Anti-Sell now has its own dedicated website & blog! Check it out at Anti-Sell.com.
In March 2019 I self-published Anti-Sell, the sales book for freelancers and small business owners who hate sales. You can learn more about its initial origins in this ‘launch’ post and on its dedicated landing page.
I’ve faced a few challenges when promoting the book post-launch. Firstly, despite being an online marketer in my day job, I’ve never promoted a book before, so it’s a brand new territory for me. I also self-published it, so I don’t have a fancy-pants publishing company to back me up and do the marketing for me.
The biggest challenge however? Well, it’s… a book about not selling. Or at least not hard-selling. So I’ve tried to be really careful about how I go about promoting it. After all, it’s going to go against the ethos and core message of the book if I ‘over’-sell it and end up ramming it down people’s throats (so to speak).
A few months on, here’s what I’ve done to try and promote it.
First: the numbers
Ok, so first of all: am I even qualified to give this advice? Like I say, I’ve never promoted a book before, so why should you even listen to me and read what I say? Well, I’ll be open with you with its performance to date…
So far I’ve sold a few hundred copies – bearing in mind that’s across all formats: paperback (which can be bought via Amazon or bought from me in person), Kindle eBook, PDF eBook and self-narrated audiobook. But it doesn’t include the free copies I’ve given away, especially in PDF format (more on that below).
A few hundred copies feels like a lot and barely any – all at the same time. I’m amazed that a few hundred people actually want to read something I’ve written (and have paid actual money to do so!), and yet it might be a laughably pitiful amount compared to other more well-known authors. I’m happy with it though – I told myself going into this that I didn’t know if I’d sell 50 or 50,000 copies, and while I’m light years away from the latter, I’ve jumped way past the former. So there’s that at least. I haven’t yet broken-even on my initial costs, but I’m getting there…
It’s also starting to feel like everyone I know who said they’d buy a copy has now bought a copy. While sales haven’t exactly slowed down just yet (August 2019 – five months after the book’s release – has been the 2nd best month to date), it does feel like it’s more (and harder) work to try and shift copies now.
How I’ve been promoting the book so far
So here’s what I’ve done so far to try and promote Anti-Sell – some of which might be quite obvious and traditional, while some tactics might be a bit alternative and out-of-the-ordinary.
Let’s start with one straight from the latter category…
Offering a free PDF copy to everyone at my coworking space
As a way of giving back and saying thanks to the place I’ve called (my business’) home for over half a decade, I made a free PDF copy of the book available to everyone at my coworking space (the incredible Welsh ICE), via the space’s private members-only Facebook group, which has over 400 members as I type this. In addition to including people who might not even be based at the space anymore (but who might still be a part of the Facebook group), it’ll also inevitably include any newly-joining members now and in the future.
I remember telling someone this idea before I’d carried it out, and they told me they thought it might be a bad idea. “What if those people would’ve gone ahead and bought a copy anyway?” It’s a good point. It was a bit of a gamble: I might’ve been giving away a free copy to people who might’ve bought one instead, but who now no longer needed to.
Here’s the thing though: I’m pretty sure that everyone who was going to buy a copy went ahead and bought a copy anyway. One guy went as far as to buy it in all formats: even though he had access to the PDF version, he still bought a paperback copy, the Kindle version and the audiobook version – I think partly out of support but also because he wanted to be able to read/listen to it in all eventualities (e.g. listening on the train during his commute, having a paperback copy to hand if he didn’t have his Kindle device on him, etc.).
A few other factors have come into play here:
- Not everyone wants to read it as a PDF. Some people prefer the ‘feel’ of a properly printed book, while others prefer listening to audiobooks (like me). And if they were unsure whether it’d resonate with them or not, at least they were able to have a quick read before committing to purchasing it in another format.
- I think people were blown away from the selflessness of the act. Even though they were given a free copy, some of them might’ve felt that they wanted to buy it as well, as a way to say thank you and return the favour.
