S E761: Position Your Nonfiction Book for Bestseller Success with Wiebke Tasch

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But how Amazon works is actually you have like a window of 5 days when you publish where the algorithm picks you up and notice how much traffic you bring, how many people buy it, how many like pre-sales going to be released. And so if you can manage in the first 5 days to really push the Amazon algorithm, bring a lot of traffic, Amazon notices and going to take over in the long run. Because once Amazon takes over and helps you, you know, with traffic and basically do marketing for you, you just won. You just, you know, can like lay lay back and then let the magic happen and let it unfold.

Step into the world of success with Your Brand Amplified, the ultimate podcast designed to unravel the intricacies of thriving businesses. I'm your host, Anika Jackson, and I'm on a mission to uncover the stories, strategies, and secrets that have propelled entrepreneurs and business leaders to success. I was just telling Vibhutash before we jumped on that I know a lot of people and I've interviewed a lot of people who are involved in the book space, but I really appreciate what she's going to bring to the table today. We know that almost everybody says I should write a book, but if you have thought about writing a book, you might also wonder who's going to actually read it. And that question is why today's conversation matters. Most nonfiction books never find their audience, not because the writing is bad, but the positioning is off before anyone even sits down to write the first word. My guest today, as I mentioned, is Vivek Kattas, founder of Digital Authors. She's a publishing strategist who helps entrepreneurs and thought leaders around the world turn expertise into books that actually build authority and attract opportunity. She's a bestselling author herself, and she's also walked the hard path. Publishing books that didn't hit. This taught her something crucial. The book is not just a vanity project, it's actually calling card and is a credibility builder that opens doors no business card ever could. We're going to dive into why most books fail, how to position your idea before you write it, the role AI is playing in publishing, and how the act of writing a book actually transforms the way you see yourself as a leader, not just maybe the way that other people do. So, Wiebke, thank you so much for being on Your Brand Amplified today.

Hi, Anika Jackson. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to talk to you today.

I am as well. And you, let's level set a little bit. You come from Germany, you had a PR and journalism background in Berlin, and you left the traditional world to build Digital Authors, and your business is now based in the United States, and you're also kind of a nomad, a digital nomad, if you will. Can you take this back through that career journey and when you said, I need to do something a little bit different.

Yeah, this goes back, I would say, like 10 years ago. So after I have a master degree in media science from Bauhaus University, which I loved, and then after my studies, I actually did what a lot of Germans do, like going traveling, doing, having like a gap year. So I went to the United States and then to Canada. And when I came back to Germany, 2018, I kind of, you know, I started working in a PR agency and I kind of like, okay, that's it. Like now I'm, now I have to work until like I'm 65. And I'm like, I don't know, I didn't want to do it. And like in the States, I got this spirit a little bit of like, you know, you can do stuff differently. Um, you know, do it yourself and you don't have to follow. What everybody else is doing. So I started researching on how to make money online, and this was back in 2018, and there was a lot of blog articles, you know, like blogging and you could make money with blogging. And I don't feel this is a thing today anymore, but it was back then. So I started a blog, I started writing, and I was— this time of my life was really difficult. So I had like went through like a horrific breakup. And I couldn't find help really, like, you know, I started having like panic attacks and stuff and I couldn't really find help online. And in Germany back then to get like a therapy, usually you had to wait for months. So there was like a long waitlist to get like a therapy place. And so I just started writing my own journey and how I dealt with everything I went through and I just published it. Without thinking about what I'm doing. And I had a very traumatic title, was like, Why Can't You Love Me? And yeah, and I just published it on Amazon, and to my surprise, to be honest, it became a bestseller because it really hit a, hit a niche. And I really feel it was like a mix out of like my own pain to, you know, overcome this, and then there wasn't much help available online. And the title, you know, the title really spoke to people. And this is like after 18 months, I made enough money and I just could quit my job, which I did. And then pandemic hit and a lot of people reached out to me and asked, hey, how did you do it? How did you publish? And I started coaching people on how to publish, how to write a book, how to format the layout. You know, how to hire like a cover designer, how to do the edits and everything, and like how to upload. And then fast forward for the last, you know, 6 years, I developed kind of a service done for you. I hired people and now, yeah, I have like a full grown up agency and help people publishing their books.

