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.
Hope you’re having a productive, exciting day so far…and if you’re not, why not start now?
I want to share a few behind-the-scenes views into the ever-unfolding Lifestyle Entrepreneur book launch. I say ever-unfolding because, even though the majority of people who will ever see Lifestyle Entrepreneur will see this version that’s coming out now, I think of it as v3.0 of the book that I started writing nearly four years ago in Shanghai.
Lifestyle Entrepreneur Across The Years
Even though the first book was called The Entrepreneurs Guidebook, it did include a number of the core concepts that made it all the way to today’s version (like a Vision-MAP and The Operations Model). Plus that eBook is what got me an introduction to my Asian publishers Kanyin Books.
Working with my editor at Kanyin (Carol Lin) was a huge learning experience, as she got me thinking about eye-catching chapter titles and re-writing parts of the book to include stories from my own business history. The re-writes took about 5-6 months, but it wasn’t just “re-writing” the book as much as it was morphing it from a China-USA trade focused book to a more overarching theme of being a “lifestyle entrepreneur”.
But the effort was worth it, and the partnership with Kanyin was exciting as it unfolded over 4 trips to Malaysia and Singapore, filming the book launch video and ultimately seeing it rise up the charts to #2 business bestseller!
Bringing It Back Home – From Asia to USA
In a sweet twist of irony, the first book that became Lifestyle Entrepreneur was focused on China-USA trade, but by the time the book actually came out in USA the journey was reversed from Asia >> USA.
All along it was my goal to have some success with the Asia book launch and use that to leverage into getting a great publishing deal with a US publisher. And not just any publisher, I had one particular publisher in mind; Morgan James Publishing who had released Brendon Burchard’s book The Millionaire Messenger.
So I showed up at a conference that the Morgan James team puts on called Author 101 University with a stack of books and proceeded to approach, pitch and get a preliminary “thumbs up” from their president, publisher and senior acquisitions editor
Admittedly, it was easier to pitch myself as a potential Morgan James author with a book in-hand that already had a proven sales history. But that was exactly the point of putting in the work beforehand with the Asia launch…to not have it be the first time I’m dealing with publishers when releasing the book in US and beyond.
Signing Two Publishing Deals in Two Years.
My strategy to work with Morgan James was to talk to their main decision makers 1-on-1 and get them excited about Lifestyle Entrepreneur. After talking with them at Author 101, and each of them saying “that seems like just the kind of books we like to publish,” I brought them together and said “Please do!” 🙂
I’ve heard countless stories from authors saying “Oh, I was rejected 23 times in a row by publishers” – but my experience has been really pitching two publishers…and signing two publishing deals.
Why is that?
Well, I’d say for one, in both cases I had a finished book ready-to-go; I had already done the heavy lifting and proved that I was going to bring my message out to the world one way or another. Many of the rejection stories I heard center around submitting book proposals (as, in not a complete manuscript with a sales track record).
Takeaway for Aspiring Authors: If you’re passionate about an idea for a book – WRITE ONE! You don’t need a publishers approval or anyone else’s permission to put pen to paper. These days, you have an outlet for your book through programs like Kindle Direct Publishing, eBooks, selling informational/training books on ClickBank and more. So it’s no longer the case that a publisher is gatekeeper to the distribution channels where readers buy books.
The Benefits of Working With a Publisher vs. Self Publishing
Even though it is entirely possible to self-publish a book nowadays, I still prefer working with a publisher because I enjoy being part of a team. Ultimately, signing with a publisher means joining a roster of authors, some in your genre writing similar things as you, and others in different varied fields. These are all potential allies and friends for book reviews, cross-promotions, and future book projects.
Plus, I like the fact that my publishers take care of just about all the details not directly related to writing and promoting a book. Sure, it’s possible to learn about all the publishing platforms out there, join their service, format your book for each platforms tech specs, and integrate sales stats from a variety of sources – BUT – I’m much happier to spend all that time on getting the word out about my book.
So from that perspective, I enjoy partnering with a publisher, and have no illusion about the fact that publisher or not, the author always has the ultimate responsibility to promote his or her book.
Re-Writing and Editing Lifestyle Entrepreneur for US.
After signing with Morgan James, I decided to re-write and improve Lifestyle Entrepreneur again and get it *just right* for the release I always envisioned back when I started writing my eBook in Shanghai years before.
The main change was shifting it from a semi-autobiographical book, featuring my life and business experiences as the majority of case studies, to looking at “being a lifestyle entrepreneur” as an identity that anyone can assume and make their own.
To that extent, I interviewed seven other inspirational entrepreneurs who have kick-ass lifestyles and 6-or-7 figure businesses that they run amidst extensive international travel.
Then I worked those interviews in throughout the book as features, or “Lifestyle Entrepreneurs In-Focus” as it’s titled in the book. This is to give readers a number of examples of what’s possible and let them self-select which ones resonate most with their goals, dreams and life experience.
Then I included a new Discover Your Identity exercise and framework, and re-wrote the Prologue to be current and representative of the most recent year of travel and business adventures.
With the content up-to-date, I turned my attention to the overall look and feel; The cover design and interior layout.
Crowdsourcing Design Work for Authors
In my experience, the writing of a book is my primary creative contribution. I think a lot of first-time authors shoot themselves in the foot by thinking they have to do everything in the process, including the most important thing – designing the book cover.
I had a vision for how the cover could look – with a crest, sort of like you’d see on a prestigious university, but with images representative of being a lifestyle entrepreneur; an airplane, a globe. So I sketched out a rough image with pencil and paper and launched a contest on 99designs!
You can check out the progression of designs on the completed contest here, and you should be able to click on “design brief” and see the original instructions I gave to the designers.
99designs is great for projects like this where you want to actually see the design ideas of many designers up front, instead of like on Elance where you review bids, award a job and then start to see actual designs. Each has their place, but 99designs is cool because you also have a historical record of progress (*and can share it in blog posts!)
Coming Up in Part 2
At this point we’ve followed the progress of Lifestyle Entrepreneur from it’s humble beginnings being written on an iPad in coffee shops and skyrises in Shanghai, through to an initial launch in Asia and now being reborn for a full US and global release.
In the next post, I’ll write about finalizing the book as a “finished product”, and then building a book launch strategy (actual multiple strategies) and shifting gears from “writing and creating” mode, to marketing and selling the book and being the face and voice for it’s message.
Let me know your experience of writing and publishing (or wanting to write and publish) below!
Then I worked those interviews in throughout the book as features, or “Lifestyle Entrepreneurs In-Focus” as it’s titled in the book. This is to give readers a number of examples of what’s possible and let them self-select which ones resonate most with their goals, dreams and life experience.