- A little less selflessly… One of the reasons I did it was to try and generate some buzz and reviews early on. The PDF copy was made available about a month before the book was fully and properly launched on Amazon, so the hope was that these early readers might’ve left reviews on Amazon pretty much from the get-go – which some did.
Ultimately it’s hard to know whether this was a good move or a bad move in the end, along with working out the number of sales the practice actually generated vs. how many it would’ve generated if I hadn’t made it freely available – but either way, I’m glad I did it.
Review pushes
On a few occasions, I’ve contacted people I know who have read the book to ask them if they don’t mind leaving a review for it on Amazon (as well as on Audible, if I knew that they’d listened to the audiobook version as well/instead).
Following Chandler Bolt’s advice in Published (a good book to read/listen to if you’re thinking of self-publishing your own book), I’d only ask people once, maybe twice maximum. If someone’s going to leave you a review then they’re going to leave you a review – and the last thing I wanted to do was to pester people…
It’s paid off though. As I type this, 29 people have left a review for the book on its Amazon UK product page, all of which are 5-star reviews – except for one, which was a 4-star (god knows what I did to piss off that guy… π). Despite the latter, it has an overall average of 5.0 out of 5.0. As I tweeted recently, I would’ve been happy with an average of 4.5 or higher – even 4.0 or higher – as inevitably you can’t please everyone. So to get such glowing reviews from everyone who’s read it so far is mind-blowing and very humbling.
Asking for reviews from happy readers also acts as a bit of a future safeguard… After all, there’s nothing stopping someone from giving it a mediocre or poor review at any time. If that happens now then at least the book will still be in the high 4’s, rather than a lower average score if it had fewer reviews. I have concerns that some of the non-UK Amazon pages have little or no reviews (so the first review they get could be a 1-star – eek!) so my aim is to ask people in other countries if they’re happy to leave it a review sometime as well.
The launch event
A few weeks after the book was made publicly available online, I held a launch event in the upstairs of the awesome Tiny Rebel in Cardiff (which was also an early venue for Cardiff SEO Meet). I had to pay for the (very reasonable) venue hire fee and decided to put on a buffet as well, the latter of which really upped the cost.
Despite being seen as a traditional part of the book release process, ironically I found that the launch event was possibly one of the least effective tactics I’ve done to date. About 20 people came – which was a decent number for a mid-week evening in my view – but most of them were people who’d already bought the book. It was lush to get their support, but in terms of actually selling more copies of the book, it pretty much failed in that task. On the night, I sold… 2 copies. No, that’s not a typo. 2. Two. …LOL.
On the plus side, the buzz around the event helped to get attention online. I Facebook Live’d my ‘speech’, which was seen by a few people who a) weren’t in attendance on the night and b) didn’t know about the book until then. So despite being an ‘offline’ event, it helped to spread the word online too – which was a nice added bonus to it.
Anti-Sell book launch event!
Posted by Steve Morgan on Tuesday, 23 April 2019
All in all though, I don’t think it was necessary – it was a fairly big expense and I only sold a handful of books. Like I said above, the only real benefit I got from it was the ‘PR’ side of it: an excuse to tweet about it, the Facebook Live video, etc. So if you’re self-publishing, don’t feel like you need to host a launch event just because it’s the traditional thing to do when publishing a book (unless you especially want to, of course).
Tweeting (& other social media)
Going into this, I knew I had a bit of a following on social media (Twitter especially), albeit – outside of my Welsh ICE fam – largely in the SEO community, who mightn’t be interested in the book (unless they were considering becoming a freelance SEO).
Here are some examples of some of the tweets and social media marketing I’ve done for it:
General banners
These are just generic-ish tweets about what the book is about, plus an accompanying banner:
#AntiSell is the book for the freelancer/small business owner who hates the sales process. The good news is that these days, the best way to sell is NOT to sellβ¦
Find out more at https://t.co/6wjb4ybZ2n pic.twitter.com/axKzTO1DP7β Steve Morgan (@steviephil) June 11, 2019
I haven’t done a ton of these admittedly – mainly because it feels like the most advert-y approach.
