4 Ways to Start a Non-Fiction Book Chapter

All right. Hello. Happy Tuesday, my friends. YouTube has changed their live streaming format, so that was quite an interesting entrance. Got a learning curve there. But it is wonderful to be here. It is a live stream Tuesday and today's topic is starting your chapters off in an engaging way. So we've talked about this before, but today we're going to hit it in a slightly different way. So today we're going to talk about the chapters using my book as a bit of a case study. Not because I did everything perfect. In fact, I am human and I did not do everything perfect. But there's some great examples here of how to start a chapter and some ideas on other ways that can work better. So hello and welcome. Hey, Brian. Hey, Afrin. Great to have you both here. And while we're waiting for folks to join on in, let me just kick things off with a little bit of a participation prize. So, like I said, we're starting, we're talking today about how to start a chapter. And I'm using Self Publish and Succeed as a bit of a case study and example. And every chapter, really there's four. If I look at the way, not all the ways, but if I look at the ways that I prefer to see chapters start, that's that I clump them into four kind of categories. There's lots of things, and I've covered this in my book, I've covered this in previous videos, but I'm trying to change it up and give you guys a slightly different take on a. On a older subject. So. And so basically I'm thinking I'm going to take you behind the scenes as to some of my thinking with these chapters as I share the four categories to help you with your books. And while we're waiting for a few more folks to join in, we'll do a little bit of a skill testing question of participation. If you're new here, you know it it you can lurk, you're welcome to lurk, but it's way more fun to participate. So say hello like Efren and Brian did. As soon as they arrived, feel free to hit the like button and answer questions, ask questions, support each other, have some fun and answer this question. For our first kind of participation, which is what is one word you should avoid starting chapters with if you can. It's a very common word that starts off a lot of chapters and a lot of paragraphs and a lot of sentences, but it's also a word that generally you should try to avoid or use it very minimally in your book. So what is that word? Go ahead, put it in the comments. We'll kick things off that way. Derek, welcome. Great to see you here. Efren and Brian both chimed in right away with I. And that is right. So Derek, thanks for playing. But the answer was I. And funny enough, that is true. And it's also the word that I started chapter one with. So remember what I said about not being perfect. Now that said, there's a very good reason for starting it off with I, I. And I'll kind of dive into that today. But in fact, as much as possible, I'm just pulling out my book here. So yeah, my first, my very first chapter in this was the life changing book. And it starts off I was catching up with my co worker at Kimberly Clark Canada's Vancouver office on a Monday morning. So I will back up the choice there and kind of give you the behind the scenes on how that evolved too. But yeah, so I is generally what you want to avoid. And this is just largely because your book is for your reader, not for you. And while it might be about you as much as possible, you want to position your book and angle it towards the reader. And so starting your book off with I can be very, very you focused. And that's not what you're going for. And it's okay, you can use the word I and you can certainly start it off because your book is likely containing some of your stories, your expertise and, and you know, it's coming from your lens. So of course there's going to be times when you use that word. Generally speaking though, you want to hook your reader by showing them that it's for them. And introductions, I think are the most important place to really think about this because a lot of introductions in a book kick off with I wrote this book too or I wanted to share this, or I this. And it doesn't hook your reader because that's, that's about you. That's why you wanted to write the book, that's why you wanted to share the book. So with my introduction we kicked it off with a question that really showed that I generally understood what's happening for a lot of authors. And that is, have you said you're going to write a book for months, maybe even years, perhaps you're stuck wondering if your idea is any good. Possibly you're worried about whether it will make any money. I mean, these are such common things that people, people writing books or thinking of writing books are going through. So with the introduction, I really wanted to show that I Understand, I get it. I'm there with you. And then chapter one, I started off with an I because I wanted to provide context. Now, interestingly, my original manuscript doesn't actually start with I. I followed my own rule. But through the evolution of editing, it did go there. And what I did to compensate for it, just as a side note, because