Author Marketing Club

Do you have a link?

Here 'tis: http://authormarketingclub.com/

You can read an interview with AMC founder Jim Kukral here:
http://thewordchef.com/2012/04/author-marketing-club-an-interview-with-the-founder/

I think this bit of their terms and conditions says it all:

Reader Members access the service by registering. Upon registering, Reader Members will receive, from time to time, email listings of Queries submitted by Author Members. If a Reader Member has relevant information which he or she believes, in good faith, can assist the Author Member with regard to the specific Query, then the Reader Member may provide that information in response.

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An author writes a "query" (I presume it's the equivalent of a back cover blurb) and posts it up. The query is put together with other blurbs on a regular basis and is sent to the mailing list of readers that have likewise registered to receive the newsletters.

From other wording on other pages, it appears they purchase or otherwise "mine" (their wording) data from Amazon.

Depending on how they get the data, it's either a newsletter list or spamming Amazon members. Ultimately, it will depend on the size of that list as to how many people will see your blurb. To me, it's probably another version of YADS (yet another display site). It does have an additional twist where readers can contact the author to offer tips on marketing the book, so I guess that part would depend on the quality of the reader's knowledge on marketing/promotion.

That's not to say all newsletter sites are YADS. I belong to the Coffeetime Romance list, and have my monthly newsletters distributed to their growing email list of romance readers. Good for me, good for readers who are looking for new books, and good for the site that gets exclusive info to share with readers.

But this one? Not sure, but it seems a little "off".

Cathy C said:

I think this bit of their terms and conditions says it all:



An author writes a "query" (I presume it's the equivalent of a back cover blurb) and posts it up. The query is put together with other blurbs on a regular basis and is sent to the mailing list of readers that have likewise registered to receive the newsletters.

From other wording on other pages, it appears they purchase or otherwise "mine" (their wording) data from Amazon.

Depending on how they get the data, it's either a newsletter list or spamming Amazon members. Ultimately, it will depend on the size of that list as to how many people will see your blurb. To me, it's probably another version of YADS (yet another display site). It does have an additional twist where readers can contact the author to offer tips on marketing the book, so I guess that part would depend on the quality of the reader's knowledge on marketing/promotion.

That's not to say all newsletter sites are YADS. I belong to the Coffeetime Romance list, and have my monthly newsletters distributed to their growing email list of romance readers. Good for me, good for readers who are looking for new books, and good for the site that gets exclusive info to share with readers.

But this one? Not sure, but it seems a little "off".

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Hi there, I own AMC. Those words in the terms are simply standard words legal makes you put in. We don't do any spamming, or have any intent to do so ever, I hate spam!!!. In fact, you MUST double opt in for our email lists. You'll never get an email you didn't confirm you wanted, and each one has an unsubsrcibe on it.

We run a legit business. No funny stuff. I've built a reputation over 17-years as a Web businessman of integrity. I also hate spammers and scammers. We don't do "get rich quick" kindle junk either. We provide awesome tools and training that are 100% complicit with good ethics and rules of Amazon and others.

Have a question? Please feel free to email me directly anytime at info at authormarketingclub dot com. I'll respond personally. We have over 13,000 members right now. We must be doing something right. Check out these testimonials from real, top selling authors.

http://authormarketingclub.com/members/testimonials/

Jim Kukral
Founder, AMC

Thank you for responding, jimkukral. Hopefully you'll be able to address some of my concerns about your service.

Those words in the terms are simply standard words legal makes you put in

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Since I work in the legal field in my day job, the "oh, those silly lawyers and their legal mumbo-jumbo" line doesn't play well with me. We're writers here. Words have meaning and power. Contractual terms are something that concern writers, and the thought that a company says one thing in the terms, but is willing (for good or bad) to do something different doesn't give me great confidence.

I'm glad to hear you aren't spamming people. That's a plus.

Check out these testimonials from real, top-selling authors.

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I went to the testimonial page you linked to and visited the links provided on the page, which was to the book's Amazon page, of the first thirty-seven authors who gave quotes. I only saw one with an Amazon rank below the 100K mark on the Kindle list, and it was a thriller related to the President Kennedy assassination, which is a hot topic right now. I chose to compare the books based on Kindle ranks, since many of them were E-only books.

