The 6Ps of Publishing Your Book (Part 2)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.640 --> 00:00:09.490 Hey, if one of your goals or resolutions is to write, publish and 2 00:00:09.490 --> 00:00:14.510 sell a book, you are in the right place. This is Part two off a two part series, 3 00:00:14.520 --> 00:00:20.650 the six piece of writing, publishing and selling your book. My name is Ethan 4 00:00:20.650 --> 00:00:25.040 Butte, co author of Re Humanize Your Business. My friend, teammate and co 5 00:00:25.040 --> 00:00:29.420 author Steve Personally and I worked with Wiley to bring that book to market 6 00:00:29.420 --> 00:00:33.150 about a year and a half ago. It has exceeded our own expectations, selling 7 00:00:33.150 --> 00:00:37.500 something like 25,000 copies and counting hitting a couple bestseller 8 00:00:37.500 --> 00:00:43.360 lists and, most importantly, equipping Mawr people with the philosophy and 9 00:00:43.360 --> 00:00:48.860 practice that we know can improve their employees experience and their customer 10 00:00:48.860 --> 00:00:53.080 experience. The subtitle of Re Humanize your Business is how personal videos 11 00:00:53.090 --> 00:00:59.010 accelerate sales and improve customer experience. It's the what? Why, who, 12 00:00:59.010 --> 00:01:03.740 when and how off? Building relationships through video off, making 13 00:01:03.740 --> 00:01:08.630 people feel seen, heard, appreciated and understood the process of 14 00:01:08.630 --> 00:01:13.520 communicating more clearly, building more human connection and ultimately 15 00:01:13.530 --> 00:01:18.400 increasing conversion. All those micro yeses and macro yes, is that we need 16 00:01:18.410 --> 00:01:22.640 every single day from the people that were reaching out to in order to be 17 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:28.070 successful in our roles. If you want to hear Part one of this two part series 18 00:01:28.080 --> 00:01:33.130 in which we cover the purpose of the project, the proposal that you should 19 00:01:33.130 --> 00:01:36.950 write to support the project and various things to think about regarding 20 00:01:36.950 --> 00:01:41.970 the process of getting the book written, you'll find those in part one. That's 21 00:01:41.980 --> 00:01:47.920 Episode 1 14 of the customer experience podcast, And we also put a posts to 22 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:52.350 support these episodes at bom bom dot com slash podcast. So we'll link up. 23 00:01:52.350 --> 00:01:57.660 Related resource is in the post for this episode as well as episode 1 14. 24 00:01:58.240 --> 00:02:03.450 And just as a habit of using simple, casual conversational videos to replace 25 00:02:03.460 --> 00:02:08.190 some of your plane typed out text, that faceless digital communication can 26 00:02:08.190 --> 00:02:13.580 improve your employees experience and your customer experience. So, too, can 27 00:02:13.580 --> 00:02:18.170 the process of writing, publishing and selling a book. Something I didn't 28 00:02:18.170 --> 00:02:22.200 share in the first part was a specific aspect of the purpose that drove 29 00:02:22.200 --> 00:02:26.620 Stephen me early on in the process of writing re humanize. I was talking with 30 00:02:26.620 --> 00:02:31.590 my longtime friend and team member and a guest on the customer experience 31 00:02:31.590 --> 00:02:35.870 podcast, our chief customer officer Jonathan Bolton, and he asked me, Hey, 32 00:02:35.870 --> 00:02:38.850 how long do you think it's going to take to get this written? And honestly, 33 00:02:38.850 --> 00:02:43.050 I don't remember how many hours I guesstimating. But he said, if that is 34 00:02:43.050 --> 00:02:47.420 the investment of time required, it would be worth you pursuing this even 35 00:02:47.420 --> 00:02:52.790 if we on Lee did it for our own employees to share the philosophy and 36 00:02:52.790 --> 00:02:56.720 practice the stories that support it, some of the valuable frameworks around 37 00:02:56.720 --> 00:03:02.700 it. If it was on Lee to help recruit and on board and retrain our existing 38 00:03:02.700 --> 00:03:08.610 employees, this would be worth it. Of course, a fantastic employee experience 39 00:03:08.610 --> 00:03:13.730 at a high level of employee engagement are necessary. Precursors to an 40 00:03:13.740 --> 00:03:18.970 outstanding customer experience is well, now. We didn't limit the purpose and 41 00:03:18.970 --> 00:03:23.330 scope of our