Personal Development & Business Authors: Here’s An Easier Way To Sell Your Books
“Do as much of this as you possibly can.” -Gary V.
You have a message that you want to get out there.
You put in a lot of work writing and creating a full book that you know will help a lot of people.
The last thing you want after investing all of that time writing your book is for it to land on death ears and collect dust.
Thankfully, I found a way to get your message heard by thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of people — repeatedly — helping you sell more books and help more people.
And inside this article, I’ll be sharing with you exactly how to do that, even if you have little to no financial resources for marketing.
This is especially for you if you write books in the personal development and business space.
If that’s you, then stick around.
The “Garyvee” Approach To Selling Books
Regardless of your opinion of the man, Gary Vaynerchuk is a marketing genius.
If you are in the personal development space you know who this man is.
He is literally everywhere.
And guess what happens when you are seen everywhere? You gain a lot of trust in the market
When you’re seen as an authority, your ability to influence someone to make a decision is much stronger.
In other words, people buy from you easier because if they trust you, then they already know, and like you — all factors in getting someone to buy from you.
This is why in an article he wrote he said that the most important thing to do when you’re selling a book is to figure out how you can get massive exposure.
Why? Because massive exposure leads to rapid and higher levels of trust amongst your target audience.
More attention = more trust.
More trust = more influence.
More influence = more sales.
Now the question is, how do you get more attention?
Where The Attention Is And How To Get It
One time I was listening to the podcasts, My First Million with Sam Parr & Shaan.
They were interviewing a woman by the name of Elaine Zelby, and Elaine has a website where she publishes 3 start-up ideas every single week.
So on this episode, Shaan asked her to share some of those ideas.
One of those ideas was to build a video game for financial literacy for kids.
And she said if you want to be successful with it then it’d be a good idea to build the video game using the Roblox game-building feature.
She said instead of building a game from scratch that building on top of Roblox was a smarter approach for two reasons.
- The Roblox platform is already validated by the market.
- Roblox has more than 32.6 million daily users.
Her point was not only are you building on a validated platform, but you are building on a platform that has all of the attention you could possibly need to start and grow a business.
The reason I told you this story is that it demonstrates the importance of leveraging an already-built platform's audience to get in front of the right people.
And think about your audience.
One of the best platforms out there right now (and likely for a long time) is podcasts.
And when it comes to the personal development space, podcasts have already captured the attention of that market.
People who are more interested in learning and growing as a person are more likely to listen to podcasts.
I can bet that if you’re a personal development or business author you have at least a few podcasts that you listen to regularly.
And podcasts aren’t getting any smaller any time soon.
As of November 2022, 383.7 million people listen to podcasts (up from 144 million in November 2020.)
Not only that, but people who listen to podcasts also don’t mind being advertised to, and 54% of podcast consumers say that they are more likely to consider the brands they hear advertised on a show they like.
Are you seeing now, the potential bubbling up under the surface of this thing called podcasts?
Well thankfully for you I’m about to crack the surface open and show you how to turn podcasting into an evergreen book-selling machine.
The best part is that you don’t even have to start a podcast to do this.
How To Turn Podcasting Into A Book Selling Machine
If podcasting to get book sales is something you’re ready to do, let’s dive into how to actually do it.
And remember, you don’t need to start a podcast to do this.
Why?
Because you’re going to sell your books by guesting on these podcasts, now running one yourself.
Why Podcast Guesting Sells Books
When you get featured on a podcast, you gain the attention of all of the listeners who tune in to that show.
If you've been advocated for by the host, you will automatically gain the trust of that audience — and if you show up and deliver value on the show itself, then you will gain a lot more trust with the audience.
It’s how you collapse the time in between turning a cold stranger into an interesting prospect and even a raving fan.
As I’ve stated in other articles, podcast listeners are more captivated than anybody walking around in a bookstore or scrolling on social media.
They are more interested in the topic at hand, therefore they will be much easier to influence.
And selling your books, or anything, comes down to your ability to influence someone else to make a decision.
One single show could put you in front of tens of thousands, even millions of the right listeners.
I’ve personally used podcast guesting to grow my hypnotherapy business by selling $3000-$5000 packages.
If I can sell things at that price through podcast guesting, you can easily sell a book.
With that said, let’s get into the ins and outs of how to execute this for your book.
Start Before Your Book Is Out
As any author will tell you, getting your book published is only half the battle.
The other half is getting people to actually read it. And one of the best ways to do that is to get some press coverage before your book is even released.
There are a number of reasons why this is important.
First, it helps to create a buzz around your book.
If potential readers see that your book is getting some positive press, they’ll be more likely to take notice.
Second, it can help you secure better placement in bookstores and online retailers.
If store managers see that your book is generating some excitement, they’ll be more likely to stock it prominently.
Finally, media coverage can help you attract the attention of literary agents and publishers for future projects.
Start Before You‘ve Even Started Writing
And you don’t even have to have anything written before you start.
You can start doing this now to build your personal brand and your personal audience.
If you have a business, a blog, a podcast, or things to give away, hand out those links on the shows you’re on for people to follow you, or simply lead them to your social media accounts to keep up with you.
Allowing you to nurture the relationship with your audience so that when the time comes for your book, you have a group of raving fans who will vote for you with their dollars.
Build And Maintain Relationships With The Hosts
Getting featured on a show once is great, but what’s even better is maintaining and strengthening the relationship you build with the host.
This allows you the opportunity to come back on the show to market your book if you’ve already been on and it gives you the opportunity to collaborate with them to sell your book.
For example.
Let’s say you wrote a book on how to grow a business while working 40 hours a week.
If you’ve already been on a show that teaches people how to grow side hustles, you can approach the host of that show again and ask them if they’d be willing to share your book with their audience and split the profits made.
This only works if there is already a true relationship established.
So keep in touch with them and find ways to add value to their life so when it comes time to make an ask, they're primed to say yes.
The Process I Use To Get Booked On 4+ Shows A Week, And How You Can Too
Now that I covered those important points, you’re ready to learn how to actually get booked on shows.
I already wrote an article sharing exactly how I do this, so just click here to read the breakdown of the step-by-step process I follow to get booked on 4+ shows a week (without having to pay for PR or guest fees).
All you have to do is replicate that exact strategy step-by-step and you’ll start getting booked on shows as soon as tomorrow.
In Conclusion
So if you’re an author who writes personal development or business books and you want an easier way to sell your books, focus on getting massive exposure by guesting on popular podcasts in your niche — all while promoting your book to people who are already interested in what you have to say.
This will help you gain the trust of your audience and make it more likely for them to buy your book because remember, people who listen to podcasts are more likely to buy from the brands they hear advertised on their favorite shows.
And if you want to learn how I get booked on 4+ podcasts every single week to make more sales then click here to read this article where I break down exactly what I do (so you can do it too).
