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5 Book Marketing Mistakes to Avoid (for Influential Authors)
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 much easier to reach their hearts publicly. This might include press release pitching, special talks at Meetup groups, or local radio and podcast guest spots. Problem #2: Regurgitating Blog Content My favourite style of marketing is Content Marketing. But, most businesspeople regurgitate the same old text articles and post on social media…

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Write Much and Write Often to Promote your Book
Write Much and Write Often to Promote your Book

If your goal behind writing a book is to develop skill, express creativity, and simply be published, then you won't need a book marketing plan. But if your goal is to write to disseminate ideas to as many as possible, and receive a return on time spent, then you need promotional ideas to get that message out. For talented novelist and writer’s festival speaker Susan Johnson, having had a roaring writing career in the 80s and travelling the world in the 90s, on returning to Australia and enquiring into publishing, she had a rude shock. No longer did traditional publishers give big advances, and she could not return to teach creative writing at University due to ‘qualifications’ at that point. Susan told us festival-goers that the average Australian pro writer earns just $14,000 a year. The Guardian reports that the average professional English writer earns just GBP10,500 per year, a 42% drop since 2005, a pittance as they rightly call it. Since she wanted to actually pay the bills, she had to go back to…

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Building an Income along with a Book
Building an Income along with a Book

Here I want to uncover some of the fallacies around book publishing and how it is possible to turn something you love into a nice income stream. Many of the authors I hear from have said, ‘It’s okay, I’m happy to publish my book and see, it doesn’t have to make a steady income’. Okay… but isn’t that fear talking? Wouldn’t you rather make a regular income? Well, I have found a book launch strategy that actually helps to make you money ongoing. This strategy makes money not only from the book, but from the attached online course and community. Some who have done this well seem to have set off a ‘movement’. Many of us don’t realise the machinations behind the scenes of a big launch. It would be fair to say that people like Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation or Rob Cubbon with The New Freedom, have worked the Kindle Launch and list building to some success. (Even if that success is just 60 cents per book revenue). Much thought went into…

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Target Reader Profiling
Target Reader Profiling

I know all too well the feeling that everyone should be interested in my latest book’s content. I mean, who doesn’t want to manage their money better… or as with the Simple Drive to a Healthier Life book, who wouldn’t be interested in better health? Well, the fact is, some of us are cuckoo for money advice (and some are spenders)… and others are nuts on health (while some like to eat anything tasty). So, with that in mind, let’s get into how to create a Target Reader Profile. Since the word ‘avatar’ reminds me of that movie with blue people, let’s go with Profile. Far from being an airy-fairy notion, your book’s reader profile is very specific. It may even warrant two to four reader profiles that neatly fit your topic, so carefully do the research on numbers of each. Don’t forget reachability and tendency to read. Case Study: Defining a Reader Profile For instance, take the prenatal yoga handbook (Birth in Awareness), the target reader profile A is likely: * Yoga teachers with…

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Writing a Non-fiction Book in 1 month?
Writing a Non-fiction Book in 1 month?

Today I'm exploring whether it's possible to write a non-fiction book in one month and what other steps you will do in following months.  So, can you write a book in a month? The answer is: well, I think that depends on what you classify as writing. Yes, you can outline, arrange your sticky notes (manual chapter structuring), and type like the clappers to get a draft of about 30,000 words for example. You will also need to write a full target audience description, check the blurbs of successful competing titles, and draft a book summary.  Getting tired yet? Actually, you might want a writing coach before you complete the first draft if your background is academic or corporate and you can't quite get the voice right. An Editorial Process Then, to finish your book and reference it, you will need an editorial process. The first stage is having someone with a trained eye (an editor) look at the draft and ensure your structure is good, your message is appropriate for the audience, and your…

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Choose the Type of Book to Write
Choose the Type of Book to Write

Have the desire to create and share your ideas but not the know-how of writing a book?  Then take a peek at the process of choosing a type (or model) of book to write. Starting out, mulling over ideas There are already millions of books published and available on Amazon, so here's a question: what is the one thing that none of them already have? Choosing the Best Book Model Breaking down complex and dry topics, a good writer draws out the ideas for their reader to digest. This is best done with a particular model. If you don't choose a good model to begin with, your book will wander. It can possibly annoy a reader who likes one type of books, and half-way through the type has changed. Tips Book Tips books can be good if prefaced with a note on why you need these tips and how to use the content. Power Marketing was in this style, with 60 tips on marketing a small business, but I made the mistake of also putting…

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Producing a Book, with VA Help

1. Producing Your Book Costs Time and Money Writing a 'serious' book takes a really long time. Producing a book takes, in some cases, even longer. In one case, it took 72 hours to proofread, layout, produce, administrate and convert the eBook for a self-published client book. If you want a copy editor to do a 'quick run-through', remember that she or he must take it to a publishable standard. Editing a book properly takes quite some time, but this depends on whether your book needs structural editing help, developmental suggestions (a manuscript review)--or simply a copy edit. It is not just your budget that constrains this editing; it's also the skill level of your editor. So, a 30,000-word non-fiction book may take between 22 hours and 30 hours for me to line edit in one pass. I'm good at spotting things that don't sound right. So, a client-focussed editing project might cost between AU$1,400 and $2,000 for a 30,000-word book, for a rough idea. Overseas editors might charge less, but you might not know if they are…

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Define the Purpose of Writing your Book for Business
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Define the Purpose of Writing your Book for Business

There are several problems with taking your expertise to market. The largest one is not dedicating time to it. While writing a book or program is unwieldy and time-consuming up front, if you've got a big PURPOSE for writing a book for business, boom, motivation problem solved. This could be helping a charity close to your heart or shining the light on a problem that's been a past source of agony for you.   Problem: One Offer, Low Revenue Base Independent consultants and coaches need to grow income from more than just services, to diversify some away from their TIME. When someone is sick, their billings stop—and so does their income. Also, it's really hard to sell the business or spin-off assets left and right with one-to-one services.  To create more streams of income, you must offer books, audiobooks, an online training course/s, keynotes or group work, presentation, and if you're game, online memberships or apps. (I don't recommend creating an app).  For the base of all this, a visual model is recommended in order for…

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How to Create a Publishing Business!
How to Create a Publishing Business!

To make a lot of money in book publishing for a niche market, then you will need to understand how to reach people with online publishing too. If you are a known personality, great—build on that, but if you are building a name-brand business or charity, then your brand is your business. For instance, have you ever heard of a little business called Niche Media?  Well, as an Australian niche magazine publisher, their brands include MacWorld, Marketing magazine, Idea, Inside (interior design), Architectural Review (AR), Mezzanine and Desktop. They have 10 million views on their sites and send 100,000 EDMs a week. They are a large publisher, but most of us start as an indie or micro publisher. What is the difference? An indie publisher publishes only their own books, whereas a micro publisher might publish a few different authors. For a while, Power of Words was a micro publisher (as a sole proprietor, so with a dose of risk). Traditional magazines need two things to happen:  good workers (staff/freelance writers) and high-paying advertisers (the…

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