Anti-Sell Story banners
The book contains 8 case studies – called ‘Anti-Sell Stories’ – from other freelancers I know who have done similar things to me, documenting their experiences and processes. The good thing here is that each time I tweeted one, I’d also @mention the person included in it, leading some of them to retweet it as a result:
.@VictoriaCao is 1 of the 8 Anti-Sell Story contributors. Vic is a freelance graphic designer – however her background in digital marketing & outreach has helped to give her an advantage over other industry peersβ¦
(Find out more about the book at https://t.co/6wjb4ytzTV) pic.twitter.com/Y3IUxLhUBBβ Steve Morgan (@steviephil) July 4, 2019
.@dandidthat of @rabblestudio is 1 of the 8 Anti-Sell Story contributors. Dan found that by building a community around him (via his own coworking space), networking opportunities thrivedβ¦
(Find out more about the book at https://t.co/NM288yw59T) pic.twitter.com/GjEkOEPjRkβ Steve Morgan (@steviephil) August 1, 2019
Note: I am not a graphic designer, and the banners are DIY jobbies, so apologies if your eyes are offended…! π
Review screenshots
I think this tactic has done really well, as it acts as a bit of social validation for those who have been considering buying the book. It’s simply a screenshot of people’s reviews from Amazon, alongside a link of the source of the review (the Amazon landing page). Again, some of the people who were @mentioned alongside their review went on to retweet it:
“Fantastic advice for freelancers.”
Thanks @pollingersocial for the recent 5-star review of Anti-Sell on Amazon! ?
[Source – https://t.co/aZhu3NemnC] pic.twitter.com/3RQRlWVksmβ Steve Morgan (@steviephil) July 19, 2019
“Conversational, highly relatable & practical with a dash of humour for good measure.”
Thank you for the 5-star Amazon review of #AntiSell, @HelloMyPA! ?
[Source – https://t.co/aZhu3NvXMc] pic.twitter.com/co8qSsyyREβ Steve Morgan (@steviephil) August 7, 2019
Tweeting & retweeting other people’s tweets about the book
Some people tweeted about the book – typically when the paperback arrived in the post, taking a photo of it and sharing it:
My copy was delivered earlier today… looking forward to reading it Steve. ? pic.twitter.com/vaIK3G1v1b
β pobdesign (@pobdesign) April 22, 2019
? #AntiSell https://t.co/vmsmtbxosI
β Steve Morgan (@steviephil) September 20, 2019
And also when a bulk order had arrived for me:
Woohoo! My bulk order of the paperback has just arrived at @Welsh_ICE! ? Thanks for the pic, Hannah! https://t.co/j8Bet2YG35
β Steve Morgan (@steviephil) April 2, 2019
I’ve not retweeted many of these types of tweets – however in the early days after publishing (especially before it started to get reviews on Amazon), I’d tweet screenshots of people mentioning it on their own Twitter profiles, like this:
More love for the book over the last few days – thank you you lovely people you. (And to think, no one had to be bribed!) ? pic.twitter.com/kKMXl2X5pe
β Steve Morgan (@steviephil) April 3, 2019
‘All countries’ tweets
Given that I’m based in the UK and that the initial cover design featured a thought-bubble with three pound signs (£££) in it, I was worried that non-UK people might’ve thought that it was primarily a British-focused book. So I put a few tweets out reminding people that they could buy it if they were US-based or lived in another country where the paperback version is available via Amazon – complete with emoji flags!
If you’re based in the US & were hoping to grab a paperback copy of #AntiSell, thanks to Amazon’s print-on-demand service, you can get one printed & sent to you over there (so no ship-all-the-way-from-the-UK costs)! Here’s the Amazon US link for it: https://t.co/xRZ2mCt30I ??
