Your Book Is a Business

You're passionate about your message. Whether it's about frogs, women business owners, or creating financial stability, you have this burning desire to get your message out and help people (or frog lovers). The best way to do that is to write a book, right? Reach more people (and frog lovers) and, at the same time, become an expert in your field.

Writing and publishing a book isn't all it's cracked up to be. It's work. If you're a new author, you might think that the majority of the work is in writing the damn book. Not so. That's the easy part. It's in the post-final-manuscript stage that the real work begins. You might be thinking that you just have to find an agent or a publisher, and then you can sit back and relax, watch the publisher work its tail off to market your book, and wait for your royalty checks to arrive.

Whether you self-publish or go with a traditional publishing house, YOU are going to be instrumental to the publishing, marketing, and selling of your book. And that means that you have to shift your mindset around your book. While your book is fundamentally your passion, you have to start looking at it as a business.

First, publishers and agents look at your book that way. Their job is to sell books. They're only going to bring on books that will sell. They don't really care how passionate you are about frogs, women entrepreneurs, and financial stability. They have revenues and return on investment to worry about. Each book is a product for them. Can they sell it? What is the market? Is the author marketable? Will there be other ancillary books (products)? What are the other competing books?

For you to have a shot, you need to be thinking like a business owner, not just a writer. Here are some things to consider.

Platform - What kind of audience and following do you have right now? Do you publish an Ezine and have a database to which you send your Ezine? Do you speak? At what kinds of events? How many people attend your events? Do you collaborate with any other organizations and companies? Can you depend on them to help you get the word out? If you don't have a platform, what do you need to do to get one?

Target Market - Who is your book written for? The answer is NOT "everyone." You really have to think about the person who will read the book. Male or female? How old? Where does she work? Or does she work? Does she have kids? What's her annual income? What are her fears? What are her goals? What keeps her up at night? What is her passion?

Viability - What's the purpose of your book? What problem or challenge does it solve? Have you determined that there is a need? In other words, your book should solve an existing need, not create a need. What are its benefits? What are its features?

Marketing Plan - What activities will you engage in to sell your book? Book tours? Blog book tours? Book signings? Amazon book selling programs? How does your website fit into your marketing plan? How do you build your customer list? Do you give away any products or services for free? How does media (social and traditional) fit into your marketing? Do you have a plan, or do you just engage in activities haphazardly?

Sales Funnel - Your book is a business, and it's only one part of your business. How does it fit in with other products and services you offer? If you do speaking events, are you set up for back-of-the-room sales? Your sales funnel should include low-price services/products, medium-price, and high-end. What does your sales funnel look like? Is there a natural flow from one product/service in the sales funnel to the others? How do the other pieces of your business (website, blog, social media) support this?

More Than a Book - Many authors find that the biggest benefit of writing their book is that it lends them credibility and opens doors for other opportunities. If you're now a credible expert (because you've written a book) on frogs, women entrepreneurs, or financial stability, what can you do with that? What organizations and associations do you need to be pinging about using you, the expert? Are there workshops, workbooks, events that are natural follow-ups to the message in your book? Can you collaborate with other experts and "celebrities" in your field?

You might be a little overwhelmed by all the questions I've posed. It's not something you'll build in a day. Just like you didn't write your book in one sitting, you won't create the business of your book in one day either. If you're just starting out writing your book, then you can be looking at these areas and working on them at the same time. If you already have a book, then start building the business part of it.

Frog lovers, women business owners, and the financial world will thank you.

Comments

[WordLily]

So, when is the best time to answer these questions? Before writing? While writing? Post writing? All of the above, or some combination thereof?

[Terri Rains]

Your last point is so spot-on.

Writing a book has advantages that go well beyond the text itself.

Learning to write your own book (and doing it) can be extremely professionally rewarding on multiple levels.

[Dawn Goldberg]

WordLily,

As with all planning, the best time is to start thinking of all this before or during the writing process. However, if you've already got a finished manuscript, it's never too late to consider the questions above.

[Bookwhirl]

I think the major key in marketing books is to be consistent with your message. It takes more than passion to find success in the publishing industry.