Wow. I love this story because you're talking about you wrote a book for yourself. You didn't even know it was going to hit. The way that it did, but you found a new niche where you could take your journalism and PR skills and still help people really get who they are out. And it can be, I mean, we were talking about a client of mine who I'm working through business strategy and she has a memoir and 100% I'm sending her to you. And this is even before we had the interview because I got the vibe from you that you'd be the right person based on your experience and the way that you approach things. And I think that you do approach things in a very unique method. So can you talk a little bit about your first book became a bestseller. You published books that didn't become bestsellers. What was that experience like and what did it teach you that you now help your clients?

So yeah, I actually started publishing more books, like a second and a third book, and they didn't sell at all. You know, like a little bit, making like pocket money. And this really taught me, like, I was obviously wondering, okay, this first book did so well and Amazon helped me push the book because Amazon saw, okay, this have like traffic's coming and people searching for it and people coming back. And the second and the third book was just nothing. And I'm like, why, why did I like, why? Because the first book, no expectation and suddenly boom. And the second and third book, obviously I had expectation and then nothing. And so I learned from it what it takes to publish because I really like try to understand what did I, what was the good thing from the first book? You know, why became this book a bestseller? Why the other two books were just like sitting on a shelf and did nothing. And so I developed like a market analysis based on this where I started checking the market. And start to understand what it takes to publish a good book, what it takes to hit the niche, to hit the need from people and a niche, like, you know, and place yourself in it. Is I— today I'm checking the market and search for demand. So are people really like searching for it? Is the competition low enough so there's enough space for like a first-time author or like a, you know, unknown author to to hit a good niche. And so accidentally I did all this with my first book, and then I had to go back and understand what I was doing. And so today I'm really like, when someone comes to me and says, okay, this is my book idea, what is the potential? So will I be successful? I obviously can't say for sure because nobody can tell you, you become a bestseller, but I can tell you the possibilities. Because, and it's not based on guessing, it's really based on data and facts and like the demand and you know what we can see online. And so when you come with your book idea, and usually I try to look through like different lenses and check different perspective, um, how the author can like position themselves and what the data says and what the demand says. And this gives like a clear idea where they also can position themselves, how they can actually outline their book, and which pain are the readers going through. Because this is so important. And just like the example of my title, Why Can't You Love Me? You know, it's just like one sentence, but it's hitting so deep because like, if you ever went through a breakup and you thought, okay, I'm going to marry this man, you know, we want to have like a family living somewhere in the mountains or on the lake or whatever and having like a good story in your head. And then it's just from one day after another, it's just gone. And using this pain and like formulate one sentence and other people who went through like a similar thing just resonates so deeply with this one sentence. So it's always good, like understand also your target group, the pain point, understand the market, and then bring this all together. And this is kind of like a good recipe for like potential bestselling book.

Mm-hmm. And I appreciate, 'cause you do share some of the case studies, not the full things, right, on your LinkedIn profile and of course on your website and sharing, here's a, a book process that I went through and I was surprised to learn this was the industry size and this was the market for it and why there is still a need for this type of book in the market. And I think that most people who are wanting to be an author these days, unless they're an academic and of course they have the research pedigree and all of that, are not necessarily looking at that, right? That we're looking at, we need to become a thought leader, so we need to have a book and what is our expertise? But we're, we're doing it more as, yes, something that will position us as a thought leader and maybe get us a little more press, but it's also kind of a vanity metric. And so I, I feel like you're helping people get away from that. Perhaps, and really see what their intention should be.

Yeah. And what the market offers, because, you know, being like a thought leader, being authority in your niche, it's very important because otherwise, please don't publish an expert nonfiction book. But it's just like half, half of the work. Like, this is like 50% of the positioning. And then you need to check, okay, what are people actually looking for? What is the demand? You know, are people willing also to buy? Because sometimes I see people searching for a subject, but they're not willing to buy. So why would you, you know, publish in this niche? And so bringing those two together and then from there creating like a foundation for your book, like an outline. After every market analysis, actually, we creating like an outline based on the author's expertise in like online presence, plus bringing like the data in the market found together and creating like an outline to help them position themselves, but also help readers, you know, to go through their framework and really help readers transform their life. Because this is so essential. It's not just, I know something and I'm publishing a book about it. It's also, I went through something or I have knowledge. I can help you as the reader, like transform your own life. And this is such a powerful framework and, you know, book outline. Yeah, absolutely.

Moving from the German market to a more international market, you said that your business is based in the United States. You work with people, I imagine, from all over now. Is there a difference in the publishing world between Germany and the EU and the United States or other international markets?

