3 Proven Strategies to Maximize the Impact of Your Book

your book. And today Melody Ann is here with us to discuss exactly how you can do that. 3 proven strategies to help you really maximize the impact of your book. So Melody, so great to have you here on Cash In On Camera today to discuss this. I know you're the founder of Author Nation. You work with a lot of entrepreneurs and authors and people in the knowledge space. What do you think is the biggest problem really that you're seeing with authors and how they might not be maximizing their books?

Today. Hi, thank you for having me. So, the big thing is I think a lot of authors get a little confused about their book as a product versus their book as content. So, a product is something you sell to make money from that particular product. And the, you know, content is something you put out in the world to attract your ideal client. A lot of authors say, okay, I've written this book, I've worked really hard, I want to make money on it, I'm going to sell it in the bookstores, I'm going to sell it at speaking events, I'm going sell it wherever. But then, you know, I guess the thought is that once they've done that, people will read the book, get so excited, will contact them. And that, I mean, how many authors have you contacted after reading a book? And so that's not necessarily what's going to happen. So first we need to differentiate, am I using this book as content or am I using this book as a product?

Okay, so let me ask the question then. It is 2023 as we're doing this interview. What is the better way to use it?

Yeah, so there's nothing wrong with selling it as a product. That's perfectly okay. But if you have a $10,000 coaching program behind your, your book, are you happy selling $20 copies of books and having people go away and never connect with you? Or would you rather get them on your email list and, and, you know, nurture a relationship with them and sell them into your coaching program or whatever else you have? And so I think you'd rather it be content.

I had set you up. I mean, I knew what my answer was, but I wanted to set you up for the answer. It's the latter. Yeah, it is the latter, no doubt. Yeah, I have been featured in— I haven't written my own book. It is one of my bucket list things to do in my life. You know, maybe the next 4 or 5 years I aspire to write my own story at some point, but I have fortunately been a part of a lot of, uh, other books, you know, where I've written chapters and have been featured along with other people. And I've always approached it as this is a tool, right? This is a tool that I'm able to then, you know, leverage it in different ways. So I want to dive in right now on the 3 proven strategies that you're going to share with us today on how to maximize the impact of a book. So why don't we dive in? What is the first way that we can do that?

So the first thing you want to do is think of your book as content and think about how do I get, how do I use the book to attract clients? Like, how do I bring them into my fold rather than just sending them off to the client? And I'm going to suggest that, for example, if you're speaking, then you might have a free download of your book. You can have a QR code. So instead of the table at the back, instead of just selling $20 books, say, hey, you know, why don't you give me your email and I'll give you a copy of the book. And now they have a copy of your book, which they'll read probably about 30%. That's the average. And, but you have their email, so they don't need to reach out to you. You can now reach out to them. That's strategy number one.

And so what I hear you say is that this is the beginning or a top of the, of the funnel. Is that what you mean by that?

Absolutely. You, you want to bring them into the fold rather than sending them away with a book. And to do that, you can give away one chapter, you can give away the whole book, you can give away a checklist that goes with the book, but something that gets their email and gets them interested in continuing a conversation with you. And you can do that through QR codes, right? You can just take a QR code to the conference and you can say, hey, if you want this, you know, here's the QR code, and they can swipe on that. It'll open up the right page. They put in their name and their email. They right in front of you while you're chatting with them. So you see them doing it and then, then you've got, you're more likely to get more later on if you build, if you start there and you build that out.

Just to clarify, do you mean that the QR code is actually in print in the book or do you mean at events where you are promoting the book that you're providing the QR code on a big screen in person on your phone? Just clarify that you can do the QR code any way you want.

It can be on your phone. I have a bookmark with a QR code. It's probably hard to see, but I have a QR code on a bookmark because I help people write books. If I'm going to an event or if I'm speaking, I will have a QR code. I'll have a bookmark with a QR code. And as I'm chatting to them, I hand that and I'll say, this is something you really want. This is, you know, whatever it happens to be, because I have more than one QR code, different lead magnets. If they're promoting a book or planning a book. And then they can, they can do that. They can right there as we're chatting. They can, they can take the bookmark away as well. So it can be on your phone. It can be on a card. It can be a bookmark. It can be on a poster. It can be anywhere you want it to be.

On the subject of QR codes, not every demographic knows how to use a QR code. True. So let's speak to that. If you know that your audience is, let's just say, older, they're not really aware of what a QR code is or how to use it. So how much does that have to be taken into consideration?

So it depends on who your audience is. If your audience is in a generation where the QR code seems foreign, then use another strategy. Have a tablet where they just go and they can write in their name and their email address, and you can, you can say go. And so you just have a tablet or computer with you. And you can just say, here, go fill this form out right here and I'll send you whatever it is that you want, right? So it doesn't have to be a QR code, but a QR code is, you know, a newer technology that we need to start looking at and using.

