0006: Book Publishing Strategies with Publishing Expert & Best Selling Author Jenn Foster

Ea interviews episode 6 it's a great Day to be Alive Expert Authority Nation and I wanted to ask you, have you ever wanted to share your story? Have you wanted to get your message seen and heard by the largest audience you possibly can for your business? Maybe even considered publishing a book? I know I have and that's why I'm excited for today's show. I have none other than Jen Foster who is a publishing expert and 11 time best selling author herself. Jen started in web development and crafted her skills as an online marketer. She has had many entrepreneur mentors in her life including her own grandfather, the founder of the western oil company Maverick County Stores. She's the owner of Biz socialboom and has helped hundreds of businesses become first page news on major search engines. She is also the owner of Elite Online Publishing which was started by Jen Foster and Melanie Johnson at a marketing conference where they brainstorm and created the website logo, Facebook, Twitter and all the pages for their video trailer during the breaks in Its exciting for me because I remember when they were doing it years ago we were all at the same conference together. So congrats to both of them. They had their first successful book writing retreat three months later with 100% of the attendees becoming number one best selling authors. They now work with high level authors on a personal one on one basis as well as training at their retreats, workshops, masterclasses, podcast and their YouTube channel. Jen has appeared on podcast, radio and television and has been an honored guest speaker and panelist at major market marketing conferences across the country. She broadcasts weekly on her podcast Elite Expert Insider on itunes and other radio channels. I'm excited to bring her up right after we thank our sponsor. So you want to go live on Facebook but you're not sure where to start or what to do. Some people say just grab your phone or buy all this expensive software. Well I have a better option for you. Check out mariofoccini.com BELive BELive is the simplest and easiest way to go live on your Facebook or with a professional production. Once again, mariofacini.com belive.

Here she is, Ms. Jen Foster. Jen, welcome.

Thank you.

I am excited to have you here. So we're going to be sharing with everyone publishing secrets and that's very exciting. So my first question I always ask everyone is what inspired you to start your business? What is the why behind what you're doing?

Yeah, well I've always wanted to be my own boss and my own entrepreneur. So I've actually been self employed or entrepreneur pretty much My whole life, since I've been married, married and divorced. I guess I'm single now, but yeah, so I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur and now I have three teenagers to support. And so I just love having my own business, setting my own hours, being a mom and owner, a business owner. And I think my why really is my kids and my lifestyle and being able to control my schedule well.

Very good. So tell us about the book process. Who do you help and how do you do it? Because there's a lot of people out there that help publish books. You can say self publishing, regular publishing. What would you say? Why is one better than the other? What are the pros and cons? How do you do what you do with your audience?

Yeah, so I mean since I. My very first book, which you saw in that trailer just now, and the it I would say like my very first book, I did, it transformed my business. And because I had a book, I became that instant expert in authority. And so I have a passion for helping other people to get that same status. So when someone wants to write a book or an author comes to me and says I've written a book, I don't know, you know, how to publish it or what to do, then that's when we take over and we help them to publish their book and market their book and then help them to use that expert status as a best selling author to get on stages, to speak, to get more media exposure, just to do all the different things that a book can give you. And I guess you asked kind of the process you want to. Kind of want to know kind of the process that we use or.

Yeah. So tell me more specifically about your process.

Yeah, well, what we like to do with authors is whether they come to us with an idea or come to us with their book already written. We like to help them to get their book in ebook and paperback so it's published on Amazon. If they want a hardback and an audio, we do that as well and we get that distributed everywhere. We believe in the everywhere philosophy where you are everywhere. So we want your book to be everywhere. Books are sold. So everywhere, online, everywhere, offline. And of course you having books, being able to order books yourself, set the price how you want it. So we do a hybrid publishing, which is where we're still your publisher because we're helping you with all the details like the book cover, the formatting, the title, the description, the bio, all the parts that make a book, we help you with all of that. But you are really Just self publishing the book because we want you to keep all your own royalties, we want you to keep all your own rights, and we want you to be able to use your book how you want to use it.

That's really awesome. I remember when I was doing my first book, and it's always a fun experience because a lot of people don't realize that. So speak on the publishing and what you just said there about the keeping your own publishing rights, keeping all of that in your name. And that was a concern for me because I was. I'll let you continue on it.

