1. Why would someone want to turn their book into a booklet?

This gives readers a bite-sized palatable introduction to a new topic in their life rather than first delving into a 200-page book as their first experience with new information. The booklet can be an overview of the most important concepts in the book, taking something from each chapter. Once the reader digests those basic ideas, they will be eager and ready for more, which becomes the full-length book. It also gives the reader a choice of which publication is their starting point, rather than a yes/no about whether to buy the book or not. This all gives the author greater sales opportunities.

2. I already wrote a book or I’m thinking of writing a book. How can a booklet help me?

Instead of creating only one booklet from a book, an author may decide to divide the book into as many booklets as there are chapters. Having a series of booklets provides much more revenue than a single book is likely to do. It also lets the reader buy segments of the book that would be most appealing. For the author who has yet to write the book and intends to, doing a series of booklets can be a painless way to write an entire book, and have something to sell before the entire book is completed.

3. How would you use a booklet to market your book?

It’s typical for a booklet author to specifically invite the reader to seek out the book, by adding on the last page “For more in-depth information on this topic, you’ll want to add our book… to your library today.” This is only one of many ways the booklet markets the book. The booklet can also be an inexpensive value-added item that is physically bundled with the book to enhance and increase the value of the purchase.

4. Are there particular types of books that work better for this?

Non-fiction books are often the easiest starting point for tips booklets. However, it is completely possible to create a tips booklet for a fiction book, focusing on some theme in the story or travel to the location in which the story is set or any number of other elements within a fiction book.

5. Is there a formula for writing an effective tip?

Create a tip by writing one sentence starting with a positive verb, telling the reader what to do. Follow that with one or two sentences explaining “why” or “how.”

6. What is a good way to choose a topic for a booklet?

The best topic is the one you are most enthused about and, ideally, is also the focal point of your business or cause.

7. Won’t a booklet keep people from buying my book(s) and services?

The booklet actually encourages more sales of your products and/or services by establishing your credibility and introducing you as a valued resource for more relevant information and/or service.

8. Can I write one booklet or do I have to write a whole series for this to work well?

Your personality and your business requirements will best dictate whether one booklet is all you need and want to do, or if it makes better sense to develop an entire series. Either way can and has been effective.

9. How does a booklet actually market and promote a business I have?

A booklet defines you as a trusted adviser, expert, and resource. Each time a copy of your booklet lands in anyone’s hands, you are educating them on your expertise and informing them of where they can get more from you that will benefit their life.

10. Can this booklet be leveraged in some ways, maybe even into other products?

Entire information product lines, both hard copy and digital online, can be developed from a single 3,000-5,000 word tips booklet document. It is highly effective as a business owner to create your booklet in other formats that appeal to different learning styles, life circumstances, convenience, price considerations, and “wow” factor. It is fairly common for people to want multiple formats of the same information so, at any point, they can choose to read or listen, store on their computer or read at the beach, or share with others in some way.

Some formats have no development cost at all. Others can be nominal. The return on your investment can be huge. This is especially true when you become aware of the many opportunities to sell your products in very, very large quantities to corporations for them to use to promote their own product, service, or cause.

Paulette Ensign is Founder and Chief Visionary of San Diego-based Tips Products International. She has personally sold well over a million copies of her tips booklet in several languages and formats without spending a penny on advertising. She will teach you how to surpass her results. You’re next, no matter where you are on your publishing journey. www.tipsbooklets.com (c) 2009, Paulette Ensign

Imagine an order for three million copies of a book or a tips booklet you wrote. Having trouble with that image? It might be that you’re focusing on selling single copies, one at a time. It could be that you think there is some unattainable magic that happens somewhere in between the number one and the number million. Maybe you believe you don’t know what the mechanics are for selling three million copies.

Imagine walking up to a director of marketing of some major corporation and simply saying something like ‘this book or booklet will help you sell more of your widgets.’ And the director of marketing agreed with you. And the person wanted to know the price and delivery time. Would you need a new oxygen supply to keep breathing or would you know what to do?

You have been used to operating in a particular-sized universe, selling a single copy of a single information product to a single user, or multiples through a traditional distributor, though not in those quantities. Imagine a major calendar company, for instance, that produces millions of calendars each and every year. And they want to include a copy of your tips booklet or your book with each calendar that they offer for sale, as a “value added” item to help them sell more of their calendars. Yes, that’s a real scenario.

How about a smaller amount? What about a catalog company who wants to license the specific rights to print a mere 250,000 copies of your book or booklet so they can offer it as a gift with any purchase in a particular issue of their catalog? That 250,000 copies can sound like a lot until you realize that the company distributed 17 million copies of their catalog that year. Your 250,000 copies was merely a test to see how the catalog’s customers and prospects would respond to the offer of your tips booklet, whether it would prompt more sales of the catalog’s products.

Connecting the dots between imagining, and making it so consists of educating yourself on who it is that’s a likely candidate, realizing what the production steps are, researching your costs so you can effectively price the product, and putting yourself into the position of having conversations with people who want what you’ve got. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?

What are you imagining? What are you going to do about it? When? Or would you rather continue selling single copies, one at a time? Those choices are yours to imagine and take action.

Paulette Ensign teaches people worldwide how to surpass her results of selling well over a million copies of her own tips booklet, in 4 languages and various formats, without spending a penny on advertising. Start your million-copy book and booklet journey with her free gifts at www.tipsbooklets.com © 2009, Paulette Ensign

“My topic doesn’t fit into a how-to tips format.” That comment shows up periodically, and did again this week. Even when a person has written a novel, there are ways to create a tips booklet that can help market that novel plus become its own new source of revenue. THOSE are the purposes of a booklet.

A booklet is a way for the reader to test out the information of the author, to see if it’s something that leads to wanting more of what the author’s got. It’s a way to gently approach a topic that may be otherwise overwhelming or brand new. It’s one format of the material, which can then be embellished, expanded, or otherwise modified by the author.

A booklet is NOT the consummate reference on a given topic. A tips booklet, in particular, is NOT a narrative philosophical statement or observation of something. It’s a tips booklet, with how-to’s in it.

Let’s say you wrote a novel, set on a rural farm in Midwest America, and you want to sell lots of copies of that novel, which common wisdom says is a challenge to do. One way to do it could be by writing a tips booklet about ways (tips!) to live a happy, fulfilling, and interesting life in rural America, or on a farm. That would certainly give the reader of your book more of a connection to what your book is about, wouldn’t it, especially when you include some specific invitation that looks something like “for more about living on a farm in Midwest America, you’ll enjoy reading our book, Life in a Corn Field.”

Or you are interested in featuring the accomplishments of some notable people of current or historical times. Instead of a treatise about them, it could be very useful to create a tips booklet that includes guidance based on what those people did to accomplish what they accomplished, for others to mirror in their own lives.

Once in a rare while there is a topic that simply does not lend itself to a tips booklet. It’s usually something in science or math and focused on theory. It’s at that moment you’ll see a glaze come onto my face. Otherwise, let’s talk about what your tips booklet is and can be.

Paulette Ensign has sold well over a million copies of her own tips booklet, “110 Ideas for Organizing Your Business Life,” in four languages and various formats without spending a penny on advertising. From her San Diego, CA-based http://www.tipsbooklets.com, she assists individuals and groups transform their knowledge into tips booklets and other information products for marketing, motivating, and making money. © 2008, Paulette Ensign