β Steve Morgan (@steviephil) June 18, 2019
Thanks to Amazon’s print-on-demand service, the paperback version of Anti-Sell is available in other countries! Links:
?? https://t.co/xRZ2mCt30I
?? https://t.co/fLVB0s1BoY
?? https://t.co/CRIyawHRoY
?? https://t.co/9XsxeZKwX3
?? https://t.co/uohhMNvUV1
?? https://t.co/klFCatn9XHβ Steve Morgan (@steviephil) June 2, 2019
The ‘old tweet retweet’ strategy
At the moment I’m currently retweeting some of the old tweets – mostly the Amazon review screenshots and the Anti-Sell Story banners – because Twitter allows you to retweet your own tweets. They may be months old now but I don’t think there’s any harm in doing so – and I’d rather retweet an old tweet than to necessarily copy/paste an old tweet and do it as a brand new tweet (although I have done both methods during the promotion of the book, I must admit):
The #AntiSell hashtag
I’ve also appropriated the #AntiSell hashtag on Twitter. It’s mostly being used by me and others when talking about the book, although you do get the odd tweet from some folks tweeting about a basketball video game…? π€·ββοΈ
I’ve not tweeted every single tweet about the book with the #AntiSell hashtag, only the really stand-out ones – e.g. only the best Amazon reviews and usually new news about the book. Its purpose (in my eyes) is sort of more of a ‘look back through it’ type archive for people, so they can peruse the hashtag and see what tweets have been posted about it in past weeks and months.
Tweeting frequency
When the book first came out, I probably put out 1-2 tweets a day. These days it’s probably just a few a week. Even at a few tweets a week, I’m wary of overdoing it – however at one point a friend of mine recommended that I should probably consider tweeting about it more often as he’d only just seen a tweet about it about 1-2 months after it’d come out (in other words he’d missed all the previous tweets about it). I tend to be a ‘read all tweets on my timeline’ kinda Twitter user, but other Twitter users might just dip in-and-out and miss out on a lot of tweets… so to make sure I catch the latter crowd, I still tweet about it fairly often – and experiment with different time-zones, too.
Other social media
Twitter’s been my main focus, but I’ve also tried the following:
Posting on Facebook
I sometimes post about it via my personal Facebook profile (I don’t have a business page).
Sharing advice on Facebook groups
Sticking with Facebook, if anyone on freelancing-themed groups – such as Freelance Heroes, Being Freelance and Doing It For The Kids (DIFTK) – posts a query asking how they can drum up more enquiries for their freelance business, I jump on it with my advice. I don’t even mention the book – I just help out. And that’s it. The person may then go on to check out my profile and perhaps see my cover banner… or if I’m really lucky, someone else might name-drop the book for me:
Added bonus: funnily enough this is one of the tips I recommend in the book when it comes to growing a freelance business. So it’s awesome to be able to use a tactic that’s showcased in the book to actually promote the book, too!
Posting on LinkedIn
I used to consider LinkedIn an afterthought – but not anymore…
In the last couple of years I’ve seen an increase in the number of visits my blog posts get when I post links to them on LinkedIn. Once upon a time, I’d post a link to a new post on Twitter and LinkedIn, and the former would get dozens of clicks while the latter would be lucky to breach double-digits. Nowadays they’re pretty much level-pegging.
So LinkedIn should be on my mind more often – or just as often as I use Twitter to promote the book. But you know what? It isn’t. I fleetingly post on there – usually just the big news, like this:
[Note: I had an embedded LinkedIn post here previously, but it stopped working for some reason, so I removed it.]
…But I should do more. I will do more, goshdarnit! Just watch this space.
Posting on Instagram
I’m not much of an Instagram user (LOL!) but I’ve sometimes posted Instagram posts and Instagram Stories about the book…
…Buuut not a lot, admittedly. And probably won’t. Unless I suddenly reeeally get into Instagram. But that probably won’t happen.
