Non-Fiction Writers Blog At Business Author Academy

How to Be Incrementally More Productive Every Day—and Earn More

Recently I noticed that successful people all seem to get up early and work on personal development. This includes knowing their body’s needs and exercising. I realised that just reading the news and gossip online or admiring others was never going to get me anywhere near my own goals.

What are my goals, anyway? Then, while at Kmart (of all places), I saw a book that could start my 2020 off to a bang. I reveal this soon. But first, here is a productivity system you could use.

Learn the 1000% Improvement Method

This is ‘incremental improvement’—getting a little better every day—otherwise known as ‘the Kaizen principle’.

Brian Tracy asks: “Is it possible for you to make a 1/10^th of 1% improvement in productivity per day?”

(Doing it weekdays, your actions would be 0.5% more improved within a week and 13% in a month).

This translates to you working on a more important task or doing a task slightly better. (Perhaps a new system occasionally as well, I presume).

Your overall output can become amazing, posits Tracy… in fact, 26% more productive in a year.

Your income would likely go up 26% per year too. This building on improvements is called the Momentum Principle.

You start early, set good priorities, and work a little harder. If you do this improvement as a habit, so every year over the course of ten years, the compounding effect means you will be working at around 1,400% better, according to Tracy. This then would be reflected in the quality of projects you do and the amount of money you earn.

Here is Brian Tracy’s famous 1000% Improvement list but with my own interpretation. Watch the video afterwards, if you like.

1. Spend your First Hour of the Day on Personal Development

I am spending nearly an hour most mornings on personal development, and then I write out some more on my goals. I do a few stretches. Then if it’s a weekday, I move to writing out my task list.

My present book reading is: Your Dream Life Starts Here by Kristina Karlsson. This is a good book for setting all your goals and taking action.

My audio reading at the moment is: Booked Solid (Michael Port) and The Power of Vulnerability (Brene Brown).

2. Make a Task List

Then I make a Task List of everything I need to do that day, but not too many.

3. Prioritise that List

Then I look at the tasks and find the most important to move my business or life forward. I put the two most important things an call it A.

(This I learned from Eat That Frog, also by Brian Tracy).

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January 12, 2020

How to Profit / Book Writing

Is Writing a Book that’s Popular Being a Sell-out?

Jack Kerouac I know it’s common to think of book writing as some kind of artisan thing, a Jack Kerouac at his writing desk, typing away his creative best. But that just ain’t reality, kid. In the real world, we must find a rising trend and a unique angle for our book. Not only for it to be looked at in the first place, but because if you don’t, you’re really only writing books for you. That’s nice, but it doesn’t pay any bills, even the ones for your book. As a past copywriter, I’m familiar with having to get my commercial brain into gear and research like mad. But I understand that’s not all that common. I sent a K-lytics report on…

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January 8, 2020

How to Profit

At the Mercy of Gurus—or In Control of your Online Income?

Our inner psychology tells us to be obedient to authority figures, even when obeying leads to our own downfall. Ignore them, be creative, and find new, high-value markets where you can tap into the new gold rush.

The Power of Authority

Our faith in authority figures leads to our falling into money traps. Studies have shown we are strongly inclined to follow the instructions of someone who looks like an expert. We will even substitute our judgement for those with the symbols of authority. Research into obedience to authority shows that we underestimate the extent to which the appearance of authority will influence us. (Social Psychology, 1999).

While the old scientific tests were mainly done with people in doctor’s coats, this influence also applies to political leaders, financial experts, or any authority figure, even celebrities with no financial standing. Do the gurus of internet marketing also come to mind?

So what can we do about it? How do we detach ourselves from this strong influence and work to our own goals? One way, that I mentioned in my book How to Control Your Financial Destiny, is to forget the herd’s sentiment and make your own decisions contrary to the crowd.

Contrary investing means you would invest when people are most fearful of investing (and thus get the lower prices), and withdraw and seek other markets when the herd is caught up in buying frenzy.

Contrary marketing would thus mean you are creating some unusual types of content, or using unusual mediums, that enriches the lives of others. I write about niche marketing for authors on here a lot.

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January 6, 2020

How to Profit / Print on Demand

How do we Achieve More Residual Income?

What is the economic forecast in your household? Gloom or Boom? While the national economy fluctuates, if you have lost your job or top clients, it’s no good to you whether the stockmarket is rising, or interest rates are up, or any of that stuff! You live in the now of needing more income. Better yet, make it residual income so we don’t have to go through this anguish again.

