| Home | Site Map | Salesmanship Ebook | Motivational Ebook | Job and Resume Posting | Affiliate program |

Why You Should Write a Book (Even if You Really Dont Want To)

Recently, I told a friend (who's a business owner) that she needed to write a book. Although she's a good writer with terrific ideas, she said, "Do I really have to do it?"

For her -- and for those of you who have a business -- the answer is yes. Here's why:

1. Additional revenue. I don't just mean revenue from book sales, although that can sometimes be substantial. I'm also thinking of speaking engagements. Speaking engagements can be very lucrative, and a book gives you great material for speeches!

2. Business development. Some of the people who purchase your book or e-book may become even bigger customers, buying additional services/products from you. As an example, I have had several major clients who bought my e-book, The Do-It-Yourself Public Relations KitT, and then came to me for additional assistance. Now, I would have been happy if they just bought the book. But often, they grow and need more services than my book can provide. And since they've already had a "taste" of my P.R. expertise from my book, they feel more comfortable working with me on a bigger scale.

3. Word-of-mouth. Like many others, I'm a big fan of Michael Gerber's books, on the E-Myth. Just this week I sent a copy of the book to a friend, and told several others how the E-myth principles could help their businesses. Did Michael Gerber pay me? No. But I am such a big proponent of the ideas in the book that I want to share them (thanks by the way to Jeff Bolton, who originally got me excited about the book). The word-of-mouth from many people leads to referrals and sales of products and services for Michael Gerber (he has a hugely successful organization).

4. Publicity opportunities. Wouldn't I be remiss if I didn't say this? When choosing between someone who has written a book and someone who hasn't, the vast majority of media people will prefer to use the author as a source. Why? Again, because this person has obviously gone the extra mile, putting in the time and effort to put his or her expertise out there, and gotten a book published.

Margie Fisher is President of Margie Fisher Public Relations. She is also the author of the Do-It-Yourself Public Relations Kit?. To sign up for her free biweekly PRactical P.R. newsletter, and to see more free articles, visit http://www.margiefisher.com

RELATED ARTICLES

Your Organization: What Role PR?
As a manager, does your current business, non-profit or association public relations effort concern itself primarily with radio and newspaper publicity? Or does it concentrate on a specialty area like financial communications or trade relations? Or, possibly, it deals each day with sales support or government affairs?

Marketing-Minded Financial Planners, Its Not Who You Know But What You Know
Almost every day, I hear the same question, over and over, from motivated, well-meaning financial planners who want to use publicity in their marketing mix. It goes something like this:

PR: Behavior Modification Specialist
While awaiting economic recovery, business needs to attract the attention of its most important external audiences in a more targeted and focused way. Primarily to impact the perceptions of those key outsiders so that resulting behaviors help those managers achieve their objectives.

Publicity: When Calling a Reporter, Keep it Short
When you are planning to call a reporter for the first time, it can help to imagine that you are a phone solicitor (albeit one with terrific, useful ideas).

Financial Planners, Want Free Marketing and Publicity? The Key is Understanding the Media
The media need you. Need the information and expertise you offer, that is. But they are not encyclopedias. They don't serve up information. They serve up stories.

Ten Media Crisis Tips
No comment. These are probably the two most damaging words in the English language to the reputation of a professional, business or organization. While positive publicity is always wanted, what happens when bad publicity comes your way?

Effective Media Relations Tips- What To Do After The Media Interviews You!
Effective Media Relations Tips - What To Do After The Media Interviews You! By Thomas Murrell MBA CSP, International Business Speaker You've done all the hard work - prepared a media kit, engaged with a reporter and they've listened to your message and asked questions.

How to Tap in to the Holiday Publicity Bonanza
If your product or service can be given as a gift, a publicity windfall awaits at the end of the year - but you need to start working in June. Each December, media outlets cover the newest, the hottest and the most unusual Holiday gifts. The reporters assigned to develop these pieces typically depend on two sources of information:

Financial Planner Marketing - Problems Are Good (For Financial Planners Seeking Free Publicity)
A common complaint you'll hear is that the media is fixated on negative stories.

Seven Tips To Get Your Press Release Noticed
If you're seeking to promote yourself or your new business on a limited budget, you probably cannot afford the benefit of hiring a public relations agency to work on your behalf - at least not in the beginning.

Public Relations: Why it Works
The short answer is, it works best when its fundamental premise is the guide, which insures that the primary focus of your public relations program is the behaviors of your most important outside audiences. Not less urgent matters like personalities, communi- cations tactics or administrative concerns.

Media Release Headlines - Ten Tips to Get Media Attention
So you have spent hours and hours writing, shaping and crafting your media message. You've worked on setting your objectives, identifying your target audience and working out how to reach them. Your release is well structured and packaged, leaving just writing the head-line remaining.

PR: Short Form for Managers
Experience tells me that too many business, non-profit and association managers pursue their goals and objectives largely without the insights, behavioral strategies and sheer power public relations can bring to the table.

How to Make Publicity Work for Your Business: Six P.R. Strategies to Use Right Now
Public Relations (or P.R.) is a wonderful, yet often overlooked marketing tool. P.R. is an intangible ? making it a tough sell for many P.R. professionals. It is our job to sell the concept and show the client how it will enhance marketing efforts and, in many cases, replace costly or one-off advertising. Public relations is just that ? relating to the public. Every outward communication should be carefully executed and the mission of the company should never be compromised. How do your customers find you? How does the public perceive your business? These points can be incorporated into a P.R. strategy that maintains consistent messages to your customers, thereby keeping your company top of mind and, in turn, growing your business.

Publicity Performance Not Enough?
Even after a nice piece in a national publication, or a stint on a popular talk show, do you still have a feeling that your public relations dollar could be better spent?

PR Planning: Mapping Out Your Strategies, Tactics
With all due respect to all those stereotypical males out there who hate to ask for directions, the fact is that even if the territory is somewhat familiar, if you don't have a roadmap and follow its directions, you're going to get hopelessly lost.

Getting Traffic Through Publicity
If your reading this, you must be online and most likely have a website. You must also be interested in making money from this website, but there is only one way you can do that- traffic and lots of it.

Community Based Marketing Strategies
As small businesses we have an opportunity and an obligation to help keep our communities strong. As small business people we have an awesome distribution system, reaching hundreds of people every day who come into our stores. If we are a mobile service business we see hundreds per day on our route. If you volunteer to deliver flyers to all your customers for an upcoming club event, you can develop incredible rapport with these groups. The word of mouth referrals will be great. Consider the fact that these service clubs contain the grass roots movers and shakers of the town. You can put up flyers for events on your counters or post a flyer in the window, this does tremendous advertising for positive events.

How To Write More Powerfully For PR, Offline And Online
Years ago when my Dad owned a group of local newspapers I spent my school and college vacations working in the editorial office. We used to amuse ourselves over our sandwiches at lunchtime looking through and trashing the endless press releases that would arrive in the mail each day, all beautifully produced with glossy photographs (this was in pre-internet days).

7 Tips to Get More Mileage Out of Your Online or Offline Publicity
You worked hard to get a story on your business in a popularwebsite or your local paper. Don't let your efforts ends there --here are seven tips to help you maximize your online and offlinepublicity: