Book Launch Blueprint

Book Launch Blueprint
The Step-by-Step Guide to Launching a Bestseller
Tim Grahl
Book Launch Blueprint: The Step-by-Step Guide to Launching a Bestseller

Copyright 2015 by Tim Grahl
All rights reserved.
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner
whatsoever without the express written permission of the author/publisher, except for
the use of brief quotations in a book review.
For more information, write to: tim@timgrahl.com
Please share about this book with your friends.

The Step-by-Step Guide to Launching a Bestseller
To all the authors that have changed my life with their work.
Table of Contents
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................i
First Steps ..................................................................................................................................... 3
Fans ..............................................................................................................................................3
Share ...........................................................................................................................................26
Influencers................................................................................................................................... 39
Your Next Step ............................................................................................................................57
Introduction
The train swayed back and forth slightly as I stared down at a

handful of papers.
I kept going over them again and again. Practicing parts out loud.
Stopping to make notes, and starting again.
I was a nervous wreck. My career was riding heavily on the
presentation in front of me.
That moment had originated from one a few years before, when I
was sitting in a fast food restaurant, discussing with my sole
employee the idea of completely changing the company.
Since he had started, we had been working with big companies,
helping them build their websites and wade into the world of online
marketing. But things were starting to shift for me.
Over the previous year, we had worked with several authors
even helped launched a book to the New York Times and Wall Street
i
Journal bestseller lists and I had really enjoyed the work, even
though working for authors didnt pay as well as working for big
companies.
But Id always been a big reader, and the idea of helping authors
find their readers and share their books with more people seemed
like a dream job.
So even though on paper it looked like a dumb decision, we took
the leap and decided to focus completely on working with authors.
We immediately stopped taking any clients who werent authors,
and I focused all of my energy on learning how books are really sold
in todays crazy, constantly changing book marketplace.
Not long after that discussion, Daniel Pink hired us to make over
his entire online presence.
He was fresh off his launch of Drive: The Surprising Truth About
What Motivates Us, which had been an instant bestseller, and he
wanted to make sure he could reliably do it again with his next book.
So he put me in charge.
For the next three years, I did everything I could to help grow his
platform and ready him for the next book launch.
And it had all come down to this day, this train ride.
It was five months before the launch of Dans next book, To Sell is
Human, and it was time for me to present my plan for how we were
going to make this book a bestseller.
All the work I had done over the last three years was about to be
put to the test.
ii
Because instead of his usual way of launching a book hiring a

big publicist, going on a big media tour, all the traditional stuff he
was just going to work with me.
So there I was. On the train. My overnight bag next to me. A
bunch of papers with my launch plan scrawled out in multicolored
Sharpie ink. And me nervously going over and over my presentation.
At the time, it seemed like I was alone in that uneasiness and
apprehension, but heres the secret: This is where everyone starts.
Unsure of themselves. Flailing around in the dark, hoping that
eventually something starts working. I know youd love to get out of
the rat race and actually write for a living. But for most writers, that
feels so far away.
Were not alone in this. Even Stephen King felt this way at one
point.
Heres an excerpt from his memoir On Writing:
I wasnt having much success with my own writing . . . for the first
time in my life, writing was hard. [ . . . ] I could see myself thirty
years on, wearing the same shabby tweed coats with patches on
the elbows, potbelly rolling over my Gap chokes . . . cigarette
cough, thicker glasses, more dandruff, and in my desk drawer, six
or seven unfinished manuscripts which I would take out and tinker
with from time to time, usually when drunk. If asked what I did in
my spare time, Id tell people I was writing a book . . . And of
iii
course Id lie to myself, telling myself there was still time, it wasnt
too late . . . 1
Do you think he felt any different then from how you feel now? He
wanted to write full time, but was thinking hed never make it. He
wanted people to read and love his work, but despaired that they
ever would. He wanted the freedom that comes from writing
successes, but still pictured himself as a washed up failure in thirty or
forty years.
And yet . . . he kept at it. It wasnt long before his book Carrie got
picked up, and the paperback rights sold for $400,000.
Success had been right around the corner for him, because he
hadnt given up.
After my train arrived, I went to Dans house. We stood in his
kitchen chit-chatting for a bit, then the time came.
I had to show him my plan.
I stood at his dining room table for the next hour, walking him
through my plan for making his next book another bestseller.
Five months after my nervous train ride, Dans new book To Sell is
Human debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, #1 on
the Wall Street Journal bestseller list, and #1 on the Washington Post
bestseller list.
1
Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, (Scribner; 10 Anv edition, October
3, 2000)
iv
My plan had worked.

I then took that plan, and started using it over and over, improving
it with each successive launch.
Three months later, I launched another book, Decisive: How to
Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip and Dan Heath, which
debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list.
In fact, that same week I had five clients on the New York Times
bestseller list.
I kept applying my launch framework to book after book, and it
kept working over and over.
From indie-published genre fiction to traditionally published
business books to my own little indie-published book, Your First
1000 Copies.
Each time, the framework held strong and performed.
In this book, I share with you that exact framework, and show you
exactly how I use it to consistently launch books successfully time
and time again.
It all starts with the first step: Sell as many copies as possible to
your existing fans.
How can you make sure your existing friends, fans, and followers
buy your book as soon as it comes out?
How do you get people to buy the book now instead of adding it
to their wish list, alongside a hundred other books?
By using proven methods that are free or inexpensive, and easy to
grasp. I will walk you through the exact steps I take with known and
v
unknown authors alike, to get as many people as possible to buy

your book before it even comes out.
Next, we encourage your fans to share the book with their
personal networks.
If you want to achieve one hundred times your usual reach online,
you must get people to share your book with their friends, fans, and
followers.
This is often the most fun and exciting part of any book launch. Its
an amazing thing to see people get behind your book and share
about it with others. And it doesnt come by begging them to do so.
You can make it fun and exciting for them as well. Ill show you how.
Lastly, we get influencers to help promote the book.
If fans are the individual people who will buy your book,
influencers are the people who will get their crowd of followers to
buy your book.
Ill walk you through how to connect with influencers, and make it
easy for them to say Yes! to helping you promote your book.
Thats it. Thats the framework Ive used to successfully launch
everything from books by #1 New York Times bestselling authors to
new authors just getting their first book off the ground.
For the rest of this book, I will guide you through all of the steps
you need to plan and create your own successful book launch.
vi
In many ways, this book is the sequel to my first title, Your First
1000 Copies: The Step-by-Step Guide to Marketing Your Book. In that
book, I lay out the exact methods any author can use to build a
platform and a following of fans who are excited to buy their next
book.
But once you have that platform, how do you actually use it to
launch your book?
This book fully answers that question.
In this book, I use the story of my first big book launch to lay out
the principles Ive come to use for all of my book launches, whether
were shooting for the New York Times bestseller list, or just trying to
move that first one thousand copies.
This book will help you take that author platform youve been
building and turn it into a successful book launch.
But lets cover a few essentials first . . .
vii
First Steps
Before we start talking plans and tactics, I have to share the one
thing that holds most authors back from finding success with their
book launch.
The One Limiting Belief You Must Release
Heres the thought that will hold you back from success:
Sure, this works for the authors youve worked with, but it wont
work for me because __________.
Too often, authors are quick to poke holes in my advice, instead
of accepting it with an open mind.
I can tell you about all of the authors Ive worked with the
success stories, and how each part of the launch plan worked for
them, and why.
But if youre looking for the negatives more than the positives of
what you can learn here, then success will constantly elude you.
3
Throughout this book, Im going to share stories, tips, and tactics

of how authors have successfully launched their books.
And its true that not all of these ideas will work for you exactly as
presented. There are going to be a few things that dont directly
apply to your particular situation, platform, or book.
My encouragement is, instead of thinking the above negative
statement, change it to:
Well, that exact idea wont work for me, but I could try _________
instead.
Instead of despairing or being disparaging when some advice
doesnt directly apply to you, use your creativity to take the idea and
apply it to you and your book.
Over and over again, authors surprise me with their own
ingenuity and creativity when it comes to their marketing methods.
Many times, they take what I say and turn it into something much
bigger and better than I could have come up with.
So as we move through this book together, stay positive and
apply your creativity. Well probably both be surprised at what you
come up with.
The One Essential Belief You Must Have

