Colette Baron-Reid’s new book The Map: Finding the Magic and Meaning in the Story of Your Life launched with Hay House Publishing last week and the online promotion is hands down the best one I’ve ever come across.
Instead of a tired old “Amazon best-seller” campaign where a bunch of people send out emails and offer up “thousands of dollars” in bonus materials if you “buy the book today only,” Colette and the Hay House crew took a different approach.
When you visit the launch page and enter your receipt information, you are taken to a page where you can enter to win dozens of prizes ranging from an Amazon Kindle, free admission to upcoming events, private coaching sessions with dozens of coaches, jewelry, books, and more. In fact, the number of prizes and people involved is almost overwhelming. You can view a sample prize list here.
For most of the prizes, you must enter to win by agreeing to subscribe to the donor’s e-mail list. From a co-promotion standpoint, that provides great incentive for other authors and experts to participate. Not only are they getting exposure through Colette’s launch, they are building their databases at the same time. And it allows contest participants to choose which lists to join so it’s not invasive. Brilliant!
Prize donors include names you’ll recognize and others you won’t, so you are introduced to new authors and their work. Many of the donors have also shared this launch with their mailing lists, causing this book launch to likely reach millions of eyeballs.
So if you have a new book coming out, consider what kind of collaboration you can develop with others in your genre. Create a winning scenario for all—donors and buyers—and you will create a buzz-worthy book launch that inspires sales.
Wow! Very original and aggressive. It really looks like a good read, too.
After reading articles like this, I’ve come to the conclusion that all authors should probably take some courses in promotions and marketing if they’re to be successful in this business. While this isn’t usually something an artistic person wants to do, it’s something they have to learn how to do.
Yes, that’s a good idea for sure. Most authors don’t want to do the marketing work, but it is essential. And if you view it as a creative endeavor, it can be a lot more fun! Best of luck to you!
I am a co-author of a couple of books, but I am looking forward to doing one solo next and will keep this in mind. Thank you!
Hi there. Nice article. I wanted to learn more, so I clicked the links and got an Internal Server Error. Would love to see it in action.
Ah shoot, they must have taken the links down… Sorry!