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Choosing the Best Self-Publishing Book Company for Your Needs

Choosing the right self-publishing book company is an important decision in bringing your book to market successfully. If you’ve completed writing your book, it’s easy to think your author work is done. If you haven’t already decided on your publishing route, now it’s time to consider your self-publishing options. You’ll need a company to print, distribute and sell your book. However, that’s just one piece of the puzzle. When you self-publish a book, you take on many new responsibilities. You need to find the right self-publishing company, create an effective marketing plan, and choose the right printing options for your book. In this post, we’ll cover all the details you need to know when choosing a self-publishing company.

Self-publishing a book can seem like an intimidating process. After all, you’re essentially the publisher, marketer, and distributor all in one. But with the rise of self-publishing platforms such as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), it’s now easier than ever to get your book out there. In this blog post, we’ll cover everything you need to know about choosing the best self-publishing book company for your needs and goals.

While Amazon and other platforms make it easy to simply upload a file to publish a book, many of you will want a more professional-looking product. You want bookstore quality and a book that will speak to your ideal audience and get you the results you are seeking.

The kind of self-publishing companies we are talking about in this post

It is important to frame this conversation with what kind of self-publishing book companies we are talking about.

Some people refer to Amazon and Ingram Spark as self-publishing companies. While some of them offer services to help you with the self-publishing process, they are best as platforms you can use to self-publish [print, sell, distribute] your book. The downside to hiring a platform to also handle your self-publishing process and book launch or promotion is that these companies will only sell you what they offer, which may or may not be the best option for you and your book. They also may not provide the best bang for
your limited book budget.

What this post is about is self-publishing book companies that offer to guide you through self-publishing your book or offer done-for-you self-publishing.

We call it professional self-publishing. It’s also been called assisted self-publishing.

By using a separate company from the platforms to self-publish your book, you can get unbiased advice and are not get locked into one platform. You can take advantage of the best resources across multiple sites and increase your chances
of success for your book.

What exactly is self-publishing?

According to dictionary.com:
self-publishing is a verb, gerund or present participle:
(of writer)publish (a piece of one’s work) independently and at one’s own expense.

There is only one key difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing: “If the author owns the rights and royalties, then the book is self-published. If the publishing company owns the rights and royalties, then the book is traditionally published.” [souce: Scribemedia]

Self-Publishing Paths – your three options to consider

Self-publish your book yourself by handling every aspect of preparing your book for publication, gathering all the necessary components, and uploading it to the selected publishing platforms
Hire a company or consultant to handle all aspects of your publishing- taking your completed final draft through successful publishing and book launch
Hire a company or consultant to handle a portion of the preparation or book setup for you

While self-publishing has made it easy for anyone to become a published author without needing a book publishing deal, there are a lot of moving parts, nuances, and micro-decisions to be made. Self-publishing requires a team to handle all the different, required aspects of publishing your book. These include title, cover design, book formats, categories, keywords, etc. While anyone can do it, the question is, do you want to earn your Ph.D. in publishing, or is it a better use of your time to hire a professional self-publishing company or self-publishing consultant to shepherd you through the process.

DIY or hire it out – Which type are you?

You may have a finished manuscript, but it’s not quite ready for publication. After all, you wouldn’t want to put your name behind something that wasn’t well-edited or even error-free.

As we’ve discussed, self-publishing is more than just uploading your manuscript to publishing platforms. It requires many different functions from book editing, design, copywriting, and so on. You can build your own team and then act as a project manager to oversee the process of finding your own book printing company, creating a professional cover and layout, creating front matter for your book, and several other important tasks. You can learn to do this yourself.

There are many resources available to help you understand the self-publishing process. Free resources include free courses, YouTube videos, and online Facebook groups. There are also paid classes and membership groups that provide training and a place to learn or ask questions as they come up.

As with any new endeavor, you’ll have to learn new skills and technologies. If you have never hired or assembled a team, you may not know what questions to ask, or how to properly vet the freelancers. Taking the time to understand the publishing process, being willing to ask questions, and having a measure of patience will help you succeed at doing it yourself.

