How to Increase Sales of Your Self-help or How-to Book on Amazon – In Just 7 Minutes with Geoff Affleck

Resources/Links:

• To get more FREE advice on what you need to do as a first-time author, click here: geoffaffleck.com/ebook

Summary

Are you planning on publishing a book, but don’t know how to start? Or maybe you’ve already done it but wonder why it’s not selling the way you want it to.

Publishing a book is a great way to put yourself out there, sell yourself and your product, and increase your leads and sales. But how can you maximize the potential of your book, especially online in the busy and bustling marketplace?

Geoff Affleck has helped hundreds of authors to publish, launch and promote #1 bestselling books ranging from Kindle eBooks to New York Times bestsellers.

Listen in to Geoff and find out what are the things you should be doing and you should be avoiding as a first-time author in a busy online marketplace, like Amazon, and get your sales sky high!

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:33 – Geoff’s ideal client: My ideal client is someone who’s a thought leader, professional, basically an expert. They may have already published self-help, how-to business, health, relationships, and spirituality book, or planning to publish one in the next 12 months.
• 02:07 – The problem he helps solve: I would say there are two. There’s the problem of publishing the book. So how do I strategically publish it? How do I successfully publish a nonfiction book? And the other would be how to sell copies.
• 03:16 – The symptoms of the problem: That would be one of them. So, one of them is that their sales have stalled, maybe they never took off in the first place. And so, therefore, you know, the book is not doing what it was designed to do, which was to build its credibility, build its brand, bring in new leads, and clients.
• 05:22 – Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Geoff: Well, the first thing is that they often have published the book themselves, which is highly recommended, but they didn’t know what they were doing. Why would they? It’s their first time publishing a book, how would you know?
• 07:05 – Geoff’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): I would say what that would be is to make sure that inside your book, right after the copyright page, you have a separate page with a valuable free offer on that page. You know, a headline or a quick description, a picture of it, whatever it is, and then a link to your landing page right inside your book.
• 07:30 – Geoff’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): To get more FREE advice on what you need to do as a first-time author, click here: geoffaffleck.com/ebook
• 07:50 – A: We’ve kind of alluded to it, but I want to be specific. If someone has a book that’s not selling, figure out why it’s not selling. And then fix it.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“If someone has a book that's not selling, figure out why it's not selling. And then fix it.” -Geoff Affleck Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:10
Greetings, everyone, and a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I am Tom Poland beaming out to you from the Sunshine Coast in Australia joined today by another Australian but not in Australia. Geoff Affleck, a very warm g’day from Down Under. Sir, where are you hanging out?

Geoff Affleck 00:25
Good day, Tom. Yes, I’m hanging out on Vancouver Island, British Columbia where I’ve lived for about the last half of my life, but formerly Melbourne.

Tom Poland 00:33
For what, 15 years?

Geoff Affleck 00:35
Yeah, that’s right! 15 years.

Tom Poland 00:36
And where did you hang out from originally?

Geoff Affleck 00:39
Melbourne.

Tom Poland 00:40
Everyone’s going to want to know the most important question in the whole interview is why did you go to Vancouver Island?

Geoff Affleck 00:45
Skiing, and, of course, there was a girl.

Tom Poland 00:49
Bet there was. Okay, so thank you for that. A little bit of background, folks. Other information you didn’t know about Geoff. He’s helped, literally, hundreds of authors to publish, launch and promote the part most people forget about. He’s the number one bestseller ranging from Kindle eBooks to New York Times bestsellers. And as we all know, books are one of the biggest credibility builders and door openers in the world of Marketing the Invisible, so I can’t wait. So, let’s get rock and roll! How to Increase Sales of Your Self Help or How-to Book on Amazon. Geoff, our time starts now. Sir, question number one, who is your ideal client?

Geoff Affleck 01:33
So, my ideal client is someone who’s a thought leader, professional, basically an expert. They may have already published self-help, how-to business, health, relationships, and spirituality book, or planning to publish one in the next 12 months. And they understand that a successful book is a really important tool for positioning themselves as an expert in generating new leads and clients.

Tom Poland 01:58
Perfect! And question number two, therefore, six and a half minutes left. Tell us about the problem you solve. I suspect it has something to do with getting the book sold.

Geoff Affleck 02:07
Yeah. So, I would say there are two. There’s the problem of publishing the book. So how do I strategically publish it? How do I successfully publish a nonfiction book? And the other would be how to sell copies. And one of the things I find that I canceled for people is, how do you revive a book that is not selling?

Tom Poland 02:25
Oh, interesting. I’ve got half a bookshelf for those. Because a lot of- folks, you know, I know when I did my first book. You know, you’re going to get into the book shops, and they’ll be there at the airport. And you know, people will be stopping me in the streets asking for autographs and so on. And it just doesn’t happen, then I picked up very quickly, is there a link between how and where you publish? And how easy it is to market the book later?

Geoff Affleck 02:52
Not necessarily. I think, you know, most people are all in the same places except maybe you’re not in book shops if you haven’t gone through a traditional publisher. Most people are buying their books on Amazon.

Tom Poland 03:05
Yeah. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. So, tell me, question number three is what are the symptoms that people are experiencing with this problem you help with? Tell us the symptoms. And I guess the simple symptom is the books aren’t selling, right?

