Content wants to be profitable

Making Money from a Book No Responses »
Apr 172013

When Roger Ebert died he was praised in dozens of articles and posts. I thought that the most interesting one came from David Carr, the media columnist for the New York Times. The title was “Roger Ebert as a Builder of an Empire.” Here’s the money quote.

“Long before the media world became cluttered with search optimization consultants, social media experts and brand-management gurus, Mr. Ebert used all available technologies and platforms to advance both his love of film and his own professional interests.”

That “Information Empire” concept isn’t new. Gordon Burgett was promoting it three decades ago. He even wrote a book about it, Empire Building by Writing and Speaking. Long before “the self-publishing revolution” and long before almost anyone else, Gordon was reminding us that content can make the cash register ring.

If you’ve got something to say and you can say it well, this is your age. David Carr, the author of the piece on Roger Ebert has said that the only thing that has remained true as the digital revolution has ground on is the phrase that “Content is king.”

Don’t stop with the book you’re writing. Plan to create information products around it. It’s not that hard. Just think about Roger Ebert’s example

How can you use all available technologies and platforms to advance the things you care about and your own professional interests?

Personal Note

This blog piece was fun to write, in part, because it’s homage to two men who’ve shaped my thinking. Gordon Burgett opened my mind to the possibilities of an information empire and David Carr is my go-to source for what’s happening in the world of publishing and information entrepreneurship right now. Thanks, guys.

Posted by Wally on April 17, 2013 Tagged with: ,

Promoting a Book: Best Sellers

Making Money from a Book 2 Responses »
Feb 252013

There are days when it seems like every book is a best seller and every author is a “best-selling” author. Then you read an article like, “Authors Buy Their Way Onto Best-Seller Lists” and you know one reason why it looks that way. But, if you’re an author you need to figure out whether becoming a bestselling author is the most important goal for you.

There are almost as many best-seller lists as there are books. And to qualify for best seller status you only need to be on one of them for an instant. That’s hardly a substantive credential and it’s why many readers don’t pay any attention to best seller accolades except as a starting point to check out a book. If you’re an author, here’s what you should be thinking about.

Having a best seller is a still a good credential. It will get people to look at your book and at you. But it’s only the beginning.

The sales that make you a best seller may not be the sales that make you money. If you’re like most of my clients, you’ll be interested in bulk sales, which aren’t counted in the best seller programs.

“Best selling” may not be your most powerful credential. One of my books never achieved best seller status, but Inc magazine called it “a book every CEO should own.” We sold lots of copies in bulk to companies and trade associations and used the book as leverage to raise consulting and speaking fees.

Quality is the best credential. Advertising legend David Ogilvy used to say that great advertising can sell anything once. That’s still true. Word of mouth is powerful. People will talk up a good book and talk down a bad one.

Promotion matters, too. Quality is important, but it’s not enough for your book to be a success. Your launch and promotion efforts should be as good as your book.

Bottom Line

Be clear about your objectives. Then write a great book and promote it well.

Posted by Wally on February 25, 2013 Tagged with: ,

Failing by Succeeding at Marketing

Making Money from a Book No Responses »
Jan 232013

Ever wonder what the real “Mad Men” were like? You can get some idea from reading Jerry Della Femina’s book, From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor. One of the things he writes about is the beer commercials of the 1960s, including a legendary set of commercials for Piels Beer. He thinks the commercials were great, but they created a problem.

“The big mistake with that campaign was that it got people to taste Piels Beer.”

Great marketing and promotion can get people to buy your book or bring you in for a speech. Then what?

If the book is great or your speech is spellbinding and helpful, all is well. People will look for more from you and recommend you to their friends.

But if you’ve got a lousy book, a boring speech, or a flawed business model, you’re in trouble. Then great marketing will just expose those problems faster.

Posted by Wally on January 23, 2013 Tagged with: ,

Three Kinds of Testimonials

Making Money from a Book No Responses »
Oct 242012

Direct response writers know that testimonials are powerful. But not all testimonials are powerful in the same way. Here are three kinds of testimonials and how to use them.

Celebrity testimonials are when someone who is well known endorses you or your work. Many book jacket blurbs fall into this category. Use them for general marketing to get people to look at your blog or book.

Customer testimonials are actual customers making statements about how your book or product or service worked for them. The more specific, the better. The statement that “This is a great book!” is far less powerful than “I used the three point checklist in this book and dramatically increased my sales.”

The most powerful customer testimonials have a person like the reader describing how you solved a problem for them. Use many testimonials to increase the possibility that one of them is by a person that the reader identifies with.

Expert testimonials are statements by recognized experts about the quality of your work. An example is marketing professor endorsing your marketing book. Use expert testimonials to make the case that what you uses proven techniques or is based on proven principles.