Posting on Google Posts
Well, Google+ died (and literally just after I mentioned it in the book – thanks for that, Google!)… but these days there’s Google Posts – a feature that’s part of Google My Business – which sit alongside your Google Map listing when someone Googles your brand name. They only show ‘fully’ for up to a week (unless it’s an event-related post), but they are archived, as you can see here.
I’ve only done a small handful of these – mainly because if someone’s looking up Morgan Online Marketing, they’re probably wanting SEO services, not a book about sales and networking. But it’s a cool thing to share from time to time I suppose – especially if it’s big news (e.g. being nominated for an award).
Via the Anti-Sell Story contributors
As mentioned above, 8 incredible people contributed to the book:
I’ve noticed that these 8 individuals have gone on to promote the book as well. After all, they’re included in it, so they’re promoting themselves within the book.
Important note: I didn’t include them just because of this – i.e. I didn’t include them because I only wanted them to help promote the book. I included them because I knew their stories would be useful to readers. The fact that they’ve then gone on to promote it is a massive added bonus. Ahmed even reviewed it, which was awesome (he included a disclaimer explaining that he’s included within the book, which was a good call):
And Marijana bought two extra copies (beyond the freebie I gave her as a thank you for contributing) in order to do a giveaway. She didn’t have to – I didn’t ask or anything like that. She just did it. Which was awesome.
#Freelance friends!
As promised, I’m gifting a copy of @steviephil‘s Anti-Sell book to TWO of you βοΈ This book will help you find great-fit clients, go niche, network, generate leads, & more ?
If you need this in your life, reply to this tweet! I’ll pick 2 people on May 13th? pic.twitter.com/05ydF5Vk0l
β Marijana Kostelac βοΈ (@MarijanaKay) May 10, 2019
Free copies to people who were mentioned or referenced
In addition to giving free copies to the aforementioned Anti-Sell Story contributors, I also gave free PDF copies to people who were mentioned in the book in one way or another, such as:
- The authors of the books that I’ve recommended in the book (which I’ve also posted online),
- Rand Fishkin (@randfish), as he’s mentioned briefly in one of the chapters,
- Grace Quantock (@Grace_Quantock), a friend of mine who I used as an example of a successful entrepreneur despite multiple chronic illnesses and disabilities.
When I published the Further Reading section as a blog post on here as well, I also tweeted the authors about it when I was promoting it:
From yesterday – The Books that Inspired Anti-Sell: https://t.co/7ftkN0vgpG – including books from @MikeMichalowicz, @jasonfried & @dhh! pic.twitter.com/jxoQzSgiCd
β Steve Morgan (@steviephil) June 27, 2019
Some ‘Liked’ the tweet, while one of them retweeted it, which was great. I don’t know if it resulted in any sales directly, but it was cool to have a guy I look up to – who has over a quarter of a million followers(!) – share it with his audience.
I was really hoping Rand would tweet about it or retweet it, especially as a) he tweets about books he likes and b) at the time he was talking about his battles doing networking and sales with his new startup, Sparktoro. And despite being super famous in the SEO industry, we’ve had conversations in the past (and I used to be a moderator of Inbound.org, which was an old side-project of his), so I was hoping that he’d remember me and wouldn’t just be like “who’s this guy LOL” when I emailed it to him.
Grace shared it a few times (at least twice that I know of), which was amazing. Possibly on LinkedIn as well as on Twitter.
Supportive blog content
In addition to the landing page itself, I’ve also published blog posts that have complemented the book, such as:
- Introducingβ¦ Anti-Sell: the Sales Book for Freelancers Who Hate Sales – i.e. the initial ‘announcement’ post,
- Anti-Sell β My Freelance Heroes Day Talk,
- The Books that Inspired Anti-Sell,
- The post you’re currently reading…!
This has given me an excuse to promote it further: to tweet about it, etc. etc.
