What does it take to be a marketing master? Passion, persistence and patience. Dr. Ivan Misner, bestselling author, founder and chairman of BNI, is a great example of how applying these three characteristics can build a solid marketing platform. Ivan, known as the “Father of Networking,” earned his reputation as a marketing master in his networking business with his passion, persistence and patience. This helped him reach bestseller status with his first book, “Masters of [Read More…]

Ready for some brutal honesty? Shooting for the bestseller list may be a waste of your time and money. If your platform isn’t in place and you don’t have at least 150,000 people in your tribe who know you, like you and trust you—you’re going to fall flat on your face. So what else can you do with your book? Quite a bit. It’s important to remember that your book is a tool. And it can be quite a powerful tool when you think outside the box and get creative. When you [Read More…]

Writing a book is an important step in building your reputation as an authority and expert in your niche. That's because before people will take you seriously, you need to prove to them on some level that you know what you’re talking about. There are three pieces to using your experience to build your credibility and your platform: Expertise Network Likeability But it can be challenging to capture your ideal customers’ attention long enough to let them know why they should [Read More…]

How many people know you, or at least know of you, and appreciate your work? Do you have 150,000 fans out there? That's a lot of fans. But that’s the number it takes to make a run at a best-selling book: people who are eager to get more of what you offer. Releasing your book without having a solid marketing platform in place is a great way to fail to reach your publishing goals. The best way to market your own book is to begin marketing before you write it. You do this by building your [Read More…]

What’s the best way to fail as an author? Rely on your publisher to market your book. Or if you’re going the self-publishing route, rely on the quality of your content to make your book a New York Times bestseller. Alas, great ideas are no longer enough. If you want to reach the world with your message, you’re going to have to do the heavy lifting yourself. You're going to have to market your book. The best way to do that is to create a platform and build a tribe of people who know, [Read More…]

Publishing a book isn't what it used to be. But that is to be expected in a changing market. Consider gas stations. In the gas-station world, people adapted. As demand continued to outstrip the ability of a single attendant, some entrepreneurs saw a market opportunity and opened up gas stations of their own. This increased competition. Where a town used to have only one gas station, gas stations began popping up at major local intersections. Suddenly, small towns saw competition. [Read More…]

Publishers & Gas Station Attendants Back in the day, not too long ago, publishers used to have the time and resources not only to edit, design, print and distribute books, they also used to spend time and money marketing the books they decided to publish. Those days are over. Market forces have caused publishers to do what they do best: design, print, and distribute books. (Even the editing of books has fallen off, as publishers more and more demand finely polished [Read More…]

Let's Be Realistic Have you noticed how all parents think their kid is the smartest and brightest? Authors feel the same way about their books. As "parents" of our books, we find it difficult to evaluate objectively where our book — our baby — stands in relationship to all the other smartest and brightest books out there. The truth is, your book may actually be the most important and entertaining book around — but that doesn't even matter. The marketplace will most likely fail [Read More…]

We all have to start somewhere. Even if your goals are to be a wildly successful and popular author, there are no shortcuts to building a solid marketing platform that will support your success. For most new authors, before crossing the finish line as an A-list or B-list author, you must begin your journey as a D-list author. D-list Authors: Square One D-list authors are those whose marketing platform does not extend much further than friends, family and business associates. Such [Read More…]