Biggest Mistakes That Book Authors Make with Ash Cash

So, you're helping entrepreneurs, just entrepreneurs crush it with books or just anybody?

I mean, honestly, anybody, right. And so, like, so far I think like entrepreneurs, business owners, celebrities, non-celebrities, anybody who has value honestly. Like, I'm actually working with a young lady who's in college. She just graduated, so she's a doctoral student, so she just graduated college. but she's writing a book on how to successfully get through high school in order to get to college, right. So, that's value. So, anybody who has value, that's who I'm working with. But one of the things that I've realized is that most people who write books, they're writing the books first and then thinking about how to market it after. Worst thing to do.

But the people— let me— based on my assumptions, what I see, people that write books first and don't focus on marketing the books are the people that got 500 books in their garage.

Absolutely. Those are the people who got 500 books in their garage. Those are the people who are on Facebook talking about, ain't no money in self-publishing books, right? Like, I swear I used to hear that. I'm like, yo, I don't know what y'all talking about. But yeah, those are those people because, um, you know, there's a group of people who, uh, just want the name author.

Oh, I'm an author.

Oh, I wrote a book. Oh, so when they do, you know, Thanksgiving or whatever They're able to walk around like it's a badge that they could wear.

Right.

But I mean, I'm living testament that, you know, books will change your whole entire life, right? Because, you know, as my background, I'm a banker, right? I was the CEO of a credit union. When I left banking to become an entrepreneur, I used to try to, you know, wear that as a badge like, oh yeah, I was the credit— I was one of the youngest CEOs of a bank, right? Nobody care about that, right? Nobody care about former or nothing, right? The moment that I learned the book game and I wrote a book and now instead of like, oh, this is a former VP at Chase or former— it was like, oh, this is the author of Mind Right Money Right: 10 Laws of Financial Freedom. Now, I'm like, oh, author. So, I had this level of prestige and the book itself, right, if you focus on value though, right, that's what I tell my students and people that I work with, focus on value. Like, what is your book going to do for other people? When you focus on that, it's going to open up so many doors, right. So, now as an author, I'm able to get coaching clients, I'm able to do, you know, 5-figure speaking gigs, I'm able to, you know, go to schools and, you know, there's just so much that can happen with that. And so, I think that understanding that books is just the beginning part of it, but you can literally build wealth using your knowledge. If though, if your knowledge provides value to somebody else, you know.

That's good. I think, um, one of the things I'll always say to authors, because I totally agree with everything you're saying, right? Because my thing is I don't want to write nothing ain't nobody gonna read.

Absolutely.

Like, if I can't get that joint in somebody's hand, yeah, it's probably like the biggest— now, now there are some people, like you said, it's some people that's pure writers. Like, I just love to write. Yeah, I don't care if anybody ever turns this page.

I can't. Yeah, absolutely.

If ain't nobody turning that page— and most, most people are not purists like that. There's a few purists that I know where it is like, like writing is their gift, and they— but most people like writing because they want somebody to read it.

Yeah.

I want to ask you about this. Another thing I see people say, um, again, right, it's like they want to write the book. I feel like they don't focus on what the goal is. I had, I had a woman one time, and I thought about this, had a woman one time say, you know, Um, I want to get this book into the hands of, you know, 20,000 women, 30,000 women or something like that. And I was telling her, well, based on what you want to do, then that can dictate your marketing. It's like what you said, right? Start with the end in mind.

Absolutely.

That can dictate your marketing too.

Absolutely.

Because if I'm saying I want to get to the hands of 30,000 people, Yep. and I'm just selling that joint off my website, that's gonna be a slow roll.

Absolutely.

So then maybe it's something else. Maybe I need to try to partner with I'm going to be speaking like you and part of the corporations where I can move big bulks of them every time I speak, or maybe I can do a free plus shipping like we do. I can get it out in people's hands and then make the money off something else I sell on the back end. But what other mistakes, like one or two other mistakes you see people make?