project to our employees alone, although it's been very, very 42 00:03:23.330 --> 00:03:28.950 useful in that way. It's also been helpful in broadening the community in 43 00:03:28.950 --> 00:03:33.720 attracting new people to this movement in helping our customers b'more 44 00:03:33.730 --> 00:03:38.610 successful, helping our competitors customers be more successful, helping 45 00:03:38.610 --> 00:03:43.140 our competitors be more successful by writing the first and only book on this 46 00:03:43.140 --> 00:03:47.860 topic and not a week goes by. Even a year and a half later that Steve awry 47 00:03:47.870 --> 00:03:52.360 fails to hear from someone who is reaching out to us because of the book. 48 00:03:52.420 --> 00:03:57.350 I picked your book up at L. A X or at the Nashville Airport or in Denver, or 49 00:03:57.350 --> 00:04:02.450 a friend of mine gave it to me where I saw this on a coworker's desk. There 50 00:04:02.450 --> 00:04:06.760 are so many employees and customer benefits toe organizing your thoughts 51 00:04:06.760 --> 00:04:12.410 and making this commitment in a book format. You're A B M strategies and 52 00:04:12.410 --> 00:04:17.130 tactics, your digital ads, your email nurturing It only reaches a certain 53 00:04:17.130 --> 00:04:21.500 number of people. There's something very interesting about this physical, 54 00:04:21.500 --> 00:04:26.270 tangible product, or even the digital e book version or the audio book version. 55 00:04:26.840 --> 00:04:32.150 It can carry your message so much farther than you ever imagined. So with 56 00:04:32.150 --> 00:04:36.590 that set up will go to the three piece in this episode again, The first three 57 00:04:36.590 --> 00:04:42.060 were Purpose Proposal and Process. Here we're talking about publishing people 58 00:04:42.440 --> 00:04:48.490 and promotion publishing. This is a big one. There are so many ways to bring 59 00:04:48.490 --> 00:04:52.980 your book to market these days. One of the obvious options is traditional 60 00:04:52.980 --> 00:04:59.790 publishing something we did with Wiley, very prolific nonfiction business book 61 00:04:59.790 --> 00:05:04.130 publisher. I and my teammates have read several of the titles they've brought 62 00:05:04.130 --> 00:05:08.440 to market. I won't list out all of the traditional publishers, but you know 63 00:05:08.440 --> 00:05:12.590 them. Penguin, McGraw Hill, Random House. There's been a lot of 64 00:05:12.590 --> 00:05:15.460 consolidation in the industry, so I'm sure a lot of them are all kind of 65 00:05:15.460 --> 00:05:19.510 rolled up together. And it's a great option, and I'll explain why and why we 66 00:05:19.510 --> 00:05:23.050 went that way in just a moment. But another category is the hybrid 67 00:05:23.050 --> 00:05:28.530 publisher. In my view, the leader in this pack is Greenleaf Book Group. As a 68 00:05:28.530 --> 00:05:34.490 quick related bonus, their CEO, Tonya Hall, wrote an excellent book on this 69 00:05:34.490 --> 00:05:40.930 topic. Ideas, influence and income. Write a book, Build your brand and lead 70 00:05:40.930 --> 00:05:45.710 your industry. I read Tanya's book while I was deep in this process, and 71 00:05:45.710 --> 00:05:50.430 it was so helpful in so many different ways, and I don't remember it in great, 72 00:05:50.430 --> 00:05:54.400 great detail, but I'm sure it has something to say about all six of the 73 00:05:54.400 --> 00:05:58.920 piece that I'm covering in this two part Siri's. So this hybrid category is 74 00:05:58.920 --> 00:06:03.190 a bit more White Glove than the third one I'll mention here, which is self 75 00:06:03.190 --> 00:06:07.660 publishing. Ah, couple options you might look at here are scribe, an idea 76 00:06:07.660 --> 00:06:11.570 Press. Friends of mine have used both of those services and speak well of 77 00:06:11.570 --> 00:06:18.470 them, and 1/4 and often overlooks category is unpublished. For example, I 78 00:06:18.470 --> 00:06:24.860 wrote a 25 to 30,000 word piece about how to successfully adopt video as part 79 00:06:24.860 --> 00:06:28.970 of your work flow as an individual or as a team, and we opted to go 80 00:06:28.970 --> 00:06:32.160 unpublished with it. It wasn't feature length, although I could have pushed it 81 00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:37.300 out to that. Our design team and a haze in particular did a beautiful job 82 00:06:37.300 --> 00:06:41.400 designing a cover, laying it out, coming up with a