Don’t worry, The “Stupid” of which I speak is me. As I sit roughly 60 days out from the release of ROAR! I know clearly what must happen to put this book on the New York Times list and fulfill my quest.
It’s time to worry less about getting people excited around the tattoo, Shlomo, Super Bowls, etc and focus on the message of the book. Don’t get me wrong, those stories have gotten us attention and will continue getting us initial exposure opportunities but ultimately it’s the value of the book itself, which will translate to sales.
So far I have racked up commitments for around 1,500 pre-orders. While that is respectable this early it’s not likely going to give me the needed boost required for hitting the list first day out. After talking with a few best selling authors and a list consultant named Mike Drew whom my agent and I call “The Listinator” I learned and confirmed a few new things:
1. The list reflects proportionate sales of which Amazon is 12% to 14%.
2. All sales considered bulk sales (For a variety of known and unknown reasons) by major booksellers are counted as 1 sale.
3. I can use bulk sales but must get them to purchase as individual single orders which makes getting bulk sales challenging.
4. Even though Wiley will ship the book on a certain date there is no way without heroic efforts to get the retailers to report the sales at the same time, meaning sales will likely report over a couple of weeks.
5. Truly manipulating the system costs well over $250,000, which I don’t have and probably wouldn’t spend if I did.
OK, so I have learned that it will be very hard to coordinate everything necessary to assure being on the list. That doesn’t mean my presale effort has been worthless. Every book sale counts and the work done has already led to speaking and press opportunities, blog postings, and increased attention from Wiley’s marketing which starts up in another 30 days. Here are the most recent wins for which I am thankful to all:
Shel Horowitz – Author of several marketing books including his latest Guerilla Marketing Goes Green with Jay Conrad Levinson, Shel posted a rave on ROAR!
Eric Herrenkohl – Eric blogged about us and has his own Wiley book on hiring A players launching in April. I’ve read it. Very useful.
Doug Davidoff – Doug is a respected fast growth consultant, blogger and columnist who posted this great post about ROAR!.
Hilary Topper – Hilary posted this review last week. Hilary is a PR and Social Media specialist with her own how-to book on getting the word out digitally.
On top of that my Smart Business Magazine relationship has really kicked in. They are promoting me in a Webinar Friday February 19th, and writing about me in the March issue not to mention my column itself just this week has led to promoted gatherings in 3 cities (More on this next week).
All of this is setting up a steady schedule of ways to get out the word on the book. And the book is what this is really all about. Thank God people love it. So this month my attention is focused on aggressively pushing the content of the book in a compelling manner. We know the concepts of the Value Proposition and the Four Buyers are creating ROAR! believers around the country. We are getting several daily downloads of the SneakPeak. More daily since we took away the email request. (Thanks Doug.)
My strategy over the next 60 days is to refine compelling pitches to the media and bloggers that stress how people can and are using ROAR! methodology to succeed in this crappy economic environment. The tattoo may get them to listen but it’s the content that will get them to buy.
It’s the compelling and entertaining nature of ROAR! itself that lately has been attracting people to the movement to help this book be a success. One friend that’s helping me with Twitter has increased my followers by 500 percent. Several are working the bloggers to get them to read the book. But I need to give them compelling messaging to cut through the noise.
Over the next few weeks I am aggressively targeting those groups that I know will connect and benefit such as the unemployed, the author community, the Jewish community, the marketing community, the entrepreneurial community. These groups are all suffering from mediocre messaging. I will give them tools to grow and show them rather than tell them. Each message will be carefully constructed in line with the VP from ROAR! Additionally I am looking for ways to entice bigger sales in these groups. I have offered to waive my speaking fees where 200 book orders are assured. I am also willing to help groups with their Value Proposition if they assure 500 pre-orders.
From here on out I am focused on making clear the book concepts in my writing, my press and from the stage, which is the real push once the book launches. It’s time for me to ROAR! and prove the power of truly compelling messaging.
Social ROAR!