Speaking gigs & podcast guest slots
I’ve not done a huge amount of this yet (I’d love to do more, to be honest), but I’ve spoken at a conference, on a webinar and on a podcast about the book:
- The conference: Freelance Heroes Day 2019 in Wolverhampton in May (pictured), which I blogged about here,
- The webinar: Pollinger Social’s #SocialMediaShow on Facebook Live, which is then turned into a podcast, going out on iTunes, Spotify, etc. (episode link),
- The podcast: Being Freelance (episode link).
Email footer
It’s a teeny-tiny thing, but I’ve updated my work’s email signature to include a line about it:
I’ve tried this out before – when I was nominated for an award a few years ago – and a couple of people commented on it. So it can and does get noticed.
Participating in Twitter chats
The book also recommends participating in Twitter chats in order to promote yourself as a freelancer – and I’ve done it to try and promote the book, too!
I’m talking about the (usually) 1-hour, Q&A-style chats on Twitter based around a hashtag. For example, #FreelanceHeroes, which takes place each week on Wednesdays 8-9pm (UK time).
I guest-hosted the #FreelanceHeroes one recently, which was a good way to engage with other freelancers – some of whom might be interested in the book. Similar to the Facebook groups tactic I mentioned above, I didn’t even mention the book when I tweeted people. Just imagine how much of a turn-off it’d be if I replied to a question with something like “oh yes, I talk about this in my new book…” – I’d sound like a knob. π It’s also important to mention that the topic of a particular week’s chat doesn’t need to be about sales or networking, although that obviously helps. I try and join in with all chats – whatever the topic – to help out and also to learn in return.
In addition to #FreelanceHeroes, I’ve also joined in (or tried to join in) on:
- #ContentClubUK – Tuesdays 11-11:30am
- #ProCopyChat – the last Wednesday of each month 11am-12pm
- #solobizchat – Wednesdays 9-10pm*
- #FreelanceChat – Thursdays 5-6pm*
Note: All times above are UK time… I’ve put “UK time” (not BST/GMT) in case you’re reading this in the future and we’re no longer in BST but in GMT. The UK-run hashtags will probably be the same time regardless, but the US-run ones (with an asterisk* next to them) might be an hour out.
Responding to HARO queries
I used to be a big fan of HARO (Help A Reporter Out) years ago, so much so that I wrote a guide all about it and also gave advice on what to do if your pitch isn’t used (I’ll save you a click: you just reuse it as your own content instead), as well as the importance of staying organised, especially if you’re responding to a lot of queries.
Anyway… I’ve replied to a few HARO queries recently and managed to score a few links/mentions:
- 39 Inspirational Entrepreneur Books Part 2 on Improve Her Health
- Effective Books That Level Up Your Sales Management on Boove
I’ve also had a reply from one inviting me onto their podcast, although I haven’t arranged anything yet (but watch this space).
#prrequest & #journorequest
Similar to HARO, I’ve also got a Twitter search set up for the #prrequest & #journorequest hashtags specific to tweets that mention things like “sales”, “networking” and “freelancing”.
I haven’t gotten anything from it directly just yet, however – in a similar vein – I was tagged in a tweet by a journalist looking to speak to a freelancer about work-life balance, which led to me being interviewed in Penarth View. They were happy for me to include links/mentions to the book as well.
Entering awards
There’s a few book awards organisations, some of which I haven’t entered yet (more on that below), but I was really chuffed to have been a finalist in the Zokit Business Awards in the Best Business Author category, which is run by a Zokit, a South Wales-based business networking group:
Absolutely delighted to announce that I’m a finalist of the @ZokitCardiff Business Awards 2019 in the Business Author category for my new book, Anti-Sell. Full shortlist here: https://t.co/wVyYsI6sCS #Zokit #AntiSell pic.twitter.com/9XTDV3tE8Z
β Steve Morgan (@steviephil) April 18, 2019
I also entered the FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year 2019 – only a dozen books are longlisted worldwide(!) so it was a long shot, but it was free to enter and only cost a tiny bit of my time and the cost of one book + postage, so it was worth going for. If I hadn’t done it, there would’ve always been that “what if…” feeling – even if it was always extremely unlikely that I’d make it in the longlist or shortlist.
