Turning the tables. Here’s our take on the whole book universe.
Not an expert by any stretch – but I did cash a couple checks thanks to this book.
The Real SMM 2010 Social Media Marketing Guide for Real Estate.
I’ll leave the advice on “finding a publisher” to the others. I’d rather share a one-two-three punch – some things you can do like, right now.
1. Lulu. Big-Time Advantage – Getting an actual copy of your stuff. For some people, tangible is great – hold it in your hands, dog-ear the pages. Some people like to read on a bus or a train.
For me, getting an actual copy of my stuff was done for THIS REASON:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfd_8Gp-kgo
Tangible Proof of Expertise. Positioning.
Not done for the sales numbers – checks are nice to cash, but that’s not the real reason for writing this particular book. This one was all about a means to position me in front of more real estate industry clients as someone who knows what I’m talking about.
2. Kindle. Big-Time Advantage – Selling Your Content Lickety-Split. I hang out from time to time in Internet Marketing circles – but not with the Social Media Tools but with people who share information that can actually help me do my job better. One such guy is a James J. Jones, and his techniques for putting together content that can be sold on the Kindle Platform are rather cool.
I’m not gonna talk about his techniques, though. Instead, I’ll share this bit of advice:
If you have written a book, or have even written a few chapters of a book, get it on the Kindle Platform NOW.
How easy is it? I sat in on a one-hour webinar from Mr. Jones and multi-tasked. While he was sharing his grand strategy, I was signing up to publish my book.
Here’s a link to it in the Kindle Store.
3. Nichification. Big-Time Advantage – There’s a niche you’re already in. Still a big fan of the term “Nichification.” Still eventually going to write a book on that very topic – Jim Alexander and I are still talking to people about it, doing interviews, blah blah blah.
But, while we went down the path of “write a mass market advice book on niche business marketing,” I would encourage you to take a look at “writing a niche-focused book on a niche topic that you know something about.”
It’s a big world out there – 400,000 Kindle titles published last year alone. And, if you’ve read the classic “The Long Tail,” you’ll know full well that there’s an audience for just about anything.
F’rinstance…real estate social media marketing.
Publishers – the types who want the next The 4-Hour Workweek – will need to see Social Proof these days. If you’re a Scott Stratten or an Amber Naslund and Jay Baer, your social proof is already evident in the last few years of, well, being you.
Your Social Proof can be – and, in this world, should be – seen in the fact that you can put your thoughts to digital paper, and put that digital paper into people’s hands. You don’t have to sell a million. Or even a thousand.
Do you have a publisher? No? Doesn’t matter – best way to prove your mettle as a writer is to actually get out there and write something. And use the three tactics above to, well, change your title from “writer” to “Author.”
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