On this week’s SUCCESS Line, I speak with Julien and Kiersten Saunders, the Money Editors of SUCCESS. They’ve created a reputation for teaching all things financial, and their first book will be out in 2022.
So they came on the show to pretend to be students and learn a little bit about how to launch a book professionally.
It is the New York Times Best Sellers list, not the New York Times Best Writers list, that I remind them of. To launch anything—a book, a product, or a service—you must first announce your presence to the world, and then you must sell.
This was an energizing and motivating session that may benefit any business planning a launch. If you want to be one of the first to cross the finish line, keep reading for my top three tips.
Related: 7 Tips for Making Your Business Pop (Brand Storytelling Guide)
1) Everyone Like Marketing, But No One Enjoys Selling.
It’s straightforward. You must learn how to market if you want to be successful. Someone (in this case, you) must raise their hand and declare, “I accept responsibility.” I’ve made a personal decision to sell.” It’s not enough for folks to learn about your book or product; you must also ensure that actual financial transactions occur.
Many authors erroneously delegate the task of selling to their publishers, yet publishers aren’t experts in the field. They publish books, edit books, and distribute them. They don’t talk to customers and try to persuade them to buy certain publications.
It is your obligation to create demand. “My success is up to me,” you must say if you’re an author (or any other form of an entrepreneur. I’m accountable and responsible for the outcomes of my life and business, and I’m not going to let it happen by accident.”
Please visit my website and have a look at my no-pressure persuasion course if you don’t feel comfortable selling—and I say this as humbly as I can. I teach mission-driven messengers how to market in it. You can’t help somebody if they aren’t aware that you exist.
Related: 10 Simple Ways to Begin Creating Your Legacy
2) Get Ready To Lay It All Out On The Floor.
When launching a book, a product, or a service, you must put everything on the table. Recognize that you’re approaching “harvest season,” which I discuss in my first book, Take the Stairs.
Seasons govern how the world works. In the spring, farmers sow seeds, and in the summer, they reap their harvest.
Baseball players practice in the winter before taking to the field in the summer under the bright lights of the stadium. In order to see results, the harvest season is the time you decide to purposely unbalance your time, energy, and resources in one way.
You must purposely distort your focus for a brief period of time if you want to produce a breakthrough moment, just as a farmer might work late into the night in August to collect all of the season’s heirloom tomatoes. No farmer, and certainly no one else, should expect the tomatoes to suddenly pick themselves.
This is the starving artist’s conundrum. People believe that if their work is excellent enough, people will notice it. That is complete nonsense. It is not the responsibility of others to locate you.
Making your work recognized is part of your craft; marketing is art. Your artistry will be incomplete if you do not sell your work. No one will discover you, and you’ve invested far too much time and attention into your creations to go unnoticed. When harvest season arrives, put forth every effort you can muster to get your work out there. It will be well worth it, I assure you.
Related: You Get a Duty to Promote Your Small Business—How Here’s to Do It
3) Take Advantage Of Your Connections.
When it comes to launching a book or product, individuals make one big mistake: they try to promote it to a bunch of strangers in the hopes of getting Oprah or Reese Witherspoon to talk about it.
So, best of luck with that. You don’t want your book’s or product’s success to be based on a gamble.
You can’t put your life’s success in the hands of chance. We all have these delusions that someone else will come to our aid. However, you will not be escorted to the ball by a marketing fairy godmother in a horse-drawn carriage wearing glass slippers. You must create your own momentum, with a little luck thrown in for good measure.
How do you get that momentum going? By utilizing the connections you already have. An intimate relationship with a small following is more powerful than a remote relationship with a large following.
Solicit activation from your family, friends, and fans. Make some emails for them to send out or graphics for them to publish on social media. Begin by asking those closest to you, who already trust you, to assist you in promoting your book or product. The ripple effects will occur if they all activate their networks.