Marketing magic

 

Please don’t share this page with others as it is intended only for those who have purchased Dwight Clough’s How to Write and Publish Your Book course…

 

 

Lesson #7
Marketing magic

 

How to sell your book without ever needing to ship a single order

Some people love to take orders for books and ship them all over the world. But if you don’t have time for that, no worries. A number of drop ship services are available if you print your books the traditional way. But publish on demand offers an even better solution.

When you publish your book with Amazon, you can send your customers to a page on Amazon that features your book, and your customers can purchase your book there. Amazon will print your book, package it and ship it. Then you receive a royalty payment.

For example:
Adding Value: Insights and Opportunities to Empower You
The retail price is $9.95
Author’s copies cost me $2.63 plus shipping (usually about 80 cents per book), but I don’t need to buy any author’s copies if I don’t want to.
If I sell it on Amazon, the royalty is $3.34
If someone orders it through a bookstore, my royalty is $1.35
I usually get paid about 60-90 days after the book sells.

Another advantage to allowing Amazon to handle your book orders is this: You don’t need to worry about collecting and paying sales tax. However, if you want to sell and ship books or sell books face-to-face, as I do, then getting a seller’s permit is not all that difficult. In Wisconsin, the cost is under $40. The first time you file the tax return it’s a little confusing, but thousands of merchants figure it out and you can too.

 

25 free or cheap strategies for marketing your book

1. Make the last couple pages of your book an order form for all your books.
2. Make the launch of your book a Facebook event and invite all your friends.
3. Give away the first chapter or so as a free download.
4. Create a blog for your target reader and post frequently.
5. Offer a workshop (live or online) of interest to your target reader.
6. Keep copies of your book in your car or purse so you can sell them on the spur of the moment.
7. Sell copies of your book at your back table at speaking events.
8. Deliver content of interest to your target reader through an auto-responder service.
9. Create a Facebook page for your book.
10. Create a Twitter account for your book or for you as an author.
11. Add information on your book to your email signature.
12. Create a website for your book.
13. Get your book listed in free sites that promote books.
14. Do media interviews, particularly radio. Create a media kit.
15. Do joint ventures with other authors.
16. Do a bookstore signing or other signing party.
17. Sell your book to a corporation as a premium or gift for their customers or employees.
18. Teach a course and make your book required reading.
19. Sell your book to a nonprofit or ministry as a fund raising gift.
20. Offer an affiliate program so others will promote your book.
21. Write more books for the same target reader and cross promote.
22. Bundle your book with a product and sell it online or in stores.
23. Include a postcard, book mark or other card about your book in all your correspondence.
24. Create an elevator speech for your book and be ready to use it.
25. Cultivate referral sources within your target audience.

 

14 alternatives to the bookstore

Think outside the bookstore! 70% of Americans haven’t visited a bookstore in the last five years. Over half of all books sold are not sold in bookstores. Instead try:
1. Book clubs
2. Churches
3. Corporations (They may buy 100,000 at a time.)
4. Events and shows
5. Get speakers or musicians to put your book on their back table and split the profits
6. Gift shops, specialty stores, big box stores and chains
7. Government agencies including the military, municipalities, state and federal government agencies
8. Libraries
9. Mail order catalogs (not just book catalogs—pair your book with another product)
10. Nonprofits
11. Amazon
12. Schools
13. Training courses (Could your book be a required text?)
14. Your own website

 

How to set up a simple website to market your book

There are many ways to set up a web presence. Some are free. Some are cheap. Some are outrageously expensive. Different approaches work well for different people.

I’m going to assume that if you want a website for your book, you are approaching your career as an author in a businesslike manner, and you want your web presence to reflect the degree of care that you have put into your book.

That’s why I recommend you obtain your own domain name (e.g., DwightClough.com) and work with a web hosting firm. I like and use Web Hosting Hub.

When you set up your web hosting account, be sure you clearly understand the process by which you get technical support because you will probably need it. Make sure that you get your login information for your account and (for some hosts, including Web Hosting Hub) your control panel or cpanel. Keep all your login information in a secure place where you won’t lose it. I recommend printing out a hard copy, and keeping a copy on Google Drive or Dropbox or some secure backed up location so you don’t lose it if your computer dies.

Once you have your domain name and hosting account, it may take up to 24 hours before the Internet recognizes that your domain belongs with that host and starts connecting people who enter your domain name with whatever website you set up.

There are several ways to set up a website, but the best all around option is, in my opinion, WordPress. I do all my sites now in WordPress. If you’re not sure how to install WordPress with your web host, contact technical support and ask them to walk you through the process. It’s usually not that difficult, but again be sure that you keep a copy of all your login information. You will need that.

WordPress is set up to give you a back end user interface where you design your site and fill it with content. The front end is the part of your website that your visitors see. The back end and the front end look very different.

WordPress allows you to add both pages and posts. Pages are meant for more static content (e.g., “About my book”) whereas posts are meant for blog posts and other updates (e.g., “Fun pictures from my book signing in Seattle”).

Use the “add media” button to add photos and other images to your website. Be sure that you have permission if you are using someone else’s material. Do a Google search on “creative commons license” to learn more. I use unsplash.com for most of my image needs.

WordPress allows you to change the appearance of your site by selecting the appearance tab. Changing themes will change the entire appearance of your site. But there are literally thousands of themes to choose from, many of them free. Widgets control what appears on sidebars, sometimes headers and footers.

Plugins give your site added functionality. There are thousands of plugins for WordPress. Most are free. I use several different plugins. My contact forms, for example, were designed using a plugin.

You can also change settings. One setting you want to be aware of is “Reading” under the “Settings” tab. It gives you the option of making a static page or your most recent posts the content that appears on your website’s home page.

Once you’ve become familiar with WordPress, and your site looks the way you want it to look, you’re ready to start selling your book on your site. There are many ways to do this. The simplest is to link an image of your book to the Amazon page featuring your book. You might also want to include links to your book in other Amazon marketplaces, like Japan, for example.

If you want to sell and ship copies of your book yourself, the easiest way to do it is to set up a free PayPal account. In your account, you can set up “add to cart” or “buy now” buttons. Here’s the PayPal page where you can get those buttons.

You get the code in PayPal and copy it into your page or post. Google “how to add html to a WordPress page.”

If you want to get fancier, there are all kinds of shopping cart and ecommerce options available.

Keep in mind that people usually need to be presented multiple times with an opportunity to purchase your book before they will make the decision to do so. (I strongly recommend you read Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson. See the resources below.) That’s why you want to give visitors a reason to come back to your website again and again. One way to do that is with a well-written blog filled with information that appeals to your target reader.

Once upon a time, I helped clients set up their websites. Once in a great while I’ll still work with someone on this, but other people provide much more competent service. I usually recommend Webstix.

 

Common website nightmares and how to avoid them

Don’t let this happen to you

You don’t own your own website
This happens frequently with churches, ministries and small businesses. You hire someone to create a website for you. They register the domain name because you’re not sure how to do it yourself. Your web person owns the domain that you should own. Something happens to that person or something happens to your relationship to that person, and you no longer have access to that domain. There’s nothing you can do. You’re stuck.

Solution: Register your own domain name. Get your web person to walk you through the process. Make sure that’s part of your agreement with them. You must own the domain. Make sure you know how to access your domain registration, when and how to renew your domain name subscription, and how to access and change your nameservers.

Definitions:
Domain Name The address of your website. For example, I own the domains DwightClough.com, WeWillEndPoverty.com, and many others. Domain names are “leased” for a year or multiple years at a time. A domain name normally costs between $5 and $20 per year depending on the domain registrar you use.

Domain Registrar The company that registers your domain name. You purchase your domain name from a domain registrar. Sometimes web hosting companies have their own domain registrar, and you can obtain domain names directly from your web host.

NameServer Your nameserver tells where your website is located. When you get a web hosting account, your web host will tell you what nameservers they need you to use for your domain.

