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Why my old book isn’t getting me opt-ins

Existing cover–I love the image but not the typography
One of the big theories I’ve heard a lot is that you should have one book perma-free on Amazon and use it to drive people to your email list by offering another free gift inside the book if they sign up. I set up exactly that system years ago with my happy book, yet I’ve gotten almost no signups as a result. I even had a buddy try to improve it, to no avail.

Why did this not work? I’m finally looking into it. Here’s what I’ve been surprised to find:

  • The ugly weird book cover my buddy added to the book without my permission is still showing up as the cover when people download the book! What??? I fixed the sales page a couple of years ago but apparently never fixed that! Seriously, self?!
  • The Kindle version got knocked out of sync with the paperback version at some point, so Amazon’s description says the book is only 10 pages long (i.e., why bother downloading it)
  • The invitation to download the freebie appears only at the end of the book, not the beginning. *facepalm*

Also, I was not at all strategic in selecting keywords or categories, and I knew almost nothing about copywriting back then, so the book description isn’t all that good either. And honestly, I’d like to tweak the cover, too. I love the image, but the type isn’t quite right.

Yay, obvious stuff to fix! This book kind of became my poster child for “ugh,” so I just didn’t even want to look at it. But so far, the actual text is much better than I remembered. And you know what? At least for the first few years, it was getting downloaded like 10x as much on iTunes as Amazon—and the iTunes version still has the atrocious cover I designed when I first wrote the book and had no idea about cover design. Lots of potential here!

I think while I wait for my microphone adapter thingy to get here, I’m going to track down what’s wrong with the page map in the Kindle file and see whether I can still upload a new version in Smashwords (which is how I got the book in iTunes). Of course, I also need to redo the sales copy, keywords, and categories, but I’m strangely in the mood for this weird tech detail. That’s the time to do it!

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I’m doing the audio book!

Project Bestseller update! Lots of reading, lots of research. I will summarize in a later post. Today, I’m buying my audio kit! I was going to try to record the audio book with my headset, which is what I normally use to record stuff. But I happened to catch a talk by a podcast editor, and she pointed out that nobody wants to hear your plosive ‘p’ sounds or mouth noises. True dat! I’ve spent enough time editing sniffles out of my videos to know that when I use my headset, people can hear me breathe. No one wants that, yo.

Here’s her recommended low-budget setup (affiliate links):
EARAMBLE Professional Studio Condenser Microphone with Shock Mount
EARAMBLE Scissor Mic Arm Stand
EARAMBLE Pop Filter

My initial equipment order. The whole setup (including the two other pieces I ordered later) cost me about $60 total.

Update: due to Amazon math, somehow “2 days” gets it here on the 11th! Hey Amazon, how about sharing your math with my mortgage company?

Update 2: It turned out that I also needed (affiliate links):

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Announcing Project Bestseller

A client hired me to make his book a bestseller AND a long-term seller. I’m going to do the same to one of my books (and then the others). Anyone want to join the club?

The way this all came about is I watched this webinar where this big phony-pants bragged about his program and how 100% of his students become bestsellers, but then when I looked up his success stories, none of them are selling now. This guy gets $4000 per client for guaranteeing that you will be a bestseller, even if it’s only for five minutes. I thought, “If this guy can guarantee that everyone will become a bestseller, there must be a system, and I will find out what it is!” So I did, and now I’m going to do it. Rarrr! It’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be awesome. It’s gonna be a-maze-ing.

I’m starting with my free book, and I’m thinking of recording it as an audio book. “They” say that’s the best freebie to offer people so that they want to sign up for your mailing list. Have any of you done this? Any advice?