visual theme for it. 83 00:06:41.410 --> 00:06:45.430 We created it in the pub format that when you open it up, it automatically 84 00:06:45.430 --> 00:06:49.830 opens. And something like Apple Books will also prince, um, hard copies and 85 00:06:49.830 --> 00:06:54.080 send those to prospects as well as to customers. It will be very helpful in 86 00:06:54.090 --> 00:06:58.200 educating people, but we're not going to go to the extra effort of getting it 87 00:06:58.200 --> 00:07:02.200 listed for sale or for download an Amazon. We're certainly not gonna put 88 00:07:02.200 --> 00:07:07.090 it in hardcover and try to get it positioned in retail outlets. So again, 89 00:07:07.090 --> 00:07:10.880 going back to the first p purpose, depending on the purpose of your 90 00:07:10.880 --> 00:07:15.290 project, you may not even choose to publish it in any kind of a formal way. 91 00:07:15.300 --> 00:07:20.880 Now, a quick consideration here between traditional hybrid self and unpublished 92 00:07:20.890 --> 00:07:26.760 is the upfront cost. With unpublished, I would give that a single dollar sign. 93 00:07:27.240 --> 00:07:31.770 You can do it pretty inexpensively. I would give to dollar signs to self 94 00:07:31.770 --> 00:07:37.010 publishing plan to spend at least $10,000 getting that going and because 95 00:07:37.010 --> 00:07:41.480 you own your intellectual property in both The hybrid publishing and self 96 00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:47.170 publishing models also plan on the cost off printing and warehousing the books. 97 00:07:47.240 --> 00:07:51.350 I can't get into all of the details there, but you will pay to print your 98 00:07:51.350 --> 00:07:56.630 own books in the self and Hybrid models Hybrid publishing. It's the most 99 00:07:56.630 --> 00:08:00.460 expensive upfront because it comes with a number of other benefits and services. 100 00:08:00.470 --> 00:08:05.000 I gave that $3 signs and a little graphic I designed, and traditional 101 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:09.720 publishing has no up front costs. That was one of the reasons we went with 102 00:08:09.720 --> 00:08:12.670 Wiley. We also felt like a traditional publisher would give us some 103 00:08:12.670 --> 00:08:16.990 credibility. As many customers as we have a large is our community is in 104 00:08:16.990 --> 00:08:20.790 relative terms and certainly relative to the total addressable market for the 105 00:08:20.790 --> 00:08:26.510 message in the book where nobody as many people know Stephen me thousands 106 00:08:26.510 --> 00:08:30.800 or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of times more people don't 107 00:08:30.810 --> 00:08:35.150 and there was no upfront investment again. That's why when I was explaining 108 00:08:35.150 --> 00:08:38.720 in the first part of this, you want to demonstrate with your marketing plan in 109 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:42.750 the second P proposal that you can mitigate their risk and make it an easy 110 00:08:42.750 --> 00:08:46.230 yes. If you're going with a traditional publisher because they are bearing the 111 00:08:46.230 --> 00:08:52.180 costs and the risks off the project Now on the back end, how are you going to 112 00:08:52.180 --> 00:08:56.330 recoup your costs again with purpose? I said it was largely a fool's errand to 113 00:08:56.330 --> 00:08:59.220 think that you're going to do this in order to make money, but you can 114 00:08:59.220 --> 00:09:04.150 generate revenue on the back side to recoup the costs of your time, perhaps 115 00:09:04.160 --> 00:09:08.240 upfront investments with a hybrid or self publisher and your marketing spend 116 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:13.390 to support the project. Unpublished, you obviously wont generate any back 117 00:09:13.390 --> 00:09:19.170 end revenue with self publishing. Of course, we said $2 signs up front, but 118 00:09:19.170 --> 00:09:25.320 we'll say $3 signs on the back because you own the work you get 100% Royalties 119 00:09:25.330 --> 00:09:30.980 from most pure self publishing options will go to dollar signs on the back end 120 00:09:30.980 --> 00:09:35.400 for hybrid publishing because you're sharing in the royalties with the 121 00:09:35.400 --> 00:09:41.060 hybrid publisher, so three up front two or three on the back and a higher level 122 00:09:41.060 --> 00:09:45.560 of service, even white glove service along the