Hire a self-publishing book company

The other option is to hire a self-publishing consultant or self-publishing company team to direct, oversee and manage the process of self-publishing your book.

When you hire a self-publishing book company or consultant, you get someone to advise you on what you need to do, and when it is needed. Then, they bring in their team as needed to accomplish the tasks and move your manuscript through the process of becoming a book and publishing and launching it. As you are the owner of the intellectual property, you will be consulted on and get the final say in all decisions. With this path, you will be making informed decisions as your company/consultant should be sharing with you the pros/cons and what to consider before making the decisions.

You can sit back and make high-level decisions while they do all the heavy lifting and keep it on track. No details were left out and it is usually stress-free. This method takes the least amount of your time. There is no time needed to search for team members or vet them – this has already been done for you.

The cost of hiring a self-publishing book company

The cost of hiring a professional self-publishing book company or self-publishing consultant may create sticker shock at first glance. When you factor in the professional advice they offer, the time saved in not having to source, vet, and hire a team, project management or do the actual publishing yourself, it is probably well worth it. Outsourcing it to professionals, will save you time and likely save you from a lot of mistakes and headaches. The process will go smoothly, and you will end up with a great, professional-looking book. Plus, it was one less thing on your already busy plate.

If you go with the third option, to hire out only some of the needed parts of self-publishing your book, it will be helpful to learn as much as you can about the self-publishing process so you can decide which parts to do yourself DIY and which parts to outsource.

First time authors don’t know what they don’t know when it comes to self-publishing

As an author, there are a lot of micro decisions to make along the way to publishing your book. Some of which will have long-term impacts. Impacts that you may not understand when just starting. Here is just one example of a common situation that first-time authors come up against. One example of this is the sourcing of their ISBNs.

ISBN Selection

Authors often try and conserve costs. Getting the required ISBNs for your book is costly. Bowker, the main player in the US market, sells one ISBN for $125, or a block of ten ISBNs for $295. If your book is in ebook and paperback formats, you will need two ISBNs, one for each version of the book.

Amazon offers free ISBNs. Sounds good right? Once you use Amazon’s free ISBN, you can’t take it with you to other platforms. Go to publish your book on B &N, or Apple Books and your ISBN is not usable. The other downside to this free ISBN is that it requires you to list Amazon as your imprint. This can detract from your book, as it is obvious your book is self-published; it may also deter other bookstores from carrying your book.

This is something first-time authors learn the hard way. If they decide later to publish the book on multiple platforms, they often must go through the process of republishing their book as a new version with a new ISBN that they own. This is because a new ISBN can only be issued if there are changes in text, format, or binding to justify it. This can be costly in terms of both time and money.

Questions to ask yourself– are you willing to live with rookie mistakes? They can be costly to your brand and your wallet, as well as drag out and delay your publishing timeline.

With all of this in mind, there are several things to consider before choosing the best self-publishing book company for you and your manuscript.

Not all self-publishing book companies are created equal

Here are a few examples of self-publishing book company service offerings:

Company A – offers editing and proofreading

Company B – offers all steps from idea to published book, on sale on all major platforms – offers no marketing

Company C – offers all steps from idea to published book, on sale on all major platforms – offers book launch, book marketing and PR

When you hire a fully staffed self-publishing company where everything is done in-house, you get a ready made team. With a solo self-publishing consultant, you will also get a team, as they will quickly assemble trusted, vetted professionals from their network.

Before you hire a self-publishing company – 3 factors to consider

When you are looking to hire a self-publishing company, it’s important to understand what stage of the process you are in and what you need to bring your book to market. What are you as the author bringing to the party? Here are three questions to consider:

1. Is your manuscript written and edited?

Some authors get as far as they can with their book and will tell us their manuscript is finished. They’ll look to us to take it through the editing and proofreading process. Other authors come to us with a fully edited manuscript that they have edited and proofread for typos and grammatical errors.

When an author says their manuscript is finished, this can mean two things. They have taken it as far as they can and want help polishing and packaging it for publication, or, it is fully edited and ready for publication.

