Day 7: Cost Analysis and Visions of the Future

The first chapter from How to Build a Powerful Writer's Platform in 90 Days instructs you to do several things: first, figure out how much the book has actually cost you to produce by calculating the amount of time and money you've invested into it and the value of those things; second, calculate how many books you must sell in order to recoup that money by dividing your cost of production by the amount of profits per book you will make; third, to calculate - based on a 2-3% response rate - how large a following you must have in order to make that many sales; and fourth, to envision what a day as a successful author with a large fan following will be like for you.

There are three books that I'm working on producing right now. I'll use my How to Write book as an example. It took me 8 weeks to produce the rough draft. It will likely take me another 8 weeks to produce the second draft. Six more weeks after that for editing and proof reading.  I produced my own book cover, so I don't have to pay someone to do that for me, but it's a value of $200 worth of work. I'll likely want to pay someone this time around to have it edited, so add in another $500.  The total production hours are 320 at 40 an hour which means $12,800 worth of work. Add the $200 for the cover that brings it to $13,000 and then the $500 for editing and $500 for marketing, for a total of $14,000 to produce.

I intend to charge $20 per book. It will cost me $5 per book to print, so my profit is $15. That means I need to sell a minimum of 935 copies. For every 1000 people on my mailing list, I can expect 20 of those to take action and buy the book. That means I need 47,000 people on my mailing list in order to hit the break even point, and 50,000 to actually turn a profit. That's not impossible to do, but it will require a lot of work on my part. I could charge more, but I run the risk of alienating the audience and making them skeptical of its value.

Here is how I will spend my day as a successful author who is "helping writers get from chapter one to done so you can write the world a better place". I spend the morning checking fan mail, logging it and the subject matter along with my notes for following up. I will follow up with fan mail in one of three ways: video, blog post, or personal thank you.

Blog posts come if several people are asking the same question. Video responses will be for questions or letters that are somehow unique and interesting.  I will then spend the next couple of hours checking and responding to social media outlets such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. After that, it's time to work on my next book, inspired by the needs expressed by my fans. Finally, it's time to craft and post the next blog post. Once a week I will do a book signing, once a week I will give a free seminar either online or in person, and twice a week I will host writing classes.

Day 4: Personal Branding Part 2

Why do we write? What is it that a writer hopes to gain out of writing? It certainly isn't the money. That's not likely to come soon, if it ever comes at all.  It certainly isn't the fame. The reality is that most of us will have our books read by maybe 100 people at the most over the course of our lifetime. It certainly isn't encouragement.  We meet so many people who tear us down, tell us we can't, face us with the facts and data that seem to suggest our failure. Yet, in spite of all this, we plug along and we continue to write.  Why?  What is the compelling force that drives us to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and write in spite of the evidence against us?

I have yet to meet anyone who was good at writing for whom this next statement was not true: books changed our lives. They were our safe place, our refuge, our teachers and guides in an often confusing world. They changed our lives in fundamental ways.  I think this urge to write comes from this belief that if books changed our lives, maybe by writing our own book we, too, can make a difference. We can change things for the better in our world. We can add our voices to the dialogue and make ourselves heard above the noise.

Why do I want to help other writers? What about that appeals to me? I think we all have gifts, things that we were born in this life to do. I know I was born to teach people how much God loves them. Writing is one of the ways that I do that, but more importantly by reaching out to the writers around me I can influence the influencers as they say in marketing. I can multiply the potential for impact by impacting those who are going to make a difference. I have a gift for teaching, and a gift for writing, and by helping other writers I combine those two gifts. This is why I want to do what I do - to help writers change the world by changing the hearts of the people who live in it.

I think when you are feeling down and discouraged as a writer and you're facing writer's block that seems like it might as well be Mount Everest for all your hopes of getting past it, or you've struggled and struggled to put into words the idea for a book that you know you have inside of you to no avail, you can start to forget why you write. You can lose sight of the fact that your writing has the power to make a positive difference in the world, and you may not realize that the world really does need you to make that difference.  It's a difference that only you can make, too.  Nobody else has your words, nobody else has your message. Nobody else has lived the experiences that you have lived.

That's why writers need someone like me. Not to put words in their mouth or tell them things they already know, but to help remind them of their message and how important it is that they share it. If they don't know their message, I can help them find it. If they know it and are having trouble putting it into words, I can help them figure out how to say what needs to be said because that's what I'm good at doing. That's what I was born to do.

Here's a summary of who I help and what I do: I help writers change the world for the better by changing lives. I'm the one to call when you're ready to write the world a better place. There it is. That's my tagline: Call me when you're ready to write the world a better place.

Day 3: Personal Branding

Today with Book Yourself Solid I'm working on Chapter 3: Personal Branding. It starts out by exploring personal failures - moments when you've sold out or compromised your integrity or settled for less.

1.3.1 Ways in which you've sold out, settled for less, or compromised your integrity
 - Ghost blogging. I liked getting paid for writing, but I got no credit for doing it and it wasn't something I did because I wanted to do it but because I was desperate for the money.
 - Painting the "who cut one" tree scape. It made me sad to do it.
- Installing wordpress templates on a site when you know your site design is better but they want to look like everyone else. Makes me feel drained by the effort and totally useless.

1.3.2. Times when you've felt alive and vibrant - fully self-expressed
 - Designing the covers for the writers I have helped
 - Discussing book concepts and seeing them help the writers I know
 - Coming up with book ideas
 - Writing my own books

I don't want to ghost write. If I am going to help, I want them to develop their ideas themselves. I don't mind collaborating on a work, but I don't want to have a portfolio of work I can't show anyone else.

1.3.6. Write down one of your most important intentions as it relates to your business
 - I intend to book myself solid (hey, I'm borrowing from the author, but it's true for me)

1.3.7. Potential conflicting Intentions for the Intention you Identified
 - If I book myself solid, when will I have time to write my own books?
 - If I book myself solid, will I be able to live up to the promises I've made?

1.3.8. Answer the following questions: How are you unique? What three things make you memorable? What are special talents you have been good at since you were a kid? What do people always complement you on? What do you love or never grow tired of talking about in your personal life? What do you want to say that you would never grow tired of talking about when asked about your work?
 - How am I unique? In the words of a friend of mine - "uniquely creative" - I literally just bust at the seams with creativity on all fronts
 - What makes me memorable? Strong convictions, willingness to help, fun-loving nature
 - What are my special talents? Inventing good stories, teaching, analyzing, singing
 - Things people always compliment me on? People are always complementing me on my singing, on my ability to write and to tell stories
 - What do I love and never grow tired of talking about in my personal life? I never get tired of talking about love (God is love!) and about human relationships.
 - When asked about my work, I never get tired of talking about how what I do impacts lives for the better by helping people understand and find important truths about relationships

Okay, so what I do is that I help writers find and share their unique message with the world. I do it because I want to make the world a better place, and I believe that writing does just that.  Refining it. I do this work because I want to teach people how much God loves them. I'm making the world a better place by helping people find their unique love messages and sharing those with the world.

Love messages. Love letters. The knowledge that inside of you is a unique love letter from God to the world, and it is your job to deliver that message because you, as a writer, were born to do just that.
Making the world a better place by helping writers find and deliver their unique love letters to the world. I help writers find and deliver their unique love letters to the world because the world can always use more love. Mmmm...going to have to spend some time thinking about the tagline. That'll probably be a post for tomorrow.