Web Host Your web host is the company that will “host” your website. That is, the contents of your website will be on their computers (servers), and they will make your website available to your visitors.

FTP / File Transfer Protocol. This is one method used to transfer files from your computer to the server containing your website. You use a FTP client to transfer files. A commonly-used free FTP client is Filezilla. See caution below.

 

You don’t have access to your website
This happens when your web developer doesn’t give you the information you need to access your site.

Solution: Make sure your web developer provides the following information:

• Your domain name
• Domain registration login information including login location, user name, password.
• Web host login information including login location, user name, password. Some web hosts have two sets of login information, account management panel and control panel (or cpanel for many web hosts). You need both.
• How to access your web host’s support team including phone number (if available), support email address, pin number or other information needed to access support
• If applicable: WordPress or other CMS (Content Management System) login information including login location, user name and password.
• If applicable: All login information to any ancillary sites or services such as Gmail and so on associated with your site
• Optional but very helpful: FTP login information including ftp location, account type, user name, password. You need the master FTP login information, not a limited FTP login. Caution: Don’t use FTP unless you know what you’re doing. Putting the wrong file in the wrong place can really mess up your website. If you are using WordPress or another CMS system, you probably won’t need to use FTP.

A good web developer will make sure you have access to this information.
Keep this information in a safe place
Don’t share it with anyone except people you trust who are working on your site for you.
Make sure the information is kept up to date.
It’s a good idea to have a printed copy of all of this information somewhere.

 

You can’t update your website
Assuming you can access your website, here are some common reasons why you might not be able to update your site. Your web developer did not use a CMS (Content Management System) such as WordPress. It’s much harder for a novice to update an html site than it is for you to update a WordPress site. Another example: Someone in your office downloads a trial version of a fancy web development software. They create a beautiful site with lots of bells and whistles. The trial version runs out. You don’t want to pay the unreasonable price for the software. You’re stuck. You have a site you can’t update unless you have a great deal of technical knowledge.

Solution: Ask your web developer to use a CMS system like WordPress and to teach you how to access it and how to make updates to your site using it.

 

You’re paying way too much
Scams abound as people prey on your lack of knowledge. Here’s a common one: You receive an official looking bill in the mail for the renewal of your domain name. You send a check, and then you’re stuck. Your domain registrar has changed from an inexpensive one to an outrageously expensive one. Another common scam is web marketing and/or SEO (Search Engine Optimization) services. Some are legitimate. Some are not. It’s very common for small businesses to be paying hundreds, even thousands of dollars a month to web marketing services that aren’t doing anything that genuinely helps you.

Solutions: Arm yourself with knowledge. Know who your domain registrar is and how to log into your domain registration account. Do all your renewals from there or through your web host. Be sure to ask for references and then contact them before you hire a web marketing service. Make sure that what they propose to do really makes sense. For example, if you create a website as a service to your existing customers, you do NOT need SEO services

 

How to make money with your book even if you never sell a single copy

Your book’s hidden profit potential

Some people become wealthy by losing money on their books. Do you know how it’s done?

Can a book lose money and still make a profit?

Sure. It happens all the time, and it can be a very savvy way to approach a book project, depending on your situation. Several very successful authors have written books knowing in advance that the book itself would lose money. Here are some examples:

A ministry leader writes a book to raise awareness on an issue. This well written book brings donors and advocates into a partnership relationship. Even though the book is given away, the resulting partnerships are far more valuable than any profit he might bring in from book sales.

A consultant writes a book with the specific goal of breaking into the Fortune 500 market. He gives away every book and ends up successful beyond his dreams. Why? The book project raised his credibility and gave him access to high-paying clients. In other words, the book was advertising. Depending on your situation, a single book in the hands of the right potential client might mean a million dollars in your pocket. With that in mind, are you really going to quibble about $20 for a book?

A fantasy fiction writer sells the first book in his series for a dime. Is he losing money? Yes. But by offering each copy for a dime, he gains a loyal following of readers who will gladly pay $25 for each subsequent book in the series. Book clubs do this sort of thing all the time. It’s called a loss leader. By offering a discount or giving away something for free, you establish a relationship with a customer. The key here is quality. If your books are well written, you deliver the kind of value that will make that reader a loyal customer for life.