A couple of the NF books (one was a cookbook, and another a homeschool guide) were doing okay in their specific categories, but were still not much to write home about. Most of the novels were ranked well above a million on the Kindle sales list, which isn't exactly a ringing endorsement.

So, based on your testimonial clients, what exactly does Author Marketing Club bring to the table for the fairly substantial money paid to you? Because, in reality, the better than $100 purchase price of the premium package every year would spend a large chunk of the profit of a self-pubber starting out.

I've clicked on a few links on the Author Marketing Club's website and every one of them leads me to a page which tells me, "Oops! This page is for members only", or something similar.

While it's free to register and become a member there, if I can't find out more about it without registering, I'm not going to find out more about it.

Cathy C said:

I went to the testimonial page you linked to and visited the links provided on the page, which was to the book's Amazon page, of the first thirty-seven authors who gave quotes. I only saw one with an Amazon rank below the 100K mark on the Kindle list, and it was a thriller related to the President Kennedy assassination, which is a hot topic right now. I chose to compare the books based on Kindle ranks, since many of them were E-only books.

A couple of the NF books (one was a cookbook, and another a homeschool guide) were doing okay in their specific categories, but were still not much to write home about. Most of the novels were ranked well above a million on the Kindle sales list, which isn't exactly a ringing endorsement.

So, based on your testimonial clients, what exactly does Author Marketing Club bring to the table for the fairly substantial money paid to you? Because, in reality, the better than $100 purchase price of the premium package every year would spend a large chunk of the profit of a self-pubber starting out.

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Unlike the "get rich quick" folks, we never promise you're going to sell "millions of books". We provide tools and promotional opportunities and training to help you have the opportunity to be successful. I firmly believe that until you have more higher quality reviews, and a better book description for your books (two of the things our core tools provide), you'll have a harder time being "lucky" enough to sell a ton of books.

My point is this. Our site is about helping people have a chance. If all you are looking for is an advertising opportunity then there are way better choices than us. We provide support and tools and guidance that people love and find valuable. Again, I can only go by the testimonials that people send me every single day.

Some authors won't find value in what we do. That's perfectly understandable.

Old Hack said:

I've clicked on a few links on the Author Marketing Club's website and every one of them leads me to a page which tells me, "Oops! This page is for members only", or something similar.

While it's free to register and become a member there, if I can't find out more about it without registering, I'm not going to find out more about it.

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It's free to become a member. You can access a ton of free stuff just by signing up. Some of our stuff is not protected by the firewall/membership. Come on in and give us a chance.

jimkukral said:

We provide tools and promotional opportunities and training

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Such as? I couldn't find any specifics on the site. Define "tools." Are we talking about advice? If so, from whom? What are their credentials? If software, is it included in the price or at an additional cost? What kind of training? How to market? How to write? How to format? Again, what are their credentials?

Please don't think we're picking on you unnecessarily. We do this to every company that has a thread here. This thread relates to publishers, but also to agents, display sites and, like your company, author services.

We do so because people with dreams and hopes have the potential to be disappointed, even by good intentions. So we act as a sounding board to discuss the good, and the bad, about everyone out there. Check the forum. We give the same treatment even to the major companies.

It's to your benefit to be open and informative. We welcome companies that offer services to help authors and if you're legitimate and well-serving, and there's no better place to find clients than on our forum--now over 58,000 members strong from all over the globe with constant rankings in the top ten results on all major search engines because of the constant updates.

That's exactly it, Alessandra. I'm not going to go to the bother of registering at a site which might or might not be of any use or interest to me: I only register at places where I am given enough information *before* I register to know that it's likely to be interesting and/or of use to me.

To be honest, the tone in Mr Kural's first post here (quoted below) has put me off having anything to do with the site. Right now I'm at a loss to understand why anyone would want to join it, and what it's meant to achieve and what it's for.

jimkukral said:

Hi there, I own AMC. Those words in the terms are simply standard words legal makes you put in. We don't do any spamming, or have any intent to do so ever, I hate spam!!!. In fact, you MUST double opt in for our email lists. You'll never get an email you didn't confirm you wanted, and each one has an unsubsrcibe on it.

