Donald Trump tries to negotiate a deal with Mao Tse-Tung for a casino in Shanghai. This "fractured fairy tale" never happened, of course, but you can read this 1,500-word story in my next book, Guerrilla Deal-Making, co-authored by Jay Conrad Levinson, the famous guerrilla marketing guru, who has sold about 30 million books in the series going back to 1984. It’s Chapter 1.
Deal-Making is an in-depth look at the 100 most powerful influence techniques contained in my 365 Powerful Ways to Influence, which came out in early 2010. You can’t order Guerrilla Deal-Making from Amazon until October or November. It will be on the shelf in bookstores in January 2013. My book is already finished, but the best time of the year to launch a book, according to my publisher, is in January. Why? Because the "hottest" time of the year for publishers’ sales reps to sell new books is October and November. About 2 months lead time is needed. By the way, the e-book will be available sometime late this summer. All e-formats except Sony.
Influencing people to come into a bookstore such as Barnes & Noble specifically to find a specific book is hard to do. Most people buy a book on impulse. How am I planning to influence people to ask bookstores for my latest book? Social media is the most important way. You readers who write books should read Guerrilla Social Media Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson and Shane Gibson. I should have read this book before 365 Powerful Ways to Influence came out. I would have sold a lot more books if I had followed the advice in Guerrilla Social Media.
Here are nine influence techniques I’m going to use to sell more Guerrilla Deal-Making books.
One: Set up a Guerrilla Deal-Making website. (I already own the name, and I’m in the process of setting it up, using a web designer here in Mesquite, Nevada.) I own many other similar names, too. Why? Because "guerrilla" is often misspelled. People who misspell "guerrilla" will be re-directed to my official guerrilla website.
Two: Write a blog and feature it on my website. A well-read blog is the most important thing of all. There are ways of getting powerful bloggers to feature material from my blog. The Donald Trump vs. Mao story will get a lot of attention, according to the publicity people at my publisher. So I’ll start out with that. Trump is hot these days, and if he runs for president, he’ll be even hotter. (If you’re thinking of writing a blog, you need to know you will have to use something called Word Press.)
Three: Get on other people’s blogs. How? By submitting my blog material to big bloggers.
Four: Send out a one-minute to two-minute "talking head" video each week. To thousands of people. To get thousands of names, I’ll be using Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and You Tube. The video will be accompanied by a short newsletter with weekly tips on how to influence others and make deals. The more my name is out there, two things happen: People will ask Barnes & Noble and Amazon for my book, and my publisher’s sales reps will be more motivated to push my book.
Five: The video and newsletter will also give stuff away free online. What kind of stuff? Tips on how to influence others and win big in deal-making that aren’t in my books.
Six: I won’t forget radio. I will do radio shows several times a week—several hundred over the course of 6 months. This is easier to do than you think. I can be interviewed at home. I have compiled a list of over 300 radio talk shows and will start to contact them soon.
Seven: Television is good, but not as good as radio. My publisher suggests trying to get on Fox News, Bloomberg News, CNBC, MSNBC, etc. I’d like to get on the two biggies on the Comedy Channel, The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert. However, my publisher says appearances there don’t sell many books. And I don’t want to fly to New York.
Eight: What about newspapers? I will send out press releases to newspapers on a regular basis. I’ve got a mailing list of about 400 newspapers in the US—with people to contact, their e-mail addresses, and phone numbers.
Nine: If I don’t want to do all this myself, simply hire a public relations firm. How much will this cost? The budget should be around $20,000, spread over 6 months. About $3,000 to $5,000 per month. My publisher has suggested a P.R. firm. However, I’ve been in marketing my entire life, and I would like to do it myself. If I stumble because I am not that familiar with social marketing techniques, it’s my own dumb fault.
I’ll bet most of you didn’t think writing a successful book was this complicated. The four most important things you aspiring book-writers should know are:
First: You are not the better mousetrap. The world will not build a path to your door.
Second: Your publisher expects you, the writer, to do all of the promotion. Publishers provide only two things to writers: Printing. And distribution. They will get the book into bookstores (brick-and-mortar and internet stores). They expect you, the author, to actively promote your book. If you don’t promote your book, the bookstores will return your unsold books to your publisher. And your royalties will be very, very low. (Royalties are negotiable, but they usually begin at 10 percent of the wholesale price of the book. The wholesale price is 60 percent of the retail price.)
Third: Your publisher expects you, the writer, to buy several hundred copies yourself. Why? So you can sell them at the back-of-the-room when you give talks and seminars. Your publisher expects you to be an active speaker. If you’re active on the speakers circuit, you can make much more money selling your books at your appearances than you will make in royalties. I’m very different from most American authors. I do almost all my seminars, talks, and consulting overseas—especially in the Asia-Pacific region. And my back-of-the-room sales are lucrative. One reason is that I’m the "visiting American expert."
Fourth: Do not expect to sell many books at book-signings in the US—unless you’re a comic book cartoonist. Most authors sell only about 4 or 5 copies at book-signings at Barnes & Noble and similar bookstores in the US. I’m appearing at the Spring Fling Book Fair at the Clark County Library in Las Vegas on April 7. I’m doing two things there: Giving a talk to authors and potential authors on how to sell books. Signing books. (I’m taking only 5 copies of each of my 10 published books with me. I’ll probably bring home most of them.)
Finally, yes, you’re right. My column this month is my talk at the Clark County Library today, April 7, 2012.
Dr. Donald Hendon lives in Mesquite. He is a retired university professor of marketing, active consultant, speaker, trainer, and author of 8 books, including 365 Powerful Ways to Influence. Download Chapter 1, free of charge, at www.DonaldHendon.com. Play his free online Negotiation Poker game by going to www.DonaldHendon.com/NegoitiationPoker. Apps will soon be available. Don’s column appears the first Saturday of each month at www.MesquiteLocalNews.com.