In my last post, I began to share various reasons I have noticed that makes most books fail and what to do about them.
I made it clear that the first reason most books fail is that the authors spent all their time and resources writing a book the market doesn’t want to read. Then I hinted that the second reason most books fail is that most authors never determine the goal or vision for their books ahead of time.
You see, while book sales can often be considered a yardstick for book success, it is not the only measure for a book’s success.
This is why one of the preliminary set of questions I ask people when they opt to work with me on their book project is to determine what they want to achieve with the book.
The knowledge of what you hope to achieve with your book ahead of time will help you in the writing and marketing phases of the book.
I teach 5 major goals for writing a book and how they affect the entire book publishing process in my Write And Publish Your Book In 30 Days Program but here are two for you.
You will see how defining these can completely change the game for you as an author.
1) Lead Generation
One of the likely goals for writing a book is Lead Generation. This assumes that you have a business going already and just want to get more people to come into the top of your business funnel. Of course, you can do this as well if you are just starting out in business.
Since generating revenue at the front end isn’t your primary goal here, you might want to make the book as cheap as possible or even completely free.
You would also want to make sure that your book is not placed in front of just anybody looking to read something. You should have a system in place for prospecting and ensuring that the people you are exposing the book to fit your “ideal customer avatar” otherwise, you won’t get the result you desire with this kind of publishing.
This was the goal for my #1 bestselling book – The Diamond In Your Closet: How To Make Money With Your Gifts, Passion And Knowledge In 60 Days Or Less
In fact, till date (over 24 months since it launched), I have not printed up to 30 copies of that book but it has generated more income and business than all my 20+ preceding books put together!
Trust me when I say it is the worst advice ever to believe that selling books is the only way to generate revenue from your book. We have an entire course on Strategies For Book Monetization and you can check that out on our store.
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2) Expert Status
The expert status book, on the other hand, is one where your goal is to be seen as an expert. Like you might have guessed, this requires that you go for the print version of your book whereas a lead generation book may NEVER be printed!
Also, you would want to do a BIG launch and probably organize a book signing event. This is to help you create those clips and shoots of you signing your books (only a few things scream “I AM AN EXPERT” than these)
You could also consider media coverage here to make sure more people get to see and perceive you as an expert.
My client Dr. Anu wrote an expert status book when he decided he wanted to be seen as an expert in the field of helping people discover their purpose in life.
Now, from these two goals, you can see how just determining the goal you want to achieve with your book can make all the difference.
While Mr. Lead Generation may not bother about printing, Mr. Expert Status can’t afford not to print. Mr. Lead Generation may not bother about a book launch party but that greatly boosts the goal of Mr. Expert Status.
This is why making sure you know what you want to achieve at the end of the day is extremely important in determining how you write and publish your book.
Even the content of the books can’t be the same at all. In fact, you can have two books on the same topic but the approach they should follow in writing would be miles apart just because of the goal they want to achieve.
Okay, I know the question on your mind now is “Can’t the same book have several goals?”
The answer is “Yes” and “No” but I have to examine your personal situation to decide whether or not you can pursue more than one goal for the same book.
But a rule of thumb is that the more goals you try to focus on for the same book, the less likely you are to hit any of the goals BIG.
If this is looking confusing to you now, don’t worry. It will get clearer as we progress.
In the next post in this series, I will talk about mistake #1 most authors make with their books.
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But before we get into that, would you tell me in the comments below:
Question
what is the topic of your book and what is the biggest goal you want to achieve with your book?