way, with the hybrid option 123 00:09:46.640 --> 00:09:51.000 and with traditional publishing, I give that a single dollar sign. You want to 124 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:54.910 pay very close attention to the promised royalty rate. Our effective 125 00:09:54.910 --> 00:09:59.050 royalty rate was much lower than what we anticipated. It was because we 126 00:09:59.050 --> 00:10:04.170 didn't fully understand, for example, that the royalty rate was on the sale 127 00:10:04.170 --> 00:10:10.790 price, not on the retail price. And Amazon had our book listed at 34% off, 128 00:10:10.790 --> 00:10:17.480 sometimes 45% off it times 52% off. In trying to decide the best way to bring 129 00:10:17.480 --> 00:10:21.410 re humanize to market, I build a business model around it, and I used 130 00:10:21.420 --> 00:10:26.100 the stated royalty rates that we would get a different levels of sales and 131 00:10:26.100 --> 00:10:32.220 again miss that detail about actual purchase price versus retail price. In 132 00:10:32.220 --> 00:10:37.700 addition, I missed the fact that bulk purchasing is often subject to a lower 133 00:10:37.700 --> 00:10:44.050 royalty rate as well. And we sold thousands of copies in bulk, 205 134 00:10:44.050 --> 00:10:50.570 100,000 copies at a time. And so, in reality, my model didn't hold totally 135 00:10:50.570 --> 00:10:55.560 my fault, and I share it here, so you make sure not to make the same mistake. 136 00:10:56.140 --> 00:11:01.690 Ah, final note before moving on to the next P and moving off of publishing is 137 00:11:01.690 --> 00:11:07.200 that the advance is just a no interest loan against your royalties. The 138 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:11.820 advance is not a gift. It's just a present payment coming out of your 139 00:11:11.820 --> 00:11:16.660 future royalty. Ah, small detail. But for us, the up front payment or the 140 00:11:16.660 --> 00:11:21.270 advance was not really relevant. In terms of negotiating the contract, it 141 00:11:21.270 --> 00:11:27.490 may or may not be a value to you and to restate all of this should be guided by 142 00:11:27.500 --> 00:11:31.470 purpose. What is your purpose behind the project that will help you 143 00:11:31.470 --> 00:11:35.720 determine the best way to bring your book to market with the fourth P? 144 00:11:35.720 --> 00:11:39.060 They're publishing the fifth P is people, and I'll rip through this one. 145 00:11:39.070 --> 00:11:45.010 Organize your people who is involved in this project. How often should they be 146 00:11:45.010 --> 00:11:49.590 updated on it? What is their preferred method of contact? Organized this 147 00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:55.510 information in advance. Some people to consider our people who'll be helping 148 00:11:55.510 --> 00:11:59.580 you with editing and or your advanced reader's. When do you want them 149 00:11:59.580 --> 00:12:03.830 involved? How often should they be looking at the draft material? Another 150 00:12:03.830 --> 00:12:08.620 category is people featured, mentioned or cited in the book. They could be 151 00:12:08.620 --> 00:12:13.500 helpful in so many different ways, even if it's just for tagging and mentioning 152 00:12:13.500 --> 00:12:17.770 when you go to social media with the opportunity to pre order order the book. 153 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:22.350 We had a list of dozens of people who were featured or mentioned in the book 154 00:12:22.740 --> 00:12:29.760 and 15 or 18 books and authors who were cited in the book organized thes As you 155 00:12:29.760 --> 00:12:34.610 go, don't wait until the end. Launch partners. This is especially common for 156 00:12:34.610 --> 00:12:39.590 solo preneurs and entrepreneurs. Is the best practice, really is to get formal 157 00:12:39.590 --> 00:12:45.910 commitments from 10 or 20 or 50 people who believe in you or who believe in 158 00:12:45.910 --> 00:12:50.620 the message and keep them informed all along the way. They can provide 159 00:12:50.620 --> 00:12:54.030 guidance and support in a variety of ways, including promoting the book 160 00:12:54.030 --> 00:12:59.460 again when it's ready for pre launch or for formal Ordering an easy category to 161 00:12:59.460 --> 00:13:03.500 bring to mind is personal and professional network who is in your 162 00:13:03.500 --> 00:13:07.150 personal network and who is in your professional network that would be 