How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months [Paperback]

John Locke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 17, 2011

Now, for the first time ever, John Locke reveals the marketing system he created to sell more than 1,100,000 eBooks in five months! His Credentials: John is the eigth author in the world-and the first self-published author in history-to have sold 1 million eBooks on Kindle! He is the first self-published author to hit #1 on the Amazon/Kindle Best Seller's List, and the first to hit both #1 and #2 at the same time! He is a New York Times best-selling author! He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and Entertainment Weekly! He has had 4 of the top 10 books on Amazon/Kindle at the same time, including #1 and #2! He has had 7 books in the top 34 and 8 books in the Top 50 at the same time! These numbers are not positions within a category. They are positions that include all Kindle sales including fiction, non-fiction, magazine subscriptions, and game apps! By the middle of March, 2011, it had been calculated that "every 7 seconds, 24 hours a day, a John Locke novel is downloaded somewhere in the world." ...All this was achieved PART TIME, without an agent, publicist, and at virtually no marketing expense!

Product Details

• Paperback: 170 pages
• Publisher: Telemachus Press, LLC (June 17, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1935670913
• ISBN-13: 978-1935670919
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (259 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #35,730 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics > Business
  • #5 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Business & Investing > Marketing & Sales > Sales & Selling > General
  • #80 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > E-commerce > Internet Marketing

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

326 of 362 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Too be fair, it's not called "How YOU Will Sell...", July 19, 2011

By 

Shevi "FantasyWeaver" (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months! (Kindle Edition)

This book is fine if you're only interested in reading page after page about the author's own success. I was, however, looking for tips on how to be a successful indie publisher, and there are none here you probably couldn't figure out on your own.

Here's what you will find:lots of ads for John Locke's other books, ads that start even before the first page; lots and lots of bragging interspersed with cries of "I'm not bragging!" (the author doth protest too much); lots of talk about why e-publishing is better than traditional publishing; how he spent $25,000 making mistakes (which might be helpful to the few indie publishers who think paid advertising and the like is worth it); lots and lots of promises that he will tell you how he did it (which never goes beyond the obvious) spread over many pages; stuff like "What? I'm giving you a ten thousand dollar idea in a $4.99 eBook, $9.99 paperback? Yup. And I'm including a wealth of other valuable ideas, too" (sounds like an infomercial, doesn't it?); a question and answer session where he asks himself questions like "Where do you get your confidence? How did you know you were going to be successful as an author?" and "How does it feel to have a best selling book?"; a lot about the target audience he writes for and how he interacts with it; an entire chapter about all the things he says you're doing wrong (because who doesn't like an author who assumes his readers are doing everything wrong?); setting goals and how this relates to the time he spent as an insurance salesman (yup, he was an insurance salesman. You can write your own joke here); join Twitter!; develop a brand!; keep writing books!; create a website!; and lots of other things ending with exclamation points!

So don't make the mistake I made, and don't waste your money on this book. Instead, check out J.A. Konrath's blog, A Newbie's Guide to Publishing, and Zoe Winter's hype-free book on the same topic:Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author.

94 of 108 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Social Media Marketing 101, June 22, 2011

By 

J. Grant (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months! (Kindle Edition)

i was disappointed. There were a couple of nuggets that were interesting, but this book is short in page number and long in unnecessary content. It really is all about social media marketing and gaming the Kindle ranking system. Throw in some solid customer service tips (for working with your readers) and that's about it. I feel like 40% of the book wasn't necessary because he's telling you what a great system he has, if he just told us the principles and why they were valuable the book would be much shorter. I would recommend this book for $1, but not for $5. Then again, if you know nothing about social media marketing or how items get on the Kindle best seller list you'll probably learn a handful of things.

131 of 158 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Are books just a revenue stream?, June 25, 2011

By 

Lawrence B. Moniz "LarryMoniz" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months! (Kindle Edition)

As a book publicist for many years, I know that John Locke makes some valid points about the need to conduct a targeted book promotion program. However, as a professional writer for more than 45 years, I have several significant problems with this work.
Mr. Locke freely admits he's not a writer, he's a self-styled marketing genius and perhaps he is. I find him to be rather like the stockbroker who touts penny stocks and convinces you that any day the company involved is going to make a major breakthrough and the share value will rise from a nickel to $100. Maybe, but I doubt it. Or perhaps the investment banker who tells you he's got the perfect hedge fund that will make you so much money you can retire from teaching and buy a 100-foot yacht and cruise to your various villas in exotic locations. Yeah, right. There's nothing wrong with Mr. Locke's marketing tips. They're really not much different than I and other marketers have advocated in writing for years.
So what's the problem? Mr. Locke makes it plain he's not a writer. In fact, he boasts about tailoring his books to meet selling goals.
The author says his readers don't take his books seriously, nor does he expect them to do so.
In his view, buyers of his books want just the opposite of what other authors provide. I.e., not much character detail, little detail about settings, and he says he interrupts scenes to talk to readers just as "the Marx Brothers used to do..."
Yes, Mr. Locke has undoubtedly found a formula that works, but is it writing?
The author portrays himself as a marketer rather than as a writer. As a person who envisions himself as a writer who markets, reading a book by a marketer who writes just to create a revenue stream is disturbing; perhaps too much so to ever finish this title. It's rather like some would-be writers who slap anything together, publish it as an EBook and market it for whatever buyers will pay. Short of counterfeiting, it's a great way to make money. But is it honest to readers who expect real value for their investment in time and money? Let the readers decide.
However, a respected author who writes to tell stories and has become hugely wealthy in the process perhaps describes best how to become an author. Stephen King in his outstanding book "On Writing" says: "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot."
It's advice I'm unable to improve upon.
If indie authors fail to turn out quality product because they're only focused on making money -- then the traditional publishing houses will win because EBook quality will fall as readers decide even 99 cents is too much to pay for junk.