Some authors have used this method to create best-sellers. William P. Young gave away thousands of copies of his book, The Shack, before it became a best-seller. Once the word got out, everybody wanted a copy. Seth Godin urged people to download Unleashing the Ideavirus for free. Why? Because he knew that people would turn around and purchase the book in paperback. The book went on to become a best-seller.
These strategies work great for some people. They may or may not be right for you. You need to determine if your book needs to make a profit by itself or if it is part of a larger strategy.

Remember, trying to get rich on a single book seldom works. But the book can be part of a plan that has a good chance of success.

Find a way to efficiently reach your reader
How did Rick Warren become a best selling author? He started out by providing content that pastors found valuable. Pastors signed up by the thousands to be on his weekly email list. When his book, A Purpose-Driven Life, came along, he designed a group study program for churches. Then he sent pastors a series of sermon suggestions. Why? His readers were part of churches. How do you reach church people? Through pastors!

Adapt your book’s message to reach more people

Connect with the news. Is your book relevant to the people and events that are making news?

Does your book have an angle? Relationships is a topic, but why your boyfriend is running away and what you can do to win him back is an angle.

Can you put your reader’s name on the cover? The Used Car Guide for College Students. When your reader browses the options, which book will he pick? The one with his name on the cover.

 

Turn your book into a series
Fiction: When your books share common characters (best) or even a common world, your readers have a reason to buy book after book. Examples: Harry Potter, the Boxcar Children

Nonfiction: When your manual or guide gets updated every year with valuable new information, you have a whole group of readers who need to buy the most recent edition. Example: What Color is Your Parachute

 

Think outside the box
Could you sell ads in your book? Could you make an entire book of ads and then sell the book? Impossible? Coupon book publishers do it all the time.
Could you embed a code in each book that your reader would need to unlock another benefit—say a web based assessment? That was Tom Rath’s brainchild with The Strengths Finder book.

Use your book to launch you into …
… a speaking business or ministry. Groups are looking for interesting speakers that have a powerful story to tell. Your book might help establish you as that person.

… a personal coaching business. Your expertise might be needed by persons struggling to reach their potential. Your book might be the introduction you need.

… a consulting business. Books establish your expertise, but a consulting assignment allows you to apply your abilities to the specific questions and problems faced by your client.

… teaching in colleges, workshops, seminars. Your book can even be the required textbook.

 

Connect your book with a product or service
For example: Have you written a book on cleaning? Do you endorse a certain product? Perhaps you can set up a joint venture that pairs and packages your book with that product—allowing both of you to make more money.

Corporations offer premiums and incentives. Your book might work well as a “thank you” gift for customers or as a training tool for new employees. Or are there salespeople who want to offer your book as a free gift in exchange for listening to a sales presentation?

Can you find another author who has written on a complementary topic? Could you both make more money by working together?

 

The power of recycling / when your book is no longer a book

Remember your rights including reprint rights, movie rights, foreign rights, audio rights, TV rights. Talk to an agent.

Can the material in your book can be repackaged, recycled and resold? Think about merchandise, T-shirts, calendars, seminars, radio shows, articles, consulting, coaching, memberships, newsletters, licensing, courses. I knew one author who printed 10,000 copies of his book and couldn’t get it to sell at all. He turned it into an audio recording and sold a million copies.

Your book can have nine lives … if you think outside the box and look for hidden profit potential.

 

What every speaker needs to know about being an author

Authoring a book is the perfect way to extend your influence, but you gotta do it right …

Here are strategies designed for speakers, particularly Christians in ministry who speak before multiple audiences.
These strategies will help you

• reach more people
• make a bigger impact on the people you reach
• raise more money for your ministry or cause

 

Strategy #1
Define your niche
This is key. Everything else hangs on this. If you haven’t already done this, this is the place to start. Without a defined niche, your ministry really won’t get the traction it needs.
By “niche” I mean this: You bring a specific benefit to a specific group of people.
How do you know if you’ve defined your niche?
You need two things:
1. Define the person you reach
2. Identify the promise you are making to that person

First, the people
Define the person you reach. Examples:

• Married persons who want to strengthen their marriages
• Emerging leaders
• Corporate executives
• Golfers
• Teens who hate church
• Ex-offenders
• People who use coupons
• (Potential) church planters
• Single women over the age of 35
• Animal lovers

In each case, you have a clearly defined group.

