When I work with authors, one of our key initiatives focuses around moving from “Book To Brand“, and in this competitive publishing environment that’s one of the most important things you can do as an author no matter who you work with. (Yes, I am the proud owner of the domain name BooktoBrand.com – but no launch news or hard selling here! No webinar, no secret selling sauce, no online podcasts that you tune in for months on end and still don’t gain actionable insight!) Actually the site itself is just sitting there which is fine with me. I just use the phrase so much I felt the need to buy the domain name.
Ok, now back to your book and your brand.
How does one go from “Book to Brand”?
Great question!
Here are five things you can do today to help ensure you’re not a one-book wonder. And by the way, if all you ever do is write one book, bravo! Congrats! You’ve done wonderfully, but what is going to energize your practice, potential client base and your target audience a couple years down the line?
Your BRAND!
Still not clear?
Think Jim Collins. Think Brian Tracey. Think James Ray from “The Secret”.
Ultimately your goal as a business author or consultant is for your brand to be so much larger than your book that you never ask, “What’s the ROI on me letting that group have 100 books?” Heck, you’re giving your book away to and fro if you’ve gone from “book to brand” because it’s not about the book. It’s about you and you’re the brand.
Think BRAND.
Oh…those five tips…here they are:
1. Send out review copies of your book freely and furiously. Your book really doesn’t have a short shelf life online. Find the right groups, take time to pen a personal note and send the book out.
2. Create a reader’s guide for your book that is downloadable from your site and can be passed and forwarded freely by all who might come across it.
3. Get a blog. Get a blog. Get a blog. If you’re deciding between a blog or a website…why? You can have your blog as your website, save the money on the web designer and enjoy the freedom of posting your content without an upcharge or time delay.
4. Stop thinking about how to sell more books and start thinking about how to share your brand! Notice the difference in terminology – “sell” or “share”, which is more appealing long-term and which can be truly authentic and transforming? SHARING!
5. Stop worrying so much about your Amazon ratings. Amazon ratings are a marathon not a sprint. You’re not going to be #1 overnight so spend your time worrying about what groups you’re going to talk to and how you’re going to change their lives with one speech.
Think Tom Peters.
Think another one of my favorites – Andy Cohen.
Think one of my heroes David Allan
Go and kick some brand ass!
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