Writing and publishing a book is a huge accomplishment, one which more than 80 percent of society wants to do someday, but few rarely attempt. For those that do, it’s a remarkable achievement that deserves a celebration just as remarkable and memorable.

A book launch party announcing a book’s release and an author’s accomplishment is one way to recognize the work, skill, and dedication it takes to write and publish a book. It’s also a marketing and promotion tool that often isn’t taken advantage of. The trust is, the gathering announcing a book’s release is a phenomenal time to spur sales and gain massive press and media interest for both the author and the book. And when the gathering features more than one author, it becomes even more effective and, when done properly, can turn authors into bestselling authors.
The key to featuring multiple authors and capturing the sales necessary for bestselling status is in the event itself. A book launch party can be a small, intimate group of close family and friends, but when it becomes a high-profile event which features many authors, it appeals to celebrities and people who are movers and shakers in their industries. Then it becomes more than a book launch party—it turns into a marketing sensation that becomes the talk of the town.
The benefits of featuring multiple authors include:
• Each author invites a different clientele to the event, creating a diverse and interesting cross-section of individuals and industries. One author might attract 20 or 30 guests; ten authors create ten times the appeal.
• Naturally, more individuals will attend for multiple authors than for one—and each of these individuals is likely to be interested in more than one author and/or book.
• Media interest expands significantly when multiple authors and books are featured in one place at one time.
• Representatives from the media and in the publishing industry are much more likely to attend a book release for ten authors than they would be for just one.

So now that we know the advantages of featuring multiple authors, let’s cover the best atmosphere in which to feature their book releases.

I recommend a high-end event, one which is held at a prestigious location. The reason is twofold: First, it indicates that the book launch party is a special occasion (and it is). Second, it ensures that guests and authors receive the finest service and amenities so they can focus on meeting new contacts, conversing with a wide group of guests and media representatives. Event hosts and hostesses are aware that when you treat your guests extremely well, they will reciprocate and be more attentive and receptive.

High-end events also attract publicity because they create a buzz and ignite curiosity. Such high-profile events attract high-profile guests who want to benefit from networking with a large and diverse audience, as well. These individuals are considerably more likely to attend a sophisticated high-end event than an average event at an average establishment. A simple book launch party then turns into a must-attend happening that sparks even more interest.

How does such a high-end book launch party create bestsellers? The event itself promotes the authors and books, creating greater interest than the book alone. It provides each author with an opportunity to feature his or her book in front of a larger clientele, which translates into increased sales and publicity. Last, by weaving the book launch party around a bestselling campaign on places such as Amazon.com, which ranks bestselling status by the amount sold in a particular window of time, an increased number of sales are made during the book launch party, driving book sales up in that category higher than the competition during that period of time.

A book launch party can be more than a book launch party. It can become a one-of-a-kind special occasion, with the appeal, the interest, the excitement, and the people that create memories, as well as the esteemed success of becoming a bestselling author. Writing a book deserves such a celebration—writing a bestselling book earns it.

Recently I interviewed my business mentor Victor Cheng for my group mentorship program, Bestseller Business Blueprint*. Victor Cheng is a CEO coach who advises business owners on exploiting growth opportunities in any economy. He has been featured as an expert on business and the recession by the Fox Business Television Network, MSNBC, Time magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Harvard Business Review, Fortune Small Business, SmartMoney, Forbes, Inc. magazine, and Entrepreneur magazine. Victor is a former McKinsey & Company consultant and has also been a senior executive in several publicly owned technology companies. He’s a graduate of Stanford University with a degree in quantitative economics and is the author of four books, which include “The Recession-Proof Business: Lessons from the Greatest Recession Success Stories of All Time” and Extreme Revenue Growth: Startup Secrets to Growing your Sales from $1M to $25M in any industry.

Here’s a “fly-on-the-wall” snippet of the interview from the webinar:

____

Victor Cheng:   Number one, target customer; number two, a lead generation process; and number three, a sales conversion or sales closing process.

