BUSINESS UNVEILED

How to Become a Successful Author

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JYOTSNA RAMACHANDRAN ON BUSINESS UNVEILED 

How to Become a Successful Author

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Have you ever thought of writing a book? You have all kinds of history and experience that has gotten you to where you are today and you want to share it with the world, to help those who are going through their own similar journey. Becoming a successful author is not an easy feat, but it's possible!

Sometimes to become a successful published author, it requires some major help and guidance from the experts! Telling your story and putting it into words can be challenging, but there are options available to help you along the way!

I’m so excited to share our guest today, Jyotsna Ramachandran, Founder & CEO of Happy Self Publishing. She will be sharing with us why authors need not be writers, building and author funnel and converting readers into clients. 

MAIN TOPICS

  • How authors can land their first TEDx Talk
  • How authors who are not writers can finish their manuscripts
  • The top mistakes authors make while trying to self publish

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Turning on the Author Switch

Building an Author Funnel

Converting readers into clients

MORE ABOUT OUR GUEST

Jyotsna is a bestselling author, book publisher, TEDx speaker, and is an international Author Success Coach who helps coaches, trainers, speakers, and experts to build a super-profitable author funnel with the help of their book.

She founded Happy Self Publishing to help overwhelmed, yet purpose-driven authors experience a transformative journey of self-discovery through the process of publishing their book and amplifying their message. So far, Jyotsna has helped over 400 authors from 35 different countries through her global publishing agency, Happy Self Publishing.

While Jyotsna isn’t working, this mom of 2 kids also loves to dance, run, plan her next solo trip, and is a passionate advocate for educational rights. 

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EPISODE TRANSCRIBED

I'm so excited about today's guest. She's a best selling author, book publisher TEDx speaker. And then international author success coach who helps coaches, trainers, speakers and experts to build a super profitable author funnel with the help of their book, business so needed in our industry right now. She founded author Success Academy to help aspiring authors finally finish their book, because it's not easy people takes a lot of dedication and a lot of focus. And she gets the book professionally published, market it into a best seller, and use that position to grow your business.