163 00:13:07.150 --> 00:13:12.110 excited to support you and the project in some way. You can go the formal 164 00:13:12.110 --> 00:13:18.930 route as well. Your publisher, AH PR agent or agency, A literary agent or 165 00:13:18.940 --> 00:13:26.100 agency. Ah, podcast placement agent or agency. Who can you hire or involved or 166 00:13:26.100 --> 00:13:30.400 bring in tow? Help you be more successful getting your message and 167 00:13:30.400 --> 00:13:35.660 your book into the right hands to the right people. In the final category, 168 00:13:35.660 --> 00:13:40.930 I'll call community thes air people who you may not know and who may not know 169 00:13:40.930 --> 00:13:46.380 you. But they believe the same things they need or want to hear this message, 170 00:13:46.390 --> 00:13:50.080 or they're already communicating similar messages. They have a similar 171 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:55.050 point of view about the world, a similar passion for how things can or 172 00:13:55.050 --> 00:13:59.270 should be. Think about where these people are and whether you're reaching 173 00:13:59.270 --> 00:14:04.270 out and participating in that community directly, or you're using your launch 174 00:14:04.270 --> 00:14:08.330 partners or your personal or professional network or an agent or 175 00:14:08.340 --> 00:14:12.950 agency in order to help get your message and awareness about your book 176 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:18.010 into this community. This is where you will get the most traction again. You 177 00:14:18.010 --> 00:14:22.950 can already advertise and send emails and do targeted campaigns to people 178 00:14:22.950 --> 00:14:27.010 that are already on your map or your radar. It's getting this message 179 00:14:27.020 --> 00:14:31.620 through this channel tomb or indifferent people that can really make 180 00:14:31.620 --> 00:14:37.380 the project a success. So here's the sixth and final category. Number one 181 00:14:37.390 --> 00:14:43.430 purpose Number two. Proposal number three process the process of writing 182 00:14:43.430 --> 00:14:48.150 the book and bringing it to market number four. Publishing just covered 183 00:14:48.150 --> 00:14:54.540 number five people. Number six is promotion. And to restate no one cells 184 00:14:54.540 --> 00:15:00.290 your book except you. No matter what type of publishing process or option 185 00:15:00.290 --> 00:15:04.810 you choose, you ultimately have to sell this book. You need to promote it. You 186 00:15:04.810 --> 00:15:09.640 need to market it. You need to sell it. So a few practical tips here lock in 187 00:15:09.640 --> 00:15:15.410 your budget early. It may be $1000. It maybe $100,000 it maybe mawr, but it's 188 00:15:15.410 --> 00:15:21.210 probably in between one and $100,000. Figure out your budget early and lock 189 00:15:21.210 --> 00:15:25.930 it in and build your marketing plan early. If you can get it basically 190 00:15:25.930 --> 00:15:29.840 shaped up early on in the proposal stage, you'll be ahead of the game 191 00:15:29.890 --> 00:15:34.720 because There is a gap between the completion of the manuscript and the 192 00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:39.580 pre sale window, and it's in that gap that you really want to step on the gas 193 00:15:39.580 --> 00:15:45.220 pedal in terms of working into your marketing plan. Starting toe. Execute 194 00:15:45.220 --> 00:15:49.840 some of the elements again. You can carry mo mentum into that gap by 195 00:15:49.840 --> 00:15:53.970 communicating actively with the right people on the right cadence weekly or 196 00:15:53.970 --> 00:15:59.430 monthly or quarterly leading up to that pre sale window. You will have a launch 197 00:15:59.430 --> 00:16:03.920 date. Ah, formal release date. But typically your book will be available 198 00:16:03.920 --> 00:16:10.140 for preorder weeks, or sometimes even months before that. You want to start 199 00:16:10.150 --> 00:16:15.360 pre selling copies ASAP, especially if you have aspirations of hitting 200 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:20.020 something like a USA Today or Wall Street Journal or even New York Times 201 00:16:20.020 --> 00:16:24.010 best seller list. Quick side note. There, even though we sold nearly 202 00:16:24.010 --> 00:16:28.750 10,000 copies in the pre sale and the first week of release, we did not hit 203 00:16:28.750 --> 00:16:32.680 any of those lists, and I