Yeah. Yeah. So my business partner and I actually wrote this book, the Seven Costly Mistakes When Choosing a Publisher. And it's really good because it teaches and tells you all the differences between self publishing and hybrid publishing or traditional publishing. And, you know, usually a traditional publisher will give you some kind of commission or advance for your book, but then they own the rights to your book, so they get to choose everything. If they decide to take out a part of the book, they can. If they want to take out a word, they can. If they want to change out pictures, they can like anything they want, they can do. Really, you don't really have a lot of. I mean, you have some say, but they are pretty much in control of your book. And that goes for pricing as well. And then they don't really do a lot of marketing unless you hire them to do the marketing. And so you're still left with doing all the marketing. So the publisher will help you and get you the world. You know, you'll get a commission, but you might only make like a dollar a book. Or you have to read the fine print because it might say, after they give you that $10,000 or $20,000 advance, it might say in fine print that if you don't sell a certain amount of books, you have to pay some of that back. So you really have to read the fine print for sure. With self publishing, of course, it's all pr. You don't have to buy a ton of books. You're just making what you're making on the book. You know what it could be? I don't know, it depends on the book. But the main thing is that you're in control of your book.

Well, that's a really good tip because a lot of people go, well, I want to get published. I want to do that. And not a lot of them realize they can take out the words, they can take out the pictures and all that. So it's a matter of how much are you willing to lose, like is it really worth that 10 or 20 grand? Or do you want to keep the rights because you see it turning into six figures, seven figures and beyond? So definitely something to consider. How, what is, while we're talking about the financial aspect of it, how would you say, what's one thing you tell your authors as to how they can monetize it other than just book sales?

Yeah, well, that's, you know, Mario, because with your book you do the exact thing that we teach all of our authors, which is to have a call to action in your book. So, so of course you're going to make a little bit of money from your book sales, but you're not going to make a lot of money from your book sales. And so in order to get those six and seven figures coming to you, you have to have a call to action. And that's what we teach all of our authors. You have to have a why or a purpose behind your book. So maybe the reason why you wrote the book is to share your message. Maybe it is to get speaking gigs on stages, maybe it's to sell your coaching program. There's all these different ways to make money and we want your book to help you to sell that. Right? So like for instance, a dental practice. I have a doctor who wrote a book about his cosmetic dental practice and all of the, you know, secrets behind it and also the myths and the frequently asked questions and all those things. And that book helps him to sell his bigger item, not just a book, which is the dental implants or the veneers or the cosmetic dentistry. So, so, you know, you gotta have something like that to upsell or to a call to action, so to say in your book. So whether it's to ask you to speak on a stage or to sell you something else or to get more information from you, you know, you wanna have that call to action.

I appreciate you for sharing that. So the call to action is what gets people the results beyond the book. Let's talk about your specific results. You don't need to name names, you don't need to give specific clients. But let's talk, it's a two part question. The specific results you've seen and what's the biggest success story you've had.

So I guess the first part of the question would be, I mean my very first experience with having something happen because I was an author, because I was a best selling author, was I had a phone call, it was actually a voicemail. And the voicemail, the guy said, he says it's three in the morning and I just finished reading your chapter and I've read it three times. And he says, I have a marketing business and my chapter was all about marketing. He says, I have a marketing business and I realize I'm doing it all wrong and I need you to be my agent and do all of the white label services for my marketing company. So it was pretty, pretty amazing and pretty exciting to get that opportunity. And I mean there's been multiple, multiple things come out of the books that I've written. I mean even today the books that we, Melanie and I have written or the books that I've written on my own or Melanie's written on her own have gotten us speaking opportunities as well as new clients. And we publish. We have over 60 authors now and almost, I think we're at like 1950 books on Amazon right now.

Say that again.

Yeah, we have 1950 of our own books on Amazon as well as we've helped over 60 authors publish.

Wow, that's fantastic. Yeah, 1900. Are you pushing for 2000?

Yeah, we're really close.

Well, you got time to get, you got time.

Yeah.

So as far as your biggest success stories, who has been. So someone comes to you, they want to get published. You, they want to go through the whole gamut with everything you're talking about. Who would you say? And again, you can call them Mr. Or Mrs. X. That's what I do. If you don't want to share who it is specifically and if they don't mind, feel free to plug them. But who is the biggest success story that you saw? They came into your program and it was like day one they were at negative 10 and within 30, 60, 90, 100 days, whatever yours is, they got to like 20.