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So far, she's helped over 500 authors in 35 countries through her global publishing agency. It's called Happy self publishing that I love that because it should be like a really happy thing when you're publishing a book, but it actually can be very stressful. When she isn't working. She is a mom of two kids, she loves to dance me to girl, run, and plan her next solo trip. And she's a passionate advocate of Educational Rights justo, welcome to the show today. Thank you so much, Angela, this is amazing. I'm so excited. Y'all. She's joining us all the way from India. And we were I was just telling her about some of the most beautiful events that we've gotten to do with some of our clients and how much fun their community is. And so before we hop off, and really jump into the guts of talking about publishing and finishing those things that are so hard to sit down and finish, I would love for you to share a little bit about your background in your story. And what really drove you to want to help people self published books and prepare to give speeches.
Sure, so my journey as an entrepreneur began, 10 years ago, I was working in a retail store, I was managing a cluster of stores. But after a point, that job was kind of getting a little boring. So I quit that job. And I started my first business, which was into staff recruitment, that went on well for a couple of years. And then I became a mom and my life completely changed. And I realized at that time that I need to spend more time at home. So it would be amazing if I can find a business that will let me work from home. And if it can also give me the flexibility of time, that would be amazing. So I started Googling how to make money online. And I came across this opportunity of self publishing books on Amazon. Back then this was about seven years ago, that was a very new concept. And a lot of people in the US and Canada were teaching about this whole industry of publishing books on through Kindle. And I was really excited about it. And I learned the stuff, the mechanics of how it works. But I did not consider myself to be a great writer back then. So I just would find writers who are professional ghost writers, give them a nice topic, they would write books and give it to me and I would publish it in the under different pen names. So that's how I started my journey of self publishing. After that business became pretty successful. I actually shut down my other business and started to focus on this. And during that time, I was also feeling the urge to share my story through my book. And I wrote job escape plan. This was five years back. And after that book came out, people started noticing my work till then I was silently working from home doing my things. But then, after the book came out, people started looking after me as an expert. They wanted to ask my story. And that was a very fulfilling experience when especially when readers would read the book and write back saying that it has given them the confidence to quit their job, which they didn't like, I would really feel happy. So I felt that while this is more gratifying than all the ghostwritten books, which I was not able to really connect with
So that's when I thought why not help real authors who have a message who have a story. And luckily, I had already set up a team of editors and cover designers and all these people who are needed to publish a book well, so I put them all together and call it happy self publishing. And I started my publishing business, especially for entrepreneurs who have a message, and they just didn't know how to put it together as a book. So that's what we've been doing for the last five years, Angela, and I'm so glad that we've helped more than 500 authors from 35 countries so far. That's incredible. Okay, so job escape plan, right? How'd you come up with that title?
That's a nice exercise. So I just, I was actually learning from a lot of book coaches back then. And a lot of them said that your title needs to be shot, you cannot have a big phrase, a long sentence. So I tried to limit it to less than three words. So I made a lot of different options. And then I created an online poll, and a lot of people voted. And this title got the highest number of words. So that's how I finalized on that. I love that. So y'all, if you just ask your audience, what they want, and what they want to learn about or what they want to escape from, it's really magical, because people actually tell you, isn't it cold? Exactly.
And then it's like you're actually tailoring a message to people that actually want to know how to do something. Because I know I've had a few not so great ideas, and my business coach or consultant at the time, because I work with someone new every single year. And they're like, Well, have you pulled the audience? Have you had a beta group? Have you asked like, just because you think it's a good idea doesn't mean it's a good.
And I'm like, oh, shoot, and I have really, I call it opportunities, but I've really learned the hard way in in lost dollars and revenue from not asking the audience. So you said you've helped over 500 people in which is incredible. Is there a certain industry or a certain subject, or I know you said entrepreneurs, but I mean, there's so many entrepreneurs out there is there are one or two subjects that you guys specialize in, or industries that you specialize in. Here, right now we specialize in business and self help books. And I know they are broad genres. But we love that variety that our clients bring in like one book is about productivity. And the other book is about parenting. And something else is about some technology stuff. But usually it's in this space where the author is the expert. We used to do all kinds of books before children's books, historical novels, and thrillers and mysteries used to do everything. But then we realized that if we are able to bring our focus to one genre, we would be able to do a better job. And that's when my business coach asked me to go through this exercise of picking my ideal client. And when I did that activity, I realized that I love working with entrepreneurs, especially if there are service based entrepreneurs like me, who have been running something successfully, but they want to take it to the next level, they are hitting that glass ceiling and they want to break through, they want to get that credibility of being the expert by writing a book. And those are the people now whom we are intentionally now focusing on. That's awesome. And there's so many. It's like it, I know what exercise you're talking about, because we've gone through that too. And we redo it every year. And it's like, we get more focused and more focused. And there is so much business to actually go around if you just focus. So that is an incredible, incredible tip. So for many people watching or listening, I'm sure they want to know, do you think that in order to get a TED talk or a TEDx talk? Do you need to have some type of a book, whether it is and I know a lot of people I know even myself, it's like, it's so daunting to like, go out there and shop publishers and like get a big book deal. But what I'm hearing is like, you really don't need that, like you can hire someone like you from your company, and help them put these things together. So do you feel like people really need that if they're going to apply to be a TEDx speaker?