I was aware of that is, is I'm starting the chapter off with my favorite way, which is number one that we're talking about today. And it is a story. I love starting chapters with stories, and most of my chapters start with stories. If you've read my book, if you haven't, I highly recommend it. And if you have and you haven't written a review, please write a review. It's the greatest gift you can give an author. But what I did was it's a first. The first two sentences are laying the context for this story. Story. And then I really hit it to create curiosity right away by saying it was like every casual conversation we'd ever had, except this one changed my entire life. And this chapter really lays out the credibility for the book. Talking about, you know, taking my book to number one, how I got into self publishing, you know, how I was not not pursuing self publishing in the beginning. And it explains a lot of important, important information that helps you understand where the rest of the book comes from. So it works for chapter one because it's still a story. It's still reader focused in that I'm sharing information that the reader will benefit from and will get comfort from as well as educational value from. Because in learning how I got into self publishing, you may see yourself or you may see some things that you hadn't thought of that make you interested in self publishing or even just seeing some of the downsides of traditional publishing. So that was that story. So story is number one. That is my favorite way. And I'll share a couple more tips on story in a second. I just want to say hello because I see Rose is in the house. Hello, welcome. And we photogal. Hello from Connecticut. It's awesome to have you here. Brian says February 23rd. I don't know what that is. I don't know if that was how to not start a book. You don't want to start it with the words February 23rd. I'm not sure. Is that Regardless, all good. It's so good to have all of you here. So thank you. And Dr. Russ is in the house from Detroit, Michigan. So thank you for joining us and playing along with the participation. So today we're talking about starting your nonfiction book chapter type chapters off in an engaging way to hook the reader. And I've shared that my first and most favorite way. And these are my personal things at. But that you. They're also things I've seen work in a lot of books, but my personal favorite is a story. And the story might kick off with dialogue, action or something surprising. But I like to start with a story that's going to have context, that's going to kind of really lay the foundation. So I'm going to give you a couple other examples and then I will go to the second way that I like to start chapters. Oh, and by the way, so Efren and Brian, I think you've won pretty much all the swag, but you guys were the winners from that first participation prize. So if there's something you would like in terms of a copy of self publish and succeed our no Boring books mug or our oh so soft journal, just shoot Angela an email. I think you guys know her contact information by now and let her know. And if you guys are thinking you should take the ceiling fan. I know it's really distracting, isn't it? But if I turn it off, I'm going to sweat buckets in here. And I'd rather have it. But yeah, is kind of funny. And it's in this room, but reflecting off of the glass. Oh, the magic of movies, right? Okay, so story. So let me just grab another chapter and just a suggestion for a prize. The ceiling fan. Okay, let's see. Where's my other chapter title here? Okay, here's one of the common ones. And if Steven Searle is here or watching, this is his favorite story because he brings it up all the time. And it starts off, look, Mommy, there's a bear. That's how the story starts. It starts off with dialogue and then it just goes in to say it was an early morning in British Columbia when I was on a vacation in Whistler. And it tells you the story of how my son and I encountered a bear at very, very, very close contact. So that's the story. Now, it was a little bit of a reach for me to share that story and still have it tied to the hook. But I found. And so that's another way. And when you see those, if somebody's flipping through or they're tired and they're maybe not sure if they're going to keep reading, if you can hook them and just keep them reading, keep them wanting more. That's the power of starting every chapter. Off with that engaging story or an engaging hook. Okay, so the next thing that I like to do is start off with a question. And the question is, I don't. It's not necessarily a rhetorical question, you know, or a question that has an obvious answer like, do you want more money? Do you want the. I'm trying to think of something else. Everything I thought of is, you know, trigger, could trigger YouTube to make me make my video not show up. So I won't say any of those things. But, you know, the thing that hangs over our heads and is limiting our movements at the moment, do you want that to go away? You know, that's rhetorical question. Of course you want it to go away. Of course. Course you'd like to make more