In 2015, I spoke at an authors conference about book launches,
and asked some of the authors there to share what they wanted to
learn. One question in particular stood out to me.
What is the #1 key to success in launching a book?
I was surprised at how hard that was for me to answer.
After working directly with hundreds of authors and training tens
of thousands more online, Ive heard just about every question, and
usually have a ready answer for all of them.
At my core, Im a tactics guy. I want to know what works, how it
works, and why. I dont like untested theory, and I dont like things I
cant test and see the results of in the real world.
So when I was asked the above question, I immediately started
thinking through my catalog of tactics and strategies Ive used to put
books at the top of the bestseller lists. As I reached the end of that
catalog, I hadnt come across anything that was the sole key to a
successful book launch.
I stopped, and thought back over the books Ive launched that
were successes, and the ones that were . . . not.
I thought about everything that had gone into those launches.
Of course, Id used the same framework and tactics that I thought
were best for each launch, but they hadnt always worked the way I
wanted them to.
So as I looked for the common thread that ran through the
successful launches, I finally landed on it.
The one component that separates the successful launches from

all the others is this:
In a successful launch, the author believes that buying their
book is actually a good thing for people to do.
That sounds simple enough. And obvious. But is it true for you?
I kept a journal leading up to the launch of my first book, and at
one point I wrote:
I want to be the author who sells a lot of copies of his book
without having any individual actually buy and read it.
We often have this fear about our book going out into the world,
and people actually reading and judging it, and leaving Amazon
reviews. So we hold back. We tell ourselves things like, If the book is
good, it will naturally find an audience. Or I dont want to be one of
those authors, who shove their books down peoples throats.
But what were really saying is, Im scared to actually have people
buy and read my book, because Im not convinced its the best thing
for them.
You have to believe, in the deepest part of your soul, that it is
a good thing for readers to buy and read your book.
If that idea doesnt ring true for you, then your book launch is
going to suffer. I can give you all the proven frameworks, strategies,
and tactics Ive ever used, but until you come round to believing this
one thing, you will constantly circumvent or undermine your own
success. When it comes time to invite people to buy, you will
struggle, pull back, obfuscate, and rub all of the edges off your
marketing.
Your first bit of homework is this:
6
Find a quiet place where you can spend a few hours. Now write
down exactly why you wrote your book. What inspired you, who you
wrote it for, and why you want people to read it. Be clear on this.
Then spend some time letting this sink into the deepest part of
you. Pray, meditate, or do whatever you need to do to make this real
for you.
If you truly believe that buying and reading your book is the best
thing a reader can do for themselves, then the rest of this book is
going to be exactly what you need to build a successful book
launch.
Of course, you may have problems with the whole idea of
marketing. Weve all seen pushy, annoying marketing tactics that are
all about the book or the author, and not about what the book can
actually give to its readers.
In Your First 1000 Copies, I outline my definition of what good
marketing is and isnt, right from the start:
Marketing isnt sleazy car salesman tactics.
Marketing isnt tricking people into buying.
Marketing isnt unethical.
Marketing isnt intrusive self-promotion.
Marketing is two things: (1) creating lasting connections with
people, through (2) a focus on being relentlessly helpful.2
2 Tim
Grahl, Your First 1000 Copies: The Step-by-Step Guide to Marketing Your Book,
(Lynchburg, VA: Out:think Group, 2013), 10-11.
7
When youre relentlessly helpful, youre regularly offering your

audience stories or information that can enhance and build up their
lives. Some of that content might be free, some of it might have a
price tag on it. But all of it is there to support them in positive ways.
And so are your marketing messages.
Once youre clear on what marketing really is, you need to be
clear on why youre putting this book out, and what you hope to
achieve with it.
Define What Success Means for You
When I launched my first book, Your First 1000 Copies, I had no
delusions about what I was trying to accomplish. I wasnt trying to hit
the New York Times or Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. I wasnt
even trying to crack the top 100 on Amazon.
I just wanted to sell a thousand copies as fast as possible.
This goal really came to life for me a couple months before I
launched the book.
I was talking to a friend of mine about my new book. He asked
what the title was, and I told him. He was silent for a moment, then
he said, Well, I hope you sell a thousand of them.
I felt all the blood drain from my face.
I hadnt even considered this when I selected the title for my
book.
Your First 1000 Copies.
Most books only sell 250 copies in their entire first year.3
What if I only sell 238 copies of my book? Ill have to retitle the
book Your First 238 Copies. How embarrassing would that be!
Right then and there, I decided on my mark for success.
I wanted to sell a thousand copies in the first month the book was
out.
To me, that would mean it was a success.
What does success look like for you, and your book?
When I started planning Dan Pinks book launch, I defined success
as breaking into the top five of the New York Times and Wall Street
Journal bestseller lists. Anything less, I would consider a failure.
But for my own book, with my own small fan base, and my own
limited time, I chose selling a thousand copies in a month.
You have to choose ahead of time what goal or benchmark you
will need to reach in order to consider your book sales to be a
success.
It will be different for each person, and it has to be defined by you
alone.
It is important to decide this ahead of time, so that you have a
clear goal youre reaching for. And so you wont slip into the mindset
that whatever you accomplish, its never good enough. Its too easy
to have a launch thats successful for where you are now as an
author, then immediately compare it to other books that have done
better.
Steven Piersanti, 10 Awful Truths About Book Publishing, BKConnection.com, April

15, 2014, https://www.bkconnection.com/10-awful-truths-about-book-publishing.
9
Decide right now:

1. How many books you want to sell.
2. What date you want to sell them by.
This will help guide the rest of your launch efforts.
10
Fans
The first piece of your book launch framework is:

Sell as many copies as possible to your fans.
But who are your fans?
I define fans as: People who will buy your book.
Your first goal for the launch is to get as many people youre
connected to as possible to buy your book. These connections are
friends, family, colleagues, Twitter followers, Facebook fans, email
subscribers anyone you have a direct connection to. Anyone you
have permission to contact in some way.
As we work through this section of the book, our focus is to get as
many of those people as possible to buy your book when it
launches.
Why Should They Buy?
When I first started sketching out the launch plan for Daniel Pink, I
knew our biggest asset was the people he was already connected
to. We had spent the previous two years building up his email list to
be as large as possible. He also had a strong following on Twitter
and Facebook.
The question then became: How do we get these people to buy
his book?
Other than a few bulk buys that wed set up, I knew Dan was
putting all of his push into his own platform. There was no big-time
New York publicist. There were no Today show appearances or ad
buys.
I had already set our goal as breaking into one of the top five slots
of the top bestseller lists, but I wasnt sure how to pull that off.
I did know that all the preorders that came in before the launch
date of any book counted towards that first week of sales, which is
typically the best shot at hitting the bestseller lists.4 I therefore knew
that almost all of my promotion had to be done in the weeks leading
up to launch.
That helped me decide on a preorder campaign.
I wanted as many people as possible to buy the book before it
was released. This would maximize the amount of book sales that
would count towards the first week of sales, strongly affecting the
books placement on the major bestseller lists.
But how could I pull that off?
I explain more about how the big bestseller lists work in an article here: http://bit.ly/
bslists.
4
People already had too many books to read. Why would they add
this one to the stack? How could I keep them from adding the book
to their Amazon wish list, and buying it in six months instead of
preordering it?
Id run into my first major problem.
Everybody knows that once a book is out, they can buy it
whenever they want. There is no real reason for them to buy it ahead
of time. Sure, I could get some of Dans hardcore fans to jump in and
buy early. But that wouldnt be enough to sell the 10,000-plus copies
we needed to hit the top spots on the bestseller lists.
This is what I was stuck on.
What could I do to get people to buy now instead of later?
Create Scarcity
As I considered this problem, my thoughts went to a book Id read
titled Influence by Robert Cialdini.
In the book, Cialdini uses his training as a social psychologist to
dig in and find the major things that influence our decision-making.
He outlines six different principles, but I really honed in on one in
particular.
In the chapter on scarcity, Cialdini says:
The idea of potential loss plays a large role in human decisionmaking. In fact, people seem to be more motivated by the thought
of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of

equal value.5
This is also called loss aversion, which has been defined as: The
tendency for individuals to prefer avoiding losses rather than
accruing gains, so that losses have a larger impact on preferences
than that of the advantages of gains. 6
In other words, were much more likely to take action to keep from
losing something we already have (such as the chance for a free
gift), than we are to jump in and get something new.
This presented a problem for me.
I had to come up with some way to add potential loss scarcity
into the mix. That would trigger loss aversion in our fans, so that they
would be more likely to buy immediately.
A book is the opposite of this.
Its something that will add value to peoples lives, but which they
can access at any time.
So how could I possibly make the book seem scarce?
Robert Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, (New York: HarperCollins,

