Is Author Marketing Club Worth It? Definitely

Author Marketing Club is an online community of over 20,000 authors, along with a collection of targeted tools and advice.

If you want to increase your self-published book sales, check out Author Marketing Club.  Whether you write fiction books or nonfiction, there’s something for every author.

Members get access to valuable services and practical tools — and they are very good tools, too.  And to answer the question, “Is Author Marketing Club worth it?” — the answer for entrepreneurial authors and self-published authors is definitely YES!

Key Features of Author Marketing Club

Author Marketing Club started in late 2012, as a free members community.  About a year ago it added a premium membership.

Members get a combination of tools and marketing-related services to help them market their books. Today there are two levels of membership: free and premium.

If you’re thinking premium = expensive, you’d be wrong. The premium level is $105 annually.  For the value you get, it’s a bargain.

Premium members, of course, get access to more tools and services than free members.

This isn’t a community beating its chest about how wonderful self-publishing is and trashing traditional publishers. This crew doesn’t have time for that. Instead, the focus is on learning and taking advantage of every possible technique to drive bestsellers as a self-published author.

The founder, Jim Kukral, is an author himself.  He’s been published by a traditional publisher and has self-published a number of books.  So he is familiar with the world of publishing from both the traditional and self-published perspectives.

But he’s also an experienced, pragmatic and creative marketer. He knows that the money comes to those who keep their eye on the ball. And the ball in this case is about selling books.

To sell books you need to write a good book, have determination, and have access to the right knowledge and the right tools. The writing and determination come from within you.  The knowledge and tools come from Author Marketing Club.

Why Join Author Marketing Club

Everything is practical and targeted. There’s nothing purely theoretical or abstract — or off-topic.

There are so many tools and services with Author Marketing Club, it’s hard to cover them all. They include:

• Webinars and mastermind groups: For instance, a recent webinar discusses the difference between book titles for fiction (straightforward titles work best) and nonfiction (more creative titles work best). Kukral, who hosts these, gives advice that shorter titles (6 words or less) sell better than long titles. And similar advice is given.
• Bookalyzer: If you want to check out the competition, or analyze your own book, this tool tells you the book’s rank on Amazon, how different size cover images will look, and other analytic information.
• Description Generator Tool and ebook: This gives advice on writing effective Amazon descriptions, and generating the copy for you.
• Reviewer Grabber Tool:  Reviews by consumers are essential to validating social proof. People are more likely to buy if others reviewed it. This tool helps you identify people who have reviewed books similar to yours. Then you can reach out to them via email and ask if they will review your book.
• Pre-made book covers: Each premium member is entitled to one free pre-made book cover (value of $30).  Other premade covers are available for purchase ala carte.
• Free Book Submission Service:  If you have a free book, this helps you find lists and services that promote free ebooks.
• Author services marketplace: Those who do editing, formatting, cover design and other services can list them here.
• Daily emails highlighting author ebooks: These emails are great for discovering new books. And they help authors spread the word.
• Free blog upgrade service:  If you have a website, you can get a WordPress blog installed for free, along with 10 free plugins.
• Live events: In September the Club held its first live event, called Author Marketing Live. It was a fantastic event. About 150 authors attended, including some very successful Kindle authors in fiction and nonfiction.

This chart from the site outlines key features:

What Could Be Better

The value is there, and Kukral keeps improving and adding to it.  There are no major negatives to point out in this Author Marketing Club review.

As far as future improvements, it would help to have more author discussion and sense of community. There had been a forum, but it wasn’t very active. Currently it is being upgraded. There is a Facebook Page, and it has over 7,000 fans.  There’s also a private Facebook Group for those who attended the Live event in September.  But with so many places to find updates and community, it feels scattered.

Also, most of the advice is targeted toward Amazon and especially Kindle ebooks. Jim Kukral says that’s because Amazon is still the 800-pound gorilla. And that’s true.  Still, going forward it would be useful to see more tools for platforms like iTunes and Google Play.

Who Author Marketing Club Is Best For

Author Marketing Club is ideal for book authors who recognize that writing is not only a creative endeavor, but a business. According to founder Kukral, those who work at marketing their books, and who write more than one book, tend to have more success.

It is perfect for authors who are hands on and entrepreneurial do-it-yourselfers. In other words, if you’re the kind of author who not only writes, but wants to be actively involved in the editing and formatting of your book (at least at some level), the tools will be very valuable to you. If you want to take control of your success through marketing your book, Author Marketing Club will be perfect.

On the other hand, if you are the kind of author or aspiring author who prefers to send book proposals to traditional publishing companies, and not get involved with editing and formatting and uploading to Amazon, there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. But Author Marketing Club may not be as much help to you.

If you are an author who thinks you shouldn’t have to do any marketing because “a good book will sell itself,” then Author Marketing Club is not for you either. But remember, you’re not doing justice to a great book if readers can’t find it.  In today’s world you can’t leave book marketing to chance. It’s all about getting your master work found.

Take a look at the huge list of testimonials, from successful real authors, on the site.  See who uses and gets value out of Author Marketing Club. Would you like to be among authors like them someday?  Then Author Marketing Club will be great for you.