Thank you for asking this question because yeah, it's, it's interesting. Yeah, it's, there's a big difference. And this is actually why I love working in the US and with like US clients because in Europe, I don't know if you ever been like to Europe for a little bit longer. And I don't know, you know this, but Europe, maybe it's because Europe is very old, but Europe has this maybe like a little bit class system, you know, a little bit like authority. And so you see this also in publishing. So. European author, the question for European author is like, who are you to publish a book? You know, show your authority. Like, who are you? How dare you publishing a book? You know, just show first who you are and then you can like publish a book. And in US is more, I can use a book to become who I want to be. You know what I mean? Like I can become become an authority using my book. And I don't have to be— of course you have to have knowledge, you know, you just to write a book, but you don't have to be— that's not so much pressure of really being an author. You can just do it and then use your book as a leverage to, you know, build authority, build your business, et cetera. And in Joerg Witzmauer, you need to have like your authority already or come from, from a class or family or like got academics or whatever, and then you're allowed to publish a book. So this is like a huge difference. Yeah. Also what I'm doing, like I'm helping people with publishing their books and they keep all the like distribution rights, like copyrights. And I'm doing like a service done for them and using, it's a mix of like using self-publishing method and like using, you know, the algorithm, know how like the algorithm plays in like Amazon, Barnes Noble, et cetera. And in Germany, this way is more like, it's more limited a little bit, like the self-publishing channels you can use to, you know, really publish like a professional book is more limited. And also a lot of like marketing tools I use for the authors I work with, like going on a podcast tour. And there's so many like websites which can help you like boost your book. And there's so many different ways. And things you can do, which you don't have in Germany. So it's kind of like, for me personally, it's not so much fun, to be honest. Yeah.

Is there ever a time when you've done the research and you've realized, oh, this market that the person thinks they want to attract, actually there's not a space for this book. And you have to kind of convince somebody who's set on an idea and set on their market. To shift completely.

Yeah, this happened. And, but, you know, because everything's based on data, it's not like I'm guessing or I'm saying, yeah, I think, you know, this is, this and this, it's better. But I really show them, okay, for example, I just had a client, we have her book launch in a couple of months and like we repositioned her whole book because she was publishing 3 books already and had like zero sales. But she has like such a huge LinkedIn follower, like she has like 12,000 followers, so which is, it's a lot of followers and amazing for like a book launch strategy and, uh, campaign. And so I checked the market for her and like I could like just see there is just nothing in like the genre she tried to, you know, publish. And also I checked her whole online presence and, um, told her, hey, why don't we shift, you know, your positioning and focusing more on like how to build a business? Because she's a business coach and she was focusing on digital nomad and help people, helping people to have like this independent lifestyle, like location independent lifestyle. But in the book world, nobody's searching for it, you know?

Like, right.

It's interesting.

We're going on social media or we're looking online. Yeah.

But not in a book world. And there's, Actually, like, the just this one book, The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, is, you know, all people who wanna like work online and, you know, having this kind of lifestyle, they're buying this book. And so we shifted a little bit and saw, okay, people looking for like how to build a business, this is actually a very good niche, how to build a business. And then we repositioned her, what she's doing, and kind of like the side effect is, okay, if you're independent in your business, you can also live wherever you want. So we shifted her whole position. We haven't published her yet. So we still like in the, you know, pre-launch phase, but already what we see now, she has like 9 times more pre-sales than all the sales combined for her 3 books before. So there is magic in just, you know, understand the data and like position yourself in a way which matches your expertise and the demand of the market. Get that Amex Gold Card ready. I'm too tired to cook.

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When she said, "I don't dance now, I make money moves," that was a mission statement for a whole new generation.

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Yeah, amazing. And then do you think you'll go back and help her reposition her other books?

We just do the one now. Like if, yeah, if she, if she want to like do another one, of course.

Amazing. There's also the writing component. So of course we need to have the right positioning. We need to have the right expertise, but can you also talk about the writing element? Like walk us through your process of how you help authors and do you edit it yourself? Do you find people to come in? Yeah.

