Book Publicity: How To Find Right-Fit Clients With A Book

By Henry J. DeVries

Book Publicity: How To Find Right-Fit Clients With A Book

Research has proven there is a better way. There is a proven process for marketing with integrity and getting up to 400 percent to 2,000 percent return on your marketing investment. I invented the Marketing With A Book Model, and many successful agencies use it to get more right-fit clients than they can handle. Some have made millions of dollars in the process.

I will never forget the day I met agency owner Lisa Apolinski. She got me to agree to meet her for a thirty-minute cup of coffee and I stayed for three hours. (Lisa later confided she “stalked me” all the way from Phoenix to San Diego and called to say, “she just happened to be in town.” I call this the “I just happen to be in Kalamazoo strategy,” which was taught to me by an agency owner and author who used the strategy to grow his firm into the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing privately held firms. I have used the strategy many times for my company.)

Lisa was a refugee from an international corporation who left when they would not listen to her ideas. She had side hustle clients who did listen, and they started making serious money. So, she quit corporate life to form her own digital advertising agency, 3 Dog Write.

When we met for coffee, I found out she had already done the challenging work of getting her house in order, and now she wanted to have more impact and influence. “I want to double my revenues in three years and only work with Fortune 500 companies,” she told me. At the time she had zero Fortune 500 clients.

“You can do that Lisa, but it is not going to be easy,” I told her. “You need to become a thought leader, and that means typing and talking. You need to gain credibility by writing books and speaking to important audiences.”

Lisa was not sure how, and I told her if she supplied great insights for Fortune 500 companies, I would help her with the how.

Lisa went on to author three books in four years on digital marketing: Weathering The Digital Storm (2019), Persuade With A Digital Content Story! (2020), and Gain Market Share During A Zombie Apocalypse (2022). She is working on a fourth.

She put the books in the hands of Fortune 500 marketing execs and CEOs, plus people who could publicize the book. As a result, she was written up on Forbes.com and invited to speak at prestigious places like a bank conference for HSBC Holdings, numerous podcasts, conferences, and even live on Australian television.

But she did not double her revenues in three years. She tripled her revenues and now works with household name brands such as one of the top five banks, one of the top five wealth management and financial services firms, and a billion-dollar Japanese electronics organization.

“Now I limit the number of Fortune 500 companies I work with because I want to be a client of 3 Dog Write to be like joining an exclusive club,” says Lisa.

Lisa learned publishing a book is the starting line for agency business development, not the finish line. And what is the best way to get to the starting line with a book that can create a 400 percent to 2,000 percent ROI? Here are the flowchart steps she followed:

1. Select Target Rich Niche. The narrower the focus, the more powerful the appeal. Be interesting to less prospects and have them be more intensely interested in your agency.
2. Conduct Proprietary Research. Gather secondary data from others, undertake an extensive literature review of books and journal articles, and conduct primary interviews where possible. Buy a dozen books on your subject and capture two dozen articles. Conduct in-depth interviews with prospects on the subject.
3. Determine Number One Problem. Be a heat-seeking missile for the number one pain of your prospects. Record interviews and focus group sessions to use their exact words.
4. Create Proprietary Problem-Solving Process. Typically, six to eight steps, principles, or practices. Name it the blank blank method, system, process, or methodology. Write down your tips, tactics, advice, and strategy. Then start sorting by putting them into six to eight buckets of related information.
5. Choose Which Of The Eight Great Stories For Overarching Story. These are monster, underdog, comedy, tragedy, mystery, quest, rebirth, or escape. Typically, agency books are about monster problem, mystery, quest, or rebirth.
6. Create Outline With Working Title, Subtitle, And Contents. This is the writing road map, but I prefer to call it a blueprint. Books are built like houses are built. Do not try to write by seat-of-the-pants inspiration.
7. Draft The Sloppy First Copy. Any book worth writing is worth writing a first draft that sucks. The magic will be in the rewrite. But first, you must get it out of your head and onto paper. Consider recording from outline and transcribing because this is ten times faster and has more energy.
8. Write Part I, The Why. Typically, two chapters: why the problem matters and how to solve it in general (an overview of your proprietary process.
9. Write Part II, The How. Typically, six to eight chapters examining the parts of the proprietary process in detail. Name the process. Put on copyright page that you intend to trademark. Prospects respect process.
10. Write Part III, What’s Next. Typically, two chapters about sustaining the process, or creating a culture, and a forecast for the future.
11. Solicit Qualified Feedback For Second Draft. This is the role of a developmental editor. Choose someone who is qualified. If you want beta readers too, that is fine just adds time to the process.
12. Rewrite Magical Second Draft. The magic is in the rewrite.
13. Submit Publishable Manuscript For Publication. This is the version the author and the developmental editor are happy with. But this is not the last chance you have for revision.
14. Gather Feedback From Professional Copyeditors. Get more qualified eyes on the book, especially a qualified Chicago Manual of Style editor.

With her three books Lisa gained more credibility, more impact, and more right-fit clients by typing and talking like a thought leader.

Henry J. DeVries is a weekly marketing columnist with Forbes.com and the CEO of Indie Books International (indiebooksintl.com). He is the author of 17 books on marketing, including Persuade With A Story!, Marketing With a Book, and How to Close A Deal like Warren Buffett. He can be reached at henry@indiebooksintl.com.