Hi, you're listening to gift biz on rapt episode 93,
Speaker:Just virtue of having the book.
Speaker:It sets you apart from the competition.
Speaker:It sets you apart from everyone.
Speaker:Hi, this is John Lee,
Speaker:Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,
Speaker:and you're listening to the gift of biz unwrap.
Speaker:And now it's time to light it up.
Speaker:Welcome to gift bears on wrapped your source for industry specific
Speaker:insights and advice to develop and grow your business.
Speaker:And now here's your host,
Speaker:Sue Mona height.
Speaker:Before we get into the show,
Speaker:I have a question for you.
Speaker:Do you know that you should be out networking,
Speaker:but you just can't get yourself to do it because it's
Speaker:scary. Are you afraid that you might walk into the room
Speaker:and not know anybody or that you're going to freeze?
Speaker:When you get up to do that infamous elevator speech,
Speaker:where you talk about yourself and your business?
Speaker:Well, I'm here to tell you that it doesn't need to
Speaker:be scary.
Speaker:If you know what to do,
Speaker:help you with this,
Speaker:I would like to offer you a coffee chat for the
Speaker:price of buying me a cup of coffee.
Speaker:We can sit down and I'll tell you everything that I
Speaker:know about networking and how I have personally built two multi-six
Speaker:figure businesses,
Speaker:primarily through networking to learn more about this opportunity.
Speaker:Just go over to Bitly forward slash network Ninja.
Speaker:That's B I T dot L Y network Ninja.
Speaker:And now let's move on to the show.
Speaker:Hi, there it's Sue and welcome to the gift biz unwrapped
Speaker:podcast, whether you own a brick and mortar shop sell online
Speaker:or are just getting started,
Speaker:you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your
Speaker:business. And today I have joining us,
Speaker:Tom Corson,
Speaker:Knowles of TCK publishing.
Speaker:Tom is a serial entrepreneur blogger international bestselling author.
Speaker:He started his first business at age 13,
Speaker:manufacturing, sad lamps out of his father's garage.
Speaker:By the time he graduated from Indiana university Kelley school of
Speaker:business, he was earning a full-time income from his first successful
Speaker:business, which he had started out of his dorm room.
Speaker:Tom then decided to share the keys to becoming a financially
Speaker:independent entrepreneur through his books,
Speaker:videos, and seminars.
Speaker:And today he teaches a new and established authors and writers
Speaker:how to achieve incredible success by writing and selling eBooks on
Speaker:Amazon Kindle.
Speaker:Welcome to the show,
Speaker:Tom, Thanks for your time.
Speaker:And she was great to be here.
Speaker:I Like to start out by having you describe an ideal
Speaker:motivational candle.
Speaker:It just gives our listeners a little bit of a different
Speaker:insight into who you are.
Speaker:So if you were to describe your ideal motivational candle,
Speaker:what color would it be and what would be the quote
Speaker:on the candle?
Speaker:So it would be blue because that's my favorite color.
Speaker:And the quote,
Speaker:be just take the next step.
Speaker:I think that's the crucial thing in life.
Speaker:It's like be present in the moment.
Speaker:And I see so many people,
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:like with writing a book and you feel like a big
Speaker:project. So they'll think about,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:what about step 97?
Speaker:What about after I get my book published and after I
Speaker:get publicity and after all this and write their thinking so
Speaker:far ahead in the future that they forget to just take
Speaker:that next step and to focus their full attention in the
Speaker:present moment to get the best results possible with what they're
Speaker:working on.
Speaker:Right. I would almost combine that with also just taking action
Speaker:because so many people just like you were saying,
Speaker:we're looking at those steps that are so far down the
Speaker:road, and it seems like such a distant goal.
Speaker:If you just look and take action in the immediate moment,
Speaker:like you're saying it's all those little steps that build up
Speaker:to something great.
Speaker:Absolutely true.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So as we were talking a little bit in our pre
Speaker:chat, we've had a couple of our listeners already write books,
Speaker:but I think a lot of people don't really see in
Speaker:our area of gifting,
Speaker:baking, crafting,
Speaker:making how publishing could apply to them.
Speaker:So I'd really like to start there.
Speaker:What do you see as the value of writing a book
Speaker:for an artistic crafty type business?
Speaker:Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker:So, I mean,
Speaker:there's so much value there.
Speaker:I think really it comes down to understanding your business,
Speaker:understanding your customer and understanding how are you going to grow
Speaker:your business,
Speaker:right? So for example,
Speaker:if you're a jewelry maker,
Speaker:anyone in the jewelry business knows that there's a big difference
Speaker:between a diamond necklace and a diamond necklace with a story
Speaker:behind it.
Speaker:The one with the story about,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:where the diamond was found and how it was cut just
Speaker:right for the certain shape of that stone and who wore
Speaker:it before.
Speaker:And three,
Speaker:any kind of story around that piece is going to dramatically
Speaker:increase the value for it.
Speaker:And sometimes the pieces going to sell for tens of millions
Speaker:of dollars,
Speaker:largely because of the story that same principle applies to you,
Speaker:to you as the entrepreneur,
Speaker:to you as the creative spirit and to your business.
Speaker:When you have a business with a story around it,
Speaker:when you have an artist with a story around it,
Speaker:it becomes much more valuable in the marketplace because it becomes
Speaker:much more unique.
Speaker:People share stories.
Speaker:And the number one marketing tool in the world is word
Speaker:of mouth.
Speaker:And any business word of mouth is most likely going to
Speaker:be your biggest long-term source of sales and source of revenue
Speaker:for your business.
Speaker:And so by having a great story,
Speaker:by having a book around what you do,
Speaker:it helps make it easier for your audience to share your
Speaker:message with other people.
Speaker:When a customer comes in to your bakery and buys the
Speaker:cupcake every day in the same customer who buys cookies everyday,
Speaker:and then they read your book and they love it so
Speaker:much and they love your story.
Speaker:So once they start to share your book and hand it
Speaker:out to other people that is a great form of marketing
Speaker:for your business.
Speaker:So that's just one of the ways that having a book
Speaker:can dramatically increase the reach of your business and your growth.
Speaker:So what I'm hearing,
Speaker:cause that's taking it actually a whole different angle than I
Speaker:was initially thinking,
Speaker:because you're saying almost an autobiography about why you as an
Speaker:artist, let's on with the jewelry idea as an artist got
Speaker:into and the passion for what their art is,
Speaker:be a jewelry making or whatever it is,
Speaker:right versus,
Speaker:and I guess this could be another topic for a book
Speaker:versus how do you actually start a business if you're a
Speaker:jewelry designer.
Speaker:So it could take on many facets.
Speaker:There's so many different ways you can write a book and
Speaker:so many different types of books you can write,
Speaker:but it doesn't really matter so much.
