Smart Marketing for Creative Freelancers

Here’s How I Sold 1,000+ Books in a Month with Minimal Investment First Time.

Practical and unique marketing techniques for creative freelancers leading to profitable sales with concrete examples

Introduction and Context

This post is not bragging about selling a certain number of books, as no one cares how many books a person sells and how much they earn.

However, people care about the methods, techniques, and lessons learned in the process. This post is about using the hidden power of social media, undermining marketers, word of mouth, and other simple marketing techniques leading to tangible sales.

My aim is to share unique approaches and specific techniques that helped me sell over 1,000 books in a month. This experience is full of lessons learned as this happened to be the first time in my life, so the approach and techniques are worth sharing.

Probably, my weakest muscles are the selling ones in my entrepreneurship skills and capabilities. So my point is if I can do this, anyone can.

Inevitably, every entrepreneur and freelancer must know about selling. Knowing and doing are two different things. Knowing is only one part of the equation. The other part is the hands-on skills in trading.

This is a story about what I learned by selling over 1,000 books for the first time in my life using elementary techniques that made a big difference.

More than the income, the actual feeling from the experience substantially impacted my confidence, which led to joy and satisfaction.

Selling a thousand books is a small achievement compared to those best sellers selling millions of copies. Considering no substantial sales experience and putting minimal effort into marketing, this small success meant a lot to me.

A Brief Background of My Publishing Model

I have been publishing content for many years. I have published books, papers, design constructs, patents, articles, and blogs.

For many years, I depended on my traditional publishers, who paid me a certain amount of royalty. As you may guess, it is a negligible amount.

I have never earned substantial money to compensate for the time and effort I put into my intellectual capital. It is stupid, but the reality, so I accept my weakness.

However, recently, I made a specific contract with my publisher based on advice provided by mentors. They recommended I negotiate an agreement so that I should be able to sell my books independently. The publisher agreed to this approach.

It is called the hybrid publishing model, in which my publisher publishes my book, but I also can self-publish and sell the same book.

I am glad they did because I sold more books than the publisher using simple yet powerful techniques that I introduce to you now.

No Need for Sophisticated Sales Techniques

Frankly, my selling skills suck. I am probably the last person who can teach and preach about selling. I mean it. As an average person for selling, if I can sell something, anyone can, too.

Even though my sales skills are elementary, I understand the concepts at the fundamental level and have little knowledge of the sales process.

Like many freelancers, I have no sophisticated sales competency like those sales ninjas whom I admire. We, creators, are not salespeople by profession and don’t have the desire to do it as a profession either. However, creators need to be able to sell their products and services in this economic climate.

Why is selling necessary and so important for creators? The main reason is economic freedom. When creators have financial freedom, they produce more with joy.

Selling content, especially books does not necessarily require sophisticated sales techniques. Some salespeople might raise their eyebrows at this unusual statement. Bear with me. I’ll explain what I mean by examples.

Marketing and selling are two different disciplines requiring different skill sets, methods, and techniques. Without marketing, sales can be tough, tricky, and even impossible. It is a rare situation unless luck plays a bit of a role in the outcome.

There is a critical difference between marketing and selling. While a marketing process remains open, the sales process requires closure.

Why do creators hate selling? Because selling is hard work for creators. Using a different part of the brain cortex requires effort. And the brain does not like too much effort. Its aim is to conserve energy.

The cognitive effort requires extra energy to use the less dense part of the brain. So, selling is a different skill than creating; hence, it requires extra mental power.

Without understanding and practicing unique marketing techniques, selling could be very difficult. However, there is no reason for creators not to sell their products and services. Our brain has multiple compartments, and they can be integrated. We are capable of uniting those disparate departments and producing holistic solutions.

This is not a post about theory, even though we need to understand a few theoretical points. So I won’t bore you with unnecessary details and cut to the chase.

In this article, I share my recent experience using unique, simple, and easy marketing techniques to sell electronic books as a supplement to the publisher’s sale scheme. I call it supplemental sales to generate additional income for authors.

