The money-back guarantee is a concept taken for granted. If you buy something and the salesperson tells you there are no returns for that product you will freak out. Risk free is the norm. Promoting your book on Amazon often starts with the free download period. The famous KDP 5 days Free Promotion. There is no risk in downloading a free book for the potential reader and the intended results is to increase sells after through reviews or word-to-mouth.
I don’t think it works.
There are tens of thousands of free downloaded eBooks lingering unread on thousands of Kindles. This should have you worried. The real risk is in wasting time reading that book. Is free which is actually high-risk. Risk decreases with acceptance. When you “take the risk”, you accept that risk exists and you prepare for consequences. Managing risk decreases risk.
- High-risk–I download a free book, I take the risk to read it and I might be very unhappy with it. Hence, I will trash your book in a review.
- Low-risk–I buy your book and in deciding to pay, I’m assuming the risk of being unsatisfied with the product. I might not like your book but it was an acceptable consequence.
As a writer, you ONLY need the readers buying and liking your book. If you offer them a way to get back to you with an email and they contact you, jump on it. Make it your priority to nurture those relationships.
A billion dollars business starts with 100 hardcore clients. A writer’s career starts with 100 enchanted readers.
Every time you think of them, this should be your mantra: “You took the risk of buying and reading my book. I appreciate it and I’ll do everything I can to make you feel my appreciation.” We’re doing the same with Asengana Writing Platform. We have our very long list of early adopters.
They didn’t get access for free. They gave us their email addresses.
They gave us the permission to write and send updates about the platform’s development and we are so grateful for this. We’re thinking every day what more can we do for them after launch.
We started with 6 months of free access and the participation in the Ambassador project that will allow them to get up to 5 years of free access. Then we added exclusive access to the first Asengana Writing Awards (we have a decent budget for prizes).
It’s not enough.
We spend 95% of the time developing and 5% of time thinking about them and only them. Not the other writers that will use the platform later. We decided to give them also a special fee of 50% of the subscription price. During the next years, we will try to come up with new ways of thanking them. Our Early Adopters are the risk takers. They are the foundation of what we build.
Take care of your community founders. The readers that buy and like your book are your support system.
Also become an Early Adopter for Asengana and the way you manage your writing project will be better. You will gain access to useful tools and you’ll have our gratitude and support.
