How Can I Get More Exposure to My Book?
One of the ways we help our authors get real exposure and drive sales is through a targeted podcast tour. We have relationships with more than 12,000 podcasts worldwide, including some of the biggest shows you’ve likely heard of, like Entrepreneurs on Fire (with 500,000 unique listeners each month), and other shows reaching over 3 million unique listeners monthly.
This is a powerful way to get your message, and your book, in front of the exact audiences you want to reach. We’re excited to offer this to our new authors, and the investment is very reasonable. For example, Entrepreneurs on Fire normally charges $3,500 USD for a single guest appearance, but our authors don’t pay that rate. We provide a massive discount to our authors because of our partnership. There is a $1,000 USD one-time setup fee, and $500 USD per podcast appearance.
You can start by appearing on 2-3 shows, and then decide whether you’d like to continue the tour based on the results you see in book sales, reach, and ROI. We work with very targeted podcasts so no matter what audience you want to connect with, chances are we can get you in front of them.
Want to learn more?
Let's schedule a 60 Minute Book Consultation.
How to Make Money From Your Book
Most new authors believe the 'big money' is in book royalties. Sure, there is some money in collecting royalties from your book, but the big money is really in what you offer inside your book.
So how do you make money from your book?
Generally, we see our authors earn at least $30USD per book sold. Generally an $8 royalty per book sold, and then an extra $22USD for what the authors offers for sale on the back end of their book (i.e. consulting, facilitation training, speaking, etc).
We generally see 1% of the people who buy your book become a paying client, so if we do the math that is: 1000 books x 1% clients x $5,000 fee = $50,000USD for every 1,000 books you sell... or around $50USD for every single book you sell, which is lighting years ahead of what you will get from a traditional publisher for distributing your book (i.e. $0.75 per book).
The best part?
It's not that difficult to sell 1,000 books, and you can throttle back on the number of books you sell if you're getting TOO MUCH new client work. IN FACT, you'd be surprised how many books you can sell using your existing Network, and how that alone can have a daisy chain effect to open new doors and opportunities.
Plus, the quality of incoming clients you get from your book and the 'network effect' you create is much better than any other kind of marketing you could do - even better than referral marketing to be honest because a book adds a whole other level of credibility and alignment that you just can't get from many other marketing methods.
Of course, if you want to sell 1,000 books each month, and build a massive community behind your book, we can help you do that too. We have relationships with more than 12,000 podcasts worldwide, including some of the biggest shows you’ve likely heard of, such as Entrepreneurs on Fire, which has 500,000 unique listeners each month, and other shows reaching over 3 million listeners monthly.
How do You Help Me Distribute My Book?
When we promote an author's book, we focus on advertising the audible version of your book on Spotify so that we can increase distribution and sales of your paperback book, and bring awareness to your ideas to increase your ROI.
Why Spotify?
1) Interest in business podcasts has skyrocketed over the past decade. Spotify has built a massive business and self-help audience on their platform over the past 10+ years. IN FACT, there are 100+ million users in Canada and USA alone, 169 million in Europe and 132 million users in Latin America. The reason this is important is because Spotify listeners are constantly looking for new audible content while on a commute, at the gym or on a flight. The demand for audible books on is at an all time high.
2) Spotify only launched books on their platform in 2022. They are new to the audible book market, and the numbers show this clearly. Amazon has 60+ million titles, and Spotify only has around 250,000 titles, which means competition is low and demand for books is high, which makes it easier for your book to stand out and sell. I have an audible book on Spotify that gets 15 downloads per week with ZERO advertising. Massive opportunity on Spotify right now.
3) Audible books generally get higher engagement than paperback or Kindle books because it's easier to listen to a 4 or 5 hour book on a commute, or a plane ride than it is to sit down and read a 200 page book. The reason we know this is true is from our own book promotions and experience. We promoted a paperback book, and it took approximately 3 months for readers to engage with the author for additional services that were not available from the book. When we ran the same promotion for the audible version of this book, it only took 3-4 DAYS for readers to engage with the author. We know from experience that the audible version of your book is a great way to build a community and platform around your book for future offers.
4) If you're looking to monetize your book beyond royalties so that you're generating $30-$100USD per book, it's much easier to do that when you have fans of your work listening to your audible book. As they listen to your book, you become part of the conversation in their head at the office and in their home. Imagine having someone listen to you for 4 hours ... or even better - listening to your book twice! That means listening to you for 8 hours talk about something you are passionate about!
This happens quite often. I've even had folks listen to my book three times! Imagine someone listening to you speak for 12 hours on a topic they are clearly interested in. When that person engages to speak with you 1-on-1 to go deeper into the material, magic happens. They are completely aligned with your values and philosophy. It is one of the easiest sales conversations you will EVER have. This is why we use Spotify to increase the distribution of your book. It helps impact others and scale your business in new and exciting ways.
5) As folks listen to your audible book on Spotify or other audible platforms, they will generally purchase the paperback as well so they are buying your book TWICE. This means more royalties, and more opportunities to monetize your book and drive the Amazon paperback sales of your book! Learn How Authors Can Create a Reliable Stream of Spotify Listeners to Monetize Their Book here.
Can You Write My Book For Me? Do You Provide Ghostwriting?
There are two ways we can help you:
You do 70% of the writing, or we do 100% of the writing for you.
Your Commitment: 2 hours per week (for 8-weeks).
