Homework 11: READER PSYCHOLOGY

How do you plan to use urgency to motivate people to buy your book today instead of tomorrow?

1.    Preorder price is the low price. Launch day price goes to full price.

2.    Launch party. Building up to it, I will interview authors. For my launch, a beloved author will interview me. Not recorded. (Only access for tier 2 community members, for members who attended).


How do you plan to use scarcity to make your book more valuable?

  1. Kickstarter: Have a limited edition of some sort in even smaller quantities.

  2. Kickstarter: Offer signed copies.

  3. This reward level can only have 100 backers.

  4. Limited Edition book cover. Limited Edition hardcover.


  1. If everyone buys in the first week we can hit the bestseller list.

  2. First 100 people: Audiobook code for the first 50 people who send me a photo of them with the book (can this go with the above?)—in the back matter of the ebook? Updatable webpage in the back of the paperback book leading to time-sensitive elements.

  3. There are only 100 tickets to the launch party. Webinars that you have to attend live

  4. I have some Bonus (downloadable) Content for sale on my community: Character cards, Scrolls, Model of the Trunk, Posters, etc. I will give this Bonus Content to the first 100 buyers w/photograph: I have bonus downloadable content that will be for sale, but the first 50 photos in will get the BONUS PACK (printables) for Free/ next 50 get printables.*

  5. Private message: For KS backers only: If we hit the bestseller list, Bonus Content for first 100 buyers will double in size, including the audiobook/next level up. Some (not all) of these were bonus rewards given to the Kickstarters.

How do you plan to make your book more ubiquitous so that it is more available?

Ebooks, Audiobook, (Ebook on KU after the launch)


How do you plan to use social proof to make your book more popular? 

Funded on Kickstarter in 3 hours. I have some impressive endorsements in the academic realm, from my first edition. “Award-winning author, Darlene N. Böcek” (A short story I wrote won second place in a contest) “Best-selling author, Darlene N. Böcek” Or “Best-selling book, Trunk of Scrolls” (the first edition was top of its category at its launch).


How do you plan to use anchoring to make your book look like a bargain?

At 350 pages, this Tome promises eight and a half hours of reading pleasure for only X, compare that to most other books that only give you five hours of reading.


How do you plan to show authority?

I live in the land of old Byzantium. I know the paths, the people, the history. I live amidst the ruins of Hittites, Ionians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines. My book shows that I am an expert in Anatolian history.


How you plan to throw a banquet for your readers?

I’m working on an interactive community http://Community.darlenebocek.com  that focuses on being present with my readers, being a place free of “social media clutter,” but a place for people who want to interact about books can find others like themselves. Membership is free at the lowest level, which gives access to the Book Mobile Hub, a listing of free downloadable books that I have screened for looking like clean, interesting, and cross-over genres to my own series.  Because my HUB is several genres, and because from the beginning, I’ve prepared my readers for my “real” genre of Futuristic sci-fi fantasy, what I am offering is a banquet of reading pleasure. At the same, I’m finding my Timothy-matching readers who read in multiple overlapping genres.