The Selling Direct Series, Part 3: This Is Where Most Authors Drop the Ball

🎉 Ding! You made a sale.

💡 But if your current post-purchase strategy is “hope they remember me,” let’s talk.

Because here’s the thing no one tells you when you start selling direct:
The easiest sale to make is the one to someone who’s already bought from you.

That’s right. Not new leads. Not cold traffic. Not “please buy my book” posts on social media that the algorithm feeds to your cat and your mom and no one else.

Your existing customers? They’re gold.

They’ve already found you, trusted you, and handed over their email and payment info. That’s a big deal. But if you’re not following up with those people—if you’re just delivering the book and disappearing into the mist like an author ninja—you’re leaving a lot of money (and reader goodwill) on the table.

And no shade if that’s been your M.O. so far. We’ve all done the “set it live and walk away” move. 🙋‍♀️ But today? We’re turning that around.

Because turning one sale into five doesn’t mean doubling your hustle. It just means building a smart little system that does the heavy lifting for you.

And no, you don’t need a marketing degree, a $10K funnel consultant, or an existential crisis about whether your brand voice aligns with your sales pipeline. (Barf.)

You just need one clear path:

• Make the sale ✅

• Deliver the goods ✅

• Follow up in a way that feels good for you and delightful for your readers ✅✅✅

And for that?
You need a tiny bit of automation.
One Zap. Two, tops.
We’re talking power tools in yoga pants, not corporate tech nightmares.

So grab your coffee (or cocktail, I don’t judge), and let’s build your post-purchase system like the brilliant boss-author you are.

Ready? Let’s roll. 💪

🧠 The Real Secret to Selling More? Follow-Up.

Here’s a truth bomb most folks don’t like to admit:
We spend 90% of our energy getting the sale… and maybe 5% on what happens after.
(The other 5% goes to refreshing Stripe to watch the money roll in, obvi.)

But the real magic? That’s in what happens after someone clicks “Buy.”

Think about the last time you bought something from an indie creator—maybe a signed paperback or a handmade planner or a fancy digital template you were way too excited about.

What made you feel like, “Ooh, I want to support them again”?
Was it:

• A super clear confirmation message?

• A little thank-you email that felt genuinely human?

• A bonus you didn’t expect but were delighted to get?

• Or maybe… nothing? (Womp womp silence, confusion, and no idea where your thing was?)

Here’s the deal:
People remember how you make them feel, not just what you deliver.
And the way to make them feel like a VIP is to plan that follow-up moment with care (and a smidge of automation).

Why It Matters:

• Readers are primed to love you right after a purchase. That’s your moment to build connection, spark joy, and nudge them toward the next step—whether that’s reading book 2, leaving a review, or joining your list.

• You get one chance to set the tone. A smooth delivery = confidence. A janky experience = regret and refund requests.

• Automation gives you consistency so you’re not reinventing the wheel every time someone buys something. Trust me, your future self will thank you.

So if you’re treating the sale like a mic drop moment (“I sold a thing! Peace out!”), it’s time to flip that mindset.

The sale isn’t the finale. It’s the opening act.

And you, my friend, are about to become a follow-up rockstar—with systems that feel personal, but don’t suck up your entire life force.

🛠️ Automation Recipe: The Post-Purchase Funnel

This is where we go from “nice idea” to “actual thing that works while you sleep.”
And no, it’s not complicated.
It’s just a recipe. Like baking brownies. Except instead of chocolate chips, you get email subscribers, reviews, and return customers.

So here’s your author automation kitchen guide to a smooth post-sale funnel:

🔁 Step 1: Trigger the Sale

Your reader buys something—maybe one book, a bundle, a special edition hardcover, or that digital starter pack with the bonus novella that makes them clutch their chest and whisper “take my money.”

Now what?

Well, before we do anything fancy—like send a thank-you email, deliver their download, or add them to your “please love me forever” CRM sequence—we’ve got to catch that sale. We’re prepping the data here, folks. Getting it ready to be handed off to Airtable, your CRM, Google Sheets, Gmail, skywriting plane, you name it.

