Self-published authors, course developers, trainers and "How To" ebook publishers understand well that they must market their book or ebook – they don’t get paid unless they do.
But even traditional authors must market their work. In fact, the dirty little secret that publishers are not telling aspiring authors is that your ability to market your work (and for your work to be marketable in the first place) is a major key to whether you ever get a publishing contract or not.
For instance, here are the 3 most important elements agents and book publishers look at in terms of assessing your query…
1. Do you have a marketable, in-demand topic directed at a clear and hot market. Book publishers have a pretty good sense of what markets sell and what topics within those markets are in demand. Remember, they are after mass sales within larger niches for the most part, so it is possible that your topic will still sell several thousands copies but still fall under the radar of a book publisher. Also, remember that you must clearly communicate who your intended buyer is and why they will want to buy your book more than the competition.
2. Can you write. Yes, you must demonstrate that your writing is on target, clear, that you have a good grasp of English and that you come across in an interesting, engaging way.
3. That you have a "platform" – which simply means – what marketing advantages do you bring to the table (or will you bring to the table in the future) to help promote your book. One of the biggest mistakes new writers make is that they assume their ability to write is enough when publishers are looking just as much as their ability to market themselves as write. Your platform could be a combination of a successful website, blog, email list, teleseminar series, speaking engagements, newspaper or magazine articles, or even previous self-published books where you can demonstrate solid sales into the hundreds or thousands of copies.
For most people, putting the effort into up front market research, writing and back-end marketing of your book, ebook or information proudct means that the self-publishing route will be far more lucrative in terms of money – a big part of what we teach within InfoMarketer’sZone is how to create an entire self-publishing empire that involves an ecosystem of lower-end and higher-end products you can use to pull in six-figures or more with your own content.
No doubt, the profile you get from being traditionally published can certainly help to elevate your position in a marketplace and help you dominate profit centers in your business – for that it is very useful. Our suggestion is typically to begin building your profile and platform within your marketplace using techniques we outline in InfoMarketer’sZone – build a following, a trail of publicity and some proven self-published products. Then, when you really want to add fuel to your already burning fire, go for the publishing contract – you’ll have a much better chance of getting it and it will turn into real dollars by bringing more attention to your higher profit products.