Practical Approaches and Specific Techniques for Selling Books

The following specific approaches helped me sell over 1,000 books in a month. This experience happened for the first time in my life, so the lessons are valuable to share.

Creating visibility and awareness about our products matters. Smart marketing is an essential skill for freelance writers.

To this end, I announced my book titled “The Power of Affiliate Marketing for Freelance Writers” in my network. I am glad I did because it generated unexpected outcomes, as pointed out below.

1 — Mailing List and Use of News Letters

I simply created a short email and introduced the book to my mailing subscribers. I did not request to purchase the book or did not even ask about any endorsement. Instead, it was a simple introduction to the book’s purpose, why I wrote it, and what it can do for freelance writers.

Upon sending the email, several hundred copies of the book were sold within a week. To my surprise, this happened to me for the first time.

I was timid before introducing my books to my subscribers. Shyness does not bring any value. This was a key lesson I learned in this process.

The money the book sales did not matter to me, but the satisfaction from selling something is a special feeling that I recommend all freelance writers to taste.

2 — Blogging and Syndication

I created a number of blogs introducing the books. Again, I did not mention any sales. I simply put a link to the sales pages. In addition, I blogged a few chapters on my website.

Then I syndicated these blogs to multiple other blogging sites, which also syndicated to my Amazon author page.

After posting each blog and syndicating them, within two weeks, several hundred copies were sold. This surprised me as blogging did not bring any tangible income to me before.

3 — Facebook Ads

One of my mentors mentioned the power of Facebook ads. I was doubtful about using Facebook for book sales. She convinced me by saying what I could lose.

I created a post limited to $10. The post received over 30,000 views within ten days. So, each dollar brought around 3,000 views.

This was remarkable. After ten days, over 50 books were sold. My mentor was right about the power of Facebook ads, but I had no idea.

Then, I created two more Facebook ads, each for $10. Within a month, over a hundred books were sold with the help of Facebook ads. And Facebook sent me a bonus voucher that I haven’t used yet.

4 — Social Media Posts

I have been using social media since its inception. I was one of the developers of some social media applications and tools when the Internet was emerging.

Actively participated on many social media platforms. However, I never used social media to sell anything. I only used it for sharing my content freely and creating visibility. As the name implies, it is for socializing, not for selling.

This perception has turned into a myth after my recent experience. Many entrepreneurs are using social media for marketing and even for selling. But I did not know how to do it. Again, my wise mentor gave me a clue.

She recommended I find some marketing people from Fiver. I said, “Sorry, I cannot afford a marketing person, especially for selling a book with a very low profit margin”. She smiled and gave me some links to follow.

It was hard to believe a person was offering to market my book on LinkedIn and Facebook for $6. I thought it would be a scam, but six dollars is not a big deal to lose. It is the cost of a mug of coffee in my country.

I approach the person on Fiver. He was from another country. His profile showed an MBA qualification. His reply to me was, “what value does your book add?”. I wrote a value statement and provided the purchase link for the book.

To my amazement, this person created ads both on LinkedIn and Facebook that surprised me. He posted them to multiple groups, including book lovers.

In addition, he gave me the links for the posts and recommended I share them with my followers on both platforms. I have a large number of followers on LinkedIn. This $6 ad manifested in over 300 book sales in two weeks.

This was a new experience for me. I never got such a return on investment in my life. I gave a tip to the person who deserved more than the actual charge as my appreciation and gratitude. He was so grateful that he provided multiple posts on both platforms. Serendipity opened more paths to manifestation.

5 — The Power of Writing Platforms for Book Selling

I recently created a publication called ILLUMINATION Book Chapters on this platform. My aim was to give a chance for the published authors to share their book chapters in story format.

The idea was well-received, and many authors and top writers started to contribute to this unique publication. To be a role model to these authors, I also published a few of my books.

For this specific book titled The Power of Digital Affiliate Marketing, I shared one chapter a day. My aim is to gain new readers. I don’t sell anything on writing platforms as it is not the purpose. But, to my surprise, writing platforms can lead to sales.

