Lindsay - December 19, 2019For this week’s show, we interviewed Damon Courtney, fantasy author and the founder of BookFunnel, an author service that delivers ebooks to readers. As an author/publisher, you can use them to give away free reader magnets or sell directly from your site. Bookfunnel also lets you deliver up to two-hour audio files, create download codes for promotions, and bundle your ebooks with those of other authors for group promotions.
Since Damon sees a lot of data (a lot of what successful authors are doing that’s working), we took this opportunity to ask him about everything from tips for building a newsletter by giving away bonus content, to selling direct, to networking at in-person author events.
Here are some of the specifics that we went over:
- What kind of bonus content (i.e. prequel novellas, tie-in short stories, second epilogues) is most effective for getting new or existing readers to sign up for a mailing list.
- Using unique ebook download codes to stick onto business cards or postcards to sell or give away at in-person events.
- Uses for the (up to) 2-hour audiobook/audio file downloads that Bookfunnel now allows.
- Reasons authors might want to attend conventions/conferences.
- The logistics of setting up a store on your website to sell direct.
- Handling taxes when you sell direct.
- Bookfunnel can integrate with popular shopping engines such as Shopify and Selz, as well as PayHip and the WordPress plug-in WooCommerce.
- Keeping 90%+ when selling direct vs. the 35-70% from the stores (especially nice when selling bundles of books for more than $9.99, a price point that only gets you 35% on Amazon).
- Whether it matters that these direct sales won’t help your sales rankings on Amazon or other stores.
- Data that’s available that we should be tracking as authors.
- Using the Facebook pixel on your Bookfunnel landing pages.
- Damon recommends Tammi Labrecque’s Newsletter Ninja for advice on growing a newsletter and knowing what to say to your subscribers,
If you’re not a Bookfunnel subscriber yet, it’s fairly inexpensive. You can check out the site here and their blog here.
Also, if you want to join us on Facebook, we have a new group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/504063143655523/ Please answer the questions, as we’re trying to keep it to listeners of the show. Thanks for listening!
This is a great episode! I am getting so many ideas from Damon. Thank you for bringing this to us. 🙂 Keep up the good work. I appreciate how long your episodes are and are always so full of great ideas.
I’m glad you found the interview useful, Margo. Thanks for listening to the show!
Hi All!
Do you have full transcripts for the podcast? They’re all great, but this one is especially good but difficult to listen to. Some of the audio echoes and is hard to understand.
Thank you!
Sorry about the audio problems on that episode, Bonnie. If we ever monetize the podcast (take on sponsors or do Patreon or something), we’ll look into possibly doing transcripts. It would be several hundred dollars a month, since our shows are quite long, and none of us actually make money from the podcast, so we’re trying to keep its expenses modest for now.
No problem! I’ll keep listening! It’s all good but especially the laughter! Thanks for the reply. Blessed.
This was a really helpful episode for me, especially the two hour audio file option. Thank you!
Thanks for listening, Bethany! I’m glad you found it helpful.