Alicia Dunams:  Okay. And can you go through each three elements of the Revenue Model, maybe with another case study?

VC:   Sure. And the important thing in that is you’ve got to get all three to line up; if you pick the wrong target customer, even if you have the right kind of lead generation process you don’t end up getting a customer to cross the finish line and turn into revenue. So it’s very important that all three of those line up very, very consistently. And this is why, by the way, getting a good revenue model is not easy to do. Usually, and I’ve done several of these in my own business for clients, and it takes months to get the formula right, so to speak.

So for example with that law firm, we have seventeen industries to choose from; do we pick the [removed to protect identity] industry, do we pick one of the other ones?  Sometimes you don’t get it right the first time, so you have to go back and make some adjustments. And the sales model, they happened to go to the trade show, go person to person, should they have done it by cold calling, should they have done it by emails, should it be the web, should they have a sales force that go in advance. Those are all different options for generating leads and converting them.

So each piece, it’s hard, you’ve got to do a lot of tweaking and Alicia you know this coz you’ve sat in on some conversations I’ve had with other clients and we worked together as well in the past, I’m always making small adjustments for each part of the process, so it’s a very important part of the approach. So I’ll give you sort of general ideas around picking the target customers, some rules of thumb, if that would be helpful, for people on the call.

AD:  Absolutely.

VC:   Sure. So target customer. The big mindset shift in picking a target customer is to stop thinking about yourself, your book or what you know and start thinking about what the customer wants. It is a surprisingly difficult thing to do mentally, and is probably one of the things that holds new entrepreneurs back the most. Most entrepreneurs get enamored with the idea, got an idea for a business, and all my longer term students know that I have a philosophy that your idea is irrelevant and what only matters is what problems your customers have and whether they’re willing to pay money to solve those problems or not.

So what you want to look for in a target market is a customer with a headache, with money, who is going to spend money to solve that problem. You’re looking for a customer with a headache that hopefully you know how to solve, and possibly a headache that’s bad enough that they want to pay money to solve it. And you’ve got to decide on that first.

Sometimes picking a target customer, it may not always mesh well with the original assumption around who the target audience was for a book, and so when you have that conflict one of two things must happen; either you sort of repackage the book if you will, retitle it, change the focus, change the subtitle, sometimes change the content to fit a slightly different audience than originally intended; or you write the book for the audience that you originally intended which doesn’t want to spend any money, and you write it mostly for life accomplishments, you know “I wrote a book, I really wanted to write it, it was in me, I got it out, it’s done.”  But that and making money from it are two different things. So if you want to make money from the book it’s very important that, the book title and cover especially, and the content as well, is geared towards an audience with a problem that you know how to solve and a problem that’s big enough that they want to pay money to solve it. So that’s very important.

I’m trying to think – a good example I use myself – about three years ago there was the recession that hit and at the time my consulting services were geared towards taking your business and doing better dominating your industry; that was sort of the main message. And what I realized was, after October 08 when the markets crashed and all hell broke loose and they acted like the world was gonna end, no-one, they didn’t, people didn’t care, about being number one in the industry.

I saw all of my sales just get completely annihilated, so I had medium term contracts I knew they were expiring in about six months in terms of the payment, so I had a little bit of time to sort of completely reinvent my own business. And what I realized what was selling, what was hot; you know, the hot problem, in my market at that time, was survival, so its not, I don’t need to be number one in my business, I just need to still be here next year. And that’s where I got the idea for the book The Recession Proof Business.

And I started working on that title, let’s see the market started crashing October, maybe fifth or sixth of 08, and it was done crashing by the end of October, so by Halloween. I started working on the Recession Proof Business on November sixth, coz I saw a major shift in my marketplace and I wanted to capitalize on it. And the way I did it was I said, “Okay I think the market has shifted, I know it’s shifted away from what I was selling, so I’ve got to find something else to sell, and my target market’s still the same in terms of the audience but what they want is now different.”

