$10K Before Launch – Part 3: How to Avoid the Biggest Mistakes of Launching a Book

$10K Before Launch – Part 3: How to Avoid the Biggest Mistakes of Launching a Book

How to Avoid Book Launch Mistakes to Save You Time, Money and Soul-Crushing Frustration

In this training we’re going to talk about how to avoid the biggest mistakes of launching that will save you months of time, energy, and money. And so when it comes to launching both a book, a product, a program, whatever offer that you have, the biggest mistakes that people make are not telling anybody about it, creating it in a vacuum and really just not giving the sales effort and the marketing effort, the attention that they deserve. Rather they focus all of their energy and effort on creating the thing itself, writing the book itself, creating the product, designing a whole website or all of the collateral that’s, that’s needed to bring one of these offers to market without having a feedback loop or a dialogue with anybody that would be a potential customer. One of the best ways to avoid that as your reality is by engaging with people early and often and pinging, giving little taste tests, telling people that you’re working on something, bringing the excitement and enthusiasm that you must already have to have written a book and to be going into business and creating new offers in a way that’s not salesy, but that’s actually enticing and that builds interest and intrigue.

Because the thing that I see time and time again, and I’ve made this mistake, in fact, I don’t really know anybody that’s become successful that hasn’t made this mistake, but maybe you’ll be one of the first, because you’re in this course and you’re watching this and you’re learning, do the entire creation process before the marketing, the sales process, and I’m just gonna hammer this in because it’s really at the heart of everything that we’re talking about here, that before you actually create something, you should create the language that describes it. You should create the marketing points. You should create the value and the benefits that your customers or readers will get. Because when you’re clear on that, then you have the language to communicate what it is that people are going to learn from engaging with you either through your book or some aspect of your business and brand.

And so if you start to think about how would you describe your book in one sentence that doesn’t talk about the framework, that doesn’t talk about your personal story, that only focuses on what the reader’s going to get out of it, then you’re starting to move in the right direction. And so we’re going to look at some examples here on the screen of different sales points for books, different descriptions, or we can call them a key selling point, if you will, that starts to share the language that’s used to get people excited about your book. And then we’re going to do the same with the different products and business offerings that you have. So let’s take a look at that now. All right, welcome back. I hope that was helpful. Looking at some key selling points for books and help you start to think of the language that you’ll use to describe your book to somebody that doesn’t already know the whole story that hasn’t been following your journey or that doesn’t even necessarily know that you’re writing a book.

We’re talking about using benefit driven language that speaks to what the reader is going to learn and the same concept applies to your other offers. In fact, all of them. And so what we’re getting into here is first figuring out how you’re going to describe the product, the program, the experience, the service that you’re making available in a way that somebody says, yes, I’m interested, I want to learn more, I want to sign up, how do I pay? And then from there you move into the actual creation and delivery. And again, this is something that if you’re hearing it for the first time, it’s worth saying it over and over again until you really get it. Because one of the biggest mistakes you can make, and it’s an expensive mistake and it’s time consuming. And that’s the one thing we can’t get back is to spend all the energy and the resources to create something and then do what I call like the Spiderman approach where it just pops out of nowhere and it’s right in front of your face and you’re like, ah, what’s that?

People need to be warmed up. They need to be clear on the value that they’re going to get from your offer at the time that they make the decision to buy it and at the time that they make the decision to buy it, they haven’t seen or experienced what it actually is. So let’s look at this for a little bit. Like if I was to offer a coaching program, let’s say it would be, and this is something that you can start to model for yourself. If I was going to offer a three month coaching program to teach you how to launch your book and become a number one bestseller, then the first things I do would be to describe to you how you’re going to accomplish that goal and what you’re going to learn. So I would talk about it in a way of saying, do you want to understand how in the next three months you can launch your book and become a number one bestseller?

Even if you don’t have an audience and you haven’t published a book before, that starts to become a benefit driven statement that doesn’t speak to all of the specifics that you’re going to learn in that course. Or you could say something to the effect of how great would it feel when your book comes out and on the first day you’ve got 10 if not dozens of five star reviews from people that are already excited because they’ve gotten your book and they like what they’ve read and now their chance to leave a review is finally here, right? That’s another example of how you can start to pre-sell the benefits of what people are going to get without actually telling them the step by step process of what they’re going to learn. And this whole discussion of features versus benefits is really integral to becoming a good marketer.