Yeah, we actually have quite a few stories of authors that have come to us and now are doing the things that they set out to do with their book. But I will mention one of them and I don't think he'll mind if I mention his name. So. So he's a speaker and a trainer and he's an author, a best selling author and his name's Joshua Evans. And he actually started with us. He used to work as a salesman and then he quit his job and did the whole book writing thing and author. And now he speaks all over. He's been speaking on cruises, he's been speaking on stages all over the country and he just landed a gig. I mean he gets paid to speak. I'm not going to say the amount, but he gets paid A lot to speak now. And his book is called Enthusiastic you. And so he helps corporations with their employees and their enthusiasm and helping them to really find their purpose. But what is really awesome, what, he just landed a gig doing a really big banquet. And it was like normally they have, it was, I think, for over. I think it was like almost 1500 people, but they usually have an astronaut or some really big, big name that comes in and speaks. This year they asked Joshua Evans to come in. So. Really cool.

Yeah, that's quite.

I'll tell you one more success story. So our author, Marilyn Barber, we helped her publish her book, Dress like youe Mean Business. And right after she got her book published.

We launched it. She got a number one bestseller and she started doing some private clients and helping people to dress for success. And then I think it was ABC called her and said, we saw your book and we'd like to have you come in and talk to our audience on TV about the election and what Mrs. Trump is going to be wearing for the Elect, you know, for the. I think it was for the inauguration, actually. So anyway, it was. It was amazing. She went on TV and they loved everything she did. And they said, if it's okay, we'll just keep doing a segment every single month. And we'd like to title it the same as your book, Dress like youe Mean Business. And of course she was. Yes.

And so now they think about that.

Yeah, they do these segments and they feature her and she comes in and talks and does her expertise of fashion and how to dress. And they go to different places or they go in the studio, they go to different dress shops in Texas, and it's just really awesome. So she's doing really well.

That sounds like fun. All right, so two more before we go to the sponsor again.

Oh, two more questions or two more success stories? I just have so many.

Two more questions.

Okay, two more questions.

And I figured you'd have a lot of success stories, so I was curious who you were going to bring up, because I know we've talked about them before and, you know, congrats on your success and continuing on because I know you've been doing it for quite some time now. So this is kind of. It's interesting because I ask. The questions I ask everyone are the same. And it's. How has publishing your book helped you? And you kind of touched on it, but how has publishing your book helped you?

Yeah, well, for sure, it's helped me personally to just grow and to become the person I am today. It's really different. Like you wouldn't think it would change you that much, but it's really different when you can say, I'm an author and they say 80% of people say they want to write a book. They said it out loud or they've thought it in their mind, but only 1% actually do it. And so if you're looking around and you think everyone has a book, think again. Not everyone has a book. So you can have a book too. But it really has changed me personally and I think my self esteem and my personal development has grown for sure.

You know what? I really like that, I really do. Because I ask everyone that and everyone I have on the show is pretty much author speakers and, you know, a certain level of success, if you will. And a lot of people speak to, oh, it was great because I got to do this, I got more leads, I got this. And I would say the same thing. People ask me all the time and I don't think I've ever responded with that. So that's, that's a, in my opinion, a much better answer than just, oh, it helped my business. That you can do a lot of stuff for business. But I'd say, yeah, it would definitely give you a confidence boost. And you know, it's like if you want the information, here it is. So that leads into the next one, which is video. How has video marketing helped your business?

Well, video marketing for sure. I mean, that's what my first book that I wrote on my own was about, was video marketing. And that's kind of what I've been doing for the last, I guess, 12 years, is helping businesses with their video marketing and SEO as well as the last three or four years doing publishing. And I think video really has helped my business just because for one, when people see you, they know I can trust you. And two, you know, the exposure of that content out there, you know, the information that you're providing on video, that's what people want. I mean, just the other day I was looking up on YouTube how to fix my washer. So everyone's going to YouTube to find out something, to learn how to do something. And if you're the one that they're watching, then they're going to follow you more and learn more from you. And whether it's your YouTube channel or Facebook Live or all the other places you can watch video. Now, of course, video is all over Amazon, so definitely video can help you. And it's helped me a ton.

Well, I'm happy to hear that. And you Got me laughing a little bit because I was like, yeah, I did that last year too. How do you install the new pulley system and what are the parts here? And yeah, it's amazing what you can find. And you know, everyone watching this and hearing it, they'll go, they're probably thinking the same thing. Yeah, I've done that. I've looked the videos up. But the question I always like to ask is how many do you have out there for your business? So do you. Right before we cut, how many? When you're telling your authors, when you're telling your clients, what do you recommend they start with? Do you have a certain number or.

Yeah, a certain number of videos that they should start with?

Yes.

