The Power of a Print Book

This is episode 21 of Author Audience.

Welcome to the Author Audience show, the podcast that helps you reach more people with your message. Create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz.

Welcome to Author Audience, where I'm on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. It's time to let your light shine. Today I'm rolling out the red carpet and inviting you to join me as I share about the power of a print book. I love that feeling of holding a new print book in my hands. It never gets old. I tell you what, my name is Shelly Hitz and I'm the author of over 35 books and the list keeps growing. And I've coached thousands of authors through my books, training programs, online events, seminars, and more. I'm best known for inspiring those around me to take action. So if you're an action taker, you're in the right place. I believe you have a God given message to share with the world. The question is, are you ready to shine? It's time for this week's Center Stage Spotlight training. This is where I share training and strategies to help you grow your business or ministry through writing and publishing books, marketing online, and creating products and services to sell on the back end. I'm not just about books, but so much more. I'm here to help you connect with your audience in the best way possible. But today is definitely about books. Today's podcast is episode 21, titled the Power of a Print Book. I'm so excited to just dig into this information with you and to share more about how powerful a print book can be. In this episode, I'm going to share six different benefits of publishing a print book. And there are many, many more. So let's dive in. Reason number one, to have a print book. It's a business card people won't throw away. Having a print book is more than just a credibility booster. It is similar to a business card, but much more valuable and with greater longevity. Think about it. Most people will throw away a business card, whereas they usually keep a book forever. When was the last time you threw a book in the trash? I cannot get myself to do it. And even when people do get rid of print books, they usually donate to a thrift store or give it to a friend so it has longevity. Many authors also make more money from the business their book brings them than the book royalties themselves. The book is primarily a way to brand yourself and build trust with your target audience. But if you're spending money on advertising and marketing your business or your ministry, why not invest in a book that can do marketing for you? For example, you can use a print book in so many ways in your marketing. I personally have used a print book by including one of my books, procrastination to publication in a lumpy mailing that I send to potential conferences where I want to get booked as a speaker. So I have multiple things I include in this mailing, but one of them is a copy of that book. The book isn't that long, it's only 78 pages, but it's packed full of information that shows my credibility and my expertise. And so once you have a book in print, there's so many ways you can use it. Number two, the power of a print book. The second reason is it's a resource to give. Now some of you know my story and I was a speaker before I was an author. When when I started speaking to teen girls in 2007, I quickly realized that a 45 to 60 minute presentation was not enough time to cover everything I wanted to share. Girls would often come up to me after a talk, but I was limited in the time I could spend with them. You know, I'm only one person and due to the sensitivity of some of the conversations and some of the things going on, they needed to talk one on one. And many times the girls needed to leave quickly after the presentation to get to their next class, which left little or no time to spend one on one answering their questions and praying with them. It drove me crazy because I wanted to help them. However, once I had my very first print book published, Mirror mirror, am I beautiful? Looking deeper to find your true beauty. That was my very first book I published in 2008. I then had a resource I could offer any teen girl who was inspired to change and wanted to learn more after my presentation. This allowed me to help and influence my target audience on an even deeper level. So the third reason to have a print book and the third way that a print book is so powerful is that it's another product to sell. So once you write your book, you can create your products from one piece of content into multiple products. So you can create a print book, an ebook, an audiobook, translations of your book, products on the back end, and more. So having a print book is another product to sell and it's especially effective if you do speaking at live events. A print book is ideal to have at the back of the room, at a table, or to offer as a bonus to your coaching programs or your services. The Fourth reason to consider a print book and the fourth reason print books are so powerful is that everyone has a different learning style, so each person learns differently. And according to the VARK model, and I'll link to that in my show notes, there are four different types of learning styles. VARK is an acronym and it stands for visual oral, which stands for hearing, read or write, and kinesthetic, which is more hands on. So each of your customers are going to be a different type of learner. And according to their definitions, a visual learner learns best through images, maps, diagrams, flowcharts, mind maps, etc. And an oral learner learns best when information is heard or spoken. And this type of learner will get the most out of your in person presentation. A read write learner learns best when the information is displayed as words like a PowerPoint presentation, report or book. And finally, a kinesthetic learner learns best through hands on experiences. So this type of learner will retain your information best with interactive discussion lab experiences or writing in an outline while you speak. So when you offer your message in a book, you can influence those that really are influenced by the read write learners on a deeper level. It will help them to retain your material which could have a life changing impact on them. And so, you know, ebooks are great, but some people just don't either have an E reader, they're not technologically savvy, or they just prefer the print book. They prefer holding a book in their hands, underlining, highlighting. And so you'll be missing a group of people if you don't have your book in print format. So the fifth reason to consider a print book, and the fifth reason print books are so powerful, is that you have a limited bandwidth. But a print book has an enduring legacy. So if you're a speaker, you can only physically speak to a limited number of people in your lifetime. And I like to think of it as having limited bandwidth. You know, the bandwidth on your Internet connection dictates the size of files you can upload or download, and it limits your ability to share information online. So you also have limited bandwidth. And even if you would say speak several times a day for the rest of your life, you cannot possibly reach everyone in your target audience with your message. It's just not possible. However, once you publish your message within a book, you have the ability to reach an unlimited amount of people through the distribution of that book. Not only will you be able to reach an entirely new audience by publishing a book, you, you'll also be creating a legacy that will Outlive you. I thought this was fascinating. C.S. lewis's books have been even more popular after his death than they were during his life. In fact, 50 years after his death, his books continue to sell between 1.5 million and 2 million copies per year. And I'll link to the resources of these stats in the show notes. But C.S. lewis's legacy and his message definitely continues to live on through his books. And it just is incredible. I mean, I don't even think he could have imagined the kind of success that his books would have had after his death. And I really think that we all in some way want to have influence. However, a book can become that forever content that can impact people beyond our lifetime. Think of that. Beyond our lifetime. So I want to ask you a quick question. Will you choose to live with the limited bandwidth that you have with your time and your personal energy, or will you choose to leave an enduring legacy that is contained within your book? Especially a print book, but ebooks as well. I mean, all books can leave that legacy. And then finally, the sixth reason to consider a print book and the sixth reason that a print book is so powerful is that it just has a powerful influence when you publish a print book. So think about an ebook. An ebook is something that you have on your E reader and you really don't share with other people too often. But with a print book, not only do you reach the person who buys that book, but that customer may pass your book along to other people. And so you never know how many people will read your book and be impacted by what you share in that book. I mean, I have no idea how many people, how many teen girls have been impacted by my books over the years. It just is amazing. I probably won't know until we get to heaven. But a print book can also be donated to public libraries. So you can actually do this and this is another strategy for another podcast, but you know, just the strategy of getting your book into libraries. And with a print book, you know, there is just an unlimited amount of people that would can potentially read your book as they, you know, come into the library and read it. So I encourage you today to think about where you're at with your publishing efforts and with print books. And in this week's take action tip, I want you to really get serious and think, you know, if you have ebooks but you don't have a print book yet, why not? I want you to consider, you know, consider publishing a print book. There's five different tools I use to self publish books and one of those tools is a tool to be able to use a template for print books. So I want you to get ahold of these tools and so I want you to go right now to Author Audience.

