Your First 1000 Copies: The Step-by-Step Guide to Marketing Your Book 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

Circular and self-referential, Tim's whole program (this book and his 30 day email campaign) is geared toward enrolling you in his ($1200) secret stash of winning strategies. I followed his 30 day email campaign, which is designed to build a trust relationship between he and me, and to demonstrate the value of his experience. Problem is, it took more effort to glean the one valuable sentence from his daily email teaser than it was worth. Several other writers I asked to sign up with me, so I could have different opinions and sets of eyes on the prize, well not one of them made it all the way through. Does this mean they do not have the burning desire to be a successful writer? They lack the stamina to take their promotion to the next level? Maybe, maybe they are less tolerant of story-telling hype than myself. I was in it for the lesson of how it works.

I am a former columnist and am presently writing a memoir. I considered myself the perfect candidate for his pitch. Like binging on a Netflix series, the formula for each letter went from fun to flogging as I waded through the buddy-to-buddy feel of his teasing how he is going to tell you the secret to making this or that happen in the market. For all the words, there is very little substance.

As for the book, if anyone needs an intro to marketing their book themselves, it is $6 bucks well spent. The "connection" system Tom touts will be familiar to anyone who has multilevel marketed. The people you sell are encouraged to sell you. While this may sound awful, isn't it the basis of good word of mouth? Nothing wrong with that. The key is you have to start with a quality and/or desirable story/book. That is not the key for Tim, it is the key. No system will work if your work is not wanted. How do you find that out? Loan your book out to a wide group of folks for feedback. If it is positive then on to the next step, which may or may not be Tim's system. There is no magic pill anywhere so don't come looking for the easy way to sales.

Marketing your work will be much harder than writing it because you are a writer, not a marketer. Unless of course, you are Tim. ;-)

I bought this book after reading a 5 star review. In particular it was a comment around this book tells you what works and what doesn't.

Hmmm I didn't find the answer except the author is pro email marketing and questions the effectiveness of social media marketing. But I don't think he gave enough clarification to support his argument. One thing I did find amazing was the authors choice examples to promote his point of view. I was interested in discovering CJ West's email campaign until I checked out his book rankings. Hmmm obviously his email campaigns are not helping his book sales.

Overall I found this book hard to read. I wasn't engaged early and as I moved further into the book I began to firstly skip paragraphs which quickly became pages.

I didn't finish the book. I was looking for an action plan. I didn't find it. In fairness I didn't finish the book and perhaps I missed some hidden gems.

Sorry I've found other book marketing books more enlightening.

Grahl offers a coherent and focused plan to help authors build their platforms. It's a quick read, full of advice you can immediately put into practice.

Having read Michael Hyatt's excellent and comprehensive book Platform, I was skeptical that this book would offer anything new, but I was delighted to find Grohl's advice to be substantive, fresh, and insightful.

The book is particularly helpful in sorting through the conflicting popular wisdom around social media and email marketing for traditional books.

Highly recommended for anyone looking to build a platform.

If anyone can write a formula for author success, it’s Tim Grahl. He’s worked with a Who’s Who list of authors helping them build successful platforms to promote their books. Even though I was initially drawn to Tim’s book because I have an interest in helping my author clients, I quickly found that his Connection System is applicable to any sector whether it’s books or bicycles. The Connection System just plain works for people who have something to sell. The title of this book could certainly be "Your First 1000 (fill in the blank)."

First off, I like the format of the book. It’s logical, which is extremely important for a book trying to teach a process or method. Each chapter is a piece of the “system.” There are cohesive elements in each chapter including analytics you can use to measure each piece of the system to gauge success, and takeaways to punch it home before you move on.

Another plus—the book is a quick read. Only 132 pages (thanks, Tim). I wish more authors could pack their messages into something this succinct.

The Connection System of success is pretty straightforward. There are four basic parts: permission, content, outreach, and sell. The author lays out the priorities and the pitfalls of each clearly.

He starts the book defining two bedrock concepts: the first is platform.

“A platform is whatever plan and method you use to connect with your readers and sell books, whether it’s traveling the world to speak, hand-selling to friends or building a popular blog.”

Next, he gives readers a new take on the concept of marketing. I don’t think he necessarily invented the definition, but it is definitely the direction the culture is headed, and has been echoed by many others I consider experts in the field.

(Marketing is) “The act of building long-lasting connections with people.” It reminds me of Jay Baer’s Youtility. Jay was the first major voice in the field of marketing coaching us to be “relentlessly helpful,” a phrase Grahl uses again and again in the book.

Grahl goes through the paces of all the pieces you’d expect: newsletter (the golden ticket, so to speak), spaces to connect (blog, social,website), and so on. But this book is much less about tools and more about approach. As a matter of fact, since information in this fast paced world of marketing changes so rapidly, Grahl has URLs sprinkled throughout the book where readers can get bonus content on his latest recommendations for services like email newsletter providers, analytics, and others.

The only place I had a problem in the book is that Grahl and I disagree about the role of social media in promotion. Although I do agree that social media is an accelerant more than a driver of sales, his take on social media was not deep enough for me.

He says, “Social media seems important; everyone seems to be using it with great success. But no matter how much we study it or try to use it, we are often left confused and frustrated by it because the results don’t seem to match the amount of effort we put into it.”

He did go on to give some very practical advice about how to use social media as a place to connect with your fans but I was left feeling he thought it a waste of time, or a necessary evil. Hard for me to concur with that.

Another huge idea he explores in the book is the difference between fans and influencers. He very carefully defines both and then talks about how to communicate with each. I loved the observation that you cannot treat them the same, but you need to connect with both.

All in all, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has anything to sell, especially to authors. His emphasis on serving fans/followers rather than using them to serve ourselves should ring true with us all. The days of the sleazy car salesman type he described in the beginning of the book are numbered . Build relationships and trust by adding value to peoples’ lives and you’ll make a fan forever.