Be More Than An Author

It is terrific to be an author and have books in the world. Over 80% of Americans plan to write a book at some point during their lifetime. Many people have published books through traditional publishers or self-published their book.  It's exciting to hold the new book in your hand and dream of people reading and enjoying your book.

This morning I watched this eight-year old video of Robert Kyosaki for at least the third time. Why? Because this video contains multiple messages and insights from a bestselling author. He and his wife, Kim, are always learning, always promoting, always selling and do not see themselves as authors but as entrepreneurs. Leading up to the Quantum Leap program Steve Harrison offers a series of free teleseminars. The next one is Thursday, September 17^th  and you can sign up here. I always learn a great deal from these sessions and recommend it to you.

If you watch this video, you will hear Kyosaki encouraging you to be more than an author—to be an entrepreneur. In the last few years, I've been hearing the term authorpreneur. The word combines the word author and the word entrepreneur.

The authorpreneur is “relevant, entrepreneurial, action-oriented and literary focused.” I pulled these words from the back cover of Will the R.E.A.L Authorpreneur Please Stand Up?

An authorpreneur gets it. They understand they can't simply throw their book into the world and expect people to buy it just because it exists. No, it takes more effort than publishing a book to achieve success. I participated in this book and contributed a chapter to it called Always Learning. If you read this book and study the content of the various participants, it will get you started on your own journey to become an authorpreneur.

From my years in publishing, I find many people looking for the path to become a bestselling author. They are saying, “Just show me the path and I will follow it.” Unfortunately the journey is different for each author.  If there was a single tool or a single path, every author would find it and all of our books would sell many copies—which is not happening. The key from my experience is to always be learning, always trying new tools and new ideas. If the ideas work and increase your sales and your presence in the marketplace, great. If not, then discard those ideas and try something else.

The point is to be taking regular and consistent action in the marketplace. It certainly will never happen if you do nothing.

As I've written before, 80% of the sales for every book is up to the author. As an author, I encourage you to follow the first principle of The Success Principles by Jack Canfield: I will take 100% responsibility for my life. It is far easier to blame others and depend on others than to take your own responsibility.

What actions are you taking today to move forward for your book?

Get A Top PR Firm to Market Your Book

What if in less than 18 months, you could accomplish the following without spending one red cent of your own money?

Have a major PR firm representing you and getting you booked on...
* ABC World News
* National Public Radio (NPR)
* Oprah & Friends
* 63 major radio stations
And then...
What if companies like Coca-Cola, Wachovia, Yahoo, Toyota, Sony Pictures plus other Fortune 500's and leading non-profits offered to...
* Buy 50,000 copies of your self-published book every year
* Make it possible for you to get $500,000 in advances for your next book,
* Pay you fat speaking fees for 65 speaking engagements
* Give you testimonials from their CEO
* Send emails to 100,000+ of their customers or volunteers promoting your book, cause or business
* Feature you on their website and guarantee you'll get at least 5 million impressions.
Is the above a fairy tale?
Can it REALLY happen ... especially if you're not already famous?
It already has for Brendon Burchard, an author and speaker who's figured out some really ingenious ways to land corporate and non-profit promotional sponsorships and use them to fund his marketing efforts.

To discover how you can use his methods to promote your own book, product or business, you're invited to a free telephone seminar on Thursday, April 18th in which you'll hear Brendon interviewed by Steve Harrison.

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know I'm a compensated affiliate for Steve's programs. Here's just some of what you'll learn on Thursday's call with Steve and Brendon:
* What to do step-by-step to get a major company to sponsor your national promotional tour and pay for everything!
* Why the current economic downturn means more big companies and non-profits sponsoring authors, speakers and entrepreneurs -- even if they're not famous.
* A website you can use to find potential sponsors and promotional partners.
* The "secret phrase" which gets big nonprofit organizations to endorse your book and promote it to their members.
* The title of the BEST person to contact with your proposal and why you should never send one done with Microsoft Word.
* The #1 fatal mistake to avoid making when trying to land a deal a sponsorship deal with a Fortune 500 company.
* How to write a short proposal that gets huge companies to sponsor you -- even if you're an unknown, self-published author (HINT: there are five elements and he'll reveal all five on the call.)
and more!
Brendon's information works no matter what type of book you are working on—fiction or nonfiction. Again, to sign up for Thursday's call go here now.

Free Success Insights from a Bestselling Author

When he was first starting out, Jack Canfield and his credit cards were almost maxed out and 144 publishers had rejected his book Chicken Soup for the Soul.

But he never gave up his dream of being a bestselling author.

Today Jack is arguably the most successful, bestselling non-fiction author of all time.

He has over 500 million books in print and has launched 47 New York Times bestsellers (and even had 7 books simultaneously on the list at one point).

How did Jack get from where he was to where he really wanted to be - and more importantly, how can you use his strategies to make your own books a success?

Find out on a free telephone seminar on Thursday, January 3rd on which Jack will be interviewed by Steve Harrison, who has helped over 12,000 authors promote their books.

Whether your book right now is just a dream, a still-to-be-completed manuscript, or a published reality, this call is for you.

Go here now to register for Thursday's call.

Even if you've heard Jack before, you'll come away with strategies you can use right away. You'll discover: Jack's journey from inner city public school teacher to bestselling author and speaker

* Why becoming a bestseller is no longer about luck - it's about having a plan

* 5 ways writing a book will change your life

* What you should ideally be doing before you start writing your book and trying to get it published

* How Jack responded when his book was initially rejected by 144 publishers as well as his own literary agent, and how you too can find the inspiration to keep going

* Key insights into how the publishing and book marketing game really works

* A simple technique Jack used in writing his book, "The Success Principles," which allowed him to later sell thousands of copies to a single company. Plus, how Jack used the same method to land 50 speaking engagements -- all because of something he did while writing the book.

* A powerful way to overcome any initial discomfort you might feel about putting yourself out there as an author, speaker, book promoter or talk show guest

* How to structure your book so it's the best possible book it can be and people tell their friends about it

* Some of the pros and cons between traditional publishing and self publishing 

* How he sold his first 20,000 copies of Chicken Soup for the Soul BEFORE he even had a publisher
 
* The strategy Jack used to sell 6 million books to one company

* How to take a small part of your book and get a company or organization to pay you big bucks for it. On the call, he'll tell you how this one technique brought him $75,000

* Two keys to turning radio and TV interview into sales
and more!

Go here now to register for Thursday's call with Jack Canfield.

I know you'll learn a lot on the call with Steve and Jack. If you’ve heard his story before, it’s worth hearing again. I’m promoting the free call as a compensated affiliate because I constantly hear from authors. Many of these authors write their books with no guidance from anyone, and end up with thousands of dollars worth of books they can’t sell. 

You need to hear this call so sign up today.

A Fascinating Video Clip

This morning through John Kremer, I watched a fascinating video presentation from Matthew Bennett.

Self-published author Matthew Bennett has sold over 5 million books this way, mostly to Fortune 500 corporations. He'll be teaching his entire system at Steve Harrison's "Sell Books By The Truckload Training Event, November 8-10th, in Philadelphia.

For a free video previewing some of what will be taught at the training event, go here: http://www.SellBooksBythetruckload.com/video/?10887

For information on attending the training, November 8-10th, go here: http://www.SellBooksByTheTruckload.com/?10887

At the same time as this conference, I will be at the Florida Writers Association but I was intrigued with the video and found it worth watching. Hopefully you will as well.