Tools and download my PDF with the list of those tools for you. This link will also be in the Show Notes and I encourage you to go and get all of the show notes and resources from Today's episode@authoraudience.com 21 that's the number 21 authoraudience.com 21.

Before we end, I want to give you a backstage pass in this week's Godly Gains segment, which is all about keeping Christ at the center of all we do. In the end, it's not about us, it's about Him. And it's so easy to get caught up in what we're doing and our influence and our impact.

But in John 15:5 it says and Jesus is the one talking, he says, I am the vine and you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing.

Wow. Apart from him, we can do nothing. This is always a sobering reminder to me and one that I need constantly because it's so easy for me to go, go, go, do, do, do. And yet the promise is for those of us that are Christ followers, if we remain in Christ and Christ remains in us, this is the promise. You will bear much fruit. It doesn't say you might. It doesn't say maybe. It says you will bear much fruit. Your books, your writing will bear much fruit. And so I am so thrilled and so excited to see all that God does in and through your life as you give your books to him and as you take take these next steps in your publishing journey.

It's my hope and my prayer that these episodes are bringing you one step closer to being able to shine and reach more people with your message. You've heard me talk on this podcast about writingweek.com it's my free seven day writing challenge and I was so thrilled to hear this feedback from Sharon and I want to share it with you on her results from Writing Week.

Hi, my name is Sharon Herkins and I have recently published Just for Today, Jesus is Enough which is a 30 day devotional. My website is shedawayministries.com before week one I was completely off track with my writing so I signed up for Writing Week because it was only a seven day commitment and I needed a jump start. I also needed encouragement from others who had overcome their writer's block. This I also discovered during these seven days the encouragement that I needed. I finished the seven Day Challenge and can't wait to continue writing. I have written 3,500 words this past week towards my next nonfiction book, Almost Devoured. I am hooked on the Pomodoro technique as it gives me a tangible method of completing my work. I am enjoying the tracking part of my work which I never did before because I can see the results of my efforts. The results mean that I am accomplishing what God has placed in my heart to write. I love being a part of the author audience and do not feel isolated in my work any longer. Again, I'm Sharon Herkins. Just for today, Jesus is enough.

Shedawayministries.com.

I loved hearing that from Sharon. She said the results are that I'm finally feeling like I'm doing what God has called me to do and what the things that he's asked me to share. And so if you haven't joined us yet, what are you what's stopping you? I encourage you to come over to writingweek.com jump into the challenge and let us know in the members area that you're taking the challenge and I look forward to seeing you there. So thank you again for joining me in this episode. I know you have tons of things that you could be doing with your time and I truly do appreciate that you've spent this time time with me and I'll see you next time.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Author Audience Show. Connect with us online@authoraudience.com where you'll find all the resources mentioned in today's episode. While you're there, grab Shelley's free video training on how to write and publish your book using her Six Step Ascent method. Join us again next week to learn how to reach your audience with your message.