Second, the promise
The second part of your niche is just as important. Identify the promise you are making to the person in that group. What kind of benefit are you bringing them?
Look at the difference between these statements:
I teach the Bible. (Great, but no promise)
I teach Bible study methods. (Weak promise)
I show you how to become a Bible expert in fifteen minutes a day. (Strong promise)

Be sure to focus your promise:
I help your marriage. (Weak focus)
I show you how to bring romance back into your marriage. (Stronger focus)

Think of Dr. Gary Chapman’s niche: Love Languages. What a powerful promise! By helping you unravel the language of love, those you care about most will finally feel loved by you. No wonder he is a perennial best selling author!

If you’ve never done this before, take a moment right now and define your niche:
Who are you trying to reach?
What promise are you making to them.
Write it down.

One formula: I help _________ to __________.
For example, I help Christian speakers to extend their influence.
More than one? Do you have more than one niche? That can be okay, but you need a clearly defined plan for each.

Strategy #2
Build your list
You need a list.
Without it, your influence is limited to the few minutes you engage your audience from the platform. But with a list—a database with at least names and email addresses—you have opportunity to engage your audience over a period of months and years following your initial contact.

Without a list, you are quickly forgotten. With a list that is used correctly, you have opportunity to shape lives and make a difference for years to come.

Example Suppose your niche is helping families manage their finances so they can use their money to build God’s kingdom. Along the way, you’ve spoken to about 20,000 different individuals. One day you come across a software program that will help families do exactly what you want them to do faster and easier than ever before.

Without a list How do you tell 20,000 people about your discovery if you don’t have a list? How do you find those people? How do you make them aware? Without a list it would cost you a fortune to help all those people with this new information.

With your list / In less than fifteen minutes, you’ve informed everyone.

What a difference!

A way of serving others Building your list is your way of serving the people that you care about. A list empowers you to quickly and easily help them. Remember, the list is about them. It’s not about you; it’s about them.

Momentum Your list empowers you to gain the momentum you need to serve a much, much larger group of people. Instead of serving one audience at a time, you can serve an accumulated audience many, many times the size of the group you might address on a speaking assignment.

Need a niche But a list without a niche is meaningless. Without a niche—a specific promise you make to a specific group of people, your list has no focus. In other words, when you email your list, what are you going to say? If your niche isn’t clearly defined, your message will seem irrelevant.

How do you build a list?

Here’s one way to do it. Before you speak cut up index cards into business card size. Pass out the cards—with pencils or pens if needed. While you’re speaking, ask everyone in the audience to write their name and email address on a card and pass it in. (They can substitute a business card.) Explain that you are having a drawing for right there—while you’re speaking—for a prize. The prize could be a book, a CD, a DVD, enrollment in a course, a T-shirt, whatever—as long as it has relevance and value. (Then, of course, do the drawing and give away the gift.)

Explain that you also have a free gift for everyone who turns in a card with a legible and accurate email address. (I’ll explain the gift when we get to strategy #3.)

If you’re speaking to 200 people, you just walked away with 150 names for your list. Maybe more. That quickly adds up, if you’re speaking several times a year.

Over a period of time, you develop a list with thousands of names. What does that mean? It means that on any given day, you have the opportunity to touch thousands of lives.
But, of course, how you handle that list is extremely important. If you handle it the wrong way, thousands of people are angry with you, and you’re stuck rebuilding your reputation from scratch. That’s where strategies #3 and #4 come into play.

 

Strategy #3
Establish contact
When you collected names and email addresses from audience members, you promised them a free gift. Now it’s time to deliver on that promise.