Speaker:So the sad truth is that most people who buy books,
Speaker:don't actually read them to the end.
Speaker:So that's just the truth of the world.
Speaker:But If I start,
Speaker:I have to finish.
Speaker:Yeah. I love reading.
Speaker:So I read a ton of books,
Speaker:but most people,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:over 50%,
Speaker:won't finish the book and that's okay.
Speaker:That's just the numbers,
Speaker:right? Business is a numbers game.
Speaker:But by just virtue of having the book,
Speaker:it sets you apart from the competition,
Speaker:it sets you apart from everyone else.
Speaker:Think of,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:like in the baking business,
Speaker:right? Think of the people who you think are the best
Speaker:bakers, the ones with the most publicity,
Speaker:the ones where the biggest businesses,
Speaker:the ones that everyone knows who are those people and what
Speaker:are they done?
Speaker:And you look at them and I would say probably every
Speaker:single one of them has a book published or a recipe
Speaker:book or something like that,
Speaker:or an autobiography just by virtue of having a book,
Speaker:regardless of whether it's an autobiography or a cookbook or how
Speaker:to start a jewelry business.
Speaker:It doesn't really matter what the book is about so much.
Speaker:It's just the fact that they have the book that sets
Speaker:them apart dramatically.
Speaker:Okay. Yeah.
Speaker:That makes a lot of sense.
Speaker:And we talk often about people who are bakers or in
Speaker:jewelry or whatever,
Speaker:how are you making yourself different from another person who is
Speaker:in the same field?
Speaker:And a lot of it is the design,
Speaker:the quality of the product,
Speaker:and obviously who you are,
Speaker:because that goes to your topic about having a book about
Speaker:your story.
Speaker:And then now you're also talking about a level of credibility.
Speaker:You're setting yourself apart,
Speaker:almost bringing yourself to another tier of professionalism,
Speaker:if you will,
Speaker:because you're published now in your industry.
Speaker:Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker:You're not just another local mom and pop shop with nothing
Speaker:special, right?
Speaker:Like once you have that book out,
Speaker:you become,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:you're, you know,
Speaker:you're this local business with this book about you and what
Speaker:you do in your business.
Speaker:Like, that's so amazing.
Speaker:It's so unique.
Speaker:And it gives people that story to share.
Speaker:You talked about like by reality in the internet age,
Speaker:what makes something viral?
Speaker:Well, what makes something,
Speaker:if I was a good story,
Speaker:right? And so when you'd go through that process of writing
Speaker:your book,
Speaker:regardless of what kind of book it is,
Speaker:you're creating a story and you're,
Speaker:you're sharing information and you're honing your ideas and you're getting
Speaker:crystal clear on who you are and what you offer and
Speaker:the value offer and what makes you unique.
Speaker:And just by going through that process,
Speaker:even if you never had a book published at end of
Speaker:the day to sell just by going through that process of
Speaker:writing it and creating it helps you get crystal clear on
Speaker:who you are and what you stand for,
Speaker:what your values are.
Speaker:And that too can give you the confidence to go out
Speaker:there and grow the business and make more sales and share
Speaker:your story more.
Speaker:Well, that's an interesting point,
Speaker:even if you're just going through the actions and you don't
Speaker:actually publish it,
Speaker:you're being more clear within yourself.
Speaker:However, I like to hear people taking full action.
Speaker:And if you've written a book,
Speaker:you might as well publish it,
Speaker:right. I'm thinking of a,
Speaker:my audience right now.
Speaker:And they're saying,
Speaker:well, this sounds a little daunting.
Speaker:Like how in the world would I publish a book?
Speaker:Talk to us a little bit about people that you've worked
Speaker:with in terms of,
Speaker:are there personalities that you need to have to write a
Speaker:book? Or what do you do if,
Speaker:if, if we've convinced people now that they should consider it,
Speaker:let's sell them on the fact that they actually personally themselves
Speaker:could do this.
Speaker:Anyone can write a book.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I've taught over 40,000
Speaker:people how to write,
Speaker:publish, and market their books and my online courses.
Speaker:And I've had students ranging from 12 years old to,
Speaker:in their nineties.
Speaker:And one of my students has been very,
Speaker:very successful as he's 17 years old today,
Speaker:he started publishing his first book when he was 14 and
Speaker:he outsells Donald Trump on Amazon,
Speaker:no way he's selling a ton of books every single month.
Speaker:So it's not about how old you are or how experienced
Speaker:you are.
Speaker:It's really like with anything in life.
Speaker:Like if you want to get a result,
Speaker:you have to take the action to get that result.
Speaker:If you want to open a bakery,
Speaker:there are certain steps you have to take,
Speaker:you have to find a location,
Speaker:you have to sign a lease,
Speaker:you have to do these basic things.
Speaker:And so I think it's the same thing with a book.
Speaker:And so,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it's the problem is that it feels daunting when you go
Speaker:into, I remember like before I wrote my first book,
Speaker:I thought it was just,
Speaker:I would never be an author.
Speaker:There's no way I could ever write a book.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:for me,
Speaker:like writing a paper and high school or in college,
Speaker:that seemed like a huge task.
Speaker:And like,
Speaker:there was no ever going to write a book,
Speaker:but the truth is,
Speaker:if you just set your side 15 minutes a day,
Speaker:30 minutes a day to work on it,
Speaker:most people can get that book done in 90 days.
Speaker:Oh, that is one of my questions.
Speaker:So you're thinking this can be a three month project.
Speaker:Absolutely. But the thing is you have to commit to it
Speaker:every day.
Speaker:And even if it's just five to 10,
Speaker:15 minutes a day,
Speaker:because in my experience,
Speaker:the kind of thing where if you start and you work
Speaker:on it for a month and then you take a week
Speaker:off or two weeks off when you come back to it
Speaker:and you've forgotten most of what you were working on and
Speaker:all the great ideas you had and all the next steps
Speaker:you had.
Speaker:And so what happens is kind of like having one foot
Speaker:on the brake and one foot on the gas,
Speaker:that's when you have this project that people will say,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it took me three years or five years or 10 years
Speaker:to write the book.
Speaker:It's not really true.
Speaker:Right. It probably took them about 90 days to write the
Speaker:book. They just spent the other several years procrastinating and putting
Speaker:it off and having to backpedal because they forgot what they
Speaker:were working on before and so on.
Speaker:Right. If you're starting a book,
Speaker:my guess is the first thing you have to do is
Speaker:know what you're going to write about,
Speaker:but there's other layers to a tooth there's writing and then
Speaker:there's getting it out there and then there's marketing.
Speaker:Right? So there's all of this.
Speaker:And I don't know if those are the only three buckets.
Speaker:Am I missing anything with those three buckets?