A Twitter giveaway
The week before publishing this post, I decided to do a Twitter giveaway of my own:
To celebrate the release of the new version of the paperback cover of my book Anti-Sell, I’m giving away THREE free copies to 3 people. To enter, just RT this tweet. Closes midnight this Friday. Full terms here: https://t.co/Jtnm7a5b6O #AntiSell pic.twitter.com/2Fuyd8rxSH
β Steve Morgan (@steviephil) September 17, 2019
It ended up getting a ton of retweets: 75 standard RTs, plus 5-10 RT-with-comment style RTs. This activity led to over 8,000 impressions, according to Twitter’s analytics data for the tweet.
It’s too early to tell if this exercise has resulted in any sales, but my thinking was that those who really wanted to get a copy – but who didn’t win – might then go on to buy one instead.
Paperback cover redesign
As mentioned earlier, I was concerned that the first version of Anti-Sell‘s cover design – with its three Β£ signs on the cover – might’ve led non-UK-based people to believe that it’s primarily a British book. I only picked up on this potential issue post-launch, when I’d started to notice that sales outside the UK had been abysmal – despite having Twitter followers in other non-UK countries (mainly in the US) and putting out tweets saying it was also available to buy outside of the UK.
As it turned out, that thinking was largely wrong… After asking Emily of Studio Hicks (who designed it) to start work on the v2 version, the book got mentioned in a post on Smashing Magazine, which led to a sudden jump in sales in lots of non-UK countries. The ‘£££’ version was still available then, so obviously those buyers weren’t deterred simply because of the UK-only currency on the cover. That said, perhaps I could’ve sold yet more copies if the v2 version had been live by then (or since the beginning), but who knows…
Anyway, despite that, I’m glad that I got the redesign done regardless. The original back cover of the paperback version had received feedback that its font was too small and that it was a little hard to read (it’s mentioned in Ahmed’s book review video as a minor criticism), so the following changes were made to it in v2:
- Better font choice for the main spiel of text,
- Less text for the main spiel,
- A pic of my face,
- Snippets of quotes from reviews on Amazon UK (which obviously I didn’t have when it was first released).
I’m much happier with it now.
Close-up of the revised back cover: pic.twitter.com/FpRFrPW8y3
β Steve Morgan (@steviephil) September 6, 2019
LUCK! π
Luck! Yes, luck! Just absolute blind luck!
Probably the least helpful point of this whole post (π ), but it’s worth mentioning that some things happened out of pure, beautiful, blissful luck – such as:
- My speaking gig at Freelance Heroes Day 2019 came about because I’m friends with Annie – one of the co-founders of FH – who was booking speakers around the time I was writing and editing the book, and asked me if I wanted to do a talk at the event all about the topic it covers.
- I really wanted to be a guest on the Being Freelance podcast. Before I got the chance to contact Steve (who runs BF) expressing interest, someone tagged BF in a tweet about the book, leading to Steve contacting me directly and asking me to be a guest on it.
- Someone who really liked the book wrote a post for Smashing Magazine all about surviving freelance life, and she name-dropped the book in it.
This is stuff I never could’ve planned for. But it just goes to show that people like the book, and that they’re happy to involve me / name-drop the book / write about the book. Which is freakin’ awesome.
Managing all this absolute chaos
So, you’ve gotten this far into the post… which is commendable, as when I started writing it, I didn’t realise that it’d balloon into such a behemoth of a post. I’m really sorry. π
It’s probably worth mentioning at this stage: how the heck did I keep tabs on all this stuff? With Trello, of course! Just a simple one-person board with bog-standard Backlog, In Progress and Done columns (i.e. To Do, Doing, Done).
