The truth about becoming an author

There’s more to becoming an author than planning and writing a book.  There are lots of decisions that you need to make - these are a few things to think about.

Is there a market for this?

While everyone wants to stand out and be unique, if no books are listed on your core subject you’ll need to find out why.  Of course, you may have hit on something absolutely brand new, but there’s a reason why most mainstream publishers are reluctant to take on something completely untried. 

Check out the bookshops - online or offline - and look at the catalogues of publishers that publish this genre.  This should give you an idea of what else has been written around your subject or style.  If there are a few popular books around the subject, that means you’ve got a good chance of building a good readership.

How will you publish?

When J.K. Rowling published her first Harry Potter book in the mid 1990s, most authors had to go through the mill of submitting their manuscript for review and getting rejection slips (J.K. Rowling got 12 rejections before Bloomsbury picked up the first Harry Potter). 

Self-publishing was considered to come under the heading of ‘vanity publishing’.  However, independent publishing (Indie) is now much more mainstream and there are many ways to publish your manuscript, whether it’s print-on-demand, ebooks, audio books or a combination.

Investment

The days of juicy advances have gone, even with the big publishing houses.  A well-known name might be offered an advance, but unknown authors rarely get them.  However, if you do get a contract with a mainstream publisher you will get editing, cover graphics, the cover blurb and the book layout included as part of the deal.  That’s why your percentage of net is likely to be less than 10%.

With independent or self-publishing you can set your book price and make a much higher percentage of net.  BUT you will need to pay for your own editing, cover graphics, write your own blurb (a different skill to writing the main text) and pay for the book to be laid out - at least if you want it to look professional. 

This means a substantial investment up front - editing of a 50,000 word book can cost at least £2,000 - if you use a professional editor (don’t be tempted by a third-world editor who is cheap - it will show).

Marketing

Mainstream publishers do far less marketing than you would imagine.  So, if your book is to be successful, you need to have a sound marketing plan regardless of how you publish it. 

Who are your market?  Where do they look for books like yours?  How do you engage with them?  What do you need to do to have a successful book launch? Your book will disappear with barely a ripple if you don’t put some effort into it (I’ve made this mistake and know what I’m talking about!)

You’ll need marketing pre-launch to build momentum and then continue to market your book to keep sales coming in.

A bit of planning and research is worth its weight in gold.  Get some training in book marketing and you’ll get a  bigger chunk of income.

If you want to do some video learning - check this out.

How to get your web copy on target

When you start writing copy for your website – or are about to undertake a revamp – you need to do more than decide what you want to say.

The first thing you need to do is to find out what people are looking for when they come to your website. 

• What keywords do they search on? 
• What are the problems they’re trying to solve?
• What information are the looking for?

That might sound obvious, and the answer for most people is knee-jerk – “My services” (or “My products”).  However, it’s not as simple as that.  People don’t just buy what you do or what you sell, they buy the experience of working with you or doing business with you.

If you’re not sure of the answer – it’s time to do a little research.  Personally, I find key word research is mind-blowing, you get so much information it can put you into overwhelm.  However, it’s worth doing a little digging, to ensure you’re delivering the right information.

There are a couple of useful tools: 

Answerthepublic.com

This has a free option and a paid option.  The free one only allows you one search per day, but if you type your key words in, it generates ‘maps’ of all the questions people ask around those keywords.

Ubersuggest.com

You type your keywords in and this will give you a list of all the associated words, the number of searches, the cost per click and other useful information.  My advice to avoid getting bogged down in this kind of list is to just look at the top ten.  However, you can look at the top ten for more than one set of keywords.

Remember that each of your services/product pages will have its own keywords.

I was helping a client to get their marketing material focused; he was a business consultant that specialised in the people end of project management.  He thought that people bought his project management skills and understanding of how people approach a project, but, when he asked his clients what they got from working with him, he was astounded at the feedback he got!

“You do what you say you will.”

“You turn up on time, don’t make a big deal and get the job done on time.”

“We know we can rely on you to deliver what you promise – without disrupting our workplace.”

Now he has a completely different focus for how he presents his services.  He’s still delivering the same services, but he’s focused on the experience people get from working with him, not on what he does.

I always encourage clients to actively resource testimonials – real testimonials, not therapy!  Let me explain – left to themselves most clients are happy to provide a testimonial and most of them are along the lines of:

“Working with Susan was a great experience, she was easy to talk to and made the process really easy.”

If you think that’s a good testimonial – think again – that’s therapy!  It’s only one part of the three parts you need.  Most clients are delighted to tell you how much they like you, but they forget the critical parts of the equation – what did you do and what were the results?

An ideal testimonial should look like this:

“Susan took on our recruitment strategy development and not only made the process really easy, but cut our recruitment costs from £500 per new member of staff down to £300.  She’s also reduced the management time spent in interviewing by 40% and the candidates we’re recruiting are much better quality.”

Can you see the difference?  Anything that’s measurable in numbers is like gold dust as most people are very conscious of the return on investment in the services they hire in.

What else should you be asking your clients for while they’re happily completing testimonials for you?  That’s easy – referrals – “Who else do you know who would benefit in the same way as you have from my services?”  They always know someone!  Don’t forget to add “Would you introduce me?” and then watch your business grow without having to do cold calls.

When you have all the information about what people are looking for, it will make it much easier to create the content.  The result will be that visitors to your site can see you deliver exactly what they want. 

Why send a newsletter?

Newsletters are part of your email marketing strategy, but just randomly sending them out, isn’t good marketing.  They need to have purpose.