money. Of course you want to have an impact. So I don't like starting with rhetorical questions. I like starting with questions that will either meet the reader exactly where they are, like the example I gave about my introductory question, or they're thought provoking, so you can show them that you're reading their mind, or you can challenge their thinking, or you can make them think a slightly different way. So if I was to pull up another one. Oh, this one is kind of goes with number three, so I won't share that one yet. Let's see. So I know I have another question. Oh, here we go. This is an example. Want to know something that nobody tells you? Now you're curious, right? Come on. If I say, do you want to know a secret? You can't help but be a little curious, right? So that's what this is. It's a curiosity creating question. So want to know something nobody tells you? The first draft of your book is supposed to be lousy. And it goes on from there to talk about, you know, book editors and things like that. So that's a question. It is kind of engaging. It creates curiosity. You can also have questions that are with, you know, something that might surprise them or challenge a notion. Let's just see if I can find one other example. Otherwise I will move on. I didn't flag these before, before I started, which I should have started. I should have flagged the chapter start so it would be easier. This one is not a question, but it is really meeting. It's the point of meeting the reader exactly where they're at right now. And I started this one off with, you're busy, you don't have time to waste. In other words, you need this chapter. So I mean, that's ultimately really hitting number four. So we'll jump to number four quickly. It is. There's an immediate benefit, like, you need to read this chapter because you're super busy and you don't have time to waste. And so that sells this chapter on something that is. It has an immediate benefit to you to consume this chapter. So that's another really great way to start off a chapter is to basically say, like, this is what you need to do. And my chapter two really starts off that way, too, because my chapter two says, the buried treasure, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the golden ticket, it's all here at the start of chapter two. So don't you want to keep reading that to find out what is so great that we're saying, like, this is the secret and it's right here. So. So if you can promise or even hit them with that immediate benefit, that is another powerful way to start a chapter. So we've already revealed three powerful ways to start a chapter. We only have one more. So I think we should do a YouTube prize. And let's just see who else is here. Fans. Oh, you guys are funny. Okay, Janice, hello. Welcome. She said, I wrote a book about a wedding planning called Wedding Planning Unmasked. It came out just a few months before COVID Oh, dear. Yeah, the challenges, Right? Okay. Oh, Alan, hello. Great to see you. I hope things are going okay with your studio. Okay, so YouTube Prize. That's where we were going. So for those of you who are new tuning in today or watching the replay every Tuesday and Friday, and that includes this replay, there's a new video that comes out on the YouTube channel. And when you comment the day a video is released, you get entered to win a prize. And every other Tuesday, we do a live stream, and I draw those prizes. So that's what we'll do right now. So thank you to everybody who has commented on a video in the last couple of weeks, and I just put them into my random name picker, and it's spinning around in a circle. And we are going to see who is next. Kimberly Gasouris. Congratulations. I don't think she's here live unless she's lurking, but I'm certain she'll tune into the replay and let us know. So what you need to do is shoot Angela an email angela@book launchers.com Let her know your mailing address so that she knows where to send the goods. Tell her whether you would like a copy of this fabulous book or the hashtag no boring books mug or the journal. So congratulations, Kimberly and thank you so much for commenting the day a video was released. You're awesome. Okay, and let me just see what else you guys are talking about. All right. You guys are saying hello to each other. That's great. Those of you just tuning in, we're talking about ways to start a chapter, to engage a reader, and the. So we've covered three ways so far. So way number one was with a story. And this can be with action. This can be with dialogue. This can just be, you know, hitting them with what was going on, setting the stage. But you want to do that quickly and get to the meat of it really fast. But story is by far my favorite way to kick off a chapter. And I think, for the most part, even though this is nonfiction, our mind seeks closure on story. So it's why you will sit through a bad movie just to see how it ends, because your mind seeks that closure. I'm always telling my team that if something gets initiated, I need to know what happened. Like, how did that situation. How did that question get answered? I. I need closure. My mind