Authors Must Prime the Pump

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

When I begin a new nasal spray for my allergies, I have to spray a couple of times to prime the pump. Then it will work properly. For this article, I’m adding an image of an old-fashion pump. For this pump to give water, you have to pump it a number of times. Through taking action, you bring the water up from the well until it runs out of the pump. 

Authors have to prime the pump to sell their books and in this article I want to give you some ideas and details about actions in this process.

Someone must hear about your book dozens of times before they purchase it. The author is the person with the greatest passion for their topic--and it is up to you to drive this exposure or prime the pump--with social media, stressing the benefits of your book, telling stories, sending emails, writing magazine articles, shooting videos, going on podcasts and radio shows and many more actions--hopefully you get the idea.

Recently David Hancock, the founder of Morgan James Publishing, and I were talking about the presale process. He said at 13 months bestselling author Dave Ramsey will begin talking with his audience about a forthcoming book and the content of it. He will tell his readers that he is writing the book and a bit of what it will contain.  When Ramsey talks about this forthcoming book, he is peaking the interest of his readers and priming the pump for them to prepare to purchase it. 

In other articles on The Writing Life, I’ve mentioned that I’m a Daniel Silva fan of his writing. Each year, Silva writes a single novel which is released in July. Almost a year ahead, he will announce the title in his newsletter then a few months later, he will show the book cover. A few months later he will announce the book is ready to be pre-ordered. His next newsletter will announce that readers can order a signed copy of this forthcoming book. How does he sign these books? His publisher sends him a page of the book and Silva signs these pages then returns them to the publisher. They are bound into signed copies. It’s called a book tip-in and is used to drive pre-sales for the forthcoming novel. 

I ordered my copy of A Death in Cornwall on April 3rd and the book will not release until July 9th. Whether you order your book from your favorite independent bookstore or an online bookstore like Target, no copies of the book will ship until the release day. I’ve already ordered my signed copy. 

According to David Hancock, “The best time to begin marketing and telling people about your book is the moment you decide to write it or today--which ever day comes first.” As David told me, there are three reasons bookstore buyers purchase a book. First, you’ve compared your book to other books on your topic or category. Because other readers have bought X number of that book, the bookstore will order your book for their customers. The second reason for bookstores to order your book is you are the right person, talking about the right topic at the right time. Yes, there were a number of rights in that last sentence but you can sell books if they line up. The final reason is that you as the author are consistently talking to your reader about this topic. That consistent effort pays off with a steady stream of book sales in the bookstore. 

Every Author Must Cross Two Bridges

As David Hancock recently told me, every author with their book needs to cross two bridges. The first bridge is:

1. The Authority Bridge. The public must perceive you as the right person talking about the content of your book. You show you are an authority through consistently talking about the topic of your book. Also you bring the audience along on your publishing journey as you write the book, look for a publisher, get rejected, keep trying and eventually get accepted. 

2. The Permission Bridge. Most authors don’t build this bridge. Instead the hold their content close to themselves then begin to share it when their book comes out. If you have built the permission bridge you have shared your content and expertise on the topic and earned the right to ask your readers permission to buy your book. You’ve not only created a book but created associated products such as a reader’s guide with study questions or a journal or have launched an online course associated with it. What else can you build in addition to your book? Can you create a keynote speech tied to your content which you give to various groups and settings? As David Hancock said, readers beget readers. 

As you build the authority bridge and the permission bridge, then you begin to build the community or tribe who love your content and your work. As Jay Conrad Levinson, the creator of Guerrilla Marketing in the 80s often said, he made $35,000 on his book but $10 million because of it and the related products from it. 

During my conversation with David Hancock, he also gave me the top four best practices to sell books:

1. Word of Mouth. People talk about the books they are reading. How did the book change them? Give them access to your content and they will talk about you and your book.

2. Consistent Email. It sounds old fashion but here's the truth. Not everyone has a Facebook page but everyone has an email address. David suggested sending one email a month and this regular communication on your topic will build your audience.

3. Podcasts. There are millions of podcasts and they need authors who can speak with authority and passion about their topic. Learn how to pitch and get on these podcasts

4. Social Media. Many writers will groan at this final one because in general there is a lot of noise on social media. David advises you to be consistent, be a real person and it takes patience. 

In this blog post, I want to give you an unedited recording of my interview with David Hancock which is about 35 minutes. This recording will provide more details than this article. Follow this link and download the audio to your computer and save it. There are three vertical dots on the right side of the recording. Click the top dot of the three on the right and it will let you download the audio then listen to it. 

What steps are you taking on a consistent basis to prime the pump with your audience? What am I missing? Let me know in the comments.

 

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Much of the publishing process is outside of the writer’s control. 10 Publishing Myths helps writers have a realistic perspective and take action. Get 10 Publishing Myths for only $10 +FREE shipping + over $200 of free bonuses.

