By Alinka Rutkowska

What if everything you’ve been taught about packaging your book was WRONG? Include a bio. Wrong. Ask for a review. Wrong. Feature your other books. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Let’s start with your bio. Yeah, yeah, you need to build authority and you need to appear interesting. But the truth is that your reader is first and foremost interested in…THEMSELVES and in what you can do FOR them. Only once you’ve proven that you can deliver exceptional value (information or entertainment) will they want to know who you actually are.

And who’s that? That’s somebody interested in them. A while back I struck up a conversation on a plane with my neighbor. The guy was in the aviation business, which I found fascinating. I asked him question after question, about planes and about business. When we were landing he gave me his card saying that I was the most interesting person he’d met in a long time. He knew NOTHING about me. All he talked about was HIMself and HIS business.

Why would a CEO of a top aviation company share his private phone number with me? I was interested in him. So that bio of yours you’ve been working on…not as relevant (YET).

What about those reviews? To sell books you need social proof (reviews). But you need to sell books to get reviews. So it appears to be a chicken-or-egg situation. It’s not. You can and should actively solicit reviews and the best place to do so is inside your book. Sort of. We’ll get to that. First some math. When I published my first book back in 2010 I had to sell 2,000 copies before I got 20 reviews. That means that only 1% of readers left a review out of their own initiative. How should we call the remaining 99%? It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we take matters into our own hands. That means ASKING for a review and many successful authors do it INSIDE the book. That alone drastically raises your chances of getting those reviews. But…should you really do it inside the book? That might actually work against you. Read on.

Doesn’t every possible source of advice for authors say that you should feature your other books inside your book? Yes, that might sound like a good idea but only on the surface…because now that we’ve covered all three ESSENTIAL parts that make up who you are as an author YOU ARE CONFUSING YOUR READER.

You’re screaming: Read my bio! Leave a review! Check out my other books! What happens? Information overload! Your reader goes into overdrive, closes your book and runs straight to your competitors.

So what do you do instead?

You ROMANCE them into doing all the above in a sequence.

How?

Only one way.

If you want to do it in a sequence (and we can only build rapport sequentially), you need a direct channel of communication with them.

That means you need their email.

But saying “give me your email” won’t convince anybody in 2017.

So what you do instead is…you invite your reader to download something of value for FREE on your website in exchange for their email address.

Want to see a practical example? If you’ve been enjoying this article and want to discover the 7 Secrets to Winning in Self-Publishing in 2017 go to http://authorremake.com/7-secrets-to-winning-in-self-publishing/.

Add a line similar to the one above in your book and create a landing page similar to mine and you’ve got it – the ultimate opportunity to romance your reader into WANTING to discover more about YOU.

Once they’ve given you their email and permission to contact them, this is when you send them:

EMAIL 1: your bio! Now they WANT to know more about you – this is your chance to shine.

EMAIL 2: review request: ask them to share their thoughts about your book – publicly!

EMAIL 3: tell them about your other books and give them a clear call to action.

Authors often ask me what they should write in their emails to readers. This above is a great starter sequence – a starter to a long-lasting relationship with your reader! And isn’t THIS what authors really, really want?

About Alinka Rutkowska:

Alinka is interested in having YOU succeed as an author in 2017. That’s why she created 7 Secrets to Winning in Self-Publishing in 2017 – in which you will find never-shared-before secrets on what works and what doesn’t in the publishing industry this year. Go here to download your copy now: http://authorremake.com/7-secrets-to-winning-in-self-publishing/