Select a system You select an email system to deliver your message. I use and like AWeber (see link below), but there are other good choices as well.

Most of these systems offer a double opt in feature. In other words, the person provides their email address (already done when you spoke), then that person receives an email asking him / her to confirm that he/she wants to receive email from you. You want to provide the gift after your audience member has made that confirmation.

What free gift should you provide?
The best choice is usually some kind of digital content—a file they can download from the Internet. And, of all forms of digital content you could provide, an ebook is a great choice. Here’s why:

Value Your ebook brings high value to your recipient. If it’s well written, it will add value to the message you delivered to your audience.

Zero cost Your ebook incurs no printing costs.

Zero maintenance Your ebook requires no wrapping or shipping.

Easy on resources Your ebook takes up less bandwidth than an audio or video file. You can deliver thousands of ebooks for the same price it would cost you to mail one or two traditional books.

Easy to update Unlike a traditional book, you can update your ebook as often as you want, any time you want 24/7.

What goes in the ebook?
Your ebook should deliver on your promise (from your niche) and extend the message you conveyed when you spoke.

Examples
If your niche is helping married people bring romance back into their marriage, here’s your ebook: 25 Free and Exciting Ways to Bring Romance Back to Your Marriage
If your niche is helping people learn the Bible, your ebook might be: Becoming a Bible Expert: Week One

In short, your ebook should deliver information your audience needs to know in order to deliver on the promise you make as part of your niche. It should be like the Gospel of Mark: short, to the point, direct, without fluff. It should be “Just the facts.” It should be helpful, without giving away everything you have to offer. That last part is important, because you will want opportunities to serve your audience in different ways in the future. The ebook is an extended introduction to you and what you have to offer. It’s something, but it’s not everything.

How long? For your ebook, I recommend a pdf document: 20-30 pages with plenty of margin on every page. It should be long enough to convey real value, but short enough to be digested in a half hour or less. Be sure to use headings, bullet points, short paragraphs, easy-to-understand language. Be generous with images, charts, illustrations, and diagrams (assuming you have the right to include them).

Promote ahead of time / Be sure to talk up your ebook to your audience when you’re speaking. Make sure they know what they’re going to get out of it that they won’t get from your presentation. You want to provide a quality ebook, and your want your audience to know exactly how it will benefit them.

Use your ebook / Your ebook is a good place to make your readers aware of your products, services and ministries. Be sure to explain, for example, how a group can book you as a speaker. Give your reader good reasons for introducing their friends to your ministry. You want to tie together everything you are doing in a cohesive whole. We’ll get into this more in strategies 5, 6 & 7.

Need help with your ebook? Contact me at DwightClough.com

The ebook is great, but it’s only the beginning. You want ongoing contact with the people on your list. This needs to be handled just right. Depending on how you handle it, the people on your list will look forward to your emails, or your emails will alienate them and cause them to reach for the delete key.
That’s why we need Strategy #4…

 

Strategy #4
Become a trusted expert
An example
When I originally wrote this in 2009, I was on the email list of Jay Conrad Levinson, father of Guerrilla Marketing. I loved getting his emails because …
…every email was helpful
…every email was short and to the point
…even though some emails contain a sales pitch, I always felt like I come first, the sale comes second.

There are a zillion marketing gurus floating around—more every day. But, when I think of marketing, I think of Jay Conrad Levinson. He’s the first person I would turn to for resources on marketing. I would recommend him and buy a book from him much faster than anyone else. (Levinson passed away in 2013, but I still love what he has written.)

I used to get 20-40 emails a day from other marketing “experts.” None of them, in my mind, was in the same league as Jay Conrad Levinson. Most of them were busy trying to get me to come to a page where I’ll buy their stuff. Many of the emails are not clear; I need to work way too hard to get the point of what they’re saying. I figure: if it isn’t clear in about three seconds how this email is going to help me, it’s not worth bothering with. Delete.

Your objective with your list is be helpful without being obnoxious. You want to become the trusted expert for your niche just like Jay Conrad Levinson was to me for marketing.

