Monetizing Your Book: Part I: Getting Started, #1

By Gini Graham Scott Ph.D.

MONETIZING YOUR BOOK is about how to make more money from your book and the different programs you develop based on your book. Part I deals with getting started. It covers these topics: 
- setting your goals and building other income sources from your book  
- positioning your book for success and building your niche 
- creating products and a worksbook 
- conducting a workshop or seminar 
- putting on programs for local groups 
- contacting the local press 
- building your portfolio 
- contacting speakers bureaus and meeting planners 
- publishing in multiple formats 
- popular platforms 
- creating a support team 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gini Scott
• Release date: Nov 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781519985217

Gini Graham Scott Ph.D.

           Gini Graham Scott has published over 50 books with mainstream publishers, focusing on social trends, work and business relationships, and personal and professional development. Some of these books include Scammed (Allworth Press, 2017), Lies and Liars: How and Why Sociopaths Lie and How to Detect and Deal with Them (Skyhorse Publishing 2016), Internet Book Piracy (Allworth Press 2016), The New Middle Ages (Nortia Press 2014), and The Very Next New Thing (ABC-Clio 2010). She published a series of books on homicide: Homicide by the Rich and Famous (Praeger Publishing 2005; Berkley Books paperback 2006), American Murder (ABC-Clio, 2007), and Homicide: A Hundred Years of Murder in America (Roxbury 1998).             Scott has gained extensive media interest for previous books, including appearances on Good Morning America, Oprah, Montel Williams, CNN, and hundreds of radio interviews. She has frequently been quoted by the media and has set up websites to promote her most recent books, featured at www.ginigrahamscott.com and www.changemakerspublishing.com.

Book preview

Monetizing

Your Book

Part I: Getting Started

by Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D.

MONETIZING YOUR BOOK: PART I: Getting Started

Copyright © 2015 by Gini Graham Scott

All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Table of Contents

––––––––

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1: SETTING YOUR GOALS FOR MONETIZING YOUR BOOKS

CHAPTER 2: BUILDING OTHER INCOME SOURCES FROM YOUR BOOK

CHAPTER 3: POSITIONING YOUR BOOK FOR SUCCESS

CHAPTER 4: WORKING WITH AFFILIATES

CHAPTER 5: BUILDING YOUR NICHE

CHAPTER 6: CREATING YOUR PRODUCTS

CHAPTER 7: CREATING A WORKBOOK

CHAPTER 8: CONDUCTING A WORKSHOP OR SEMINAR

CHAPTER 9: PUTTING ON PROGRAMS FOR LOCAL GROUPS

Setting Up Programs with Already Established Groups

Organizing Your Own Programs

Building on These Programs for the Future

CHAPTER 10: CONTACTING THE LOCAL PRESS

Getting an Editor, Reporter or Local Radio/TV Producer or Host to Do a Story

Send in an Article for Publication

Build Up Recognition for Your Expertise

Tie In What You Are Doing to Something in the News

Using Multiple Approaches and Building on Past PR

CHAPTER 11: BUILDING YOUR PORTFOLIO

CHAPTER 12: CONTACTING SPEAKERS BUREAUS AND MEETING PLANNERS

CHAPTER 13: PUBLISHING IN MULTIPLE FORMATS

Getting Started

Preparing Your Interior and Cover Files

CHAPTER 14: POPULAR PLATFORMS

iTunes

Nook

Kobo

Draft2Digital

Smashwords

Scribd

Setting Up Accounts and Working with Distributors

CHAPTER 15: CREATING A SUPPORT TEAM

What Type of Support Team Do You Need?

Recruiting the Support You Need

Hiring Support Team Members

Training and Supervising Team Members

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

INTRODUCTION

––––––––

The world of book publishing and sales has gone through a major transformation in the last decade, so if you aren’t already famous, major book publishers and agents will generally not be interested in your book.  The one exception is the very well-written novel that captivates an editor at a major publisher.  So mostly, writers have to do their own marketing and PR, whether their book is published by a traditional publisher (usually one of the smaller or medium sized niche publishers) or self-published. 

Since there are over 1 million new books published each year, the vast majority self-published, you have to do something to stand out.  Otherwise, the average self-published book sells around 150 copies and most other books with traditional publishers sell in the low thousands or even less.  If you are making about $2-5 per self-published book or .75-$1.00 in royalties on each traditional book, that isn’t very much.

If you want your book to do well, you have to do more.  You have to develop your own marketing and promotion campaign, and do it yourself or bring in assistants and affiliates to help you sell your book. 

Here are 10 ways to help you make more money from your book, not just by selling it, but by developing related books and programs, getting more attention from the social and traditional media, and by marketing these materials effectively.  This list will give you a general idea of the many things you can do to make more money.  Then, choose among them for what you want to do and prioritize which ones you want to do first.  Monetizing Your Book provides even more suggestions and describes how to implement these ideas to increase your income from your book and programs.

1) Create additional programs and products based on your book, such as workshops, seminars, webinars, CD and DVD packages, and consulting packages, which you can use to promote your book as well as gain additional sales.

2) Put on programs for local groups and contact the local press, and gradually develop a track record and video of what you are doing, so you can gain interest from speaking bureaus, meeting planners. 

3) Get reviews from book reviewers on Amazon, independent book reviewers and bloggers, and book reviewers for magazines, newspapers, and Internet publications.  Then, use the good reviews in your promotional and marketing copy.

4) Create short videos to promote your book and programs, as well as create a program on video which you can sell.

5) Create a website to feature your book and blogs.  Put your blogs on your website, so when people are drawn to your blog, they also see your website.  Create blogs of about 500-700 words at least once a week, but instead of talking about your book, talk about a related subject where you give people valuable information that can help them in their daily life.  For example, if your book deals with education, write about trends in education; if your book deals with health, comment on new developments in health.

6) Develop an online sales and marketing program to promote and sell your books and other programs.  While you can use your website for this purpose, another effective approach is to create an online sales campaign which includes a squeeze or landing page, a free gift, such as a book chapter, article, or report, and a sales page, where you present your offer. Other pages might promote a webinar or other materials based on your book.

7) Publish your book on multiple platforms, including ebooks on different formats, such as Kindle, and Smashwords.  Plus you can make it available through many platforms, such as Scribd and GoodReads.

8) Actively promote your book and market your book on the social media, including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  Create frequent posts about your book or related activities, such as announcing when you are presenting a webinar.  You can also post sales pages and promotional videos on Facebook, as well as links to your squeeze page.  Join groups of individuals who might be interested in the topic of your book and post there, though provide information and advice in your posts,