BookFunnel specializes in e-book and audio distribution. Authors can send e-books directly to readers’ preferred reading devices, collect email addresses, participate in group promotions, and more. BookFunnel has created tools that save authors time, facilitate reader engagement, and it prides itself on its customer support.
1. Delivering Your Reader Magnet
Upload your free “reader magnet” and create a download page on BookFunnel, so readers who sign up for your mailing list from your website can receive an automated “welcome email” with the BookFunnel download link.
If you don’t have your own website or are looking for a simpler setup, you can upload your reader magnet to BookFunnel and create a giveaway page. It’s a signup and delivery page all in one, and you can customize the colors and text to suit your branding.
Pro Tip: Make your reader magnet the best example of your writing for better reader engagement. Consider keeping it exclusive and place a link in the front and back matter of your e-book. Examples of great reader magnets can be found here:
https://blog.bookfunnel.com/2021/the-best-types-of-reader-magnets-fiction-and-nonfiction/
2. Arcs and Beta Copies
Authors value social proof for gaining sales, but also manuscript security. With BookFunnel’s Certified Mail, you compose the outgoing email for up to five hundred review team members per month. The email includes an unique, unshareable, private link to a watermarked copy. You can schedule reminders and follow-up emails, and can get a summary email after the campaign closes detailing which reviewers downloaded the e-book to keep your review team tight.
3. Join Newsletter Builders
Newsletter promotions are designed to build your mailing list and require a free e-book download, such as your reader magnet, and a landing page to join. Read the requirements carefully because many promos state genres, review ratings, story tropes, mailing list sizes, share by dates, or contributions towards ads or boosted posts.
Don’t join too many promos at once, so you can introduce your readers to other e-books without overwhelming them. Also, other authors’ readers are leads, so allow time for them to warm them up and become fans.
Pro Tip: Choose promotions that align best with your schedule or send a special edition newsletter to cover the dates in question.
4. Email Integration
BookFunnel’s direct integration with your mailing list provider (e.g. MailerLite, SendFox) collects email addresses on your behalf, confirms and automatically adds them to a mailing list specified by you, where you can set up an automated sequence to send the reader a download link for your e-book.
If your mailing list provider doesn’t have direct integration, you can do it manually. With manual transfer, BookFunnel collects email addresses in a CSV file on your dashboard, and you export them in one of two ways. Either click the link in the notification email to log-in to your dashboard and then click the ‘Export CSV’ button, or click ‘Landing Pages’ on your dashboard, select the required landing page, and click the ‘Export CSV’ button from there.
5. Separate Landing Pages for Different Subscriber Types
Landing pages have options which can be used depending on your objectives. If you’re growing your list with new subscribers, landing pages can require valid email addresses before readers can download your e-book. To avoid importing the same emails over and over, click the ‘Don’t allow subscribers to opt-in again if they have already downloaded the offered book’ option to send them to their library instead..
If you’re using BookFunnel to give away copies to existing subscribers, you can create a landing page that doesn’t collect email addresses. And if you’re managing a Beta/ARC team, BookFunnel’s restricted pages feature will check the email they use against a mailing list you’ve created with pre-approved email addresses before releasing the download. Anyone not on the list will be denied.
Pro Tip: Instead of deleting landing pages, expire them, then they can be reactivated if needed to prevent having to recreate later.
6. Keep Unsubscribers Off Your Mailing List
BookFunnel has two settings to keep readers from repeatedly signing up, if they’ve previously unsubscribed and are trying to subscribe again, or if they have marked your emails as spam. This is useful if your e-book is only available to new readers or if you have a download limit on the landing page. You will need to use integration to access this feature and be willing to block readers from rejoining your list, but they will get a polite default message to ease the blow.
7. Audio – Teasers and Direct Sales
BookFunnel’s audiobook delivery provides all the same features associated with e-books, from ARC campaigns, download pages, gifting audiobooks, direct sales, and unique codes to audiobooks as reader magnets. It is in open beta at present, and you can get access by emailing the team and asking.
Audio can also be used for teasers—short audio samples that let readers listen to an MP3 on a sales page, and then click through to buy from select audio platforms. A multi-book landing page of audiobook covers, samples, and store links can also drive sales. Other uses include boosting newsletter engagement with shared clips, gaining new subscribers with narrated short stories, or as free teasers for upcoming releases.
8. Direct Sales
To expand your sales reach, BookFunnel will deliver sales from Payhip, Selz, and direct from your website with PayPal, WooCommerce, and Shopify.
To use direct sales, create a delivery action on BookFunnel for the e-book to be delivered, so when the reader buys, they are emailed a private link for the e-books purchased. If you are using PayPal on your website, the buyer is taken to the BookFunnel link once purchase is complete.
9. Customize Landing Pages
Customize landing pages with your own branding, such as color coordinating with your website or replacing BookFunnel’s logo with your own. Apply to all landing pages as a default, or craft each with unique themes or designs for selected books or series. Style your own text and use bold or italicized headings to make it stand out. Both new and existing landing pages are customizable.
Pro Tip: To centre justify the headline add -= (dash equals) to either side of the words.
Pro Tip: Consider using a contrast checker so background and text colors have very high contrast, such as light colors with dark text, to avoid alienating readers with vision impairments, and losing sales and fans.
https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker
10. Group Sales Promo
Group promotions help authors collaborate for greater audience reach. Participants share the promo link with existing mailing lists and social media platforms. Fans can view all e-books in the promo and find new stories to read. The great thing is you control the theme, text, and pricing on your landing page so the regular price displayed can be slashed out and the sale price featured. The customized tracking link counts how many unique visitors you send to each promo so data can be used to compare later.
Pro Tip: If enrolled in KDP Select, send readers straight to Amazon to buy or read with Kindle Unlimited.
With all the options on offer from BookFunnel to advance your e-book sales, the one guarantee is their customer service will be there for both you and your readers if you need them.