So I was what I call being misaligned with the market, a very important word, worth writing down and circling a couple of times. You never want to be misaligned with the market. What it is they want should be what you offer. If what you offer does not match what they want, guess who loses? You do. It’s very important that you take the burden on yourself to change if what the customer wants is not you have to offer, you have to adapt, and so I adapt in my own business, and I said, “This recession thing’s clearly a big deal, how about I turn myself into the recession guru.”  Which I did.

This is before, by the way, we got any of this publicity, any of the magazines, any television appearances. And I started off by saying I couldn’t really want to write a book unless I knew people wanted this topic, so I started off by just trying to give a speech on the topic. So I started making phone calls and emails and it started off very small; local Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, and I said, “Hey I have this speech called How to Build a Recession Proof Business. And what it is, it’s just case studies of companies who just kicked butt in the recession. I’m just wondering if your membership of business owners, if they’re concerned about the economy or not and if this would be a topic that would be of interest.”

And the responses, “Are you freaking kidding me, of course they would be. Can you come here next week?”  So I booked like fifty engagements that year right after that, and after the second or third one I realized that I got the right topic, people were just thrilled, and then I started to sell the book, and then once I knew it would sell; actually I think I did sell it, actually I did sell it originally coz I wanted to see if people would buy it. And then once I got a bunch of orders then I decided to write it coz I knew I had the right topic.

So that’s sort of an example of picking the market first and then building everything else behind once you know you have the right topic and focus; building the book, building the services round that, that sells profit and so forth. So that’s an example of picking the right target market and the three or four things that are really important there are who the customer is and what problem they have. Those two things need to mesh well with your book topic and possibly with the services you’re offering related to the book.

AD:  Okay, good. And then are you gonna run us through that revenue model, the three – the first one is picking a target market?

VC:   Sure. So the first one is picking a target customer; second one is a lead generation process. A lead generation is, it’s really simple, the idea is potential customers that are out there, and you’re in here, inside your business, and you need some way to connect with them, because if there’s no connection, no way of interacting or communicating then it’s impossible for them to buy.

The connection, the interaction can be done in a variety of ways, probably a dozen different ways alone on just that, and I’ll give you one that I used, in that particular case I used several in my business but for that one in particular I used public speaking; and so I would do speaking gigs, initially they were free, and then I started charging nominal fees and in some cases charged higher fees, and I would speak for about, I’d do it from an hour to three, actually I think those speeches back then were probably about an hour.

And I would give my talk and I would say if you found my talk today useful, I didn’t get a chance to cover everything I wanted to cover, coz really it’s a ten hour talk, and I only had sixty minutes, if you’re interested in learning more I have a free gift to offer, I have a book called The Recession Proof Business, lessons from various recession success stories of all times. If you’re interested in receiving a copy just drop off your business card, fill out this sign-up sheet with your email address and your mailing address and I’ll send you a copy and also send you, I’ll put you on my newsletter, where I send out more case studies and examples of other companies that are doing well in this economy, coz I find out about them all the time, and it’s a good way to realize that there are people who are doing just find, doing really well.

If you’re interested in either of those two just drop me your business card. That’s an example of a lead generation offer, and a lead generation offer basically is you offer something, either free or very low priced, and the purpose of that initial transaction is to get a way to contact the customer again, in some way, shape or form. And I put those folks onto my mailing list and I would write oracles around the mailing list on a regular basis, and we’ll talk about this in a second, but that was my lead generation mechanism. Go out, speak, collect names, and business cards; they just had a very good experience and then follow up with them after the fact.