Depending on your setup, you can either use built-in integrations or roll up your sleeves and make two tools talk to each other with a trusty automation platform. Here’s how:

• WooCommerce: Use a webhook or a Zapier trigger like “New Order.”

• Shopify: Use the “New Paid Order” trigger in Zapier or a Make.com webhook module.

• Stripe Payment Link: Use Stripe’s “New Checkout Session” or “Payment Succeeded” trigger to catch that cha-ching.

💡 Pro tip: If you’re using BookFunnel’s Bundle Pages or Shop Pages, they’ll take care of the file delivery—but we still want to do all the behind-the-scenes magic: tagging, tracking, thanking, and maybe even dropping them into a Facebook retargeting loop (more on that soon).

And hey—if the word webhook makes you want to lie down with a cold compress, I get it. I’ll be doing a full walkthrough in Office Hours.

⛔ Not this week though—I’ll be at a mastermind conference (possibly stealing cookies and calling it “networking”).

📅 But mark your calendar: Office Hours are back April 17th, and we’ll dig into webhooks like they owe us money.

📬 Step 2: Deliver the Goods + Make It Personal

This is the moment you show your reader they made the right choice.

Here’s what to automate:

• Deliver What they Purchased
  So they get instant access to the goods (bonus scenes, full series, whatever you promised). No zip files. No “where’s my book?” emails. If it’s print, be sure they get tracking links.

• Send a Thank-You Email from YOU

  Not your store. Not your robot. YOU.

  You’ve got options here, and they don’t all require fancy-pants CRM setups:

  • Tools like ConvertKit, MailerLite, Flodesk, Mailchimp, FluentCRM, and MailPoet all let you trigger automations when a new subscriber is added or tagged.

    ✨ Bonus for WordPress users: FluentCRM and MailPoet both play very nicely with WooCommerce. Built-in integrations mean no extra glue needed to make them talk. Just connect, tag, and go.

  • Want to go a little old school (and skip the CRM entirely)?
    Set up a Zapier zap to trigger a Gmail email directly from your account.

    Why? Because a 1:1 email from you@yourdomain.com has deliverability that’s chef’s kiss—no spam folders, no “promotions” tab. Just your message, landing squarely in their inbox, like a handwritten thank-you with digital sparkle.

  🎯 Make it personal:

  • “Hey [First Name], just wanted to say THANK YOU for picking up the [Bundle Name]!”

  • Include a reminder link to their download

  • Add a bonus: “Want a peek behind the scenes? Click here for a deleted scene / character sketch / playlist.”

  ✨Want to be extra? Use ChatGPT inside Make.com to generate unique thank-you text based on what they bought. You can ALSO create a prompt to look back in their sales history (in Airtable, where it’s easily searchable, see below) and suggest even more, or just give them something because they’re a repeat customer. The main idea is to make them feel special!

🧠 Step 3: Track the Purchase (So You Don’t Forget Who Bought What)

This is not about building a creepy dossier. It’s about being able to:

• Know what products are converting

• Segment your audience (“bought_bundle,” “first_time_buyer,” “superfan”)

• Send the right follow-ups later

You can:

• Add the sale to Airtable or Google Sheets
  Track buyer name, email, purchase date, what they bought, and maybe even promo code or referral source.

• Tag the subscriber in your email platform
  This lets you send launch announcements, upsell bundles, or offer them something just for them later.

Imagine sending an email that says, “Since you already bought the starter pack, want to grab the collector’s edition at 20% off?”
That’s segmentation magic. That’s how you make money again without annoying people.

💸 But Wait, There’s More: Retargeting Magic

You know what’s better than selling a book?

Selling the next one.

Or getting a glowing five-star review from someone who actually read the one they bought.

And while email is your best friend for staying in touch, there’s another move that’ll level you up like a power-up mushroom in Mario Kart:

🎯 Add every buyer to a Facebook Custom Audience the moment they purchase.

This is how you stay top-of-mind without being clingy. You’re not popping into their inbox every 10 minutes—you’re just quietly showing up in their feed like,
“Oh hey, remember that book you liked? Here’s a sequel / bonus scene / gentle nudge to leave a review.”

Here’s how to make it happen:

⚙️ Step 1: Add Buyers to Your Facebook Custom Audience

Yup, you can do this automatically with Zapier or Make.

