I have heard that self publishing is quiet expensive, is this true?

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Self publishing doesn’t need to be expensive (though it can be if done incorrectly) however I don’t want to pretend to you it is dirt cheap either as it isn’t. I ensure all projects I am responsible for run at a bare minimum cashflow positive as otherwise what is the point?  

It depends what your goals are from there. If your primary goal is to fulfil a dream I would show you ways to re-coupe your money, if a secondary goal was to gain credibility and be known as the expert in your field then I would show you how to run your marketing plan cashflow positive (in other words you get paid to advertise instead of paying to advertise) however if your goal was to make money from your book I would teach you different strategies involving putting your book online so (once set up) it can sell itself and market itself (normally 5-10 mins management per day required) so you can earn a passive income from your book.

A book will not make you a million dollars. The average book though can supplement the average income so if that is not enough for you bring out more than 1 book or the same book in more than 1 format a then you have the opportunity to package.

The key differences between traditional publishing and self publishing are as follows:

TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING

• Your book (more often than not) gets rejected and will never be published
• Your publisher takes the financial risk
• Your publisher reaps all the rewards and you a left with a small commission of $1-$2 per book sold
• You give away the rights to your book
• Ideal if you don’t want to be involved in the process and just get your book out there
• Profit per 1000 books sold approximately - $2000 (paid in commission)

SELF PUBLISHING

• Your book will defiantly be published
• You take the financial risk
• You reap all the rewards and are left with 100% profit from books sold
• You own your own book
• Ideal if you want to be involved in the process, see the results and enjoy the impact your book makes
• Profit per 1000 books sold approximately - $20,000 (after cost of producing the books, freight etc.)

You need to choose which of the above is right for you and your book.

For more information on any stage of the publishing process check out 'The Publishing Queen Reveals All' Book Series.

I am selling my book myself but would like to know what other distribution options are open to me?

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There are 3 ways of distributing a book; self distribution, online distribution & bookstore distribution. The time goes down but the risk goes up in that same order. What you are currently doing is self distribution meaning selling your book yourself (eg. direct to customer) which uses the largest amount of your time but has the smallest amount of risk involved.

As such the next logical step is to progress into online distribution as that will use less of your time to get the same results. What I mean by that is self distribution is exchanging your time for money eg. you speak about your book and sell copies afterwards. Now it might be a good exchange of time for money (eg. if you speak for 10 mins and sell 10 books at $20 each it's not a bad hourly rate) but it is still an active distribution method. Online distribution is popular because it is passive (eg. sell the same 10 books but do it without needing to talk as the content on your website provides them with the same information they heard to encourage them to buy your book after the talk you didn't do). The advantage of this is you can film yourself talking, have an audio file or even just plain text but once created the information is readily available meaning instead of getting paid per talk you do you make sales on a daily basis and you only needed to provide the information once.

If you want to go to the step beyond that look at bookstore distribution. This will increase the risk as of course you need to supply books to the stores before they have sold (whereas with online distribution you make the sale before you provide the book) but it will once again less of your time as the books sell regardless of whether you talk or not. I do recommend talking though to increase the number of sales every opportunity you get and the best kind of talking is talking to the media. Bookstore distribution will never be successful without a good PR campaign behind it so make sure you are sending press releases to the appropriate media contacts and following up to get the results. Once again why give a talk multiple times when you can do an interview once and let the media coverage as a result of that sell your books in stores time and time again.

For more information on any stage of the publishing process check out 'The Publishing Queen Reveals All' Book Series

What should I do at my upcoming book signing?

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The aim of a bookstore signing is not to sell books but to sign books. What I mean by that is the whole idea is to get your name out there, get stores ordering copies in and get your face familiar with the locals. A bookstore signing is successful even if no books sell. Let me explain.

Q. How many copies of a book do you sign when you go to a book signing?
A. As many copies as the bookstore owner wants you too (eg. aim for half to evey copy in store).

Q. How many books do you sell at a book signing?
A. Unknown as you are not in control of that.

What happens to the copies that don’t sell on the day. They get a sticker stuck on them saying signed by the author and whether you are there or not that generally moves them through the stores very quickly thereafter. Bookstores don’t generally return books after the author has signed them.

For more information on bookstore distribution, check out 'How to Pitch your Book to Distributors' THE BOOK or 'How to Pitch your Book to Distributors' THE DVD.

For more information on any stage of the publishing process check out 'The Publishing Queen Reveals All' Book Series

Where do you do your seminars eg. what venue do you choose?

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For those of you wanting to know how to do events for your books like I have been doing this year please find some answers to some commonly asked questions below.

Where do you do your seminars eg. what venue do you choose?

I have a corporate arrangement with Accor so either Novotel’s or Mercure’s generally (depends on what they have in the location).

As it is a free seminar does this mean the perceived value must be huge to fill it up?

Yes you are right which is why I choose venues that have a high perception of value as your choice of venue says as much about you as any other part of your marketing.

I understand you use your events as a platform to speak to your market. Is this correct?

Yes this is also correct. I find getting someone to pay for an event when they have never heard of me before is near impossible however I find after speaking to someone for an hour or so, answering all their questions and providing them with some invaluable giveaways (so they can begin applying their learnt knowledge straight away) it is not only easy to move them to the next natural step in my product range but also allows them to leave a raving fan and this is an invaluable referral source for me.

What is your investment to put on a seminar in relation to your expectation in regards to return?

Local events are good as there is no flight or accommodation costs. I use mostly free to low cost marketing techniques eg. website/SEO, email marketing/database, flyers/networking, cross promotions/joint ventures and referrals from previous expressions of interest/registrants/attendees/customers etc. My big spends re: advertising is I always run a radio campaign in the area 2 weeks before the week of the event in the local area and I do an adwords campaign 1 month before. All of the above methods could be tailored to any budget.

For the event itself: I staff with either volunteers or my team members, rent lapel, hand held mic, cd player, sound system, projector screen and venue and provide tea, coffee and water facilities only as it is not a catered event. Approx cost for mini catering, venue and equipment hire averages around $2500 per event. Once again this could be adjusted to any budget based on choice of venue and how much catering and AV equipment is used.

My expectations for return is nothing as I have found it the past if you expect something in return for giving something away for free then you weren’t really giving it away for free in the first place. If you heart is in the wrong spot eg. not genuinely wanting to help people you will not make money. If the money is irrelevant and the focus correct than the money just naturally flows as a result of the event.

Does this model generates income?

Yes it is very effective. Everyone who comes on the night on averages buys a book for themselves and a friend eg. $40 per person who attended for free (covers the costs). If they buy what I actually want to sell my average sale is $10,000 so 1 customer is worth putting the event on as that is already a 300% return on investment. Regardless what my close rate is on the night though my events tend to have the following results within 2 weeks after the event. 100% of the audience raving fans and referring clients to me I otherwise wouldn’t have had. 25% started some kind of project with me (even if they just paid a small deposit and went on time payments that provides me with ongoing cash flow). I average 50 people at an event so the returns are good. Just make sure you present people with an irresistible offer and give them an easy way to finance it.

To see what I personally do in action register for my next event and check it out for yourself by clicking here.

Question - When following up a press release we received 6 out of office replies, 9 returned emails and 4 people who said they never received anything. What am I doing wrong?

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Great to hear you are following up your press release. The response you describe is usual which is why we encourage following it up in the first place. You never know when people are going to be out of office, change email address, be too busy to read your release etc. which is why it is so valuable to follow it up.

This process allows you to resend your press release to those who have not received it yet for whatever reason and begin building a relationship with the relevant contacts; author to media which is much more valuable then publisher/distributor to media.

It is standard procedure to email out press releases so make sure you resend it to anyone who has asked for it so they can see if they are interested in doing a story on you and/or your book. The more media attention you can get the better but you won’t get it unless firstly they know about your book and secondly you are persistent in your follow up. Keep doing what you are doing and don’t be disheartened as this is the correct approach to take.

Keep me in the loop and let me know of your successes and/or difficulties.

For more information on bookstore distribution click here.

I want to use someone elses teachings to back up what I am saying in my book. How can I legally do this?

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This is a good question. By law you only need to change something by 10% in order for it to be your original intellectual property.

As such I would suggest you do the following:

1. Change the quantity of what you are referencing by adding to or subtracting from it eg. the '7 steps to ...' might become '5 secrets you ...'
2. Change the wording so they mean the same thing but use next to none of the same words eg. 'the quick, black dingo was a cunning beast' could become 'the beast in canine shape, dark and speedy was cheeky indeed".
3. Change question/bullet points to sentences and vice versa eg."Why do you think this is the case?" could become "People often wonder why this is the case."

The other half of that same law states so long as it can't be recognisable as the original and the above should ensure you adhere to that as well.

To have your question answered click here

When are you going to bring out a book that tells people how to write?

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Great Question Hugh! Well I have been telling everyone that a book is coming and guess what August is the month.

What better way to teach people to learn how to write then, "How to Write a Book in Less than 7 Days" THE BOOK. Yes that's right the ever popular bootcamp is about to be released in book format so that you don't have to spend a whole day in an intensive course learning the process but you can read through the book at your leisure. If you don't need to learn how to speed write the formula taught in this book will work applied over any time period and any book on any subject written by any person.

To order your copy of this book check out our new webstore.

And as a special bonus for asking such a great question Hugh will not only be the first to receive a complimentary copy of this new book but for asking a question (to prove even The Publishing Queen needs someone to encourage her to keep writing her book's) it will be dedicated to him. Congratulations Hugh - may your new book be a great success!