needs those loops to be closed. You can't leave open loops. It drives me crazy. And it's not just me. And this is also why you see TV shows. You know, TV these days is just absolutely brilliant, and they just open loops, and they don't close them to the next episode or even for two or three episodes. So what I mean by that is they open a storyline where somebody's hitting a car crash, and you don't know what happens, or somebody gets an alarming phone call, but you don't know what exactly was on the other end, and. And you have to go and watch the next episode. So our minds want love story, and they love those open loops. And so if you can start a story, lead them through some content, and then close off the story, the mind will make them keep reading your book for those reasons. And story just is one of those things that engages with emotion and curiosity and entertainment. So story. I love it. I also said questions that really hit the reader where they're at right now. And it shows them that you understand them. It shows them that you're really. It feels like you're reading their mind. And that is important because that really can make them feel like they're connected to you, and you get them, and what you're saying is going to matter to them. And then I skipped ahead to number four on my list, which was an immediate benefit or the promise of an immediate benefit. So keep reading, because you're about to find out something that is critical. And I wouldn't necessarily say it like that. I like to tease it a little bit more. But it is that immediate benefit. And the fourth and final thing is something fun. I don't do it every chapter, but I love to catch the reader off guard with a change of tone or a different point of view or something that just kind of throws them. Like what? And so one of the examples I had, and I won't be able to find it on cue, of course, but I have a chapter that starts off with Ever sniff a book? And then I go into a very short story about my friend Deb, who. That's what she does. The first thing she does, she looks at a cover and then she goes. She sniffs every book. New, old, it doesn't matter. Like, she sniffs a book. And there's actually a word for that. There's actually a word for what? For when somebody sniffs a book. So I put that in that chapter, and that's how that one chapter starts. So it's a change of view because, you know, here you are learning about business and learning about writing a book that will grow your business, build your brand, you know, be set up for marketing, and all of a sudden you're hit with a question. Ever sniff a book? Like, it's just that that change, it's a bit of a jolt. It keeps the readers on their toes. You can also do this by. And I've talked about this a little bit before, taking a totally different viewpoint. And if you've ever watched improv or even taken improv classes, and they do this, it's such a genius thing. I saw this one, Groundlings. My husband did a ton of courses or trainings with Groundlings until we moved to Vegas. So now he was in advance and now he can't carry on. But they did this one exercise which was so bizarre, but I loved it at the same time. And it was like you had to act as though you were this thing inside of an inanimate object. So you would be like the crumb inside of somebody's pocket, or you would be the bookmark inside of a book. And it would be a very specific book. So that's a weird point of view to come at things. And so think about that. And you could take a totally different perspective. And so if you're writing about building muscle, maybe you would write a chapter from the muscles perspective and just kick it off that way. Or if you're writing about cancer, you could write from the cancer cells Perspective. So just change it up and just again, it's not a technique I would necessarily do every chapter because it would lose its shock value or its attention getting factor and it might even get frustrating for that reader. But every once in a while, I think throwing in something that's a little out there can catch them off guard. And I'm just going to check to see if there's any other chapter starts here that I want to talk about. Now this is a question. It may not be meeting the reader exactly where they're at, but it might be something that you can relate to. So my chapter 18 starts off, were you last to be picked for a team in your phys Ed class? And that was my story as an elementary kid because I skipped grade two, so I was a year younger than everybody in my class. And you know, when you're young physically, that doesn't make you a big asset on very many sports teams. And I had skipped a grade. So I also was not super popular in school at that time. So I wasn't picked because I was best friends with anybody and I wasn't picked because I was super athletic relative to my peers. So that's where I started. But I think even if you can't relate to that, even if you were like, you know, the first picked, there's something in your life where you weren't the first picked or where you didn't fit in or where you didn't belong. So it may not meet you precisely where you're at, but it's a story that you