I think that's the biggest. I think the biggest is not starting with the end in mind. I think the biggest mistake that authors do is that, again, they just want the product out. They have this great idea, and they are thinking of this idea and then they work in their goals from their idea opposed to starting with the end in mind and then working backwards, right. Because to your point, if you start with the end in mind, that's going to dictate the title of your book, that's going to dictate the COVID of your book, that's going to dictate who you're going to reach out to. Like, if I'm writing a book and I want it in school districts and I'm not appealing to the students and it's adult language or— right, like if I wrote it first and then it's not going to work. And so I think one of the biggest mistakes is that, is really, you know, not starting with the end in mind. Another mistake that I think, you know, authors do is that they don't test the market, right. They just believe that their idea is a great idea And they just kind of run with it. Like, anybody who say—

Can you tell the story you told me?

Oh, man, so this story is the best story, right. So, 2017, June— I know the date and everything, right. June 30th, 2017, at midnight Jay-Z drops the 4:44 album. And so, I heard the album, I'm excited because you know Jay's a trendsetter. So, the moment I heard the story of O'Jay where he's like, yo, don't go to strip clubs, focus on your credit. I was like, yo, this is the same dude that got people to stop wearing throwbacks, you know what I'm saying? And put button-ups on. I said, oh, this financial literacy game will go crazy. So, I did a workshop in a school and was teaching principles from that, right. Students came to me afterwards and were like, oh, this is great, I need more information. And so, the idea was like, yo, I should make Jay-Z's album into a book, right.

Mm-hmm.

But I never did anything like that before. I didn't really see any examples of it, so I didn't know if it was going to work. And so, literally, I went to fiverr.com and I paid, I want to say like $10, honestly. I paid like $10 and got somebody to make a fake cover for me. I hadn't written a word of a book at all. I had a fake cover and I posted it on Instagram. I was like, yo, coming soon, The Wake Up— Like, I thought that this— this was the wake-up call. I'm like, oh, if you don't get what Jay-Z trying to say about money, Generation Wealth, this is the wake-up call. So, I put it out, right, fake cover. Oh, my DMs, everybody like, when is it available? And so, it was so bombarding that even before I finished the book, I put it up for pre-sales, I sold 2,500 copies. Like, it's my best-selling book, you know what I'm saying, because what happened—

What's the survivor image?

Off a Fiverr image, off a $10 Fiverr image, I was able to sell 2,500 copies of a book pre-sold before I even wrote it because I knew that the market wanted it.

Yeah.

Right, and so, I think, I mean, it costs somebody nothing and people are so afraid of like, oh, if I put it out there somebody's going to steal my idea, all that stuff. It's possible, yeah, right. But people are not good executors, right. So, the probability of you putting an idea up there. So, first of all, here's the truth. Anybody who's a great executor probably doesn't even see your thing because they're busy what? Doing what? Executing.

Yes.

And so, the person that would see and say it's a good idea and steal it is executing on so many other things that they're not even going to see it. And so, just put it out there, you know. And so, I put it out there, I test the market, I wanted to see it. So, a lot of people I tell authors like if you have— and not your— this is what I say, right? Not your friends and family though. Don't test it with your friends and family because your friends and family, they're going to support you for the most part.

Right.

They're going to support you because it's you. I want to know if you put this book out to a total stranger who never heard of you before in their lives, would they be willing to ask questions about this product because can this product solve a problem for them? And if the answer is yes, then you got to move on it. You know what I mean? So, I think starting with the end in mind, knowing who you want to target, but then also test the market out, right. Test it out, see how viable it is, you know. And then once you know it's viable, then now you kind of go backwards. The other— I mean, I would say the last thing, mistake that I think people do is that they actually write their books, right.

Hmm.