My own family suffered through a household recession in 2008-09. What helped me was this premise: “every adversity brings with it the seed of an equivalent advantage” (Napoleon Hill). Out of this hard time, my copywriting sprouted wings and then I turned to teaching others how to write a book (or editing them).

The Lure of Residual Income

Illness, job losses, income insecurity: all these make us long for a residual (passive) income. Many of us turn to online sources for the new gold of our time.

But within this ‘making money online’ field, there are many pitfalls for the unwary. I found that psychological principles apply on the Internet just as they do in real life.

Consider this – you have been conditioned to search for GAIN without WORK, quick cash, and easy success. You’ve watched Gary Vee or other internet gurus and how well they’ve done and it seems so easy. This is just a mindset trap.

Seth Godin says on ‘instant success’:

“It still takes ten years to become a success, web or no web.”
“The irony of the web is that the tactics work really quickly. You friend someone on Facebook and two minutes later, they friend you back. Bang. But the strategy still takes forever…”
Seth Godin

It also spells failure for the thousands of people who see others’ outward signs of success (income, houses, cars), but don’t understand the depth of their powerful drive and action towards their goals.

I’ve banned myself from saying ‘passive income’ because, let’s face it, most good income sources are NOT passive at all and require hours and hours of your precious time up-front. It would be truer to say ‘long-haul income’!

That’s the pessimistic stuff out of the way. If you’ve found a topic that really interests you: that’s the place to start. Whether it’s Feng Shui, colour combining, food specialities, or Writing about Writing, there is a bevy of people hungry for this ‘insider’ information. Just use the keyword search tools, like Ubersuggest, to find the numbers of searches in your country.

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January 4, 2020

Book Publicity

Use Niche Marketing Techniques to Sell More Books

Novice writers, pro authors and business owners alike need to focus on their marketing plan, particularly with limited time available. But, which elements do we need to work on—and why?

Ironically, you should first work on your Why: your reason for writing.

Coming from a ‘why’ perspective, it gives any author a strong motive to move past their comfort zones. I lived my fear-of-being-seen for ten years, so I know first-hand how this inhibits sales. Therefore, identifying a good reason to spread your message is imperative.

As you undertake self-publishing lessons, you will be learning about author brand, reader benefit writing, landing pages, keywords, and teaser lines. These may be outside your comfort zone as well, but are all helpful for attracting the right people to any book.

Besides, planning your writing from an audience perspective has three other benefits.

Rather than worrying over your ‘product’, your message is front and centre. This is great because it means more people connect with your ‘hook’* or your ethos.
You’re motivated to write every day to help a certain sector of people. You can even see them in your mind’s eye as you write.
A niche marketing mindset helps save you advertising dollars. That’s because choosing a niche will help any type of author attract fans. Using certain words, a phrase, an acronym or even a book title that shakes things up can be an ‘attractor factor’. E.g. ‘Joyful Eating’, ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F#$$’.

* A hook is just an angle that will engage a consumer’s mind quickly. It doesn’t need to be misleading or ridiculous to be effective.

**What Not to Do**: Novice Writers

In my experience, if novice writers just pop down ideas and stories into a book form without doing any audience research first, they often come out with a book that does not hit any mark. It is far too broad or it is full of their own opinions and not that of the target reader. One author went so far as to make up her own spelling (to prove a point) but starting the book like this is sure to confuse and ostracise the English teachers she wanted to reach.

So, what can we do to plan a best-selling book? Firstly, open our eyes very wide and then use competitive research practices.

Planning a Book for a Solid Selling Market

Being a true Aquarian, I’ve only recently discovered the pay-offs of planning. For my recent book, I set out to draw up a Target Audience and Brand Plan. Customised for book marketing use, this three-page document includes:

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January 2, 2020

Book Writing / Book Production

Book Writing Outline

There is a chasm between how novice and expert authors outline and write their book. Now, a lot of people writing a non-fiction book approach their writing like this:

Have an idea, start brainstorming, attack it with gusto, have too much content, rearrange it, find an angle, hire an editor, editor does a review and two rounds of changes, mould a final book, write blurb, hope it sells.

I used to be one of those people, so hey, I get it. But then I thought, what if I put some planning and research into those steps… would that help?