2006), ____.
6
InvestorWords.com, Loss Aversion, accessed November 30, 2015, http://
www.investorwords.com/16526/loss_aversion.html#ixzz3t2DwfmXa.
6
Create Incentives
We already had a large group of people we could reach out to
about Dans book, but had no way to create a need for why people
should buy the book now instead of later.
I was getting nervous.
I started thinking outside of book launches.
How were people selling other products that didnt inherently
involve scarcity?
I first thought of price reductions.
Most retail stores will routinely run sales on products to get you to
buy them. They create scarcity by announcing that the item will sell
out soon, or that the price will be going up after a certain date.
That wouldnt work with Dans book.
The publisher had set the price, and I had no control over it. The
price had to stay the same.
Then I thought of those late night infomercials.
Remember how they would sell it?
They would take a product that was always for sale, and then
boost it with extra stuff you could get if you bought right now.
What if we could do that with a book?
We would get rid of the cheesy spokesperson screaming at
viewers, but still boost the value of the book by adding incentives
for anyone who preordered the book before it was launched.
But what could we possibly add to a book, to convince people
they should buy now instead of later?
Add Value
A book, by definition, is (most of the time) just words on a page.
So I started considering . . . what could we add to Dan's book to
make it more valuable?
Going back to my definition of marketing, I wanted to add value
to the book to make it more fun and useful than it is on its own.
I began wondering, Could we create additional content that
would add to the value of the book?
Were there additional things we could do around the book, to
make it more exciting and fun for the reader?
This has often been the most enjoyable process of the book
launch planning for me. I love working with an author to create fun
gifts for the audience that will add value to the book theyre buying.
Here are the questions I ask authors, to get them thinking about
what kind of bonuses they could add to their book:
1. If there were no constraints if you could wave a magic wand
and create anything what free content would you provide
readers, as part of your book sale package?
2. How could you make your book more valuable to readers?
Could you create a PDF workbook? Could you interview
experts mentioned in the book?
3. What could you create around the book, working with different
mediums, other than words on a page? Think video, audio,
graphic design, etc.
Here are a few things authors offer during launches:
Dan Pink did exclusive hour-long interviews with the researchers
and experts he references in To Sell is Human.
Chip and Dan Heath created a green custom-made Magic 8-Ball
to go along with the launch of their book Decisive.
Jeff Goins allowed people to immediately download a digital
copy of his entire book when they preordered The Art of Work.
Shawn Coyne created posters that he sent early buyers of The
Story Grid.
A fiction writer could give early buyers a prequel, back list titles,
or extra scenes that didnt make the final cut.
Your goal is to provide as much extra value to readers as possible.
We call this offering New Value bonuses. And bonuses are what
we use to get people to buy now instead of later.
The Plan
Once I landed on the idea of creating new, additional value
around Dans new book, the rest of the plan for how to get fans to
buy fell into place:
1. We created the bonuses and decided to offer them as free
giveaways to anyone who preordered the book.
9
2. We ran a month-long campaign leading up to the publish date

promoting the book and the bonuses.
Heres the key: In order to get the bonuses, readers had to
buy the book before the publish date.
That is how you create scarcity around a book launch.
The book will always be available. However, the bonuses will
never be free or available again after your book has come out.
Now we have a clear path to getting all of our fans to buy our
book now, not later.
Of course, its one thing to have a plan, and quite another to put
the plan into action. How are we going to know who buys our book?
And how are we going to deliver all of these great bonuses we just
created?
10
The Systems
I knew that Amazon and Barnes & Noble werent going to be kind
enough to send me daily sales reports, along with the names of
those who bought the book, so I could send those early buyers their
bonuses.
So the first problem we had to figure out was how we would know
when someone had bought the book and who they were, so we
could send them the bonuses.
Since we couldnt get the information from the sellers, we had to
get the information from the reader.
We decided to set up a free email address through Gmail, and to
tell fans to forward their book purchase receipt to that email
address. Then for every receipt we received, we simply replied with
an email that had links to all of the free bonus content.
This worked great for us.
It was easy for readers, and it was easy for us.
All readers had to do was buy the book online, then forward their
receipt to XXXXX@gmail.com. They would then get an email a few
minutes later, with links that would enable them to access all the
bonus content.
You may have noticed that so far, I havent mentioned anything
about a website, or even a landing page for the book.
Thats because for Dans book launch, we didnt use one.
While we did have a webpage on Dans site that provided
information about the book, we didnt use that in our promotion to
fans. We just told everybody to go buy the book from any of the
11
books online sellers, and to forward the receipt to our special email
address.
When it comes to technology, its extremely easy to get stuck in
the weeds, designing and creating things that arent going to move
the needle on sales significantly. My goal for every launch is
simplicity, especially on the technology side, where its easy to waste
a lot of time and money.
Dont get distracted by the myriad things you can do online to
promote your book. Focus on creating great content great bonuses
and inviting your fans to buy your book. This is the strategy that will
get you the most sales.
But of course, merely having a great book and a great set of
bonuses isnt enough.
How do you actually connect with your fans, to let them know
what youre doing, and get them to buy?
How to Talk to Your Followers
Before I dive into how we decided to reach out to Daniel Pinks
community, lets focus on how to talk to people about your book
and your bonuses.
We have all these ways that we can communicate with our fans
Facebook, Twitter, webinars, podcasts, email but oftentimes, you
may be confused and concerned about exactly what to say. Suppose
I dropped ten thousand potential readers in your lap right now.
Would you know what to say to them, and how to get them to buy
your book?
12
Often when I use phrases like marketing your book or getting

your fans to buy, authors conjure up memories of really annoying
authors who are always begging their Facebook friends to buy their
book. Or they think of all the spammy pitches some authors email to
other authors, trying to get them to help promote their book.
I hope by now that you realize this is not the tack Im suggesting
you take.
If we think back to that second part of my definition of marketing,
youll remember I said that its all about being relentlessly helpful.
This applies to your book launch as well.
Daniel Pink first told me about the idea for his book To Sell is
Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others right at the
beginning of his work on the manuscript. I sat in the same kitchen I
would sit in months later, nervously pitching my marketing plan to
him. But at that moment, I was all ears to hear the idea for his new
book.
One in nine people in America make their living in sales, in the
traditional way we think of sales, he said. But now with everything
thats changed in how people live and work, it means those other
eight out of nine are also in sales.
He then launched into the story of this new book; how he came
up with it, and all the research hed found supporting these new
ideas.
I was hooked.
Dans own excitement and storytelling had sucked me in. I was
ready to lay down my money for a copy right then and there, before
hed even finished the first draft.
13
When it came time for Dan to launch his book, instead of putting
on some refined publicity/marketing hat and talking about his book
in official-sounding terms, he simply shared with his fans that same
initial excitement hed had around the book to start with.
And thats what got people to buy the book.
No fancy copywriting.
No top-dollar publicist.
No impressive press releases.
Just Dan talking about his book as something that would
change peoples lives for the better.
He shared stuff hed learned while writing it.
He shared the core ideas that were the backbone of the content.
He shared stories of the people hed met while researching the
book.
And it was all done while letting his own excitement show
through.
Charles Duhigg, an author I worked with during the launch of his
book The Power of Habit, was fantastic at this.
The video trailer for his book featured him sharing how he used
the ideas in his book to break an annoying cookie-eating habit that
had caused him to gain extra weight.
Whenever I watched Charles promote his book, I saw how he
simply let his passion shine through while he shared ideas, tactics,
and stories from his book.
When I ask you to write emails or put things on Facebook, dont
try to switch to some fake book-marketing version of yourself. Simply
14
share the stories and ideas in your book, and let your passion for it
shine through.
That is what will get people to lay down their money for your
book.
Permission and Email
In Your First 1000 Copies, I also talk about the importance of
Permission, and why an email list is the best way to go about gaining
the right to connect with people about your work.
Heres an excerpt from the book:
Without permission, your communication efforts risk being
ignored, deleted, or otherwise tuned out. To put the odds in your
favor, seek permission from your readers before you start
connecting with them. When you have earned such permission
from your readers, be sure to respect that permission by
communicating with them in a way that is reliable, authentic, value
driven, and encouraging of action. After all, permission-based
communications are the opposite of spam.
Ultimately, permission is what you use to plug the holes in your
bucket, because permission fosters conversations that will last
long into the future. These conversations with your readers are
what interest them in the subjects you are writing about, which
leads them to buy your books. No advertising costs or frustrations
required. And if you have a system in place that establishes
permission with readers, the book sales will follow naturally.
15
In todays marketing world, what is the best tool for getting

permission to communicate with your readers in a way that
reliably gets their attention and encourages them to take action?
An email list.
Ramit Sethi shouldnt have been a successful author. In 2009,
he was a 24-year-old kid who had no publicist or media attention
of any kind: radio, television or newspaper. And yet, when he
launched his book I Will Teach You To Be Rich, it immediately
became a Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestseller.
What did he use to make that happen?
His email list.
Now, [several] years later, Ramit runs a thriving online business
that makes over a million dollars a year teaching people how to
earn more money, find their dream jobs, and negotiate big raises.
What does he use to market his products?
His email list.
Ramit isnt the only author today using email to drive book
sales and succeed in their career. In fact, many of todays
bestselling authors develop large email lists. Why are email lists
so important and powerful? Because an email list is the perfect
way for a reader to give permission, thereby creating the direct
and reliable communication channel between reader and author
that is the foundation of the Connection System. This is how
authors stay connected with their readers in a way that gets
attention and drives action.
Readers dont just casually give their permission, however.
Permission must be earned by offering a valuable and credible
16
incentive. Earning such permission is the art of motivating website

