How To Use Book Funnel

 

First, sign up. You must agree to a plan and pay immediately. Book Funnel will give you your money back up to thirty days from signing up if you are not satisfied. Essentially, it’s a month’s free trial. On the actual sign-up page, you can add on an integration for your newsletter software like Mailchimp, MailerLite, or Constant Contact. It’s an additional $50 charge.

On the Home screen, the menu runs down the left side. It includes Add New Material, Books, Landing Pages, Certified Mail, Gift Books, Group Promotions, Author swaps, and Print Codes. Under those options are the settings for your account.

I’m focusing on eBooks to start. (Plus, I have no audios to walk through with you.) Since I’m a beginner at the app, I’m sticking with the simple this week.

The first thing to do is add a book. On the main screen, click Add New and choose the type of media to upload. Fill in the book title, your nickname for it (if you have one), and author name (be aware of what pen name you’re using). After series and volume, you can add an ASIN number if it’s available on Amazon. If not, leave it blank. The number helps to sort and ID your book properly. Add your tagline, blurb, and a note for readers if you want one.

Under the Book Type drop-down menu, you can select Advanced Copy, Excerpt, Full Book, Novella, Preview, Sample, Short Story, Teaser, and Other. It will allow you to have many options for items on Book Funnel.

Click Create Book, and you’re ready to begin.

Kinda.

The app takes you to a landing page for the new title. You will need to upload the cover and file(s). Click Add Cover under the dummy image they’ve added. It’s a good idea to use a PNG to get the best quality. You can also choose to display the Note For Readers if you made one.

Next, upload your file. It is recommended to use an ePub or Mobi format for Book Funnel. You cannot use a Word doc, and PDFs get more piracy. If you need to convert your files to either ePub or Mobi, Scrivener, Vellum, and Calibre are good options. Even Google Docs will convert to ePub.

Last on the page, you can choose what to do with your files. There’s a long list of choices once you upload your file. You can join sales promotions, send books to readers, send review copies, and more. Book Funnel will automatically convert an ePub to Mobi and vice versa. Since there are various formats to download the novel, I’d suggest that you add your cover as the first page of your file. That way, no matter the format readers choose, they will see the image.

Start with a Landing Page for your book. Either choose it from the list at the bottom of the screen or the Action button at the top right. You have several options for the Landing Page. You can distribute the file with a click, collect emails before sending it out, send readers to a purchase page, or restrict who can download the file (great for ARCs).

On the Landing Page, you can title it, limit the number of downloads, and add an expiration date for the files. Again, for an ARC or limited promotions, these options will let you control how your book is downloaded. You can now use the link to the Landing Page in promotions, newsletters, and social media. Book Funnel will ask readers how they want the file. Again, it will not give a PDF if you did not provide one.

The Landing Page will now supply you with data about your eBook. Click on the Download Pages option and then click on your uploaded book. There are two links to used to distribute the book, one short, one longer. Copy and paste these into newsletters or wherever you want to send the book from. Click on the plus sign on Download Stats to see how many looks, downloads, and types of downloads. Under Landing Page, you can see a quick view of the data on the page or preview it. Advanced settings let you change the expiration or limits for the downloads.

Phew. That’s just one eBook and Landing Pages.

Next week, we’ll peek at the promotions, certified mail, and gift options.