Sure, I can talk from my experience. Angela, I've been on to TEDx stages. And what I experienced was this for many years, I was just waiting,
waiting for a TEDx opportunity to land at my doorstep. But that
ever happened. I was thinking that one day when I become famous, I'm going to get all these opportunities, then I felt that maybe that will happen eventually in future. But for now, if I can actually take some action proactively, I may get that opportunity. So I went to Ted Ted dot coms website. And I made a list of all the upcoming events in my area. And I reached out to all the curators of those events. And my email pitch was identical with just a little bit of customization. So I basically had three points in my email. The first one was the idea that I wanted to share. So I made sure that the idea was relevant to the theme of that event, because most TEDx events will be focused on one particular theme. So I'm sure we all can speak on 10 different things. So we need to just find out if it matches with that theme, and pitch that particular idea. And the second thing that I told them was that I'm also a speaker, and I gave them a couple of links from my YouTube channel so that they can actually watch me speak live. And it can give them the confidence that I will also do a good job on their stage. And the third thing was my book, I mentioned that I'm, by the way, I'm the author of this book, it's got so many reviews on Amazon, it's been a bestseller. So go check it out. And I felt that the deal closer was the book, because that's like an added advantage. If they are inviting 10 people to speak at that event, not everybody is going to be an author. And they like to have a couple of authors for I think, just to build a little bit of credibility there. So I'm not saying that every TEDx speaker has to be an author. But if you have a book, it makes it a lot easier. Absolutely. So share with us like I'm even interested to know about getting a self published book on Amazon, like, how exactly does it work? I we did a book trailer like I directed in and helped edit and like do a sound design for like, as a self published book. And the author wanted a book trailer and like a landing page, like a little mini website to talk about books, sell the book, get reviews. And I wasn't on that side of getting it on Amazon and Amazon, printing it and sending it out, like on your behalf. And I would love for you to share, like, how does all that work with Amazon? Because I think a lot of people they think, Oh, I have to go and like figure out where to print the book, and where to get the cover. And I know that you have a team that does all of that. But talk us through like, does your team handle like getting it all on Amazon? Like, how does that even work? Sure. So a lot of authors who are doing it, for the first time are overwhelmed thinking that oh my god, there are some 100 different moving parts, and how am I going to figure this out. But I, I would say thanks to technology, thanks to platforms like Amazon, self published authors have. And for us, it's become really easy now. So I think about 10 or 11 years ago, Amazon introduced the Kindle platform. And then along with that came KDP, which is Kindle Direct Publishing, where anybody from any part of the world could upload their manuscript. And within by just the click of a button, you become an author. So that kind of made it a level playing field. Now anybody can become an author. However, because of that freedom, we started getting a lot of low quality books as well. If I go back and look at the ghostwritten books that I published, I'm not proud of most of them. Because nobody did a quality check. It was just uploaded, right. But soon, readers became smart, and they started leaving those nasty one star reviews. And I think that's a good thing, because now authors are pretty conscious that they need to put out good quality books. So if you if you're an author who has an important message or story to share, then I think it's your duty to publish it and help out others through your book. However, it doesn't mean you need to do everything yourself. I think the most important thing that the author needs to come up with is the content, the idea that they want to share in the book, all the stories and strategies are whatever you want to share. That's, you know the goal that you're going to contribute. But other than that, everything else can be done by others. So I think an author needs to evaluate what are their strengths and do only those things. If you're great at writing, then please do the writing by all means. But if that's not your strength, if you're dyslexic, or you don't have the time, you can also work with not ghost writers, but Angel writers who can interview you and take your content and write it for you. Now once the manuscript is written either by you or a professional Angel writer, then I think there are three important things Angela and author can do several things. But the three foundational things that need to be done well are the cover the editing and the books.
