Using Your Book to Position Yourself as an Expert
You’re an entrepreneur or business professional, and you recently published your first book.
As you make a business offer to one of your qualified prospects, how do you make it stand out from all of the competing offers your prospect may be getting from your competitors? How do you make your prospect feel safe selecting yours? The answer to both questions is by positioning yourself as the expert. Buyers want to buy from experts. Buyers feel safe buying from experts.
You need to prove your expertise to truly position yourself as an expert. Proof of expertise includes academic degrees, client testimonials, books, keynote addresses, articles, white papers, speaking gigs, etc. Experienced marketers will tell you that of all these different kinds of proof, a book by far is the best. It’s the ultimate showcase for your expertise, because it demonstrates both your comprehensive knowledge of, and your dedication to, your subject.
Bernie Borges is the founder and CEO of the Internet marketing agency Find and Convert, where he helps businesses produce sales opportunities through Internet marketing. Mr. Borges is also the author of Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyer through Social Media Marketing (Wheatmark, 2009). He says of his book: “I regularly compete for new business among other Internet marketing agencies. Without question, when I hand a prospective new client my book … I am immediately set apart from all of my competitors. Nearly each time, I win the new client.”
He wins the new client because his book positions him as the expert to be trusted (rather than his bookless competitors).
Another example: Bad boy chef Anthony Bourdain, host of the Travel Channel’s long-running show Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, is one of the most recognized experts in the culinary field. This didn’t happen by chance; it happened as a direct result of his publishing the book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (Bloomsbury, 2000). Before the book’s publication Mr. Bourdain had a respectable career managing the kitchens of several restaurants in New York. Since the book’s publication he’s had two wildly successful TV shows; published nine more books (including several mysteries); had a sitcom character based on him; launched an award-winning blog; been a guest on Top Chef and several other shows; had articles published in numerous papers, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Times, The Los Angeles Times, andThe Observer; made a cameo appearance in a major movie; and been hired as a writer for the HBO series Treme.
The publication of Kitchen Confidential was the watershed event that set Mr. Bourdain apart from the tens of thousands of other chefs out there. It’s what allowed (and allows) him to make offers to publishers and TV producers and have these offers be taken seriously and accepted.
Positioning yourself as an expert is key to marketing your business successfully, and nothing positions you as an expert better than a book.
An Amazing Resource: Workflowy
I make a lot of lists and, frankly, they have gotten out of hand lately. Grocery list in the pocket. To-do list for home improvement at home in a drawer. To-do list for the Wheatmark website on my work computer. A list of books I want to read on my home computer (but I’ve forgotten which folder). A list of topics to be discussed in our next Authors Academy event … in a Word file somewhere. A list of things I want to accomplish this year … well, that list is in the back of my brain, waiting to be typed up.
A few weeks ago I realized I couldn’t keep all of my lists straight and said, “Enough!” That’s when someone introduced me to Workflowy.
It changed my life. My list-making life, that is.
Workflowy is a free online application that lets you turn your whole life into one giant list. Instead of maintaining ten different lists (one for groceries, one for a presentation outline, one for your book outline, one for goals, etc.), you are maintaining a single list, albeit with many different sub-lists. You can zoom in on the specific list you want to work on so you’re not distracted by all your other lists.
Try it for a few days and I guarantee you’ll never look back. Visit www.workflowy.com to get started and to see how it works. Then tell me if this is NOT an amazing resource!
How to Structure a Nonfiction Book
Publishing a book is a rewarding task. Writing a book, however, can be an overwhelming one. Learning how to structure your nonfiction book project will help you organize your thoughts and write an excellent book.
There are several ways to structure your nonfiction book: using the table of contents as an outline, chronologically, and using a traditional storyline structure. By deciding how you want to proceed, you can easily begin writing within the chosen framework.
Table of Contents
One way to structure your nonfiction book is to create a table of contents before you’ve even penned your first chapter. By creating an outline of what you want to write, you’ll easily create your roadmap of what you need to write. If you find yourself straying away from the topics you’ve sketched out, you may want to take a step back from your project and decide if you’ve chosen the right topic for your book, or if maybe one book will not be enough to contain you ideas and that you should consider writing a series of books rather than one all-encompassing book.