might be able to relate to and it's a question that can meet your mind where you might be. So that's another question and kind of an idea behind it. And these are also little stories, so they kind of give you an example that you don't have to tell a big elaborate story to create engagement and learn about someone. Right? Like you learn a lot about me in, in just a few short sentences like that. And so you can share a lot of yourself with your reader without going into a ton of detail and telling them all the, all the things, right? That's one thing a lot of people get hung up on is the details that are important to you might not be important to your reader. And so a story in particular can lose a lot of its engagement and entertainment by being too much or conversely, not giving enough, like not sharing enough emotion, not sharing enough of yourself or enough detail that they understand. So those are the four ways. And again, I didn't do it perfectly. My book is not the be all, end all. This is how you need to start every chapter. But it's something I'm very mindful of and I did go through and really think about every single chapter. Here's one more that would fit under category three in a way, kind of a change of tone or a different point of view or something that might create curiosity to make you want to keep reading. And this is chapter seven and it says, you don't think Sarah Palin, Pamela Anderson, Lance Armstrong and Tiffany Haddish actually wrote their books, do you? Well, they didn't. Ghostwriters, in fact, have been key to many best selling books. So for many people, I talked to somebody, I had a podcast interview with someone this morning and he said, you know, up until, actually said, up until reading your book, he said, it didn't even occur to me that the author and the writer of books were not the same person. And for a lot of people, they don't realize that, that especially a lot of the celebrity books, they're not written by the celebrity. The concept, the ideas, the stories are from the celebrity, but somebody else is sitting there at the keyboard doing the typing. So for many people that may be a surprising fact. And so that's, you know, that was another way. So. So those are my four ways. A little bit shorter today, but we still have two prizes we can see if you guys have any questions. Okay. First time here. William, welcome. From Louisville, Kentucky. Fantastic. All right, let's just see where you guys are. Oh, yes. Yeah. So if you win and you're not in the U.S. please make sure you include a contact number. We need that for the customs for Angela when she's sending you your mug, your journal, or your, your book. So if you need a copy of this book, so. And oh, interesting. William skipped the first grade, but was never picked last. Oh, so you can't relate that. Well, lucky you. I eventually got picked eventually. But I had to grow. I had to get stronger and faster and more athletic first. Okay, so there is one question, and I will answer that in a minute. Let me do today's participation prize so Angela can work on that while I answer the question. So as always, I like to dedicate to the day of the month and it is the 24th. So let's go from, let's see, let's just go backwards. So we'll go up from Angela's Q1, so where you've written K1. So Angela, let me, let me know who number 24 is and we'll go from there. Oh, and so there's some more here. Yay. Okay, so, and. And I have one other prize, so I will go do the other YouTube prize, and then we'll answer any questions that you guys have. Okay? So again, if you comment on the day a video is released, including this replay, you get entered to win our prizes. And our other prize winner today is the very fabulous Bill Miller. So, Bill, when you're tuning in later, let us know what you don't have. I think you've got everything. But let us know if you need a refill on your. On your mug, on your journal, or another copy of Self Publish and Succeed. You know, the holidays are going to be here before you know it. It makes a lovely gift. All right, so Let us know. Angelaoklaunchers.com Let us know your mailing address that you want it sent to and what you would like. Okay, so the question is from Derek, and it says, what is the best way to transition? And chapter two, Chapter. It depends on the style of your book. So for me, I generally tease what's coming up, but I don't necessarily make it. So it has to segue. So what I mean. And I don't know if I'll be able to find an example. So actually, this one. Let's see, this one goes storytelling into the unexpected problem with book editors. So it doesn't really have a clean. Like, here's what comes up next. If you've set the book up well, it doesn't have to have a clear transition over. It does depend on the book. I'm just going to see if I can see any other examples that might illustrate. Yeah. So this one ends. Remember, you're writing this book to have an impact on the reader. That only happens if they keep reading. And then chapter 11, 20 pages can make or break your sale. And then it says, ever snip a book? Which we already talked about. So it doesn't have to have like a. Okay. In the