Speaker:Yeah. I mean,
Speaker:I think that the make funds are the writing publishing and
Speaker:marketing. Those are the main business components,
Speaker:right? And so if you're going to be successful as an
Speaker:author, in terms of sales and royalties and revenue,
Speaker:you have to either be yourself or have a team who
Speaker:can master those three areas of writing,
Speaker:publishing and marketing.
Speaker:Okay. So this starts to give us a little bit of
Speaker:structure around the concept.
Speaker:So if gift business owners you are considering,
Speaker:or we've put the idea in your head of possibly writing
Speaker:a book,
Speaker:so there's three things there's writing,
Speaker:there's publishing and there's marketing,
Speaker:which helps us break this down a little bit.
Speaker:So the first thing obviously is writing it,
Speaker:how do you start writing?
Speaker:Do you just take a piece of paper and a pen,
Speaker:or what do you do?
Speaker:So I'll walk you through my creative process and that I
Speaker:teach and it's worked for a lot of people.
Speaker:So first thing I do is just brainstorm.
Speaker:It's like total right-brain creativities.
Speaker:The whole process is kind of this swing between the right
Speaker:brain creativity and the left brain analytical thinking.
Speaker:So it all starts with creativity.
Speaker:So what I do is I just take a pen and
Speaker:paper, a notebook,
Speaker:and just jot down every single book idea I could possibly
Speaker:have. So I'll ask myself questions like,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:what am I an expert in what stories do I have
Speaker:to share?
Speaker:What expertise do I have to share with the world?
Speaker:What information or ideas that I'd love to leave behind,
Speaker:to leave as a legacy.
Speaker:And so you ask these ideas and that'll help you come
Speaker:up with all these different ideas for books.
Speaker:And most people get 20,
Speaker:30, 40 different book ideas when they do this.
Speaker:Once you have that list of ideas,
Speaker:that's when you want to go and switch afterwards to the
Speaker:left brain,
Speaker:analytical thinking and think about,
Speaker:okay, I have all these great book ideas you have.
Speaker:What is the number one idea you really want to focus
Speaker:on right now?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:if you only had 90 days left to live and you
Speaker:had to leave one book behind is your legacy,
Speaker:what would that be?
Speaker:And so when you found that book that you're so passionate
Speaker:about, you're excited about then one you really want to work
Speaker:on and get it done and get it out there to
Speaker:the world.
Speaker:That's when you go through and you have to start brainstorming,
Speaker:what's going to be in that book.
Speaker:So that's when you take your idea.
Speaker:So let's say you're going to do a cupcake cookbook.
Speaker:So then you can take your ideas.
Speaker:Okay. What are all the great recipes you have?
Speaker:What are all the great ideas you have?
Speaker:What is going to be the first chapter,
Speaker:second chapter and so on.
Speaker:And you start to just come up with all the different
Speaker:ideas you want to include in your book.
Speaker:And then once you've got to that right brain creative process,
Speaker:but again,
Speaker:you're gonna switch to the left brain and start analyzing that
Speaker:and thinking,
Speaker:okay, but what is the best structure?
Speaker:How would I want to organize these ideas to make it
Speaker:flow the best way for the reader?
Speaker:And so the whole idea here is you're not trying to
Speaker:get it.
Speaker:Perfect. SU you're just trying to get enough of a plan
Speaker:in place that when you actually sit down at your computer
Speaker:to write,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:exactly what you're going into every single day.
Speaker:So you're never staring at a blank string,
Speaker:wondering, what am I doing here?
Speaker:People talk about writer's block.
Speaker:It's really because they haven't prepared and they don't know what
Speaker:they're going to be writing about.
Speaker:So as soon as you have that outline done,
Speaker:then you can sit down at a computer every single day
Speaker:and you would know exactly what the next thing you're going
Speaker:to write about is Got it.
Speaker:So your first step was brainstorming what the topic should be.
Speaker:And I do have a question for you here.
Speaker:You were really talking internally.
Speaker:What are you passionate about?
Speaker:What are the different types of topics that you want to
Speaker:present out to the world?
Speaker:Do you also look at who would be reading this book
Speaker:and what are their needs?
Speaker:Do you look from that standpoint too,
Speaker:to make sure that you're writing to fulfill a need or
Speaker:as an author,
Speaker:are you just writing to get your voice out to the
Speaker:world? Absolutely.
Speaker:Yes. So Margaret research is actually a huge process of what
Speaker:we do actually have a whole software suite of tools for
Speaker:authors to help them with that.
Speaker:So it's actually what I would do normally after that first
Speaker:brainstorming process.
Speaker:So once you have the 40 ideas and you boiled it
Speaker:down to one or two or three that you're really passionate
Speaker:about, and that's when I would normally go and do the
Speaker:market to find out,
Speaker:is there a market for this?
Speaker:How big is it?
Speaker:And where are the opportunities?
Speaker:So some great tips on market research.
Speaker:You can just go to amazon.com.
Speaker:That's a place to do it,
Speaker:and just type in keywords related to what you're working on.
Speaker:So if you're doing,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:jewelry, design book,
Speaker:you can type in jewelry design,
Speaker:and you want to find the best selling books in that
Speaker:topic on Amazon.
Speaker:And then you want to check them out.
Speaker:So you want to look at things like what are their
Speaker:title and subtitle,
Speaker:and then jot down like the key words and key phrases
Speaker:that they're using.
Speaker:That really clarify the brand of that book that really make
Speaker:their message stick out to you and make it memorable.
Speaker:So write down the keywords and key ideas they have and
Speaker:read their book descriptions again,
Speaker:looking for what are the key ideas,
Speaker:key words that they're sharing that really resonate with their audience
Speaker:or resonate with you.
Speaker:And you can take a look at their book,
Speaker:cover designs to you.
Speaker:So you can model the successful elements of the book cover
Speaker:types. So if you like a certain font or you like
Speaker:a certain color or a certain feeling of the cover,
Speaker:jot those down as examples again,
Speaker:to send to your book cover designer when you get that
Speaker:point. And then the other thing you can do is look
Speaker:at all the reviews and read all the reviews,
Speaker:every single review,
Speaker:positive reviews and negative reviews for the selling books in your
Speaker:market, and have a notebook with you and jot down all
Speaker:the common themes readers say that they love about those books,
Speaker:whether they hate about those books and what that will do,
Speaker:as soon as it gives you a crystal clear picture of
Speaker:who your audience is,
Speaker:what they appreciate in books in your market and the best
Speaker:selling books and what they don't like about the bestselling books
Speaker:in your market,
Speaker:what they don't like.
Speaker:Give me some of the biggest insights for you,
Speaker:because then you can see where the gaps are in the
Speaker:marketplace. So to give you an example,
Speaker:I've got a customer wrote a book called unlimited memory,
Speaker:and we've sold 40,000
Speaker:plus copies of the book.
Speaker:In the past two years,
Speaker:it's been a runaway bestseller.