And if you cringe at hearing marketing, then don’t just start to get familiar with speaking in benefit driven language and think of marketing as education that leads to an action and then it becomes much more fun. You’re really educating people and showing them what’s possible and then showing them the next step that they can take to get that outcome and to get that benefit. Well, the way to do that is to purchase, fill in the blank with whatever your product, your program, your offer actually is. And so what I want you to start doing is think about any product or program that you want to roll out and think about one to three sentences that describes it in terms of what that customer, what the participant is going to get out of it. When you get into this process and you do this right, then when you actually build and deliver and fulfill on those purchases, those offers, you’re doing it one with people that have already invested.

So there’s a little bit more excitement and enthusiasm to deliver something to people that have already paid as opposed to building something and then hoping somebody wants to buy it. But also it creates an amazing accountability for you as the leader, as the entrepreneur, as the person that’s delivering this. Because I can tell you, speaking from experience, anytime somebody paid me well, what people pay for, they’re paying attention to and where people pay me for is who I’m paying attention to, right? And if your focus is on delivering value to people that have invested with you, whether that’s at a lower level and buying your book or the highest level of let’s say a five figure high ticket offer. In either case, when people invest and they pull out their wallet and make that purchase, then it creates a bond that is valuable and integral to building a business.

Now what you do with it is the next step, right? Once you create that bond and you create a customer, that’s amazing. And that’s step one. And that’s more than most people accomplish before creating and rolling something out. But that just think about how that creates both additional in attention from the customer to you as well as accountability from you, the customer, right? Anytime somebody paid me or purchased a product or program or anything that I’ve offered that has a price tag on it, those are the people that I’m focusing on giving the best experience possible. And in fact, that’s when I really engage my time and energy and resources to make that happen, right? I want to achieve and overachieve on the expectations of people that have made a purchase. And if you get into that mindset, then it becomes more exciting to get the purchase and make the sale knowing that now people have paid so they’re paying attention and now you’ve been paid.

So you have the accountability to deliver and you know the timeframe within which you’re going to do so. And so when we look at how to avoid the biggest mistakes of launching, that will save you months of time, energy, and resources. It comes down to this creating the benefit driven language that’s going to let your potential readers let your potential customers and clients know what they’re going to get out of this transaction, out of this value exchange of money for service, money for product. And it’s also about testing the market, right? Making sure that you don’t miss the market by offering something. And if there’s no interest and you haven’t created it yet, well then you never do have to create it. So as we’re going to go deeper into this, we’re going to create and you’re going to create three different offers that you can feature in your prelaunch campaign.

And maybe only one of them really blows it out of the water. Well, that’s great because now you just saved yourself the time, energy, and money and frustration of creating the two other offers that just didn’t really land. So when you pre-sell and you’ve got the options for people to engage in a few different ways as a customer, as a paying client, then that determines where you allocate your energy and effort to delivering and fulfilling on that experience in a compelling, sincere way. There’s no shortcut to delivering a great experience and value to your customer, but there’s a huge shortcut to becoming frustrated and potentially even going broke by spending all of your time creating something without any time thinking about how you’re going to market and sell it. So that’s really at the crux of how to avoid the biggest mistakes in launching. And I hope that this has been valuable and useful to you in thinking about in shifting your mindset towards marketing and selling before creating, fulfilling and delivering.

Click Here to Access the Complete $10K Before Launch Training Program

$10K Before Launch
$10K Before Launch, Part 2: Bring Money in The Door BEFORE Your Book Hits Shelves with a Pre-Launch Campaign

$10K Before Launch, Part 2: Bring Money in The Door BEFORE Your Book Hits Shelves with a Pre-Launch Campaign

Pre-Launch Your Book & Bring Money in Now by Featuring Your Products, Services & Experiences

In this training we’re going to talk about how to bring money in the door right away without waiting months for book sales royalties to come in. And so what we’re talking about here is pre-launching your book and running a prelaunch campaign that not only sells your book in advance of the release date, but also has the opportunity for people to purchase other packages, products, programs, experiences, services from you, many or most of what you haven’t even created yet, but that you will create once people are actually buying them. And so part of the idea here and what we’re talking about is bringing money in the door right away. When you do a prelaunch campaign and you do it right, if somebody preorders your book, then you get that money right away. And if they’re pre-ordering it through a retail site like Amazon for example, well then you’re logging sales in advance of the release.