Geoff Affleck 03:16
That would be one of them. So, one of them is that their sales have stalled, maybe they never took off in the first place. And so, therefore, you know, the book is not doing what it was designed to do, which was to build its credibility, build its brand, bring in new leads, and clients. It might even be hurting their image if you go to Amazon and you see that the book only got three reviews and is right next to the 2 million on the best seller list. The other symptom would be is if they have not published. You know, they probably, these folks, you know, you know that you should publish a book to build your credibility. But perhaps the problem is that you feel overwhelmed and maybe confused about how you do it. And how do you produce it? How do you publish it? How do you launch, and promote it? And how do you leverage it? And so, you might be feeling a symptom like your business isn’t growing the way it might, and perhaps the book, not having a book to be the problem that we need to address.

Tom Poland 04:10
So, there are two issues, really, that you’re addressing. One is that folks that have a look inside them, and then they don’t know, then they need to get out. But then- how to do that. But the other very interesting one, which I imagine, is a bit of a specialty is the book is already out there but is simply not selling. Very quickly, which is the easiest one for you to work with? I presume it’s the ones that are starting from scratch.

Geoff Affleck 04:31
Yeah, well, the one starting from scratch, you know, we’ve got a process to go through, right? So, it’s a fairly manageable process because everything at this point is within our control, so we can plan accordingly. We can avoid the mistakes that a lot of self-published authors and traditionally published authors make and do things right in the first place. And then six months out or 12 months, we’ve got the book published and launched and set it up for success. To turn around a book that’s not selling depends on why it’s not selling. And there’s often some corrective action that we have to take in order to fix those issues.

Tom Poland 05:07
They’re still manageable. So, you mentioned mistakes, three minutes left. Question four, what would you say are some of the common mistakes? And maybe, yeah, let’s- that people make. The book’s not selling, so they’re going to do stuff. What are some of the big mistakes that people make?

Geoff Affleck 05:22
Well, the first thing is that they often have published the book themselves, which is highly recommended, but they didn’t know what they were doing. Why would they? It’s their first time publishing a book, how would you know? So, there are mistakes that are made, without even being aware of it. That’s something that I do specialize in. It’s a process called Amazon optimization, where we take your Amazon listing, and look at what’s going on. And we see, well, why aren’t people a.) discovering your book, b.) clicking and looking at it? And if they are clicking and looking at it, why aren’t they buying it? So, there’s, you know, there’s the see-click-buy, and we have to diagnose what’s the problem. So, it could be a mistake in the cover design. It could be a mistake in the title. Maybe there are no good keywords in the subtitle, so the search engine can’t pull it up because it doesn’t know it exists. So, we’ve got those issues to deal with. So that’s just, you know, inadvertent mistakes because they self-published. And then we have the problem- sorry, go ahead. One more quick thing. People, those folks who are thinking of publishing, often waste a lot of time trying to get a traditional publisher to take their book on. And what they should be doing is building their platform, rather than wasting time getting rejected by publishers who are looking to see if they’ve got a big email list, if they’ve got a platform. They’re not going to bite, they don’t care about your book, they just care where you’re going to sell them.

Tom Poland 06:45
And very often, well, you’ve alluded to it already. But when you do, if you do get a publisher and they go, “Okay, then good. Thanks, Tom. How are you going to market it?” “Well, I thought you were going to publish it?” “No, we just send books out”. So, real quick, because we’ve got 60 seconds left. A couple of questions still to go. A top tip, please, real quick. 10 seconds.

Geoff Affleck 07:05
A top tip? I would say what that would be is to make sure that inside your book, right after the copyright page, you have a separate page with a valuable free offer on that page. You know, a headline or a quick description, a picture of it, whatever it is, and then a link to your landing page right inside your book. And then you repeat that through the book.

Tom Poland 07:30
Through the book, thank you, because that’s going to get traffic back to your website. It’s going to get you, email subscribers. You can then- a valuable free resource folk is geoffaffleck, that’s G-E-O-F-F, Affleck, as in Ben, .com/ebook. Go get it! Question seven, sir, is one question I should have asked you, but didn’t. We have 10 seconds left.

Geoff Affleck 07:50
We’ve kind of alluded to it, but I want to be specific. If someone has a book that’s not selling, figure out why it’s not selling. And then fix it.

Tom Poland 08:01
Thanks so much for your time.

Geoff Affleck 08:02
Hey, welcome. This is fun. Thanks, Tom.

Tom Poland 08:05
Hey, everyone, it’s Tom here again. Hey, just quickly, I kind of cut Geoff off a bit there. And it was my bad because I asked him a couple of extra questions. So, I just wanted to give him his offer a little plug. It’s geoffaffleck.com/ebook, and what you’re going to get there are five things every first-time author needs to know about how to publish a book and build your platform. It’s a great little eBook! You can download it for free. I just wanted to give a kind of another plug, as I said, because I ran him a bit short because I asked a couple of extra questions that I wasn’t meant to. So go get it! We’re not an affiliate for Geoff. We’re just recommending his product because we think it’s going to help you build your brand and generate more clients who are having a book that’s actually selling well. Cheers!

Tom Poland 08:50
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.