next chapter. I think as long as your. Your writing is keeping them reading and you're ending on a fairly high note or you're still. You've still got them engaged and then you hit them again with that next chapter. I don't think you have to have specific transitions, but if you have something in mind, let me know. And every book is different and every style is different. There's a decent number of our authors who wrap up every chapter with summary points and a work and kind of a work or questions. And so there is no transition because it's like, do this and then you know you're done and you move on to the next one. Let's see here. Passing one to Derek. Oh, did Efren win again? Efren and Brian, you guys are the winners of the day. So Efren has passed it to Derek. So congratulations, Derek. You have been nominated to get a copy of Self Publish and succeed or the Mug or the Journal. Thanks, Efren. That's awesome. So if anybody else has any questions, we've got plenty of time today, otherwise we can. We can call it a day. But actually, I have a question for you. What do you want my next live stream to cover? And what topics do you want future videos to be on? I just did a shoot last week and I have a whole new series on marketing that I'm going to be shooting because, surprise, the next book is on book marketing. So you'll see I'm starting the content creation through videos, and then some of that content will get moved into the book. But I don't want all of the videos from now until Christmas to be on book marketing. So what other things can I answer for you? How can I help you? Because I'm looking for other ideas for videos to create. Create. And I kind of, I just kind of hit a white page last week and was like, I'm not sure what other topics to. To do. So if you're watching the replay or you've got ideas right now, let me know. Publishing agencies. I'm not sure what you mean by publishing agencies. So there's agents who will shop your book around to publishers. And you know, so there's kind of a double acceptance process there. So you would get an agent and then they would. You probably work with them to draft a proposal. They would tell you who to hire and how you're going to get a proposal. Or sometimes you have to have the proposal before the agent will even take you. And then once you've got the agent, they shop you to a publisher. But then publishers are a different beast altogether. So that's why I'm wondering. I need a little more detail as to how I can serve you. And again, if you're. I actually have a video. Did it come out yet on hybrid publishers? I think it just came out. Sorry, I forget what is in the editing queue that I just watched versus what actually is live. I'm pretty sure I just put a video out on hybrid publishers, which explains a lot of stuff around publishing, which might answer some of your questions. William. So Angela can probably grab that hybrid publisher video link if I If I'm right and it just came out, you could drop that in there for me. Thank you, Brian. I thought it about. Okay, Janice asked, can you talk about ways to get reviews? Oh, my goodness. This. And yes, this is something we'll be talking about more. We're testing a couple of new sites right now because we're always looking for ways to get more reviews. It is a challenge, which is why I said, you know, I'm saying, like, if you've read this book and you haven't written a review, please, please, please write a review. Shoot us an email@teamuplaunchers.com and let us know you've written the review. Because we have reviewer parties. We had our 50 reviewer party and when we get to 100, we'll have another party. But ultimately it is. There's challenge. And so you really just have to keep asking. And you know, I. At various holiday periods, I always post something on my social media that's like the greatest gift you can give an author is a review. And I always remind people of that because it is hard. So there's lots of approaches. And I do have a video on kind of the first four different people to ask for reviews. If Angela can find that as well. That would be lovely if you could post that on the four different people to ask for reviews. And then in terms of there's there's kind of a paid. There's, there's paid reviews and then there's. And paid reviews. I'll explain in a second. And then there's asking people and then there's just, you know, putting something in your book to get reviews as well. So that can be a last call to action on your book page. When you, if you have people sign up for emails and they buy your book, you can ask them for reviews. There basically just always ask for reviews. Even if you feel like you're begging or it's annoying. It is vital to the success of your book and vital to having other people find your book. And it impacts your ability to get speaking and media and everything. And there isn't an easy way to just get reviews. I wish there was, but you just, you have to keep asking and set it up for success, success. And Amazon will make it hard on you. It will be hard for friends and family because they don't want friends and family. So it will be hard for anybody that has a