By now we all know how important content marketing is if you want to rank well, gain credibility and drive traffic to your website. In our last post, we talked about how you can garner credibility through your blog, what if you could take that a step further and publish your own book? It’s not as difficult as you may think and, in fact, if you have been creating regular content such as blog posts or webinars, you may already have all of the material you need to get going with a book (just picture it, how much credibility could you gain if you became a published author!).
The most common complaint heard with regard to getting a book written is that people simply don’t have the time. Secondly, we often have visions of having to send manuscripts to large publishing houses, bowing and scraping to get them to take a look! Let’s take a look at why these two complaints don’t matter anymore;
“I don’t have time to write a book”
If you’ve been spending time regularly updating your blog and/or producing other content such as podcasts or webinars, the chances are your book is already mostly written! The beauty of having content available to you is that you can re-purpose it however you wish. Sketch a rough outline of your book and how you would break it up into chapters, then use the content you have already created to flesh it out.
Still don’t have the time? If you are using your current content to re-purpose, you don’t even have to write the book yourself! Give all of your material to a competent writer and have it created for you. There are many good writers/content curators out there who could help with this, just check out some samples of their previous work.
“Don’t I have to spend a lot of time hitting up publishers?”
No, not anymore. There are simple and cheap ways to get your book published that are open to anyone. Self-publishing offers several different options; just do a quick online search and you will find several companies offering it with varying fee structures. Some you need to pay a fee upfront and have a minimum number published (if you are going for hard-copies), you should also check whether the fee they charge covers the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) which is required for all published books.
Some companies will publish your book on demand, as in, when a customer orders it they will print off a copy and send it. For companies who offer this, check out what they charge you every time they do this (usually a flat fee taken off the book price). For any publishing option, make sure you have a clear idea of how their royalty structure works.
Amazon offers some great options which are easy for anyone with an Amazon account to get in to. Createspace is their self-publishing company where you can use a free option to use their tools and get your book up on Amazon.com, Amazon Europe, Kindle and in your own eStore. There are wider distribution options available for a fee and they offer to publish hard copies of your book on demand, as well as publish it to the Kindle store. Alternatively, you could just release your book using the Kindle Direct Publishing option.
Publishing a book will not necessarily make you rich, but it is a great way that content marketing can boost your credibility. Your book showcases your expertise and can attract further prospects to your business.
You can access a FREE chapter of our new book “Automate Your Marketing: Quick Tips & Real Life Examples To Get Leads & Promote Yourself On Autopilot”. Check it out here…