We run a legit business. No funny stuff. I've built a reputation over 17-years as a Web businessman of integrity. I also hate spammers and scammers. We don't do "get rich quick" kindle junk either. We provide awesome tools and training that are 100% complicit with good ethics and rules of Amazon and others.

Have a question? Please feel free to email me directly anytime at info at authormarketingclub dot com. I'll respond personally. We have over 13,000 members right now. We must be doing something right. Check out these testimonials from real, top selling authors.

http://authormarketingclub.com/members/testimonials/

Jim Kukral
Founder, AMC

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jimkukral said:

Unlike the "get rich quick" folks, we never promise you're going to sell "millions of books". We provide tools and promotional opportunities and training to help you have the opportunity to be successful. I firmly believe that until you have more higher quality reviews, and a better book description for your books (two of the things our core tools provide), you'll have a harder time being "lucky" enough to sell a ton of books.

My point is this. Our site is about helping people have a chance. If all you are looking for is an advertising opportunity then there are way better choices than us. We provide support and tools and guidance that people love and find valuable. Again, I can only go by the testimonials that people send me every single day.

Some authors won't find value in what we do. That's perfectly understandable.

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jimkukral said:

It's free to become a member. You can access a ton of free stuff just by signing up. Some of our stuff is not protected by the firewall/membership. Come on in and give us a chance.

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Just out of curiosity, I googled AMC and found this:

https://kdp.amazon.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=175903

It sounds like AMC may not spam itself, but gives authors the tools with which to do so themselves.

Alessandra Kelley said:

I think the point Old Hack is making is that a lot of people will not delve any deeper into a website that requires registration, free or not, promised goodies or not.

I prefer not to register even on websites I like, let alone ones that are completely unknown to me, until and unless there is a compelling reason to do so. A site that won't let me even see its pages without registering sets off alarm bells, whether that's fair or not.

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Understood. We've chosen to require a free registration. We aren't trying to hide anything, it's free. We just chose that business model. I think you'll like what you get for registering.

shadowwalker said:

Just out of curiosity, I googled AMC and found this:

https://kdp.amazon.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=175903

It sounds like AMC may not spam itself, but gives authors the tools with which to do so themselves.

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I'll post the same response I did over there below. Bottom line, we don't send emails for authors. Spam is when you add people to a mailing list without permission and mail them off of it. We don't do that, at all. We also don't encourage it.

We don't do anything Amazon doesn't already provide. Which is a list of their reviewers on profile pages. It's actually up to the reviewer if they want to have their contact information on their profile page. Our tool just makes it easier for you to find them. We pride ourselves on integrity.

We don't do "get rich quick" tricks like other do. This is why we have over 13,000 members and a page of testimonials from top-selling, real authors that would make a moose choke. Check these out.

http://authormarketingclub.com/members/testimonials

Again, I stand by my business. I've been doing Web businesses for over 17-years. I'm one of the good guys. AMC is my baby. Email me directly if you have any questions. info at authormarketingclub dot com. I'll be glad to discuss them with you.

Cathy C said:

Such as? I couldn't find any specifics on the site. Define "tools." Are we talking about advice? If so, from whom? What are their credentials? If software, is it included in the price or at an additional cost? What kind of training? How to market? How to write? How to format? Again, what are their credentials?

Please don't think we're picking on you unnecessarily. We do this to every company that has a thread here. This thread relates to publishers, but also to agents, display sites and, like your company, author services.

We do so because people with dreams and hopes have the potential to be disappointed, even by good intentions. So we act as a sounding board to discuss the good, and the bad, about everyone out there. Check the forum. We give the same treatment even to the major companies.

It's to your benefit to be open and informative. We welcome companies that offer services to help authors and if you're legitimate and well-serving, and there's no better place to find clients than on our forum--now over 58,000 members strong from all over the globe with constant rankings in the top ten results on all major search engines because of the constant updates.

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Not a problem at all. I haven't built the reputation I have over 17-years by not being able to answer the tough questions and be able to back up my work.

