How to Get Paid Twice for Selling Your Book
This is a pretty simple tip that will take you about 15 minutes to implement, and–if you’re not already doing it–it will nearly double what you’re making from each book sale. It’s so simple that I’m always shocked to visit author web sites and find out how few folks are doing it.
Ok, now that I’ve sufficiently built up your anticipation (go ahead and wipe the saliva from the corner of your mouth), I’ll spill it:
Sign up to be an affiliate of an online bookstore that sells your book.
What the heck is an affiliate?
It’s a bit like working on commission for your favorite bookstore, only all the “work” is done online. Affiliate programs work like this:
You place a special link (it’s special because it’s coded with your affiliate ID) on your web site. That link goes to a certain page on the merchant’s site (such as the page where your book is for sale). If a visitor to your site clicks on the affiliate link and then buys the item from the merchant, you earn a percentage of the sales price. If that visitor wanders away and buys something else on the site (something you didn’t link to), you’ll still get a cut. If they buy several things, you’ll actually make a few dollars.
The percent you earn varies from merchant to merchant, but expect at least 5%, and some programs will pay as much as 8%. Add this to your royalty, and you can nearly double what you’re earning from the sale of each book you personally promote and sell through your website or blog.
How do you get started as an affiliate?
First you need to decide which affiliate program you’re going to join. Though many booksellers offer programs, I recommend Amazon. There are a couple of reasons:
1. Amazon is huge and just about everyone who shops online has an account there (which means their credit card information is already stored so it’s quick and painless for them to buy your book).
2. They sell a lot (and I do mean LOT) of other stuff, too, so you might rack up additional earnings. (I’ve been an Amazon affiliate for a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of unrelated items in my earnings reports. Their free-shipping-for-purchases-over-$25 deal does a good job prompting people to buy more than just one book.)
Now that I’ve sold you on Amazon (alas, I don’t get a commission for signing up affiliates), it’ll be pretty easy for you to get started. If you’re comfortable adding links to your site yourself, it’ll probably take less than 15 minutes to get signed up and get that first link on there. You can get started at:
If you’re set on going with Barnes & Noble or another bookseller, just head over to the company’s site and look for a link (often in the footer) to their affiliate program. Alternately, do a search for Merchant Name + affiliate program on Google. Not all merchants have affiliate programs, but the major booksellers do.
Once you’re signed up, sprinkle those links lucratively throughout your site. My experience tells me that text links added right into the content of the site earn the most clicks (and ultimately the most sales), but you’re certainly welcome to try some of the picture links as well.
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This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title o Get Paid Twice for Selling Your Book : Online Book Promotion. Thanks for informative article