Thursday’s profit tips for authors

New authors usually focus on profits from sales of their book, i.e., advances, royalties, and profit margins; experienced authors, however, focus on the back-end products and services they can offer based on their books.

As more than many expert authors I’ve interviewed for Published & Profitable and Jay Conrad Levinson’s Guerrilla Marketing Association have said, “books are really brochures that prospects pay to receive.”

6 tip-filled articles and blog posts

Here are links to 6 Author’s Journey blog posts containing ideas and tips that can help you develop profit sources larger and longer lasting than income generated by the initial sales of your book:

• How do other authors profit from their books? Tips and strategies for researching how authors of similar books profit their books.
  
• Creating information products. Ideas for exploring ways to leverage your book into passive, or recurring, income.
  
• Managing and Marketing information products. How to develop new products and effectively market them online and offline.
• Speaking for Profit. Profits from a single 1-hour speaking engagement can draw the income from the sales of thousands of books. Here are some tips for getting started.
  
• 7 Keys to Profitable Special Events. Special events run the gamut from paid teleseminars and webinars to in-person training, workshops, and conferences. Here’s how to get started.
  
• Choosing a Title for your follow-up book. It’s never too early to start planning your next book! Here are ideas for building on to the success of your first book.

The days of 6 figure advances for first-time authors are over, at least, for most subject area experts. Unless your name is already a household word, the bulk of your profits are likely to come after your book has been published, marketed, distributed, and purchased. Writing is a business, and–for most authors–their business begins after a prospect buys their book.

Wednesday’s marketing & promoting tip for authors

In a world of complexity, Patrick Hanlon’s home page/social media hub site creates a brand creates a powerful brand through simplicity.

What you see to the left is what you get when you search for Patrick Hanlon. Patrick is the author of Primal Branding: Create Zealots for Your Brand, Your Company, and Your Future.

Primal Branding is an extraordinarily well-written, practical, and logical book about branding. Although it came out in 2006, this morning I found myself reading excerpts from it to a coaching client, reveling in its ideas and tight, image-filled writing.

Building an online brand with efficiency and simplicity

After the call, out of curiosity, I Googled Patrick Hanlon’s name. His author hub site, above, the the first that appears, is a marvel of simplicity and efficiency. In less than one, scroll-free screen, his site provides links to 9 blog, resume, and social media sites…plus provides an e-mail link.

The paradox is great; the author of a 2006 book, one that’s so well written it’s still quoted in conversations, today has a simple, SEO-friendly, hub site that provides at-a-glance access to relevant resources.

The brand communicated by Patrick Hanlon’s site communicates several messages:

• Patrick Hanlon lets his words speak for themselves.
• He doesn’t waste his own money, so he won’t waste your money if you hire him.
• He doesn’t waste your time; he allows visitors to easily locate and explore his latest thinking.

There’s a thin line between an amateur site that looks “accidental” or out-of-the-box template based, and a minimalist site that communicates focused, purposeful, and well-constructed simplicity.

Do you have the courage to post a simple website?

Many author sites are wastefully over-designed and–often–so cluttered that no single message emerges. Through its efficiency and simplicity, however, Patrick Hanlon’s author site communicates the presence of a great thinker and writer, one that doesn’t need decoration or verbosity to make its points. What do you think? Is Patrick Hanlon’s site on-target, or too simple? Would you consider creating a hub site like this? Why, or why not? Comment, below.

Tuesday’s writing tip for authors

Mindjet’s Manager 9 transforms the way you’ll write your book by allowing you to plan, schedule, and track your writing progress in a single mind map.

Project management for writers is finally here!

Now, the same mind mapping software program that I’ve been using and encouraging my book coaching clients to brainstorm and organize ideas, create book proposals, and planned detailed tables of contents can also be used to schedule and track your progress as you write your book!

As the example above shows, (or, you can download a large PDF of the MindManager image), Mindjet’s MindManager 9 displays not only the sections and chapters of your book, and the main ideas included, but you can see at a glance what’s already been written, and what remains to be written!

Mindjet’s MindManager 9 permits you to add task icons to each chapter. These display:

• Starting date for each chapter.
• Due date for each chapter.
• Status, or percentage of work completed. A check mark shows completion, an empty box indicates that work hasn’t begun, and a half-filled in box displays that the chapter is 50% completed.

If you’re working with a co-author, you can use MindManager’s resources to indicate which chapters you’re responsible for, which chapters are your co-author’s responsibility!

Gant charting–the big news

The big news, of course, is MindManager 9’s built-in Gantt charting capability: after adding starting dates and completion dates to each chapter, simply click the Gantt button, shown at left, and MindManager 9 adds a timeline beneath the mind map, providing an overall look at your book and your progress on each chapter.

At a glance, you can see not only see what’s been done, but also what remains to be done, and when it’s due!

Filtering

Like previous versions of MindManager, you can filter the contents of your mind map.

Filtering permits you to display:

• Only completed chapters and topics, so you can track your progress.
• Just unfinished chapters and topics, so you can schedule your work.
• Overdue chapters and topics, i.e., chapters and topics falling behind schedule.