All the information you want to know is on our Premium member page. Watch the video. It explains all of our tools. I don't want to sell here so I'm not going to post a bunch of links. I'm confident, however, that you will like what we have. I stand behind all of it.

I stumbled on this thread while looking for something else. I'll share my experience.

I signed up for one month of premium AMC, and I love it. The review grabber that was discussed upthread (ShadowWalker) is my favorite perk.

Before AMC, I had read the suggestion to ask reviewers for reviews. So I went to amazon, found similar books, clicked on one, clicked on the reviews, and then for each review, clicked on the reviewers name to see if they had chosen to share their email addy or blog address. I also read their bio if they left one (sometimes they will say what types of books they prefer, or that they are not accepting requests right now.) Often if they just list a website, they have a contact form specifically for people to send review requests. In other words they appear to welcome contact. But it was so time consuming that I quit.

Then I found Author Marketing Club. They have a computer program that does the same thing for me in minutes! It's amazing. It saved me so much time that it easily paid for my one month subscription.

I've also enjoyed training videos about marketing, goodreads for authors, why your book isn't selling etc. There is also a cool program to help you make a widget for your book to put on your site or blog, and another program to help you improve your book blurb for amazon, etc. I love it!

jimkukral said:

Hi there, I own AMC. Those words in the terms are simply standard words legal makes you put in.

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My general rule of thumb is that I will NEVER sign ANY sort of contract with someone who brushes aside any of it's clauses with "oh, our lawyers just made us put it in there".

The best-case option is that they don't take their own contract seriously, which is bad enough.

I've run every time, and knew in hindsight I would have deeply regretted signing.

jimkukral said:

Understood. We've chosen to require a free registration. We aren't trying to hide anything, it's free. We just chose that business model. I think you'll like what you get for registering.

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My problem is that I can't work out what I get in return for registering, because you require me to register in order to find out. Or at least, that's how it looked when I took a quick tour around your site.

It would be much better, in my opinion, if I could learn about what you do before I commit to registering with you. Because registering with you is a waste of my time and your bandwidth if you don't offer any services of interest to me.

Literateparakeet said:

I signed up for one month of premium AMC, and I love it. The review grabber that was discussed upthread (ShadowWalker) is my favorite perk.


Then I found Author Marketing Club. They have a computer program that does the same thing for me in minutes! It's amazing. It saved me so much time that it easily paid for my one month subscription.

I've also enjoyed training videos about marketing, goodreads for authors, why your book isn't selling etc. There is also a cool program to help you make a widget for your book to put on your site or blog, and another program to help you improve your book blurb for amazon, etc. I love it!

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Leslie, let me ask you for some clarification on this, so I can assign a value to this in my own head. If I spend money on anything, I expect it to help me earn more money than I spend. So, how much did you spend on your membership, and how much of an increase in your sales do you estimate it helped you get?

To help save you some effort, I'm not terribly interested in how much time or labor it saved . I need to see the profit margin this created for you. Saving you time and effort is still a waste of money if it doesn't make your book sell, which is the bottom line here. How does this affect your book sales?

Jim,

First of all, I'm glad to see you taking part in this conversation. Your replies have been far more professional in many ways than those of some of those I've seen from representatives or owners of companies.

That being said, we ARE interested in what your service really offers. Your replies, while professional in tone, also don't really say much. I understand that you're trying to balance your own desire to "not sell here" but if there is a place to let your service shine, this is it. I also want to let you know where some of your replies might not be making the impression you want them to, simply because you are addressing an audience that thinks very differently about the services that are offered to writers. This is not to say "You're doing this wrong" so much as to let you know why some of us may be reacting to things differently than you might expect.

First of all, you have used variations of the same three phrases multiple times.

"I haven't built the reputation I have over 17-years by not being able to answer the tough questions and be able to back up my work."

"We have over 13,000 members right now. We must be doing something right."

"Check out these testimonials from real, top selling authors."

The first phrase lays claim to a reputation that no one here seems to be aware of. Which isn't to say that it doesn't exist, but it simply doesn't translate. You may have a terrific reputation, but if that reputation is in real estate, no one cares about it in the publishing world. At this point, in this forum, I've got more experience and a more established reputation than you do simply because I've been here longer. Kinda like being the new guy on the job. You may know your stuff from somewhere else, but we need to be able to see that before we'll believe it. Especially in THIS forum.

