Writing Prompts

Make Writing A Habit

Introduction Letter – New Book Title

Introduction letters are written for numerous business and personal situations. This sample introduction letter was written for a typical business-to-business situation in which one company is introducing a new product to another company with the hope that the receiving company will order it. In this case, a sample of the product was included with the letter. A follow-up phone call or e-mail is often required a week or so after the original letter is sent.
(print Product Introduction Sales Letter on corporate letterhead)
August 28, 20xx

Ms. Margarita Gonzalez
Acquistions Manager
Infinity Publications Inc.
855 Duran Av., Suite 780
Pacifica, CA, 94044

Dear Ms. Gonzalez:
A Different Kind of Internet Book!
I am writing to you because your company has been recommended as one of the top book distributors in the United States for moving books into the traditional book buying market. We believe that we have a unique product for those stores and therefore, before going to reprint, I would like to check with you to see if you are interested in ordering a quantity on consignment for sale in the stores of your clients.

Enclosed for your review, is a copy of Internet Basics without fear! Quick-Start Guide for Becoming Internet-Friendly In Just a Few Easy Steps. With it, you will find a promotional brochure and a couple of recent reviews. As the information states, this is an Internet book with a big difference. Rather than the typical 300 plus page tekkie-type manuals that proliferate the market these days (“Dummies” books included!), it is a 100+ page people-friendly book, designed to help ordinary people become familiar with, and get connected to the Net.

The cover tells the whole story in a snapshot and was designed to quickly attract the attention of its intended target audience. As you can see, it has a very colorful and catchy design with a clear message that is perfect for attracting potential buyers. And of course as you are most surely aware, the subject of the Internet is a very hot one these days! I have no doubt that such a basic people-friendly book would appeal to many shoppers if strategically placed in the stores of your clients. In addition to personal use, this book could also be purchased as a gift for family, friends and relatives. The low price point of $14.95 makes it an attractive impulse and/or gift buy.

Our research to-date has indicated that there is a sizable niche market out there for a book just like this. Early market tests have confirmed this. People seem to be thrilled with the idea of such a basic user-friendly approach to help them get onto the Net. The book is written in clear, concise English, with a minimum of technical jargon. It also takes a human approach by discussing and dealing with the “fear of technology” issue before plunging into the “how-to” part.

Remember, between 50% and 60% of the North American market are not yet online and many are now clamoring to get connected. This book is the vehicle to help the ordinary person get there.

Thank you for your consideration and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,



Robert Christian
Marketing Manager

Enclosures (3)

Online Publishing Profits:
Sales Mini-Sites Are Mandatory

This is another in my series of articles that explain the Online Publishing Model and how small-time authors and/or self-publishers can use the OPM as a viable alternative to the often archaic and dysfunctional traditional book publishing model.

Typically, you will create your book/ebook in a source word processing program such as MS-Word or WordPerfect. Once you have converted it into PDF format you’ll be ready to start selling it via the three primary channels that make up the Online Publishing Model: 1. Sales-Mini-Sites, 2. Digital Download Distributors, 3. Print-On-Demand (POD) Distributors.

This article explains the first of three channels that make up the Online Publishing model – a dedicated Web site known as a “sales-mini-site”.

A SALES-MINI-SITE IS A MUST

Based on everything I’ve learned over the past number of years about online book publishing and marketing, there is only one way to effectively sell a product such as an ebook from a Web site. That is, from what I call a “sales-mini-site. In fact, the creation of a sales-mini-site is an absolute MUST if you are to be successful.

This Web site will normally be your primary book/ebook sales and distribution channel, out of the three channels in the Online Publishing Model. I REPEAT. You MUST have a dedicated sales-mini-site to sell your ebook effectively online.

SALES-MINI-SITE – DEFINED

A sales-mini-site is a dedicated Web site with a URL name (i.e. domain name) specific to the product being sold on that site. The entire purpose of that sales-mini-site is to provide specific information to visitors about the one product being sold there, with the ultimate objective being to convert a certain percentage of those visitors from “browsers” into “buyers” before they leave that site.

I’m sure you’ll see that each one of those sites has one purpose and one purpose only – to convince the targeted visitor to purchase the particular ebook being offered.

There are of course, literally thousands of sales-mini-sites offering thousands of products across the Internet, one-product-at-a-time.

SALES-MINI-SITES ARE CHEAP AND EASY – REALLY!

Now that I’ve said you’ve got to have one, the good news is that creating and maintaining a sales-mini-site is not expensive, and they are not particularly difficult to set-up. Really!

For example, to host each of my sales-mini-sites costs me LESS THAN US $70 per year, per site. That’s the equivalent of 2 to 3 ebook sales.

Here are the basic tasks involved in creating a sales-mini-site:

  • write your sales copy
  • create your Web site in HTML
  • upload your completed site to a Web host company’s server
  • select a payment processor and set-up payment links

Don’t worry; you DO NOT need to be a “techie” to get a sales-mini-site built for your book/ebook. These things are WAY easier to create than they look. You can do some of the work yourself if you like, or there are MANY ways to get free or inexpensive assistance.

There now exist dozens of powerful interface tools that allow “non-techies” to design and build their own Web sites by just pointing and clicking. You may not be aware of this, but thousands of total “non-techies” are running businesses these days from their own Web sites.

So, if you’re serious about getting your book or ebook online, don’t be scared off by the seeming “techiness” of creating a sales-mini-site. It really IS NOT AN ISSUE once you know where to look for help. And you won’t need a lot of help. Trust me on this one folks!

Of course I can’t cover all of the details here as to exactly what to do, and where to find the resources to develop a sales-mini-site, to the extent that my Instant Book Writing Kit ebook does. After all, it’s a book and this is an introductory article! Just believe that it is possible!

