How to Prepare for the Success You Want

Authors always want to book more media, grow their audiences and expand their reach. They want more fans and a bigger tribe, yet as we discussed last week, they don’t always embrace the other side of the strategy when it comes to landing media. You can read more here in case you missed it.

This week is all about preparing for success. If you’re going to have waves of it coming toward you, you must get ready for it. Some authors don’t do the things that need to be done because either they don’t know what those things are, or they’re worried about having too much to do so they hesitate. If that fear is in the back of your mind, how likely are you to be motivated to create an even stronger interest (and more demands) from others?

Get ready and prepare for success

Have a process in place. When you do interviews — whether on the ground or virtually — collaborate with your niche mates or other affiliate partners on webinars and other events. Where do you send participants who want to learn more about you? If it’s simply to the homepage on your website, think again. Landing pages will be much more helpful to you.

Your team. Do you have one? Are you still trying to do everything yourself? When is it time to get some help? What kind of help do you need? You can do a lot yourself, but at some point you will need to bring in others to stay on top of all the tactics. Plan who you will reach out to, or at least begin the process of writing down who that will be and/or talking to others who may give you referrals.

Your media plan. What strategies are you going to use to get media? What strategies will you use to promote the media you do land? Do you have interesting and compelling ways to pull people in, rather than just “shouting from the rooftops?” Not a very productive strategy. How will you design and grow your own media empire?

Make sure your opt in and email list is connected. Set up autoresponders to communicate with and tell your story to those who just signed up to stay touch with you. It’s rather sad when you join someone’s community and no one even says “hello” or welcomes you. It’s even worse if they don’t send regular updates.

Have systems and checklists in place.  Make it easy for you and for anyone else on your team to follow through on all the tactics or “to dos.” Personally, I love checklists. There is no reason to use up brain space trying to remember the steps of doing something when you can simply run down a checklist and make sure everything is set. Pilots do this before takeoff, and many other professionals use them as well. You don’t want to risk missing an important step, so write it out one time and then work off of it each time.

Relax. This is supposed to be productive and fun, you know. Remember, you want this success. You want the good stuff coming toward you. You want more people involved in what you’re doing and more people buying your book (and other products and services). Don’t split yourself off by wanting it on the one hand, but worrying about it on the other. That never goes well and creates hesitation.

Take advantage of opportunities. The biggest thing about jumping on opportunities is to see them as that. Here’s one: It’s August! Hard to believe it’s almost Back to School and Back to Work time as summer vacations soon begin to wind down. Is there a way to make your book timely again by tying into the calendar and the month of August? Let’s take a look.

August is:

  • National Dog Month
  • Black Business Month
  • Family Fun Month
  • Happiness Happens Month
  • International Peace Month
  • National Back to School Month
  • National Hair Loss Awareness Month
  • National Immunization Awareness Month
  • National Sandwich Month
  • National Wellness Month
  • Romance Awareness Month

Can you tie into any of these August National Months? There are plenty more if you do some research, but the list above has some interesting possibilities. Until next week…

To your success!

Joanne

P.S. In honor of National Dog Month, here are some cute puppies! Which piece is your favorite? (All the puppies trying to eat out of one bowl is at the top for me!)

P.P.S. And we always have to have a little music, right? Remember, keep your head up! See you next week!

#prepareforsuccess

#augustdates

#bookpublicity

#bookmarketing

 


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