Yeah. And I also think that, I don't know about your experience, but with mine, I talk to a lot of people who are constantly changing things. They're constantly changing their URL, they're changing their email, they're changing their website. They've renamed, they've rebranded, they've changed all the time, which I don't encourage. You want to pick your thing and you want to stay with that thing. And I think that comes in handy when you're talking about a book. If you're going to put a URL or an email, let's say in print in a book, make sure that it's going to last the test of time.

Absolutely. And one thing I do is I own more than one URL. So I have a URL for my company, for my, another for my community, but I also have URLs like authornation.online that will send you to my planning checklist. So I have URLs that I use to forward to things. So I can always change what it forwards to, but authornation.online is mine and I can use that. That's stable. Even if I change what's behind it, that URL is stable.

Yeah, I think that's great advice.

Yes, so, so have— buy a few URLs that you can use to forward to other things if you think you're going to be changing things up. That way you can have the same QR code which goes to the same URL but it's forwarded to something new each time. That's perfectly okay too.

I think about my own URL, you know, CherylPlouffe.com, claimed it a long, long time ago. It has gone under It has undergone many, many, many iterations over the course of time, but the URL stays constant. And sometimes I think for people maybe who aren't maybe quite as familiar about domain names and URLs and how that all works, you can redirect things to any URL you can, but don't be changing the URL all the time, I think, is, is the main premise. So let's talk about strategy number 2. What is the second way to maximize the impact of a book?

So I'm gonna say I'm actually gonna tie strategies together here. So the next strategy is once you have them on your email list, do something with that. I was talking to someone yesterday like, yeah, I have 300 emails on my list. So do you send out emails? No. So the next strategy is to do something with that list. And the first thing you want to do is send a welcome series. Hey, thank you for downloading the checklist. Hey, thank you for downloading that first chapter of the book. Hey, 'Thank you for downloading the book,' whatever it happens to be. 'Let me introduce myself. This is who I serve. This is how I serve them. This is what you can expect from me. These are the kinds of emails I'll be sending out.' So some kind of welcome series so that they are like, 'Oh, okay, I've downloaded something. I've given this person my email. This is who they are. I'm gonna be receiving things and I'm looking forward to it because in this welcome series email, they're kind of teasing out the things that I'll be receiving.' and I'm feeling excited about it. So I'm gonna start opening these emails. That's strategy number 2. And don't— I'm not saying like immediately, well, you got the checklist, now buy the book. Not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is introduce yourself, get people excited about being on your email list because you want them to be opening those emails long term. When people sell that, send that first email going, oh, you got the checklist, here's the book. Buy it for $24.99. You know, that turns people off and then they're not opening the emails later on. So the first thing you want to do is start communicating with the new email subscribers in a way that is welcoming and warm and exciting and will make them want to open your emails longer term. That's a really important piece that a lot of people miss. They either— they're not sending emails at all or they're jumping into sales and they're like just not introducing themselves, right? You don't run up to somebody and say, will you marry me, right? You say, hello, my name is, right? So start with hello, my name is, and make it exciting why they want to be in touch with you and open your emails.

I know we're talking about books here, but I think it warrants a slight veer off just to talk about email just for a brief moment, because this is something that when you start going down that path, that's a whole separate field of study. Email marketing, there are people who specialize obviously in that, copywriters, etc. The biggest thing that I would just want to share about that is that email nurture sequence, make it value-driven for them. Yes, you know, as opposed to buy my book, here's who I am, this is me, and it's all about— yes, I know you are wanting to promote who you are and, and have them get to know you, but there is something to be said for crafting those words and crafting those emails in such a way that it makes it about that other person. Yeah. And that's, I think, a key, key component of it. I was just having this conversation with some of my Profitable Podcasting students recently with regard to emails for outreach. Same kind of thing, right? We went through this whole thing where the emails were not crafted about them. It was all about, I have a podcast, come and join me. It's about me, but it needs to be about the other person.

Yes. And Cheryl, to that point, I write my own emails. I still write all my own emails. And when I'm writing an email to my email list, I'm not thinking, oh, I'm writing an email to these 1,000 people. I'm sitting down saying, I'm writing an email to Bill today because I know Bill said to me that he was struggling with this thing. And I'm gonna, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna write to him. I care about this person. I'm gonna write to this person. And when I do that, I'm a lot more personable and I'm offering the value that you're talking about rather than, you know, and it's okay to get copywriters. It's fine to get copywriters. But remember that this is, this is a, you know, think about these as personal emails from you to someone you care about, to someone you care about. Write to one person when you're writing them. I still write all my own emails and I do. That's how I approach them. Like I care about you. Yeah.