Interior Design. So if you can work with freelancers or people who you know, can do a great job, or agencies like us who have a team in place that just get these three things done well. So you have all the final files with you the cover interior design, file, the cover file, and all of that, then it's really simple. It's as simple as creating a Facebook account, you just go and create a KDP account, which is in your name. Now, this is really important. I'm stressing on this, because a lot of authors give it give this task to somebody else, like a hybrid publishing company, who published the book under their account. Now, if you do that, then you're technically not self publishing, because you will not know how many books you're selling, you will not know what money you're making, you need to just trust whoever is giving you the check at the end of the year. But if you consciously choose to self publish, then have the book in your own account. So that you can just log into the dashboard anytime and check what's happening. And once you do that, then all you need to do is fill out the details of the books, title, subtitle, upload the files, choose the pricing, choose the territories where you want to distribute the book, and hit the publish button. Now the good thing about Amazon is you can publish the ebook, as well as the paperback and the audio book on your own. And as you rightly mentioned, Angela, a lot of authors have this apprehension that they need to spend a lot of money in printing and stocking and shipping, you don't have to do any of that, you just have to upload the file that your formatter gives you. Amazon has this print on demand option, which means every single time somebody buys the book, they would print and ship it to the shipper to your reader. And they would deduct the printing and shipping cost and send you the royalty. So it's very, very convenient. And I think every author should have their book in multiple formats. Because nowadays, the audiobook sales have increased, people are going back to the paperback. So just because you're self publishing, it doesn't mean you should just have your ebook, have it in multiple formats. So when you say audio, does that mean that the book would go on Audible? Exactly, yeah. So again, there are two ways you can do this. I highly recommend that authors record their own audio book using their own voice. And you don't need any fancy equipment, I think a nice microphone. And a software to record on your computer with the silent background is good enough. Amazon does. Audible does give that guidelines to record. So you can just follow that and record the book chapter by chapter and upload the files through audible. Now some authors especially who don't live in English speaking countries, like when I wanted to publish my book back then I was I had zero confidence to record my audiobook. So I hired a narrator from the United States, and she did a fantastic job of narrating my book. So you can have that as the second option if you don't want to narrate it yourself, because of accents or whatever. So that's also an option. But the first choice should be to do it yourself, just give it to an audio editor who could just remove the
oohs and ahhs and other background noise if there is, but otherwise, it's pretty simple. You just need to upload your files. And audible takes a few days to review the book. And then you have it online. So your company does walks people through like how to how to structure the content, and how to do do all of this. But when it comes to marketing the book and selling the book, and telling the world about the book, is that something that you all help with? Or is that a separate team or a separate company?
Right. So we have certain things which we do really well. And we do that for our clients. And we have some partners who take care of a lot of other marketing and PR related stuff. And we recommend our clients to go to them. So I believe Angela, that book marketing is not a one time task. It's an ongoing process. But we need to pay special attention towards the launch. Because that's when you want to launch with a band, you want the whole world to know that you're a published author. And you're in the weeks of the launch, you also want to target the bestseller rank. So that's what we specialize in. So we help our authors to become number one inside Amazon under multiple categories. And it really helps in building credibility as well as give more visibility for this newly launched book. But that's not the end of the whole thing. You also need to constantly be promoting the book. So we recommend authors to go on podcasts like these and talk to the talk to other people's audience who could be interested in your book. You could be running Amazon ads so that when somebody's searching for a keyword that's relevant to your book, your book shows right next to the book that's already a best seller. So those are some ongoing strategies, but launch marketing is super important, though. Our team will
execute a lot of things, we do need the author's help as well, like building the launch team getting the initial reviews. So we guide them on how to build the launch team, how to make the announcement, we do provide all the support, but I think it's a partnership, right. So authors need to be equally involved in the process. And if they are willing to spend their time and effort in doing this, then the book will definitely be a success.
I think that there's there's a big misconception, sometimes we're set where, and we've helped clients in the past before they're like, Okay, I have this new book, but it's not selling. And I'm like, what's your strategy to sell it? And who are you telling? And who's your target market? And who is your audience? And are you running ads? And are you going on podcasts? And are you speaking? And do you, I mean, you can use it as a lead magnet, you can give the first chapter away for free, like, there's all these marketing things, right. But some people, they don't know that, okay, like, step one is getting all the content together, and getting an editor and, and it takes time people like you can't just think that you're finished. And then Okay, the works done. Like you said, it's like an ongoing thing. And so from the time that someone has an idea, and says, Okay, I have really great, great, great content, it can help so many people, from the time that they work with your team, to actually launching it, what is a realistic timeline,
