The Hive Mind: Book Marketing for Experts

Hiring a ghostwriter isn't handing the book off. Liz Heflin writes nonfiction business books — and now publishes them end to end through her own press — and she tells clients to plan for 10 to 30 hours of interviews and six months to a year before a manuscript is in hand.

In this episode: when a ghostwriter makes sense versus a book coach versus writing it yourself, the four stages of the process and where your time actually goes, why the return on a business book sits in the offer on the back end rather than the cover price, and how a ghostwriter captures your voice on the page.

Connect with Liz Heflin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-heflin/

🌐 beehivebookmarketing.com/podcast

Chapters:
00:00 — Intro
01:15 — When does hiring a ghostwriter make sense?
04:40 — The ghostwriter as accountability partner
06:42 — How much of your time it still takes
07:13 — The four stages: strategy, interviews, writing, edits
09:43 — Six months to a year from kickoff to manuscript
10:27 — Ghostwriter vs. book coach vs. writing it yourself
14:30 — Nobody writes a book in isolation
15:36 — Why paying for it is what gets it finished
16:33 — The real ROI: clients and stages, not copies
18:33 — How a ghostwriter captures your voice
20:04 — Why the first draft never sounds exactly like you
22:05 — Where to find Liz

#bookmarketing #ghostwriting #businessbooks

Most experts treat their book as something to promote. Kory Kirby — a publishing strategist who's taken 100+ books across the finish line — treats it as a product to design first.

We get into why product comes before promotion in the four P's, the "five parts of you" system that turns a book into consulting conversations, and why price and placement (boardroom-only distribution, $300 direct-sold editions) can matter far more than copies sold.

Connect with Kory Kirby: https://www.linkedin.com/in/korykirby/

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033l9h1JaE3qhlslHbDS7h
🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hive-mind-book-marketing-for-experts/id1896795747
🌐 [beehivebookmarketing.com/podcast]

Chapters:
00:00 — Meet Kory: 113 books, a decade in
01:33 — What separates a book that works from one that doesn't
03:58 — Why Pressed is a product-first book
04:33 — The four P's — and the one everyone skips
06:38 — What actually makes a book a good product
08:34 — The five parts of you: brand → content → platform → conversations → offer
10:42 — When the reason to write a book is too shallow
11:58 — Why the author now matters more than the book
14:51 — The book game is a long, slow churn
15:53 — Originality and cover design in a sea of AI
17:07 — Price: $25 on Amazon vs. $350 direct
19:01 — Placement: the books you can't buy anywhere
20:28 — Where to find Kory

#bookmarketing #businessbooks #authority

Why write a business book — and what does it actually do for your business?

Marina Aris, founder of hybrid publisher Brooklyn Writers Press, makes the case that a book is a funnel, not a keepsake: a way to generate leads, leverage your expertise, and outlast a social feed that forgets you in a day.

In this episode she breaks down her "three L's" — leads, leverage, and legacy — how to plant lead breadcrumbs inside the book itself, the dictation route for experts who swear they're "not writers," why most business books fail to convert, and how a finished manuscript can reach market in 12 weeks instead of three years.

Connect with Marina Aris: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marinaaris/

🌐 beehivebookmarketing.com/podcast

Chapters:
00:00 — More than a business card
02:38 — Why write a business book: leads, leverage, legacy
05:00 — How a book actually generates leads
08:22 — What "leverage" really means
10:32 — Not a writer? The dictation route around a ghostwriter
13:16 — Why most business books fail to convert
17:40 — Before you write: deciding if a book is for you
21:38 — Legacy, and last advice for first-time authors
23:22 — Where to find Marina & Brooklyn Writers Press

#bookmarketing #businessbooks #authority #publishing

Most authors waste money on Amazon ads. Here's how to run them properly for a business book.

In this episode, Cristian Ungureanu sits down with Michal Stawicki, an Amazon ads specialist who has managed campaigns for hundreds of authors since 2017, to break down exactly how consultants, coaches, and agency owners should approach Amazon advertising when the goal isn't book sales — it's clients, speaking gigs, and enterprise conversations.

The shift in mindset is the whole game: your book isn't the product, it's the top of a lead generation funnel. Once you internalize that, the math, the tracking, and the spending decisions all change.

In this episode:

• The biggest budget-killer in Amazon ads: when the algorithm decides not to spend your money no matter how high you bid — and how to spot it early
• The real cost of acquiring a reader (~$10) and how that pencils out when your back-end offer is $5K–$50K
• Why one of Michal's biggest clients 10x'd book sales but only 2–3x'd leads — and what was broken in the funnel
• How to track leads from your book properly using dedicated landing pages, QR codes, and channel-specific sub-funnels
• What to fix on your Amazon book page before spending a dollar on ads — description, endorsements, A+ content, and the mistakes most business authors make
• The two highest-ROI book marketing channels that cost nothing but social capital
• Michal's $700 Amazon ads test run — the cheapest way to find out if your book and the algorithm will actually get along before scaling spend

If you're a consultant, agency owner, advisor, or fractional executive using a book to open doors in your business, this episode will save you a lot of wasted ad spend — and help you decide whether Amazon ads belong in your launch strategy at all.

Connect with Michal Stawicki: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stawicki-michal/

More from Beehive Book Marketing: beehivebookmarketing.com — growth marketing for established experts using a book as an authority asset.

Topics: amazon ads for authors, amazon ads for business books, book marketing, KDP advertising, book funnel, lead generation for consultants, book launch strategy, non-fiction book promotion