Why It's Never Too Late To Promote

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

As an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing, I've worked with many different authors on launching and promoting their books. As a reader, I've been on a number of launch teams, received, read and reviewed advance reader copies (ARCs) of many books. As a writer, I've taken classes on launch plans, seen the checklists from others and much more. While I've written more than 60 books for traditional publishers, it's been a few years since I launched a new book.

Last spring, I finished my manuscript for 10 Publishing Myths, gathered a foreword from New York Times bestselling author and long-time friend Jerry B. Jenkins and endorsements from 18 authors, editors, agents and publicity experts. The Morgan James team designed a beautiful cover and I had some advanced copies to take to a couple of conferences. While everything looked to be moving forward, suddenly there were some glitches.

First as a part of the process, Morgan James showed my cover to the sales team. Normally they get little feedback but in my case, the sales team suggested changes. It was a good thing in some ways to have their engagement and interest.  The feedback changed some significant details on my book cover. 

I took my book to a couple of conferences and sold a few advanced copies. One reader asked if I would like some feedback. I responded yes I'd love your feedback. It turned out she was a proofreader and sent a lengthy list of over 50 errors (missing words, wrong words, typos, etc.). Grateful for such detailed feedback, I worked through each suggestion and made all these changes before it released to the bookstores (print and ebook).

Also I worked with Misty Taggart from Trailer to the Stars on a one-minute book trailer and I ordered business cards with my first cover. Yet now my book trailer and business cards needed to be changed for everything to match and work properly. Also I built my book website but the clock has continued moving and my December 17^th  launch date arrived--and I was not ready and only did a small percentage of my launch plans.
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I've learned several lessons from this experience:

1. It is never too late to promote or tell others about your book. If you missed launching your book, begin today to tell others. 

2. Take the long view of your book and make a personal commitment to continually look for new ways to tell others about your book. There are over 4,500 new books published every day (includes the self-published books). The book trailer for my Billy Graham biography has been viewed over 11,000 times in the last five years.  

3. Your passion for your book and topic will last much longer than anyone else. Understand that you will drive the promotion and continued sales of your own work—no matter how you have published.

4. Ask others to help you in the promotion process. Ask others but in your asking make it easy for them to say yes. Just look at this page I wrote and prepared for my new book, 1o Publishing Myths. This page has links to the exact pages on Amazon, Goodreads and Barnes & Noble where I need reviews. Also I included a link to a two page PDF where they can fill in the blanks and write their review. Also this promotion page includes several ClickToTweet posts they can share about the book on social media (whether they have read my book or not).

5. Create an interesting and inviting giveaway with your book. When I was gathering endorsements for 10 Publishing Myths, Alice Crider told me I was missing the 11th Publishing Myth. I listened and decided to write this chapter. It is designed exactly like the rest of my book but not inside the book. You can get it right away at this link. What type of inviting giveaway can you create for your book?

No matter what happens with the launch of your book my simple advice is: keep moving forward.

What glitches or challenges have you found in launching a book? Let me know in the comments below.

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Are You An Evangelist?

Many people assume an evangelist is an occupation for someone like Billy Graham. I'm using the word in the secondary Webster definition: “Someone who talks about something with great enthusiasm.”  Pause for a moment and consider what topics you face with enthusiasm and are actively telling other people about it.

In recent weeks, I've been an Overdrive evangelist. Using Overdrive on my phone has raised the amount of books I'm consuming—audio books. Overdrive is a free app that I downloaded on my phone and it is tied to your local library. You can check out the audio book from your library for 21 days then download the entire book on your phone. Now that I have the audio on my phone, I can use it anywhere. I listen to the book while I walk on the treadmill. Because of Bluetooth, I listen to the same book in my car—even when I drive a short distance. Recently I've been traveling and I've listened to these audio books in the airport or on the airplane. If I have my phone, then I have access to the audio book.

You can have different library cards on Overdrive. Each library has purchased different books so you can access a different selection. Currently I have three library cards and recently drove into Denver to get a Denver Public Library Card because they have a larger selection of books on Overdrive.

I listen to a great deal of nonfiction—business books, biography, memoir and how-to books. You can see many of these books just checking this location on Goodreads. After I hear a book, I will write a short review and post it on Goodreads and Amazon. This practice doesn't take much time but increases the number of reviews I post because of the increased volume of audio books I've been consuming.
In my conversations at writers' conferences, I've been asking people if they use Overdrive. If they say, “No.” Then I pass along my experience and how they could use it as well. I've become an evangelist for this program.