Thank you also, also wonderful question. So what I also understood from like my bestselling book was I didn't just wrote down like a formula on how to, I also brought in my own story. You know, I told my story in this book and this is very important because personal stories stick with people. People don't want to just read frameworks, you know, otherwise it's just a PDF or like a presentation wrote down or, you know, it's, it's, it gets boring if It's just, you know, step 1, do this, step 2. Okay. You authors need to tell stories. Like storytelling is really important. And so a good mix is usually, for example, every chapter have your, like a concept, what do you like want to talk about, then have your personal story, and then maybe have something to give your readers, like an exercise or like a, some thoughts to think about. So something active the reader can do. So, and this like simple formula helps like for readers to stay engaged, which is so important because especially today with social media and everything, you know, I notice this myself, like I have such a hard time sometimes to read and like concentrate because this social media scrolling and everything is really does something with our brain. And so keeping the readers engaged is so important. Telling your own story, because stories is this what readers remember, and this is how readers can see themselves in it. So once a manuscript comes in, I actually go through it and do like give a feedback and how to like, you know, really bring like a formula in. And like the, the example formula I just said, we don't use the same formula for every book. It's really depend on the book, what is working best for the book. And also it's always based on the market found we did on the market, what people searching for and what the target group is, what the pain point is. So it's, it's, you know, it's always a little bit different. But once we have like the outline, the author wrote the manuscript and then we go over it and helping, okay, here go deeper. For example, like you, you started telling the story here, go deeper. Like, what is it? And we, like, I do it. I also am in the process of hiring someone who can help me with this as more and more clients come in. But we really go deep and we really take the perspective of the reader. So we really make, and we're really honest, you know, it's really German, like, really direct. So because it's so important to the reader stays connected and the story stays engaged, you know, the reader stays engaged in the stories. Keeps unfolding. And also we make sure using the book as kind of like a converting tool, like inviting the readers to join, like, I don't know, a Facebook group or like the LinkedIn community or something to convert the readers into the audience and from there into potential clients. And once this is done, it's usually the author goes through it and then it's a little bit like a back and forth is also always depends on the manuscript. And once the author feels okay, it's done, we moving forward with the final proofreading, which is Carol from our team. She's from New York, so she's like first English, first language English, which is super important obviously to find like any grammar and comma, et cetera. We also started using AI for not to do like any editing or stuff, but just give us a feedback to, okay, check this sentence again, or maybe we miss missed something, because even if like 4 to 6 people going through a manuscript, you always can like miss like a comma or like a typo or whatnot. So we're using AI like for a final check, and then a human really goes through it and do like give the final okay.

Yeah.

And once this is done, we move forward to like the layout and then the COVID and like the design stage.

And for the production, is— are you mostly recommending digital, hybrid? Because I Now you also mentioned Barnes Noble, so I know they also have digital books, but what do you think is the best option in today's world?

We just do all. So we do, we do ebook obviously, and then we do like a softcover, hardcover. We use Amazon because it's important your book is on Amazon. And then we do like an international release. So the book is available later everywhere, everywhere where you can buy English books. Yeah. Like mostly. Obviously in United States, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. Like a lot of German bookstores have a lot of English books. And actually Germany is the second large book market after the US, which is super interesting. Yeah, it's such a small country. And so it's like everywhere available in Denmark and, you know, and so we have like two approach basically. We use like Amazon. And also really for like the ebook marketing and promotion. And then we have like an international release for like the paperback and hardcover.

Nice. I mean, it's such a well-rounded strategy. You're really including every possible component. You mentioned AI, and that was a question I was going to ask because there are, there's also a segment of the market, oh, we can write your entire book with AI. You know, you mentioned that you just use it to check things to make sure that sentence structure, grammar, punctuation. So can you talk a little bit about what you've seen in the industry in terms of, because I, we see it in the podcast industry, in every industry, right? In marketing, digital media, we see a lot more AI and some people are going all in and some people are going, yes, it's, we can use it with precision, but we still need the humanity. So I'd love to hear about what you're seeing from what people are bringing to you or what you just see in the market in general.