suspect in having talked with a number of people, 204 00:16:32.690 --> 00:16:39.910 it was because we did too many sales in bulk, selling 203 105 100 even 1000 205 00:16:39.910 --> 00:16:45.670 copies at a time selling 9800 or 10,200 books. That way is not nearly as 206 00:16:45.680 --> 00:16:49.660 interesting to whoever is curating those lists and, as selling, say, 207 00:16:49.660 --> 00:16:53.460 10,000 copies, too. 9500 different people, 208 00:16:54.740 --> 00:17:00.470 another tip in promotion know that, like everything it is paid to play 209 00:17:00.940 --> 00:17:05.819 placements and retail outlets like an airport or even a Barnes and Noble pay 210 00:17:05.819 --> 00:17:11.130 to play, it shouldn't come as any surprise. All of that retail space, 211 00:17:11.140 --> 00:17:16.410 whether it's a grocery store or a bookstore, is all paid to play now. We 212 00:17:16.410 --> 00:17:21.540 did do some of that pay to play, and I will say it has been very effective. We 213 00:17:21.540 --> 00:17:25.460 paid to get re humanize placed in bookstores, and again, Steve and I 214 00:17:25.460 --> 00:17:30.780 continue to hear from people who saw it. The title spoke to them. They read it, 215 00:17:30.790 --> 00:17:34.810 they enjoyed it. They bought multiple copies for their team members, and some 216 00:17:34.810 --> 00:17:39.660 of those people even came to us as customers again. That was not the 217 00:17:39.670 --> 00:17:44.770 fundamental purpose behind us writing, publishing and selling the book, but it 218 00:17:44.780 --> 00:17:49.450 is a very nice byproduct of it, So just because it is pay to play doesn't mean 219 00:17:49.450 --> 00:17:54.640 that there's not a direct and indirect return on that investment. Another big 220 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:58.880 tip here and this is gonna be a reason you want to goto bom bom dot com slash 221 00:17:58.890 --> 00:18:05.320 podcast and check out the block post for episode 1 14 or Episode 1 19. I 222 00:18:05.320 --> 00:18:10.050 will include a link to the exact structure of our pre order packages, 223 00:18:10.060 --> 00:18:15.240 but the tip here is to design preorder incentives or packages pre order one 224 00:18:15.240 --> 00:18:21.930 copy and get X preorder three copies and get X plus pre order five copies 225 00:18:21.930 --> 00:18:31.500 get X plus plus 10, 25 fifty, one hundred 2, 5500 and 1000. I think those 226 00:18:31.500 --> 00:18:37.060 were our brakes there, and we actually did sell one of the 1000 copy packages. 227 00:18:37.540 --> 00:18:42.370 It was something like a $15,000 commitment, things you might offer our 228 00:18:42.370 --> 00:18:47.520 digital bonuses. We did a custom T shirt run specific to the pre launch 229 00:18:47.530 --> 00:18:52.050 and included that in some of the packages we bought some copies off our 230 00:18:52.050 --> 00:18:56.410 own book. And so Steve and I signed them and they were part of the pre 231 00:18:56.410 --> 00:19:02.260 order bonuses. So buy three copies. Get one signed copy free at 100 or more 232 00:19:02.260 --> 00:19:06.230 copies. We started doing some custom training specific to the topics covered 233 00:19:06.230 --> 00:19:12.530 in the book. At the 1000 copy level, Steve and I agreed to fly and stay on 234 00:19:12.530 --> 00:19:17.360 our own dime to wherever you wanted to bring people together into a room. We 235 00:19:17.360 --> 00:19:21.050 didn't care what room. We didn't care how many people it could be a 5000 236 00:19:21.050 --> 00:19:25.310 person auditorium. It could be five people in a conference room, all pre 237 00:19:25.310 --> 00:19:29.640 Cove it, of course. And we'd give you eight hours of training, a four hour 238 00:19:29.640 --> 00:19:33.790 morning, a lunch break in a four hour afternoon, and we would pre meet with 239 00:19:33.790 --> 00:19:36.920 you in advance toe. Learn about your audience so that we would customize it 240 00:19:36.920 --> 00:19:41.150 to you. It was such an awesome experience for us. It continues to 241 00:19:41.150 --> 00:19:45.890 serve us well today, and we got great feedback on that experience from our 242 00:19:45.890 --> 00:19:49.530 host and from the guests he brought into the room is something like two or 243 00:19:49.530 --> 00:19:54.890 three dozen people. The specific advantage off structuring a preorder 244 00:19:54.890 --> 00:20:01.290 incentive promotion is that you can collect email addresses, you know who's 245 