And the reason why I say it's one of the worst things is because Think about it, right? Like, if I ask you, right, you know, write down what your company does, right? Tell me about Tyler New Media, and I'll tell you to write it down. It's probably gonna take about 2 minutes to do so, right? Like, to literally write it down. But I say, yo, Tyler, tell me about— you know what I mean? Tell me about Tyler New Media. 13 seconds, probably, right?

Yeah.

So, think about— and you'll probably have stories, you'll probably— so, in that 2 minutes it took you to write it, You could tell me about your company and give me examples, introduce me to your staff.

You can do all that.

You talk too much.

Exactly.

And so, the goal of writing a book, I think, you know, for me, I've been teaching how to dictate, right? Because start with it in their mind, tell me what you want your person to learn, work backwards, test the market. And now, once you outline the book the right way, yo, just tell me the story. Pretend like you in a crowd you know, teaching.

Yeah.

And then you'll, you'll, you'll get the brain dump, you'll get all the stories out at such a, a fast pace that all it takes now is to delegate the rest. And now you got, you got a book in no time. I'm talking about like, yo, I got, I got books that, that do numbers that I wrote in, in a few weeks. Like, because, because it's— I brain dump. I said, all right, I know how to talk, let me brain dump. And then let me just— after I bring them, I don't even got to do the work no more. Let me send it to somebody who's a developmental editor. Let them work— let they know what I meant because I gave you everything. They're going to add and take away and then do like all the research stuff and all that. All right, let them do that, you know what I'm saying? And so, it's been a blessing and then, you know, once you have a book— see, and that's the other thing though too, that's why I tell authors once you have a book that's valuable People are going to want more, right. And so, if I'm able to show you my value in this book, oh, let me see what your business does. Let me see what you know, like let me pitch my— like if I am a seamstress, right, and I'll take it extreme as that. If I'm a seamstress and I could give you value, I could teach you how to do something in that space. If I give you so much value, you may want to come to my shop. You may say, oh, this person has their own clothing line, let me buy their clothes. And so people just look at the book as, oh, it's just a book, there's no money in that. But the backend money that you can get from it—

Oh, that's what I say all the time. I say my book is, like you said, it's just a gateway into everything else that I do. And if I can get you to get the book in your hand, step 1, if I can get you to read the book, it's game over. Absolutely. If I can get that transformational mindset shift, From you reading a book, from the time you get it to the time you get to that last page, and you get value out of that. Yeah, that's nothing compared to what you'll get in person, in a program, at an event, on a Facebook Live even, right? Because then if you love the book, what I'm gonna show you on on on a video, right? It's gonna be game over.

It's even game over. And and that's the thing, right? Because and and it's like it's like a it's like going into a mall, right? You go into a mall. and a sandwich shop has a new sandwich, they're not going to start pushing the whole sandwich to you. They're going to chop that motherfucker up and they're going to give you a piece. They're going to say, hey, taste this sandwich. And if you love that sandwich, if it did something to you, that little piece on that toothpick, you're going to be like, all right, let me come back for the whole thing. And so that's what books are, right? Books are just a sample, right? But the thing is though, it's a sample that they're paying for first and foremost. And so if you could You know, it's one of those things that people are willing to risk, right, because it's a low price point. And so, if you've never heard of Ash Cash and you're like, yo, I don't know this guy. Oh, he's on Amazon, let me go buy one of his books. It's easy. And then now, once you read the book, like you said, to buy it, that's progress. But if you read it, it's game over because now when you read it, you're like, oh, where has this guy been all my life? Now, now, now you can add, you know, value on a different level.

Hey guys, this is Lamar Tyler, creator and founder of Traffic, Sales, and Profit. Make sure you like, comment, and subscribe to this channel. Then scroll down below because I have links to us, right, me and Traffic, Sales, and Profit on our social platforms. I want to make sure you get all the free content, the free challenges, and information about our events. The best place to do that is on social. Joins tens of thousands of entrepreneurs just like you that are working to hit the next level in their businesses.