Yeah, it's so interesting. There's such an interesting new development what I see at the moment in, in the publishing space. So people either hate AI or love it. And especially, and you always need to think about the readers, obviously. And a lot of people who read books hate AI and they don't wanna support AI. And when you work a little bit with AI, you can spot AI, like an AI text super fast because it gets so boring and it gets so generic and it's always kind of like the same, right? It's always kind of the same sentence structure. And I honestly, I would be careful just using ChatGPT to write a book and then, you know, spend thousands of dollars, invest in a service, and then you have like this AI crap. And also, like I mentioned before, personal stories are so important. So you need to use your human voice and even if it's takes a little bit longer, but you can also, for example, record yourself and then please don't use ChatGPT. If you have to use AI, use Claude, you know, can like record yourself and then help you to like proofread or redefine the sentence. Totally like there's nothing against it, but like the initial sentence structure, the initial thoughts needs to come from you. You know, it's neat because it's your voice. It's your knowledge, it's your expertise, it's going to be your book. And a book is not like, like a social media post. It's there for, you know, 5 minutes and then it's gone. A book is timeless. And if you want to use your book to help you position yourself and help you bringing in people and traffic for the next 10, 15 years, you know, do the work and like don't, don't jump on the AI hype. Train, you know, just like use your own voice, use your knowledge, because we don't know what's, what's even like in 2 years with AI. We don't know, you know. So stay human and use your voice. It's, it's super important because I also, the, the danger is like people can, could boycott your book, you know, and this is kind of could damage you because a lot of people are against AI in publishing and writing. Uh, and another interesting thing what I'm seeing in publishing right now is when ChatGPT came out like 3 years ago, you know, when it's like was accessible for everybody, you could see it in Amazon that the book market was flooded with like books, AI books, et cetera. And now there is kind of an interesting development where people stop flooding the market with AI books. Because I don't know why, because maybe people got tired, maybe it's not working, people don't buy it anymore. And so actually what people publishing goes a little bit back. And at the same time, people searching for more nonfiction books. So there's at the moment, there's actually like a market gap where like less people publishing, more people searching for nonfiction books. So that's super interesting because right now and for like, let's say the next couple of years, it's a really good time window to publish your book and position yourself amazing and really use this to, you know, bring traffic to your book and help your book succeed and be successful in its genre. So it's a really, really good time to publish.

Nice. That is really interesting. Because I wouldn't have thought that. Again, I haven't studied the industry that much, right? And I have a million book ideas, so I'm gonna have to come to you and, and talk to you about them after this interview. I wanted to talk about something that I, I think is also interesting, uh, because you've seen people, entrepreneurs perhaps transform themselves through the process of writing a book. So yes, you want to write something that will transform the reader, but can you talk a little bit about that? Because I think that's another shift. In mindset, you know, that I didn't realize could come through the process of writing. And do you see this as people, you know, the transformation coming from the writing or from the validation of publishing and selling, getting the positioning correctly?

Yeah. So this has actually happened with everybody who writes a book. Like it happened with me. It happened with everybody. The most interesting part I see and I like experience with myself is a book, writing a book really mirrors your own fear about being visible, about being seen, about am I important to say this? Like, who am I to be like an expert in my niche? You can like write and publishing a book because a book is still such like an authority tool. And it's kind of scary. And there is this, I feel like the main fear I see, it's like the fear of other people criticize me because of my book, because of what I have to say. So this is kind of the whole process is also kind of like a personality development and like a personal growth to really stand in what you're saying, you know, to really be comfortable in your own expertise. To allow yourself to be an expert in your niche, to have enough confidence in yourself to allow yourself to, to be an expert, you know, to believe in your framework. And so this is what I'm seeing in the whole process. In writing, you know, it's also so interesting. I see this actually more in women, like when I go through the manuscript and like, for example, I just had an amazing therapist I worked with last year, and she just started a sentence and wanted to say something important, what she did and how she helped other people. And then she stopped kind of mid-sentence and then she didn't say it and she didn't finish her thoughts. And I'm always like, what did you do? Just say it. Like, be proud of it. Like, it's okay. You can like talk about yourself, you know? And like, just, you know, in this process of, okay, I can trust my voice. I can have a voice. I can find my voice. This is very, very powerful. And along this process, I feel to like, you know, gain your own expertise or like, you know, embody your expertise, become the expert through the writing process helps you also after you publish the book to be proud of it. You know, it's like your whole energy changes and you use your book, you talk about it. You allow yourself going on a stage or, you know, going on a podcast tour and help other people with it. And it's amazing. It's a really amazing and very transformative process. Yeah.

Yeah. I love that the idea of self-transformation, because it is true. A lot of times people might not want to come on podcasts. They know they want to get their, you know, image out there. They want to get their business out there, but they don't realize it's not about ego, but it is about the fact that you are the expert and you have something that can help somebody else. And I think that's where, as particularly as you said, as women, we get hung up on that of we want to be the helpers, but we don't want it to be about us, and we don't want to seem like we're bragging or, you know, going above what we think we should.

Yeah, or being in a spotlight, like, who am I to dare being a spotlight, you know, and speak something Yeah.