Posted by Wally on October 24, 2012 Tagged with: , ,

Reviews that are too good to be true

Making Money from a Book No Responses »
Aug 272012

David Streitfeld wrote a great piece in the New York Times titled, “The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy.” Here’s a key quote.

“Consumer reviews are powerful because, unlike old-style advertising and marketing, they offer the illusion of truth. They purport to be testimonials of real people, even though some are bought and sold just like everything else on the commercial Internet.”

Yes, there is an industry out there churning out reviews for a fee. I can vouch for it, because I’ve been approached several times to write positive reviews for books. My answer has always been, “No, thanks.” But paid-for reviews are only one kind of pumped up review to be aware of.

First, a note on the stats. Eighty percent of the reviews on Amazon are for at least four stars out of five. There’s a lot of hype out there.

“Buddy reviews” add to the grade inflation. They’re by the friends of the author. You can usually spot them because they’re short, exuberant and the only review the writer has ever written.

Then there are the results of a “help my book make it to number one” campaign. The ones that ask you to write a review usually suggest the wording. Four or five glowing reviews that glow in exactly the same way are a clue.

I look for two things in any book review. I want the reviewer to tell me what the book is about. And I want information that will help me decide to buy the book or at least try the sample.

Want an example of what that looks like? Check out any of the reviews on Bob Morris’ web site.

Posted by Wally on August 27, 2012 Tagged with:

Elmore Leonard Advice Modified for the E-Book Age

Making Money from a Book No Responses »
Aug 082012

Elmore Leonard has a lot of good things to say about how to write well and sell books. One of his famous quotes is:

“The first chapter sells the book. The last chapter sells the next book.”

We have to modify that for the Digital Age, when more and more books are being sold as e-books. Today, business book readers are more likely to download a sample of a book than read the first chapter. If you’re an author, that means the sample is one of your sales tools.

Amazon uses the first ten percent of the book as the sample. That should be enough to sell a good book, but it often doesn’t. In fact, some research says that less than five percent of sample downloads convert to sales of the entire book.

Obviously, the first part of the book should be compelling. It should inspire readers to want the entire book. The sample should work for you in another way, too.

You can make an offer for a free information product and include the URL of your web site. Include it as part of the text of the part of the book that will be the sample. That way you can tell people who read the sample more about you and what you do. If they like what they read, you may acquire them for your mailing list whether or not they buy the whole e-book.

So, let’s modify Elmore Leonard’s advice a little bit.

The sample sells the book and tells about you. The last chapter sells the next book.

Posted by Wally on August 8, 2012 Tagged with: ,

Crowdfunding Your Book Project

Making Money from a Book 1 Response »
Jul 022012

Last week, under the headline of “Giving Book Readers a Say,” the Wall Street Journal described Seth Godin’s foray into crowdfunding. Here are the key paragraphs.

“Seth Godin, the best-selling business author who jettisoned his longtime publisher Portfolio in August 2010 in favor of selling his books directly to his readers, is now returning to Portfolio and will publish three new titles in January.

But Mr. Godin, a marketing iconoclast known for titles like “Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable,” is taking an unorthodox path. A champion of new approaches to business, Mr. Godin decided to test online whether readers would be interested in his new books before the works actually hit the shelves, a decision that he says could make publishing and selling books considerably less risky in the future”

Seth’s method of reducing the risk was to test his concept for a possible new book, The Icarus Deception, by using a site called Kickstarter, one of the top crowdfunding sites. There, he described the project and asked for people to vote with their dollars. If he got pledges for $40,000, Seth would do the project.

As PaidContent reported, “Seth Godin’s Kickstarter campaign for new book beats $40k goal in 3.5 hours.” As of this morning, in fact, there are pledges of more than $250,000 with fourteen days still to go. That response does two things. It tells Seth’s publisher that there’s enough interest in the project to go ahead and, I assume, it provides the equivalent of a publishing advance.

But, what if you’re not Seth Godin with his well-earned worldwide fame? Then consider the case of Horace Dediu and his Critical Path project.

“The Critical Path” is the name of Horace’s podcast. He describes it this way.

“Critical Path is a talk show contemplating the causality of success and failure in mobile computing. Using Apple as a lens to look at both telecom and traditional computing markets, we try to understand what it means to be great.”

Horace is not successful on the scale of a Seth Godin, but who is? He does produce a podcast that a lot of people listen to. Some of them asked him to create a print version. That would require transcribing the podcasts, editing them, and adding features to make the final product more helpful. That takes work and money.

So Horace set up a Kickstarter project called “The Critical Path: The First Year.” He had a modest goal of $3000. He raised pledges of $29,377 from 831 people.