relationship to you to post reviews. They will more than likely block reviews of people that they can associate with you somehow. And they won't even be able to post that review, let alone if they do, it will get removed. So you want to be working your network. So not just the people closest to you, but anybody that you connect with. If somebody contacts you and says, I read your book, you want to say, thank you, I would really be grateful if you could post a review. So paid review sites, one that we're testing right now, and I think it's called booksprout, I think that's the one. I've just blanked on it. But we're testing a couple new sites. And so how we use those sites is there's a few sites out there that you can pay to have people request your book. So Goodreads Giveaways is one of these. You get your book. There's a couple benefits to paying for a Goodreads giveaway. You get your book listed on the shelves of everybody who wants to enter your book. Your book giveaway. A bunch of people get your book and they hopefully post reviews on Goodreads as well as Amazon. It doesn't tend to lead to a ton of Amazon reviews, but it can really help your book on Goodreads. Goodreads and Goodreads is owned by Amazon, but they don't link the reviews, unfortunately, but it still helps get reviews. And then we usually list on Book Sirens, which allows you to give free e copies of your book securely to people so they can read it and then post reviews later. And it has some functionality in it that prompts people to do reviews. And then there's a few other sites that we're testing and using for paid reviews. We also use NetGalley, but NetGalley gets you editorial reviews. It's not that often that somebody gets a book through NetGalley and they also post it on Amazon. So those are some of the ways. This is a huge topic. But ultimately the secret is you just have to keep asking. Thanks, Angela, for posting all those links. I'm curious about ideas on how to market in a different country than the one that I live in. Yeah, I mean, a lot of marketing nowadays is international anyways. You can't avoid it. The podcast interview I did this morning was with a podcaster in the uk. I've done interviews with Australian Singapore. I don't even know all the countries actually. So, you know, inevitably you're going to be doing that marketing now. You know, if you're in a different country and you're trying to break into North America, and North America is your particular audience of choice that you want to break into. You want to look at how your cover is stacking up in that market. Covers are different in different marketplaces. Even between Australia and the United States, the COVID that will stand out is different. It has different. You know, there's differences, but especially as you translate into other languages or go to other countries, like going to India, for example, the COVID is going to need to be tweaked to stand out in that market. So I think it takes a whole strategy, if you are specifically targeting a certain market other than the one that you live in to make sure that you're really well positioned. Search engines are different in every country. Categories are different. The bisect codes are fine, but Amazon's categories are different in every country and they're different versus ebook versus print. So they're really. If you are targeting a specific country, you want to be very strategic about it and really kind of gear everything with that country in mind so that you are positioning the book for that marketplace, because that's important. But if you just want to reach people other than where you're at, a lot of what you do around search engine optimization and your interviews, your newsletters, all these things are all online now. Videos. I mean, I saw somebody here from the uk. I know you're chiming in from Japan. So you know you're going to reach an international audience just by virtue of being on the Internet. But intentional is different than what actually happens, if that makes sense. What are your thoughts on adding color to highlight text or provide vivid photos in the book versus more economical black and white printing? Color is so tricky. So it's one of those things where I love color in the ebook go to town, but in print it. You can't just pay to print one color page. Your book becomes a color book the minute you put color in it. So unless you want to go the route of offset printing and print, you know, 10,000 copies of your book and then set up a warehouse and a distribution. But if you're going print on demand, you want to focus on your print book as much as possible. Unless you really need it to be color. You want to focus on having it be black and white so that you can make money and set your book up at a price that will be competitive. We have a book, we did a book called Tactical Lock Picking. So you can look that up. I think he sells it or he was selling it at $39 or $49. So it's a. It's a full book on, you know, getting through locked obstacles in emergencies. And it's color. And so Part of that pricing strategy was color, but part of that pricing strategy was also that this is a very