Speaker:It's been number one on Amazon for over a year and
Speaker:a half now.
Speaker:And the reason is when you look at the reviews of
Speaker:all the top memory books on Amazon,
Speaker:they were like 300,
Speaker:400, 500 pages non-fiction books.
Speaker:And there was a little bit of how to,
Speaker:but it was mostly like stories and pros and so forth.
Speaker:And so he came in,
Speaker:my client,
Speaker:came in with 150 page short book straight to the point,
Speaker:how to action step every single step of the way,
Speaker:but he's a world memory experts,
Speaker:and he has a credibility as well.
Speaker:And so it just blown every other book out there on
Speaker:Amazon, out of the water.
Speaker:The reason is because it filled a gap in the marketplace.
Speaker:What you want to do is find where's that gap in
Speaker:your market,
Speaker:and you can come in and share your unique messaging,
Speaker:your unique voice,
Speaker:and a unique way.
Speaker:It's really going to resonate with your ideal customer.
Speaker:And that's what you do through the Amazon research right after
Speaker:you've brainstormed a little bit.
Speaker:I haven't ever looked at Amazon in this way.
Speaker:Is there a way to see how popular a book has
Speaker:been number of purchases or downloads or anything like that,
Speaker:or you're just guessing?
Speaker:Absolutely. So,
Speaker:okay. So if you go to Amazon,
Speaker:there's going to be,
Speaker:what's called an Amazon sales ranking.
Speaker:Any book paid on Amazon for you books or print books.
Speaker:So if you scroll down the page to product details,
Speaker:it will tell you the Amazon best sellers rank book I'm
Speaker:looking at now is 28,647
Speaker:free in the Kindle store.
Speaker:You want to look at the books that have paid ranking.
Speaker:So should say like 28,000
Speaker:paid and Kindle store or 28,000
Speaker:paid and Kindle books.
Speaker:And that ranking will tell exactly what the sales are.
Speaker:If you actually use a tool,
Speaker:I created a calculator that converts Amazon sales,
Speaker:breaking into the exact amount of sales that that book is
Speaker:getting each month.
Speaker:The link for that is just TCK publishing.com/calculator
Speaker:TCK publishing.com.
Speaker:So I've talked to,
Speaker:it's a totally free tool you can use to find out
Speaker:exactly how many sales,
Speaker:any book on Amazon is getting for eBooks or for print
Speaker:books. Oh,
Speaker:that's super,
Speaker:really great information,
Speaker:Tom, thank you so much.
Speaker:I appreciate all of this.
Speaker:And so as someone's getting started,
Speaker:and I think really for the sake of this interview,
Speaker:the only thing we're going to be really focusing on is
Speaker:the writing,
Speaker:because clearly there's a lot more,
Speaker:and I know you'll be able to share how we can
Speaker:get more information from you on the publishing and then the
Speaker:marketing standpoint.
Speaker:So someone goes through and they do their research.
Speaker:And I will ask you this question.
Speaker:If someone has an idea for a book and they see
Speaker:that other people have done something similar,
Speaker:would that dissuade you from doing the book at all?
Speaker:No, absolutely not.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:there are millions and millions of books out there.
Speaker:And so I think what you want to do is you
Speaker:want to make sure that your book is unique and there's
Speaker:lots of ways for a book to be unique.
Speaker:It doesn't have to be better.
Speaker:It just has to be different.
Speaker:That's a key element of it.
Speaker:It has to be different than what's out there and it
Speaker:has to speak to your audience in a different way.
Speaker:And so there's lots of ways to do that.
Speaker:So for one way,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:for like a lot of folks,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you think of like top chef kind of people they're celebrities.
Speaker:And so their books are unique because they're unique.
Speaker:It's not that their books are necessarily the greatest works of
Speaker:art ever created.
Speaker:It's just that,
Speaker:that celebrity,
Speaker:that brand that they've created,
Speaker:it makes their book unique.
Speaker:It makes it a little bit different than everyone else out
Speaker:there. So if you're not famous yet,
Speaker:and you don't have that kind of celebrity cache in your
Speaker:marketplace, what do you want to look at is what are
Speaker:the other things you can do with your book to make
Speaker:us stand out?
Speaker:And so one of the best ways to do that again,
Speaker:is just go to Amazon and read the reviews and see
Speaker:where the gaps are in the marketplace.
Speaker:For example,
Speaker:like the cookbook market,
Speaker:there's so many things going on in that market.
Speaker:There's so many different types of cookbooks.
Speaker:I don't know if you've ever gone to the library or
Speaker:a bookstore and brass and cookbooks,
Speaker:but there are cookbooks with like zero pictures.
Speaker:And then there's other kinds of cookbooks with 10 pictures per
Speaker:recipe with like full color and huge pages.
Speaker:And there's not much text at all.
Speaker:It says mostly pictures.
Speaker:There's all different kinds of ways.
Speaker:You can do a simple cookbook.
Speaker:And what you want to do is once you figure it
Speaker:out where the gaps are in the marketplace,
Speaker:you want to create a brand around you and what you
Speaker:do. So what is your brand?
Speaker:What is your business,
Speaker:Stanford? What is your message?
Speaker:What are your values and how do you take all of
Speaker:that, that embodiment of your art and your work and create
Speaker:a brand around that.
Speaker:And then once you have that clear idea of,
Speaker:okay, what is your brand going to be?
Speaker:What is your message going to be?
Speaker:Then you create the book from there.
Speaker:So everything you do comes from that main idea,
Speaker:which is what is your brand,
Speaker:what is your message?
Speaker:And so that's going to determine your book,
Speaker:title, your cover design,
Speaker:how you write the book,
Speaker:how you structure the book,
Speaker:that's all going to come from,
Speaker:what is your brand?
Speaker:What is your message that you want to leave with people?
Speaker:And so that's going to determine what kind of book you
Speaker:end up actually creating That's wonderful information.
Speaker:And I agree with you.
Speaker:I was thinking that as you were talking through and was
Speaker:great visualization also of especially cookbooks,
Speaker:because there are millions out there.
Speaker:I have many of them,
Speaker:but in terms of imagery of the book,
Speaker:and you know,
Speaker:some people have lots of images,
Speaker:but they're hand drawn.
Speaker:They're not necessarily the actual photos.
Speaker:I also comes to mind Rachel Ray with her first books
Speaker:when she was just coming up the ranks and getting in
Speaker:the social eye,
Speaker:if you will,
Speaker:her 30 minute meals.
Speaker:So it can be around a special way.
Speaker:You prepare sticking with the cooking theme.
Speaker:So really good information and just making sure you're branding it
Speaker:as your own and gift his listeners.
Speaker:Again, I wanted Tom to talk to this point,
Speaker:I was hoping you were going to say exactly what you
Speaker:said, because just because someone out there might have already done
Speaker:a book similar to what you're thinking of,
Speaker:you can make it totally different,
Speaker:unique and your own.