00:20:01.290 --> 00:20:05.580 actually buying the book and how many they're buying. This allows you to 246 00:20:05.580 --> 00:20:10.890 follow up later to do things like ask for online reviews, which by the way, 247 00:20:10.890 --> 00:20:15.720 are very difficult to get. Even. Well meaning people who love the book have 248 00:20:15.720 --> 00:20:19.920 to be so intentional and conscious to carve out a couple minutes of their day 249 00:20:19.920 --> 00:20:24.450 to go do that activity if you can reach them by email and you know who they are. 250 00:20:24.460 --> 00:20:29.300 Congratulations, you're a step closer to getting that done. Another pro tip 251 00:20:29.310 --> 00:20:34.610 screenshot and save everything. Has your doing specific marketing 252 00:20:34.610 --> 00:20:39.110 activities related to the pre sale or the sale. Your book will bounce up and 253 00:20:39.110 --> 00:20:43.320 down in rankings in Amazon, for example, they update them every 10 minutes or so. 254 00:20:43.320 --> 00:20:48.270 So you're gonna hit number one perhaps, or the top 10, perhaps in a variety of 255 00:20:48.270 --> 00:20:51.940 different categories. Pay attention to it, screenshot that when you hit a 256 00:20:51.940 --> 00:20:57.190 specific ranking, is it a bit of a vanity play? Of course it is. But some 257 00:20:57.190 --> 00:21:02.100 people who are on the fence are moved by the activity of others. Theater Tiv 258 00:21:02.100 --> 00:21:07.180 ity that generated your arrival in the top three and say business sales. Re 259 00:21:07.180 --> 00:21:12.190 humanize hit number one new release in about a dozen categories, and I failed 260 00:21:12.190 --> 00:21:16.670 a screenshot, most of them because I was completely ignorant going into this 261 00:21:16.670 --> 00:21:22.110 process. It only occurred to me later on we did hit number one best seller in 262 00:21:22.110 --> 00:21:26.410 business sales, business, communication and customer relations. We also hits, 263 00:21:26.410 --> 00:21:30.300 um, bestseller list with a couple other retailers. A special shout out here to 264 00:21:30.300 --> 00:21:34.710 porchlight book company in Milwaukee in tow. Aaron Schleicher in particular. Ah, 265 00:21:34.710 --> 00:21:39.940 great partner on our launch of re humanize the fulfillment and execution 266 00:21:39.950 --> 00:21:44.130 of all of those incentive packages that you can see by checking out Episode 1 267 00:21:44.130 --> 00:21:49.390 14 or Episode 1 19 at bom bom dot com slash podcast. We put those together, 268 00:21:49.390 --> 00:21:54.680 and he and his team helped execute those. So as I collected names and 269 00:21:54.690 --> 00:21:58.020 email addresses that the different buying levels we rounded those up 270 00:21:58.020 --> 00:22:02.330 shared them with him and fulfillment went through Porchlight because we ran 271 00:22:02.330 --> 00:22:06.460 so many of our bulk purchases through them, a swell we had people buying 272 00:22:06.460 --> 00:22:09.760 through them. We were the number one best seller in the opening month of 273 00:22:09.760 --> 00:22:15.760 release, with Porchlight again a little bit of a vanity play, but it also adds 274 00:22:15.760 --> 00:22:19.640 some credibility and provides some social proof for people who may be on 275 00:22:19.640 --> 00:22:24.070 the fence about buying your book. Last tip here and it's something that we did 276 00:22:24.070 --> 00:22:28.700 not do as well as I would have liked, and I only have myself to blame here is 277 00:22:28.700 --> 00:22:33.030 sustaining the effort. Something I would do the next time around is to 278 00:22:33.030 --> 00:22:38.880 find bite sized pieces of the book that you can use to sustain an education 279 00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:44.610 based marketing off the book in social in email in another place is something 280 00:22:44.610 --> 00:22:49.970 that we did do well. Stephen, I hired a podcast booking agency to put us on to 281 00:22:49.970 --> 00:22:52.820 podcasts a month again. We've been doing that for a year and a half now, 282 00:22:52.820 --> 00:22:57.260 so I don't know how many podcasts that is. But the podcast format is an 283 00:22:57.270 --> 00:23:01.280 excellent format for having conversations about the expertise that 284 00:23:01.280 --> 00:23:06.590 you have and that you expressed in the book. And, of course, hosts are always 285 00:23:06.590 --> 00:23:10.040 looking for great guests that speak to the