six months would be realistic and ideal. We can do it faster, but then the quality would suffer. So I think a book project is for a lot of people, it's a once in a lifetime project, right? Not everybody is going to become a serial author who will write one book every year, some people end up doing that. But for most of them, it's like their dream that they've been having for many years. And for a lot of them, it also supports their business, the book is like your tool to attract the right clients to amplify your message and grow your business. So why would you want to take a shortcut and write a book over the weekend, there are people who actually claim to be doing that. But it may be possible, but there's a huge difference in the quality. So if the book has to represent your personal brand, then take three months to get the manuscript written. Because what I recommend is at least 30,000 words, there are people who would write 10,000 words and publish their book. And luckily, Amazon is still going to accept your book. But then it's going to look like a booklet, when you actually physically give it to somebody, it's not going to look like a book. So I'm not asking people to write 100,000 words, because nobody has the time to read those kind of books anymore. But 30,000 to kind of 50,000 is ideal. And that can easily get translated to a nice 200 page book. So to write something like that, either yourself or using your angel writer, it would take two and a half to three months, that's ideal if you're able to focus in focus, or at least give one hour of time every day. That's all it takes. But that one out of time, that discipline is really, really important. That's the holy hour, an author should actually mark on their calendar and schedule it so that they are able to give that time. Once the manuscript is written, then to do all the other stuff related to publishing and marketing. It's ideal to have another three months.
Yeah, I mean, whenever we do launch parties or launch plans, I'm like, 90 days, like, bare minimum, like 90 days, people think that, oh, we can just we have this idea. And we can do it in 30 days. And I'm like, No, exactly. Like the quality would not be there. And then the results and the outcome would not be the same. So I'm like, let's really think through this because you're putting time and money and investing and effort. And let's do it the right way. Like let's not rush into it. So I'm so glad to hear you say that. So for people that want to get started, who aren't good writers, like you mentioned ghost writers and people that can interview people. So is it better to like sit down open a Google Doc. So it's backed up in the cloud, you don't have to hit Save 100 times an hour
to just start putting their ideas down on paper? Or is it better to hire someone who can interview you and talk through your ideas and your content, like are both good or is one better than the other?
It totally depends on the author and what are their strengths and what are they good at? So but the foundational steps are the same Angela so the outlining, choosing the right topic and outlining the book is like the foundation so we cannot skip that step. Otherwise, it's it's not going to finish even after six years.
So, six months is like too short a timeline if we don't have the clarity of the books outline. So whether the author writes the book themselves or takes the help of a book coach, now this is a good option as well. If you've been writing on your own, and you're struggling and not finishing the manuscript, but you want to write on your own, you don't want to give it to another writer, then working with a book coach is also a great option. It's just like a business coach, they would meet you every week, and see what you've done, understand where you're getting stuck, give you the tools and strategies to overcome that, give you some tasks, and then they will review your progress the next week. So that's also a good process. So once you have that outline in place, then you need to decide if you enjoy writing the book on your own. And if you can give that time to do it, if you can. And that should be the first option, because it's a wonderful and fulfilling experience to write the book on your own. But after having tried that, save for a few months, and you're just not able to finish a couple of chapters, then probably you have other challenges it could be in writing, like my husband is dyslexic, so he wanted to write a book for years, he's a relationship coach. But finally, I said that this is not going to happen if you try on your own, because he's not confident about his own writing skills. So I interviewed him. And that's how I actually discovered this process. I interviewed him over a span of 10 days. So every day, we would cover one chapter, I recorded all of that. And after we did the recordings, I then went back and listened to each of those chapters and wrote it for him. And after that book came out his business went to the next level, because now he had physical proof of his expertise, which was the book right till then, he was himself not so confident about how good he was. But when he held that book, for the first time in his hand, he got the confidence to attract better clients charge more and make a bigger impact. So coming back to the writing. So if you have a challenge of time, or if you're not able to have the skill of writing, then it's, I don't think you should waste your time trying to do it on your own. In that scenario. It's great to have an angel writer do this for you.
Yeah, and one thing I'll say is, when I sat down to do one of my first books, which are very first one, my video coach actually took all of our videos, and then at the end of the year, gave it to an editor. And then she put it like in a tips book format. But what I learned is that I am way too close to my information sometimes and then to even though it's to my target audience, I'm not always speaking their language, because they don't know what they don't know. And so she would come back and ask me questions. And sometimes I would feel like a little frustrating. I'm like, What do you mean, you don't know. And then I've had to reframe and understand, like, I'm so thankful that she was asking me all of these clarifying questions. Because I've learned like, when you're clear clarity, speed, you get speed when you're clear. And a lot of us because we're in our own heads, or we're not giving the full story, or we're not explaining it correctly, so that someone who doesn't have this information can actually consume the information, and then actually learn from it and get a result from it. And so I really had to take a step back and say, Oh, my gosh, like, you're right, what the hell does some of this stuff mean? It's almost like when I worked in health care, like there was this big book. And it's like ICD nine codes, when you're like coding bills to send off to insurance companies to get them to pay the health bill. It's almost like a completely different language. And, you know, we're speaking English, but I'm like, I know, I hear you, and I'm listening. But I don't understand. I don't know what you're talking about. So it's really, really important to take the guidance from someone who's trying to help you. Because I know some of my friends who've been authors, and they come back and they say, well, the publisher is trying to change this, and this and this and this. And it's like, they're not, they want you to be successful. So hey, they're not trying to hurt the story, or hurt your manuscript, like they really actually care. And they're trying to help you. So I had to learn, like, don't be defensive, and really take their guidance because they know what they're doing. Like they do this all the time. So when this