Chronologically
Chronology is a great way to structure a nonfiction book. Chronology, although generally about time, can also be thought of as building levels. If you are writing about, for example, how to use a computer program, you may want to begin with the basics of the program like how to open a new project in the program. As your chapters continue, you can add levels of steps and complexity to the basics. For a book about parenting, however, you can focus on actual time increments, such as infants, toddlers, young adults, etc.
A nonfiction book that a chronological outline seems natural for (but which is often a bad choice) is memoirs. Writing about a life from birth to present day is an easy way to organize a memoir. However, it can be tedious for a reader and can be an overwhelming subject to write about. Remember it took living a whole life to get to the present day. It will feel like a lifetime reading it. For memoirs, a traditional story structure would be beneficial.
Story Structure
You may be structuring a nonfiction memoir, but the classic structure of storytelling—whether fiction of nonfiction—is perfect for your life story. Structure your book to begin with the beginning problem that needs to be solved. You were born is not a problem. But maybe your father’s medical practice that took him away from the family for long hours is the motivator for your personality. That would be your problem to be solved.
Then you would explain all the adversities and joys that propelled you to your climax. Then you would explain what you (and the reader) learned from it.
This structure works for more than just memoirs. By framing your book about sales techniques with similar story arcs—problem to be solved, missteps along the way, how you solved it, what you learned—you create a compelling nonfiction book that reads like a novel.
Recipe for Nonfiction
Another way to structure your nonfiction book is by using a step-by-step approach. Think of it as a recipe for your thesis. You want to teach how to do something, so your book would educate your reader using step-by-step chapters outlining the information to be gained. This is a great way to write how-to books from technology to diet and fitness. The reader can easily find their place in the learning curve and use the book as a resource for the future.
One last way to structure a book is by topic.
Topic by Topic
If you are covering a subject that has many individual sections that do not necessarily go together, for example, the animals of Africa, you may want to structure your book by the types of animals that live there such as hunters and runners. Wouldn’t “Claws,” “Hooves,” “Horns,” and “Just Plain Big” would be compelling titles for chapters? Not only would they draw smirks from your readers, but they can help you organize your writing by narrowing your focus for each section to animals that fit within those categories.
Writing the nonfiction book can be a challenge. Unlike fiction books, which often suffer from a lack of imagination at times, the nonfiction book can be difficult because the writer has too much information to share and no framework in which to confine it.
By developing the structure of your nonfiction book before you write, you’ll be able to better visualize your next step and focus your writing in an organized fashion.
The Published Author Lifestyle
You wrote a book. You followed the steps:
- You had it professionally edited
- You had it professionally designed
- You made sure it was distributed with full returnability to sites like Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com
- You even did a book signing at a local indie bookstore just for fun
- You created a website and blog for the book
But the sales are just not rolling in. At least not at the level you had expected. What went wrong?
One possibility is that you haven’t transitioned your lifestyle to that of a published author. You are most likely still in “writer” mode.
When people ask you about your experience and hobbies (say at a church potluck), do you still self-consciously say, “Well, um, I actually recently wrote a book,” or do you smile, rummage in your pocket for a business card, and say, “I published my second book last month! Check out my website and read an excerpt!” and hand them the card with the URL printed on it while your audience is still impressed and in awe?
The jumps in lifestyle from “I have an idea” to “I’m writing a book” to “I wrote a book” to “I’m publishing my first book” to “I am a published author” can come with a little vertigo.
Being prepared for that final step is one of more daunting things you’ll work on beyond finalizing your manuscript.
Step One: Find Your Audience
Yes, Wheatmark shouts about this so often, most of us have lost our voices over it. But it is key. If you don’t have someone in mind to sell your book to, you are going to be hard-pressed to sell it to anyone. Lackluster sales are often evidence that you are missing your target audience.
Step Two: Talk with Your Audience
It really doesn’t matter how you do this: sandwich boards, billboards, print ads, bullhorns, parades, Champagne parties, workshops, or any of the tons of avenues on the Internet. What is important is finding your audience’s favorite hangouts and then becoming the most popular kid there. We prefer the Internet because there are so many tools to use, and they offer lots of functionality that real life doesn’t. Online you can cast a narrower net with greater distance.
