A Big Problem for Many Authors That’s Easily Avoided

Following on from our previous post: Big Opportunities for Authors to Spread Their Message Further and Deeper, I want to point to a conceptual problem for many authors.

Writing and publishing your book is like having a child. It can take at least as long to produce and then you become very proud and very precious about how it performs in the world.

Books Are Not Islands

The problem is this… a lot of authors think of their books as islands. When you’re writing a book you need to be very single-minded and narrowly focused. It’s the only way to fight through all of the distractions to complete your tome.

However, from a marketing perspective and a usability point of view, you need to switch to a broad-minded and widely focused view. If your book is an island, then when it’s completed you’ll need to build some bridges to some other business offers or else… Or else, you’re going to be peddling a book for the rest of your life. When, the best opportunity for making money and building your career is to leverage off the book.

Before and After Your Book

Many will have considered the follow-on rewards from a book. For instance, writing and publishing your book might help you position and sell your seminars, consulting and speaking ability.

However, you also want to consider the lead-in opportunities. What are the stepping stones that a visitor takes to getting to your book?

The usual ones are the blog posts, tweets and possibly webinars.

Your Book As Layers and Formats

And, following from our previous blog post, you also want to consider your book as a series of layers and formats. For instance:

• What’s the five minute version of your book?
• What’s the 30 minute version?
• Do you have an audio version of your book?
• Do you have a video version?
• Is there a Book Club version?

These suggestions will overcome the common mistake that many authors make in treating their book as an island. Instead, build bridges to link and unite your other offers. Plus, provide other ways your audience can read your book.