visitors to grant permission to stay connected. A unique breed of
person knows how to do this very effectively: Internet marketers.
If you start researching the world of Internet marketing, youll
quickly come across names like Jeff Walker, Brendan Burchard,
and Jeff Johnson. While I dont recommend or endorse all of their
tactics and products, they are interesting case studies in ways to
effectively sell products and make money, especially using online
platforms.
The email list is their most preferred tool, because it generates
the best results by a wide margin over any other tool. In fact, if
you were to ask them to choose between their email list or all of
their other marketing assets combined (Facebook, Google+,
Twitter, their blog, their podcast), theyd pick the email list every
time. The reason is simple: Their email list is where they make
their money.
I was reluctant to believe in the power of the email list when I
first began working closely with authors. At the time, I thought
email was on its way out. The advent of blogging eliminated your
need for a web programmer to help you get your words
published to the world. And the rise of social media gave you
direct access to the same platforms millions of people were
logging into every day. How could email possibly keep up?
However, the more I worked with, talked to and studied
successful authors, the more I saw email playing a central role in
their platform strategies. Is there a common reason for this
trend? I wondered. As it turned out, there was: Having a direct
17
connection to an individuals inbox gives authors a way to

communicate to their readers where they regularly spend their
time.
Reaching people where theyre already spending their time is
important, because the world has become a busy and noisy place.
Every day, people are confronted with sales messages they arent
interested in and stories they dont care about. What they do care
about are the few direct relationships theyve invited into their
lives. Such direct access is the essence of our new marketing
definition: The act of building long-lasting connections with
people. Its very important that you think about the strength and
integrity of that connection. Always give readers meaningful
reasons to continue giving you their attention and following
through on your calls to action.
Escape from Cubicle Nation author Pam Slim leads one of the
most passionate and engaged tribes of readers Ive ever had the
pleasure to work with and experience. Her email list, Twitter, and
Facebook platforms each have strong numbers. So when I
recently helped her launch a new video course product, I was
curious to see which asset would perform best in converting to
product sales. We marketed her course to her email list and to her
social media connections, all the while watching the numbers. The
result was staggering: For every one sale Pam received through
social media, she received 50 sales through her email list.7
Grahl, Your First 1000 Copies, 20-24.

18
During the two years leading up to the launch of Dan Pinks new
book, we spent the vast majority of our time building up his email
list. I wasnt focused on social media or his blog readers, or anything
else.
I just wanted people to sign up for his email list.
I had staked all of my credibility on building Dans email list, and
he was staking the outcome of his book launch on my methods.
When to Send
As we started discussing the nuts and bolts of our plan, two
questions kept coming to the surface:
1. When do we start sending emails?
2. How often should we send emails?
Those are tough questions.
The biggest fear we had was that wed annoy his fans. We didnt
want to drive people crazy, hitting them over the head with the book
too much. We also didnt want to start too early or too late.
Too early, and people start ignoring you.
Too late, and you dont give people enough time to make a
decision.
Luckily, Id had some experience there.
Before Dans launch, I had worked with an author who was selfpublishing his book. We wanted to test how soon we could start
asking people to buy the book.
19
We started trying as far as six months in advance, and kept trying

intermittently, until the launch date.
Heres what we found:
Most people are not going to buy a book far in advance. Unless
they are already a die-hard fan who immediately preorders anything
you put out, people arent going to buy a book long before it comes
out.
My theory is that people are used to immediately receiving the
books they buy. Whether its through digital download of an ebook
or grabbing a hard copy at their local bookstore, its nice to get your
book in-hand immediately upon purchase. Even buying on Amazon
puts the book in your hands within a couple of days.
On top of that, books are priced in an impulse-buy price range.
Most buyers arent making long-term plans for a $10 purchase. Most
are naturally going to shrug off buying something thats low priced;
we dont think in terms of, Ill buy now, and receive it in six months.
The sweet spot seems to be one month.
Any time Ive tried to market a book more than a month before its
published, sales struggle. However, once its inside a month,
combined with the scarcity of the bonuses only being available for a
limited time, sales start strong and stay steady throughout the entire
launch period.
When planning your launch, I recommend you start marketing
your book one month before it comes out.
How Much Is Too Much?
20
Once we figure out the timing, the next question is, How often
should we email them?
This is such an interesting question.
Depending on who you ask or what you read, you will get a wide
range of responses.
Some people recommend you send an email every day. In fact,
Im subscribed to a couple of email lists that send me email every
day.
Others recommend you email your list as little as possible. Many
authors Ive seen only send one email about their new book.
What is the right answer?
Heres what Ive found after working with hundreds of authors and
sending millions of email messages:
People have an extremely high tolerance for useful and
interesting content.
If you send out thirteen emails begging people to buy your book,
then yes, it will get annoying, and your readers will either
unsubscribe or ignore you.
But what if we took a different approach?
With Dans launch, we decided to share as much about the book
as possible. We included excerpts, rewritten sections of the book,
and other useful and fun content.
We tried to make every email interesting and useful to readers.
Because the best kind of marketing is telling stories and
teaching.
With Dans campaign, we ended up sending six emails over the
course of the four weeks leading up to the launch of his book.
21
When I launched my book Your First 1000 Copies, I wanted to see

how hard I could push this.
So I sent nine emails in less than three weeks.
Thats a lot of emails!
Didnt people get annoyed? Didnt people stop opening them?
Or unsubscribe?
Well, yes, a small handful of people got annoyed, and some of
them unsubscribed.
However, the overwhelming majority of people loved it!
With each email, I strived to make the content stand alone as
useful and interesting. I shared excerpts from the book, shared
success stories, posted videos. In each email, I mentioned that my
book was for sale, but that was not the main point of the email.
What happened?
My open rates and click rates stayed steady throughout the entire
launch.
I received many emails from readers excited to buy my book.
And in less than two weeks, with just 1,800 subscribers, I sold
more than 1,000 copies of my book.
Dont let fear hold you back from bringing your readers along for
the ride during the excitement of your book launch. Create a lot of
content around your book, and dont be afraid to share it with your
readers, and to invite them to be a part of the launch by buying your
book.
Making It Happen
22
One of the most satisfying parts of every launch is when the first
few people start buying the book.
With Dans book, Id worked for three years on his platform, lost
sleep over the book launch plan, and then worked hard to make
sure everything was in place.
On Day One, we sent out the first email.
And I held my breath.
Theres something fundamentally terrifying about releasing a
book into the world.
You go from having this hidden gem youve been pouring your
soul into and shown to only a handful of people who want you to
succeed, to putting it out into the world, where anyone can rip it
apart with a one-star review on Amazon.
Every author goes through this.
Ive had top bestselling authors ones with sales most people
would kill for admit to me theyre worried their next book will be
the one where people finally realize theyre a terrible writer with
nothing to say.
For me, this feeling always coalesces with my launch nerves when
I send out that first launch email.
This is when I ask people, for the very first time, to pull out their
money and spend it on a new book.
So what finally happened with Dans launch?
23
A few minutes after we sent out the first email, the sales started
rolling in. I kept refreshing the Gmail inbox, and it kept filling up with
people forwarding their preorder receipt.
In addition, Dans inbox was filling up with emails from readers
excited to buy the new book.
One of the biggest surprises Ive had in book launches, is how the
fans rally around the launch. Many are as excited as you are about
your new book.
When you launch your book the way Ive described in this book,
you create an event where you are adding something positive to
your fans lives, and they love you all the more for it.
Tie it All Together
When you plan your book launch, the goal is not only to sell as
many books as possible. Its also to engage with your fan base in a
way that is meaningful to them.
By creating scarcity with your bonuses and doing a month-long
campaign for your book, you create an event that is fun and exciting
for them.
As you write your emails and share fun, useful content during your
promotion, you are adding value for them.
When your book finds success, hits bestseller lists, and spreads
out further, you have created something that is satisfying for them to
be a part of.
A successful book launch isnt only about selling your book and
hitting a bestseller list. Its about doing something that is fun and
engaging for your fans. This will create a long-term relationship with
24
them that will allow you to not only launch this book successfully, but
every book you write in future.
Key Takeaways
Fans are people you are connected to who will buy your book.
Create scarcity around your book launch by creating bonuses
that are only available when fans preorder your book.
Write in your own voice.
Focus on delivering valuable content throughout the entire
launch campaign.
The launch campaign should run for one month before your
publication date.
Make it easy for people to participate, by creating an email
address that preorder buyers can forward their receipt to.
Dont be afraid to send out a lot of emails with great content.
25
Share
Quick question to get us started on this topic:

Is it easier to build a following of 10,000 people, or to get 10
people with 1,000 followers each to share something about your
book?
Exactly.
Social media is a tricky animal. On the surface, it seems like a

perfect way to reach your audience and drive action. But it never
seems to work out that way.
You can work extremely hard to build up your Facebook Likes and
Twitter following, but when it comes time to launch a book, those
rarely convert into actual book sales.
Dan Pinks launch was the first time I tested this.
During the launch of To Sell Is Human, we promoted the book to
both his email list and Twitter following. We found that an email
26
subscriber on Dans list was twelve times more likely to buy the book
than one of his Twitter followers. This was later powerfully supported
by what I saw during Pam Slims launch, when as youll recall, Pam
made fifty times the sales through her email list that she made
through social media.
So what does that mean for social media efforts? Should you
completely ignore them?
80 vs. 20
Weve all heard of the 80/20 rule or the Pareto principle, an idea
Forbes.com calls very simple, yet very important.
Its named after an Italian economist who noted, in 1906, that
80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. This
80/20 distribution seems to occur in nearly every area of life, from
the percentage of our wardrobe we wear most often to the number
of people we choose to spend our time with.
Forbes.com also notes that in general, 20% of your customers
represent 80% of your sales. And 20% of your time produces 80% of
your results.8
My goal is to constantly look for the 20% of my work that gets the
80% of results, and then focus as much of my energy on those things
as possible, cutting out the 80% of the work that gets just 20% of the
results.
Dave Lavinsky, Pareto Principle: How To Use It To Dramatically Grow Your Business,
Forbes.com, January 20, 2014, http://www.forbes.com/sites/davelavinsky/
2014/01/20/pareto-principle-how-to-use-it-to-dramatically-grow-your-business/.
27
By focusing your energy on building a big social media following,

then trying to get them to buy the book, youre making the mistake
of spending your time on the 80% of work that will only get 20% of
the results.
Heres what Ive learned:
Its much better to leverage your fans social media
followings than it is to try and grow your own large social media
following.
Fans Want to Help
As we saw in the previous section, when you run your launch the
right way, your fans get excited about the launch, and they want to
help!
But the problem is, most of them dont really know how to help.
First, they arent big-time influencers. They dont have popular
blogs or big email lists.
What they do have though, is their own network of people they
are connected to.
Sure, they may only have 400 Twitter followers and a few hundred
Facebook friends. But that is hundreds of people youre not already
connected to! And if you get them and all your other fans to share
your book with their networks, you will reach hundreds of thousands
of people on social media, without having to work endlessly to build
up your own following or pay for ads.
So our goal is to invite our fans to share their book with their
networks.
28
Of course, they have no idea how to do this in a way that will

work.
So you have to teach them.
Moving from A to B
One of the biggest mistakes I made with Dan Pinks launch was
not making the path as short as possible from A) the fans to B) the
fans sharing with their network.
Here are a few truths that were up against:
1. People are busy. You want to give them something they can
do in a few seconds, otherwise they will give up or think Ill do
this later, and then never do it.
2. People dont know how to do marketing. Ive been in online
marketing for a decade, so I have the curse of knowledge. I
assume people know how to write something compelling, or
can come up with a fun 140-character quip about a new book.
But they cant.
3. People dont know your book. Sure, theyve seen the cover
and read the blurbs, but they dont have full understanding of
your book, because they havent read it yet.
Throughout Dans launch, I was thrilled and excited by the people
who were taking steps to share the book with their friends. But I was
29
constantly wondering why more people werent sharing online

about the book.
As I dug into the problem after the launch, I realized it was
because I was expecting too much from them.
This became all the clearer to me when an author I follow sent an
email asking people to share info about their book. I decided Id like
to help. I figured Id post the cover of the book on Twitter and link to
its Amazon page.
Here are the steps I had to go through to make that happen:
1. I had to do a search for the cover of the book. I first looked
on the authors website, but they didnt have a great picture I
could use. So I went to Amazon.com, searched for the book,
clicked to the book page, clicked onto the image of the cover
to make it bigger, right-clicked onto the image, and clicked
save image.
2. I then had to think up something to say about it on Twitter.
This part shouldnt take long its only 140 characters but I
still wrote, deleted, and rewrote it several times. I wasnt sure
what I should write, and I kept going over 140 characters.
Finally, I had what I wanted to write.
3. I then had to insert the link and book image. I had to go
back to Amazon, highlight and copy the URL, switch back to
Twitter, paste the link into Twitter, and upload the image.
30
4. I then had to rewrite my tweet. Adding the link and the

image put me over the 140-character limit again. So I had to
completely rewrite my text.
5. I then had to click the Tweet button to finally post it on
Twitter.
Thats a really long path between A) me the fan and B) me
sharing about the book online.
It was a pretty excruciating process. I almost gave up several
times. And Im someone who understands technology and book
marketing, and who really supports this authors work. Imagine what
that process would be like for your average fan.
Our goal is to make the whole process as close as possible to
people being able to share your book with just a single click.
Make it Easy for Fans to Share
When I had the privilege to work with Pamela Slim on the launch
of Body of Work, I knew that one of her biggest assets is her
dedicated group of diehard fans. There were a lot of people excited
to share her book, and I didnt want to overlook the same areas I had
with Dans launch.
The first thing we did was to find the most quotable parts of her
book. These are the things we want to get people to share.
The way we decided to do this was to ask early readers.
31
Wed sent out early copies of the manuscript to a group of early

readers, and asked them to let us know what their favorite quotes
were from the book. We then made a list of these, and added in
some of Pams favorites as well.
This then became the raw material for what we would ask people
to share.
The next thing we did was to turn the quotes into shareable
images. We found cool images that matched the content of the
quote, and overlaid the quote on the image. There is fantastic online
tool called Canva that will walk you through how to easily create
these at low or no cost.
On each image, we included the URL for the books webpage or
Amazon preorder page.
From there, we took these images with quotes and turned them
into shareable posts for Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
This turned out to be the best part.
Because when fans clicked onto a link to share the image/quote
on Twitter, it didnt just take them to Twitter. It took them to the
Twitter site with the tweet already filled in, featuring the quote and a
link to buy the book.
We did this for each of the social media platforms.
This means that when we asked people to share, all they had to
do was 1) click onto our link and then 2) click the social media
button to post. It was simple, straightforward, and took less than five
seconds.
We also took all of these shareable images with quotes and listed
them on a single page on Pams website, with buttons below each
32
image/quote, so it would be easy for fans to share them on

Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Whenever we asked people to
share, we linked directly to this special page on Pams website.
This resulted in a ton of sharing from her fans.
I was amazed at how many more people were willing to share
about the book with their network or audience when we made it
easy and fun to share.
Your fans want to be a part of your launch. So let them! Just make
sure you shorten the path as much as possible from point A to point
B.
Create Your Launch Teams
What could be better than an organized group of fans who are
dedicated to the success of your book launch?
Whether you call them your Street Team, SuperFans, or MegaAwesome-Readers, the goal is to organize your fans into a group
that will help you spread the word about your book.
For the purpose of this book, Im simply calling them Launch
Teams.
Ive tried several different iterations of Launch Teams, and have
come up with a list of dos and donts that will set you up for the
greatest success:
DO invite all of your fans to be a part of a special group
dedicated to helping you get the word out about your book.
33
DONT bribe them with some kind of big prize. When my

client the cartoonist Hugh MacLeod was launching Ignore
Everybody, he wanted to give a hundred people a free print of one
of his cartoons. While I loved the heart message behind this, I knew
it would attract a group of people who were extrinsically motivated
by getting something for free, rather than intrinsically motivated to
help spread the word about Hughs book.
While Im not against providing cool stuff to your Launch Team,
you have to make sure it doesnt turn into a situation where people
are just signing up to get free stuff. Because when it comes time for
them to get busy and help spread the word, they would be
extremely hard to motivate.
DO give them an early copy of your book. First of all, they need
to be able to read the book so they can help spread the word. Also,
this is a great bribe that doesnt break the previous rule. Only real
fans will care about getting an early copy of the book anyway.
DONT try to create a community out of your Launch Team. In
one of the launches I managed, I organized a private Facebook
group that only the Launch Team members could access. My hope
was that they would interact around the book, encourage each other
to share, and come up with new marketing ideas.
That didnt happen.
Instead, they mostly talked about how cool it was to be on the
Launch Team, and that was it. It was extremely hard to get new
conversations going and, overall, it fell pretty flat.
DO focus on one-way communication. Instead of trying to build
a community where the Launch Team members are interacting, put
34
them all on a separate email list. This will allow you to send them
updates and instructions directly. You can send them ideas and
share Launch Team member success stories as inspiration, without
the pressure of managing a group.
DO set expectations right from the start. When you invite
people to join your launch team, be clear about what you will be
asking of them. Let them know how you would like them to share the
book, when you would like them to read the book, etc. This will allow
you to email them regularly throughout the campaign without your
feeling that youre asking too much.
DO ask them to leave a review on Amazon. One of the most
important things you can do for your books launch day is to get as
many fans as possible to post a review on that day. Your Launch
Team members are the perfect group of people to do this. Help
them out with reminders the day before and the day of the launch.
Organizing a Launch Team is a fun and exciting way to get your
fans involved in your launch. Follow the above guidelines to get the
most out of the experience.
Buyer to Sharer
Most of the marketing efforts that go into a book launch are
focused on getting your fans to buy the book. It doesnt do us much
good to get people to share about a book when they havent
bought it themselves.
35
So in addition to the Launch Team, I focus most of my effort on