Step Three: Don’t Let Go
Once you have found your target audience and have figured out the most advantageous way to communicate with them, don’t stop. The constant reinforcement to “pay attention to me” is crucial. Whether it is through email news lists where you mention your next move, your free downloadable chapter, or just asking people to leave Amazon reviews, that constant reinforcement keeps them in your circle and hopefully, if they haven’t yet purchased your book, they will. If nothing else, maybe they’ll tell someone else, and they’ll buy your book.
Step Four: The Waiting Game
I know someone who, at a young age, had an excerpt of his fiction book published in The New Yorker and was soon thereafter wooed and published by a traditional publishing house to great acclaim and expectation. The novel was well received, but didn’t sell. He never wrote anything again for hire.
His title has been all but dropped by his publisher and the royalties he received just aren’t enough to sustain him. Sadly, he doesn’t yet have the rights to republish his book elsewhere to see if it could gain momentum over time.
Lucky you! As independently published authors, your books have the time to gain sales over time and you directly control the amount of marketing, how the marketing is done, and how well the marketing works. But it does take time. Lots of time.
The main skills to master as a published author? Managing your expectations and learning to wait.
Achieving Success from Wheatmark Author Paul Kelso
We asked Paul Kelso, author of the Great Expectations title, Kelso’s Shrug Book, and also the author of the upcoming title, Jack Ruby’s Last Ride, to tell us a little about how he found his audience and then made his book a success.
Wheatmark has asked me for a few thoughts on how I came to connect with the firm, and some insight as to how I, make that we, created a modest niche book on weight training that has surprised everyone by selling over 6,000 copies.
My remarks will apply primarily to nonfiction and “how to” works.
Here’s how Kelso’s Shrug Book developed. I hold a MA in American studies and had written for newspapers when younger and magazines later, so I was at least literate. I also loved weightlifting and wrestling and competed in both, and in my forties became a college weight coach as well as an English prof.
One day in the weight room I had a brainstorm. I accidentally discovered how to apply an old training principle in a number of new ways. These variations became known as The Kelso Shrug System. This concept was spread by my magazine articles beginning in 1984.
I have to date published over one hundred articles on weight-game subjects and reported on eight World or Asian powerlifting championships and a World Games. I developed a lot of name recognition before I proposed the Shrug Book for POD. In fact, I was fortunate to be well known in the field before going with the book. But a lot can be done to build that recognition.
How did I come to choose a POD company? I had heard of the process and in 2001 simply cruised the net to investigate. Wheatmark seemed to have a good program and were responsive to my queries.
When I decided to put Kelso’s Shrug Book together, I was living and teaching in Japan (1989–2006). Obviously, printing off a thousand or so copies to get started, and finding a place to store them in my tiny apartment there, while I attempted to operate a 95 percent stateside mail-order business nine thousand miles away, was ridiculous. Hiring a fulfillment house in the USA or finding a knowledgeable old pal back home was a shaky proposition. Or, I could go with a traditional hard-copy publishing house.
Were I living in the States, I could have made more money per book by doing it all myself. That may still be true, but for me the services of Wheatmark outweigh such considerations, especially as I am now well into retirement (age 73 in February, 2010). I’d rather spend my time writing another book than licking stamps.
How did I market the Shrug Book? In addition to Wheatmark services, I used my contacts in the game to set up a number of retail distributors and sent out about four dozen freebie copies to website operators, equipment sellers, magazine editors for reviews, and net forum operators for comment. Before publishing I solicited a dozen editorial blurbs for back cover and ad one-liners about how great my ideas are. Most of those guys already knew my work, but advance manuscript copies to them helped.
But—first—a would-be author should consider whether he or she HAS a book. Another book I published with a conventional house was put together from fourteen Powerlifting USA stories about the adventures of a gang of demented college lifters and a suffering coach in Texas. Kelso’s Shrug Book was drawn from sixteen articles spread among five magazines. I expanded where pertinent and put additional info in each book. Both run about 44,000 words and one hundred pages. That’s a master’s thesis each time.
Not everybody can have a breakthrough brainstorm or enjoy wide name recognition to help kick-start a book. But a writer might keep these approaches in mind for getting a book together.
BUILD NAME RECOGNITION
- Write articles on the same subject for half a dozen different mags.