I think that's, that's the biggest strategy is to care about other people. Right. So let's talk about strategy number 3. What is the third way to maximize the impact of a book?

Yes. And so the third way, and it's— I'm going to go back to the email and you have your newsletters. You want to start putting in teasers, right? This is something that I see a lot of authors not do. So, hey, have you read chapter 3? Did you notice the point about XYZ? "Hey, I have another story about that that might help you." And so start, and then they're like, "Chapter 3? I haven't read Chapter 3. Maybe I should read Chapter 3." And now you're getting them to interact with your book. And this is something I see authors not do. It's like, "Here, you've got the book. Go read it." And it's like, yeah, they probably will read about 30% unless you start sending them things that kind of tease content and direct them. It's like, if you haven't read the whole book, that's fine. "Do you know what? In Chapter 6, you're going to learn about this. So, you know, if that's all you read, go jump to Chapter 6 and read that because that's going to be really important to your life because..." and then the reasons. And this is something I don't see authors do that I encourage authors to do is put in some teaser newsletters about the book, talking to them about, you know, "Oh, you've obviously read Chapter 3, da da da, or if you haven't read Chapter 3, here's what you're missing." And that's a strategy that I see authors not use, right?

Yes, so much is, so much is made about the new content, the new emails, the new copywriting, and then we forget that, oh right, I wrote my life's work in that book. It's already been compiled, it's already in this container to leverage or maximize that through the content that you're creating, whether email or even social media content, like making posts on your social channels could be the same thing where you would do a post and say, hey, you know, for those who have my book in Chapter 3, I talk about blank, blank, blank, you know, and here's why that's important to you. I think that's a great strategy. So the first one is to move people into your world, into your funnel. I'm not a big fan of the word funnel, but that is the word that we use in marketing to better describe that customer journey. The funnel number 2 is really to connect, have a nurture email sequence that helps them to better understand who you are, make it about them. And then the third one is the teasers and tease parts of your book, get people excited about the different chapters that you've put together and that you've written. Exactly.

And Cheryl, you make such a good point. So many authors come to me and say, I need new content. I'm like, you've just written 50,000 words. Why do you need new content? Use that content. Yes, you make a really good point.

It's like bonus strategy 4, use the content you have.

That's right.

That's right. I want to ask you, what is— what do you find is working for you today in terms of marketing yourself and marketing Author Nation? What is a tip, a tool, a tactic, or technique that's really helping you, whether it's related to books or not?

Yes, I actually do this a lot. I do a lot of being on podcasts. I do a lot of speaking to groups. I love being on podcasts, and I have a lot of authors come to me and say, but podcasts don't work. Podcasts do work. And when I sit down with the author and we go through what they're doing, I can usually pinpoint why it's not working. And so if you're out there and you think that podcasting doesn't work, I'm here to tell you it does work. And if it's not working for you, find a professional, sit down with them and let them help you figure out how to make it work because it works.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, that's what we're passionate about here. I mean, we, with our systems and profitable podcasting, it really is all about that. And it's great. It's fun.. You get to have wonderful conversations with people like you who share their valuable tips to the audience. And so from a host perspective, I learned something in the process as well. And so it's fabulous to have you here and to share that. I want to give you an opportunity to also share your checklist, your planning checklist. Tell us about that.

Yeah. Oh, this is on the screen. Thank you so much. This is the planning checklist. So if you are thinking about writing a book, planning a book, writing a book anywhere in that realm, this is the checklist for you. Because what I do in the check— in that checklist is I go through all the pieces of writing a book. So you're going to talk about the planning, we're going to talk about the research, we're going to talk about the actual writing, we're going to give you the— we're going to give you all the tasks you're going to have to do to get it done. We even talk about pre-launch. And so it's not just a, you know, plan your book. It actually takes you from the idea, uh, to like finishing writing and the, the pre-launch. Just a series of tasks, and it's broken down into sections so it's more manageable. It's a really useful document.

Awesome. And what URL or how do people get in touch with that? Is it connected to any one of your favorite social platforms?

So, AuthorNation.online is the best place to get that. Yeah.

That's awesome. Melody, this has been really fun. Thank you for being on the show today and sharing your insights on how to maximize the power of a book. People, authors who put their life's work into the book often aren't maximizing it. They're not leveraging it to its full extent. But I really think that these key fundamental steps that you've shared today will be a reminder of sometimes we have to go back to the basics too and understand it's like, this is not rocket science, but you might be missing some key steps if you don't feel like you're really achieving your goals with your book. This, I think, gives the framework to do that. So thank you so much for coming on and sharing that.

Thank you, Cheryl. Thank you so much for having me.