getting the people who bought the book to share about it with
others.
Whats nice, is that we have the email addresses of early buyers,
from when they forwarded their receipt to us. So we can also send
them emails inviting them to share about the book.
There are a few different emails I send to fans who have bought
the book, encouraging them to share it with their networks.
First, in the email I send them that has all of the links they need to
download the bonuses, I add a PS at the end where I link to the
share page on the authors website (see the section Make it Easy
for Fans to Share in this chapter), and invite them to share.
Second, I email them a few days after they buy the book and
specifically ask them to share about the book on Twitter or Facebook
right then and there. I include the one-click share links to make it
easy.
Third, I send an email on the last day of the preorder campaign,
asking them to share about the book on Twitter or Facebook during
the final push of the launch.
Finally, a few weeks after launch date, I send them an email asking
what they thought of the book, and if they would be willing to leave
an Amazon review.
The people most likely to share about your book during your
launch are the ones who have already bought or previewed it. Make
it easy and fun for them to continue being a part of the launch, even
though they have already bought the book.
36
Your Community
Whenever I talk to authors about building their platform, I tell
them:
I want a community of active participants, not passive
consumers.
So many authors fall into the trap of fear that leads them to only
give, give, give, and never require their fans to step up and take
action. The theory is that if I just give enough away, then everybody
will want to jump in and help when the time comes.
Unfortunately, this is not how it works out in real life.
If you train people to passively consume whatever you put out,
but never ask them to help you, they stop paying attention. Whether
its filling out a survey, posting something on Twitter, buying a book I
recommend, or showing up at an event Im attending, I want my fans
to be an active part of what Im doing.
This especially extends to a book launch.
When youre building your email list and online following, youre
not just doing it for fun. The goal is to be connected to as many
people as possible, so that when your book comes out, theyll buy it.
Unfortunately, I see too many authors build that platform, and
then when it comes time to invite their fans to help, they pull back
and feel bad about asking their fans to help.
A book launch is the best time to ask your fans to get involved
and help.
And heres the thing . . . they want to! Theyll do it gladly, and be
excited to help! Yes, you will have the occasional complainer or
37
naysayer, but dont deny your community the joy of helping you, just
because of a vocal minority.
Make it easy to share your book. Create fun resources for your
fans to share, and be bold in asking them to share. Youll be
surprised by the results.
Key Takeaways
Make it fun and easy for your fans to be a part of the launch.
Focus more on your fans social media following than your own.
Shorten the path from A) your fans, to B) your fans sharing
about your book.
Invite your buyers to become sharers.
Build a launch team, but do it right.
38
Influencers
Nothing can expand your marketing reach quite like several

influencers promoting your book at the same time.
Earlier I defined fans as people who will buy your book.
Influencers are people who will get other people their crowd of
followers to buy your book.
Anybody who has a group of people paying attention to what
they are doing, and listening to their advice, is an influencer.
Whether theyre a blogger, TV personality, radio host, or podcaster,
influencers are people who influence other people to act, based on
their recommendations.
You want to have as many influencers as possible promoting your
book when it comes out.
The great news is, the months before your book launch is the
perfect time to get influencers onboard. Whenever you have
something new to offer people such as a book youre more likely
to get them to pay attention to your work.
39
Unfortunately, theres bad news too.

The Bad News
The bad news is, that reaching out to influencers is the hardest
part of a book launch.
First, exactly how to go about this is the most ambiguous part of
the entire process.
When it comes to selling to fans or getting fans to share, I can
give you exactly what to do to get results. When it comes to
influencer outreach, Im left with vaguer guidelines and suggestions.
If I could give you a direct path to getting influencers interested in
your book the exact content to use, and when then all of those PR
professionals wouldnt be struggling for work. They would simply
blast out those press releases and watch the sales roll in.
The one-size-fits-all approach can never work, because each
influencer is different. They talk about different things. They have
different kinds of audiences, and they create content in different
ways. They each bring their unique personality and preferences to
how they do things.
In addition to the ambiguity that brings to the process, there is
also the emotional side of outreach.
Whereas its easy for me to invite my existing fans to be a part of
what Im doing, its hard for me to reach out to strangers to invite
them in. Especially big-time influencers whom I want to help
promote my book.
The fear of rejection comes out strongly during this process.
40
Throughout the various book launches and promotions Ive been

a part of, Ive made just about every mistake and misstep possible.
Fortunately, Ive also found what works.
There are several guidelines Im going to teach you about
influencer outreach that will save you months of flailing and failing,
and Ill start with the most unlikely piece of advice.
Empathy
All good influencer outreach begins with empathy the ability to
understand and share another persons feelings first-hand.
This is where all good outreach starts.
A friend of mine who runs a popular business podcast recently
received an email from an author, asking to be on his show. This isnt
out of the ordinary for my friend. Hes been running his podcast for a
while, and regularly gets requests to be on his show.
The difference this time was that the author was asking my friend
to buy fifty copies of his book, for the privilege of interviewing him.
My friend politely declined.
When you want someone to help promote your book, starting by
asking them to spend more than $500 on you isnt the best way to
go about it.
While this extreme case is an obvious example, I see too many
authors making the similar mistake of focusing first on themselves
and what they need, rather than on what the influencer needs.
Heres another excerpt from Your First 1000 Copies, on the most
important ingredient in outreach:
41
Mismatching of attitude and best interest is where I see so many

authors make fundamental mistakes, especially at the beginning
of their careers. Many are so desperate to sell books that they
become completely focused on themselves. Thus, when they start
to work with other people, they think only of their own goals. This
attitude isnt appreciated and is very isolating. So always
approach outreach opportunities by first putting yourself in the
other persons shoes. Then look for ways where you can overlap
your interests with theirs, thereby creating a win-win situation that
everyone can enjoy.9
You have to start by putting yourself in the other persons shoes.
What do they want out of life? Would would make their day great?
What are they trying to accomplish in their work?
Then from there, figure out a way to align your goals with their
biggest mission.
Continuing with using podcasts as an example, soon after my first
book came out, I appeared as a guest on several different podcasts.
Many of them were outside my target audience authors but I
took the approach that any audience of a decent size would include
people who were interested in writing and promoting a book.
Id had no prior connection to the hosts of most of these
podcasts, so I was pitching completely cold.
9 Tim
Grahl, Your First 1000 Copies: The Step-by-Step Guide to Marketing Your Book,
(Lynchburg, VA: Out:think Group, 2013), 82-83.
42
Empathy is what got me on as a guest.

I first listened to a few episodes of each show, to get a feel for the
subject matter and how the host ran things. I then read the
podcasters website, paying particular attention to any comments on
their site from listeners.
I then crafted an email requesting to be a guest on the show,
listing a few reasons why I thought I would be a good fit for their
particular audience and subject area. I would also reference one or
two of the episodes I had listened to, so they would know I was an
active part of their audience, not an outsider.
If it was a podcast about entrepreneurship, I referenced how I run
my own business, and that Id like to talk about how a book had
helped my business grow. If the show was specifically for writers, I
would list the authors I had worked with, and the advice I could give
that would be great for the listeners.
Empathizing with an influencer means offering to do
something for them that will help both them and their
community reach their goals.
But obviously, the path to a successful pitch is not always clear. So
what can you do?
Whats Their Biggest Problem?
My client Gene Kim, author of the bestselling fiction work The
Phoenix Project, is one of the best authors Ive ever worked with in
terms of influencer outreach. This doesnt mean hes an outgoing,
glad-hand extrovert quite the opposite.
43
It means hes really good at empathizing with people.