And yeah, you may not get that money right away, but you’re building your sales record so that when the book comes out, your book’s already going up the charts. And the people that have pre-ordered. What we want to do when it comes to the book is to get them a copy of that book in advance of the release so that way before the book even comes out, you’ve pre-sold copies, you’re getting them into readers hands and they’re preparing a review, hopefully a five star, super positive review because they’ve gotten to engage with you and gotten to know you and your work and ideas for weeks or months before they’re actually available to the general public. But that also helps you get five star reviews by having this timeline ahead of the release date when people are engaging with the material, reading the book and they’ve already paid for it.

And how cool is that? But the best way to bring money in the door in advance of the book launch is to pre-sell these other offers and we’re going to come up with them in a great level of detail, uh, over the course of these videos. But for now, what I want you to understand is that if somebody hires you to do coaching or if they sign up for a training program, if they want to do one on one work, or if you’re going to do a seminar or a retreat or a mastermind, the prelaunch campaign gives people an exclusive opportunity to get access to these offers at really what’s a onetime only price. So in the prelaunch campaign, we’re going to price these offers competitively and make them exclusive in that sense so that when people pay and when they sign up, that’s money coming straight into your bank account.

And that’s also people that are prepared to learn from you, to work with you, to engage with you, and gives you in turn the opportunity to influence and impact and uplift them. And so by positioning your offers and giving them, giving your customers a way to buy them before they’re generally available, truly before they’re even fully created and flushed out. That’s what brings money in the door months in advance of the book launch itself. It also is what helps you drive interest in your book. It’s what helps create a nucleus of support, a launch team, if you will, of the people that have hired you and paid for your other products and services and experiences where when the book comes out, you’ve got a small army of people that are leaving reviews, sharing it with their friends. And then the best case scenario, leaving public messages and posts and emails talking about how much they’ve already learned working with you and how much they’ve enjoyed your book.

And so the idea of the prelaunch campaign is a way to bring money in the door before the book comes out and to build momentum towards the launch by getting customers and having the time to turn them into raving fans and your core supporters in the lunch. And so what we’re going to do over the course of these videos is to really craft the specific offers that are right for you that fit with your book and that build the kind of customer base and audience that you really love. Because at the end of the day, isn’t that what we’re looking for? Not only a readership and not only the opportunity to become a bestselling author, but a way to really build a business that can grow and grow beyond $10,000 for a prelaunch and into the six figures. So it all starts with getting the prelaunch right and having a way, in fact, multiple ways for people to give you money.

Now, as in this point in time, months before your book is coming out. And so that’s what we’re talking about here. And that’s the main idea that I want you to get from this video. As we move forward, we’re going to go into how to avoid the traps of, you know, missing the boat and waiting until the product is done. Or your book is publicly available in order to actually give people the chance to buy it or to order it and to work with you and to engage with you. So that’s the main idea that I want you to get in this video is that in a prelaunch campaign, you’re bringing money in the door now and avoiding the trap of waiting for months after the book comes out to get any royalties that are available to you from those books. Sales sound good? I’ll see you in the next video. We’re going to have some fun.

Click Here to Access the Complete $10K Before Launch Training Program

$10K Before Launch
$10K Before Launch: How to Run a Successful Book Pre-Launch Campaign

$10K Before Launch: How to Run a Successful Book Pre-Launch Campaign

Module 1 – Part 1: How to Run a Pre-Launch Campaign that Builds Excitement, Brings Money in the Door and Avoids Failure and Obscurity.

In this video, we’re going to talk about how to 10x your revenue with a prelaunch campaign and build momentum towards your launch, ready? Let’s get into it. A prelaunch campaign, from a high level, it’s all about announcing your book for the first time and the other products, services, experiences, offers that build on it that really fulfill your readers, your customers at whatever level they want to learn with you.

