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Soulati-'TUDE!

11 Inspired Nudges to Fuel Your Business Book

08/01/2013 By Jayme Soulati

jayme-soulati-blogging-book-cover.jpg

Photo Credit: Jayme Soulati via iPhone 4S on AA flight to LA

Ever thought of writing a book? Don’t tell me you haven’t! Everyone is writing a book, and that either makes you feel left out or jazzed up.

If you have a bucket list, writing a book may be one of your yet-to-achieve items. Because self-publishing is the latest trend to hit the book world, there’s no better time than the present to jump on board and self-publish already.

Self-publish? How did that word hit you?

Some have a negative reaction to we who self-publish our first tome. My first business book has been out a few weeks, Writing with Verve on the Blogging Journey. The concern is that bloggers who write books are not legitimate authors. (I know this to be true, as I heard it from someone directly.)

Bah-humbug!

When you have an archive full of content hardly seeing the light of day, then why not compile these posts into a collection of insights?

Bloggers have keen opinions and are usually remarkable teachers. They offer vibrant thought, lead perspective and showcase talent from years of writing and perusing others’ writings. Check into your archives and see if a book is ready to pop from under the covers. Maybe you need a nudge of inspiration to help push your book into reality?

11 Book-Writing Tips and Nudges

1. Showcase Confidence. Overcome what’s challenging you about writing a business book. Business development, building your list, power for the brand, and achievement for the soul are significant reasons why authorship works. Understand that a book builds your cred; it’s an opportunity you’ll never regret.
2. Got topic? As mentioned above, start with your blog. Comb your archives and see what strikes you. There are topics you’ve tackled more frequently than others, and these posts become book fodder.
3. A blog is owned media! You own your blog and you write your posts. Owning all this content means you can re-purpose it into a business book easy enough. Add them to a document, sort, update, tweak, and off you go!
4. Do self-publish the first title. There’s nothing wrong with self-publishing; it enables a faster go-to-market strategy. It eliminates time on the front end and provides more time to market the title. Now that budding authors have the opportunity to self-publish, carpe diem! Did you know that Mark W. Schaefer self-published The Tao of Twitter?
5. Is an e-Book a book? If you prefer to launch a book online only, stop worrying that people won’t consider your e-book legit. It’s a common emotion, but guess what? You are writing the book for YOU. If people read and like it, that’s another discussion.
6. Invest in you. Write for you, write to achieve, write to invest in your future and your credibility. Printing a book on your own will require a financial investment; however, plan for it. Money is required to publish a book; but, it won’t break the bank.
7. Time is of the essence. As a professional blogger, you are familiar with time commitment. Your growth is along an ever-steepening path. Add your book project into the blogging queue. Instead of posting four times weekly, then only post two for awhile and use that writing time for your book. You learn to manage time better when it’s time spent building your brand.
8. What will peers and critics say? Ignore the naysayers. There will be people who don’t regard your work with value; others will say you’re not a “true” author. Put on the ear buds and listen to happy music! Perhaps you’re a blogger who wrote a book (like me), or you’re a bona fide writer who wrote a book…pray tell…what’s the difference?
9. Writing a book is necessary. Are you trying to monetize and earn money online? A book provides so many opportunities to help monetize from building a list, earning authority, speaking engagements, and business development.
10. Will anyone buy it?  An investment in time, talent and thought to craft your first title is NOT about making a profit. You are writing a business book to accomplish so much more for your growth professionally. If people buy it, then that’s a bonus. Lower your expectation about selling hundreds of books. You can be surprised later.
11. After the first title, more follow. Mark Schaefer does not recall this email to me about three years ago. I asked him where his book was, and he said, “Why should I write a book, everyone is!” Now look at him with three highly successful business books under his belt. Once you sit down to write the first, there’s a second title just beneath the surface. I know this from experience. My first title is just published, and my second is being written in my head right now.

The experience of the experience is the biggest reward you’ll have when you allow these inspirational nudges to push you into authorship. My bookshelf and Kindle always have room for one more title, and I bet yours do, too!

This post originally appeared on Mark W. Schaefer’s blog, Businesses Grow, on July 3, 2013.

Please Buy Jayme’s Book!

The e-book and soft cover are available via Amazon, right here!

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Filed Under: Business Tagged With: Author, Blog, E-book, Investment, Mark Schaefer, Mark W. Schaefer, Self-publishing, Twitter

Always Publish An E-Book, Too

06/27/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Self-publishing a book in whichever format comes first is a wonderfully tedious, exciting, disturbing, and mind-boggling experience. I know this to be true because I just did it — with many trials, tribs and nail-biting.

Today, I’m so pleased to present:

If you download the e-book, and find you just can’t live without the soft-cover to hold in your hand, you can get this .

There’s an entire system of pricing you have to consider when setting yours. Because I used a hybrid publisher, they get a portion of every sale and so does Amazon. Hopefully, your first book is an experiment in the discovery of the process and not a get-rich-quick scheme (‘cuz I hate to break it to ya, that ain’t gonna happen).

My Biggest Mistake

I was so hell bent on publishing the manuscript for the soft cover to debut mid-April at the that I neglected the e-book.

I was exhausted after writing the book, proofing, fixing, proofing, seeing comps, building a presentation deck, traveling, and ohmygosh where did the time go…that I put aside that e-book.

When I went to tackle it, apparently, I couldn’t add the hyperlinks to the hard copy template. Something about InDesign vs. Mobi files…?

