Pre-sell your book before you write it?

[Dien Rice]

Hi,

In old-school marketing lingo, the best way to test a product is to do a "dry test" - that is, to offer the product for sale, before you've even created it!

Many "old-school" marketers used to do this. They'd run an ad for an info-product (for example), and take orders. If there were enough orders to make it worthwhile, they'd create the product. If not, they'd refund the money (or not cash the checks).

However, laws came in that then made this illegal. As Denny Hatch (*) writes...

"The FTC has always disallowed dry tests—sending out an offer for a product that does not exist—because you're prohibited from offering a product or service that you cannot fulfill within 30 days. Dry tests are okay if it's clearly spelled out in the mailing that the product does not exist. But that destroys the validity of the test mailing, because it will have to be changed if the test is successful, and the product is created."

However, crowdfunding websites (like Kickstarter and Indiegogo) are kind of like dry testing! I guess they're legal because it is clear to everyone that the product does not exist, so there is no risk of deception.

Now, one guy has started a "Kickstarter-like" site for books! The idea is, you can put your book idea online... and see if people will "buy" it! (The site calls them "preorders"...)

If anyone's interested in it, you can read more about it here...

http://vr-zone.com/articles/kickstar...try/77088.html

And here is the site itself...

https://publishizer.com

If you try this out, let us know! (It'd be interesting, plus we can pre-order it, too...)

Best wishes,

Dien

(*) Two great articles by Denny Hatch on dry testing are these ones...

In Praise of Dry Testing

The Art and Science of the Dry Test

[Glenn]

Thanks Dien,

Publishizer is of Great interest to me Dien.

Thank you.

Here's why.

In 1989 I found myself sitting next to a short, stocky, bearded man
at a Protege Bootcamp - This fella was suddenly HAILED from the Stage by Jay
Abraham and Mac Ross
as a DIRECT MAIL GENIUS.

Bob Morrison knew so much more than the 800 others in the room about SELF PUBLISHING - that soon
he was on-stage - being interviewed.

Bob said he subscribed to a couple 100 Hobby and niche magazines.

Cut out articles.

When he had enough for a book in that niche. Bob wrote a Sales Letter. Rented
a list of people who had ALREADY bought similar books.

A - IF he got too few orders - he sent them a postcard saying, "The book is no
longer available - here is your munny back.

B - If he got enough checks in the mail - Bob Dictated the book then had a Court
Reporter Type it up.

I particularly liked Bob's story of how he CALLED UP and TALKED to
some of the buyers of his best seller - "Why SOB's Succeed and Nice Guys Fail In
Business"

AND Discovered none of them READ the book. They bought it JUST IN CASE of Emergency.

So.

Bob - Rascal that he is.

Wrote a S-ales letter and s-old all of these buyers SPECIAL REPORTS.

Sold like crazy.

Unknowingly these men had bought Individual Chapters of "Why SOB's Succeed..." broken out into Report form.

Got me Thinking.

I really LIKED the idea of PRE-Testing and knowing
whether your book would s-ell BEFORE you wrote it.

So I started Studying best selling authors
who sold their own books.

Which is how I ended up Testing books on Ebay. (Now illegal to sell an E-book on E-bay.)

I'd list a 7 day auction.

IF I didn't get enough bidders by day 6 I'd Cancel the auction - and NOT Write the book.

I did Outline the book.

So all I had to do was write or type as fast as I could
to create each new book.

Glenn

Publishizer sounds interesting.

I'll take a look.

Let you know what happens.

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Glenn

Thanks Dien,

Publishizer is of Great interest to me Dien.

Thank you.

Here's why.

In 1989 I found myself sitting next to a short, stocky, bearded man
at a Protege Bootcamp - This fella was suddenly HAILED from the Stage by Jay
Abraham and Mac Ross
as a DIRECT MAIL GENIUS.

Bob Morrison knew so much more than the 800 others in the room about SELF PUBLISHING - that soon
he was on-stage - being interviewed.

Bob said he subscribed to a couple 100 Hobby and niche magazines.

Cut out articles.

