Sell It Before You Write It: The Smart Way to Validate & Pre-Sell Your Ebook Idea - Dawn-Marie Nesbitt

Want to get paid before you even write a single word of your ebook? Use my proven validation and pre-sell framework that turns your idea into ebook sales

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[00:00:02]:
Hello everyone, my name is Dawn Marie and today I'm going to show you how to do something that most people think is completely backwards and that is how to sell your ebook before you even written a single word. And what I'm talking about is getting paid first before you have even created anything. Now if you've ever wanted to create an ebook but you felt overwhelmed or unsure whether it would even sell, that's probably on most creators minds. I hope that you're going to find value out of this presentation because it's going to show you how to rethink and reimagine your launches by doing things just a little bit differently. So here is what most creators do. So they get inspired. They open a blank Google Doc, they spend weeks or months. I've even seen some authors spend years writing, editing, formatting their ebook and then they build a fancy sales page, they hit publish and they get zero sales, no feedback, no validation.

[00:01:19]:
If that sounds familiar to you, then don't worry. And I want to tell you a little bit about my story and why I started printing pre selling things. Because the lesson that I learned taught me how to do things a little bit differently. I actually spent six whole months creating a course on how to build a WordPress website. And that was six months of writing out the content, the modules, the workbooks, recording the videos, building the website. It was a lot. And then when I finally packaged it, it was very hard for me to sell it. I didn't even make any money at all.

[00:02:03]:
And that was because no one really wanted it. But I definitely learned from that mistake. And instead of creating the product before I even had buyers, I decided to use the pre sale method to validate my idea. I mean some people talk about validating you, making sure you validate your idea, then create the product, then sell. My way is just completely different. I want to make sure that I have cash in hand before I even start creating the product. So what if instead of hoping people will want your ebook that you already had, a group of people who actually paid paid you for it and they are waiting for you to create it, Right? So what if you validated your idea, collected real money before you spent time creating it. And these are the steps that I'm going to show you today.

[00:03:05]:
And what's good about doing it in this day and age is that you can use AI to make the entire process faster and so much more easier. So here is what I don't want you to do. If you are thinking about creating an ebook to sell, I don't want you to build and then hope it sells. But what I do want you to do, however, is to validate your idea first. So you want to sell it early, then deliver what people actually want want. And truthfully, you probably don't know, but this is how successful creators and digital product sellers are launching their offers every day. And it can even work for ebooks too, especially if you are thinking about self publishing. So I want to walk through my three part framework for how I would validate and pre sell my ebook, including giving you a behind the scenes of how I did this for one campaign that brought in about $590 just from 11 buyers before I even created the course.

[00:04:24]:
Right. So I a couple months ago decided to create a course. I didn't do what I did the last time, which was to build it out completely and then wait and see whether people will buy it. I actually collected the money up front which encouraged and motivated me to actually start working on the course and then I delivered it. And for the course that I created, I didn't create a fancy funnel because sometimes, you know when you are building out these courses, you need to be able to sell it right? So people will tell you to create a sales page so that when people visit the sales page it will convert highly. I did absolutely none of that. I didn't have a sales page. I had no funnel whatsoever.

[00:05:12]:
All I had was seven emails, a very simple checkout page and a clear message to my audience. And I'm going to break that down, what that could look like for you if you were to try this in your own business. So the goal here is to find a problem that your audience wants solved. And I want to be very clear here that in order for this to work well, you must have an engaged audience. So you must already have a group of people who you have nurtured because that's the only way you'll be able to find out their problems. But if you don't have an audience, you can start by building one. I mean, I have resources on how to do that. Instagram is a platform that works really well that you could start there.

 [00:06:06]:
Or if you don't want to build an audience, you can borrow other people's audiences. So for example, you could go into Facebook groups, you can go into forums like Reddit and you can ask these questions. Now for me, whenever I pre sell my ebooks, I instantly know what my audience is thinking because they write to me all the time with their problems. They leave comments on my content, on social media and I'm always using that as clues. But to find out their problems, if you don't know if they are not coming to you like mine does, here is what you can ask your audience, right? When it comes to the topic X, what is your biggest challenge? And then when they respond, have a conversation with them and always try to dig a little bit deeper to really understand the challenge and why they are having that challenge. Because that will ensure that you are creating a solution that they will actually pay for. Because the problem has to be a burning problem that they will pay to solve. Okay, so once you know the problem they want solved, I want you to then go to ChatGPT.

 [00:07:26]:
You could also use whatever AI tool that you prefer and you want to give it the prompt, right? So here is the prompt, here are the problems my audience are having. Please give me 10 ebook title ideas that I can write an ebook on so I can sell it. And then using the output that your AI tool gives to you, use the best two to three options to run a poll back to your audience. So essentially you're asking them to help you decide on the title for your ebook. And what that does is it gives you real feedback instead of guessing. Plus you're taking your audience on a journey with you to creating something they will buy, making them feel a part of the process. So this way, essentially you are already creating demand. Okay, so the next step, step two is now that you know a little bit about your audience's problems, it's time to test it.