That’s really the key here at the beginning of this all is to look at your book as not only a book as a product, a $20 product, let’s say, but to also have other offers around a hundred or $250 or 500 or a thousand dollars that go deeper and wider so that people that are interested in what you’ve written about, interested in what you have to say and what you have to share can go deeper with you for a higher price.

And for a greater overall experience. And so we’ve talked about 10x-ing revenue really simply, let’s just say that you sold, I don’t know, a hundred books at $20 a book, and if you just did a prelaunch campaign and that was it, then congratulations, you’ve made like $2,000 in book sales, but how would you 10 X that? Well, what if in addition to selling those hundred bucks for $20 a piece, you also had a coaching offer or you also had a little seminar or a live event, or you had an online training program or you had an audio training program, or you had a group coaching program or a mastermind. And we’re going to go into what each of these are in detail and what the right price point is. And ultimately by the end of this course, you’re going to have your complete roadmap in place with the exact offers, the exact price points, and your exact roadmap for how your prelaunch is going to do 10 K or more.

Sound good. And so really at the foundational level, it’s about looking at your book launch and looking at your product and program launch a couple months ahead of when the actual date is. So if you’ve got a book coming out, let’s say three months from now, then this time right now today is when you’d want to start pre-launching it and highlighting not only the book but using the book as a hook, using a book as the way that gets people interested because writing a book is a big deal and if you’ve written a book or even if you’re almost done writing your book and thinking about launching, the time to start sharing it with people is months before actual release date. Because let’s quickly look at what happens if you don’t do that. What a lot of authors do, and it’s a big mistake, is they put in all the time to write a book and then they get it designed and laid out and they figure out self-publishing and everything else only to wait to announce it until it’s actually live and published.

And then that’s the first time they ever say anything about it. And guess what happens if you do that? Well, probably not that much. Maybe your friends and family, maybe the people that already know like and trust you are going to go and buy a copy and maybe that’ll feel good and maybe that even moves the book up the charts a little bit. But if you wait until the book is actually out and that your only real announcement is, Hey, I have a book and it’s out and you can get it now you’re not giving people any context, let alone reasons why they should be interested and purchase it, let alone having a way that they can go beyond the book to engage with you in different offers at higher price points. So that’s one of the key lessons in this video is that by pre-launching and starting two to three months before your book actually comes out, first you get to announce that book and get it on people’s radar weeks if not months before it’s actually available.

And this allows you to build anticipation, to build momentum, to make the book launch itself and occasion something that people are looking forward to. And in the process, having them basically hire you and pay you and give you money for other offers right now as in months before the book actually comes out. And the other reason that this is so important is because even if you self-publish, or especially if you work with a publisher and even a great publisher like lifestyle entrepreneurs press that pays good royalties and pays them frequently, any book that you sell, you’re still going to be waiting at least a few months before you even see the revenue from those books sales. And so in the next video we’re going to talk about how to bring money in the door right away and how that really helps drive book sales and build more interest and more momentum moving forward.

So right now, the key lesson I want you to take away from this first video is that you have the ability to 10 X your revenue or more than what you’d make just launching your book by having just a few simple offers available and highlighting the book and your prelaunch. Wow. Also having these other options that people can opt into that people can purchase and buy and that those offers don’t have to be created yet. Okay. So the other point I want you to take away from this video is that pre-launching means selling before creating and delivering. And that’s what, that’s the mindset that we’re going to get into in this course is that before you put in all the work to create something and build it and design and build a website and whatever else you think it takes to put an offer together and bring it out to the world, we’re going to make it super simple and just help get clear on what the value is that you’re providing to your customers, to your potential clients, in any of these offers, including your book. Cause once you’re clear on the value that you’re providing and you’ve got a price tag that goes along with that, that’s just about all you need to start selling and start pre-launching your book as well as these other offers. So I’ll see you in the next video. We’re going to talk about how to bring money in the door and how to build momentum towards your launch the right way.

>> To Access the Full $10K Before Launch Training Program Click Here

2020 Vision at Lifestyle Entrepreneurs Press

2020 Vision at Lifestyle Entrepreneurs Press

Happy New Year and indeed a New Decade!