Speaker:Absolutely. The other thing about it too,
Speaker:Sue, is that as a local business owner,
Speaker:when people come into your shop,
Speaker:they don't care if your cookbook is similar to something else
Speaker:out there,
Speaker:like, cause it's unique to you that you're the local artist,
Speaker:you're the local author.
Speaker:And so pretty much any kind of book that you create
Speaker:as long as it's a good quality,
Speaker:they're going to be really excited about it.
Speaker:Because again,
Speaker:it's got that unique story around it.
Speaker:Someone in LA,
Speaker:on the other coast is not going to get the same
Speaker:kind of reception with your customers as you are because you're
Speaker:there, you're there with them.
Speaker:And that creates a new story around it.
Speaker:Right? And I would suggest that this getting back to the
Speaker:whole business intent behind a book too,
Speaker:it's not just getting revenue from a book,
Speaker:which is what you're so good at Tom,
Speaker:but it's also heightening the image of your whole brand.
Speaker:If you're a store,
Speaker:if you're a designer where craft shows,
Speaker:even if you have a book you're looked at in a
Speaker:different way,
Speaker:definitely one final thing.
Speaker:Now just on the writing,
Speaker:then we'll go out a little bit into the future of
Speaker:what someone could expect.
Speaker:But is there anything,
Speaker:if someone started writing any direction,
Speaker:you would give them,
Speaker:is there a special tool they should be using?
Speaker:Is there a special format they should be writing in,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:more of the technical type thing?
Speaker:Is there any advice there?
Speaker:Well, I mean,
Speaker:for technical,
Speaker:you can use any kind of word processor.
Speaker:So I use Microsoft word.
Speaker:It's the most basic,
Speaker:simple software tool.
Speaker:Pretty much every computer has it.
Speaker:You can use anything because there's free tools out there.
Speaker:You can use it.
Speaker:It really doesn't matter what you write the book in,
Speaker:just use whatever tool,
Speaker:you know?
Speaker:So if you,
Speaker:if you're familiar with a certain tool,
Speaker:use that if you're not familiar with any tool and just
Speaker:open up any kind of word processor,
Speaker:you can get your hands on and just learn it,
Speaker:learning how to use the tools and what's going to help
Speaker:you be most successful.
Speaker:So for example,
Speaker:the find and replace feature,
Speaker:if every single one of your commas is got an extra
Speaker:space behind it or something like that,
Speaker:you can just find and replace the extra spaces and replace
Speaker:them instead of going through and hand typing in all the
Speaker:edits and your manuscripts.
Speaker:So understanding how to use your tool will save you a
Speaker:massive amount of time.
Speaker:It's not really what tool you pick.
Speaker:Okay. And then,
Speaker:so you don't really need to be worried about formatting or
Speaker:anything right now it would just be getting the content on
Speaker:paper in an organized way,
Speaker:following the outline as you've suggested earlier.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:I mean formatting important,
Speaker:but it doesn't have to be done until after the book
Speaker:is written.
Speaker:However, I do have some free formatting tools like templates from
Speaker:accept word.
Speaker:I recommend because by having the template in there,
Speaker:I call it pre-writing.
Speaker:So when you fill out the template,
Speaker:you're going to have like 800 to 2000 words already written
Speaker:in your book from the title page and the copyright notice
Speaker:and the table of contents and each of the chapter headings
Speaker:in your author,
Speaker:bio and everything in that book already created.
Speaker:So there's no content in the book,
Speaker:but the shell is there and the pages are there.
Speaker:I find having that helps a lot and really helps motivate
Speaker:you because you look at the word and you've already got
Speaker:a thousand words done and you haven't started writing the book
Speaker:yet. It's kind of a nice feeling.
Speaker:So you can check out and download this free templates@ebookpublishingschool.com,
Speaker:Giving us a lot of goodies here.
Speaker:I wasn't expecting that this is awesome.
Speaker:In terms of length of a book,
Speaker:what are you suggesting there?
Speaker:What, like what's the smallest you could possibly do to be
Speaker:officially a book?
Speaker:That's a good question.
Speaker:So it really varies from every different field.
Speaker:So, I mean,
Speaker:we've published books as low as like 40 pages,
Speaker:like 7,000
Speaker:words to a hundred thousand plus words size.
Speaker:Isn't really a big deal.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:for printing,
Speaker:like you can,
Speaker:like the minimum is 24 pages.
Speaker:So it has to be at least 24 pages,
Speaker:but you have to realize too that there's going to be
Speaker:the front matter in the back matter of the book,
Speaker:the title page and the blank pages for offset printing and
Speaker:all that stuff.
Speaker:But 24 page book would only be like 10 pages of
Speaker:actual content in the book.
Speaker:I think everyone's kind of write a book bigger than that.
Speaker:You're going to have more information than that,
Speaker:for sure.
Speaker:So it's not really about how big the book has to
Speaker:be. It's just about how much content do you have and
Speaker:what is the appropriate amount of content for what you're creating.
Speaker:Again, back to that brainstorming process,
Speaker:when you're brainstorming all the content that's going to be in
Speaker:your book,
Speaker:make sure you're clear on the brand of the book and
Speaker:what is the promise you're delivering.
Speaker:So if you're writing a nonfiction book people,
Speaker:and a lot of cases,
Speaker:they're gonna be buying that book because they want certain Results,
Speaker:right? So if they're buying your cupcake cookbook,
Speaker:it's because they want to make great cupcakes.
Speaker:And so you want to make sure that your book delivers
Speaker:on its promise and that everything inside of that book delivers
Speaker:on your promise to your reader,
Speaker:to your customer.
Speaker:And so don't include fluff,
Speaker:don't include extra stuff that doesn't actually deliver on your brand
Speaker:promise to your reader.
Speaker:Okay. Perfect.
Speaker:Does it fall in line kind of with online courses,
Speaker:I've heard a lot lately that pricing online courses,
Speaker:isn't the length just because you make something longer in time
Speaker:to go through a course doesn't mean it should be more
Speaker:expensive. It has to do with the value of the result
Speaker:at the end.
Speaker:Is that the same thing with writing a book?
Speaker:I would say somewhat,
Speaker:but it's a big difference.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:for online courses like prices range from free to a hundred
Speaker:thousand dollars,
Speaker:right? With books,
Speaker:prices range from free to in most cases,
Speaker:$30. I know there's,
Speaker:some books are 60 and 90,
Speaker:$150, like,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:textbooks and also certain kinds of business books like financial and
Speaker:tax stuff and legal stuff.
Speaker:But the vast majority of books are going to be between
Speaker:free and $30.
Speaker:So you don't have that wide of a range to choose
Speaker:from. So,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:the pricing is really it's based on your market.
Speaker:It's based on your brand,
Speaker:it's based on your distribution.