topics that are interesting to 286 00:23:10.040 --> 00:23:15.540 their audience and agency can help you find those hosts, find those shows 287 00:23:15.550 --> 00:23:20.160 pitch you and place you. A natural outcome of that is that you'll start 288 00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:24.040 getting invites onto shows that you don't have to get booked on through a 289 00:23:24.040 --> 00:23:29.420 booking agency. It begets itself. It also helps you sustain the effort not 290 00:23:29.420 --> 00:23:33.060 just through reaching that podcast audience, but giving you something that 291 00:23:33.060 --> 00:23:37.790 you can share on social or an email your appearances in these conversations 292 00:23:37.790 --> 00:23:44.110 on these shows. So that's publishing people and promotion three of the six 293 00:23:44.110 --> 00:23:49.260 piece of writing, publishing and selling your book here on the C X Siris 294 00:23:49.260 --> 00:23:53.940 on B two b growth and on the customer experience podcast closing Thought here 295 00:23:53.940 --> 00:23:58.170 I mentioned in the first part of this two part Siri's that I had reached out 296 00:23:58.340 --> 00:24:02.250 two people I knew who had written and published books to learn what they're 297 00:24:02.250 --> 00:24:06.980 writing process was and how they chose to bring their book to market. So I 298 00:24:06.980 --> 00:24:11.510 want to leave you here with something that two of them stated very explicitly, 299 00:24:11.510 --> 00:24:16.450 basically in these words and something that a couple other people mentioned. 300 00:24:16.840 --> 00:24:22.810 In other words, and the concept is this. It opened doors that I didn't know 301 00:24:22.810 --> 00:24:29.220 existed. I met new people. I found new opportunities. I received unexpected 302 00:24:29.230 --> 00:24:35.310 outreach and invitations, organizing your thoughts, getting them written. 303 00:24:35.320 --> 00:24:40.270 Getting them published in getting them to market is such a rewarding activity 304 00:24:40.270 --> 00:24:44.380 for so many reasons. I hope you found the Siri's valuable again. You can 305 00:24:44.380 --> 00:24:50.110 learn more by visiting bom bom dot com slash podcast. Check out Episode 1 14 306 00:24:50.120 --> 00:24:56.510 and 1 19 Their parts one and two Off the six piece of writing, publishing 307 00:24:56.510 --> 00:25:01.100 and selling your book, I hope you found it helpful again. This is a huge, huge 308 00:25:01.100 --> 00:25:05.300 topic. I was on Lee able to cover a little bit here. I hope you find extra 309 00:25:05.300 --> 00:25:09.510 Resource is they're at bom bom dot com slash podcast. Helpful. I wish you 310 00:25:09.510 --> 00:25:14.780 success in your journey to your first book or your 10th. As an avid reader 311 00:25:14.780 --> 00:25:19.130 myself, I so appreciate everyone who perseveres through the challenges it 312 00:25:19.130 --> 00:25:23.910 involves. I hope you found something helpful in this two part. Siri's best 313 00:25:23.910 --> 00:25:27.650 to you. Take care and thank you for listening to the c X Siris on B two b 314 00:25:27.650 --> 00:25:32.490 growth and the customer experience podcast. My name is Ethan Butte. You 315 00:25:32.490 --> 00:25:36.740 can reach me at Ethan at bom bom dot com or by reaching out on LinkedIn. 316 00:25:36.750 --> 00:25:41.260 Ethan Butte Last name spelled B u T. Have a great day. 317 00:25:43.940 --> 00:25:47.270 For the longest time, I was asking people to leave a review of B two B 318 00:25:47.270 --> 00:25:51.290 growth in apple podcasts, but I realized that was kind of stupid, 319 00:25:51.300 --> 00:25:56.720 because leaving a review is way harder than just leaving a simple rating. So 320 00:25:56.720 --> 00:26:00.510 I'm changing my tune a bit. Instead of asking you to leave a review, I'm just 321 00:26:00.510 --> 00:26:04.550 gonna ask you to go to be to be growth in apple podcasts, scroll down until 322 00:26:04.550 --> 00:26:08.480 you see the ratings and review section and just tap the number of stars you 323 00:26:08.480 --> 00:26:13.590 wanna give us No review necessary Super easy. And I promise it will help us out 324 00:26:13.600 --> 00:26:17.900 a ton. If you want a copy of my book content based networking, just shoot me 325 00:26:17.900 --> 00:26:21.730 a text. After you leave the rating on, I'll send one your way. Text me at 326 00:26:21.730 --> 00:26:25.370 4074903328 327 00:26:27.020 --> 00:26:27.560 Mm.