As an author, you hold extraordinary potential.
As someone who’s able to convey thoughts and ideas that can transform people’s lives, equipped with the right information and technology, you have the capacity to catapult your reach and multiply your business through creating and selling online courses.
To help you do that, we sat down with Laura Petersen, a book launch and leverage strategist and founder of Copy That Pops, to discuss ways for you to build a business around your book.
Watch the video below to learn the 3 keys to growing your brand and revenue as an author from Laura Petersen:
The Power Of Being A Yet-To-Be Published Author
Whether you’ve already published or have yet to be published, the fact that you’re an author garners respect from people around you.
Even if you haven’t finished writing your book yet, Laura encourages authors to start sharing your journey as you go.
Why?
Because by doing so, you’re allowing people to be a part of your writing process.
They see you progress along with your journey, and if you have products and services that you’re already selling or could sell (e.g. one on one coaching), you’ll start getting people interested in hiring you.
Writing your book, you know that it’s no easy task.
And it’s for that reason, that having a book makes you stand out from the competition.
So if you’re still writing, keep going!
Soon you’ll be at the finish line.
And once you reach it, a whole new world of possibilities opens up for you, as you’re about to discover below…
The Power Of Being An Already Published Author
As a published author, you’ve achieved what very few people achieve in a lifetime.
So before we go on further, take a few seconds to revel in your success.
Feels good doesn’t it?
Now get ready, because we’re about to dive into creating a whole business around your book.
The natural next step of many published authors is to turn their books into online courses that they can create another revenue stream with.
The good news is, you’ve already taken a huge step.
Your book is essentially a mini-course.
And all you have to do is expand it.
The 3 Pillars To Building A Business As An Author
According to Laura Petersen, building a business around your book consists of 3 main stages:
Re-Purpose
To turn your book into an online course, Laura Petersen suggests finding out where you’re teaching something that’s vital for your audience – that if you have activities, videos, or something more dynamic and interactive, could really help your audience apply the learnings and see more results.
To do this, you can:
- Re-read your own book
- Grab a friend who’s new to the topic to go through it and give you feedback
- Ask your readers for their feedback
The best feedback comes from your readers. So even if your current audience is small (say you’ve had 10 readers so far), reach out to them and ask them for honest feedback.
Ask them questions like:“Where did you feel like ‘Oh that was awesome information!’, and you dog-eared the page, but weren’t quite sure how to take the next step and implement it?”
By doing so, you can identify areas to expand on when you create and sell your online course.
Pro tip: As Laura mentions in our conversation, a good tip for online authors to gain insight into what resonates with your readers is to look at the most digitally highlighted passages from your eBook on Amazon Kindle.
Once you’ve gathered that information, it’s time to create your online course. You can do this using online course platforms like Thinkific.
Related article: Want more details on how to craft your online course? Check out our blog on How To Organize And Speed Up Your Course Creation Process
Promote
There are countless possibilities when it comes to promoting your book and online course, including:
- Facebook Lives
- Podcast Interviews
- News and Public Relations / Media
- Speaking on stage
Laura uses Facebook lives to constantly share her journey in course creation or book writing with her audience for 2 reasons:
- It keeps her accountable to actually get it done because she doesn’t want to risk looking dumb by not doing it
- Like mentioned previously, it allows people to feel like they’re part of the journey and creation process, and as such, are more likely to buy the product at the end
For podcast interviews, Laura recommends finding shows in your general niche that have an audience relevant to your book or online course.
And when reaching out, come from a place of wanting to add value, and tailor your request to each specific interviewer.
Pro tip: As Paddy McGill points out, a good interview request hack is to record a personal video message when reaching out to podcasters.
Regarding media attention, Laura recommends starting local before you reach out to larger media outlets for 2 reasons:
- It allows you to practice being on media – answering questions and where to look
- Bigger news outlets look for a history of being on local media before considering to take you on – they want to know if your story is interesting and whether you present yourself well
The goal is to make things as easy as possible for media to say yes.
The most successful media pitches:
- Have a very short introduction showing that you know who they are and what they care about
- Have about 3 bullet points on what you could talk about
- Have high-quality photos and videos that they can easily insert into their segment
For speaking opportunities, Laura recommends working yourself up.
She recommends starting with podcasts, because you’ll be able to practice articulating yourself with your voice without worrying about how you look.
From there, you can start recording videos, slowly progress to conducting Facebook Lives, before you step on stage.
To land speaking opportunities, Laura recommends starting with people you know instead of pitching cold to people that don’t know you. And once again, start with smaller crowds before working yourself up to larger crowds.
Profit
A great way to connect the dots and link your book to sales funnels is to include free bonuses for the reader.
These bonuses can range from all the links that you’ve referenced throughout the book on a single page, or free lead magnets that you’re already giving away.
For example, you might have a checklist of some sort related to your topic.
Whatever you choose your free bonuses to be, Laura recommends putting these bonuses behind an email opt-in so readers of your book can trade their email address for them.
From then on, it’s about engaging your audience in your own domain (i.e. your email list).
Related article: For more details on how to engage your audience via email, check out our comprehensive guide: How To Build An Email List & Sell more Online Courses
Achieving S.U.P.R.E.M.A.C.Y
Laura is a solid believer in just sharing your book content in any medium you can.
Because by doing so, you’ll be able to reach different people in different ways.
As a result of that, you’ll increase your authority within your niche, and that helps you get more speaking opportunities, podcast invitations, more clients and media attention.
There are 9 areas in which you can grow and solidify your perceived status within your niche. And when you’re able to cover all 9, you achieve what Laura likes to call the S.U.P.R.E.M.A.C.Y factor:
[S] = Speaking on Stage – this includes workshops and conferences (both free and paid)
[U] = Unifying Leadership – this is where you’re a leader of groups, events, and movements
[P] = Podcasts – where you’re getting on more and better engaged shows
[R] = Reel Reach – this is where you utilize video content like YouTube, virtual summits, Facebook Lives, SnapChat and Instagram
[E] = Evidence of Business Success – this is where you have reviews, testimonials and case studies as social proof
[M] = Major Media – which includes traditional sources like TV, radio and magazines
[A] = Articles Around the Web – including blogs, articles on Medium and LinkedIn etc.
[C] = Cool Camera Close-Ups – having professional headshots, pictures with influencers / celebrities, pictures of you doing book signings and doing great stuff in general
[Y] = Your Network & Connections – you can only go so far by yourself. Your network = your net worth.
As you’ve hopefully learned from our conversation with Laura Petersen, you’re in a really good position as an author. You have a lot to offer, and we wish you the very best of luck on your journey moving forward.
To connect with Laura Petersen further, visit CopyThatPops.com, reach out to her via LinkedIn, and check out her guide on the S.U.P.R.E.M.A.C.Y factor. If you’re interested in learning more about Laura’s services, check out her Thinkific page here.
