they did the mailing was to drive traffic to the sales page, the person would buy the book and then be given a link to a private page with all the bonus offers. The partners’ goal was to have buyers opt into their bonus gift. With dozens of people helping to promote your book, chances were good you would get a lot of new subscribers.Unfortunately, many partners never even read your book. All they wanted was the chance to build their subscriber list.
When it was first introduced to market, this model did work very nicely, but with most people being on information overload, a bunch of useless bonus gifts isn’t very appealing any more. I quit teaching that model about four years ago.
With the Power Up for Profits campaign I have combined multiple ways to raise awareness about the book. Rather than trying to have a home run on one day, call the book a bestseller and leave it at that, my vision is much more long-term.
This campaign is a rolling launch, which means it will be happening for quite some time to come. It’s about implementing a sustainable model of promotions and sales for any book an author releases. The greatest advice I can give an author is to think long-term, with an integrated process. The benefits will be far greater than rising on the charts for a day and then drifting into obscurity. Whatever type of book you write, I wish you the very best in getting it out to market in a big way.
About Kathleen Gage: Kathleen Gage helps entrepreneurs make money online. Her clients are driven by making a difference through their own unique voice. Her newest book, Power Up For Profits; The Smart Woman’s Guide to Online Marketing is the perfect resource for any author who wants to reach more of their market in the fastest, most cost effective methods possible. For a very limited time when you order the book through Amazon you receive Kathleen’s full Six Figure List Building Program and Sell Thousands from Any Platform. You can get the full details here.