If you’ve read my previous blogs you’ll know that a newsletter that is simply keeping people up-to-date with your organisation’s progress, isn’t interesting or likely to keep them subscribed and reading.  A good newsletter is content-rich.

But we’re getting ahead of the game here - let’s look at your lists first.  Who is on them?  What steps did they take to get on your list in the first place?  They must have subscribed by a process - and, unless they already know you, the chances are they didn’t fill in a form on your website that invited them to sign up to your newsletter.  We all have far too much stuff in our inbox to ask for yet another newsletter. 

Most people sign up to a list in exchange for information of value to them - if that’s what got them on your list, most information around the same subject will be of interest. 

If people are on your list because they’ve bought from you before, that means they’ve already identified themselves as clients - that means they’ll be interested in other products or services in the same field.

I’m not suggesting that your newsletters should be sales pitches for something similar to what the people in that list have already signed up for - or, at least, not ONLY a pitch.  A newsletter is your chance to build rapport and develop the relationship your readers have with you.

That means a newsletter needs to be:

• Engaging - written in a conversational, rather than corporate style
• Educational - there needs to be content that will help people to understand or learn about something of value to them
• Entertaining - include stories (although you may call them case studies or customer feedback) - everyone loves a story!

In addition, you can sneak in your promotions - especially if they promise massive value to the reader as well.  If the lead article sets up how important a certain activity or tool is, then the promotion offers them access to exactly what they need - it enhances your sales potential.

These things don’t happen by accident!

My formula for a great newsletter:

• A headline that screams ‘open me’ - this needs to be something that they can’t resist finding out more about.
• A lead article that delivers fantastic value - or great entertainment.
• Your promotion
• Some more value. 

      You’ll find people actually look forward to getting your emails and it’s easier to convert them into clients.

All social platforms are not equal

Social media is a fantastic way to put your business in the spotlight - providing you do it in the right way - but which social platform do you choose - or should you just hit them all?

This is all about your client - if you know who you’re aiming to reach, that will help you to decide which social platforms will work best for you.  Also knowing who you want to talk to will also inform HOW you use your chosen platform too.

Let’s look at some of the big players.

LinkedIn

Ideal if you sell business-to-business (B2B), but it takes a lot more than just having a profile and posting the occasional comment. 

• Optimise your profile for your ideal client
• Have a content posting plan for both updates and articles
• Use the search function to find people in the companies you want to reach
• Join the groups where your target market are active (this is likely to be some trial and error, but persevere)
• Connect with existing and former clients and request they post testimonials (recommendations) on your profile.

LinkedIn advertising has not got a great reputation for success, but there is lots of engagement on the home page if you post good stuff, which often opens the door to useful relationships.

LinkedIn launched in 2003, and was bought by Microsoft in December 2016.

Facebook

Most people are in ‘social’ mode on Facebook, so, while there are tons of business pages the most successful businesses are those selling direct to the consumer (B2C).  People do buy things on Facebook, but think gifts, learning and personal development, wedding-related things, sports equipment and self-help.

That doesn’t mean that businesses that sell to other businesses don’t hang out on Facebook, but they often find it’s a great way to build their lists with Facebook ads, with a view to upselling via email later on.

The big plus is that Facebook ads can be highly targeted with a wide range of demographics so only the people who you want to see your ad will do so.

Facebook groups are also a good way to promote your business - with a higher level of engagement than LinkedIn, but don’t use them just to sell or people will vote with the ‘leave group’ button!

Messenger is the Facebook messaging system (and Facebook also owns WhatsApp, although, at the time of writing this wasn’t integrated into the Facebook offering).

Instagram

This is a highly visual platform, owned by Facebook.  It’s all about images and short video clips.  As a business tool it’s great to show off products and visual results from services. 

For instance, Joe Wicks (the Body Coach) used Instagram to build his hugely successful fitness and nutrition business, with before and after images and high speed recipe demos.  His quirky personality came over loud and clear and gathered millions of followers.

It’s fairly random as a wide range of users are on Instagram, both personal and business.  Think of it as a shop window, rather than the sales counter.

For businesses that are more service oriented, such as coaches, consultants and therapist, you’ll need to be creative in getting your message across.  This might be using video testimonials or quotes presented in a visual format.

Instagram was launched in 2010 and acquired by Facebook in 2012.  It can now be managed directly from your Facebook page, which makes life easier for people working on a desktop/laptop rather than a smartphone.

Pinterest

Pinterest is also a highly visual platform, but the difference between Pinterest and Instagram is that, on Pinterest images are sorted by subject, rather than just by the user.  This means that it’s easy to compare similar items and Pinterest has become a very popular platform for people to check out products.

Although the concept is simple, based on digitally pinning images to a board around a specific subject, each image has the facility to add up to 500 characters of content and a specific web link.  This gives it the edge of Instagram, where words are few and the only link is the one you put on your profile.

The stats indicate that Pinterest sales outstrip Facebook by about 4:1.  Launched in 2009, currently Pinterest is owned independently of other social media/internet companies.

YouTube

Although YouTube is a video library, it’s also the second most used search engine after Google.  The difference being that when you search on Google, you leave Google to go where the link takes you.  When you search on YouTube your link takes you to somewhere on the YouTube platform.

If you’ve set up your YouTube channel well, it can be a powerful marketing tool, promoting more of your own content. 

It’s an opportunity to share your knowledge and expertise to help your viewer in some way.

Again it’s important to plan your content and create videos that represent your business positively.  You can use it for training, product launches, information, video blogs and much more.

YouTube was launched early in 2005 and bought by Google late in 2006.

Of course, there are other popular social platforms, such as Snapchat and TikTok, but they are still to develop the level of firepower that the well-established networks give business owners.