Authors were neither seen nor heard for most of history, which gave us the false idea that readers don't want to see or hear us.

But that's not true, it turns out.

Readers actually want to know more about us. 

And they want to know how we view the world.

They want to hear our 'voice' -- the way we express our ideas, our quirks, our foibles...

Readers really respond to this kind of thing, because people are always interested in people.

Which is terrifying for most of us.

Because it means that we have to reveal ourselves -- imperfect and non-photogenic as we all think we are (yes, you should include photos of yourself as I've done here, as horrifying as that sounds :).

Our humanity is an asset, not a liability. 

The most successful author emails are the ones where the author's personhood shines through.

So be yourself.

(As my sister is fond of saying, everyone else is taken)

I'm a broken record about testing our marketing assets.

(That's the only way I've discovered to get them to actually work :).

Email headlines are no different.

I'm always testing email headlines, and the email provider I currently recommend within AMMO V4 (the direct sales program for authors responsible for $25M per year in extra book sales revenue) makes that extremely easy.

In fact, it's so easy that inside our author community, we split-test the headline of every email we send.

The premise is simple:

Nobody will click your purchase link if they haven't read your email. And they won't read your email if they don't like your headline.

Something as important as an email headline is way too important NOT to test.

It's always worth the extra couple of minutes it takes to come up with an alternative headline for your emails.

Your readers and your bank account will both thank you for the extra effort.

Until recently, it was quite an undertaking to track the purchases that came from the emails we sent.

I've used a number of email providers over the years...

And they all sucked at this.

So I had to track the purchases manually using a bunch of data-nerd tricks. 

Fortunately, the industry has caught up to demand, and a couple of email providers are actually extremely good at tracking the sales that result from the email campaigns we send.

But only one name matters for us: Klaviyo. It's designed from the ground up to integrate with your ecommerce store.

(If you just broke out in hives at the mention of an ecommerce store, fear not. We'll give you click-by-click instructions to help you get it right.)

Of course, tracking sales only works if you're selling directly to your customers.

If you're only selling on Amazon and/or other retailers, you'll have no clue which subscribers purchased from you, and which email(s) they clicked through in order to make that purchase.

(Reason number 69,000 that I recommend selling directly to your readers!)

"Segmentation" simply means that you're sending the right emails to the right people at the right time.

If a person is new to your book series, you'll want to shepherd them through your catalog so they have the chance to enjoy all of your books.

If a person has bought all of your books and is eagerly awaiting your next release, sending them an email extolling the virtues of Book 2 in the twelve-volume series is likely to be off-putting.

They expect us to know them better.

Other businesses do this extremely well, and it's becoming a strong expectation that we authors get our collective act together in this regard, too.

The best way to segment your readership is through their behavior －

particularly their purchase behavior.

It's important to send them things that are both relevant and timely, based on the books they've bought from you.

This can be a daunting task, and it can be quite embarrassing when we get it wrong.

You're apt to receive replies like one I received once:

"Lars, thanks for your note about BLOWBACK. Yes, I would love to get a great deal on it, except that I already bought and read it, and in fact you and I have corresponded via email about the book. Maybe you need to hire an assistant?"

Oops.

Segmenting is becoming more and more important, as readers' email inboxes are increasingly busy places.

Of course, it's impossible to know which books a person has bought from you unless you sell directly to your readers. 

(Have I mentioned that I'm a big fan of taking control of your career by removing the giant middle-men? Direct sales is definitely a thing, and you'd be surprised how many million-dollar-a-year authors are AMMO authors. Definitely worth considering if you're looking to play a more active role in moving your career forward.)

Composing and sending emails to our readers can actually be quite enjoyable for both parties.

(That may sound like a strange idea if you're still feeling anxiety about sending emails to people, and I get it -- I still remember the first time I sent an email broadcast; I was hit with a sudden sense of panic when I saw that people were -- gasp -- READING WHAT I WROTE! :)

But at the end of the day, we're sending emails to our readers in order to grow our businesses.

That means our emails have to motivate readers to actually DO something.

Often, we want them to click on a link and make a purchase.

We're afraid to come right out and say it, though.

We often try to hide behind cleverness and coyness. 

Because money is beneath us. We're Artists. With a capital 'A'. 

Or something.

Really, this squeamishness is often the product of a strange combination of pretentiousness, fear, and emotional baggage around money.

But everybody on your email list knows the score. You've worked your ass off on a great product. You want them to enjoy it. They want to enjoy it.

And they don't mind paying for it.

Really.

People know that nothing is free, that you're (probably) not Mother Theresa running a charity, and that you, too, have to buy groceries.

So just come right out and say it:

"Click here to buy now."

No need to be squeamish about it :).

Selling directly to readers is extremely powerful.

Author Marketing Mastery through Optimization (AMMO) V4 is our flagship program designed to help authors build a profitable business by selling their books directly to their readers.

Real talk:

Nothing and nobody can possibly guarantee that you'll make money as an author. If it were possible to predict success in advance, then publishers, venture capitalists, and startup founders would not have that dismal 90% failure rate they're famous for. 

However, the fundamental principle behind our success is methodical testing to understand your market, which unlocks unlimited possibilities.

AMMO Author AJ Vanderhorst sold 115,728 books last year. You can read more about it here.

Othniel Dory and his team sold over 250,000 copies of their children's books from their Shopify store last year. You can see Othniel's interview here. 

Ben & Patty Wallace earned $212K in their first six months as AMMO authors. Patty gives an in-depth accounting of their experience here.

Britt & Laurie-Anne are personal finance experts and nonfiction writers who used our testing and conversion optimization process to gain clarity on what their market really wanted from them. They used this knowledge to grow their business to $400,000 in top line every month, and you can read more about it here.

Gordon Carroll retired early from the police force on the strength of his book sales, and has been a member of our community for years. He talks about his experience on this page as well.

Lee Savino and writing partner Renee Rose write wildly popular "bad-boy romance" novels. They grew tired of only making money whenever they launched a new book, so they used our direct sales program to generate seven figures in backlist sales last year. Lee talks about it with me in an upcoming episode of her podcast (along with Russell Nohelty).

Here's some more name-dropping:

David Chesson (Kindlepreneur founder), Joanna Penn (author, podcaster, indie publishing luminary, and the force behind The Creative Penn Podcast), Pierre Jeanty (million-selling poet and entrepreneur), Pamela Kelley (over 250,000 Amazon reviews), Rachel Hanna (multi-million-dollar-per-year author), Marie Force (multi-million-dollar-per-year author), Alana Terry (writing coach and bestselling novelist), Naomi Rawlings (million-dollar earner), David Doepker (bestselling author, entrepreneur, and podcaster), Lydia Sherrer (million-dollar earner), AJ Vanderhorst (sold 115,728 books last year), Monica Leonelle and Russell Nohelty (bestselling authors and book marketing coaches), Lee Savino (million-dollar-per-year author), Diane Capri (of the Chasing Reacher series), LT Ryan (million-dollar-per-year author) and many more highly successful independent authors and entrepreneurs are clients and affiliates of AMMO.

If you've been wondering about what's possible by selling directly to your readers, I invite you to click the big blue button below to learn more about the options.