So, I created a spreadsheet with 40 hyperlinks that needed to go into the document on a respective page on a respective line and for a respective word phrase.

After two weeks, I got a file to proof and check those 40 links, and then I got another file and then I got another file to check those 40 links. So, if your analytics shows me pinging  your blog for two seconds, you’ll know why — Jon Buscall, Danny Brown, Dino Dogan, Gini Dietrich, Adam Toporek, The Jack, New England Multimedia, Ralph Dopping, Kaarina Dillabough, Laura Click, Erica Allison, Fire Pole Marketing, 12Most.com., Steamfeed, and others.

My Best Move

Embarking on self-publishing is a mine field. Just hook into any thread on a LinkedIn Group or Google+ Community oriented to the topic, and your head will spin. There are about 24 gazillion pieces of software you can use to publish, and if you’re just an author/content marketer as I am, you’ll drown choosing the right fork in the river.

That’s why using was the best move I made. As a hybrid publisher, they help you with any aspect of the self-publishing journey from proofing/editing, designing the layout and cover, publishing the e-book, adding a QR code, and printing the hard copy. It even has a storefront on its website featuring a variety of little known authors writing on a breadth of topics.

Interested in working with a publisher like this? Try them; see my interview right here. David Braughler is top dog in my book.

And, speaking of “my book,” Thank you, world, for waiting patiently as I schooled myself in the self-publishing arena. A special shout out to who ALWAYS supports, shares and ‘raderies moi and Roho, aka , for that awesome review of this book.

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Filed Under: Business, Marketing Tagged With: Amazon Kindle, Danny Brown, E-book, Gini Dietrich, Greyden Press, LinkedIn, Publish, Self-publishing, Social Strata, Verve

Soulati Media On The Street With Greyden Press

05/15/2013 By Jayme Soulati

BOOK! We have book!

Hot off the press is Writing with Verve on the Blogging Journey by Jayme Soulati, available now at the Greyden Press Store. In a parking lot today, Jayme interviews David Braughler of Greyden Press, a hybrid publisher, who helped her bring her 130-page book to market.

See how it all transpired in this interview during which, ahem, Jayme steals the show from David for the first minute.

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Filed Under: On The Street Tagged With: blogging book, blogging tips, Greyden Press, hybrid publisher, Jayme Soulati, Publishing, Self-publishing, Verve

Book Review of APE By Guy Kawasaki

02/05/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Guy Kawasaki, American venture capitalist and one of the original Apple Computer employees responsible for marketing of the Macintosh in 1984. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Content marketing for business development purposes is critical. Businesses need to draft authentic and fresh content and make it available via calls to action on a website which turns into a landing page and then a thank you page and everyone’s happy.

My first e-book was written in December; a collection of blog articles I’ve written about blogging — one of my favorite topics.

And, then this monkey book came to my attention. I am screaming from the rooftops:

RUN AND BUY NOW!

If you don’t already know about APE, uhmm, well perhaps you’re under a rock? No offense…this book is everywhere on all the social media channels and being reviewed by everyone. I would be remiss not to join in and share the excitement for this book. If you have any designs whatsoever, even if it’s a germ of an idea, to become an author, then please, please go get this book.

I downloaded this book by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch and read its 500+ pages over a few nights all the while highlighting and bookmarking pages for future reference on my Kindle  Fire.

I knew, prior to finishing the book, I had to go back to the drawing board with my e-book which I’ll share about in another post. This book is that good; it’s making me take the time to redo and do it right to become a self-published author.

Why You Should Read APE

This book is written in a friendly and easy-to-understand style and tone. It has a ton of detail about all aspects of publishing books. Although I am only interested in self-publishing, the book is a great resource for traditional publishing, too.

Each chapter addresses the basics about writing, formatting, designing selling, and working with publishers. What it does extremely well is tell the truth about the quagmire that is self-publishing.

This industry is nascent, and there are no real standards yet. People who self-publish should really consider using Adobe InDesign publishing software (used by professionals and $$), and they also need to learn and understand the various formats for the various booksellers. I never knew a thing about MOBI, EPUB or PDF file formats. I also never knew there are four major players with which you can work to sell your e-books (via Google Play, iBookstore, Kindle Direct Publishing, and Kobo).

How about pricing a book? Don’t forget how much it costs to design a cover, proof and edit a book, too!

APE-Book-CoverFor serious authors, this is probably a piece of cake; for first-timers like me, it’s a nightmare…time consuming and fraught with tech issues one can’t control. Did you know that each file format handles tables of contents differently? Don’t even think about having nice images, tables or bullets in your manuscript without ensuring they look decent in the final form…these don’t import well, either.

 

That’s why this book is worth every penny. Each and every one of the issues above are addressed in this book. Even if you merely want to publish a PDF book for downloading on your website, you still want to read this book. Who knows? That PDF book might become hugely popular, and then what should you do?

The other good news about this book is the website the authors built for the book, Upon going there, with one share on social media, you’re privy to tools and downloads that help you write and self-publish your own book. Guy and Shawn self-published APE, and it’s offered on Kindle Direct Publishing. How cool and clever is that?

You know what else is awesome? is featured in the book with her own chapter! She’s the and of 12Most.com, and she also manages a (by request only), too. It’s really wonderful when the people who have guest starred on this blog show up in nationally acclaimed books.

Run, as I said, and get this book. Its a top read for every would-be author.

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Business, Marketing Tagged With: Adobe InDesign, Amazon Kindle, Apple, Guy Kawasaki, IBooks, Kindle Direct Publishing, Publish, Self-publishing

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