- Write a series of articles on different subjects for the same mag.
- Become a regular contributor for one or more mags or websites, Attend live functions in person. Interview established people. Arrange to do some straight reporting in the field as well as writing features or human interest pieces. Attend conferences, expos, contests, whatever, and report them.
- Contribute regularly to Internet forum discussions.
- Correspond regularly with big names in the field, and always answer those seeking advice. Network.
- Stay at it for a number of years. Doing or taking part in what you are writing about usually comes first.
By publishing my ideas as a series of articles first and then compiling them into a book I got paid multiple times for the same material. This is an established way to proceed and not my invention. I got paid to write my books. A writer should query mags in his or her area of expertise about doing an article or series of articles. Write 1,200 – 2,500 words a month and pretty soon that is the basis for a book.
Even if you are already established as a contributor, it is a good idea to query a magazine editor outlining your proposed article before you write the piece. If the editor says your article sounds interesting and he would like to see it, you have a leg up. You know you are on the right track, with less chance of rejection.
Using the POD services of Wheatmark has been to my advantage.
Kelso’s Shrug Book has sold several thousand more copies in seven years than the traditional-method Texas book has in thirteen. My articles on related subjects in the years leading up to it increased my name recognition, as did my reports from international contests. It all came together nicely.
The Shrug Book also received excellent reviews and forum comments. I doubt it would have without the years of buildup.
If one has a novel published by a major New York house and it sells six thousand, that’s a borderline so-so result. In a nonfiction niche field six thousand is pretty good. The result is that I have enjoyed a nice side income since the fall of 2002.
As Wheatmark authors and customers will soon discover, my eclectic short story collection Jack Ruby’s Last Ride will be published in April. I began writing straight fiction in the ‘90s, as a side activity. I played the snail-mail and SASE game for years, and began publishing short stories in the journals in 2001. To date I have published four in USA literary journals, presented four others in ex-pat rags, and two at a reading at Temple U. in Tokyo. One is new as of 2009.
I will of course send out comp copies and hope for reviews, but the truth is I have very few literary contacts stateside any more. (I’ve been teaching in Asia for twenty years). Getting published in lit journals is a very different game from breaking into iron-head mags, cactus-breeding weeklies, or model railroading monthlies. Some top literary journals, like Beloit Fiction Journal or Prairie Schooner, may get as many as eight thousand short story submissions a year. Beloit published only twenty-four stories in 2002, so I feel pretty good about getting Jack Ruby’s Last Ride in there.
And, it has occurred to me, the success of the Shrug Book is paying for the publication of the short story collection.
How about that?
—Paul Kelso, early January 2010
Blogging As You Write…
Recently I began an experiment to help in my writing endeavors. I’ve been writing a book about my quirky experiences working as a small town newspaper reporter, which I did for 10 years before moving to Tucson. I decided it might benefit me to see what others think about the project. So I started a blog. The idea was a little intimidating at first. I mean, did I really want the whole world reading my writing before it was edited, much less published?
But then it dawned on me. That’s the best time to have them read it! When they comment on the different stories I’ve posted, it not only gives me a feel for what people may be interested in, but it also gives me some feedback on what needs to be fixed, changed, deleated, etc. If they like it, they may become hooked and want to read the entire book once it’s published. Who knows? It may be generating a potential market for my book before the book is even completed.
Best of all, it’s motivating me to stay on task and to be more dilligent in completing the project.
So far I’ve just been announcing the blog posts on my Facebook profile; I still need to gain followers and start linking to other blogs.
Am I afraid of losing my content to someone else who may try to steal it and publish it under their own name? Nah! Being an author is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes money, time, and effort to become published and successful–even when you’re great. Who would want that headache?
I’ll keep you posted on my progress as it unfolds. Here’s my blog if you would like to read it and make comments.
Learning the Lingo: A Quick Vocabulary Lesson for the New Author
Like most niches of the creative world, there is a learning curve to joining that community. The language book people speak is often one that can befuddle the new author. Here is a quick rundown of some important terms publishing professionals may say, ask your opinion about, or need you to understand.
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Manuscript – The manuscript is the document that is your writing. It can be printed on paper, sketched on a napkin, or better yet, typed up in a Word document. When book people talk about a manuscript, they mean the work that will be transformed into a book.