2. Do you know what your goals are as an author?

Understanding your goals can have an impact on the publishing strategy you need. You may think of publishing your book as separate from marketing your book and may be planning to use different companies for each phase of your book’s journey. It is important to understand what your bigger author goals are, as they can have an impact on how and where you decide to publish your book. Your self-publishing company or self-publishing consultant should inquire about this and work with you to publish your book to help it meet your goals. Different goals can mean a different strategy is needed. Here are two examples:

A local real estate agent wants to publish a book to hand out to prospects. It will be their unforgettable business card. Their main goal is to stand out in their local market. Being published on Amazon is simply an added boost for them so that when someone googles their name, their book listing shows in their search results, adding additional credibility to them. However, they aren’t looking for sales on Amazon or to get national recognition or visibility. They need a simple strategy – Publishing in both paperback and eBook formats, and publishing only on Amazon may be sufficient for them.

A consultant looking to increase their reach, visibility, and credibility and presell more high-ticket clients will want the broadest reach, distribution, and credibility. They will want to have their book published on every possible platform [Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo…], and they will want multiple book formats- paperback, eBook, audiobook, and possibly hardcover, as well as the option to have their books carried in bookstores and libraries. They will probably want a visibility campaign to get the word out about their book and reach more people.

3. How willl you handle marketing and book promotion?

The typical self-published author sells about five copies of their book. The average U.S. book now sells less than 200 copies per year, and less than 1000 copies over its lifetime. Books don’t automagically sell themselves, so you will want to have some kind of book launch and promotional plan. This may be something you look to your self-publishing book company or self-publishing consultant to provide, or you may have this covered elsewhere.

It is important to put time and thought into how your book will get out into the world, and who you want to have do that for you or with you, or if you plan to go totally solo and handle it on your own. Some self-publishing companies offer promotional strategies, guidance, or actual implementation. It may be included in your self-publishing package, as an add-on service, or by referral to partners who they can recommend to help you with this.

Comparing self-publishing book companies – what to look for

It’s important to define what publishing a book means to you, and how a self-publishing company defines it as a service offering before you hire them. I see a lot of confusion about what it means to publish a book; often clients think that a book launch promotion is part of book publishing. It can be, but it may not be, so this is an important point to clarify in advance of hiring a book publishing company or consultant, and choosing a publishing package. It’s important to understand how and what publishing a book means and what your self-publishing company defines it as and what it is exactly that they offer. Does your self-publishing package include any launch, promotion, or book marketing?

Define exactly what self-publishing a book means – make sure your self-publishing company is on the same page with you

Let’s go to the dictionary to shed some light on a few terms that may be being interchanged in the publishing process and can lead to some unintentional confusion.

► Publishing: The term publishing means, in the broadest sense, making something publicly known. Historically, it came to refer to the issuing of printed materials such as books and magazines.

What is the meaning of a published book? Produced or released for distribution

► Book Launch: A book launch is any even wherein the author or their public relations (PR) team invites a group of people to celebrate the arrival of an upcoming book

► Book Marketing: A book marketing plan includes publicity and promotional marketing efforts to help sell books and reach more readers

► Book Publicity: A plan and campaign designed to raise awareness about the book and create buzz. Unlike marketing, it’s goal are not specifically tied to selling books.

Conclusion

Choosing the right self-publishing company is an essential part of the self-publishing process. Whatever publishing path you take, you need to find the right platforms, companies, and resources to help you bring your book to market.

Before looking for a self-publishing company, as we discussed, it’s important to know your author goals, how much you want to do yourself, and how much you want to outsource before you start evaluating the self-publishing book company options.

The best self-publishing company for you will depend on your publishing goals and which company offers the level of service and package you are seeking. It’s important to carefully consider each company and that they offer services that match your needs and goals before making a final decision.

Jane Tabachnick & Co. is a full service self-publishing book company. We work with non-fiction authors to help take them from idea through every stage of book publishing and book promotion. Find out more about working with us here

Listen to our podcast: The Self-Publishing Blueprint here

Should You Self Publish Your Book

Authors often wonder should you self publish your book or seek out a traditional publisher. There are pros and cons to both avenues of publishing, so it’s important to understand them before making such an important decision.

You may think you need the know-how of a publishing house behind you or want the prestige that comes along with a big name publisher, but you’re a savvy woman and with the accessibility of self- publishing you need to consider it seriously as an option.