The second is something we tend to hear a lot coming from the mouths of certain companies that have TERRIBLE reputations. "We have THOUSANDS of authors who have signed with us! They MUST be right!" Again, not an accusation, just something you might not be aware of. Many scammers use this phrase in an attempt to cash in on an old marketing axiom: Quantity creates the appearance of quality. This phrase tends to set off alarm bells in our heads. Numbers do not equate to quality in our heads, especially not where new companies are concerned.

Likewise, the third phrase you have made use of is similar to things we've seen and heard from less reputable (and less professional) people than yourself. "Check out our glowing testimonial page!" As you've seen, we don't take ANYTHING at face value, and when we DID check out your claim, it fell somewhat short of the "best selling" appellation you used. When it was brought up, your answer addressed something else entirely, instead of the problem the poster had with the fact that there really weren't any best selling authors on your testimonial page. That made that phrase less effective than it could be, and made your testimonial page a far less effective tool.

Personally, here is what would probably settle a LOT of the doubts and questions people have here. First of all, drop the corporate slang. Don't tell us about your reputation and how long you've been in the business and how you answer tough questions without answering said questions. Don't ask us to listen to other people sing your praises.

DO tell us what the end result of your service tends to be. Increased sales? If so, how much on average? DO tell us what you get when you sign up instead of trying to assure us we're REALLY going to like what we find after we sign up. SELL your site, please. We are asking you to inform us on your product, and asking you to show us something that will let us know you really ARE different than some of the other corporate hucksters out there. Saying variations of the same thing works in a different environment (I know, I work in a very corporate culture in my day job), but here, words are a VERY different currency, and they are used in a completely different way. Just be a guy with us. Tell us what you're doing differently. Because so far, you've shown that you're civil and willing to kind of answer questions. I can't tell you how much altitude that gives you over some of the people I've seen here, even from semi-legit companies. I get the impression you're making an effort, but you seem to be speaking a different dialect than we do. I hope this helps you see where we're coming from, so we can see better where YOU are coming from. Because if you are legit and you can get some of the people from this forum behind you (which isn't an easy thing to do, but it is possible) you'll find that you won't have to answer as many questions on your own.

TheOneTrueBen said:

Jim,

First of all, I'm glad to see you taking part in this conversation. Your replies have been far more professional in many ways than those of some of those I've seen from representatives or owners of companies.

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Sorry it took me so long to respond. I had forgotten about this thread. So I'm here now to continue responding.

TheOneTrueBen said:

That being said, we ARE interested in what your service really offers. Your replies, while professional in tone, also don't really say much. I understand that you're trying to balance your own desire to "not sell here" but if there is a place to let your service shine, this is it. I also want to let you know where some of your replies might not be making the impression you want them to, simply because you are addressing an audience that thinks very differently about the services that are offered to writers. This is not to say "You're doing this wrong" so much as to let you know why some of us may be reacting to things differently than you might expect.

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I totally get it. Yes, I'm trying to not be over self-promotional. That's why I'm not writing a book here promoting our program I would say the best way for anyone to learn more is to visit our site and grab a free membership. Then watch our video training and use some of our free tools. Then demo a few of our other tools, then make your own choice whether or not upgrading to a paid membership is worth it.

TheOneTrueBen said:

First of all, you have used variations of the same three phrases multiple times.

"I haven't built the reputation I have over 17-years by not being able to answer the tough questions and be able to back up my work."

"We have over 13,000 members right now. We must be doing something right."

"Check out these testimonials from real, top selling authors."

The first phrase lays claim to a reputation that no one here seems to be aware of. Which isn't to say that it doesn't exist, but it simply doesn't translate. You may have a terrific reputation, but if that reputation is in real estate, no one cares about it in the publishing world. At this point, in this forum, I've got more experience and a more established reputation than you do simply because I've been here longer. Kinda like being the new guy on the job. You may know your stuff from somewhere else, but we need to be able to see that before we'll believe it. Especially in THIS forum.