I hope you’re clear by now that a sales-mini-site will be your most important sales and distribution channel under the Online Publishing Model.

Online Publishing Profits:
Digital Fulfillment Delivers

This is another in my series of articles that explain the Online Publishing Model and how small-time authors and/or self-publishers can use the OPM as a viable alternative to the often archaic and dysfunctional traditional book publishing model.

Typically, you will create your book/ebook in a source word processing program such as MS-Word or WordPerfect. Once you have converted it into PDF format you’ll be ready to start selling it via the three primary channels that make up the Online Publishing Model: 1. Sales-Mini-Sites, 2. Digital Download Distributors, 3. Print-On-Demand (POD) Distributors.

This article explains channel 2, Digital Download Distribution. It’s an excerpt from my book/ebook Instant Book Writing Kithttp://InstantBookWritingKit.com

Discovering exactly how the digital fulfillment channel works was a major breakthrough for me. That discovery alone has resulted in thousands of dollars in ebook sales that I otherwise wouldn’t have made. Really!

Based on my experience, the use of this one online distribution channel is guaranteed to add hundreds or thousands of dollars annually to your bottom line sales! That’s right — if you harness the digital fulfillment channel you’ll sell hundreds more ebooks than you would just selling them from your Web sites.

DIGITAL FULFILLMENT: DEFINITION

It’s important that you understand exactly what I’m talking about when I use the term “digital fulfillment”, as opposed to print-on-demand (POD) fulfillment.

Digital fulfillment refers to when your ebook is delivered strictly in electronic form as a “digital download” product. Essentially, it’s the same as when your ebook gets downloaded from your Web site, except that, the digital fulfillment is provided by a digital download distribution company through their distribution network.

A typical example of digital fulfillment in action would be when you provide your ebook electronic files (PDF) to a company that distributes digital download ebooks to amazon.com, for example. Amazon.com would then offer your ebook to its customers as a digital download product.

IMPORTANT: When I talk about “digital fulfillment” here I am NOT talking about delivering a downloadable ebook to your buyers from your own “sales-mini-site”. I’m referring to when one uses third party vendors and/or distributors to deliver a digital version of one’s book through their own channels.

THE SECRET OF DIGITAL FULFILLMENT

As I stated in the other parts of this series on the OPM, I have spent the past few years immersing myself in learning about the tools and techniques of successful Internet marketing to help me sell more of my ebooks/books.

In the process, I have purchased dozens of “must have” books from many heavy-hitter big-name Internet marketers. But NEVER have I read anything about the digital fulfillment strategy in ANY of those many books/ebooks from the gurus!

In fact, I basically stumbled across this largely unknown money-making publishing secret by accident when I asked a major book selling company if it would be possible to sell my ebooks through their Web sites in addition to my own.

They promptly answered that “yes”, there is indeed a way to do that… by using a digital fulfillment company. Although I didn’t fully realize it at the time, that was a breakthrough moment for me!

Typically, a digital fulfillment company maintains large digital libraries of books and ebooks. They deliver those products electronically “on demand” as digital download e-books in response to orders from publishers, distributors, booksellers, and libraries.

The major digital fulfillment companies offer a vast distribution network, folks. Exploiting this channel means much more than just getting your ebook and/or book listed on amazon.com. It means getting your title in front of the vast majority of all ebook wholesalers and retailers!

Why Digital Fulfillment when you already have a website?
That’s a good logical question, and you may be surprised by the answer.

I have found that there is very little cross-over between the people that buy ebooks at my Web sites and those who buy them through sites like amazon.com, and others. That’s right.

In fact, out of thousands of sales through both channels I have only received one e-mail that indicated a buyer had seen my ebooks at both places.

Another proof of this is that, although I use the same list price for my ebooks on my Web sites and at amazon.com, that company quite often chooses to offer a 30% discount, which actually makes it a much better deal to buy the ebook at their Web site.

In spite of this, sales at my Web sites remain strong. In fact I continue to sell more ebooks from my Web sites. So, it’s pretty clear that people aren’t doing cross-comparisons of prices.

They appear to be two mutually exclusive groups of shoppers!

(However, I should add that people who buy the ebook at my Web site also receive a number of bonuses that don’t come with the ebook when sold through a distributor).

The key point here being — if I didn’t offer my ebooks online through amazon.com and other digital download distributors, I would probably not make over 95% of those sales through my other distribution channels (i.e. my Web sites). Lucky for me, I now know this little secret!

DIGITAL FULFILLMENT – EASY TO SET-UP

If you’re careful, and plan ahead when you create the original version of your ebook that people will purchase and download from your Web site, you’ll also be able to provide the same efiles to your digital fulfillment distributor with few changes, if any.

Typically, it will take only 10 to 15 days from the time you submit your efiles until you will start seeing your ebook show up on book retailer Web sites as digital downloads.

This channel works folks! In fact, just this afternoon I checked my account and found that over 30 copies of my Recommendation Letter Kit ebook have sold so far this month, and this is one of the slower months for that product!

I’ve also sold more than 25 paperback versions (POD) of that same book this month through the same digital distributor, but I’ll get into the POD model in the next Part of this series.

The really exciting thing about these digital download sales is, as I explained above, they are IN ADDITION to any sales that you will make via your Web site.

Awesome! It’s almost like “found money”. You just have to know how to find it.

(C) Shaun Fawcett is the author of numerous how-to books on everyday practical writing help. He also writes about how to create and publish books and ebooks, including his popular book that explains all about how to implement and profit from the Online Publishing Model:
http://InstantBookWritingKit.com

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