My top 5 answers to the question: Should you self-publish your book

1. Speed to market
When you self-publish your book, you eliminate the time you would have had to spend to find a book agent and then pitch a publisher. Instead, you can use the time to write, publish and promote your book. As a self-published author, you also can typically move through the publishing process faster, than a publishing house does.

In a few months, you can write and publish your book, whereas the search for an agent and publisher can take as long as two years, not including the writing and packaging of your book, which would be additional.

2. Total artistic control
While working with a publishing house, you get the benefit of their valuable insights and know-how, your book is your baby and having total creative decision making over it ensures that you will come out with a book that totally reflects you, your brand and your personality.

Should an opportunity arise around your book, whether it’s interest from a foreign market, or Hollywood has come calling, you get to decide if it’s right for you without having to consult with anyone.

3. you keep 100% of the profits
By publishing it on your own there is no one you need to share profits except the book store or online book retailer.

Most authors don’t make a lot of money from the sale of books, so being able to keep all of your share of the profit is beneficial. Additionally, when you work with a traditional publisher they give you an advance. That means that once you make book sales, you have to pay back the advance or draw out of the retail book sales. Once you finish paying back your advance, you have to share the remaining profits with the publisher, which means less in your pocket.

4. Book promotion and marketing
One of the big frustrations I hear from those who work with a traditional publisher, is that they don’t do much in the way of book promotion and marketing, until you become successful. Even with a publishing deal, as a first or second time author, you’ll have to do your own book marketing and promotion. You might as well self-publish and do your own marketing and promotion and know that you’re reaping all the benefits of those efforts, instead of having to share the rewards with your publishing company, who left you do the heavy lifting.

5. Equal access to distribution channels
Today, as a smart self-published author, you can get the same distribution and same visibility as traditionally published authors. You no longer need a publisher to get you into every bookstore, library, and online retailer. You can also maintain control of distribution, as well as the ability to offer discount pricing as needed.

The advantages to self-publishing are many, though there is a learning curve. Self-publishing doesn’t mean you have to do it all yourself, there are programs, coaches, and companies to help you publish your book like a pro. Done right, it can be hard to tell a self-published book from a traditionally published one.

This post first appeared on She Owns It

How to Build a List of Book Buyers Before You Even Publish

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Why You Need To Keep Positioning Yourself As An Expert

The Case For Why You Need to Keep Positioning Yourself as an Expert.

This is the second time in my life it’s happened. A stranger asked for my autograph as I stood on the street. I was positioning myself as an expert without even realizing I was doing it.

I’m not a celebrity or a known personality. So why did these passers-by ask for my autograph?

I was a perfect September day and the passers-by were just following their instinct and conditioning.

You see, I was with my client Marya who was about to be featured on NBC to talk about her new book Career X, that we had recently published for her. We thought it would be fun to hire a video crew to document our experience leading up to being on NBC, and both she and I could use the video in our marketing.

So, the passers-by didn’t recognize us or mistake us for celebrities. They just assumed that we were celebrities based on our positioning -the video crew following us signaled to them and made them believe without a doubt that we were celebrities and they were just too bashful to even ask who we were.

They were attracted to us as celebrities – whoever we were.

So why am I telling you this?

As an entrepreneur or author, you should always be positioning yourself as the expert so that you stand out in your niche. It helps do the following:

Solidifies your expert positioning
Presells prospects on working with you
Creates an enhanced desire to work with you
It sets the expectation that as an expert, they can expect to pay premium pricing to work with you

Even if you are higher priced than your competitors or the highest price in your market, positioning yourself as an expert reduces price resistance and negotiation.

Take a lesson on expert positioning from celebrities like Richard Branson

Here is another example of expert positioning from a true, internationally recognized celebrity – Richard Branson – one of my business heroes.

Doing lead generation on LinkedIn, I noticed something in conversations with my new connections. Following some back-and-forth messages and a few phone conversations, if I believe that a connection might be a fit for my services, I will ask if they’ve ever thought of writing a book. On numerous occasions, I have gotten a sharp response back saying, “I’m already an author.” In one instance, the response was “I’ve written ten books and they are translated in multiple languages.”

