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Student Examples: Marketing

Welcome back to how to write and public your ebook. We've been talking about marketing your ebook, which actually means getting people to read that darn book that you've been working on! So important for achieving the goals that you have both for your book, but also for your business, whether it's bottom line goals, whether it's getting connected to more of the right people, whether it's all that credibility that you're looking to establish in the market, you have to get people reading your book to get any of those benefits, and so that's why marketing is so key. We've talked to Chandler Bolt about marketing, we talked about promotional partners, inner circle, all that good stuff, now it's time to talk to our students about what their actually going to be doing to market their books. So Lacy Boggs, why don't you come on up to the hot seat? Tell us again who you are, what you do and what your book is all about. Sure, I'm Lacy Boggs, I run the content direction agency and I help small ...

and micro-businesses do content marketing that will help move the needle on their business. Excellent, tell me your marketing plan, what are you doing there? Yeah (laughs) so I love the idea of a launch team. I have a couple of people, especially, I can think of that would be very great evangelists for a book but just being able to put that out, especially in my groups for paid products 'cause they're already customers and I love the idea of an application that makes it feel really exclusive. Special, (laughter) exclusive is a great word. I think that's a great one, even having just a few days before the launch, I can see using some of his ideas after that first push. Say, okay it's been a week, email your favorite podcaster and ask them to have me on, you know, whatever it might be, that would be a really, you could keep going, it wouldn't have to all be pre. Absolutely. That's what I was thinking. Like I said, having a blow out release date is fantastic, but there's so much more time that comes after the release day. And sure, there's a couple of things that you only get one chance at, but it's very, very few things and in the long term they don't actually matter. We talked to Sweeney earlier, actually, and he became a Wall Street Journal best seller because he got tapped by Glenn Beck, appeared on The Blaze, Glenn Beck told everyone to go out and buy his book, said this guy is gonna be, his ideas are what people need to read in today's day and age, but that was a few months after that book came out. Normally, you become a best seller right away, but you don't have to. So that's very excellent. Anything else? I actually had kind of an aha moment. You had said co-host an event, and so I was thinking about people in my own space that I could co-host an event, and then I realized I have an acquaintance who her whole business is around networking, she teaches people how to network, and so she runs the Chamber of Commerce networking event and the such and such and the so and so, so she's incredibly well connected. Why couldn't I just ask her to either have me at one of her events, or co-host something with me? That would be super easy. Yes, do that. I did want to ask Yes please. Because I'm a B to B business, so my book is gonna be about for your business, I'm not sure how that works with local media. I can't picture myself on the local morning show talking about blogging for business (laughs) You might be surprised, one (laughs) People know that blogging for business is a big deal. People know that making money from your blog is a big deal. You've got a great story, right? What did Chandler say, the story he pitched was college drop out, starts seven figure business. There's a story there as well, and even if you're not actually talking about how to turn content marketing into a sales machine, you can talk about your story. You can talk about how you built what you've built. And even in your market, which is on the larger side, the very larger side, I think that's gonna be a phenomenal story. And they'll say, she's the author of, do you have a title yet? No (laughs) Such and such book. I gotta write it first (laughs) And people will buy it. The right people will buy it. Small business owners are everywhere. They're everywhere, we have no idea, and they want to know. The other thing that you can think about, too, is local small business journals. The business journal wherever you are is always looking for content. They're always looking for an interview. When I published a piece in Fast Company, our local, the Columbia River Business Journal I think it's called, republished that post. They're always looking for content. Chamber of Commerce might send out a newsletter as well. What else? Even things like, I mentioned the Lion's Club earlier, Lion's Club isn't specifically for business owners, but how much of their base is actually business owners? I'd say probably at least 50% if not more, at least that's what it was in Astoria. There's all sorts of things that you can do in terms of local media that isn't like the evening news. That said, I think you have a story for the evening or morning news as well. Okay? I did have one other question if that's okay. Yes please. I am actually, as we're recording this, I am in the process of a launch for a course, and the topic of the book and the launch of the course dovetail nicely. So getting it out right now seems like a great idea (laughs) but I'm not really sure how to tie the two together especially if I'm selling, you know what I'm saying? So do you have any suggestions about that? Yes, down sell. Down sell is the answer there. I wouldn't talk about two things at once. Just like Chandler said, don't try and release two books at once, don't try and talk about a program and a book at once. I mentioned early, like early early, that I recently, the last few times, I don't know, I have in the past, started a launch with a book release. So I talk about a book first six weeks, release the book, get people reading it, piggyback on the book and follow through with a program launch. Worked great. Worked really, really great. There was that, but you can do the exact opposite as well, which is get everyone thinking and talking about the program you've already sold them on it. Your lists get sold whether they buy or not, right? They get