Now that the holiday season is squarely in the rear view mirror, how firmly rooted do you feel in 2020 and how inspired to be most authentically you?

Moving into this new year I intend to bring even more training and support to authors like you, and to find a farther reach for the books we publish.

To that effect, I am pleased to announce a new initiative for 2020: Quarterly Strategic Planning Calls for Authors in concert with my dear friend, and master teacher Dale Halaway.

Every quarter we will facilitate a transformational planning session to map out the next 90-days of your author career. Transformational, because as you commit to taking action to bring your book to a wider audience, you open up new possibilities that you can’t even imagine.

Dale Halaway, best-selling author of Being Called to Change: Let Go of All That No Longer Serves You and Grow Into Your Full Potential is also a master teacher, who has led over 3,000 seminars on personal transformation, business mastery and spiritual growth. You can learn more about Dale’s work here: www.DaleHalaway.com

In addition to these quarterly strategy calls, around the middle of 2020 we will begin leading bi-annual Author Intensives – an action-packed 3-day live event in Las Vegas, followed by 3 months of deep implementation support and accountability.

With these new ways of supporting authors at a deeper level, it is my hope that Lifestyle Entrepreneurs Press fulfills our vision to truly be Publisher for the Passionate.

If you would like to get your book published in 2020, please get in touch here to schedule a Publishing Consultation.

Excited to share the invitation for our first Quarterly Strategic Planning Call soon and, once again, here’s to an inspired 2020!

To your success,

Jesse

Jesse Krieger - Lifestyle Entrepreneurs Press
Hard Truth About Becoming a Successful Author

Hard Truth About Becoming a Successful Author

Here is a hard truth about becoming a successful author:

Writing a great book is not enough.

It may take you months to write your book (or even years, or decades if you procrastinate long enough).

And as good as it feels to put the finishing touches on your manuscript…

That is just the beginning of your journey to author success.

Even editing, cover design, layout and formatting your book to look and read well doesn’t get you there.

Sooner or later you (and every author) will be confronted with the hard reality of becoming a best-selling author and it almost always comes down to one word:

Marketing.

Influence, authority, leadership and respect await you on the other side of slaying the marketing dragon… 

As in, actually getting out there and being the biggest advocate for your message. 

As in, actually talking to people about your book and the ideas, inspiration and advice contained within it

As in, getting out of your own way and letting your light shine to the world. Getting right with the fact that if you don’t start the process of building marketing momentum there is very little chance someone will do it for you.

The good news is, even though it can be scary to switch from “writing mode” – which is mostly an individual, private experience – to “marketing mode” – which by definition involves other people, it doesn’t have to be difficult.

The key to becoming great at marketing your book (and every other offer you create) comes down to one thing:

=> Shifting your perspective from “what do I want to say” (aka writing mode) to “how can this benefit others”

Here’s what Carol-Ann Marshal realized after she attended an author training I ran:


Did you catch that sentence “I came away with a renewed sense of what is possible being an author, the gift that I have to offer the world and a number of new friends…

Carol-Ann made the connection that sharing her message with the world is the goal, and the book is the vehicle that gets you into motion. 

Great marketing comes down to sharing about what you’ve created, and doing so in language that lands with the listener. 

When you focus on how your reader’s life will improve when they read your book…

When you focus on solving the most pressing problem they are facing…

When you focus on inspiring others to elevate their experience of life and bring new meaning into it…

Then you ARE marketing your book, just not in a sleazy “salesy” way, but in a way that actually lands.

Because you are connecting with what is important to THEM, instead of focusing on what is important to you.

In fact, the only thing that is “hard” about becoming a successful author and entrepreneur is making this shift.

The shift from thinking about yourself, what you want, and what you need => To making your default question: 

How can I improve this person’s life or help them solve a problem and make it as quick and easy as possible for them?

The next time you catch yourself thinking “But I hate marketing…” or “I just want to focus on writing…” or “Marketing is so much work…”


Just, STOP – pause for a moment. Take a breath.


Then refocus on “How can I help this person succeed?” or, “What can improve their day right away?” or, “How can I solve their most pressing problem quickly and easily?”