Sorry, I was just saying that this also happens when a client comes to us with a fully written manuscript. And then we immediately get started with the editing process, and we have a four stage editing process. So the first warning we give them is please be open to feedback. We are doing it for your benefit, so we have your best interest in mind. So please be open to it. You are the expert, no doubt about that. But we just want to make sure that the book is
better for the reader. So, so a lot of authors understand that and that's why they are willing to invest in an editor. So all these people be the writer or the coach or the editor are all trying to make the manuscript a few notches better. So most authors get it. So it's important to just have that open mindset. So what are like, the top mistakes that people when they come to you? And you're like, Oh, no, no, no. Like, are there three top mistakes that you like consistently See, and people?
That there are many, many, but let me just try to restrict it to three. I think the first one is the topic of the book itself. as you rightly mentioned, when you go to a traditional publishing house, they are going to be brutal, they're going to tell you honestly, what will work and what won't, and that's why they reject 99% of the manuscripts. But since you're self publishing your book, a lot of authors feel that they can just write anything, and nobody is going to stop them, right. So what we do is we also don't reject manuscripts, because it's the author who's going to self publish it. But we give this advice anyways, because we also want to support this book. So one mistake that I see the first one is author's focus on sharing their story, they try to write the book as a biography about their life, right, because they've had some great experiences, and they really want to share it. So they make it about themselves. But here's the problem, unless you're a celebrity, nobody wants to know anything about your life. Right? They don't really care. But if you just switch that and actually flip it, and position it in a way that can be of help to the reader, right, for example, a person could have gone through a very tough journey of battling cancer. But if you just make your story, people may not really understand the value behind it. But if you talk about the strategies that you use the healing techniques that you use to overcome this thing, then probably people who are either going through that journey or have relatives and family who are going through it will definitely feel like buying it, because now you're actually providing a solution to their urgent problem that they have. So I think it's great to share your stories. But don't make the book about yourself. Don't write a memoir or autobiography unless you're already famous. Make it like a book that can help your readers. So think in the from the point of view of the reader. So that's the first mistake people want to just write about themselves. The second mistake, I would say is authors feel that since they are self publishing, they need to do everything themselves. So self publishing is not doing everything yourself. It's absolutely okay to seek professional help. In areas where you don't want to be spending your time, you would rather focus on giving interviews about your book, because nobody else can do that better than you because you others can talk about your book, you need to talk about it. So for those kinds of things, spend your time. But things like scheduling your promotions on different websites can be just done by a VA, so don't try to do it yourself. So that's my second recommendation, be it editing, cover design, all the important processes, don't do it yourself. The third mistake that I would say is people don't focus on the marketing, they think if I just put it up on Amazon, magically everybody would find the book and it would just sell on its own. But I think as an author, it's our responsibility to constantly talk about our book. People also feel that I'm very shy. I'm not that great at marketing myself. I'm very modest. So how can I keep talking about my book, but I feel that if you have this powerful message and that urge to share it with the world, then you would forget about yourself and you would think about how can this message reach a lot of people and since that is the focus you will be okay to work if the book so I think these are some of the common mistakes people make.
And I cannot agree more. Like I do you think you're so right, where people are like self publishing DIY, do it all myself. And I'm like, No, there's real people out there that do this for a living that can help guide you. So and also something that you said earlier was just thinking through the whole process and like even if, even if you're not great at something like you said, Your husband is dyslexic, but he has an amazing message, like reach out and ask for help. Like it's okay to ask for help. And one thing that, that I see a lot of people that they don't think about which is something that you talk about is putting together an author funnel like building an author funnel. So I would love for you to share with our listeners and our viewers like what exactly
He is an author funnel like what does that mean?