Yeah. So this mindset shift happens in the process and then in the publishing process. And can you talk a little bit more because you mentioned you use all the avenues, you have to be on Amazon, you do the digital, you have softcover, hardcover, international publishing, and then, you know, the Amazon window. I was in a book, I wrote one chapter, and so I was nodding along with some of the things you were saying because I found it was really hard for me to sit down and write, but if I voice memoed myself and then put it in transcription, then it was a lot easier for me to capture what I was trying to say in a more eloquent fashion. And then the book did become an Amazon bestseller in categories that I didn't even know existed, right? So that can happen, but how do you know what categories really matter? And is Amazon bestseller still something that people should be proud of? Because I, you know, I'm not I'm not saying you at all, but I think there are companies out there who say, we're going to get your book to Amazon bestseller. They don't necessarily go through all of these steps. They just will take anyone who wants to write a book, right? They're not making sure the positioning is— they're going to find that small category that the book maybe kind of fits in.

Yeah, this is why I never promise to make someone a bestseller because I can't. I just— no, it's true. Like I, like there's so many. Elements to it. It's obviously position, finding good, good niche, timing, your own marketing, like the— you also, you know, the author also needs to like help pushing it, doing a book launch, then the audience, their own audience, you know, so there's so many factors, but obviously I help people with the best possible position and outcome. And especially like categories, it's kind of similar to keywords. So in the market analysis, we're checking like also keywords and categories. And what we usually do is kind of like a mix out of like a bigger category and more general and then something super niche. And in Amazon, you can use 3 categories. And so since we are publishing 3 editions, like the ebook, softcover, hardcover, we are using 9. And then it's also, it depends on the Amazon algorithm. So it's not like static. It's not like we're putting this categories in and then Amazon sticks with it because when Amazon see there comes a lot of traffic from actually this corner of the internet. So like the Amazon gonna adjust it and put it in this But like you, you spoke about the window in Amazon KDP, and this is also where we help with like a book launch strategy because most people, and what I see why a lot of books fail is like a book is done, good writing, good, like cover everything, even good, like SEO and keywords. And then people just publish and then they don't talk about it or they publish it. On a Sunday afternoon, you know, and then forget about it. And then 2 months later they're starting marketing. But how Amazon works is actually you have like a, a window of 5 days when you publish where the algorithm picks you up and notice how much traffic you bring, how many people buy it, how many like pre-sales gonna be released. And so if you can manage in the first 5 days to really push the Amazon algorithm, bring a lot of traffic, Amazon notices and gonna take over in the long run. And this is what you wanna reach. Like, this is the golden publishing secret, so to speak, to use Amazon. Because once Amazon takes over and helps you, you know, with traffic and basically do marketing for you, you just won. You just, you know, can like lay, lay back and then let the magic happen and let it unfold. And so this is why we actually take at least 3 months before the book launch and helping with like pre-orders, have like different strategy. It always depends on a book and helping really like have so many pre-orders and helping in the 5 first days to really push the algorithm and help the Amazon algorithm to notice this book and then in the long run take over.

That is a secret. So thank you for sharing it with us. The number of categories is really interesting because that's a great way to do the A/B testing or A, B, C, and D testing, if you will. The fact that Amazon will push it up, I mean, that's fantastic as well. And, you know, I think that's very important to think about. So walk us through what it looks like to have a book launch? Because I completely agree with you, you have to do the marketing. Is that all organic marketing, like sending things to your email list, having a landing page for people to go to? Is there some paid advertising that goes along with it?