How do you do that?

• Send an occasional – not every day* – email. (* unless your audience is expecting a daily message or devotional)
• Get right to the point.
• Deliver on your promise. What’s your niche? Stay with it. If your niche is helping people overcome anxiety, then every email needs to be connected to that promise.
• Be brief. No one has time to read a five-page email. You can redirect to a web page if you have an extended message to share. Rick Warren’s newsletter is a helpful model here. About 40% of the time, I click on the link and look at the web article. His emails respect my time.
• Be polite.
• Honor unsubscribe requests. People need to know they can disconnect. If they want to go, let them go.

Here’s why you are sending those emails: Within your niche you want to become and remain the trusted expert. You want to become the one that people turn to for help. If you have been given a gift by God to help other people, they need to know about you in order to get the help God designed you to provide.

Stay in touch with your list. Become their trusted expert. Remember, you’ve cemented a relationship not just with one audience for an evening, but with all of your audiences. You are their trusted expert.

As a trusted expert, you are in a position to provide a whole new level of service. And that’s what Strategies #5, #6 & #7 are all about.

 

Strategy #5
Offer a book…at least one
Every speaker should offer a book, and here’s why: A book gives the members of your audience an opportunity to enjoy an extended experience with you. In a few minutes, you will leave the platform. But your book could remain in someone’s library for years.
Intimate and powerful / With a book you can communicate a much more intimate and powerful message than you typically can at a microphone. A book conveys the sense of you and the reader, while a speech puts you and the listener in a room with dozens or maybe thousands of other people.

Extend your message A book extends your message. You only have a few precious minutes when you’re up in front. But a book gives you the leisure of hours of a readers time. There’s much more time to make a difference, to completely communicate your message, to get your point across.

Lasting message While you talk can be forgotten in a few weeks, the contents of your book remain fresh and available to your reader for years.

What to include
Book vs. ebook While your book can be a souped-up version of your ebook—with more detail; don’t overlap the two too much. Each should have value by itself.

Memoir This is the perfect place to tell your story in detail. If you have written permission to include other stories from other people, this is a good place to do that as well. People love stories. They want to enter your experiences, walk through what you’ve walked through, and see what life will be like when they learn what you have to teach them. They need to know about your struggles and your victories so they can find a way to give your message a home in their own lives. Whether you approach this book as a how-to reference or a life story, a well written story conveys your message better than any other single approach.

 

Strategy #6
Offer a course
A course offers your audience the next level of engagement.
When you create an online or offline curriculum for your audience, you are giving the members of your list an opportunity to engage your message in a life changing way. A course provides an interactive opportunity to learn.

Your course might be as simple as a guide book or study guide for your book. It might be a stand alone curriculum.

Your course could include

• content in written, audio, video and/or PowerPoint form
• questions for large or small group discussion
• questions for journaling, study, discussion or personal reflection
• computer scored online assessments
• leader’s guide
• outside sources / references
• required and/or optional texts

More value / higher price From a financial point of view, since a course typically delivers more value than a book, it can be priced much higher. While content in a book might be priced at $19, the same content in a course might be priced at $197 or $997 or higher depending on your situation.
Another option Or, you might take the position that a downloadable course offers people an opportunity to engage with you and your ministry for the first time. You might want to make it available as a get-acquainted gift, and provide it for free. Or you might do both.

 

Strategy #7
Offer face-to-face or phone interaction with workshops, life coaching, consulting, retreats, tours, counseling, small group or one-on-one
Some members of your audience want and are willing to pay for an extended personal interaction with you. They know that you offer what they need, and that the closer they get to you, the better solution they will obtain. For these people, it makes sense to offer something in keeping with your niche and your ministry.
Here are some of the ideas I’ve seen:

• Life coaching via phone
• A week-long school limited to 20 participants
• A weekend summit, workshop or retreat
• Face to face or telephone counseling
• An extended mentoring arrangement
• An active Facebook group
• Guided tours

Here’s a unique idea: One consultant offers takes his architectural clients on group tours to view buildings worldwide.