It is incredible how simply asking the right questions begin producing the right answers. 

Then, all of a sudden, you are coming up with creative ways to help people, share your message, be and inspiration and build your influence with every conversation and piece of “marketing” content you publish.

That, my friend, is how to sell a LOT of books and impact a LOT of lives.

That is the path that leads to generating $10,000+ of sales before your book even comes out.

That one shift sets you on a direction of inspiration, influence and authority…

To get the step-by-step instructions, support and resources to successfully market your book, reach your full potential and make a lot of sales, watch the video on this link and join $10k Before Launch… 

Learn more about $10k Before Launch and register here

 

To your success,

Jesse

How to Write a Book Outline & Structure Your Content

How to Write a Book Outline & Structure Your Content

Having passion for your book is a prerequisite for publishing. When it comes to writing a book however, passion is only the beginning. The real work is intertwined with the process of getting the big ideas out of your head and onto the page. Creating a book outline and getting clear on how you want to structure your content will help sharpen your focus, not to mention save you countless hours of writing.

 

What Questions Does Your Reader Have & How Can You Best Answer Them?

 

To create an effective book outline, you must look at things from the perspective of your reader. Here is a quick exercise to shift into the reader’s perspective:

 

Question #1 => What was it about your book that caused the reader to pick it up and start reading?

 

Question #2 => What trajectory is your reader’s life on right now and where does your book intersect with that?

 

       Example: She just found out she is expecting and wants to plan for motherhood. He just went to his doctor who said “you need to lose 25lbs”. Or perhaps this person has finally decided to start a business and wants guidance.

 

Question #3 => Your reader just finished the last chapter of your book and is thinking about their future. What is the first thought that comes to mind?

 

Thinking in these terms starts to give clues as to what content should be included and in which order it will best serve the reader. Determining how your book will make a lasting impression on the reader can give you a goal of what types of content you want to include.

Before you create an outline, determine what questions would your reader want answered when picking up the book. For instance, if you were writing a book about concussion recovery, you could safely assume the reader or someone they care about has experienced a traumatic brain injury.

By shifting into their perspective, you can predict the answers they want from the book. What types of recovery options are available for concussion sufferers? What are examples of the best-case scenarios for traumatic brain injuries? Answer these questions in an engaging way to hook your reader as they move from chapter to chapter. 

This line of questioning is what led Dr. Dan Engle to write The Concussion Repair Manual, which has become one the top-selling books we’ve published. Like the sub-title says, it is truly A Practical Guide to Recovering From Traumatic Brain Injuries

Another part of planning the outline is to determine what extras you can include to help a reader achieve the goals you have in mind for them. Images, charts, calendars are just a few examples of graphics to use for increased engagement. Not only with these tools add credence to your content, but also can later be used as a selling point.

Click Here to Read the Table of Contents for The Concussion Repair Manual by Dr. Dan Engle as an example for how to structure content in a practical how-to non-fiction book. 

Structuring the Book Outline

 

Write what you know is the first piece of advice you would give to your ideal reader. As you develop your content, lean on any methodology you have perfected to write about your selected subject.

If you’ve seen positive results firsthand, then craft your book to convey the steps taken to achieve success. The notes from which your outline will be created should include all the key points you want to make. Once you have these points, you can frame each book chapter around them. For each chapter, consider creating a consistent chapter framework that takes the reader easily through your book. 

A Sample Chapter Framework could look like this:

* Opening Story that frames the topic of the chapter: 1-2 pages

* Introduce the topic and discuss the main idea of the chapter: 6-10 pages

* Illustrate the topic with a case study or real-life example from your life: 1-2 pages

* Concluding thoughts on this topic and Next Step the reader can take to implement it in their life: 1-2 pages

Give each chapter a name and use these titles as the basis for your book outline. You can also try mind-mapping your book and each chapter following the prompts and bullet points above. To mind-map, simply use the main topic from the chapter to create a line leading to sub-topics. Outlines can be bare bones or as comprehensive as you prefer. Some writers prefer to fill in the content as they write while others rely heavily on the research they did for the outline.

An effective outline will look different for each writer. What you need to do is find the best approach for your writing style and use the outline to create a compelling book that stands the test of time..