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I'm sure plenty of people have more experience than I do. In fact, I know it! Again, I'm trying not to sell you here. That would come off badly. As with any business/brand I have to earn your trust. Which is why I keep referring back to the client testimonials and my mission to help authors.

TheOneTrueBen said:

The second is something we tend to hear a lot coming from the mouths of certain companies that have TERRIBLE reputations. "We have THOUSANDS of authors who have signed with us! They MUST be right!" Again, not an accusation, just something you might not be aware of. Many scammers use this phrase in an attempt to cash in on an old marketing axiom: Quantity creates the appearance of quality. This phrase tends to set off alarm bells in our heads. Numbers do not equate to quality in our heads, especially not where new companies are concerned.

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I understand. I'm in a tough position. I'm a marketing guy, not "get rich quick" guy; it's important to notice the difference. I have never, ever created a "make money with no work" product/service or book or anything. In fact, if you look at my track record I am a champion against those types of things. What I mean when I say I'm in a tough position is that some of the wording and marketing methods I use are also used (poorly) by the junky internet marketing scammers as well. So I get lumped into them by proxy. But again, I am not one of them.

TheOneTrueBen said:

Likewise, the third phrase you have made use of is similar to things we've seen and heard from less reputable (and less professional) people than yourself. "Check out our glowing testimonial page!" As you've seen, we don't take ANYTHING at face value, and when we DID check out your claim, it fell somewhat short of the "best selling" appellation you used. When it was brought up, your answer addressed something else entirely, instead of the problem the poster had with the fact that there really weren't any best selling authors on your testimonial page. That made that phrase less effective than it could be, and made your testimonial page a far less effective tool.

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So here's where a bogus Internet marketer would give you tons of false claims/results about their clients. If you notice on our site and our marketing materials we never do that. Why? Because not every book sells. Not every author succeeds. A "get rich quick" pitch would make wild claims about success of their clients. I'm not going to do that because it would be bogus to say that every member is massively successful.

TheOneTrueBen said:

Personally, here is what would probably settle a LOT of the doubts and questions people have here. First of all, drop the corporate slang. Don't tell us about your reputation and how long you've been in the business and how you answer tough questions without answering said questions. Don't ask us to listen to other people sing your praises.

DO tell us what the end result of your service tends to be. Increased sales? If so, how much on average? DO tell us what you get when you sign up instead of trying to assure us we're REALLY going to like what we find after we sign up. SELL your site, please. We are asking you to inform us on your product, and asking you to show us something that will let us know you really ARE different than some of the other corporate hucksters out there. Saying variations of the same thing works in a different environment (I know, I work in a very corporate culture in my day job), but here, words are a VERY different currency, and they are used in a completely different way. Just be a guy with us. Tell us what you're doing differently. Because so far, you've shown that you're civil and willing to kind of answer questions. I can't tell you how much altitude that gives you over some of the people I've seen here, even from semi-legit companies. I get the impression you're making an effort, but you seem to be speaking a different dialect than we do. I hope this helps you see where we're coming from, so we can see better where YOU are coming from. Because if you are legit and you can get some of the people from this forum behind you (which isn't an easy thing to do, but it is possible) you'll find that you won't have to answer as many questions on your own.

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I totally get what you want but for the reasons stated above I'm reluctant to make claims. I'd be happy to tell you about some things I've heard from my clients on a phone call (email me at info at authormarketingclub dot com with your number) or skype chat (jimkukral) if you wish. Or, put you in touch with a few of our members who could talk about their successes with you.

author marketing club

I recently took one of those free webinars that sell you a how to sell more books courses. This one was by Bryan Cohen of sellingforauthors.com)

In one of the modules he recommends using Author Marketing Club, http://authormarketingclub.com. I immediately thought I should come here and look around. I couldn't find anything, so I'm asking.

Should I be wary? Would this really be a good way to get reviews? Are any of you members?

Thank you!

There's a thread about it here.

Here's what I've found from searching the forums. Perhaps a Mod should merge threads? <link snipped>

I ain't no expert in promotions, so I won't weigh in on the content. I'm always wary of sites that offer "Premium membership only content".

Damn, Helix got in three minutes ahead.

BTW, best to search the forums using the Google custom search bar at the bottom of the page.