And he has a great method for connecting with influencers.
He asks them to describe the biggest problem theyre facing.
Then he does everything he can to solve the problem. Whether its
giving them practical advice, connecting them with someone who
could help, or providing a specific tool to solve the problem, he
goes out of his way to help them make some kind of progress on
their top problem.
Even if it means doing some research or other work on his own
time to make it happen, he does something to help.
Do this long enough, and you will end up like Gene: youll have
an army of people behind you, dedicated to helping you succeed.
Is it hard work? Yes.
Is it fast? No.
Is it a powerful way to get influencers to spread the word about
your book? Yes!
Help Them First
Im on a lot of authors email lists.
One day I got a launch email from a very popular author who was
just starting the campaign for his new book. He was following the
advice to give away bonuses if you preordered, but I saw that there
were a couple things he could do better with on the technology side
of the launch. I replied to his email, pointed out how he could
improve things, and offered to make the fixes myself.
44
This turned into a nice back-and-forth email connection. I now

have an established relationship with that author that I can maintain
over time, and it started with me first helping him out on an
important issue. Now when it comes time to promote my next book,
Im connected to someone who I know will be willing to help out.
Whenever I look to do outreach and establish relationships with
influencers or other authors, Im constantly asking myself several
questions:
Whats the biggest problem theyre currently facing?
What are they most worried about right now?
Are they making any mistakes they dont realize theyre making?
Then, most importantly:
Is there anything I can do to help them?
Using the above example, I know that author was very worried
about his book launch going well. He was probably falling to sleep
thinking about it and waking up thinking about it. Hed put a ton of
work into this book, and a lot was riding on the launch going well.
So when I do something to make the launch go more smoothly or
help sell more copies, then Im helping him with the most pressing
problem and worry hes currently facing.
I dont have any quid pro quo idea that he now owes me one.
However, I know that if I do enough to help other people with their
problems, Ill eventually have a group of people who are more than
happy to help me with mine.
Start Early
45
After my first book came out, I was doing some research on the
best platforms for me to reach out to, in order to keep promoting my
book over time. I found a blog that was perfect. The audience was a
great fit, and the blogger regularly reviewed books and interviewed
authors on his site.
I reached out to the blogger, and heard nothing back.
A week later I reached out again. This time I got a quick response.
He was excited to have me on, but needed to set up a date and time
for the interview. I immediately responded with some options, and
then didnt hear anything back for a week. Again, I followed up with
a polite email.
The blogger got back to me this time, and we were able to nail
down a date and time, more than six weeks into the future.
All told, this was almost a three-month-long process, from the
time of my initial research to getting the interview and book review
posted on the bloggers website.
And thats an example of things going well.
One of the things that consistently surprises me when planning
and running a book launch, is how fast time seems to slip by. At one
point you have six months before your book comes out, then
suddenly, you turn around and realize youre a week away from
launch.
Out of the entire book launch process, outreach to influencers is
the one that consistently falls behind schedule.
I see this as happening for two reasons:
1. The process takes a really long time.
46
The phrase herding cats comes to mind.

Every other part of the marketing process relies mainly on you
and your systems. Setting up a website, writing emails, delivering
bonuses these can all be controlled by you. But when it comes to
outreach, you have very little control over what gets done and when
it gets done. Youre emailing busy people, asking them questions,
getting dates set, sending content.
Its a slow process.
Youll email, and not hear anything back. Youll then follow up, and
finally get an initial response three weeks after you first emailed
them.
Of course, this is not because the influencer is lazy, rude, or even
uninterested. Theyre just very busy. And you have to respect that by
going slowly, taking your time, and not being pushy or impatient.
The only way to do that effectively is to start early.
You should start your outreach to influencers at least six months
before your book comes out.
This will give you plenty of time to work inside of the influencers
schedule, instead of trying to get them to conform to yours.
2. Its emotionally difficult.
When I first started doing outreach for myself and my clients, I
would put it off, and try and find anything else I could work on
instead. When you begin to reach out to influencers to get them to
help with your book launch, youre facing rejection. Youre also
asking people to do you favors. Even with all of the empathy and
47
research you can muster, it still comes down to you asking people to
help, and that can be emotionally taxing.
This is also why I recommend starting six months or more in
advance. It gives you plenty of time to go slowly, work through your
emotional resistance, and put yourself out there, without the
pressure of having to make something happen.
Do Your Research
When I was working with Charles Duhigg on the launch of The
Power of Habit, I was helping him find some popular blogs that
would be a good fit for interviews about his book.
I started doing my research and came up with a short list of the
best options.
One in particular was a great fit, and I knew the audience would
love Charless book. However, the blog was very poplar, and I knew
the blogger was extremely picky about whom he interviewed for his
site.
So I began by spending two hours going through his blog.
I read the last few months of blog posts. I listened to interviews he
did with other authors. I read the reviews of other books that hed
published on his blog.
I got extremely familiar with the blog, before I did anything else.
Only then did I send an email to the blogger, pitching the idea of
him interviewing Charles.
But I didnt send some form email that I had blasted out to fifty
other bloggers.
48
I wrote an email that was completely personalized to that blogger.

I referenced other authors he had interviewed months before, and
gave specific reasons for why The Power of Habit was a book his
audience would love. And I offered to have Charles do an interview
in the format that I knew the blogger preferred to use.
Within an hour I received an email back: the answer was Yes.
What do you think set my email apart from the dozens of other
pitches this blogger denied or ignored every week?
When I talk to authors about outreach, I often hear much more
about quantity than quality. They are busy emailing every author,
blogger, and podcaster they can find. They have a form email they
found on a publicists website, and theyre blasting that same email
out to everyone.
Put yourself on the receiving end of one of these emails,
especially if you run a popular website or podcast. You get these
pitches every day. There is nothing in 95% of them that tell you why
a particular author is a good fit for what you do, and what your
audience wants. The vast majority are bland, broad, and easy to
delete.
Now picture receiving an email that is thoughtful, that references
specific content youve created, and that gives clear reasons why
your audience in particular would love what this author is doing.
That email will stand apart from everyone elses.
So do the research.
Make your email personal and specific to that person.
That is how you get the attention of influencers.
49
Create Win-Wins
Whenever I talk to an author who is just getting started with their
outreach, I encourage them to start with interview-based podcasts.
Theyre great for two reasons.
First, theyre easy to create. You dont have to write a long article
or build a slide presentation. You just get on a phone call and
answer the interviewers questions.
Second and most importantly, theyre a clear win-win for the
influencer and the author.
When a podcast is interview based, the podcaster constantly
needs new people to interview. So why not have you on the show to
fill one of those slots?
Earlier I encouraged you to think through what the influencer
needs out of life their fears and goals. Now that weve started
there, we can start looking at what we as authors need out of this
process.
You need to promote your book.
And where do those two things overlap?
Does the influencer regularly offer giveaways to their audience?
Could you provide something cool to give away to listeners who
purchase your book?
Does the influencer regularly blog about something youre an
expert on? Could you provide an in-depth blog post that their
readers will love?
50
Is a conference promoter putting together speakers on a topic

you have experience in? Could you travel to and speak at their
conference for free?
There are always win-wins that you can find or create to get the
word out about your book. Most of the work is in finding them.
Make it Easy for Influencers to Say Yes
Once you have your feet firmly planted in empathy, have left
yourself plenty of time to get all your outreach done, and have done
your research and found the win-wins, then you are ready to take
outreach by storm.
Every time I talk to an author about their struggles with outreach, I
find issues in one of these areas.
The most common mistake is starting with your goal of selling
your book, instead of looking for ways to help the influencer get
what they need out of life.
From there it trickles down to not giving yourself enough time,
not doing your research, and not focusing on true win-wins for both
the influencer and you.
All of that combines into my final piece of advice:
Make it really easy for the influencer to say Yes.
Constantly ask yourself, What will make it easy for the
influencer to say Yes in this case?
Do you want to write a post for a blog that runs on WordPress?
Offer to code everything for them, so that all they have to do is copy-
51
and-paste your content into their site, without having to do any

formatting.
Does a blog have an active comment community? Make sure the
blogger knows youll clear your schedule the day your post goes
live, so that you can answer readers questions in real time in the
comments section.
Can you offer to do a special giveaway to everyone who listens to
the podcast? Nothing warms an influencers heart more than you
taking good care of their audience.
Do you have your own platform? Offer to promote the podcast
episode to your audience as well, so that the influencer also gets
some promotion out of it.
Sit down and write out every step of the process, from pitch to
publish, and look for ways to make each part of that easier and even
more of a win for the influencer.
By the time they have helped you promote your book, the
influencer will be thanking you for everything youve done for them.
This Method Will Always Work
Nothing makes me roll my eyes more than someone touting a
new tactic about how they can game the system for easy outreach.
Sure, from time to time, someone finds a loophole that allows them
to get a lot of exposure without the process I outline above.
The problem is, these loopholes are extremely hard to find, and
so specific to that one authors situation that theyre almost
52
impossible to replicate. It also leaves other authors constantly