If you’re working with others, you can also indicate just the chapters and topics you’re responsible for, or only display the chapters and topics your co-author is responsible for completing.

Time management is a crucial skill for authors…

…and few authors have the time or resources to devote to purchasing and mastering dedicated project management software. Yet, all types of writing and marketing require making decisions and allocating scarce time resources, as you can see in my 5-part Managing Content with a Dashboard series on the Mindjet Blog.

With MindManager 9, however, the same mind mapping software you can use to plan your book proposal and organize the contents of your book can be used to schedule and track your writing progress! By simplifying project management for authors, MindManager 9 makes a major contribution to planning and completing your book on schedule. Download a trial version of MindManager 9 today!

Monday’s planning tip for authors

Chuck Frey, who publishes the Mind Mapping Software Update blog, has just introduced the 3rd edition of his popular Power Tips & Strategies for Mind Mapping Software report.

Power Tips & Strategies for Mind Mapping Software is the definitive guide to choosing and using mind mapping software. It describes the leading mind mapping software programs and shares tips, tricks, and best practices for putting mind mapping software to use.

For several years, Chuck has been documenting mind mapping software and creating a community of knowledgeable mind mapping users who have contributed ideas and suggestions to the third edition.

Mind mapping, writing, marketing, & creativity

As I discussed in my free Authors Guide to Mind Mapping 4-page introduction to the topic, mind mapping is an essential survival skill for writers, marketers, and creativity.

Mind mapping software permits you to visually display details in relationship to details; you can zoom out to get an overall view by displaying just the section and chapter titles, or you can zoom in and focus on just the details associated with a specific chapter.

Above, is a mind map of David Meerman Scott and Bill Halligan’s Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead book showing how the book is divided into sections and chapters.

Putting mind mapping to work

To learn more about mind mapping in general, and the 3rd edition of Chuck Frey’s Power Tips and Strategies for Mind Mapping Software in particular, visit his Power Tips & Strategies for Mind Mapping Software book description.

When you visit, note that Chuck’s Power Tips & Strategies for Mind Mapping Software ships with 2 valuable bonuses:

• BONUS #1: 10 mind mapping software mega-trends: You’ll also receive a brand-new special report that outlines the trends that I believe will be affecting the mind mapping software market in the years ahead. Chuck interprets some of the innovative new developments from selected software developers that indicate the direction the market is likely to move in the years ahead.
• BONUS #2: Mind Mapping Software Comparison Chart: You’ll also get this recently updated report displaying a side-by-side look at 23 business-oriented visual mapping programs.

Author productivity and mind mapping software

As Jack Hart wrote in his A Writers Coach: The Complete Guide to Writing Strategies that Work:

Writing problems are usually the result of planning problems.

Move your writing to the next level of accomplishment and productivity by discovering mind mapping through the 3rd edition of Chuck Frey’s authoritative and comprehensive Power Tips & Strategies for Mind Mapping Software.

Jay Berkowitz, noted Internet marketing expert, returns this week to Jay Conrad Levinson’s Guerrilla Marketing Association to discuss What’s Working in Internet Marketing–What’s Changed and What Remains the Same?

Jay Berkowitz returns by popular demand; recordings of his previous visits are among the Guerrilla Marketing Association’s most popular interviews in the archives.

About Jay Berkowitz & Ten Golden Rules

Jay Berkowitz is an internet consultant with more than 20 years of marketing experience.

He has been behind the marketing for Fortune 500 brands: McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, developed online and offline strategies for AT&T, Sprint, and managed the marketing department for leading health and fitness website eDiets.com.

Jay is the CEO of Ten Golden Rules, an internet marketing agency based in Boca Raton, Florida, specializing in internet advertising and marketing consulting services.

Jay  is the Past President of the American Marketing Association South Florida Chapter, a Founding Board Member of the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association, and was a member of the Toronto International Film Festival Board of Directors.

When I interview Jay Berkowitz…

During our call, Jay and I will be discussing topics like Jay’s recent research into the do’s and don’ts of social marketing.

We’ll also discuss the latest, 2.0, version of his popular 10 Commandments of Internet Marketing report and Workbook.

My interview with Jay “Ten Golden Rules” Berkowitz takes place Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 7:00 PM EST. For more information, visit the Guerrilla Marketing Association website, or contact Roger@PublishedandProfitable.com. There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions during the call, or submit your questions before the call, as comments, below.

If you’re currently writing a book, or thinking about writing a nonfiction book, attend Published & Profitable’s End-0f-month Coaching Call for authors.

Each of our coaching calls offers you an opportunity to:

• Gain a new perspective on the steps involved in writing a book.
• Share your concerns, experiences, goals, and questions with a community of other nonfiction authors.
• Review the details associated an important task.
• Receive my personalized coaching and writing tips from me plus suggestions from other authors.

Published & Profitable’s August end-of-month call takes place Tuesday, August 31, at 4:00 PM EST. For more details, visit the location where the recording will be available for members after the call.