I’m human and sometimes I make mistakes, so feeling I had possibly goofed and missed it on their LinkedIn profile when I initially reviewed it, I went back and checked. Nowhere on their LinkedIn profile is there a mention of their book. This always surprises me. For most people, writing a book is something that they’re immensely proud of. It’s a big achievement. And it’s a great expert position piece. So why isn’t it on their profile?

Branson and Gary V recognize the importance of positioning, continually. They both showcase their books in their profile graphic and title description.

Richard Branson takes his positioning even further by including endorsements for his book from other recognizable names – Sheryl Sandberg and Bill Gates. He shows that positioning is an ongoing process, even after you reach celebrity status.

Dan Kennedy, legendary marketer and author stated it well when he said:

“The simple truth is, if you aren’t deliberately, systematically, methodically – or rapidly and dramatically – establishing yourself as a celebrity, at least to your clientele and target market, you’re asleep at the wheel, ignoring what is fuelling the entire economy around you and neglecting development of a measurably valuable asset.”

Want help with your celebrity positioning? Schedule a complimentary strategy session here

Ready to add Author to your resume and positioning? Join us for the 8 Week Book Coaching Program

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How to Run a Bestseller Campaign on Amazon

The reason why you want to know how to run a bestseller campaign on Amazon goes beyond bragging rights. When done right, it will provide a significant boost to your book’s visibility and sales, as well as help garner book reviews. I am speaking here about Amazon Kindle Bestseller Campaigns.

Before jumping into the hows of a bestseller campaign… at the risk of stating the obvious, you want to start by writing a great book.

Visibility

When set up right, your book will show up high in the categories your potential readers are browsing in… this way it can be discovered. Amazon is a giant search engine, and like Google, people don’t go beyond the first page to search for results, so ranking high matters. In the case of Amazon, it is the opposite – a low number ranks higher with #1 being at the top. It is key to getting found by new prospective buyers.

Your book can also show up in the Hot New Releases section and potentially other sections that will give it additional visibility in front of your target audience.

Categories and Keywords

Your category and keyword research, when done right, along with optimizing your An optimized listing, will help your book continue to rank well long beyond the bestseller campaign.

When I refer to optimizing your listing – I mean carefully selecting your categories and keywords to help your book get discovered, and taking advantage and using all of the 2 categories and 7 keywords Amazon allows a book.

The optimization of a book listing is a combination of art and science. Sometimes authors see their book as belonging in a certain category, which may not be the ideal one, nor the one or the only one their ideal reader will search in. There are probably a number of ways your reader will browse for books like yours… so remain open. Research can help you identify the optimal categories and keywords. You can conduct your research by polling your target audience, researching similar books on Amazon, using a keyword tool, or hiring an expert.

You can always tweak or change your categories, however, if you aren’t sure why your book isn’t ranking the way you would like, changing the categories and keywords without getting professional input, is a bit like playing the lottery, and leaving the result to chance.

The momentum of a bestseller campaign is valuable on Amazon as it gives you a number of sales. It also boosts your book’s ranking and visibility. Keeping your promotion going beyond the initial campaign can really solidify your book rankings for an extended period. We continue to run a promotional campaign for a few days after the Bestseller campaign. Keeping the price at .99, we see steady sales, increased reviews, and long-term rankings boost. The books that have used this strategy continue to rank and bring in sales month after month with no additional promotion.

What Not To Do – Credibility Busters

Beg or hound friends and family to buy your book. Instead, join a number of book groups that allow you to post your promotion, or hire a service or professional to run your campaign.

Claim bestseller status when your book has no reviews listed. Think about it, is it credible that a book would become a bestseller and no one would have reviewed it? Instead, get a few reviews before running your bestseller campaign.

Post your book online with the bestseller seal on it, before its even published [if it somehow happens to pass Amazon scrutiny this way] before you even start your campaign or reach bestseller status. Instead, hire a graphic designer [a Fiverr for $5] to add the graphic, and upload a new cover once you have actually achieved bestseller status.

No Author page. Amazon gives you this great free marketing tool with Author Central, so why not take advantage and set it up before promoting your book.