Yeah. So what we do, what is actually included is once like the, the production is done, the design part, we're going to sit down with the author and discussing like a book launch strategy for the next 3 months. And we have like 3 milestones. We have like 2 months before, 1 month before, and then the book launch week. And so we want to make sure we can do something and help like the pre-orders. So for example, one client at the moment, she's very active in school. She has a school community. So she using, she offers like a webinar for people. So if you sign up to the webinar in exchange to preorder my ebook, then I give you like the free webinar. So something like this. And then 2 months before, something similar to like have this exchange of, okay, sign up for my book and then I give you this thing for free. And where we help is like we creating those events, like the author has to do it, but we help like creating it, which also always comes back to like the market analysis, you know, and like the pain point and what are like people searching for. And then we pushing the book launch a month before starting Amazon ads and running it like a month after the book launch. So it's like 2 months in total helping with like paid ads, um, and doing like the, the book launch week. We creating like a specific kind of posting schedule. And like the week doing the book launch, it's usually like quite aggressive, like really like talk about it and like posting and always a link with like the preorder, et cetera. And then playing obviously a little bit with prices and a little bit with, okay, if you don't sign up until Wednesday, then the price goes up and a little bit, you know, playing with FOMO and all this jazz. And what is really effective is also on the book launch day doing a live, like a live, people love live, and then doing a live talking, you know, I have like a book launch party. And yeah, like, like I said, the goal is always pushing traffic, bringing people together, and using the 3 months to like start talking about your book, giving, you know, order copies yourself, showing it, you know, give some snippets and then when the book launch day approach, go more and more aggressive kind of, and like, you know, talk more about it. And then it's like the final book launch day party with a live, or actually have a party. You know, I also have like authors who really like have a party. It was like a big banner and stuff, which is amazing because later you can, can, you know, maybe hire like a photographer and make amazing pictures and use this later for your marketing. So. Yeah, there's so much to do and so much to, you know, create with like a good book launch strategy. And it always depends obviously on the author, their audience, where they're present, and what are they capable to do with it.

Yeah, no, that's, that's really helpful to walk us through the entire strategy. For somebody who is really established already in their field, is positioning different from somebody who might be brand new, who maybe doesn't have as much of a following?

I love this question because I actually just thought about it last week and wrote like LinkedIn post about it. So it's kind of a little bit different approach. So if someone has like 20 years experience in their field, obviously using a book is kind of establish them themselves in their expertise and in their niche. And the book can just like be like a mirror of their expertise and using a book for like even better gigs and speaking opportunities. And like, you know, in the long run you can like hire your prices and like, you know, get more like premium clients in, et cetera. And for someone who just starting is this, a book is an amazing tool to first of all help you position yourself and using the book to grow your audience. And for someone who just starts out, I actually had a market analysis like a couple of weeks ago with someone. She has like, I think, 1,000 Instagram followers. Her posting is very inconsistent and like no branding yet, nothing really. And she's like switching a little bit like her target group and her positioning. So actually writing a book go through all this like positioning, understand the pain point from your readers can actually help you like build the business. Like, you know, starting getting confidence in your own voice, building your expertise through like the writing process, through the whole publishing process. And with someone with like an audience, like a small audience, I would actually suggest maybe even use Seagear. For like the book launch strategy or like 6 months to 9 months, like take your time, take your time with writing and, and use the whole process to like build like an audience with the book launch and build yourself with it, build your business and use it like as a foundation for your business. Yeah. Both, both are like valid ways to do it. And it's, it's, yeah, it depends on who the author is, where they're standing and what they want to do with with the book. Yeah.

No, that's very helpful. And I appreciate you talking about the length of time as well. When somebody does come to you with an idea, what is a, you know, a small range of like the minimum to the maximum amount of time that they would need to be working with you and also writing the book?

Yeah. So it's, if someone, minimum is always 6 months. 2, because we're taking our time, go deep into the manuscript, are making sure there are like no typos anymore and nothing, like there's no question open because also a good book always answers all questions. So there's, you know, it's like when you read the text and then you're like more confused as before, it's, it's not a good sign. So like every sentence needs to answer a question basically, or like the whole text needs to be Yeah, leave nothing open. So we make sure it's really good text. It's a good foundation. And then all the, uh, like design process takes time. And then at least 3 months for like the book launch strategy. So minimum is always 6 months. And then I would say maximum 2 years. Don't, you know, lose it. Like don't push it too much. But yeah, ideally it's like 6 months. And then max 2 years.

Yeah, fantastic. And when you do jump on, the market analysis is something that you do for anyone who wants to have a conversation with you, and that way you can see if they're, you're the right fit, if they're the right fit for the kind of clients you want and that, you know, you want to work with. Is there, and you don't have to share, but is there kind of a minimum and I don't know if there's a maximum pricing to go through this process with you?