We have a client in the UK who was always travelling and working with clients in the USA and Europe, and we knocked out his draft in 9 weeks over eight 1-hour Zoom calls. We’re extremely efficient and pride ourselves on working with busy Entrepreneurs to create a high quality book.
So if you’re willing to commit 1-hour per week on a structured call where I ask you some very focused questions and you talk through those points, we can transcribe our calls and 'capture' your voice in the book, and re-write sections of your book as appropriate so you have something you are proud to publish and share with others.
Here's a bit more background on the investment, and our process:
As far as the investment goes it really depends on a few things like how many charts, graphs, images, etc will be in your book, and generally how long your book is for the editing process… but generally speaking I’d say you’re looking at $16,000USD - $25,500USD to go from concept to fully published book. This includes getting your book on Amazon and distributed on other platforms, plus a strategy to help you see a solid return on your investment.
The reason for such a range in the pricing is due to the level of effort we put into writing your book. If we are doing 100% of the writing, then the investment goes up considerably. However, when you monetize your book properly, you can see up to 5-10X ROI.
And so you're aware, this is not a year long process... we move very quickly... in fact, when you follow our process, you can finish your first draft in 8-weeks, and usually publish a high quality book within 3-4 months.
Our process is very collaborative. We have been doing 8 one-hour sessions over 8-weeks with clients and we'll go in a Google doc in between our calls to add thoughts and add to your writing each week so that you progress much faster.
Here's a recent client testimonial:
"It’s only been 6 weeks, and we’re almost done with the first draft of my book! This process has been a lot of fun, and you’ve been remarkable at helping me develop my ideas. You’re clearly an expert at your craft. Highly recommend this team if you want to publish your first book!"
— Mark Kresser, CEO, Zac Brown Collective
Our process is fun. It's designed to capture your voice and book content in creative ways without spending hours and hours writing each week so that you create a high quality book. You own 100% of the copyright on your book through our process, and don't share any royalties, or any fees of any kind. We help you write, publish and distribute your book.
Here's What We Don't Do:
- No fiction
- No children's books
- No LONG 300+ page books
- No boring books
- No measly $0.75 royalties per book
- No expertise, no book!
We help new authors write business books, memoirs, and self-help books that strengthen your credibility, and help you expand your business revenues in new and exciting ways.
If you'd like to explore your book idea further on a Zoom call, here's my availability: 60 Minute Book Consultation.
Can You Get My Book on a Bestseller List?
No, we don't help our clients get on bestseller lists. The reason we don't do this is because in our experience getting on a bestselling list on Amazon or elsewhere does not necessarily provide the real intrinsic value or the measurable ROI that our clients are looking for from having their book published.
As an example, many marketing agencies will advertise your book and tell you that they can get you on a "bestseller list" by discounting your $9.99USD Kindle book to $0.99USD to drive book sales.
No doubt, this will drive book sales, and you will sell more books. However, we can tell you from experience that the folks who pay $0.99 for your book aren't actually going to read it. They're not going to leave reviews on Amazon, and they're not going to meaningful engage directly with you the author for additional programs or services.
The fact is, someone who is paying $0.99 for your book is not going to read it because they are not the ideal audience for your book. These are vanity metrics, and a waste of time. We don't help our clients get on bestseller lists because they don't help our clients get a measurable ROI from their book. We help our clients distribute their book and generate additional sales revenue in new and exciting ways. See, "How to Make Money from Your Book," above.
I Have Too Many Ideas. How Do I Pick One Topic for My Book?
In our experience, the best way to find the most meaningful ideas that will have the most impact in your book is to uncover the transformation you are helping your reader experience - that in many cases is what helps define the structure and direction for your book, and something we can do fairly easily on a 60 Minute Call.
Can I Use AI to Write My Book?
If you think you can use AI to write an entire book that people will read, then I'd say go for it! HOWEVER, we would never use AI to write the clients entire book! That would be suicide, and here's WHY. If you have an AI tool write your entire book with very little input from you, those great ideas are going to come from other people, which means you are pirating those ideas from someone else.
If you plan on publishing those ideas into a book, there may be consequences. You may have to deal with copyright infringement at some point. It's a big risk if you ask me, which is why we constantly have a 'meeting of the minds' with our authors to generate the most exciting and compelling ideas for their book 🤩
AI can take content you provide and write it better... but it will not tell your story in a compelling way. It will not help you build a bond with your readers when there is none there in the first place. You're asking AI to do something that it just does not have the capacity to do.
Yes, AI is a disruptor. There is no doubt about it, which is why we have embraced this technology in many ways. As an example, we are using AI Tools to help create the audible version of a clients books with a digital voice narrator since our clients don't necessarily have the time to read their book. We also use AI to generate professional headshots that make our clients book covers really shine at a fraction of the cost of a professional photographer.
The way I see it - AI only makes our clients books better. But just be mindful of how you use it for your book. Your reputation is on the line!
I engaged Steve as guide, mentor, and accountability partner for my recently published book, Optimizing Self. Steve delivered. He provided the right balance of motivation and draft feedback that enabled me to expand on content, tell a better story, or use a stronger example. What's more, he led me through the entire writing process by providing an excellent editor and copy writer. And, he took care of the administrative details for self-publishing Optiziming Self on Amazon. My job was to write and to stay true to my vision. Steve navigated the process with ease. I highly recommend him as one who can get an aspiring author to a published book.
Bill Dickinson
Managing Partner & Founder, C3 Leadership, LLC
Copyright © Freedom Education Inc.
All Rights Reserved
steve@freedomeducation.ca