Passion and enthusiasm is important for every writer. It is your passion that sustains you for the writing and marketing of a book. For example, for many years I've been passionate about teaching writers how to craft a great book proposal or pitch for their book. I've written a book.  I've taught the material at various writers' conferences. I continue to write about book proposals in my Book Proposal Boot Camp column for Southern Writers Magazine. I have a free teleseminar on the topic and also my free book proposal checklist.

My passion for book proposals has been actively passed on to others. Others have recommended my Book Proposals That Sell or my Write a Book Proposal course or other resources. It's been encouraging to see the Amazon reviews for the book and the feedback from other writers who have used my book to locate a literary agent or get a publishing deal.

How is your passion for your writing translating into action? A book? An online course? A teleseminar? A workshop for a conference? The possible ways for you to pass on your enthusiasm are endless.

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Ten Ways to Capture Your Blog’s Passion & Profit

Most people start blogging because they are passionate about their particular topic or subject matter. Each day they pull up to their computer and crank out some more words then post it and go on with their day. Through their blogging, these writers:

* Establish themselves as an expert on their topic

* Begin to gain readers to their writing

* Grow their communication skills through regular writing

While I applaud these three benefits from blogging, take a minute and think about the time and effort you are pouring into your writing. Can you balance that effort and turn a profit from your writing? Whether you are just starting a blog or have been blogging for some time, I want to give you the top ten ways to make money on your blog.

1. Create clever post titles. People don’t come to your blog to read advertisements. Instead, they come to read good content. And their first clue as to whether the content is good is based solely on the titles of your blog posts. That’s why you need to create interesting, benefit-driven post titles.

Example #1: Here’s an example of a ho-hum title: “Dog Training Tips”

Example #2: Now here’s an example of a title that will get people reading your posts: “10 Surefire Dog Training Tips That Will Have You Firing Your Dog Trainer!”

2. Optimize your content for the search engines. Your blog won’t put a dime in your pocket if no one reads your content and sees your ads. That’s why you should seek to optimize your content to pull in traffic from the search engines. You do this by finding out what keywords your market is already searching for in Google, and then including these keywords in your articles two or three times per 100 words of text.

3. Weave product recommendations into your content. Your ads shouldn’t be confined to your blog’s sidebar – you can also put them directly into your content.

4. Post regularly, such as twice per week. Doing so makes your blog “sticky.” It also gives your readers a reason to keep coming back and again and again, which gives you another chance to sell them something.

5. Create regular weekly features. This is another way to get your visitors to return on a regular basis.

Example: You can create a feature called “Friday’s Super Tip,” where you post your very best niche-related tip every week.

6. Make use of your blog sidebar. You can post text ads, banner ads and other graphics, links to your best blog posts and a newsletter subscription form in your sidebar.

7. Rotate products on your blog. Doing so keeps your blog fresh. But it also gives you a chance to track and test your offers to see which ones put the most money in your pocket.

8. Use pictures. You can post relevant pictures in your articles as well as your sidebar, which will work to draw people’s eyes to your content and ads. You can get these photos for as little as $1 each at stock photo sites.

9. Encourage people to subscribe to your RSS feed. People who are subscribed are more likely to become a regular reader of your blog.

Don’t just rely on people subscribing to your RSS feed, however…

10. Get people on your newsletter list. One way to do this is to password-protect some of your best posts, and then offer access to these posts only to those who’ve subscribed to your newsletter list. Another way is through a Feedblitz account. Use the link to set up a 30 days trial. You can set up a simple way for people to subscribe to your blog and receive it through their email. I have over 500 subscribers to my blog using this system.

These tips are just scraping the surface when it comes to making money with your blog. If you want to make real money with your blog, then you need an in-depth guide that shows you exactly how to set up a blog, create content for it and make money with it. You can get The 31-Day Guide to Blogging for Bucks by going to: http://BucksForBlog.com.

Discover Passion and Profit in A Blog

You have selected a topic that you love and started a blog. For most of us, we are passionate about that topic and it is a fun place to write our thoughts. While the word “blog” has become common it started from the term web log or a place on the web to log your thoughts. According to one site, there are over 450 million active English blogs.

I enjoy writing in my blog yet in these challenging economic times, I also see the value in combining my passion with earning some money. Over the next several entries of The Writing Life, I want to show you several different ways you can either start a blog or begin to earn from your blog. And since a blog is so flexible, there are plenty of ways to monetize it.

Here are the top three ways:

1. Sell your products.

This is the most obvious way to make money with a blog: If you have products or services to sell, then promote them on your blog.

You can put permanent banners and text ads in the sidebar. I encourage you to take a moment and look closely at what I've done on The Writing Life. If you click some of the banners, you will see they refer to some of my products such as my Write A Book Proposal course or my book, Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. You can also weave your product links into your actual blog posts.

