How To Quickly Get Yourself Established As An 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.
My role is to edit, correct, supplement, and rewrite what it is you want to say, what should be said, as well as what should remain silent. My experience as both a writer and an editor is that there are so many creative AND technical skills involved that until the writer has gained sufficient experience (experience = time) they often can miss important nuances and details that make the characters and the story more plausible and readable.
Virtually all of the most successful writers in history were also avid readers. There are probably few exceptions to this rule, if any. Stephen King says in his autobiography, “On Writing”, that he dedicates a minimum of four hours every day to reading. That’s because reading gives you ideas, new perspectives, and constantly introduces you to different writing styles that you can incorporate into your own work. You don’t have to read for four hours per day, but try to find plenty of time for reading. It’ll pay off by improving your writing.
If you’ve not engaged a writer for your marketing writing before, you may not know how to assess a writer’s credentials, nor how to compare one writer’s rates and writing product with another’s. Working with a writer is such an infrequent situation, that it’s not something you are going to feel a great deal of confidence about. If you need to hire a writer, and feel lost about how to proceed, here are a few ideas.
Do book interviews about your topic of expertise. Places like Blog Talk Radio offer you the chance to host your own live radio show. Have a co-worker or a friend sit down with you and record an interview. You can provide them with a list of questions to ask you. Since it is a recorded thing you can do as many takes as you need to get it just right. Then post the audio on your website or blog, tell people about it on Facebook and Twitter. People who are interviewed are seen as people who are experts in a field. Just having interviews available on your site brings up your credibility a great deal.
The preface is a discussion about how the book came about. It is a place for the book’s author to tell the reader how this book came into being, and why. It will build credibility for the author and the book. More credibility will translate into more book sales. Here the author should explain why they wrote the book, and how they came to writing it. The author should be showing the reader why they are worth reading and buying.
One reader defined expert as an ex drip under pressure= ex-spurt. This sort of tongue-in-cheek assessment of the so-called experts that pop up on television talk shows and news articles leave you wondering, “Where did they find this guy?” And yet they’re being paid a lot of money to produce mediocre observations that are supposed to enlighten us. Worse yet, these observations are meant to guide our thinking and help us form our opinions.
Customers. Every single day, thousands of people search Google for goods or services they need or want. When was the last time you searched Google and then clicked back and called someone on the fifth or sixth page instead of the first one? If you are on the first page of Google-better yet, the first result-you will get more business. People type in their keywords and the word “write my college paper” to find people to call, and you want to be that person. Position yourself on the first page of Google and the business will come to you.
If you are satisfied with the writer consider hiring them on a permanent basis and invest in training them to so they get familiar with your corporate culture and ethics. Once, trained about your company needs the hired writers can churn out quality content day after day and you can devote your valuable time to more important tasks.
I am the type of person who researches things to understand them. As I researched how to be published, I learned much I wish I had known before I wrote the book.
Experts know this feeling intimately, and that’s why we instinctively trust them–because they have gone, quite willingly, where few would dare to tread.