Well, I think it's different for each client, but I would say I always challenge my clients to do at least one Facebook Live a week and whether they transcribe it, download it, upload it somewhere else, but I do challenge them to do that. I also.

Have them write down their top 10 frequent last questions. Top 10 should ask questions. So that's 20 questions that they can record one or two minute, even five minutes if they want videos and put those up. So that's 20 videos there. They can put those up on their YouTube channel or on Facebook or anywhere else. Amazon, I'm trying to think what else. And then that's pretty much the basics is the top 10 frequent last questions. Top 10 should ask questions as well as their Facebook lives. And if you don't know what to say on Facebook Live, and I know when you're scrolling through Facebook, you think everyone's doing Facebook Live. I'm not going to do it or I'm too scared. But you just want to tell your story, tell people what's happening, tell people your successes and tell people some things that you're doing, whether it's an adventure thing or just working or what you learned, a book you're reading, any of those kind of things people want to know.

All right, very good. Well, we're going to go to the sponsor and come back for the rapid fire questions. Thanks so much. And now to go to the sponsor. Instead of trying to get your prospects attention, why not be so captivating they can't look away? That's a quote from my first book, Video Marketing for Business Owners. And I'm saying it again today because the truth of the matter is if you can't get your prospects attention, they're not going to pay attention to you and they're not going to receive your message. And you'll never be able to help them. That's why I love belive. Before it even launched, I was using it in the beta phase and it is the simplest and easiest way to do Facebook lives to reach your audience, to interact with them. You can cue the comments up, you can take questions, you can answer them live. There's live polling features. You can make a professional looking production very inexpensively and very quickly, which is important because you don't want to be spending your time messing around with computers and hardware and all this other stuff. Live streaming can get very intense and there is literally nothing else I would recommend to start off with that is simpler, easier and more affordable than BeLive. So check out MarioFaccini.com BeLive once again, that's MarioFoccini.com BeLive all right, expert Authority nation. So we're back and as I stated before the break, we're going to go to the rapid fire question. So Jen, first one, rapid fire, 60 seconds. What's the biggest problem you see that your audience has and how do you help them fix it?

I'd say the biggest problem is they don't know how to like the technical aspects of publishing. And so we fix it by helping them do it. We publish their books for them.

All right, very good. Number two, shortest path to the cash. What's the one thing your audience should do to increase their profits the fastest?

Change your mindset. It's all in your thoughts.

Oh, speak on that a little bit.

Yeah. So I just got finished reading Think and grow Rich as well as a man thinketh and what you think about, you bring about. So if you're telling yourself I can't afford it, you're not ever going to be rich. So you got to tell yourself you're rich. You got to have that abundance mentality and you will have abundance in your life. Whether it's money or other things that are coming to you, you will have abundance.

I like that a lot. All right, customer lifetime value. What's the one way your audience could maximize their customer lifetime value?

Yeah, well, definitely, you know, with a book you're going to capture the followers or the customers that you will attract and to keep that lifetime value by putting out more books or more content, digital training programs, more information. That is how you get that long time value is just give, keep giving them what they're asking for.

All right, very good. So we're at the.

Last little bit here if you will. So what would you like to promote? Let's, let's hear, let's pull Back the curtain a little bit and hear about what you got coming up. Feel free to promote it where people can find you. And I'm interested to know.

Great. Yeah. Well, Melanie and I, Melanie Johnson, my business partner and I have been speaking on different stages. We have a few coming up. I think there's a Habitude Warrior conference in Houston coming up here in November. So check that out@habitudewarriorconference.com and we also have a couple book launches coming up. We have a lot of books, I think one a week. I think we have a couple spots open in December if you want to get your book done before the end of the year. But we do have one a week, one book launch a week. So look for our book launches. We have really awesome authors coming up tomorrow. Actually we have a great author, Nicole Black, who has a book called Fat Shame. So that's going to be a really awesome book. So check that out next week. Just trying to think some of the other books. We have a bunch of different books. Jen Devereux, she has an amazing story. She's writing her book. It's going to be out next month. We have a bunch of other offers authors, so just check them out. Check out our YouTube channel. You can go to YouTube.com elite online publishing1 and that has all of our book trailers and we do a podcast as well. So our podcast is there as well.

Why don't you drop the name of your podcast too, because it's a good one and they should definitely listen.

Yeah, our podcast is Elite Expert Insider and and we do one podcast a week so you can check that out.

Very good. Well, we're going to go to the finalized sponsor and that's it. So thanks for joining us and we'll see you again.

Great. We'll see you guys soon.

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