So that’s an example of lead generation, you’ve got lots of ways to do it, you can do it online which I’m currently doing for a major project I’m working on now; you can do it through direct mail, I have clients who are doing it through direct mail; you can do it through cold calling, I have clients who are doing that as well. So there’s a variety of ways, but the key is you need some connection that gives you permission to continue the dialogue with a customer and I have found a very easy way is to provide, particularly in an expertise business, provide something with information that’s valuable to them and offer it free.

So I’ve done that with books. If the audience wasn’t really well qualified, if I’m in a room with CEO’s that run businesses of between five to say three hundred million and they’re all basically independently wealthy and run large businesses and the actual revenues in the room are all like three billion, I’d give away the book, coz I don’t want any friction to get in the way of them saying yes. If it’s more than that market, I don’t know, maybe there’s some tire kickers and some freebie seekers, I might do one of two things; I might say the book is free, pay for shipping and handling, just as a way to sort of filter people out; or sometimes, and I’ve done this as well, sometimes I’ll do an e-book.

So you have the electronic version of the book, I give those away for free to people who leave their email address. It’s another way to sort of leverage that out and still get that name and build a relationship with people. So that’s an example of lead generation, it’s just find some way to connect with them so that you have permission to continue the dialogue, and very importantly they welcome the continued dialogue. That’s the important thing, they are expecting it, and they’re welcoming it, so next time you contact them in whatever medium you’ve chosen to contact them, you contact them by phone or conference call or email or newsletter whatever it might be, they’re expecting it, they’re okay with it, and when you do contact them they’re not surprised and they’re actually sort of welcoming you into the dialogue. That’s what you want to accomplish in that lead generation process.

AD:  Okay. And now let’s talk about sales conversion.

VD:   Sales conversion. So a sales conversion is getting them to buy something. And there’s two parts to that; one is presenting an offer and asking them to buy, to see if they’re interested; and the other is, and this is an important piece, is what I call follow-up marketing. And I would say most authors if you want to use that word, or new entrepreneurs if you would, they don’t focus enough on presenting the right offer and for those that do present an offer very, very few do a good job at follow-up marketing.

I got someone who enquired about my consulting service today, and they’ve been on one of the newsletters that I write for, they’ve been reading my articles for about four and a half years. I’ve been following that fifty two months in a row and they came around, and I do lots of these things where I’m following up for months and years, and very few of my competitors have the discipline to do that.

____

Bestseller Business Blueprint (BBB)* is my group mentorship program that helps business owners market, promote and make money by leveraging their published book. BBB is available for graduates of Bestseller in a Weekend or business owners who already have a published book.

The results are in! I want to thank everyone who participated in my recent informal survey, What do YOU think of when YOU hear the word bestseller? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s the email I sent out to my subscriber list last month…
——–
NAME – really quickly…

My business coach and I are having
a bit of debate about what constitutes
being a BESTSELLING AUTHOR.

At the end of the day, it really
doesn’t matter what my
business coach and I think -
It only matters what YOU think!

With that, can you take this 30 second
survey so I get the information
straight once and for all!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JQ6FFMJ

Thanks for you help!

Dedicated to your success,

Alicia Dunams
———————————-

64.5% people say “selling a lot of books” constitutes a bestseller. But what is “a lot of books”? 10K, 100K, 1 million? From my experience, to become a Bestseller on Amazon.com in the top-20 category overall you need to move over 500 books in a 24 hour period depending on a number of conditions and moving parts. Yes, the stars must align and you have to be truly strategic to achieve top-20 category bestseller status on Amazon. 54.8% of you think getting on a bestseller list constitutes a bestseller, so which lists matter…

Someone added that visibility and celebrity is a part of bestseller status:

54.8% of you think getting on a bestseller list constitutes a bestseller, so which lists matter…

New York Times trumps the list and Amazon.com follows. But there are many ways to be a “Amazon.com” bestseller, which one matters to you….

For 48.5% of you, becoming a bestseller is “very important.”

And, 57.1% have not written a book and the main reason it isn’t complete is that it’s “in process.”

The benefits of writing a book are plenty, especially if you’re a business owner or an authority in your field. However, for many, the mere thought can emit groans—thinking that the task is far too overwhelming to undertake or that it would be years before it was completed.

That was probably true years ago, but not today. Join the many other authors who have learned that writing a book isn’t as daunting as they thought—and it can be done in one weekend. “Bestseller in a Weekend” is returning to San Francisco on April 9 and 10, 2011. If you’ve always wanted to write a book, you don’t want to miss this event.

Continue article here.

A month is made out of days. A pizza is made out of slices. A book is made out of chapters.

Fortunately, when a project is divided into its tiniest parts, it’s easier to digest, comprehend, and complete. (Eating a whole pizza at once is daunting, whereas the slices are manageable.)

Having a template and knowing what to insert where will help you not only write faster and easier, but it will keep you focused and maintain continuity throughout your book.

Here’s a bullet-point list of your basic template:

• The chapter title
• A relevant quote, saying, or fact
• A warm-up introduction to the topic, using a personal experience or case study to draw the reader in and set the reader up for what they are about to learn
• Information about the first subsection, including examples and case studies, graphics, acronyms, bullet points, checklists, etc.
• End each subsection with a recap, quiz, additional resources, or exercise.
• Repeat for each additional subsection and chapter.

Let‘s use a personal finance book about credit to illustrate the process.

Working Title of the Book: ―Let‘s Talk About Credit: Your Personal Financial Guide to Understanding Credit

Let’s pretend that Chapter One in the Table of Contents is ―What is Credit? So, to open Chapter One, What is Credit, you should insert a short quote or saying related to the chapter title. It could also be a statement, a fact, or it could even be a funny line. The purpose is to move people into the chapter. So, the first part of your template is to find a quote that would shine light on it what your chapter is about.

—–Remember that credit is money. ~ Benjamin Franklin

A good way to find the quotes or facts to insert is to Google specific words or phrases. Internet websites containing famous quotes are plentiful. You can also use similar books or quote someone else who is an expert in the field.

After inserting your short statement in the chapter, you‘re ready to move on to the next part of the template: the first two paragraphs. The first two paragraphs serve as an introduction to the chapter.

It‘s a great way to start the chapter with a story, a testimonial, or case study. Begin the chapter writing about a personal experience or a case study that will draw the reader in.

Here is an example:

—-

When I was 18 years old, I got my first credit card. I can remember like it was yesterday. I was purchasing a wicker basket and potpourri burner in Studio City in California. And getting that card was easy-peasy. All they asked for is my driver‘s license and a social security number.

Congratulations!‖ the men behind the cash register said. ―You have qualified for a $700 Pier 1 credit card.‖

Ah, that was music to my ears. Unfortunately, two years later I was $10,000 in debt.

—-

That introduction to the chapter warms people up. It‘s a case study or personal experience that interests people. They can relate to it.

From there, you get into the content of your chapter – the first subsection: What is credit? In this subsection, we will define what credit is and how you get credit. So all of that who, what, where, when, why.

Write a couple of paragraphs about what credit is. You can use resources to get your information, such as Wikipedia or other people‘s books or articles, as long as you remember to list your source. For example, you could say: ―Wikipedia states, credit is… The rest of the writing in the subsection is describing your subsection in further detail. It‘s always good in the center of the subsection or toward the end to have a graph or a box that illustrates what you‘re talking about. You might find it effective to include an acronym, exercise, a checklist, or bullet points.

People learn visually, and they learn by sets of threes and fives, like “3 Reasons to have a credit card.”

As you continue to write more about the subject, you can write some more points or certain case studies. You can describe an individual who personally benefitted from what you‘re telling the reader and give them a take-away. For example, in your chapter, What is Credit, you might say:

William Jones got smart. His credit had bottomed out. He signed up for my No Cost Smart Certification, and now he‘s back on track. He‘s even been approved for a mortgage to buy his first house. I encourage you, too, to go to (website) and learn more about No Cost Smart Certification.

Now, you‘ve given them an introduction, some basic information, and you‘ve given them something of value. Your take-away is a free resource that brings them to your website, where they can sign up for your list or RSS feed, if they’re interested.

To close your subsection, you can add an exercise, checklist, additional resources, or a quiz.

In the next subsection, you follow the same template. When you get the system down, it becomes an act of repetition, writing in the same style and form, but just about different subsection topics.

The next subsection might be about credit cards. You‘ll simply follow the same template and format as you write about the basics: the truth about credit cards, where to go to get a credit card, a checklist of things that you need to get a credit card, etc. Lace your information with case studies on how people use a credit card correctly or incorrectly. Add data, checklists, acronyms, and resources. End the subsection with a quiz, a checklist, or an exercise.

Then, move onto the next subsection and repeat the process. Do this until you‘ve completed all subsections. A chapter can have any number of subsections as long as it refers to that chapter heading and topic.

You simply duplicate the process for each additional chapter in your book. This system works and has helped many people whip out 6, 7, or 8 books in short time spans.

Let’s face it: Getting an endorsement from a cool reviewer or a celebrity can add appeal and spark interest in you and your book. Imagine having an influencer give your book a thumbs up, and the marketing opportunities it will provide.

Many authors have asked me how to get a celebrity endorsement or book review. They think it’s improbable that someone who is well known or famous would go out of their way to provide them with an endorsement or testimonial. Once I show them that it’s mutually beneficial to both parties to endorse a book, they open themselves up to the possibilities.

But, how does one go about getting such an endorsement from reviewers or celebrities? Like you, they are busy with their business and life. In a perfect world, they would sit down and read your book from cover to cover, and pen an earth-shattering endorsement. In reality, they usually don’t have time to sit down and read your book in its entirety, and pen an original endorsement. So, your job is to make it as easy or almost effortless as possible.

If you’re seeking an endorsement from a celebrity or influencer, follow these tips:

1. Don’t request an endorsement until your book cover is complete and you can include a picture of the cover with your request. This allows the prospective endorser to see that you are serious and your book really is in progress.

2. Personalize your request, using their name in the greeting, and opening by telling the individual that  you follow and admire their work. Introduce your book and tell them that you are requesting an endorsement. Include a short reminder that your book, as well as their endorsement, will be given massive exposure and publicity. This requires providing them some bullet points of your kick-butt marketing plan.

3. Give a synopsis of your book. Along with the book cover, this will provide the endorser with a good idea of what your book. Most people will request to read the entire manuscript. In this case, you should offer to send them the PDF or eBook version. If they own a KIndle, you can email it directly to their Kindle address (name@kindle.com). If they want a physical version of your book, you will have to send them a copy of your first version after publish. If you want to avoid this and have all endorsements in your first version, I suggest you create some (ARCs) Advance Reading Copies using http://www.48hrbooks.com/.

4. Thank the individual for their time and consideration. Then, let them know that, for their convenience, you’ve included or attached sample endorsements they can feel free to personalize or revise.

5. Include your contact information. If your request is made via mail, always include a self-addressed, stamped envelope to make it easy for them to return the endorsement to you.

Always provide prewritten sample endorsements for their review. People don’t have to endorse your book, so if you do the job for them, making it as painless and easy as possible, they are more likely to accommodate your request. Majority the time, they write their own endorsements, but they appreciate you making the job easier for them. Sample endorsements will vary, of course, but they will contain the following:

1. Author’s Name
2. Title of the Work
3. Something ABSURDLY SPECTACULAR that your book offers.
4. Why they endorse it.

Of course, #3 and #4 is purely subjective content, but maybe something you mention will get the wheels turning for the potential endorser. Again, the easier you make it for them, the more likely they’ll be to lend their name and fame to you and your book. Good luck!

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