How To Profit From Your Websites – Can You Be A Perceived Expert
The publishing business has changed dramatically in the past few years. Today, nearly anyone can publish a book it seems. Hundreds of thousands of new books hit the shelves every year. But very few people are successful at all in regards to marketing their books, with the average number of sales being around 200 over the life of the author. Marketing books is a real challenge for many people. In my work with hundreds of authors, I have identified 10 primary reasons why a book marketing strategy may fail.
Have a look at the types of projects the Ghost Writer has worked on in the past. Evaluate how the writer’s skills and techniques might fit with your needs. Look for someone who demonstrates excellent language and grammar skills, but also an eye for structure and an ear for voice. Writing a book is not the same thing as writing a sentence — make sure you find someone who is capable of the rigours of a larger project.
Do you and/or your company participate in industry events such as association meetings, trade shows, etc.? It takes more than attendance. It takes participation. Are you on panels? Do you write articles for the industry publications? Consider being involved in industry events – maybe even being on the board.
An example from my own experience may help here. About a year ago, I was contacted about writing some articles on a subject I knew absolutely nothing about – the pharmaceutical industry. I was straight up with the contact person. I told her I thought I could do this project, but that there was always the possibility I couldn’t pull it off. So I dug in and hit the research. After the agreed-upon time, I sent her the test articles. She was absolutely pleased, and I got a long-term writing job.
Because of this, calling ourselves experts rarely works. We are free do this all we want, but only when others trust us enough to come to us for information that can help solve their most intimate problems has this really taken shape in the world. So becoming an expert starts with some serious internal work.
There is so much variation in what the writer receives from clients that an estimate can only be a rough estimate. If you give the writer jumbled, confusing, unclear, or sketchy material, don’t expect instantaneous turnaround. Remember the «garbage in, garbage out» idea. If you provide jumbled input, you are clearly ensuring that the job will take longer and cost you more. The better starting product you provide to your writer, the faster – and cheaper – your results will be.
Do you get the idea? How do you start? Take a blank sheet of paper or a start a new mind map file on your computer. Jot down every possible idea that comes to you for each of the three statements. Don’t eliminate any ideas because you think they are too dumb. This ‘dumb idea’ may trigger a great thought or two later on. Keep refining the ideas. Add more ideas, combine others. Eventually, the ideas will get distilled down to a few key thoughts, but it may take more than a single session to get there. The next step is to cloak the remaining ideas in sentences for each component of the statement. This is another repetitive exercise. Keep writing new sentences, rephrase them, combine them, rearrange them. Over time, your differentiation statements will evolve.
The same holds true for my friend, Carrie Wilkerson, who has an absolutely huge following on Twitter. A big part of how she gathered that following was that she just acted like the expert. Before long, people started treating her like the writing matters 2e custom and inviting her to speak at events.
Disregarding complementary color choices. In my opinion nothing shouts unprofessional louder than poor color choices. For example, pink or red prints poorly on most shades of blue, purple or black. Some colors clash with each other. Using the wrong colors, you could end up with a Sci-Fi vibe instead of giving your business book a professional stamp. It’s worth noting, the BookCoverPro templates or most book cover templates will help you use complementary colors that enhance your message.
You want to be able to deliver your information on a global level. Writing a book uses a one-to-many model rather than the old one-to-one model of phone and email. Wouldn’t it be better if your prospects could find you on Amazon and get in-depth information about you on their own? People might not buy your book, but after looking at your book online they might go to your blog, sign up for your subscriber list on your newsletter, or someday hire you or attend one of your seminars.
Book marketing is two-fold. Putting the book into the hands of readers and helping the reading public to know who you are as an author and writer. Literary reviews and press releases can be great tools for the Indie-published author to get free promotional material into the hands of readers. Brainstorm with other writers, bloggers and friends on how these tools can best be used to promote you as a professional writer.