Find out about our done for you bestseller campaigns here

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How to Profit From Your Book – The $7,000 Message

Ever get a $7000 message? My client did, and this is just one example of how to profit from your book.

I was at a training with my client Mai. The same workshop where I ate fire! Mai, called me over and was clearly so excited she couldn’t contain herself.

I couldn’t wait to see what the excitement was about.

“Look at this message I just got from a prospect. It’s all because of the book. Oh my gosh! Thank you” Jane.

Note: Mai worked with me to write and publish her book The Divorced Mom’s Guide to Dating. We got the book written and published [to bestseller status] in about 90 days.

The message, which you can see in the image to the left, was from a reader, who was so excited and ready to sign up for coaching with Mai after reading her book that she emailed her and then sent her this message on Facebook to make sure Mai saw it as soon as possible.

**How Mai’s book created a ready to buy $7000 coaching client**

People buy from those that they know, like and trust. People can get a sense of you and your work from your book, if it’s written and set up correctly. What we did in Mai’s case was:

Tell her story, so readers connected with her instantly
Share client stories – so readers could relate to ‘people just like them’, who were in ‘situations just like them’ and who got ‘the outcomes they are seeking’
Give people a taste of her methodology/coaching program in the book
Include worksheets so that readers could start to do the work/ begin to experience results from Mai’s work
Included a beautiful invite to Mai’s bi-annual live event.

Have you ever tried to learn something from a book or program on your own?

What was the outcome?

As is often the case, people find that they are only able to get so far via a book or self-paced coaching or learning program, and then realize they need additional, more personalize support to reach their goals. That was the case with Mai’s reader. She’d gone as far as she could on her own, and she already saw Mai as the answer to a problem she was desperate to solve. So she signed up for a $7000 coaching program with Mai.

Imagine getting a text like this! If you are like me, and selling is not something you like to do….having clients lined up excited to sign up with you is pretty attractive. As a salesperson friend of mine joked, when I showed them the message Mai received, the only thing left to ask is ‘Visa or Mastercard?’

Ready to package your expertise and method into a book, and attract ready to buy readers? Let’s talk.

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How to Contact a Celebrity for a Book Endorsment

How to get celebrity endorsements for your book

You are ready to get endorsements for your book. You’ve identified your ideal celebrities and influencers. Now it’s time to contact them and make the ask, but you may be wondering how to contact a celebrity for a book endorsment. Here are the top ways to find the contact information of celebrities:

Start with a Google Search

Google is a great resource for finding contact information. Start with a google search. Try being completely literal. Type in ‘email address for Celebrity Name’. We are going to use Barbara Corcoran as our example.

As you can see you get a number of results, including Barbara Corcoran’s own website [1], which is sure to have a contact form. We’ll save that for later.

In this search you see both RocketReach [2] and CEOEmail [3] which claim to give you email addresses. Both are free. It is worth having a look and copying down the email addresses into a file.

Test the email addresses to see if they are valid using this free tool:

In the event you don’t find any email addresses you can try the following:

Find an email address for a staff member at your celebrity’s domain. You can do a Google search, or try a Linkedin search using your celebrity as the company name.

For example: look for any address at @barbaracorcoran.com. From this you can determine the email convention they use. It might be ‘first initial’ and ‘last name’, or ‘first name’ only before the @ sign. You can then substitute your celebrity name in the same format as the email address you found.

How to Contact a Celebrity for a Book Endorsement- Ninja tips:

Address your endorsement request to a few different email addresses at the same time – addresses that you found, or just try a few of the most commonly used email conventions. That way you increase your chances of success, and any email address that is not valid, will send back an email letting you know that.

Add a read receipt- if used, it will let you know the email was received and read.

Use Press Contacts to request celebrity endorsements
Celebrities and high-profile people often have a PR firm on retainer or staff. You can typically find their contact info in a press release issued about the celebrity. These releases may be found on the celebrity’s website, or by searching for news about them.
Once you find out the celebrity’s PR contact you can either contact them to ask who to direct an endorsement request to, or just pitch them directly.