Speaker:It's based on a whole bunch of different factors.
Speaker:And when I look at pricing,
Speaker:I'm always thinking of how do we get the most sales
Speaker:and the most profits and especially for your business.
Speaker:Because again,
Speaker:like if you're,
Speaker:let's say you're a business that's getting leads from your book.
Speaker:Like maybe a,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:like an accountant or attorney or people who,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:like the main purpose for their book is not just to
Speaker:get rotated in the book,
Speaker:but actually get new customers for their business,
Speaker:new clients.
Speaker:But then they don't really care about how much royalties they
Speaker:make because every client can earn them thousands and thousands of
Speaker:dollars. And so what they're trying to do is maximize the
Speaker:backend sales from their book.
Speaker:And so you have to figure out,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:what are your business goals?
Speaker:And then how do you want to price your book based
Speaker:on your business school?
Speaker:Agreed. So in the very beginning,
Speaker:why you starting to write this book in the first place?
Speaker:What are you trying to achieve?
Speaker:And then you run down this path and hammering home.
Speaker:Again, it doesn't have to be a long book to be
Speaker:$30 and a long book might only be worth $7.
Speaker:So that,
Speaker:isn't the point.
Speaker:It's the content and the quality of the content in the
Speaker:book. Tom,
Speaker:let's move forward just a little bit.
Speaker:And I know we can't get into a lot of detail
Speaker:here, but let's move on.
Speaker:So you've written the book,
Speaker:just give us a little bit of an overview of the
Speaker:publishing and then the marketing sections.
Speaker:What types of activities occur in both of those phases?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean,
Speaker:so for publishing,
Speaker:you've got the choice between traditional publishing,
Speaker:which is you go out,
Speaker:you find a literary agent and they try to pitch your
Speaker:book through a traditional publisher.
Speaker:And it's this long drawn out miserable process for most authors
Speaker:and less than less than one in a thousand authors ever
Speaker:actually get a traditional book deal.
Speaker:So I'm just going to assume that the vast majority of
Speaker:people, 99.9%
Speaker:listening will never get that deal.
Speaker:And it's not probably,
Speaker:they're probably not the route you want to go.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:my experience,
Speaker:you earn a lot more money,
Speaker:self publishing or working with an independent publisher because instead of
Speaker:getting 8% royalties or 15% royalties from a traditional publisher,
Speaker:you can get 70% royalties.
Speaker:When you self publish your books,
Speaker:you're going to get a dollar or two for selling a
Speaker:$25 hard cover book.
Speaker:You can earn $2 and 60 cents for selling a $2
Speaker:nine, 9 cent ebook.
Speaker:And so since the price is 10 times less,
Speaker:you're going to have to sell a lot more volume and
Speaker:earn a lot more royalties.
Speaker:So I think self publishing is the way to go.
Speaker:If you look at the shifts in the industry,
Speaker:it just makes more and more sense every single day.
Speaker:And so in the self publishing process,
Speaker:there's a lot that goes into,
Speaker:we don't really have time to cover everything,
Speaker:but I think the key is you want your book to
Speaker:be as professional as a traditionally published book would be.
Speaker:You don't want the reader to think this is obviously self-published
Speaker:because it's got a bad cover or got typos in it
Speaker:or something like that.
Speaker:Like you want to create a professional quality book and you
Speaker:can do that.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it's so easy today.
Speaker:You can go on sites like upwork.com
Speaker:and you can find literally thousands of editors there who have
Speaker:been trained at that shoot in New York publishing companies,
Speaker:you can find cover designers.
Speaker:Who've worked for huge publishing firms before you can find proofreaders.
Speaker:You've worked for a huge publishing companies before.
Speaker:So you can find massively experienced people out there at really
Speaker:reasonable prices to do the work for you to create a
Speaker:professional book at the end of the day.
Speaker:So I think that's really the key.
Speaker:And then the other key with self publishing is you have
Speaker:to get the distribution.
Speaker:You have to sure your book is available to customers in
Speaker:the right place where your customers are actually going to be.
Speaker:And so the number one distribution platform is probably know this,
Speaker:but amazon.com
Speaker:and the us Amazon sells over 70% of all the eBooks
Speaker:and in the UK is over 80% of all the eBooks
Speaker:are sold on Amazon and eBooks are really aware that there's
Speaker:the most growth in the market right now.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:physical books are declining like $10 billion globally over the next
Speaker:several years.
Speaker:And so eBooks is where the growth is and eBooks is
Speaker:where you're going to make most of your profits most of
Speaker:the time for most self-published authors.
Speaker:And so I really learned as much as you possibly can
Speaker:about how to get better distribution for eBooks.
Speaker:And how do you market your eBooks online?
Speaker:Can you do both?
Speaker:We were talking before about having a book in your shop
Speaker:that you've published.
Speaker:Can you have it as an ebook and then also hard
Speaker:copy? Yeah.
Speaker:So I'd recommend for most folks,
Speaker:if you're serious about your book and you really want to
Speaker:get it out to as many people as possible,
Speaker:depending on the type of book it is.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you want to do an ebook for sure,
Speaker:like an ebook in every case,
Speaker:except there's certain things you can't do any of it for
Speaker:like a journal where you have,
Speaker:where readers have to like type in or write in content.
Speaker:You can't do eBooks for that,
Speaker:but other books,
Speaker:you would always do an ebook for it because it's the
Speaker:cheapest. And you're generally going to get the most sales.
Speaker:And then second would be the print book.
Speaker:So you can definitely have one of those in your store
Speaker:and your local libraries and other local shops.
Speaker:And then if it makes sense for your book to do
Speaker:an audio book as well,
Speaker:digital audio books are booming and sales right now.
Speaker:And that can be another great opportunity,
Speaker:but, you know,
Speaker:for something like a cookbook,
Speaker:it wouldn't make sense to do an audio book,
Speaker:but other books,
Speaker:when it makes sense to do it can be a great
Speaker:tool as well.
Speaker:Yeah. And that can be an extension.
Speaker:All you have to do is record it.
Speaker:And it's already written,
Speaker:and I love audio books when it's your own voice,
Speaker:the author's voice,
Speaker:because they know how they meant to say the words and
Speaker:read the words and all of that.
Speaker:So audio is a great option as well.
Speaker:And then of course,
Speaker:finally marketing people have to know about your book.
Speaker:How does that work A lot to it?
Speaker:I think the key that we work with with our clients
Speaker:is marketing is a long-term game.
Speaker:It's a lot,
Speaker:people talk about like a book launch,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and you market your book really heavily for three months or
Speaker:six months.
Speaker:And then I forget about it,
Speaker:smarter strategy.
Speaker:If you're in a business to be long-term successful is to
Speaker:focus on long-term marketing.