Paginated interior – After your final manuscript is accepted, the next step in the publishing process is layout. The paginated interior is the end product of layout. All of the formatting choices the designer makes to mold your manuscript into a book is part of this. What the author receives to review after the layout process is the paginated interior. At this time, there shouldn’t be any major changes, just minor tweaks to make sentences correct.
Trim size – The trim size of a book is the physical footprint of the book when you look at it straight on. For example, some books are 5 inches wide and 8 inches tall, giving them a trim size of 5×8.
Chicago Manual of Style – The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) is the industry standard for guidelines on how to present text within books. From formatting footnotes to how to write the name of a film to using commas, the CMS is the book industry’s rule book.
DPI – The dpi of a digital image has to do with the quality of the image. DPI stands for dots per inch and corresponds with how much ink a printer releases. The higher the dpi (that is, the more dots), the better the quality of the printed image, and the better your book will look. When images are going to be used on the cover or interior of a book, the standard dpi required is 300.
Verso and recto – When you open a book, the page on the left is the verso and the page on the right is the recto. This helps book designers determine placement.
Front matter – The front matter of a book consists of the parts, designated by CMS, that go at the beginning. The options are, in order, half-title page, verso of half-title page (blank), title page, copyright page, dedication, epigraph (the little poem or quote at the beginning of some books), table of contents, foreword, preface, acknowledgments, and sometimes the introduction.
Back matter – The back matter of a book is additional content beyond the chaptered sections that add to the reader’s understanding of the material. These sections can include the appendix, notes, glossary, bibliography, and index.
These are just a few terms the beginning author should learn in order to communicate with editors, designers, and other book people!
Copyediting: A Touch of Chicago Manual of Style
One of the drums that we hit constantly around Wheatmark is the “you need professional editing” tom.
Wheatmark offers several different levels of editing for authors. We also have an editorial analysis that will determine what level of editing you really need.
The differences between the editing options can be confusing. In order to better understand them, let’s use a high-end department store as a parallel.
Developmental Editing
The most in-depth level of editing is the developmental edit. Think of the developmental edit as a personal shopper service some department stores offer. The client hires the personal shopper-who keeps track of every season’s best looks-to provide incredible personal service and say, this is what looks good on you and here is your size.
A developmental edit does the same thing. During the developmental edit, a content editor makes comments and suggestions to help the author develop the content of their manuscript. Not a light undertaking, the developmental edit requires several passes, revisions by the author, more content editing, and finally one last copy edit before it goes to layout.
Heavy Copyediting
The next most in-depth level of editing is the heavy copy edit. The heavy copy edit is like a swanky shoe department. It turns a keen eye to organization, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and a myriad of other style issues. Like the shoe department, there are a lot of styles to look at and the salespeople in the shoe department know their inventory the best. They also can suggest fashions that will look good with your footwear choices and make recommendations about which shoes you might prefer based on your current wardrobe.
That level of attention is what you get with the heavy copy edit: gold star service that doesn’t try to restyle you from the ground up, but instead offers you ways to enhance your story.
Medium Copyediting
This is the straightforward copy edit. An editor will check your grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style, and occasionally make adjustments to your sentences. This is like shopping in the men’s or women’s activewear departments. Mostly you get attentive salespeople who will help you find colors and sizes, but don’t get too involved with your personal wardrobe selections.
A medium copy edit will not include in-depth commentary and suggestions. An editor might provide a few comments here and there, but overall they will be putting the final polish on your manuscript without interfering with your story ideas. Just like clothing salespeople, they won’t talk you out of the hideous silk-blend golf shirt with puppies on it that you are buying as a Father’s Day present. They’ll just help you find your dad’s size.
Light Copyediting
The last level of copyediting to talk about today is the light copy edit. For starters, light copyediting is only available to manuscripts that have been designated acceptable for that service through the Editorial Analysis. In terms of detail, the light copy edit is akin to shopping on the department store’s website-you get mostly the same items as in the store, but because you don’t need as much attention, you can easily buy online. The light copy edit offers all the same services as the regular copy edit, but the work will not be as extensive because your manuscript is fairly clean.
Interested in getting started with an Editorial Analysis? Just fill out the Project Assessment Form about your book to get started.