chasing the next loophole or shortcut.
This is no way to live, and no way to build a long-term platform
that will support book launch after book launch.
If you want to build an author platform that includes dozens of
influencers who are excited to help you with your next book launch,
the ideas Ive laid out in this chapter are a proven way to do that.
And these arent quick OK-for-the-moment tactics that wont work
in a couple of years. If you work on following the advice in this book,
you will build up a set of skills that will always work for you, because
youre focusing on helping people, instead of gaming a system to
get what you want.
The best influencer outreach happens when you are connecting
with like-minded people and creating friendships that will last a
lifetime.
Which is why playing the long game is so essential.
Play the Long Game
Too often, an author is so focused on their current book launch
that they lose perspective.
It makes sense.
Youve been working on this book for a long time and you really
want it to be successful.
And everyone else in the process is focused on this book too.
Your publisher, editor, agent, publicist . . . they all need this book
to be successful.
53
But its your job to step back and see everything in terms of the
bigger picture.
Do you want to be a professional writer, or just someone who
wrote a book once?
Your goal is not only to launch this book successfully, but the next
book, and the next. You want to build a career out of your writing
that lasts a long time.
And you cant build a career by yourself.
You need to be part of a community of people where you are
each working to help each other be successful.
The ideas Ive laid out in this chapter arent quick or easy. But they
work. And they will build a community around your writing that will
last a lifetime.
Dont get sucked into making this book your sole focus. Even
during a book launch, keep your eye on the long game. Youre in
this for the long haul.
Build something that will last.
The Long View
You may love the idea of launching a book to your fans, getting
them in your corner, and reaching out to a ton of influencers to help
promote the book. All of that is great.
But what if you dont have all that already lined up?
What if youre starting from scratch?
What if youve written the book, but have no platform to launch it
to?
54
This was the position David Burkus found himself in when he

launched his first book, The Myths of Creativity. He had spent time
building his platform, but it was mainly focused on social media. He
realized just before his book came out that using social media alone
for outreach isnt enough, and that his current platform wasnt going
to be enough to create a big launch for him.
However, instead of releasing the book, watching his sales rank
stagnate, and giving up, he got to work.
Since he didnt have a platform to launch his book from, he
decided to use his book to build the platform.
The goal then became to promote his first book in ways that
would build a following for the launch of his next book.
He had a long view for his writing career instead of a single-book
view.
Over the last two years hes worked hard, using the principles in
this book and Your First 1000 Copies to build a platform that has a
solid chance of putting his next book on the major bestseller lists.
When that first book came out, he only had 1,800 subscribers on
his email list. But when his next book comes out, hell be launching it
to a list of more than 15,000 subscribers.
When his first book came out, he had very few contacts in the
industry. Now he has mega-bestselling authors like Tom Rath singing
the praises of his new book. David also spoke at the prestigious
Thinkers50 conference in London in 2015, to a crowd that included
top authors such as Daniel Pink, Marshall Goldsmith, and Roger
Martin.
55
His next book is going to be successful, because he used his first

book to build the platform for his second book.
Key Takeaways
Start early.
Always begin with empathy for the influencers pressures and
problems.
Focus first on how to help the influencer, then find a win-win
where youll both benefit.
Do everything you can to make it easy for them to say Yes.
Play the long game.
56
Your Next Step
There are two simple words that will change your life.
Before my book ever came out, I had done a ton of work and
created huge accomplishments. Id launched books to the top of the
New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. Id had five
clients on the New York Times bestseller list at the same time. Id
brought numerous authors out of obscurity by helping them get
their platform off the ground.
But heres whats crazy.
Nobody noticed anything I was doing until I put a book out.
Before my book came out, my name would get passed around
behind the scenes in the publishing industry, but I had no general
recognition of my work.
Then suddenly, after I released Your First 1000 Copies, a short,
self-published book, people started latching onto my ideas.
I started getting yes answers instead of no answers.
A conference I had tried to speak at and been turned down by for
five years, decided to let me speak once I had a book out.
57
Podcast hosts who previously had not returned my emails were

now excited to have me on as a guest.
Within months, I was fielding far more requests from people
wanting to work with me than I could possibly take on.
Those two words that will change your life? Author of.
Before I published my first book, my bio was something like:
Book marketing expert Tim Grahl has helped authors such as
Daniel Pink, Charles Duhigg, Hugh Howey, and many more build
their platform and sell more books.
I thought that sounded pretty impressive, but it wasnt enough to
get peoples attention.
After my book came out, my bio became:
Tim Grahl, author of Your First 1000 Copies: The Step-by-Step
Guide to Marketing Your Book, is a book marketing expert who has
helped authors such as Daniel Pink, Charles Duhigg, Hugh Howey,
and many more build their author platform and sell more books.
One simple addition to my bio, and everything changed.
Which surprised me.
Even as someone who works daily with authors, I was surprised by
how much of a difference it makes. Simply being a published
(including self-published) author will change the way people treat
you, and will open a world of opportunities for you that werent
there before.
Your job is to seize those opportunities. Use your new status to
build relationships and open doors that were closed to you before.
Two little words author of changed everything for me.
And it will change everything for you too.
58
Pull it All Together

A book launch is an interesting time.
You run the gamut of emotions from excited to terrified to
distraught and everything in between. All of your work seems to
come down to this one moment in time, yet you know this is just one
landmark on the long journey that is your writing career.
In this book, Ive laid out the blueprint I use to consistently launch
successful books.
But of course, you have to first define what success means for
you. Every book launch Ive worked on has had a different measure
for success. So spend some time early on in the process thinking
about your goals, and what will bring you satisfaction with the
release of your latest project.
From there, start planning out how to reach those goals.
Break your strategy into three parts. Ask yourself these questions:
1. How am I going to get my fans to buy the book now?

Once your book is out, its always available, so why should people
buy it now instead of later? What kind of scarcity are you going to
create what giveaways will you offer with your book, to drive
preorder sales?
2. How am I going to get my fans to share the book with their
network?
59
Your fans are excited about your new book, and they want to help
make it a success. Make it easy and fun for them to share about your
new book with their networks. You may have a small social media
following, but if you can get your fans to share the book with their
connections, the news will spread much further.
3. How am I going to get influencers to share this book with
their fans?
A powerful way to grow your own audience is to have influencers
introduce you and your book to their audiences. Start with empathy
for the influencers, and build long-term connections that are based
on win-win situations.
Of course, the thread that runs through all of this is the
fundamental belief that your book is good for people. That the best
thing someone can do for themselves is to buy your book.
This is what separates the successful launches from the
unsuccessful ones.
As you build this plan using these principles, youll see everything
come together in a magical way.
A few months after Your First 1000 Copies came out, the sales
started to slow down. Each month, I watched as I sold fewer copies
than the month before.
So I laid out a big goal. I posted publicly that I was going to sell
10,000 copies of my book by its one-year anniversary.
In a world where most books sell only 250 copies in their first
year, I wanted to sell 10,000.
60
So I got to work. I tried all kinds of things to keep promoting my

book and keep the sales numbers climbing. All along the way, I
shared everything I was learning with my fans in a weekly email
update, both the wins and the losses.
As I entered the final month before the one-year anniversary, I still
needed to sell more than 1,500 copies of my book to hit my goal of
selling 10,000 copies in the first year.
But I wasnt worried. I had a plan. In fact, I had three big
promotions planned that I was sure would pull me over the mark.
Then I watched in horror as, over the course of a couple of days,
each of those promotions I had planned fell apart. Two of them
completely fell through, and the last sold less than a hundred
copies.
I was mortified. I was embarrassed. I was ashamed.
Here I was, the Book Marketing Guy, and I was going to fail at this
big, public goal I had set for myself. I began trying to think of any
way I could get around this. I considered acting like nothing had
happened, and simply not talking about it. I considered buying a
thousand copies of my own book, to make up the difference.
But in the end, I decided to come clean. I wrote an article about
failing at my project, and sent it out to all of my fans.
I fully expected to send that out, retreat, and try to move on with
my life.
Instead, I immediately started getting responses from my fans.
They wanted to know how to help. They kept rolling in with offers to
buy bulk copies, to share about the book online whatever I
needed.
61
I resisted at first. I didnt want to ask anyone for help.

When I relayed all this to a good friend of mine, she pointed out
that it had been easy for me to tell people to build a community that
would support them, but that now it was time for me to lean on the
support of my own community.
I cried when I saw how true this was. Then I wrote an email to my
fans, asking for their help to hit my goal.
Forty-eight hours later, more than 1,200 more copies of my book
had sold, and I had reached my goal of selling 10,000 copies in the
first year.
Then I cried again, this time out of gratitude.
My goal in this book has been to help you build an iron-clad plan
for the successful release of your book. A plan that will leverage your
platform and give you the greatest chance for a successful launch.
But I hope youll also see the bigger role this will play in your life.
As you build your platform and invite fans and influencers to be a
part of your launch, youre building something bigger and more
meaningful. Youre connecting with people who will be in your
corner when the going gets tough. Youre building a community that
will support your work.
Take the Book Launch Blueprint, launch your book, change the
world, and then keep writing.
Because we need you to keep writing your books just as much as
you need us to keep reading them.
62
63

Book Launch Blueprint

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Book Launch Blueprint

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Book Launch Blueprint

The Step-by-Step Guide to Launching a Bestseller