Speaker:And so to do that,
Speaker:you have to really focus on marketing that you enjoy doing,
Speaker:that you love doing.
Speaker:And then you are either really good at,
Speaker:or you will get good at it by guessing because you
Speaker:love it so much.
Speaker:You're gonna keep practicing it.
Speaker:And so that all comes down to what are your strengths?
Speaker:And so if your strength is for example,
Speaker:speaking, so maybe you want to do podcast shows like this.
Speaker:Maybe you can do public speaking.
Speaker:You can speak at your local chamber of commerce.
Speaker:You can speak at events and conferences and so forth and
Speaker:do webinars and radio and TV is your strength and use
Speaker:your skills to get the message out there consistently.
Speaker:And if you do that year after year after year,
Speaker:you're going to be successful with your marketing.
Speaker:You look at companies like Coca-Cola,
Speaker:they're still advertising after a hundred years.
Speaker:Like why are they still running ads after a hundred years?
Speaker:Because they know it works.
Speaker:If you're going to be successful with marketing,
Speaker:you have to do it consistently year after year after year.
Speaker:And in my experience,
Speaker:if you don't love what you're doing,
Speaker:it's going to be hard to do it year after year
Speaker:after year.
Speaker:So for authors who are saying,
Speaker:I hate Twitter,
Speaker:I can't stand it.
Speaker:If you hate Twitter and you can't stand it,
Speaker:then that should probably not be a part of your marketing
Speaker:because you're not going to be consistent with it unless you
Speaker:outsource it and hire a team members to do it.
Speaker:And there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker:But in terms of what you,
Speaker:as the creator should do for marketing,
Speaker:it's really focusing on what are your strengths and how do
Speaker:you leverage your strengths to maximum effect to get the most
Speaker:exposure and reach for what you're doing.
Speaker:Perfect. All right.
Speaker:One further question here.
Speaker:And I don't think marketing obviously would be very open-ended I'm
Speaker:getting to the point about investment.
Speaker:How much does it really cost to create a book?
Speaker:So not talking about the marketing again,
Speaker:because depending on your plan,
Speaker:that range could vary so much,
Speaker:but in terms of just writing it and getting it up
Speaker:in published form and possibly some physical,
Speaker:I don't know if you want to address the costs to
Speaker:that as well,
Speaker:but what are we looking at in terms of a range
Speaker:of prices?
Speaker:Well, I will tell you,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:my first ebook I published for $5,
Speaker:no kidding.
Speaker:I didn't,
Speaker:I didn't have a lot of money at the time.
Speaker:So I went the budget route.
Speaker:So I got a book cover design from fiverr.com.
Speaker:This is a few good designers on fiverr.com,
Speaker:but I think you have to go through about 60 or
Speaker:70 folks on there to find a really good designer there.
Speaker:So if you have the time you can do that,
Speaker:you can hire someone more upscale if you've got the budget
Speaker:for that.
Speaker:So it can be done really cheaply.
Speaker:That's what I'm trying to say.
Speaker:Here's the,
Speaker:is anybody.
Speaker:Then you can do this.
Speaker:I would say on average,
Speaker:if you want an ebook,
Speaker:if you want a print book and you want an audio
Speaker:book and want all three of those things done,
Speaker:and you want a professional editor,
Speaker:I would say on average three to $5,000
Speaker:is a good budget to have to get everything done on
Speaker:a really professional level.
Speaker:But you know,
Speaker:again, it's going to vary from book to book,
Speaker:project to project based on your skills and your strengths and
Speaker:your team and so forth.
Speaker:So it really varies.
Speaker:But I would say if you budgeted more than $5,000
Speaker:to get it published,
Speaker:you're probably overspending in a couple of different areas.
Speaker:And so what I would recommend is I've got a rule
Speaker:in business.
Speaker:I call it the rule of three.
Speaker:So anytime I'm going to hire someone to do work over
Speaker:a certain number of threshold and for you,
Speaker:it might be a hundred dollars or a thousand dollars,
Speaker:or what have you.
Speaker:I'm always going to get a minimum of three quotes because
Speaker:the biggest mistake I see folks making financially as authors is
Speaker:their friends,
Speaker:neighbors, niece says they're a cover designer and they can do
Speaker:a book cover for you.
Speaker:And you'd say,
Speaker:Oh, that's amazing.
Speaker:That'd be great.
Speaker:And then,
Speaker:so they do the cover design for you and they send
Speaker:you a bill for $5,000
Speaker:and you pay it because you think that's just normal.
Speaker:And you're basically just getting ripped off.
Speaker:And there's a lot of folks like that.
Speaker:Who would you just hire the first person you hear about?
Speaker:And you don't really do your research into what should the
Speaker:actual pricing be for a project like this and what is
Speaker:the actual skill set and how was this person trained?
Speaker:For example,
Speaker:like hiring an editor,
Speaker:I would never hire an editor unless they were trained at
Speaker:a traditional publishing company or a medium-sized publisher,
Speaker:or maybe in journalism.
Speaker:They weren't really well-trained by an editor and staff for years.
Speaker:You don't want to hire them as an editor because anyone
Speaker:can fix typos and grammatical mistakes,
Speaker:but there's a lot more to editing than just fixing typos.
Speaker:There's a whole lot more to it.
Speaker:And they wouldn't have learned those skills and those nuances of
Speaker:the English language,
Speaker:unless they were really well-trained by professional.
Speaker:Is there,
Speaker:when you say that,
Speaker:what is more to editing?
Speaker:Is it structure or Well,
Speaker:so like usage is one of the things which is like,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:how, what words are you using to display your point?
Speaker:There's so many nuances in that is the market awareness.
Speaker:So it's understanding who is your reader and is what's in
Speaker:your book actually coming across of the ideas.
Speaker:You thought you were communicating your book,
Speaker:the ones you're actually communicating on paper is the structure of
Speaker:your book.
Speaker:Does it make sense?
Speaker:Is it a structure of your sentences,
Speaker:your words,
Speaker:your paragraphs of the chapters,
Speaker:does that all make sense?
Speaker:Is it all line up?
Speaker:Does it carry the reader along in this process where they
Speaker:get lost in the book?
Speaker:Or are there places in there where the reader is going
Speaker:to get confused or lose entrance?
Speaker:If you confuse your reader or you lose their interest,
Speaker:they're going to put the book down,
Speaker:they're going to stop reading.
Speaker:So you want to create something that's really going to be
Speaker:compelling. You want to create the kind of book that people
Speaker:are going to say,
Speaker:wow, that was an amazing book.
Speaker:And that's something a great editor can help you create that.
Speaker:Any experienced editors,
Speaker:they really don't get that stuff.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:I've heard so many horror stories of folks hiring editors who
Speaker:weren't well-trained and really did a really poor job.
Speaker:I would have never thought about that now,
Speaker:because you can just put together a book and self-published and
Speaker:could do it all yourself.