Use the Contact form on the celebrity website
The contact us form on any website is always available as a way to contact a celebrity, or anyone else. It usually goes to a general mailbox, often opened by an assistant. I have had success using this method to request endorsements, though it’s not my preferred method; I use it only when I can’t find a celebrity email address or press contact name and email address.

Here is why you should ask Barbara Corcoran, or any celebrity for an endorsement. They might just say yes!

In fact, Ms. Corcoran encourages you to request endorsements, and has a dedicated link to make it easy for you.

Fast Track Your Results & Get More Celebrity Endorsements

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How to Get Celebrity Endorsements For Your Book

Having celebrities endorse your book will lend credibility, prestige and authority. It will also help you sell more books.

Big brands have been using celebrities to sell products for ages. Think Michael Phelps on the corn flakes box to Ellen Degeneres in Cover Girl makeup commercials. They pay big fees to the celebrities because these endorsements help sell more products.

The good news is, with a little bit of effort on your part, you can get industry influencers and busy celebrities to endorse your books- and you won’t have to pay a fee.

To understand why celebrities will give you an endorsement, even if they don’t know you, see Part 1 of this series Why you should ask Barbara Corcoran for an endorsement

I reached out to a top industry expert who was also a multiple New York Times bestselling author to get an endorsement for a client’s book. They agreed. We were thrilled! An endorsement from them would add incredible cache and authority to my client’s book. Weeks went by. We heard nothing. After more than a month, I reached out and asked if it would help if I sent some sample endorsements.

The expert’s assistant wrote back with a one word response: “Absolutely”.
We got their endorsement the next week!

The key to having celebrities endorse your book is to put in time up front, and to make it as easy as possible for them to say yes.

Here is how to get celebrity endorsements for your book

Create a simple, ‘package’ with all your information and materials to send via email.

Start by sending a very short, detailed note about your book along with your request and why you think they are the perfect person to endorse it. [Genuine flattery goes a long way!]

Offer a copy of the book as well as a representative sample

Many celebrities and experts will not want to read your entire book; however, you should offer them a copy of it as well as a representative sample [intro, table of contents and a chapter]. Rather than send the sample as an attachment, host your sample chapter in the cloud [drop box, google doc…] and offer a link to the files in your email.

Offer Sample Endorsements [3 -5 samples]

Let them know you recognize that they are busy, so you have drafted a few sample endorsements that they are welcome to use as is, or edit. This can make it easier for them. They can simply select one of your samples and email you back which one to put their name next to, or they can customize a sample endorsement to make it more ‘in their own voice’.

This last step of offering ‘sample endorsements’ can make all the difference between getting an endorsement or not, as you can see from my client example.

Sending sample endorsement works for two reasons. People are intimidated by a blank page. They aren’t sure where to start. By offering them some samples, you are helping to give them some suggestions and direction. They don’t have to think hard about this, and can comply with your request, by customizing one of your samples in a minute or two.

Remember, you are asking a busy people to take an action on your behalf. You want to have celebrities endorse your book. They get a lot of requests. The easier you make it for them, the greater likelihood you have of success.

Fast Track Your Results & Get More Celebrity Endorsements

Related Content :

Part 1: Why you should ask Barbara Corcoran for an endorsement

Part 3: How to Contact A Celebrity for a Book Endorsement

Listen to our podcast: The Self-Publishing Blueprint

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Why you should ask Barbara Corcoran for an endorsement

To add credibility and social proof to your book, there is no better way than to have a celebrity or recognized expert endorse your book. In this post I’m going to cover Why you should ask Barbara Corcoran for an endorsement.

You may be thinking, ” but I don’t know any celebrities or recognized experts, or they don’t know me, so why would they endorse me”?

Here are 3 reasons why a celebrity will endorse books or products, even if they don’t know you personally:

They want to remain visible
They want to give back and help someone who is up and coming
They believe in the product

And yet….Barbara Corcoran turned me down.

When I published my first book, Success Secrets of the Real Estate Super Stars – Remarkable Women in Real Estate, the obvious choice to ask for an endorsement from Barbara Corcoran.

