At long last your book is done. The cover and the contents look as terrific as you hoped they would. Your marketing plan is ready to fully launch. You’re primed to make tons of money from your book, yet there’s a little voice saying “But wait, there’s more.” What could that be?
Somewhere along the way, you remember hearing something about developing derivatives. A derivative is a product that has been distilled directly from you book. And it can be in as many formats as your imagination or other people’s suggestions and interests can take you.
A tips booklet is one of those derivatives that can be created from your full-length book manuscript. It means writing your book once and making money from it over and over again in numerous ways. Tips booklets do several things. They market your book, as an appetizer to whet the appetite of the reader, guiding their hunger toward the complete entree, your entire book.
As for a booklet being a marketing tool for your book, think of it as your marketing brochure on steroids. The tips booklet presents 3,000-5,000 words that are samples of your book content, written as action-oriented suggestions to the reader, in a format that people will pay for. Think of that, people paying you for your marketing materials! It doesn’t get much better than that, does it?
The reader reads some or all of your booklet, feels great, wants more, and sees on the last page of the booklet a notice saying “For more in-depth information on this topic, you’ll want to have our book -Everything You REALLY Wanted to Know When You Started Reading Our Tips Booklet. You can purchase the book at our website www.therestofthestory.com or our 24-hour order line 1-800-GET-BOOK.”
Tips booklets also become an income stream unto themselves. Imagine yourself in a situation where a company, professional association, or some other organization wants to buy thousands of copies of your book. They want to use it as a promotional item for their own products, services, or cause. They then see the per-unit cost of your book. Even though they love the book, it’s priced well, and they view it as an ideal match for their needs, their budget stops them in their tracks. By also having a tips booklet available on the same topic as your book, you are immediately able to suggest their first purchase be a similar quantity of your tips booklet instead. This allows for some sale rather than no sale. It leaves your buyer feeling good about you because you gave them a workable solution. You have greatly increased the odds of this buyer (and people they know) making other purchases from you in the future. Think about all of that as you ponder the idea of creating one or more booklets from your book.
Look for obvious divisions in your book. The chapters are a good starting place. Each chapter may be grist for an individual booklet. Or, rather than going that route, you might decide to do something now called a “sampler” booklet. That means taking the 10 chapter headings from your book, and writing 10 or 12 tips under each of the chapter titles, giving the reader an opportunity to sample the entire book within a 16-24-page tips booklet measuring approximately 3½ by 8½ inches. As your reader experiences success from what they read in your booklet, your credibility increases. They want more of you and more of what you are about. The booklet gives them an opportunity to test-drive you. Remember, the booklet is not the consummate reference on everything you know about your topic. That’s what the book is. The booklet will, however, often lead to the book.
Every person who reads your booklet is a ready-made marketing representative for you and your company. As a single-copy booklet buyer, they could be a decision-maker for their own company or group, and also be influential in the purchasing decisions of their colleagues, associates, suppliers, distributors, family, friends, and neighbors.
Imagine this for a moment: A company, association, or other organization that purchases a large quantity of your booklets and then your books as a promotional tool for their own purposes also promotes you and your company with each and every publication of yours that they distribute. They do this because your name and your contact information are in each booklet. Remember, they have paid you to promote you. Life doesn’t get a whole lot better than that!
Your buyer may also be or know of a reporter or producer to schedule you for a print, radio, or television, or Internet interview. The reader might have contacts in another country or a community in your own country who have interest in licensing your booklet or book into another language or different physical format. You may be just the person to provide consulting or training on an issue. Or, if you are also a speaker, the group may need a series of speeches in different locations or departments within their organization. Any of that and more can and does happen from a tips booklet.
Keep in mind that the booklet is a less expensive way of accomplishing all of this, for you as the publisher, and for your buyers. Booklets will open many of these doors for you more conveniently, less expensively, and with fewer time lags than attempting to do some of the very same things using your full-length book. At the very least, you now have choices to offer people, based on their interest, budget, learning style, storage space, and desired ‘wow’ factor.
Once your tips booklet manuscript has been developed, you will find that document can also be converted into many other products that will market your book and become their own revenue streams much in the same way booklets serve you, further expanding your product line.
When your business has a full menu of related products and services, you are able to successfully tap into what your buyers need and want, and keep your own cash flowing. The possibilities are endless when it comes to how a booklet can serve your book business. What will your first booklet be?
© 2006, Paulette Ensign / Paulette Ensign has personally sold over a million copies in four languages of a tips booklet called “110 Ideas for Organizing Your Business Life,” all without spending a penny on advertising. She has had clients match and surpass her results, worldwide, including numerous full-length book authors. She has learned her business by doing it, never having taken a formal business course in her life. Her San Diego, California -based company, Tips Products International, offers a range of products and services to support your success regardless of your budget of time or money. Phone 858-481-0890 or visit http://www.tipsbooklets.com/
And I thought I was the sensible one. Thanks for steitng me straight.