This happened to me despite my prior doubts. After publishing the chapters of the book, sales figures dramatically increased. Then I published the chapters of the book on two other platforms. On one platform, I published chapters, and on another one, I published them in article format.

Since I put relevant links in the books, some readers who couldn’t wait for the chapters purchased the book, which is less than $10. However, the book offers much greater value than that amount to freelance writers. The value was mentioned in this article titled I’m a Writer/Editor: Why the Heck I Built An Affiliate Marketing Business After the Age of 60.

6- Twitter for Book Selling

Twitter is the last tool I would imagine for selling books. I never sold anything on Twitter. Who would know Twitter could be used for sales? I didn’t.

“For God’s sake, it is a micro-blogging site”, I said to my mentor. Her beautiful eyes shined with another smile. She gave me a web address to contact.

When I clicked on the link, it was a Twitter account with over a million followers tweeting to book lovers. I filled out the form providing book details and paid $7 for five tweets.

It was late evening when I made this application. The next day, seeing my sales dashboard almost shocked me.

A $7 tweet brought a better outcome than all other previous methods. The author's sales dashboard showed 1,026 books sold. My perception of Twitter, from marketing and sales opportunities perspectives, has substantially changed.

7 -Reviews and Word of Mouth

I am grateful that my regular readers share my content with interested people. In addition, my articles and blog posts are generously shared on social media, which received over four million impressions last month.

In addition, a few discerning readers of my book reviewed the book and shared the reviews on various platforms, including Goodreads.

I am also grateful to Dr. Preeti Singh, who reviewed the book on SYNERGY. Through several reviews and testimonials, many more books were sold. They all added up to over 1,000 in a month.

Conclusions

People do sell to earn money. It was my initial purpose, too. But selling gave me different values and taught me new life lessons.

This was the first book in which I used a different approach to market and selling. It was the first book that sold so many in such a short time. In fact, it was the first thing I ever sold so intensely with minimal investment, time, and effort. The total investment was under $100 in less than a month.

I don’t care about the income and profit from these sales, but I care about the confidence and joy they bring me. Knowing my books add value to my readers made me very happy.

The main difference between a freelancer and an entrepreneur is scaling the business. Through this exercise, I learned to scale my business. So, this simple achievement was evidence of my transformation from a freelancer to an entrepreneur.

I never wanted to be a salesperson. I am a technical leader. However, as a so-called metalhead academic, I have managed to sell over a thousand books in a month. If I can do it, anyone can. I did not need expensive sales and marketing people.

All I needed was a little confidence, an open mind, and using a few practical techniques taught by my mentor. And knowing the value of my book and articulating it to my audience made the difference. I pointed out what problem my book solved and what pain points it relieved.

In addition, I learned two key lessons, considering my previous books. One of the lessons I learned is the cost of a book could be perception. If the readers see the value, they will pay for it regardless of the price.

The other lesson is the practical use of a book. We may have a perfectly edited book covering intricate details, but the book will not sell if it does not add immediate value to the reader.

This specific book is practical and adds immediate value to my readers. I believe it was the main reason for selling so many copies in such a short time with minimal effort and investment.

The real pleasure for writers is not just revenue generation from book sales but experiencing the joy of noticing their content get visible to many readers. The more readers discover my content, the happier I get, thinking my content can add value to my readers.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I will share more hints on smart marketing and effective sales methods for freelance writers, small business owners, and entrepreneurs soon. In the meantime, if you have similar unusual experiences, I’d be delighted to read your comments.

My inspiration for this first-time attempt came from this yet empowering personal story reflecting a serendipitous encounter in my life. My approach helps me to learn and disseminate knowledge quickly.

I wrote many articles about content development and marketing strategies. I hope you enjoy them from the list.

If you want to build a writing business, you may check this special story reflecting my decades of experience.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

To inform my new readers, I wrote numerous articles that might inform and inspire you. Some topics I cover are brain and cognitive function, significant health conditions, valuable nutrients, ketogenic lifestyle, self-healing, weight management, writing/reading, and humor.

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