Julie Broad argues that authors without an existing platform should start with a focused niche book, not a broad manifesto. A manifesto needs an audience already built. Write something specific and outcome-driven first, build your following, then write the big declaration of your values once you have proof and reach.
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Recently, one of our authors wanted to run his book options by me, and he shared that he had this cool concept for a manifesto, a big idea kind of book, and then three niche, tactical, specific books that would help someone execute on his big idea. He was wondering what to do first. So if you've ever wondered if you should do niche books or a big manifesto or what order you should do them in, well, this video is for you. Hello there. I'm Julie the book broad. I'm founder of Book Launchers, a full service self publishing company that helps you write with a course. We also have writing coaches and writers. Then we'll help you publish with an entire team of editors, publishing experts, designers, and more. And then we'll help you promote that book with a team of experts who will help you with online marketing, pr, library and bookstore distribution, ads, and so much more. Because we're full service, I get a really good look at the evolution of books from idea to marketing, and I get to see the ones that succeed and the ones that struggle a bit. And what I can tell you is that if you are someone that doesn't have a large following, which means you don't have an existing platform of people who get your weekly or daily newsletter, or you're not stepping on stages every week or every other week, or you don't have hundreds of thousands of people engaging with you on social media on regular basis, well, I can tell you if that's you, your manifesto is quite likely to struggle to find its audience. It's not a guarantee, but it's likely. But wait, Julie, you don't even know what my manifesto idea is. Well, that's true, but I know what a manifesto is. And if you don't. A manifesto is a written statement that declares intentions, motives, or views of an individual or a group. It outlines what you stand for, how you plan to affect change, or what values are important to you. It can serve as a thesis statement or a plan of action, or a compass that might guide decisions. Now, based on how I'm defining a manifesto, I think anyone that isn't a celebrity in their niche is going to struggle to sell it, at least at first, because it's about you, your ideas, your big call to action. And yes, it can be powerful and impactful, inspiring, but you have to have people to read it and then be enthusiastic enough about it that they spread the word. And that's more difficult than you might think. One manifesto that I do remember vividly was in 2009, Rich Sheffrin, who is an Internet Marketing guru, at least he was at that time. And he's a very smart marketer and business person. He wrote the Internet Business Manifesto. It was a huge call to action for people entering the online marketing game to play bigger and essentially think different about the online marketing space. Everyone I knew in marketing and the information marketing business was talking about it at the time. But, and this is a big one, Rich was on all the stages. If you went to any sort of marketing or affiliate event, you'd find Rich there. He was having huge course launches and was driving a lot of business success. In other words, he had a platform that got that wave going in the first place. And his manifesto led to upsells in courses, programs and more. It was an entry point into a big business model. Now if that's your situation or you're someone who's really strong at gaining grassroots support and getting it to grow big from there, write your manifesto first for the rest of us average humans. And frankly, what I would do, because I'm definitely counting myself in that average human category is, is I would write a really awesome niche problem focused book that's a sub idea of my manifesto. I'd share my big idea from that manifesto in the book as part of my story and my why. But then I'm going to deliver a really powerful problem solving niche book with a clear audience and a clear outcome of the outcome for that audience. So taking Rich's old book as an example, one of the things he emphasized in the early part of the book is knowing the value of your hour. He did break this down into a tactical example of how to calculate it. And you know, let's go into an imaginary world where knowing the value of your time isn't an everyday discussion now. And also let's imagine that it's a core part of your manifesto big picture. So your niche book could be a simple way to calculate what jobs in your business you should do and what you should hire out. Plus you could add in ideas and stories and examples of how to, you know, increase the value of your work and the value of your own hour and turn your workday into the equivalent productivity of an entire week of work. I totally just made that up. But now I kind of want to read that book now layer on the fact that you're writing this just for the people in information and direct response marketing industry and now you've got a really outcome of the outcome driven book with a super clear and specific audience. What I love about doing this is now you know who to reach out to for marketing support. I mean, still sticking with this 2009 example, look at the people who were big in that space in 2009 when Rich's book came out. This was all about the folks at Agora newsletters like early to Rise and all their other newsletters. And really you could just pull out one of their newsletters and note who the contributors were and those would be potential partners. You know, there's other people like Michael Masterson, Mary Ellen Tribbey, she, Jeff Walker. There were so many people. And then underneath or around them were people that were maybe less known but would promote something like this because it packs such a punch of value for their audience. So my answer to the big manifesto versus the more specific tactical niche book does depend a bit on who you are, who you have engaged in, your audience and your bigger picture plans for that manifesto. In other words, what success looks like for you with that book. But ultimately I personally would do a niche, easier to market book. First, test the message of your manifesto in that book while delivering a compelling outcome of the outcome and see what happens if people are really resonating with your big idea and buying your niche book. Keep going, build your platform and then write your manifesto. Next, at least you will have invested time, money and effort in momentum and you will have learned a less expensive and less intensive lesson. So what do you think? How would you approach this? Would you take a different approach? I'm totally okay if you would. In fact, I would love to chat about it. So let's chat about it in the comments below. And when you comment the day a video is released, you get entered to win some of our fabulous hashtag NoBoringBooksSwag. So be sure to subscribe to the channel so you catch all the videos and can comment on the day a video comes out, which is every Tuesday and Friday. Now if you haven't seen the latest and greatest video from the channel, I do highly recommend you watch this next or this one on three. Mindset Shifts to help you become a successful author is also a great watch. So go ahead, click on over and say hello, I'm waiting.