 [00:08:34]:
And here is what you do not need to do this. You don't need a full blown website or even perfect content to do this. You don't need a sales page, you don't need to have written a word of your ebook as well. All you need is a basic presale or checkout page and just a few emails, right? So on your pre sale page or the checkout page, all you're going to include is a clear title. And the best type of titles that I have found that works for me is one that is clear, focused and directly describes what the person is getting or even the outcome that you're promising. So if your ebook is going to be about growth, growing organic vegetables in a tiny garden space, then your title could be Organic Vegetables in Small Spaces. So essentially it's telling you what the outcome is and that is growing organic vegetables in small spaces. And it's clear to them that that's exactly what they are going to learn from your ebook.

[00:09:46]:
The next thing that you want to do is you want to have a sub headline with a strong outcome and then just a few bullet points about what they will learn from the ebook. Now one of the things that I do like to add just to increase the perceived value of my ebook is I could add fast action bonus or you may want to add a discount for early buyers. So for example, when I launched my first ebook I thought the original price was $49, but I initially sold it at $39 as a fast action bonus for anyone who will take action quickly and then on the checkout page depending on what platform you are using, what software you are using for your checkout page I use Thriver but you can use other digital product platforms like Gumroad or payhip so that when somebody purchases they are able to they will deliver your ebook. Now once you have your checkout page, your pre sales page ready again that doesn't need to take any great deal of time to do especially if you are using AI to help you with the content creation. I also want would like to send some promotional content, right? I want to be able to sell it. So this is how I am promoting it. But you don't need to be a copywriter, you just need a consistent message. So for me when I launched, when I did that pre sale, these are the emails that I wrote which you can take.

[00:11:29]:
If you don't have an email list that's fine. If you are mostly on social media then that's great. These are just the themes of the content that I shared with my audience. So on days one to two I wrote an email talking about the problem and then shared a behind the scenes sneak peek of what I was going to create. Then in day three I sent an announcement making sure that I mentioned in the email that it was a pre sale so there would be no surprises. They would know clearly and specifically because I mentioned that in the email that it is a pre sale and that the product had not yet been created. And even though the product had not been not yet been created and I made sure that I was clear about it, I was still able to guard the sales. On day four I answered questions for my audience about the pre sale to clear up any misunderstandings.

 [00:12:27]:
And then on day five that's when I spoke about the bonuses that they will get if if they pre order. So again those bonuses could be discounts, it could be additional value that you can share through additional resources in addition to your ebook. On day six I sent a reminder before the pre sale ends, just aggravating their problems to speak to them about why they need this now, absolutely now, so not later and how it's going to solve their problem now. And then finally on day seven, which is the last day before I close the cart because I want to close the cart to enable me to prepare the ebook so that I can officially launch it. Right. So I'm not going to continue selling this product. I want to close it, prepare or create the product, then launch it to those who who were part of the pre sale. So at this point I'm sending two additional emails.

 [00:13:29]:
On this final day I'm sending one 12 hours before I close the cart and then the other at one hour before I close the cart with last minute reminders because there will definitely be people who wait until the last minute to buy. So let's recap. Right. So the step one, I use AI to validate a real ebook idea which is based off of my audience's problems. Step two, I set up a simple pre sale offer presale page. I don't need to create the ebook just yet, that's fine. And then step three, I'm using AI to help me promote it across emails or socials. And this process works even if you have a small audience.

[00:14:20]:
But again, I cannot stress that the audience needs to be engaged. They need to have already trusted you with with your business. Now if you want a little bit of help of putting this into action, I have created a free resource called get paid before you write the ebook. And this is a five day action plan that's going to walk you through everything that we just covered step by step. So it's going to lay out the exact steps that I use when I'm pre selling my product. You will get access to the AI prompts for naming your your product, doing that research based off your audience's problems and generating titles for your ebook. The copy. So the promotional copy as well as the content content for your pre sales page and then also a checklist to make sure that nothing gets missed.

[00:15:18]:
There probably is a link somewhere around this video where you can click on it to claim your free grift. I mean this strategy has changed the way that I launch everything, not just ebooks, it could be used for other courses as well. Just to test the waters and see how your audience feels deals. You don't need to build something to see if it will sell. What you do need to do however is to sell it first and then build what people are excited to pay for. And don't worry if you don't get any sales. If you don't get any sales, then that just means that the offer hasn't been dialed in quite nicely, or your audience is literally telling you that this isn't what they want. And then it gives you an opportunity to go back and refine your offer.

 [00:16:06]:
So again, you are not willing to wasting months creating something not knowing whether or not it could sell. So thanks so much for being here and I would love to stay connected. Of course you can find me on Instagram at Iamdawn Marie and also I have a YouTube channel where I talk more about ebook marketing and you can find me there on YouTube at dawn. Marie Nesbitt.