When he had enough for a book in that niche. Bob wrote a Sales Letter. Rented
a list of people who had ALREADY bought similar books.

A - IF he got too few orders - he sent them a postcard saying, "The book is no
longer available - here is your munny back.

B - If he got enough checks in the mail - Bob Dictated the book then had a Court
Reporter Type it up.

I particularly liked Bob's story of how he CALLED UP and TALKED to
some of the buyers of his best seller - "Why SOB's Succeed and Nice Guys Fail In
Business"

AND Discovered none of them READ the book. They bought it JUST IN CASE of Emergency.

So.

Bob - Rascal that he is.

Wrote a S-ales letter and s-old all of these buyers SPECIAL REPORTS.

Sold like crazy.

Unknowingly these men had bought Individual Chapters of "Why SOB's Succeed..." broken out into Report form.

Got me Thinking.

I really LIKED the idea of PRE-Testing and knowing
whether your book would s-ell BEFORE you wrote it.

So I started Studying best selling authors
who sold their own books.

Which is how I ended up Testing books on Ebay. (Now illegal to sell an E-book on E-bay.)

I'd list a 7 day auction.

IF I didn't get enough bidders by day 6 I'd Cancel the auction - and NOT Write the book.

I did Outline the book.

So all I had to do was write or type as fast as I could
to create each new book.

Glenn

Publishizer sounds interesting.

I'll take a look.

Let you know what happens.

Thanks again, Glenn...

You're a testing genius! I love these ideas...

The Bob Morrison approach is great, too... I've tried the "dictating" approach, and it's worked well.

What I did in the past is use this to create articles (for a paid subscription newsletter).

First, I'd write out the main points in "bullet-point" format.

Then, as I'd read through the bullet points, I'd dictate. As I spoke, I'd expand out each bullet point. Explain it, give examples.

The audio file would be sent to a transcription company (there are a ton of them around). They'd send me back the article in written form.

I'd find I'd still have to edit the article. Back then, I did the editing myself, but if I did it now, I'd probably hire someone to edit it (using oDesk or something similar).

Wow, as I write this, I realize these are pretty good ideas!

Why write a book the "traditional" way? Sidney Sheldon dictated all his books, and all his TV scripts too. (As an old "I Dream of Jeannie" fan, I read his autobiography! Every single script of that show he dictated.)

Sometimes there are a few too many "sparks" that fly through your head... You gotta write this stuff down...!

Best wishes,

Dien

Originally Posted by Glenn

Which is how I ended up Testing books on Ebay. (Now illegal to sell an E-book on E-bay.)

Hey Glenn: unless ebay has changed their policy in the last year, You can still sell ebooks/digital info. on ebay. Just different rules apply. You have to list it in everything else->information products in classifieds or if its an auction, you have to put a disclaimer on the listing and ship it on some sort of media. ie.. cd, flash drive.. AND you have to include that you own (you created it, or have the resell rights to it).

I think that's the way it is now, a friend of mine is full time on ebay and sell almost exclusively digital products on genealogy this way. He uses kunaki, to produce a shrink wrapped cd and they drop ship his products.

And I've sold software that I produced up until about a year ago on ebay.

Haven't been on ebay in a while, but I think that's still the way it is.

Hope this helps...
Pappy

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Pappy

Hey Glenn: unless ebay has changed their policy in the last year, You can still sell ebooks/digital info. on ebay. Just different rules apply. You have to list it in everything else->information products in classifieds or if its an auction, you have to put a disclaimer on the listing and ship it on some sort of media. ie.. cd, flash drive.. AND you have to include that you own (you created it, or have the resell rights to it).

I think that's the way it is now, a friend of mine is full time on ebay and sell almost exclusively digital products on genealogy this way. He uses kunaki, to produce a shrink wrapped cd and they drop ship his products.

Thanks for sharing this alternative way of selling digital products on eBay...

Even though it's not an "instant download" - I wonder if there might be more "perceived value" receiving the digital product on some sort of media... Maybe you could charge higher this way?

Thanks for sharing!

Dien