excited about the topic, they wish they could do it, maybe it would be a better time then you come along and you say, you know what, while it's not as good as working directly with me, I'm also writing a book on this, and if you want to get in on the very first group of people reading the book, you can pre-order it right here. That may be two days, three days after your cart closes. Here's where you can pre-order the book. And you know what, just because you pre-order it, I'll throw in a couple of videos as well. Or I'll throw in a module from the program that I just sold because I wanna make sure that regardless of whether this was the right time and space for you to join me in this program, that you get this information because it's super important. That's great, really smart. Sound good? Yeah. Yeah, okay, good, down sells, down sells, down sells. (laughter) Anything else? No, I think that's it. Okay, great, Lacy thank you so much. Britt why don't you come back up and then we'll wrap up. So guys think of any last questions that you might have as well. Remind us who you are, what you do and what your book's all about. I'm Britt Steele, and I'm a yoga teacher and a yoga teacher trainer and a thought leader in the yoga industry. Yes girlfriend (laughs) I'm really, really the work that I do is to shine a light for people and to show them where they might not know how to proceed in their lives or how to deal with their challenges, I'm able to use the ancient teachings of yoga and bring it to them in modern day practices that are practical, easy to use and don't disrupt their lives. With this practice and with this book, I am really excited because I have already planted so many seeds for promotions and for partnerships already. I've got people who are waiting to be my voices who are my evangelical promoters already. I just sent an email about a week and a half ago to a woman who is a dear friend of mine who is the morning talk show host for 20 years on one of the major channels, and I'm like, would I be a good fit for your show? She's like, absolutely, just tell me what you want to do. So that's already there, now I have something to tell her that I want to do (laughter) I have just been waiting, not really knowing, and then I was thinking, too, about all the places that I've been published in the past year, Elephant Journal, Mind Body Green, Annapurna Living, Yoga International, Mary Jane's Farm, those are promotional partners because I already have a relationship with their editorial team, and that really came up with Chandler. It was like, oh yeah, oh yeah! I already have that in. Just because you've been published in one particular piece of media once doesn't mean that's off your list now, it's at the top of your list. You go back to them over and over and over again (laughter) right? 'Cause they want to hear from you. They trust you, you're a known commodity, they want to tell your story. Especially if you've had success with them. Definitely follow up with those as well. Any questions about marketing your book? I'm curious about the thought leaders with different expertise. I draw a blank with that. Sure, one place to think about, since you were really focused on the lifestyle and internal application of yoga, is you just go and focus on people who are on the asana side of yoga, on the physical practice of yoga, there's plenty of books on that. There's plenty of people doing that on television or with their email list, or in podcasts, maybe even, people just talking about this stuff. Those are your thought leaders in the same space but with a different expertise. Then we can go bigger with your space as well. Remember we talk about markets as conversations, and there's the yoga conversation, but then there's the wellness conversation. Or for you too, there's the yoga conversation, and then there's the self help, personal development conversation. It doesn't even have to be, it can be adjacent, it doesn't even have to be inside of this bigger one. You look at your favorite wellness people. You look at your favorite personal development people, you look in yoga journal, you look in Elephant Journal, and you see who are the big people in this space. None of them have the same expertise that you do, you're the only person who does what you do. And so all of the are potential promotional partners. They all share ideal readers with you, right? One of the reasons you might be drawing a blank is because you're looking for specific, you think there's the five people that you need to identify, there are 500 people you could identify, that's why you're drawing a blank. Okay. Okay? Anything else? No, that's great. I'm gonna let you stay right here so I don't have to sit up here by myself, any questions from you guys before we wrap up? Is it really this simple Tara? Yes! (laughter) It really, really is this simple guys. I mean I hope you saw that. I know I didn't push every single button and I didn't show you every single piece of the plan, but if there was something really, really tricky I wouldn't have left it out. All you needed was that blueprint, right? You needed to see that once you get inside Kindle direct publishing, it's just filling in the boxes of what they tell you to fill in. Once you got inside Press Books you realized, oh this is WordPress but for making books, okay that's easy. All you needed to see was that Pages or Microsoft Word or Google Docs could turn whatever you've got into a PDF that you can sell. That's the easy part. The hard part you also have already accomplished. It's the topic, it's the outline, it's the years of content that you have already created with your expertise. So yes, it really is this easy. Anything else? All right, guys at home remember, I want you to Tweet me, I want you to Facebook me when you get those books published. It really is this easy. These guys are going to do it. Be in solidarity with us (laughter) get those books published. This is your opportunity to push your business over that tipping point, this is your opportunity to become a published author, to have that amazing byline to share with people, to introduce yourself as the author of amazing book. This is all available to you really in five days, in less than five days, or whatever timeline you want to work on, now is the time to publish your book. Thank you so much for watching. Please let me know when you are a published author.