I’d link to it – or at least screenshot it – here, but I don’t want some of the plans made public. GDPR n’ all that. And it’d look stupid if I did share a screenshot of it but with lots of it blurred out. …You all know what a Trello board looks like, right? Yep? Good good.
For the plans that I do want to make public – well, read on…
How I plan to promote the book going forward
I ain’t done yet, friends. I have further plans to continue to promote the book for a few months more…
Another giveaway
Following the success of the first Twitter giveaway I ran, I’ll probably do another giveaway at some point in the future – but not too soon. I’ll probably tie it in with some book-related news, such as being a finalist for an award (should that happen).
Speaking of which…
More awards
The Axiom Business Book Awards and the UK Business Book Awards have just opened for entries for their 2020 awards (which my book is eligible for, despite being published in early 2019). I’m eligible for four categories in the former (wow!) so even becoming a finalist in just one of those categories would be absolutely amazing.
More speaking gigs
I’m speaking at Swansea SEO in October (full details TBC as I type this). And I’ve also pitched a talk idea to brightonSEO for one of their 2020 dates… π€
I’ll also be looking at opportunities beyond that. Freelance/entrepreneurship meetups and conferences make the most sense.
…And the rest
And I’ll also do more of some of the other stuff I’ve mentioned above: more tweets, more Facebook stuff, more LinkedIn activity, yadda yadda yadda.
I’m actually looking to do more speaking gigs and podcast guest slots especially – so if you know someone who might be interested in booking me for their event/podcast/whatever, please let me know. I recently added to my Speaking page, including a few testimonials as well as some more detailed info about the topics I can cover.
Other possible book promotion avenues…
These next few ideas are maybes, not yes’s. But what’s stopping me from doing them?
(…Err, it was a rhetorical question – but the answer is probably: “me”.)
Anti-Sell: the website?
I own anti-sell.com, which redirects to seono.co.uk/anti-sell-book (the main landing page for the book), but I’ve been toying with the idea of creating a dedicated website around the book’s topic, with more posts all about Anti-Selling, plus additional Anti-Sell Stories (beyond the original 8 that appear in the book). I would love to do this – it’s just a case of justifying and affording the time to do so. We’ll see though.
Anti-Sell: the conference?!
Given my experience running events via Cardiff SEO Meet, I wondered about doing a big one-day event covering all things Anti-Sell: freelancers could speak about how they’ve gone about the sales process during their freelance careers, while there could also be workshops that include how you can start your own meetup or your own podcast, or how to break into the speaking gig scene (all of which is stuff that’s covered in the book as examples of Anti-Sell activity).
Again, file under ‘I’d love to do this if I had the time (but right now I don’t)’. One day though, one day…
Anti-Sell: the movie?!?!
Haha just kidding – that would be silly. π
For any present or would-be self-published authors who have been reading, I hope this post has been useful to you. I’m by no means a book marketing expert, but I seem to be doing ok on the sales front so far and also have plans to continue to promote the book well past its launch date.
If you’re thinking of giving self-publishing a try then I recommend Published by Chandler Bolt. I also bought and listened to How To Write Your Book Without The Fuss by Lucy McCarraher & Joe Gregory, which is also worth checking out (although Published is better in my opinion).
Anyway… over to you! Are you an author (self-published or otherwise)? What have you done to market your book? What can I be doing differently? What have you done that I haven’t done that’s worked well for you? Please drop a comment below or otherwise feel free to tweet me. Cheers!
Anti-Sell now has its own dedicated website & blog! Check it out at Anti-Sell.com.
Recommended Reading: Breaking Down a NonFiction Marketing Plan – 929 Press
September 24, 2019 at 1:25 am[…] How I’ve Been Promoting Anti-Sell (a Book About Not Hard-selling…) Share […]
Sebastian Hovv
September 28, 2019 at 6:33 pmJust bought it after reading the headline. Looking forward to the read!
Steve
September 30, 2019 at 5:13 pmThanks Sebastian! π