Sure. So an author funnel is a step by step journey that your reader takes, where at every step, they get more and more values. So this journey starts with the book. So right on top of the funnel, if you can just imagine it as a funnel, like an inverted triangle, right on top is the book, a lot of people would read the book, the next step, the next ideal steps that the author should plan is the free value level, because after reading the book, people would want to continue the conversation with the author, they would want to know more about what else does the author offer. So it could be a podcast, it could be your videos on YouTube, it could be a blog. So that's the free value level where your content doesn't stop with the book, you have more free content for your readers, after a point of time, few of the followers who are serious action takers, would look for ways to pay you so that they can actually get some immediate results. So this could be an online course. So this level is the paid value level, where it's not too expensive, something maybe in the price point of $97 to 490 $7, it could be a course it could be a membership, something that's more structured, and can actually give some immediate results for these action takers. And then finally comes the premium value. Now, this is not for everybody. But a few people out of these people who've signed up for something of lower value will want more access, they would want more connection with the author. So it could be one on one coaching, or group coaching, or your professional speaking, or done for you services. So these are these busy professionals who want bigger results. And they don't mind paying that premium to the author to get access to all of that. So ideally, these are the four layers in the author funnel. And this, this needs to be planned in such a way that your readers actually move up the ladder, and they actually get rich this premium value level. Now there is this one hidden step here, which a lot of authors don't do. And that's why the book and the business don't have a connection. And this secret step is a gift that you want to plant inside your book. Otherwise, what happens is people would read your book, and then they get busy with something else, they watch the next movie on Netflix, and they forget about your book. But we need to bring them from the book to your universe, only then they will discover your course or your YouTube or whatever. So for that you need to have the contact information of your readers. And Amazon does not give you that even if you sell a million copies you won't know who your readers are. So it's the author's responsibility to have a lead magnet inside the book. You can call it the reader magnet or anything of that sort and just make it a value upgrade. And it could be
like an assessment tool, it could be
an action guide, something that's like an easy PDF for them to download. It could even be a three part video series, something that is related to the book and can add more value. Like if your book is on recipes, you can offer a shopping list for free, something like that. But please have that free bonus inside your book, only then it will be easy for you to take your reader into your universe. Yes, own your own audience people.
Like I've listened to a ton of audiobooks on Audible. And throughout multiple chapters, I will hear the either the author or the narrator saying like go to this website, it's a URL. And typically when you go to that URL, I have to put a name and my email or my phone number in there to join a text community or an email list. And that way they're getting my information. And it's like, Yes, I want to be on their list because I enjoyed the book. I'm learning from it. I want more. And I agree with you. Like there's a lot of books I listened to and I'm like, Okay, what how do you know who I am and what I need? Like you're not asking for that information. So that's a huge misstep that, that I just see as a consumer, like consuming and listening to all of these audiobooks. So then that's a huge, huge, huge mistake I think a lot of people do make. So you actually have a an author success bootcamp. So I'd love for you to tell everyone about that. And how can they become part of that?
Sure, Angela. So as I was telling that the initial steps are the most important not to build the right foundation, choose the right topic, understand your why behind the book, create the outline for the book, and all those important things like how do you become a best seller, so it's important to have those important knowledge before you actually even start writing the book. So that's why I created author success Bootcamp, which happens inside my facebook group called Happy authors tribe, so our listeners and viewers can check out happy self publishing
dot com slash tribe, it would take them to happy author's tribe. And you will get to know as soon as the next boot camp is announced, it's a five day boot camp. It happens live. You can come live, watch me ask me all your questions, and I'll be super happy to help you. That's awesome. And if people want to connect with you, do you have a favorite platform? Or what is the best way for them to connect with you? I think Instagram would be great. You can find us at Happy self pub. You can follow all the good stuff that we post there and also send us a DM. That's awesome. This has been so helpful. I wish 10 years ago when I first started, like putting out self published lead magnets and books that I would have talked to you or met you because I learned a lot. And I'm still learning because things are changing and new opportunities and new technologies. Because doing this on Amazon when I first started, it didn't exist. And so it's like a whole amazing world that makes it so much easier for us to get our message out there. So thank you so much for being on the show today. Thanks, Angela. It was such a pleasure talking to you. Awesome, and everybody that's listening or watching. Thank you so much for your time. And I will see you next week on another episode of business unveiled by y'all. That's it for this week's episode of business unveiled. Now that you have all the tools that you need to conquer the world and GSD get shit done. Would you share this with your friends and fellow business leaders? One thing that would really really help us and help new listeners is for you to rate the show. And leave a comment and Apple podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you tune in and listen to business unveiled. You can check out the show notes at Angela proffitt.com slash podcast and link up with us on social media so you can share your biggest insights. And I want to know your aha moments. Until next week, remember the profitable shifts and structures you're creating in your business help you be more present in your life. So get out there and GSD

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