Yeah, so the market analysis is for free, and everybody has a book idea, or everybody who published a book and it's not selling, we can look at the book. I changed my market analysis approach a little bit. Before, I, I asked for like a, you know, a chapter from the manuscript, but I actually don't really need it. So I'm just doing like a, like a live market analysis. It's like 30 minutes. Everybody can sign up. Like I said, there's no cost involved, and then you can see to see if the book has potential or not, if we are a good fit, like, you know, if we have, like, if the energy is okay between us and it's flowing. And so the price starts actually at $7,990 for everything, like the development, feedback for the manuscript, the final proofreading, all the design, the international release, and then the book launch strategy, the ads. So it's all included. The everything stays with you, like the distribution rights, the copyrights. So we don't, you know, it's just like people pay us for the service done for you, but we don't keep anything. Like you can do with the book is yours. This is also very important to tell this because I heard horror stories from people publish with someone and suddenly, okay, the book is actually, it's not theirs and they paid a lot of money. So this is important. And then we have another premium offer with, it's $14.99. And it includes an audiobook production. We working with like someone from Los Angeles and it's a human and like a professional recorded in a studio. And we go a little bit deeper in the book launch strategy. So we have like, for example, if someone is very active on LinkedIn, we do like a 3-month LinkedIn Ads campaign plus Amazon Ads. So we go like a little bit deeper and into the whole book launch strategy. Also, because I'm turning 40 this year in 6 months— congratulations, thank you so much— there's like a little special we do. So we going 25% down for people under 40 who want to publish a book if they, if they sign up until my birthday. It's at the December 5th this year. So everybody who's under 40 want to publish.

Well, my birthday is the day after yours, but I am not under 40. Oh no. Unfortunately. But, uh, yeah, this is, thank you for being so explicit. I will say for anybody who's listening, these prices are very reasonable from other people I've talked to who do this business. It's very intentional. And I was going to ask you about how important is the audiobook book launch, and I think you answered a little bit of that. So it is a good strategy, but it's not necessarily the first strategy. Beyond using a professional, do you ever, if people want to record it themselves, do you think that's a good option?

This is a good option. Yeah. Like I love it because just an example, the other day, last week, I downloaded an audiobook from Caroline Myss. It's like one of my favorite authors and I love her voice. And she has like a recording. She's now, I don't know, she published in the '90s, I think. And I listened to one recording from her from the '90s and I loved it. And so I bought the audiobook and I kind of thought it's like her voice. And then it was just AI. And then there were like sometimes, I don't know what's happened with this audiobook, but sometimes the AI voice was like doubled. And so nobody checked it. And I don't know, I got used to it, but it's having a human voice and maybe some mistakes and then you hear the breathing or something, you know, it's just, um, it's just so, so more authentic. So I highly recommend, yeah, if people want to record themselves, obviously we have like softwares and there's like a way how to do it. And then we have like professional editing behind it to, to make the audiobook like you know, really professional and don't have like any like ums and ahs and like the breathing is important, etc. So yeah, for sure, this is also— it's actually super, super great idea, like having your own audiobook and like your own voice, um, speaking it.

Yeah, amazing. You know, I have spoken in the 800-ish episodes of this show to people throughout the past few years about books, writing, everybody brings a little bit something different to the conversation. And I can feel the authenticity coming through this conversation, how you really are trying to help people transform themselves and transform the audience with the positioning and starting right there and, and through the whole process and really, you know, being a resource. So I appreciate that so much. And I think You know, this is what we need to be listening to and thinking about. If you are listening to this and you have had that book inside you, it's not just will that book sell, it's will the book build my authority? Will it open doors? Do you have the right positioning? You're not selling the dream that a book is easy, Deepak. You're really selling the book that you have to be strategic and you have to really think about that strong foundation. Before you even move to actually going through the process. So thank you for that. We will have your links in the show notes so everybody can schedule that free session with you. But I also always ask, do you have a favorite quote, mantra, poem, verse, family motto, just words that continue to inspire you?

Yeah, I would say never listen to other people. Always listen to your own intuition when it comes to everything in life. Also to like when you write your book, like what I also always motivate the author I work with is like, we try to guide you through the whole process. I'm here to really help you be successful with your book. But at the end, at the end of the day, you need to listen to yourself. Like for example, if I do suggestions in a manuscript, it's up to you to take it or not. You know, I'm, I'm not the boss of you. So this is like, I feel very important. Always listen to your, your intuition. Listen to your heart. Just follow what's right for you. And then life is amazing. Amazing.

Very cool. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming on and thank you to everybody who's listening to this episode or watching it. Think about what that book is inside you. Think about the positioning that you need to have before you take that first step if you haven't started writing. And with that, I'll be back again with another amazing guest to share their story, their journey, and some things for you to think about on yours. Thanks for listening or watching to this episode of Your Brand Amplified. Don't forget to leave us a rating or review on your favorite podcast listening platform. And if you want to learn more, check us out at yourbrandamplified.com.