I did a search online and found her press contact. I drafted my endorsement letter and sent it off. I got a prompt response from her press person saying that unfortunately Barbara was slammed with travel and wouldn’t be able to endorse the book. I was a little bit disappointed but went on to publish the book.

Fast forward two years. A colleague was publishing a book on real estate and wanted to get an endorsement from Barbara Corcoran. She reached out and Barbara said yes. Why? The timing was better. She had the time to look at the book and endorse it.

So if you’re looking for endorsements from anyone famous, a celebrity or industry expert, the first rule of thumb is simply – you have to ask.

Be prepared to get turned down. It’s not personal, necessarily. It’s probably just that they’re too busy and not able to comply.

Want to sell more books? – get endorsements from recognized experts or celebrities.

Fast Track Your Results & Get Celebrity Now

Part 3, I show you how to find a press contact for any celebrity.

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Does an Author Need Both PR and Social Media

I was recently asked by a fellow publisher “whether an author with limited time and resources should put them into social media strategies rather than trying to include publicity or even going exclusively the publicity route.” Does an author need PR and Social Media to succeed?

Here is my response:

Good question. The first thing I always want to know is where does your audience live, as it should inform a lot of where to put your efforts. If you target an audience that is rarely on social media, then that would not be a great use of all your efforts.

I consider social media as part of ‘the media’ nowadays

Earned media [others writing about you, talking about you…] is the most valuable type of content you can have [no one cares or believes what you say about you to some extent, especially on social media]. Others talking about you is social proof, third party credibility, perceived as an endorsement…

In our review economy [also called trust economy], people trust:

recommendations from friends and family
online reviews & recommendations and
the media [source: Nielson]

You have probably heard it said that people buy from those they know, like and trust… so media coverage/mentions are in the top 3 factors that influence buying decisions

The media are respected, and as it is they who decide what they write about; being the ‘selected one’ has additional value – i.e. they featured you over all the other experts out there.

When you are featured in the media, you get the halo effect of being associated with their respected brands…. that is why we say, as seen in the NY Times or cite a NY Times book review, and we don’t say “as seen on Facebook” or cite a Facebook book review, no matter how glowing.

As you can probably tell by now, I think that authors need PR and Social Media to succeed; I recommend authors use a combination of PR and social media… yes, even when time and resources are challenged [when aren’t they?]… all the more reason to learn how each medium works and learn how to maximize your efforts.

Want to learn more about how to do your own publicity? Please check out our Magnify Your Message program

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How to Grow Your Business as a Speaker or Author

I am just back from an amazing 4 days at the Speaker Empire event learning how to grow your business as a speaker or author. I picked up lots of tips and inspiration and it got me to thinking…

In the United States, a favorite food staple is peanut butter and jelly. You rarely see one without the other. They just make each other better then they are on their own.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Books are to speaking, as peanut butter is to jelly” quote=”Books are to speaking, as peanut butter is to jelly”]

One of the best ways to grow your business is as a speaker or author, and best when you are both, as they are the peanut butter to each other’s jelly, they can give you exposure and expert positioning. Together, as both a speaker and an author, you make a bigger, better impression.

As an author, you are more attractive to conference and event planners, so it’s easier to get speaking opportunities. As a speaker, you can get in front of new audiences, wow them with your message, and sell your books and services with your speech. As a speaker without a book, you are leaving money on the table.

Nowadays it can take 5-12 touches before someone becomes a client. When you present to an audience, you immediately have expert positioning and authority, however they may not be ready to buy a big-ticket service from you. Your book is a great way to get them to buy something from you that at a price point that doesn’t require approval from corporate or their partner. Your book continues to give them an experience of you and your philosophy and methodology, and can move them closer to becoming a client.

One of the amazing things I discovered, is that once you commit to writing a book, you can start getting speaking opportunities. I have been interviewed on podcasts and been invited to speak at events based solely on announcing my forthcoming book. So your book can make getting visibility and attracting ideal clients much easier, even before its completely written!

I’ll be sharing some of the tips I picked up at Speaking Empire, as well as tips on how you can build buzz, write and promote your book… via Facebook Live. Please like my page so that you will get notified when I am broadcasting.

If you have any questions or topics you’d like to see my cover, please comment below.

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