Speaker:I understand much better now about editing,
Speaker:what should be happening.
Speaker:Cause you want those positive reviews on Amazon.
Speaker:You're putting in the time,
Speaker:you might as well make sure that your end product is
Speaker:as professional and as connected with your potential audience as it
Speaker:possibly could be.
Speaker:Definitely. Yeah.
Speaker:So just to give you kind of a visual,
Speaker:see, when we get a manuscript back for one of my
Speaker:books or a client's book from a really good editor,
Speaker:we use Microsoft word and we just track changes in Microsoft
Speaker:word. And so you can see all the comments and read
Speaker:almost every single page has more comments than actually fit on
Speaker:that page.
Speaker:Like Microsoft word came and display all the comments and edits
Speaker:in that first pass.
Speaker:And then,
Speaker:so you have to open up a tab on the left
Speaker:side of the page to see all the different comments and
Speaker:edits in there.
Speaker:That's how much it should be,
Speaker:right? It should be a lot.
Speaker:And it doesn't mean you have to accept everything that the
Speaker:editor says,
Speaker:but it means like their job is to be focusing on
Speaker:the minutia.
Speaker:I focus on the really tiny details,
Speaker:catch every little mistake and it takes a really well-trained freshman
Speaker:to be able to do that.
Speaker:Wonderful. So interesting.
Speaker:I love everything we've talked about here,
Speaker:Tom, cause we've talked about the value of the book for
Speaker:a business.
Speaker:The step you have,
Speaker:the overall three things,
Speaker:writing, publishing and marketing.
Speaker:And then we really took a deep dive into writing to
Speaker:really give us a good feel for what it takes to
Speaker:actually put together a book.
Speaker:Now I know you've written how many books,
Speaker:what's your number at this point 27,
Speaker:you've written 27.
Speaker:What is your favorite book that you've written A favorite book?
Speaker:I wrote it's called secrets of the six-figure author.
Speaker:And it's all about what is the mindset and the strategies
Speaker:that you need to use to really be successful as an
Speaker:author. And I love that book because I've gotten so many
Speaker:emails from readers just saying it,
Speaker:it changed their life.
Speaker:It changed their perspective,
Speaker:not just as an author,
Speaker:but in their personal life as well,
Speaker:and really getting their mindset straight.
Speaker:Oh, interesting.
Speaker:And did you record this on audible?
Speaker:It is an audio book,
Speaker:but I didn't actually do the audio recording.
Speaker:I don't really enjoy doing that much of the audio recording.
Speaker:So I just,
Speaker:So you hired someone else to do it.
Speaker:Wonderful. We'll give busy listeners just as you're listening to the
Speaker:podcast today,
Speaker:you can also listen to Tom's book and other audio books
Speaker:with ease.
Speaker:I've teamed up with audible for you to be able to
Speaker:get an audio book for free on me if you haven't
Speaker:done so already,
Speaker:all you need to do is go to gift biz,
Speaker:book.com and make a selection.
Speaker:That's gift biz,
Speaker:book.com. Okay.
Speaker:Winding down here,
Speaker:Tom, I want to offer you to dare to dream.
Speaker:I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker:It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable
Speaker:Heights that you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What's inside your box.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:I love it for me.
Speaker:It's making the world a better place.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I think the reason I'm so passionate about books and literature
Speaker:and writing and ideas is because I think good ideas are
Speaker:what help us as human beings make good decisions.
Speaker:And it's our decisions that are gonna shape the future of
Speaker:our lives and future generations and the future of the planet.
Speaker:And so I just loved the idea,
Speaker:sharing, great ideas are going to help people make the world
Speaker:a better place and impact future generations Beautifully said,
Speaker:and it gets any passions that you have out into the
Speaker:world. And they'll continue on.
Speaker:I know you have a lot of resources,
Speaker:so take it away.
Speaker:Let us know other things that you have available that we
Speaker:can investigate other services,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:your course,
Speaker:all that type of thing.
Speaker:Give us a little bit of PR on you,
Speaker:Tom. Yeah,
Speaker:definitely. So I mean,
Speaker:if you're excited about everything,
Speaker:we shared data,
Speaker:you're ready to write your first book and get it published.
Speaker:I'd say check out the free video training course@ebookpublishingschool.com.
Speaker:I'll walk you through the process step by step from getting
Speaker:your book formatted and published on Amazon and launching your first
Speaker:book. And there's also at the annual here about the advanced
Speaker:training course.
Speaker:If you want detailed step-by-step action guides and everything from writing
Speaker:your book to getting it published and beyond that's all available
Speaker:there. The other thing is you can check out the publishing
Speaker:company and our blog@tckpublishing.com.
Speaker:There are tons of amazing checklists and resources there for you
Speaker:for free@tckpublishing.com.
Speaker:And the other thing is have a podcast show.
Speaker:So every single week we interview a best-selling author to find
Speaker:out what's working right now in their business to grow their
Speaker:income and increase their fan base.
Speaker:And that's at publishing profits,
Speaker:podcast.com Give biz listeners.
Speaker:We have now presented you with yet another way for you
Speaker:to develop and grow your business.
Speaker:And probably one that you hadn't thought about before.
Speaker:I'm a,
Speaker:mostly when you're in the artist creative world,
Speaker:you're thinking of selling your products at craft shows and having
Speaker:them displayed in retail shops or online,
Speaker:whatever it is,
Speaker:but here is a brand new way and really unique approach.
Speaker:And just as Tom is talking about,
Speaker:this is a great way for you to separate yourself from
Speaker:competition, make your product and your brand and you as an
Speaker:artist stand out.
Speaker:So I really want you to think about this,
Speaker:Tom, this is great information that you've shared today.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:something that a lot of people in our industry would not
Speaker:have thought of.
Speaker:I really appreciate you joining us here today,
Speaker:Tom, and may your candle Always burn bright,
Speaker:thanks so much.
Speaker:Where are you in your business building journey,
Speaker:whether you're just starting out or already running a business and
Speaker:you want to know your setup for success.
Speaker:Find out by taking the gift biz quiz,
Speaker:access the quiz from your computer at bit dot L Y
Speaker:slash a gift biz quiz or from your phone like texting
Speaker:gift biz quiz to four four,
Speaker:two, two,
Speaker:two. Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for
Speaker:the next episode.
Speaker:Today's show is sponsored by the ribbon print company,
Speaker:looking for a new income source for your gift business.
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Speaker:for more information after you listened to the show,
Speaker:if you like what you're hearing,
Speaker:make sure to jump over and subscribe to the show on
Speaker:iTunes. That way you'll automatically get the newest episodes when they
Speaker:go by.
Speaker:And thank you to those who have already left a rating
Speaker:by subscribing rating and reviewing help to increase the visibility on
Speaker:ground. It's a great way to pay it forward,