Hobbyville to Profit City Step-by-Step Tutorial

Every year tens of thousands of books are released on Kindle and thousands more are released in print. Most of them only a handful of copies... the average being 75. (Guess who bought those? Yep! Don't forget to thank mom for her support!)

Now I know you aren't willing to settle for selling just a couple copies. After all, you have lives to change, a message to share, people to entertain and bring joy and laughter to, and your own bank account to fill. You didn't get into this author realm to mess around!

Your book is published, so at this point you have a couple options... You could hire a professional PR firm to market you, your book and your business. Hmmm... Want to know how much that investment will cost?

Here's what I learned from my personal friends in the professional PR industry. At the very least, you'll be shelling out $10,000 or around $5,000/month to get a PR firm to do do bare-minimum marketing for your projects and products!

WOW. That's a lot of dough. Which could make a lot of cookies. Which could make a LOT of children happy... and drain a LOT of cash from your bank account.

I've had clients choose this route and my response? "DANG! Don't quit your day job!"

Instead, Here are My TOP 3 Secret-Sauce, Proven Time and Time Again Fast-Forward-Past-"GO"-NOW-and-Land-Directly-in-Profit-City Authorpreneur Success Steps...

Step 1: Know WHO your audience is and WHERE to reach them.

This may seem as obvious as a neon orange elephant dancing the Nutcracker through your local Target, but if you don't know who it is you're trying to reach, how would you even start looking for where to reach them?

Maybe you think you already know who your audience is... but do you really? Or are you guessing? Not knowing the exact single person you're trying to reach is like trying to shoot a target located a mile away swinging from a tree while you're hanging upside-down by a rope, blindfolded, with one arm tied behind your back... and the other arm strapped to your leg while your crossbow is hanging by another 5-foot cord off your waist... I.M.P.O.S.S.I.B.L.E.

(An excessive amount of periods have been added for emphasis... please don't judge.)

You may have a general idea as to who and where that target is, but if you're not 100%-specifically sure, then you're still dangling a mile away flailing about AND the chances are much less likely that you'll hit your target... and much more likely you'll shoot yourself in the foot. OUCH!

All that to say, do yourself a favor and take some time to  carefully and specifically analyze your audience.

In order to identify specifically who they are and where they're hanging out, ask these three key questions:

• Who (specifically) has asked me questions about my expertise?
• How did they find me (specifically)?
• Where (be specific) do they hang out?

If you take the time to very specifically analyze who your audience is and where they are, you'll be well on your way to locating and reaching your target audience... And when you do this Every. Single. Time.  your success (and profits) will skyrocket! (Less periods for emphasis and just as important! Oh did you catch that little important note about being specifically specific? Good. Moving on...)

Once you've mastered Step 1, move on to...

Step 2: Entice your audience to gather together

If you don't have one central location for your audience to gather, you're still trying to reach them one-at-a-time from that rope you're dangling from a mile away... and that's not a good or comfortable place to be (my arm is starting to hurt!). The real secret to reaching your peeps on a regular basis is to have a list.

EEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!! A LIST?!? (Yes, that word has sent many an aspiring author running for cover at their nearest chocolate shop...)

But it doesn't have to scare an additional 30 pounds onto your body.

All you need is something enticing to get people to say, "Yes! Please deliver fun love notes in my inbox whenever you want!" (Keep it clean... HEY! Get your mind out of that gutter!! Sheesh...) Give them something simple, like a checklist. Or a coloring page. Or a profile sheet of your main character. This is what we pros in the industry affectionately call... ahem... [Insert booming, echoey voice here] the "ethicaaal briiiibe."

Don't hold your breath now... The steps to bringing your audience together are very simple.

1. Create your ethical bribe
2. Hook it up to an email management system,
3. Ask people to sign up.

Yes, it can be that easy!

And then what...???

Well, the next and last step is where the rubber meets the road, the chickens come home to roost and the dollars really start stacking up! (No rubber, chickens or rubber chickens were harmed in the writing of this section.)

Step 3: Grow your platform

This step is really the first day of the rest of your authorpreneur life.

There are a lot of directions you can take, including your website, blogging, podcasting, Facebook marketing, press releases, TV appearances, virtual book tours, advanced list building tactics, interviews, webinars, training courses, [DEEEEEEEP BREATH....] ...telesummits, physical products, Pinterest, advanced writing techniques such as using pen names, and oh soooooooooooo much more! (Excessive amount of "o"s added for emphasis.)

This is the singular most important step in your overall empire-building strategy. And no, the secret isn't to put everything everywhere and expect everyone to respond by buying your book and other products and services. (Despite what many so-called book marketing "gurus" will teach you!) In fact, if you keep putting everything everywhere for everyone to see, you'll quickly lose energy and every day will feel increasingly overwhelming as you drown yourself in to-dos that aren't really seeing results. (Excessive amounts of "every" used for emphasis.)

And... you're back to where you're at right now, overwhelmed with way too many cookies and way too little money in your bank account.

That, my friend, is NOT a happy place to be. Unless you REALLY like cookies. And if they're gluten-free... (Contact my support staff if you want to offload those extra gluten-free cookies...)