• Trigger: New order from WooCommerce, Shopify, or Stripe

• Action: Add their email to your Facebook Custom Audience

📌 Pro tip: Facebook matches hashed emails to users silently. So even if they use a different email for Facebook, some will match—and it’s still worth doing for those that do.

Want to segment even further?

• Add buyers of Bundle A to Audience A

• Add buyers of Premium Box Set to Audience B

Then tailor your retargeting content like a boss.

💬 Step 2: Run a Smart Retargeting Campaign

Once they’re in the audience, you can:

• Ask for a review (nicely!)

  • “Enjoying your latest read? Tell the world—and help others discover it too!”

  • Link to Goodreads, Amazon, or wherever you want reviews

• Tease the next book

  • Sneak peek of Chapter 1

  • Countdown to release

  • Bonus content that leads them back to your site

• Offer a related product

  • Special edition paperback

  • Book-themed merch

  • Discounted audiobook upgrade

This isn’t about being pushy. It’s about being present—strategically.

🧠 Real-Life Example: Close the Loop

Let’s say you’re selling a digital starter bundle for $9.99 on your site.

• Buyer gets the bundle → You add them to your email list with a tag

• BookFunnel delivers the goods

• Gmail automation sends a thank-you

• Zap adds them to Facebook Custom Audience: “Bundle Buyers”

• 7 days later → They see an ad in their feed:

“Loved the starter pack? Here’s book 2—and a juicy secret scene you won’t find anywhere else.”

Boom. Loop closed. Reader delighted. You look like you’ve got an entire team behind you, when it’s really just you and your well-trained automation stack.

🧁 Wrap It Up With a Bow (Optional Sprinkles Included)

So let’s review, shall we?

You made the sale.
You delivered the goods.
You followed up like a pro, logged the sale, added tags, sent a thank-you, and even dropped them into a cozy little Facebook retargeting audience.

✨That’s not just good marketing. That’s author empire energy.✨

But if you’re feeling fancy, here are a few more ways to go next-level with your post-purchase funnel:

✨ Fancy Extras (Totally Optional, Ridiculously Cool)

• Trigger a snail mail postcard to go out to high-value buyers via PostPilot or Handwritten. (Yes, that’s automated. Yes, it feels like magic.)

• Send a “Choose Your Favorite Character” quiz that tags them based on their answers—and lets you personalize future emails. (Hello, segmentation!)

• Invite them to a private reader group or Patreon tier as a post-purchase bonus.

• Send them a secret link to a hidden BookFunnel page with behind-the-scenes content, just for buyers.

• Fire up a review campaign 7–10 days post-purchase via email and a Facebook retargeting ad. (Gently. Like a classy author ninja.)

💡 TL;DR

🎯 The sale is just the start.
🧠 The follow-up is where trust is built—and future sales are made.
🤖 Automation means you can do all this without burning out or duct-taping your sanity back together each launch.

With just a handful of tools—BookFunnel, Zapier or Make, your email platform of choice, and a well-placed Facebook pixel—you can turn casual buyers into loyal superfans.

You’ll:

• Deliver books beautifully (no zip files, no chaos)

• Track and tag sales without lifting a finger

• Show up in inboxes and newsfeeds with helpful, delightful follow-ups

• Know exactly who bought what, when, and what to offer them next

🎓 Want Help Putting This All Together?

🗓️ I’ll be back for Office Hours on April 17th for paid subscribers, where I’ll walk through:

• How to trigger Woo/Shopify/Stripe sales like a boss

• How to set up webhooks without swearing at your keyboard

• And yes—how to retarget buyers for reviews without sounding like a pushy weirdo

📺 Can’t make it live? No worries. The replay (plus swipe files, templates, and Zap maps) will be posted in the Author Automations Masterclass on IndieAuthorTraining.com

You’ve got the tools.
You’ve got the readers.
Now you’ve got the power to build a system that works while you’re off writing the next book, sipping something fizzy, or yes—eating pastries at a mastermind.

Here’s to post-purchase joy, fewer “where’s my book?” emails, and smarter, smoother selling.
See you on the 17th. 👋

— Chelle 💛