A reader named Dan (not sure he wants me to share his last name) asks:
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Hi John
I bought both your books on my wife Hilary’s Amazon account and rated them 5 stars! Really enjoyed them.
I have just finished writing my second marketing book but avoid Amazon as I want to sell them through my funnel. Do you find there’s enough organic sales through Amazon to build your list?
Very best wishes
Dan (in London)
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I’ve only been selling my books via Amazon and it’s been doing all right for me, 10-15 sales a day on average. But only a fraction of those, maybe one or two a day, turn into subscribers to this newsletter, in part because I hide the optin at the end of the book.
Ideally, I’d be selling my books both via Amazon and via my own funnels. I haven’t done this because of the work involved in building out and managing a funnel that would make selling off Amazon, say via Facebook ads, feasible.
But… maybe we can split the work?
Specifically, I had the following idea:
I could sell my book via ads and my own funnel. And then, as an upsell, to break even with ad costs, I could sell a bundle of other related books from other authors. After all, a book buyer is a book buyer, and a book buyer who bought, say, a book about persuasion or self improvement will buy more such books.
I’m telling you this for two reasons:
1. I am honestly hoping that you will go and create this funnel instead of me, and put your own book (about say, marketing) as the front-end offer, and collect all the email addresses of buyers who come in.
I will gladly contribute either of my 10 Commandments books to be sold in the upsell bundle, and expect no royalties in turn, or even the email addresses you collect.
I will just be happy to get my book into more hands, and hopefully to get some of the owners of those hands to sign up to my list via the optin I have at the back of the book.
2. If you have your own book on a marketing or persuasion topic, but you refuse to do me the kindness of creating a cold traffic funnel and including my book in your upsell flow, then let me know, and maybe I will do the work that you cold heartedly refuse to do.
In other words, maybe I will get that cold traffic funnel created, and put my book as the front-end offer, and sell your book in a bundle as an upsell.
No guarantees. But if you have an interesting and well-written book, and you’re intrigued by the proposition, hit reply, and let’s talk.
And if you haven’t yet read my new 10 Commandments book, about con men and stage magicians and pickup artists and (gulp) copywriters, then you can find that charmer here: