Book Profit Secrets with Ray Brehm

Using virtual summits to launch your business or program is a great way to tap into your audience and to find the right partners. Summits can help you build authority in your space, but they also put you in a good place to go ahead and launch something else based on the feedback you receive from the summit itself.

When you host your summit along with other experts in your sphere of influence, you’re basically endorsed by them which furthers your credibility. You also get feedback in real-time from the audience around what they need and what kinds of products they want to see. It eliminates the guessing game when you’re working to come up with something viable.

The beauty of virtual summits is that you don’t even have to know what you’re going to offer next because your audience will guide you. In fact, they’re paying for you to come up with it. Summits can help you go from publishing books as a hobby to launching a business. Once you see the results, you’ll want to do more.

What’s Inside:

• Using virtual summits to grow your audience.
• How partnering with others in your niche builds authority.
• How your audience can provide you with your next product.

Today’s episode covers all the great reasons why you should start doing virtual summits. I share my own story about how I got into them in the first place. I’ll talk about what worked, what didn’t, and what I learned so that you can get an idea of how to set up your own.

When you’re an author trying to build a business around your book, you need three things: proof of concept, your own audience, and connecting with other influencers in your niche. You can invite influencers to speak at your summits and you can also make some decent money through affiliate marketing.

Virtual summits seem like a lot of work upfront, but once you have all of the pieces, you can automate the process. I’ll share some tips on how I automated my own process so you can get up and running and on your way to more income.

What’s Inside:

• My experience with my own virtual summits.
• Three things you need to build a business around your book.
• Working with influencers to build your audience and make more money.
• How to create and automate a virtual summit.

In this bonus episode, I’m going to talk about email lists and why they’re important. The great thing about email lists is that they put your customers and fans all in one place. They’re also algorithm-proof, because we all know that Amazon and Facebook can change how they do things at any time.

There’s a mindset that goes along with building and maintaining an email list, and that’s to be your own best customer. Figure out what your customers would like to see the most in an email and offer them something great in exchange for their email address. Start with the end in mind when you’re building your plan.  

Plenty of great tools are out there to help build a great list, and a lot of them are very affordable. I share some of my favorites and talk about the pros and cons. I also talk about ways that can get you set up with a solid list and audience in the fastest way possible.
 

What’s Inside:

• Why having an email list is so important
• Tools I use to build and maintain my list
• The fastest way to build a high-quality email list

Today’s episode is probably the most important of all, but it will likely be the one that people skip because it sounds too fluffy. I’m going to tell you the number one factor that determines who is going to make money from their book and who isn’t. It comes down to one word - abundance.

I’ve met people with both at all levels. If you have a scarcity mindset, it scares you out of industries that you should be participating in. You feel like you can’t compete so you don’t try. If you’re just starting out and you’ve got a scarcity mindset, that’s going to limit you.

When you have an abundance mindset, you can literally do anything. You won’t let obstacles get in your way and limit you. You should never compare your beginning to somebody else’s middle. Don’t let a fear of failure prevent you from trying. If you’re just starting out, all you have to do is flip that switch in your mind to an abundance mindset and you can do anything.

What's Inside:

• The importance of having an abundance mindset.
• How having a scarcity mindset will limit you.

I could give you a lot of examples of times I’ve turned down things or not bought something because it was just too hard. I click on a link and I can’t see the price without giving them my email address or signing up for a newsletter, so I don’t complete the purchase. If I can't see the price of the thing before you take my email, it's more of a hassle for me to then have to go and unsubscribe, so I’m out.

Consumers have so much choice these days, so it makes sense to give them the easy button. Make it easy for them to buy from you. This means making the decision, the purchase, and the consumption easy for your clients.

On the flip side, you also need to make it easy for yourself. Is it easy to develop? Is it easy to maintain? And is it easy to enjoy? It needs to be worth my while - do I enjoy it and do I profit from it?

Every first attempt is a kind of case study, so you need to get to the second try as soon as possible. Getting to that second try is really one of the keys to making that easy button work for you so, for your first try, done is better than perfect.

You’re not going to be an expert in everything, so knowing when to ask for help is important. If something is outside of your skillset, getting a little help with that is key.

What's Inside:

• The easy button.
• Making the decision, the purchase, and the consumption easy for your clients.
• Making it easy for yourself - easy to develop, easy to maintain, and easy to enjoy.
• Asking for help with things that are outside your skillset.
• Done is better than perfect.

Having a book is your best business card. Being a bestselling author gives you credibility. Having a published book, or better still, two published books, demonstrates your expertise. But writing a book is hard work and can take a lot of time. In this episode, I’m going to talk about how you can use anthologies to get your books out there and onto the bestseller lists.

When somebody reaches out to me and I don't know who they are, I check on Amazon to see if they’ve got a book about what they're talking about. A book is a great way to show your authority. And having two books on Amazon is twice as good, if not ten times as good. A book shows that you have the expertise, but having another book shows you're serious about being an author and expanding your reach.

It’s a chore to write and publish a book. Writing, editing, formatting, making a cover, it all takes time. Then you’ve got to launch it and market your book. But here’s a trick. Join an anthology with other authors, do a fraction of the work, spend a fraction of the money, and get more books in your Amazon library.

Anthologies are also great at making connections. If you co-author an anthology with 30 authors, multiple authors are marketing you every time they talk about the book. You can find people to partner with, people to do webinars with, people to promote your summits. There are so many advantages to connecting with other authors on an anthology.

If you want to host an anthology, it’s critical that you get all your ducks in a row right from the start. Set out expectations, schedule, and who the contact person is, straight off. And be careful who you agree to work with. If an author is both inexperienced and money-driven, it’s a red flag.

You don’t make money on royalties - royalties are practically nil for most books - so don’t get dragged into sharing royalties. It’s a lot of work for very little gain. And be wary of co-authoring with people who want a cut of the royalties. It’s a sign that they just don’t get the purpose of having a book.

Even better than being part of an anthology is being part of an anthology that is one of a series. This massively multiplies the benefits. Now it’s not just your co-authors who are marketing you, but the authors on the other anthologies. Books in a series get more traction on Amazon too, so it’s another win.

Book Profit Secrets brings people together. Join as many anthologies as you can afford to, consider hosting your own anthology, and try to get on an anthology that is part of a series. You’ll gain credibility and visibility and it will really help you to promote your business.

What's Inside:

• Why you should join an anthology.
• How having a book elevates your credibility.
• How co-authoring an anthology builds connections.
• Why you shouldn’t focus on royalties.

Will authoring a book make you independently wealthy? Well, maybe, but mostly likely it won’t. People who tell you that if you “just write a book” you will gain crazy amounts of wealth haven’t been truthful with you. You could potentially earn a lot from writing a book but that is going to take a large investment, especially in ads. There are other, very specific, reasons to write a book. I explore some of them today.

A book is simply not a profit center for your business, nor will it likely become a passive income for you. That being said, your book does play many important roles. The main purpose of authoring a book is to draw people into your world. If you write a book, you become the authority on a topic, and multiple books build an even bigger authority. Writing a book establishes credibility, shows your readers that you are an expert, and educates your readers. It’s important to keep in mind that this isn’t going to be a big cash cow for you, but it does open other doors.

Another big reason to write a book is the opportunity for your readers to opt-in to your email list. Once your name is out there as an authority, people will be able to find you and choose to opt-in. Once they are on your list, you can contact them whenever you want to share your message.

One good way to begin getting your name out there as an author and expert is to take part in an anthology. Not only does it get your name out there, but it also adds to the library of books that you’ve authored or coauthored, and people can start finding you.

If you are looking to grow your business, establish yourself as an expert, grow your business, and really get your name out there, then writing a book might be for you. Authoring a book can do all of this and more for you.

What's Inside:

• Why you should consider joining an anthology.
• Will writing a book make you independently wealthy?
• How will writing a book grow your email list and why is that beneficial?