Steps in Planning and Writing a Book

Step 1: Book Research. Find an angle that is a small gap or difference to other books on topic. Ask yourself questions. Determine reader type and purpose of book.

Step 2: Brainstorm and mind map your topics.

Step 3: Outline. In a Google Docs draft, write the outline and summarise each chapter. Decide here on length of book and then length of each chapter. You could also use Scrivener, if rearranging sections and using references.

If research will be part of your book, start collecting cool ideas and research results. Look at comparative and competitive books and find the gaps.

Step 4: Start writing with the research, quotes, and creative ideas, on the topics in each chapter. Be mindful of structure. See if you can add useful reader resources in some of the chapters.

Step 5: Self-editing. Check chapter lengths. See if the creative content is on par with original reader wants and needs.

Step 6: Feedback. Get beta reader feedback and integrate what seems right to you.

Step 7: Take a fresh look, make it as logical a flow as possible, also check voice is consistent.

Step 8: Send to editor for their copy editing work

Step 9: Integrate the editor’s comments and finalise. Fact check/Copyright check.

Step 10: Typesetting. Send for formatting or do it yourself, if you know about book layout.

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December 17, 2019

Book Publicity

How do I Spend my Book Promotion Time?

As a business author/writer, it seems that you need to split your time 50/50 between writing/editing and book promoting/connecting. But if you fit in client work too, it’s more like 75|25. And there is so much to fit into your writing time already!

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November 8, 2019

Book Publicity / How to Profit

Using LinkedIn for Author Publicity

Using a book is a great introduction tool for an expert, therapist, coach or chef! And it is even better when you introduce yourself as an author of a thought leader book, via LinkedIn. Once your book is in circulation, you can add ‘author’ to your headline on LinkedIn. I personally recommend you add in the subject keyword too. The other ways to utilise LinkedIn to get the word out is to post in targeted Groups which have members who are similar to your target audience, e.g. Entrepreneurs, CMOs, or Health experts. Boost your credibility by making an 'author' headline on your LinkedIn profileJennifer Lancaster So Many Public Ways to Market Yourself and Your Book You can’t beat national publicity for promoting…

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October 17, 2019

Book Publicity

The Introvert’s Guide to Marketing for Authors

In this golden age of the personal publisher, introverts must play to their strengths. If you’ve ever read the book ‘Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking’, then you’ll understand exactly what I’m saying. We introverts need to speak up, but in our own quiet way.

Are you good at asking questions, but self-conscious about video? Then try Podcasting.

Podcast to a Larger Presence

Podcasting is the ‘slow burn’ way to attract a fan base. You own the podcast, so you also own the advertising that can be infused in a short grab inside the show.

Keep in mind that shows seem better with two people, so invite a specialist you know to talk about a topic within your new genre range.

To determine which category your tribe might seek, see Blogtalkradio.com (the live talk radio and podcast platform) and iTunes categories for category ideas.

If you have a WordPress or Blogger site, then it’s a six-step process to get your RSS feed (linking the files) to connect to Apple iTunes. First you’ll need to find a place to host your podcasts and apply post tags, categories, etc. Apple Podcasts Connect has a podcasting guide and best practices.

You’ll also need a good quality USB microphone (e.g. Nessie Blue), come up with a Podcast logo – which you can make on Canva for free – and plan how often you’ll produce an episode. It’s best to plan ahead a few podcast shows, and launch the first three all at once.

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September 13, 2019

Book Publicity

Author-First Book Marketing

With an Author-first approach, it’s making sure you and your brand goes out in the world. Most of you will have a coaching, consulting or a particular business in the background and with this approach, it’s going to have the most effect.

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July 1, 2019

Book Publicity

5 Book Marketing Mistakes to Avoid (for Influential Authors)

If you’re writing a non-fiction book, then you’re in for a lot of fun as you come up with creative ways to market your book, all while juggling your coaching, consulting or creative business. As a busy person, you want to spend your time marketing wisely, as well as your money. Problem #1: Trying to Pitch to Everyone Many authors are trying to pitch their book to ALL business owners or ALL Mums or ALL creatives. Nope, there is a more defined audience than that, such as Married Businesspeople or Franchisees who market… or Mums who want a side hustle… or Freelance Creatives who want to grow an agency. When you’ve defined your book target audience down to that level, you’ll find it…

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May 17, 2019