Writers in the Storm

A blog about writing

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November 28, 2014

6 Ways to Jump on Holiday Sales

Penny Sansevieri

Holiday Book SalesNow that everything has turned into 24/7 holiday shopping, you may wonder if it’s too late to get your book onto someone’s *must buy* holiday shopping list. While it’s late in the season to be thinking of your holiday strategy, there are some great things you can still do to nudge sales in your favor.

1. Purchase with purchase

Shoppers love purchase with purchase offers; in fact, studies have shown that shoppers are 90% more inclined to buy when they get something in addition to what they are already buying. Which is why sales tend to inch higher in cosmetics when they offer a free bag of lipsticks or samples when you spend a certain amount of money on their products. In the case of purchase with purchase, I will sometimes offer a lower-priced book, or copies of books I have on hand when they buy the book I am promoting. In other cases, I’ve known authors to partner up and offer each other’s books as purchase with purchase which is a great way to co-promote your titles.

2. Donation

We all love doing charitable works and there’s no better time to push this than during the holidays. What if you donate $1 to a charitable organization or cause for every book bought between certain dates? You’ll want to let folks know to email you their receipt (unless they bought the book from your site or directly from you at an event).

3. Buy one, Get one

Getting great deals is what it’s all about around the holidays, no? So here’s a fun trick I’ve done with great success. If someone buys your book – either on Amazon or from you, gift them an eBook copy of it for themselves or to give away if they want. Or, you can send actual books but keep in mind that this can get rather pricey. If you do this, I suggest pushing folks to order from you directly so the books can be shipped at the same time and you don’t have to pay Amazon their hefty percentage for selling your book.

4. Bag stuffers

If you have bookmarks for your book, see if you can drop them at local retailers who might be inclined to use them as bag stuffers for customers. You’ll be surprised how many local retailers would love to support a local author, and, with the shopping season kicking into high gear, you could really rack up the sales this way. Make sure your website URL is on there and if you’re doing any of the other holiday promotions mentioned above, make sure that the promotional information is front and center on your website to help draw buyers in!

5. Freebie giveaway

If you have other books, I would highly encourage you to do a freebie promotion for a day or two with a link to your new title or whatever book you are pushing for the holiday season. For example, we have an author who has five fiction books out and he’s using his older one as a freebie tool to drive holiday sales to his more recent book. There’s a holiday offer in the back of the book (in this case, he’s doing the donation).

6. Holiday Fairs and Events

Though this will take a bit of time, most of these fairs don’t book up. Call your local Chamber for a list of event dates or check online, then contact the organizer and see if you can get a deal on a booth or share a table. You’ll be amazed how much traffic these events get so close to the holidays. Also, if you have a book that ties into an event or fair consider doing that, too. For example, we have a pet-holiday parade and craft fair here, and I’ll often see dog and cat books there. It’s a great place to zero in on your exact right market!

Bonus tip!

Post-Christmas: You can really pull in a lot of holiday sales using the “Now get the gifts you really want” mantra. I always encourage authors to do promos for their books, especially if they have a pretty low price point. Some marketing people say that many shoppers have buyer’s fatigue post-Christmas, but I have not known this to be the case. Some of my best book sales happened in January, but again, the price needs to be right. So offer your book or books at impulse buy pricing. Generally anything $9.99 or below is considered an impulse buy, if it’s an eBook then $4.99 and lower.

Logistics: For some of the promos that require you to know if the consumer bought the book, make sure that you’re clear that you need the receipt emailed to you. You’ll want to put this on your website, and, possibly on the blog that offers this deal. Be clear and uncomplicated about what they need to do. For example, if you’re donating money to a good cause make sure that you have the receipt so you know they bought the book. Also add those buyers to your mailing list so you can stay in touch with them.

How to get the word out: Now that you have your promotion lined up, it’s time to let your readers (and future readers) know about this. I suggest putting up a blog post, maybe even doing a quick update to your home page copy to reflect this promotion. If you’re on Twitter I recommend sharing this several times a week leading up to Christmas, and to also post your promotion on Facebook. There are some great hashtags you can use, too. Here are a few you may want to incorporate in all of your social media:

#holidayshopping
#holidaydeals
#holidaygifts
#savemoney

While it’s always nice if you can get a jump start on holiday sales, it’s not always reasonable given all we do as authors to promote our books. And considering that the above ideas generally won’t take up a lot of time, if even one of them brings in new sales, it could be a really great thing and give you some ideas for next year’s holiday season, too!

What sorts of book promotions do you love? Do you find holiday sales appealing yourself? What books are you looking forward to reading over the holidays?

About Penny

Penny SansevieriPenny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. Penny is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller which has been called the "road map to publishing success."

AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour™, which strategically works with social networking sites, blogs, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin, YouTube, and relevant sites to push an authors message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book's topic, positioning the author in his or her market. In the past 24 months their creative marketing strategies have helped land 11 books on the New York Times Bestseller list.

To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. Follow her on Twitter @bookgal

Holiday photo credit: smilla4 via photopin cc

8 comments on “6 Ways to Jump on Holiday Sales”

  1. Your suggestions are always fabulous, Penny. And then you have the bonuses! Thank you for some great ideas that are actually "fun marketing"!

  2. Penny, your ideas are great and fresh. I have just published a few months ago and I am so new, the holidays are on top of me, too late to do so many things you suggest, ---but next year is a different story. I have not yet started a blog and don't know how to use one effectively, so I am just beginning to gather the idea and strategy for its success. If you have further info regarding help with a blog like the info you've already passed along today, please let me know. My name is:
    Leticia Lakusiewicz and just published LETTY'S STORY.

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