On this website, I am focused on showing people how to market their books online like a pro.
As a writer and a marketer, I have some unique insight that will help you to be successful as a book author, book seller and book publisher.
Writing For Publication and Book Marketing
I got started in the online world of publishing back in 2000, as an article writer and professional article ghost writer.
For several years, I only worked on articles in the range of 800-1500 words.
I continued to work as a professional ghost writer from 2000-2011.
During that time period, I ghost wrote several thousand articles, several book titles, and advised other book authors on how to market their books online.
When I was doing article syndication, I worked with dozens of book authors, helping them to move forward on their book marketing.
I started working with my first book author in 2004, helping her to promote her book online. Her book was originally published in September of 2003, and I worked with her from April of 2004 to May of 2006.
Later in 2005, I got the opportunity to work with another book author. He was self-published out of the gate, and on the success of his self-published title, he was able to pick up a book deal with Wiley for his second book. His second book went on to become a New York Times Best Seller.
I won’t tell you that these folks became successful because of me. They would have probably become successful without me, because they are driven people. But, I did have the opportunity to contribute to their marketing campaigns, and I learned a lot during the process.
First Experience With Book Publishing
In 2006, I took a job helping one of my clients to get a print book published.
I took my client’s college thesis and turned it into a book that could be sold through Amazon, via CreateSpace and Print-On-Demand.
I took a loosely written thesis and turned it into a product that could sell in the open marketplace. I cannot tell you what the book was or who the author was, because I did sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement with my client, as I did with most of my ghost writing clients.
But for curiosity’s sake, I did look up the book on Amazon, and found that it still carries the original book cover I gave it, but it is up to its 4th Edition with a new publisher that the author started working with in 2007.
Yes, the author of that book was the first client I ever fired. LOL He was just a real pain in the — you know what. I fired him the day we were scheduled to launch the book. He launched the book three days later on his own.
Tsk, tsk… I never did get my on-publication payment… But, in my mind, that was a small price to pay to get that person out of my life forever. LOL
Life Changing Event In 2009
In 2009, I found out my dad had cancer.
He passed away later in that year, but while he was still with us, I was taking weeks at a time off of work to help him get to doctor’s appointments and such.
I was away from my office for several weeks at a time, and during that time frame, I lost a good portion of my regular customers.
When my dad finally passed, I realized what a wreck I had made of my business… But, looking back, I wrecked my business for all of the right reasons. I have no regrets about the decisions that I took in 2009.
This experience forced me to rethink what I had been doing for the previous 9 years.
I realized that until this point in time, I had been helping others get to the top, while ignoring my own needs to build a future for my family that could survive my death.
Moving Forward
By February of 2010, I had started building a future that would take care of my kids and my yet-to-be-born grand kids.
This was when I stopped writing articles for other people and started producing reports, books and products that I could sell for many years into the future.
As an article writer, I wrote articles under 22 pen names.
As a book and product creator, I also write under a number of pen names.
I strongly believe that there are a number of important steps involved in the marketing of our books:
- Picking a Niche where people already have an interest in buying books;
- Writing a Book That People Will Be Happy to Have Read;
- Creating a Book Cover that attracts eyeballs;
- Having a Title that wins a prospect’s attention;
- Providing a Book Description that successfully encourages people to Click The Buy Button;
- Getting Product Reviews;
- Marketing Your Books outside of the Book Seller’s website.
Too many people believe that putting a book on Amazon / Kindle is the last step in the marketing process…
In my world, it signals the beginning of the most important part of the sales process — finding more buyers!! LOL
Stick with me, and I will open your eyes to marketing your books on the major online book selling platforms (Amazon/Kindle, Barnes & Noble/Pubit, Lulu, Smashwords, iTunes, etc.) and marketing your books outside of those platforms, so that you can squeeze even more sales for your book titles.
If you are happy with your current book sales, then you will not need to use this website.
But, if you are interested in selling more copies, you will want bookmark this website and come back to it frequently.
I hope you will stay, because I am looking forward to getting to know you, your books, and your struggles as a book author.
Bill Platt
Stillwater, Oklahoma