Cover Design for Maximum Impact: Title Length
A book title’s length can have a big impact on the quality of the cover.
Many authors try to pack as much information as possible into their titles. It’s an understandable instinct. The cover is the first thing potential readers will see, so you want to tell them exactly what wonders await them if they peek inside. Also, the more words you use, the wittier you can be. Right?
Nope.
Here’s the problem. Say you’ve written a detailed historical record about keyboards-the kind you find on typewriters and laptops.
You’ve decided to call it The Quick Brown Fox Jumps over the Lazy Dog: A History of Keyboard Interface from QWERTY to DVORAK. You’re very proud of this title. It’s cute and clever and gets your general concept across.
It’s also unlikely to draw the eye when crammed into a relatively small space-see the first image above.
Think it’s not that bad? Try the Amazon.com-sized thumbnail directly below it. A little crowded, yes?
If you’re selling your book primarily or exclusively online, like most independently published authors, the thumbnail is the first glimpse your readers will get. It is this image that compels them to look closer … or look elsewhere.
As much as you like your original idea, maybe you should think of scaling back. Simplifying. How about QWERTY: A History of Keyboard Interface?
Ta da! Witty! Pretty!
Again, you can really see what a difference this makes for the thumbnail version.
When the elements on the tiny image have room to breathe, the image as a whole becomes more accessible. Without knowing why, your potential readers will feel more inclined to click on it and take a closer look.
Which is exactly what you want them to do.
Should You Use Your Middle Initial On Your Book’s Cover?
Should you use your middle initial on your book’s cover?
Don’t! Unless … well, read on:
Let’s say your name is Francine Lambert (I just made this up.) All your friends, relatives, and people you come in contact with know you as Francine Lambert. You introduce yourself at events as Francine Lambert. Basically, you are … Francine Lambert.
You write a self-help book on how to save money in a tough economy and it’s time for your publisher to put your name on the cover and into the necessary bibliographic databases. “How would you like your name appear on your book’s cover?” the publisher asks.
You’ve decided you will not use a pen name or pseudonym, which is wise in your case. However, after you blurt out “Francine Lambert” you pause and say, “Actually, make that Francine J.Lambert.” You believe your name with a middle initial looks and sounds more authoritative on your book cover. And you’re right … but you’re making a big mistake!
As we’ve seen, people know you as Francine Lambert, not as Francine J. Lambert. When you’ve pitched your book to an audience or even just to friends, they will go online to look for your book. Instead of looking for the title of your book (which they may have forgotten), they will search on your name. They will search on the name they know and remember, which is Francine Lambert, but all online databases associate your book with the name Francine J. Lambert. Will your book show up on these searches? Yes, but it will not score nearly as well in generic Google search results as it should!
Therefore, don’t use your middle initial on your book cover unless you have to.
When should you use your middle initial? I recommend it in two cases:
- You share a name with another author or famous person. Your middle initial will distinguish you and your book from the other author’s books. Online bookstore databases sometimes have a hard time distinguishing between two authors by the exact same name. One of our authors, John Lock, actually goes by J. D. Lock.
- You have a very common (i.e., popular) name, like Mary Smith or Paul Brown. I suppose for this reason Michael W. Smith doesn’t perform under the name Mike Smith. And that is the reason why someone known to all his friends as David Scott publishes under his full name, David Meerman Scott. You can get away with it, mind you, just ask Will Smith!
One last thing: If you actually go by the nickname Fran but you decide to put your full name, Francine, on your book cover, you should start introducing yourself to new friends and audiences as Francine (what’s on your book), and not as Fran. Why? So people who know you could find your book more easily. I have seen one of our authors interviewed on prime-time network TV. The celebrity interviewer identified him by his nickname, and so did the caption on the screen (let’s say the name was “Jack Jones”). However, his book cover, Amazon, and every single online database identifies him under his full name, including his middle initial (let’s say the name on his book is “John Q. Jones”).
Nobody who saw the interview will know that the author of the book by “Jack Jones” is actually “John Q. Jones”. Fortunately, the book has a very unique and memorable title.
For book marketing purposes, you shouldn’t use your middle initial or full legal name on your book’s cover. If you do, then it’s best for your book if you start calling yourself that way!