Alvear - Make a killing on Kindle without blogging, Facebook or Twitter : the guerilla marketers guide to selling your ebooks on Amazon

Every day for three months I checked my Kindle sales and let out a string of cuss words that made my dog blush. They were beyond awful.

Then I developed the marketing strategies in this book and I opened my sales up like a soda can. Within three days I increased sales by a factor of ten. Within two months one of my books hit the #2 spot in its category, right below Chelsea Handlers latest release. And within three months I approached $10,000 a month in sales.

As word got out, authors flocked to me for advice, attracted to the methodical ways I turned guerilla marketing tactics into stellar revenue. One author client hired me to breathe life into an ebook that established a two-year residency in Kindles basement. Its sales rank hovered around 550,000. In less than a week, I got it up to the 20,000 sales rank, hitting the Top 10 in two of her categories. These strategies work for me, they work for my clients, and they will work for you.

This book is for fiction and nonfiction writers overwhelmed by the complexity of selling on Kindle. Its for authors who wont leave a legacy publisher to strike out on their own without having a credible, go-forward marketing plan. Its for Kindle authors seething with frustration at their anemic sales. And its also for the successful Kindle authors who want to take their success to the next level.

You have three obstacles that keep you from making a killing on Kindle:

1. A Belief That Youll Be The Next Amanda Hocking.

Shes the Amazon superstar who got rejected by all the big publishers, threw her ebooks into Kindle with no marketing whatsoever, sold millions and ended up with a multi-million contract with St. Martins Press. Admit it. Youre secretly hoping youre nextthat youll put your book on Kindle and become an instant star, with money gushing at you like a broken fire main. Well, guess what? Lightning struck Amanda Hocking. Its doubtful it will strike you, even if youre a better writer. Dont let the fantasy make you complacent. Your book will succeed to the degree that you market it.

2. A Belief That You Must Build An Author Platform.

I know its heresy to take an anti-platform stand, but Im going to show you convincing evidence that the only people who can succeed are the already successful. You have to be a celebrity to have the kind of platform big enough to generate needle-moving sales. For example, that email list youre building? Only 30-34% of your subscribers will open it (thats the average open rate for email lists according to Constant Contact, the largest provider of email services). How many of the people who actually open your email will buy your book? About 1%, according to conversion experts. I spent three years building an author platform of 30,000 followers and it did almost nothing for my Kindle sales. Those are years I could have spent writing books and marketing them effectively. If youve got an author platform, stop building it. If youre thinking of starting one, dont. There are only two types of writers who should attempt it: Celebrities (because theyve already got a built-in audience) and thought leaders who can use their platform to sell consulting services.

3. A Belief That Promotion, Publicity And Social Media Sell Books.

Three legacy publishers have published me. Ive been interviewed on the top 30 radio stations across America, appeared on multiple talk shows including the Tyra Banks show, spent thousands on public relations, and countless hours building followers to my blogs and Facebook and Twitter accounts. It helped, but only in the way that rolling up the quarters in the back of the sofa helps pay the rent. You have got to get over the idea that you can sell books on Kindle through social media or outside promotion. It is a colossal waste of time. Book marketing is about getting the right book in front of the right person at the right time with the right copy and the right price. It is not about getting people to see your ad, read your blog post, click on your email or scan your tweet.

My book marketing strategy will take you 18 hours to implement. I know because Ive timed it. How is this possible? Because there are only about a dozen things you can do on Kindle to truly make a difference in your sales. Everything else is a waste of time, including and especially, blogging, Twitter, Facebook and almost all of the old-school marketing and publicity tactics.

Before we get started I would like to make an appeal to you: Believe in your book. Nobody believed in mine and now I make a great living as an author. You can, too. In about 18 hours.