tactical, problem solving book that, you know, people were buying for the purposes of using in coordination with workshops for EMS and fire and things like that. So the price point made sense for a lot of books. The price point, if your price point has to be above $25, you're not going to get sales. People won't buy it. You're either going to drive people to ebook or they're not. You're going to lose those sales. So you have to be very careful with color to make sure that the price pricing strategy is going to be in alignment with your competition and what is important. Okay. Yeah, so. So William, I think William's clarifying the question earlier. Agencies that either take you as a client compared to having to put your money up for editing, cover design, etc. So yeah, I think what you're talking about is traditional publishing versus self publishing. And we're all about self publishing. So. And if you haven't read Self Publish and succeed, I highly recommend it, even if you're going the traditional route, because this book gives you all the strategy you need to set your book up to be something that will sell, which is all traditional publishers care about. Like truly that is. That's why my first book was rejected by traditional publishers. They actually gave me. I was in talks with Wiley, one of the major publishing houses, and they gave me a book idea. We built the proposal together over three months, which is very unusual. Usually that's all done and an agent connects you. We built the proposal over a three month period and then they rejected me because I didn't have a strong enough platform to sell books. Publishers want to see that you're going to be able to move 5 to 10,000 copies of a book fairly easily. And they're looking that that is not based on your subject. It doesn't matter how great your book is going to be, how amazing your story is. I'm afraid that that's not what they're looking at. They're looking at your audience, they're looking at your numbers and they will look at the market trends insofar as if you're in a really hot topic or you have a really unique spin on something that is really, really topical at the moment, then you might get a deal or they can see that it's going to be topical in a year from now, but that's, that's how you're going to get a book deal. You can get niche publishers smaller publishers that might work with you, but ultimately you're still. You're going to be giving up a lot of control, making a lot less money for the book in exchange for somebody else just fronting the editing costs and cover costs. So it is a decision. It's a choice. I think I highly recommend you grab a copy of my book because it's going to lay the foundation for success for you. Whatever route is going to make sense for you. And it goes into all of that in detail. Hey, Mike, Great to see you. It's so good to see you. And perhaps the limit. Yeah, so that's a great solution, Efren. So we were just talking about efferent and having color, and he said perhaps it could be a special edition or a limited series. And I completely agree. That can be a great solution. You could even set it up through Lulu and print 100 copies there, or have your color version only available through Lulu, which you could sell on your website. That can work really well. And that's one thing that I've done with Self Publish and Succeed is it's also set up on Lulu so that I can run ads and track the ads. Because when you run ads and it goes to Amazon, you don't know which ads generated a sale, so you're unable to really refine your advertising so that you know you can actually get profitable ads. You. You might know that 100 people clicked and one person bought because you use an affiliate link on Amazon. You can kind of track that a little bit, but you won't know which ad generated the results. And so it becomes impossible to tweak and really grow. But with Blulu, I can set it up through Shopify and sell my book, still print on demand, so I don't have to ship any books and sell it. So somebody can go to self publishand succeed.com, buy the book, and you're going to be getting it shipped to you from Lulu, and then you'll get an email from us because it connects to us and we can track that kind of thing. So. So that might be something you want to do, Efren, and. And we can help with that. So you can just. You can just shoot us an email when you. Well, just let Alyssa, or. I think you're working with Alyssa. You can let Alyssa or Jacqueline know that, and we'll help you when we get closer. So. All right, so just checking to see if anybody else has questions, and I think we're good now. All right, thanks, you guys. This was fabulous to have so many wonderful new people here. I hope to see you again in two weeks. I didn't get very many ad ideas. Or not ad ideas, video ideas. So post them in the replay. Let me know what videos you want me to create for you. I have a whole bunch in the queue on marketing, but I'm looking for other things, too. So how can I help you? Self, publish, write, publish and promote your nonfiction books? Let me know. And I hope to see you guys here again in two weeks. All right, take care. Bye.