This kind of personal interaction allows you to make a much deeper difference in the lives of a few key people – most likely leaders who can help you spread your message to others. In the process, many times these leaders are willing to pay top dollar for access to your time, which can help you raise the funds you need to move your ministry forward.

It all works together / All of these seven strategies work together. Without a niche, a list makes has little value. Without a list, you’re unlikely to sell enough books to make writing a book worthwhile. Without an ebook, it’s difficult to get enough people to opt in to your list. Your ebook and book open the door for the kind of personal coaching described on this page. Your weekly or biweekly emails keep your audience connected to you and establish you as the unmistakable trusted expert in your niche.

 

Special advice for fiction vs. nonfiction authors

Fiction
Writing: Quality of writing matters. Your writing is judged based on your ability to transport your reader into the world of your characters. As a rule, readers want characters that they care about immersed in a struggle that matters to the character and the reader. The story is in the struggle. The strength of the story is based on the strength of the adversary or the size of the problem the hero(ine) needs to solve. Every page should move the story forward. Usually the resolution takes place when the main character is forced to make a difficult choice. S/he makes the right choice even though it’s hard to do, and because of that choice, the conflict is resolved. Great writers evoke powerful emotion and/or use their stories to bring profound insight to their readers.
Keys to success: Developing a loyal following, so you can keep selling new books to the same readers. One of the easiest ways to do this is to write a series, ideally with the same main character(s). Hook your reader early, and keep her/him hooked until the last page. If you have the power to hook a reader early, you can post the beginning of your novel online with a link to purchase the paperback or e-book version once the reader is hooked. I would also recommend including the first few pages of a subsequent book in the back of your existing book along with an order form or a website reference so your reader can order your subsequent books. Identify your market, connect with them, build a following.

Spin offs: Successful fiction writers are much in demand as speakers and presenters at writers’ workshops. Movies and merchandising can be options for highly successful fiction writers.

Publishing: Once you get a following, it might make sense to explore working with an agent and a traditional publisher so that you can concentrate on writing.

 

Nonfiction
Writing: Clarity in your message matters. Your writing is judged based on it’s relevance and usefulness to the reader. Are you giving them information or inspiration that they can’t easily get elsewhere, that really makes a difference in their lives?
Keys to success: Clearly defining your target audience will help you not only shape your marketing plan but also the content of your book(s).
Spin offs: Can your content be repackaged as a course, a seminar, a speaking tour, a DVD presentation, a coaching service? This is the way some of the most successful nonfiction writers become wealthy. Your book becomes one link in the chain of an entire array of products and services.

Publishing: Self publishing can be a great route for many nonfiction authors, particularly for those who have a strong business sense and a strong connection with their target audience. Some choose a traditional commercial publisher, however, because it adds credibility, because it’s the only viable route to their audience (most textbooks, for example), or because it connects them with a wider market.

 

Coming up!

Do you need a Foreword? What about a prologue? What goes on a copyright page and why do you need one? In our next lesson, we’ll talk about the elements that go into a book, which ones you need, which ones you don’t need, which to avoid, and where to put them.

Course index and link to next lesson are below

 

Recommended resources and sample books

Yes, these are referral links so there is a danger that I might make money if you click through and purchase…

 

More resources

LibreOffice, a free alternative to Microsoft Word (scroll down for the most recent stable version)

Download GIMP, a free alternative to PhotoShop

AWeber, an email list management service—I’ve experienced excellent customer service from these folks (and, yes, this is a referral link)

How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months

Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book (Volume 2)

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: For Authors and Publishers, 6th Edition

 

About Dwight Clough

I am a national award-winning writer, published author (20+ books), ghostwriter, and publishing consultant. Since 1983, I have worked on a wide range of writing projects for thousands of enthusiastic clients. I’ve helped clients write, rewrite, and publish their books.

I specialize in Christian inspirational, life story, devotional, educational and leadership books, but I’ve worked on other book projects ranging from microbiology to mental health.

You can reach me here:

 

 

 

 

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