These two experiences illustrate two things that crowdfunding can do for your book project. You can discover and demonstrate the fact of interest and you can obtain a cash advance to help you get started. We don’t have enough experience with this yet to know what happens if you don’t deliver as promised.

There’s another benefit, too. You may discover that you’re the only one interested in the subject of your book. If that happens, you can mend your broken heart while you pursue other, more productive activities.

Take a good look at this. If you’re thinking about a book, this could be part of the way you get the project done.

Posted by Wally on July 2, 2012 Tagged with: , ,

Table of Contents as a Sales Tool

Making Money from a Book 3 Responses »
Apr 302012

I love watching people buy books in bookstores. Some of them swoop in to buy a book that they’ve already decided to own. Others browse, looking for a book. Those are the ones I like to watch.

They pick a book from the shelf. Sometimes they check out the endorsements on the back or the copy on the jacket flaps. But almost every thoughtful buyer checks out the table of contents.

That’s why you should make your table of contents work for you. Chapter titles are the key.

Make your chapter titles descriptive. Use your readers’ common language to give an idea in the title about what the chapter covers.

Make your chapter title a promise. Tell your reader what he or she will get from reading the chapter.

Be straightforward, even blunt. This is not the time for cute or “creative” writing. Skip the literary allusions and any and all puns. If you must do something like that, make it a subtitle.

We can write the greatest of books, but readers will not purchase them, let alone read them, if we don’t take the time to tell the reader what’s in it for him or for her. That’s what the table of contents is for.

Posted by Wally on April 30, 2012 Tagged with: ,

Three Kinds of Information Products

Making Money from a Book 1 Response »
Apr 232012

An information product is the package where you put your information. You sell some products, like books. You give others, like blog posts, away. I think there are three kinds of products that should make up your portfolio that support each other and your business.

Core products, like books or speeches or audio, are the heart of your portfolio. Core products should stand on their own and deliver unique value. They should also point to each other. Your book should mention your speech where you can also mention your audio product.

Supplementary products add value to core products, but have little or no value without them. A good example is the workbook you develop to help readers get the most from your book. Some supplementary products, like workbooks, should be specific to a single core product. Others, like pocket reminder cards, may support several products.

Promotional products don’t generate revenue directly, but allow you to demonstrate your unique expertise. They can also point to your core products. Blog posts are the most common promotional products. Others are free webinars and autoresponder courses that whet a prospect’s appetite for what you have to sell.

Posted by Wally on April 23, 2012 Tagged with: ,

The Future of the Bookstore

Making Money from a Book 1 Response »
Jan 312012

In the New York Times article, “The Bookstore’s Last Stand,” the bookstore in the title is Barnes and Noble and the villain is Amazon. I don’t think of Barnes and Noble as a bookstore anymore though. For me the Barnes and Noble bookstore will always be the old store at 18th and Fifth in New York, where I spent hours while growing up.

Nope. For me Barnes and Noble is a big company that runs big bookstores and a web site. Once they tried to drive small bookstores out of business. Now they are being done to.

But the NY Times article did get me thinking about what sort of physical bookstore will thrive in the new book world. In the old days, some successful bookstores were specialists, like the San Francisco Mystery Bookstore that seemed like it had every mystery ever written by anyone. Or they had a super-large selection of everything, like Borders and Barnes and Noble.

Those stores were doomed by the Web, particularly by Amazon, where readers can find more titles that you could stuff into fifty super-sized bookstores and where the prices are really good. As I noted, most people I’ve spoken with who buy business books, buy them online, most often in electronic form.

Other bookstores made money stocking and recycling textbooks. They’re threatened by the “textbook-as-subscription” described in another NY Times story, “Making Science Leap From the Page.”

So what kind of bookstore can succeed in this world? My guess is that it’s like the mom and pop hardware stores that thrived even when Lowe’s and Home Depot came to town. They’re like a small restaurant in a small town that Scott McKain describes in Collapse of Distinction. It’s still thriving when other local restaurants have succumbed to competition from fast food and casual dining chain restaurants.

Success will come from what McKain calls “distinction” and it has two components. There is a solid value proposition and a strong emotional connection. An example of how that may work in a bookstore is in “Her Life Is a Real Page-Turner.” Being a successful physical bookstore in the Digital Age won’t be easy, but it certainly can be done.

Posted by Wally on January 31, 2012 Tagged with:
Older Entries
© 2013 Wally Bock's Zero Draft Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha

Warning: Unknown: open(/var/chroot/home/content/65/5091665/tmp/sess_pmm8pe7vip2cqmr1s93b8bjvm6, O_RDWR) failed: No such file or directory (2) in Unknown on line 0

Warning: Unknown: Failed to write session data (files). Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct () in Unknown on line 0