Example: Let’s suppose you’re selling a weight loss book on your blog. You can post a “Top 10 Tips for Losing Weight” article on your blog. And then at the end of the article you can include a link to your book, “101 Tips for Losing Weight.” If people like your 10 tips, then they’ll be eager to buy your book.

Why does this work so well?

Because blogging gives you the opportunity to showcase your expertise. When you establish yourself as a trusted expert, people are more likely to buy from you.

2. Sell affiliate products.

Don’t have your own products?

No problem: You can sell affiliate products. That means that you get a commission every time someone buys a product or service through your affiliate link.

There are plenty of big companies that have affiliate programs. One of the most popular affiliate programs for physical products is the a Amazon.com program, simply because your buyers already know and trust Amazon.com.

But if you’re going to sell downloadable information products, then one of the best affiliate programs is via Clickbank.com, where you’ll find thousands upon thousands of products to sell. Best of all, the commission rates are generous. You’ll see them as high as 50% and even 75%! I've written a free 30–page Ebook, You Can Make Money. Just follow the link and get it.

3. Insert AdSense ads.

Still another way to make money on your blog is by showing Google AdSense ads on your site. You make money every time someone clicks on your ad!

Here’s the biggest benefit of this method:

You don’t have to sell a thing. You don’t have to convince anyone to buy. All you have to do is post good content on your site to attract prospects… and you get paid every time they click on an ad. It’s easy!

What’s next?

I’m sure by now you can see that there’s a world of profitable opportunities waiting for anyone who wants to start up a blog.

If you’d like to know what the Internet's wealthiest bloggers know about making money with a blog, then look no further than The 31 Day Guide to Blogging For Bucks. I encourage you to get your copy right now—risk-free since you can use it for 60 days. This guide will really open your eyes to the possibilities!

Persist With Your Passion

What are you doing each day to persist with your passion? Are you passionate about fiction? If so, what are you doing to continue growing in your craft? What are you doing to continue writing the stories in your heart and get those stories on paper? Or maybe your passion is to be published in magazines? Are you faithfully pitching new ideas and writing the assignments which come your way? Or possibly you have a nonfiction idea that needs to get published? Or maybe you have a friend with a nonfiction book idea that "should" be published? What proactive steps are you taking today to get those ideas moving?

Your breakthrough opportunity might be around the corner. It certainly can't happen if you don't keep knocking on the doors and trying to open the way. If you read these entries, you will know one of my passions is to help writers produce better book proposals and pitches to editors and literary agents. Why? Because as an editor (and now an agent), I see many proposals which have a gem of an idea--but it's buried or not pitched in the most compelling fashion. I can't fix every one of these proposals. It's impossible. What I can do is encourage writers to read Book Proposals That Sell and study the contents and grow in their abilities.

When I go to a conference, I bring several copies of my book and make a pointed case to give these books to key individuals. After the conference, I follow up and see if I can provide any additional information or open another opportunity from the gift. While my book has been out for almost two years, I continue to mail review copies to people. In fact, yesterday I mailed two more review copies. I've seen firsthand how persistence will pay off.

My book continues to be reviewed. This week Shane Werlinger posted a review about Book Proposals That Sell on Suite 101. I hope you will check it out.

Almost daily I received notices about selling electronic versions of Book Proposals That Sell. Some of these sales come from affiliates, who are leading people to my book and earning 50% of the commission from this web link. If you haven't taken two minutes, join my affiliate program and begin using your own link to lead people to Book Proposals That Sell. As people read the book, they will improve their own book submissions so you will serve others in that process. In addition to helping your audience, you will be adding some passive income from the experience. The process is simple. First, join my affiliate program, then add your link to your website, your newsletter or your emails.

Everyone needs to follow the persistence of Andy Andrews who wrote the bestseller, The Traveler's Gift. I told this story almost two years ago but I'm going to repeat it here. A popular speaker, Andy wrote a manuscript which he tried to get published. It was rejected 54 times. How many of us send out our material to this degree? He continued in his popular speaking work but did not have a book for his audience. One day Gayle Hyatt was in Andy Andrews' audience. She came up to him afterwards and suggested that he write a book.

Looking a bit sheepish, Andy told Gayle, "Your husband's company (Thomas Nelson) has already rejected my book." Gayle asked to receive a copy of the manuscript and promised to read it. Andy sent her the book. She showed it to her husband (Mike Hyatt, president of Thomas Nelson) and the book was published.

Note the perseverance in what happened next. When Andy got his new book, he gave away 12,000 copies of the book. Most of those review copies didn't make much of a difference. But one of those copies got in the hands of Robin Roberts, a producer of ABC's Good Morning America. Roberts selected The Traveler's Gift as their Book of the Month. The Traveler's Gift sold 850,000 copies and the rest is history.

The writing life isn't easy for any of us. You have to persist with your passion. It is a key characteristic of the writers who ultimately find success.