Self-publishing a book

If you can get it in front of the right eyeballs this would make a fantastic Christmas/Birthday present for the older football fan (and some youngsters, too). Congratulations on getting it done.
 
Thank you, Chaumi. Absolutely ready for the Christmas market!

The publisher, Troubador, will market the book to, I hope, the right people; but I have also had to do my own leg work. I’ve contacted a few fanzines, previewing the book with a few excerpts.

You might have written the best book in the world, but unless you can convince people that they should buy your book, that won’t mean a bean.
 
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This might be just for interest, but have a look at this image. These (in column A) are some of the high-level online search terms that could result in sales (I can't attach the full spreadsheet so had to take a limited screen capture but can send it if you ever want it).

Volume in column C = rough monthly search volume for each term. CPC = cost per click, if accurate it's showing the cost per click you'd be paying if you advertised on Google. The other columns are valuable if you ever go deeper, I can explain them if needed.

footballgiftterms.png

ofc there's a lot of competition for such higher level terms. Especially around Christmas, the average cost per click will rise (because more others are going after the same terms). But you know the searcher (ie clicker) is actively looking for football-related gifts. In theory, show them a low-cost, high-value, very likely to be appreciated gift, and the prospects of positive returns for the advertising outlay would seem pretty high.

At a more narrow/targetted level (example : famous football players of the 60s/70s, great footballers of the 60s/70s, etc etc) the search volume would be lower and the cpc (I suspect) significantly lower.

I'd be tempted to build a small website dedicated to the book. With prominent links/calls to action to go to Troubador (or Amazon etc) to buy it. It would be unlikely to rank high up in search organically (too much other competition, though over time it's not impossible). Once you have a site, you could consider giving paid advertising a careful try (on Google or Bing). Basically a test with a limited budget to see what happens.

Google's Adwords is tricky to know in depth although essentially straightforward. Managing the budget for clicks is obviously key but there are many nuances to appreciate.

Maybe this is all something to think about next year after you see what happens in the next few months. I don't know, maybe Troubadour have strong advertising avenues already. Building a small website would be fairly low cost and pretty straightforward, it only gets more complex/costly when you start looking at stuff like letting people buy/pay on the site itself. The drawback could be that if you send visitors onward to Troubadour to complete the sale, the onward tracking might not be there to show you what positive returns there are balanced against advertising cost.
 
chaumi said:
This might be just for interest, but have a look at this image. These (in column A) are some of the high-level online search terms that could result in sales (I can't attach the full spreadsheet so had to take a limited screen capture but can send it if you ever want it).

Volume in column C = rough monthly search volume for each term. CPC = cost per click, if accurate it's showing the cost per click you'd be paying if you advertised on Google. The other columns are valuable if you ever go deeper, I can explain them if needed.

View attachment 23660

ofc there's a lot of competition for such higher level terms. Especially around Christmas, the average cost per click will rise (because more others are going after the same terms). But you know the searcher (ie clicker) is actively looking for football-related gifts. In theory, show them a low-cost, high-value, very likely to be appreciated gift, and the prospects of positive returns for the advertising outlay would seem pretty high.

At a more narrow/targetted level (example : famous football players of the 60s/70s, great footballers of the 60s/70s, etc etc) the search volume would be lower and the cpc (I suspect) significantly lower.

I'd be tempted to build a small website dedicated to the book. With prominent links/calls to action to go to Troubador (or Amazon etc) to buy it. It would be unlikely to rank high up in search organically (too much other competition, though over time it's not impossible). Once you have a site, you could consider giving paid advertising a careful try (on Google or Bing). Basically a test with a limited budget to see what happens.

Google's Adwords is tricky to know in depth although essentially straightforward. Managing the budget for clicks is obviously key but there are many nuances to appreciate.

Maybe this is all something to think about next year after you see what happens in the next few months. I don't know, maybe Troubadour have strong advertising avenues already. Building a small website would be fairly low cost and pretty straightforward, it only gets more complex/costly when you start looking at stuff like letting people buy/pay on the site itself. The drawback could be that if you send visitors onward to Troubadour to complete the sale, the onward tracking might not be there to show you what positive returns there are balanced against advertising cost.
Click to expand...
I really do appreciate your time, Chaumi, in explaining this all to me. Troubador, to their credit, have shown me the marketing methods they use, and it is quite refined and defined - I don’t think they will do a bad job, tbh.

But, if I do write a follow up, I definitely wouldn’t mind giving this method a go.

Thank you for your time, Chaumi.
 
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