It’s an exciting time for ambitious authors. Anyone with a story can share it with the world, promoting it through social media, blogging, podcasting, etc.

Boost Book Sales with Effective Webinars

That said, there’s so much content around that it’s hard to stand out. Therefore, authors with ambition need to take advantage of all marketing opportunities.

So let’s imagine you finally went for it and wrote a book. At this moment, you probably have one main question in mind, which is how to increase your sales as much as possible. You want to learn the best way to stand out and make the most of opportunities online. One great idea that you may not have considered yet is to host webinars. Would that be worth trying? Let’s go through some important questions that will help you make your decision.

What can a writer offer through a webinar?

If you’re unfamiliar with the webinar format, it’s essentially an online seminar that gathers people to view a presentation and discuss the topics involved. For example, a live webinar can feature a presenter engaging in real-time with the attendees. In addition, it can be recorded and made available to anyone interested in viewing it (you can find more basic details here).

Professionals in many fields can benefit from webinars, and writers are no exception. Since most people join webinars to learn something new, you can center your sessions around developing specific skills and sharing the tips and techniques you’ve gained throughout your writing career. This approach works very well because writing is a complex craft with so much to explore. You might decide to cover a broad subject such as how to write short stories, or you could narrow your focus to something more specific, for example how to create powerful opening sentences for short stories.

Focus on what you know and let your book follow

Alternatively, if writing isn’t your primary focus but merely your method of conveying your ideas, you could focus on those ideas. It is what JJ Virgin does: she’s a nutrition specialist who hosts webinars through her community, and passing on her knowledge of nutrition is the perfect way for her to promote her books, such as The Virgin Diet.

You could also dish out advice on the practical side of modern authorship. There are plenty of ways to become an author (Jericho Writers details various routes to get published), and it’s natural for aspiring writers to wonder which path is best for them. Consider that the topic doesn’t matter so much because no matter what it is, you can find a way to discuss your new book. If you talk about themes, you can bring up how you chose the articles for your book. If you talk about publishing, you can discuss how you got your book published.

It is what Brian Jud does. He concentrates on helping people sell books and sells his own in the process: Of how to Make Real Money Selling Books. As well as hosting free webinars on occasion, he also sells a series of webinars. The more he sells, the more justified he charges people to learn his methods.

How can your webinar drive book sales?

General promotion of writing is excellent, but your webinar has a specific goal: to get people to buy your new book. So how can you manage that? Let’s break it down very simply. Your audience will consist of ambitious writers who want to learn from you. So here are some of the key ways in which you can win some conversions:

• Encourage your audience to buy your book by presenting it as the simplest and most effective way to make sales. Begin and end your webinar by mentioning your book, and make sure to offer easy ways for people to purchase it. The attendees already value your expertise, which means many of them will probably want to explore your newest work because good writers should always keep reading.
• Impress the attendees, so they promote you, leading to more sales. Even if someone viewing your webinar doesn’t want to buy your book, they might be sufficiently impressed by your presentation that they decide to mention you through their social media profiles. If they do, you could politely ask them to include a link to your book.
• Charge for your webinar and offer a package deal with your book. If you have the expertise to provide, it isn’t unreasonable to expect financial compensation, and many professionals build their incomes around selling tuition. One interesting option is to offer a reduced price for your webinar and book.

How can you promote a writing webinar?

When you’ve figured out what you’re going to offer in your webinar, you need to promote your webinar. After all, it won’t do you much good if no one attends. Here are some tips for getting it done:

• Add a pop-up to your website. If you build a custom registration page for your webinar, you can link to it through a pop-up on your website. Be careful, though: pop-ups can be very irritating if timed poorly, so get the timing right.
• Distribute a teaser snippet. Try recording some of the content you intend to put in your webinar and uploading it to sites like YouTube and Twitter. It’s akin to offering the first chapter of your book. Get people interested through the teaser (set up what you’ll teach people through your webinar). Then tell them how they can find out more.
• Write a supporting blog post. Whether you already have a blog or know of some relevant blogs that accept pitches, you could get some good value from writing a blog post about the topic you’ll be addressing in your webinar. Lay the groundwork, then push people to view the webinar.
• List it as an event where you can. Every event listing for your webinar will get slightly more attention.

Overall, to answer the main question, yes, you should use a webinar to promote your new book. After all, it is an excellent way to grow your brand and share your work with people while keeping the presentation natural and not overly promotional.

Give it a try!

In conclusion, when you offer real value related to your new book and share an honest story about how it came to life, you turn a simple online event into a meaningful experience for your audience. When you introduce your book early in your webinar and show its relevance through practical lessons, you build trust and credibility. When you present the book as a natural continuation of what attendees have already learned, you encourage them to move forward and make a purchase. When you use smart promotion ideas such as teasers, blog posts and well-timed popups, you fill your online room with people ready to connect with your message. In the end, a webinar is not just a place to sell, it is a chance to appear as an expert, welcome people into your story and open the path to your book’s journey sell book.

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