Sell your speaking

I'm sure many of you would agree that it would be great to have a full-time salesperson to help book speaking for you. But, that must be expensive, and you can't afford the salesperson until you get more speaking, right?

Not so, says Bill Stainton and friends. This post is filled with tips on what kind of person to look for, how to pay them, and how to get the best opportunities that make both you and the salesperson a good amount of money. With the right fit, it can work to everyone's benefit. Of course, there's likely going to be some trial and error to find that person, but it'll pay off in the long run if you heed the advice of some of these tips.

Communication influencing content

Everyday we communicate with people, and when we're not directly talking about our "big idea," it's still reflected in what we say (and often do). As we use sites like Twitter and Flickr, other people are getting a sense of what and how we think about things. This either leads them toward our content, or away from it.

Business Week had a great article about how publishers could learn from this, and offers a few specifics to follow. The one that particularly jumped out at me is "Go electronic from the get-go." Yikes. Authors everywhere will read this and cringe at what might have happened (or will happen) to their manuscript. But it's another indicator that this isn't all about publishers, or authors, or someone else. It's about all of us. The more each of us do to help, the more we look at how communication effects and enhances content, the better.

Secrets

We talk about these a lot. In fact, this very blog was created to discuss some of the "secrets" that exist in publishingville. We even host an annual author Pow Wow to get a bunch of folks together to set the record straight and get everyone on the right track.

Mark Hurst lays out his take on them here. If experience is the best way to learn, learning from others is a very close second.

Write a book, scrap the suit

Everyone's got their reasons for becoming a business author. John Grant posted some of his reasons (if you write a book, you might not need to wear a suit for credibility), and some insightful tips for other authors here.

There's some admitted differences between his experience in the UK, and elsewhere. Anyone have any other experiences to share?

The way books were made

Printing a Book, Old School from Armin Vit on Vimeo.

Bootstrapping

As previously discussed, and as some of you know personally, working with a publisher has huge advantages over self-publishing. However, it's not necessarily easy to get published. One of the reasons self-publishing has taken off as an industry is the ease for anyone to produce their idea on a limited budget. As many find out though, the challenges arrive when it comes time to getting the book out there.

Forbes wrote an interesting article about how one author dealt with this. Going the self published route initially, she found out how big of a platform she could get out of her idea. This 'evidence' led her to huge results. Check out the article here.

Some people spend years trying to get published while they become frustrated with the industry and their ideas burn out in the process. Others go the self pub route and quickly discover the challenges of moving inventory. Elle Newmark, the author in the article, takes both sides on to make an impact and elevate her to a higher author status.

Good odds

From Divine Caroline:

"Odds of writing a New York Times best seller: 1 in 220
Odds of dating a millionaire: 1 in 215"

Seems like penning a best seller isn't so far out of reach!

For those of you who don't feel so confident, try hooking up with a millionaire and you might have a better chance at making the big time. But eventually, that money won't fill the aching hole in your soul to accomplish something, and, realizing that you sold out, will likely spend your remaining years dealing with emotional and addiction problems. But hey, the choice of which path to take is yours!

Audience

As with most content, the creator should consider the audience - what they want, why they want it, and why they should get it from you. In the case of speaking, this is more relevant than ever. After all, who wants to be in front of a group of people who don't care about what you're saying? Not me!

Nick Morgan has posted a 9 part series on how to write a great speech. His rule #1? Consider the audience. In fact, audience is considered in each of his 9 tips, making it clear that it's not just the content that is important, but the context of that content, and how to effectively make the bridge between an idea, and people that will absorb and use it. Check out the whole series and polish up your presentations.

Short term vs. long term

As an author, many opportunities will present themselves, and within them, negotiations will occur. Speaking opportunities will be provided with trade-offs for fees: exposure, book sales, etc. Some will demand big payments right off the bat. Others will build resources and audience through relationship development. The point is to get your idea out there, so that it can grow to higher and higher levels, more opportunities, higher fees, and widespread credibility.

Geno Church wrote today about the Spinal Tap clip where the guitarist shows off his amp that goes to a volume level of "11." Most amps, as you may or may not know, only go to "10." When asked about why he doesn't just turn his regular amp to "9" and when he needs the extra boost, then turn it to "10," he replies, "But this one goes to "11." The Spinal Tap guy wants something bigger right now. I think many authors feel the same way.

Short term high cash vs. long term raving fans is an equation you'll have to solve on your own. Think about the consequences of both routes.

Espresso anyone?

Print-on-demand book vending machines, called Espresso Book Machines, are now popping up around the world. Featuring up to 1 million titles, here's yet another channel where your content might show up.

I'm curious to see how these develop and catch on.