Publishing Coach Weekly Edition
Article of the Week: Publishing tip 5 Ways to Use Teleseminars to Build an Author Platform--Before or After Your Book is Published by Diane Eble I was talking to an editor of a mainstream publishing company recently about the many changes happening in publishing.
She told me that her company (which used to be a magazine publishing company) now considers itself a media company, and one of its main thrusts is electronic marketing of digital products.
This IS the way of the future. In fact, it is the PRESENT as well.
Another watchword among that company, and others, is "repurposing."
In my last article, I mentioned that we authors need to adopt the mindset that WE are the message, and that our message can be delivered in many different ways.
One of the most effective ways is the teleseminar.
Teleseminars cater to some important trends:
Teleseminar expert Alex Mandossian says that with teleseminars, not only can your audience come to you (as when they attend your live teleseminar), but you can be where your audience is, by turning your teleseminar into a podcast they can download and listen to whenever your audience wants.
Deliver your message through audio, and you can be wherever your audience is.
What's important for an author, or would-be author, is that teleseminars can build the kind of loyal audience that mainstream publishers look for when considering whether to publish you.
Teleseminars can help you launch your career as an author!
Here are five ways that can happen.
1. You can use teleseminar as a way to
approach people who might otherwise not be open to your
contacting them. If you want access to
experts, asking them to be on your teleseminar is a good way
to get to them. It's a win/win situation: you are giving
them added exposure, thus enhancing their expertise; and
they are helping you to become known as well, because they
will publicize the teleseminar to their list, which may be
bigger than yours and will help you build your list. (I was
recently interviewed by Steve Harrison about teleseminars
for authors with precisely this
strategy.) Also, your status in your niche is enhanced. You're bringing added value to your audience by bringing other experts into their world.
But let's say you have only an idea for a book, and no list, no following at all yet. What if you started by interviewing experts in your field?
You can approach an expert and say you're writing a book on X, and you want to interview leading experts in the field. Ask them if they would consent not just to you interviewing them over the phone, but also in a teleseminar which you would like to give?
Of course, it's best if you can do a little list-building of your own before you approach experts, and some of those resources for how to do that are on the resource page of my web site.
And, if you're reading this before 6 p.m. Pacific on December 4, you can still sign up for Alex Mandossian's Teleseminar Secrets preview call. I highly encourage you to do so, because you'll get tips from that call you can begin using immediately.
When you use teleseminars to gain access to leaders, you can tell them that you will also set it up so that people can ask them questions. This benefits them because they're going to hear directly from their audience what people want to know. And you benefit because you will begin to build your list from their list. The expert you interview is sure to let their followers know about the interview, so that gives them access to their list and helps you build yours.
2. You can do teleseminars even before you write your book. In fact, you can use teleseminars to create your content—at the speed of sound! Just speak your message, have it transcribed, and then edit. Some people find it easier to write notes, then speak; others find it easier to speak, then write (or edit). Generally, it's quicker to speak than to write, even for writers. Teleseminars can be a great way to get you to "write" your book by speaking it first. (No more excuses about not getting started!)
It may only take two or three teleseminars to create an ebook, which you can begin selling, to gain more of an audience and prove to a publisher that you do have a following. Your print book might be "repurposed" from several teleseminars.
3. You can use teleseminars to test your content. This is a HUGE advantage to doing teleseminars before your book is written.
If you ask people ahead of time what they want to know about your topic, you will learn exactly what they want to know. Your market can give you the content of your teleseminar—as well as future books! This is extremely powerful.
Teleseminars give you a way to gauge your market's interest—or lack thereof—in your topic. If no one shows up for your teleseminar, you have not failed at all! Rather, you have learned something valuable—nobody is interested! Nobody will know that your teleseminar was a no-show. And you may have saved yourself lots of time and effort, because you won't go ahead and write a book nobody wants to read. If they didn't want to attend your teleseminar, chances are very good that they wouldn't have bought and read your book, either.
4. Teleseminars allow you to build a list and a following. Teleseminars overcome one of the biggest flaws in the way books are traditionally sold (i.e. in bookstores, online or offline). The problem with selling your book through these channels is there's no way to connect with your reader.
Through teleseminars, your reader (or potential reader) can actually hear your voice. They can ask their question, sign up for the teleseminar, feel they are beginning a relationship with you (which they are). What every author wants is a loyal following. A loyal following you can actually connect with is wonderful.
Let me add, there's something very intimate about connecting with people over the phone. When listeners hear your voice, they come to feel they know .you better. And whom do people do business with? People they know, like and trust. Teleseminars are an excellent way to get people to know, like and trust you.
Because of this marketing intimacy of teleseminars, the following you create will be extremely loyal and will be likely to buy whatever books you publish. Especially if your books are created from the content they've said they want! You can come to a publisher with almost a guarantee that X number of books will be bought, just from your own list.
Believe me--publishers know this!
5. If you're regularly doing teleseminars before you publish your book, you can include your teleseminar information in the book to get readers to start attending. It goes both ways: you'll get readers from teleseminar attendees, but you'll also get teleseminar attendees from your readers.
When you provide content via a number of formats, you reach more people. Some people will find you through a book, once you're published. Some people will find you online, through your teleseminars or a blog or articles, whatever else you're doing. Some people will find you offline, through print articles, radio interviews, handing out your business cards, networking, etc.
You want to draw all those people into that marketing intimacy that teleseminars afford.
Teleseminars are an important part of New Era Publishing. Use them!
Your Next Steps ...
1. Ask your question about teleseminars. I will answer it on my blog, or in an upcoming article or teleseminar.
2. Check out Alex Mandossian's Teleseminar Secrets Pre-Training Call. I have gotten you VIP access to get $79 off the $99 call. (Use Promo Code AM3964.) You will learn strategies that will get you started. Plus, for all who sign up with this link, you will get a free 1-hour private Strategy Call in which we will apply what you learn specifically to being an author. You will get to ask me questions as well. (More details about Teleseminar Secrets for Authors bonuses here.) Sign up now! 3. C heck out the bonuses I'm offering those who sign up for either the Pre-Training Call or the whole course on this page.
Publishing Coach Weekly Teleseminar ReplayNovember 25, 2008 "How to Be a Successful Author in the New Era of Publishing"
Quotes of the Call: "If publishers had sat down 10 years ago and tried to figure out something that could connect them to their customers, share their information, allow them to develop deep, targeted, meaningful, individual relationships, and sell product with less friction all at the same time, they couldn't have invented anything better than the Internet, which as a reading medium has given rise to an epistolary culture that we never could have imagined. …
"The Internet was designed for us [publishers and authors]. WE couldn't have made something any better, and I think precious few publishers have taken aggressive advantage of all the ways in which a good Internet strategy can spread the world about their products, bring them closer to their customers, and help them drive sales. Retailers tell us all the time, people find out what they want to read online. . Every publisher [I would add, author] should be thinking of their digital strategy as really beginning with the Internet, and branching out from there." --Michael Cader, editor of Publisher's Marketplace and Publisher's Lunch
"You don't make money writing books, you make money explaining books."--Alex Mandossian, teleseminar expert
Questions answered on this call:
Teleseminar replay: (Click to listen - 64:10) download (right click and save to your computer) Resources mentioned on this call:
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