Julie Broad (Book Launchers) presents a short YouTube video advising authors how to survive and even thrive during an economic crisis by pivoting their message to meet current needs, offering high-value free resources to grow an email list, and taking proactive, service-oriented action rather than freezing. She gives concrete examples of authors who adapted their books to COVID-19–relevant topics, recommends avoiding fatalistic generalizations about markets, and urges authors to plan backwards (what to have done three months prior) to identify immediate actions. The video closes with calls-to-action to comment, subscribe, and watch related videos.
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If you're in the middle of an economic crisis, and let's face it, the entire world is right now, you may be scared to write your book for fear nobody will buy it. You might be fearing that there's no market to sell your book or your services, or possibly your business was massively impacted and you're just feeling stuck. Whether you're watching this video in 2020 or beyond. If you're wondering how to survive as an author in an economic crisis, this video is absolutely positively for you. Hey there. I'm Julie, the book broad from Book Launchers. We're your professional self publishing team helping you write, publish and promote a nonfiction book that will help you have a huge impact on your readers and done right will help you grow your brand, build your business and make money. The best part? You get to keep all rights and royalties. When economic uncertainty hits historical, it can be really easy to just freeze in place. You might think there's no point because books aren't selling or your topic isn't of interest right now. And I could certainly have done without this one, especially the part where there's no childcare, childcare support or anything else like that. I'm a good dad. I'm a good time. It's allowed us to spend a lot of time together as a family. Allow me to share why I'm not scared of a crisis. And if you're an author and you follow my advice, you won't be scared either. Ryan Berman, author of Return on Courage, said in his book when you drive change, when you have the cour to not simply survive but transform, I believe there is an immense amplified return on your efforts. Heck yeah, Ryan, what a great quote. And Ryan did a fabulous author spotlight for you on setting yourself up to be a paid speaker with your book. So make sure you've subscribed to the channel and turn notifications on so you catch that one because it is great. In that quote, Ryan is onto the 1st and I think the most important step for helping your author business thrive right now. And that first first step is how can you be the driver of change with your message right now? This is the opposite thinking of freezing or doing nothing because this is taking a look at what you have to offer and going, hey, this is something people can use right now. So how can you be of service with your message today? Lynae St. John wrote a book about talking to your kids about sex. It's called Read Me her message pivoted to speak to the stay home message and how to handle Intimacy with your partner while everyone's under one roof. How to handle communication now that everyone is in the house together. Jeff Ruby wrote Red Rock Leadership. His book launched in the middle of COVID 19. Rolling out an unsettling thing for sure, but the value of having a strong and well trained leader in every organization to handle every crisis is a powerful lesson. So he's got a lot to talk about during the crisis. Todd Nyhome wrote Ah food. Why do you trouble me so much? His book is of massive value to folks in troubled times because it's all about our relationship with food. We which as we've all become tied to our homes and within feet of our refrigerator all day long. I think a lot of us have found that we use food to comfort ourselves. So talking about that relationship with food might prevent all of us from gaining 20 pounds while we're housebound. Bottom line authors who stand up and share their message loud and clear and specific to the conversations we're all having right now. So they pivot, they twist, they find the opening. Those folks are going to emerge as the leaders of of tomorrow and even the thought leaders of today. Because guess what? In a crisis, new voices are welcome. So what part of your message do people need to hear right now and how can you get it out there? Social media? Traditional media? Your author platform, Other people's platform Reach out and offer value. The next step is to avoid widespread generalizations like nobody has money or books aren't selling. These give you excuses not to act. And let me tell you what they are also completely false. Some businesses absolutely boom in an economic crisis, which means there are people with money. And after the shock of a crisis, many people shift to problem solving and will buy books. And in actual fact, people are buying books during this crisis in big numbers. The big question is how can you be in front of these people when they are looking for the solution to their problem that you can help them with? One author I know created a free resource for supporting parents that now have their kids at home all day. It was a calendar of a daily schedule and resources to help homeschool your children. Thousands of people downloaded it and shared it within a few weeks and she added 7,000 people to her email list and was able to use that to promote her Emotional Learning book to all those people, giving her book a massive sales spike. So what can you offer that is of high value and puts you directly in the front of people who need you right now? Number three, this is a cool question that I was asked knowing what you know now what would you have put into place three months prior to the month the crisis hit? I was on a call with Perry Belcher, founder of DigitalMarketer.com and traffic and Conversion Summit, and I think it was him that actually asked this question. It might have been somebody else on the call, but I think it's him. So I'll give him credit. And I think it's an awesome clarifying question. If you feel stuck about where to act when you answer this question, you immediately know the area you need to take action on, because no crisis disappears overnight. So when you hit a crisis and you can see clearly what you wished you'd put into place three months ago, you now know what you need to do right now. So if you're not sure what action to take right now, that should help. Ultimately, I believe a crisis is not something you should waste Looking back at 2008, some of today's industry leaders and businesses you rely on right now were born from 2008. I've heard so many folks like Pat Flynn say that they were laid off in 2008 and that spurred them on to create their own thing. And now they're they're having way more fun than ever and are creating jobs for others. And during this crisis they're able to step up and provide massive support to others. I believe that every dark time carries a great gift if you're open enough to seeing it and savvy enough to act on that opening. Are you finding yours? Let's chat about it in the comments below. And when you comment the day a video is released. Hold on. Hold that thought. And when you comment the day a video is released, you'll be entered to win some sweet book launcher swag like this noboringbooks mug or this oh so soft journal. And you'll be one step closer to being one of my YouTube besties like Alan west who inspired this video by thanking me for my comments on a live stream and sending me an infographic on handling crisis. Or the fabulous and fun folks that are also YouTube besties like Margaret Craig, Sandra Rodriguez, Rachel Robertson, and of course Brian K. Morris. Thank you so much for your likes, shares and comments. You guys make my day now. I have really enjoyed our time together today. Let's keep this party going. This video on making money from your book could be the exact thing you need to see right now. Or this video on the seven most common self publishing mistakes is also a great video to support you building your author business. Both are pretty fabulous and I can't wait to see you on one of them to make sure your author business thrives, not just survives in this economic crisis.
