This morning I received an email from a high profile business mentor which surprised me as I haven’t received one from them for a while. I thought I’d take a look.
What I saw turned me off in an instant.
They were promoting that they’ve now written several books which I know is total BS.
How?
Because the ‘books’ they have ‘written’ are simply a dozen Facebook posts written by their VA and then put together by someone on Fiverrrr, whilst another is the work of someone else with said mentors name added to it.
I will admit, I was excited to get my hands on their first book, but what arrived was an eleven page PDF with a quarter page professional photograph of them on six of the pages.
This wasn’t a book.
This was a lead magnet.
It wasn’t to help or support those receiving it in anyway. It was just for the purposes of said mentor ‘building their brand’ and ‘establishing themselves’.
The lack of integrity in the world of business, pr and marketing is on the increase and listening to a pr company or business coach about writing a book probably won’t be your best idea.
With the increased simplicity of being able to upload a book onto Amazon, the platform is fast becoming the litter bin of literature.
People are being told by their PR companies to select their most engaging Facebook posts, or their most opened emails, collate them into a document and head on over to Canva to create a book cover.
And here’s the thing:
Facebook posts are for Facebook NOT a book, and your emails are emails, so leave them in your outbox.
So many people want to write a book but the majority of them have little to no talent when it comes to writing. They don’t know how to tell a story and end up with a disjointed ego trip fueled by the encouragement of the PR firm.
Authors are facing legal action over copyright issues; sadly most don’t care because “they’re an author now don’t you know”.
Just this year alone I have refused to publish five manuscripts due to copyright issues.
Another one because it was just not a book. It was a note taking session and a brain dump of ideas with no cohesive message or flow.
There have been three that have got through my checks and my proofreaders have picked up on the copyright and plagiarism issues, which one particular author didn’t care about “because others don’t have a problem with using quotes” and extracts from other people’s books and websites.
Great. Good for them. Let’s hope you and they have millions in the bank to fight the court case because I’m not putting my fire on your spine until my team and I have done our due diligence.
Then you’ve got the clip art covers which quite honestly make me drop my head into my hands and roll my eyes so loudly only dogs can hear me.
Judge a book by its cover?
Abso-bloody-lutely!
Using clip art images does not do your book justice, in fact they damage it; and anyone buying your book when you choose to launch it for 99c over a 24 hour period just to support you are doing it either out of love for you or pity.
Understanding the psychology of your content is what drives your cover art, so does understanding who your client is and their level of thinking.
Designing the cover art includes looking at branding, current trends and what’s already out in the market; especially so for those in business wanting to expand their brand and reach a wider audience.
Fiction books also have to have a similar psychological process applied to them. It’s not just about having a pretty colour or a font you like. There is a science to it and ignoring the science…
Well, look at where that’s getting us out in the big wide world at the moment!
Saying you wrote a book when all you did was write 2000 words in a collaboration is you fooling yourself.
Continuing to call yourself an author because you wrote a 10,000 word PDF years ago, is like me still calling myself a waitress because I waited tables whilst at college.
Except there’s no prestige or ego rub in calling myself a waitress… unless I’m in a restaurant and the waiting team are intrigued as to why I’m so polite and helpful to them.
(It is truly shocking at how surprised waiters are these days when someone is polite to them).
When I am on a discovery call with a potential client one of my first questions is “Why do you want to write this book?”
I refuse to work with clients who are simply in the business of writing a book for ego.
I’ve cancelled client contracts a couple of months in because it became apparent they were only looking for the title of author rather than creating social impact and serving others.
So many want the coveted prize of New York Bestseller, but fail to realise that will require an investment of almost $200k, a US based publisher, a New York PR company and lots of brown nosing of the board of the New York Times and their cronies.
Many want to sell a million copies of their money, but have no idea of how to sell and are not willing to invest in the marketing and PR of their book.
Do I want to sell a million copies of all my books?
Absolutely I do!
Why?
Because I want to positively and powerfully impact the lives of 1 million people around the world, giving them the hope, courage and belief that whatever they are going through, they are not alone and that there are people out there who will help them and understand.
Plus I don’t like liars or bullies so exposing corruption and systemic abuse is my way of serving humanity on a whole other level.
The impact of selling 1 million books and harnessing the power of 4 is immense, and the monetary return will help cover the investment needed to get to 1 million copies sold (As well as help fund the next book, and the next and the next).
Recently I saw someone else promoting that they could help individuals create a six figure publishing business, and whilst that is most certainly possible, what they failed to tell one of the women who had seen her promotion and then contacted me, was the five figure overheads involved in this fabulous six figure business.
They had massaged the message so beautifully with PR talk and manipulated the dream of financial abundance so much that the profits involved were no where near what this person had presented to potential clients.
People forget about the legalities of publishing, the library fees, the typesetters, proofreaders, cover artists, the strategists, the graphic designer’s for the ‘suicidal’ media and marketing assets.
They forget about the publicity campaigns, the constant need to promote their books, the distribution fees, and most importantly they forget about the editors.
Great editors require authors to invest around a minimum of $10,000USD for a book between a 50,000 – 70,000 word count, and most authors are not willing to invest $1000 dollars in the basics of their book, let alone in the editing.
What they forget though is that with the editing comes the awards, the industry recognition and the sales, especially when you update your cover art to say ‘Award Winning’.
Very few people in the world of business are impressed with the title International Bestseller anymore, and those of us who are true authors and have achieved the title of international bestseller with integrity can smell a bad book a mile off.
The author of a book I was interviewed for almost 3 years ago has been waiting for one of the ‘Top 5’ to publish it. The author doesn’t want to invest in their own book financially. What many authors don’t know is that if they went on to self publish or worked with an author strategist and boutique publisher like myself, we could help them make an impact and get the attention and book deal with one of the ‘Top 5’ they so desperately want.
Hiring an author coach like myself isn’t just about being held accountable to get the book finished. We bring with us a huge amount of experience, especially those of us who have been through the process many times ourselves.
(Be aware though, there are book coaches and author coaches out there who only wrote a chapter and are now masquerading as an international bestselling author who have no idea what they are doing).
As an author coach who has more than ten solo books to her name, and half a dozen collaborations of the highest calibre, plus a background in English teaching as a first language, second language and in Executive Level Business English, with twenty plus years experience in publishing and developing entrepreneurs, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better author coach out there.
So if you’re going to write a book and want to get published, then please for heaven’s sake do it properly.
You are afterall creating a product, and that means you are building a business.
Plus remember, anything worth doing is with doing well, especially if you wish to make a decent honest living from it.
And honesty and decency in this market is fast becoming extinct, so chose wisely!
Have a fab weekend folks, until the next time!
Dawn x
If you are interested in writing a book and being published, contact me and let me know what kind of book you are wanting to write and publish. If it is not my kind of book I have a network of fellow coaches and publishers who will be more than happy to work with you.
And if you are someone who is ready to invest in a high level, critical thinking authority MasterMind with 10 like minded highly successful individuals who are ready to change the course of history, then click get to find out more about my 9 month AUTHORity MasterMind