Beth Jones, International Speaker, Author, & Coach

Last weekend, I had the privilege of attending Caterina Rando‘s Sought After Speaker Summit in Los Angeles, CA. This is part 8 of my Sought After Speaker Summit blog series. You can read part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here, part 4 here, part 5 here, part 6 here, and part 7 here.

On Friday night, Caterina Rando offered an optional Q & A Session for anyone who was interested to ask her more questions. My friend Shelley calls me a question box. I always ask people questions because I am very curious and want to learn new things. The Friday night session was primarily dedicated to writing a book.

Here are more tips Caterina gave us for writing a book: Just choose the things from this list that apply to YOU.

• When writing, you want to be educational, motivational, inspirational, and transformational. It’s tricky, but you must include all these. It must be reader-centric – not about you! Use exercises and stories to engage them.

  

• Use your story, but bring it back to them.
• At the end of a chapter, always have a call to action.
• You can write standing up, while working out, by buying the Treadmill Desk or NextDeskFit.
• The back matter of your book (marketing pages) is more important than the front matter (dedication, contents, acknowledgments). Plant seeds. Say something like, “For more information on Beth Jones’ speaking, visit www.BethJones.net. Or, “Here’s a coupon code to get xyz on my website.” In the back of Caterina’s books, she has resources of her trusted alliance partners to get a special code.
• Your book is like an expensive brochure. You need your bio, your picture in the back (back cover or inside sleeve), your speaking topics, the url for your speaking page, etc.
• Books need to be evergreen, relevant in 5 to 10 years from now.
• Use massive distribution. Hire people to help you with your book. Repurpose the content. Put your book on the Kindle/Nook. A book carries a lot more weight so use massive distribution. Amazon has a POD division. Give your book away on Amazon for 1 to 3 days. This will give you exposure and visibility, and you can truthfully say your book is an Amazon best-seller!

  

• If you have your book available on audio, never read your book. It takes practice for those to sound good. Use professional editing. Caterina advises not to do your own editing; hire a VA. Use good headphones. A good mic is the Bluebird.
• Survey your clients to find out what they want in your new book or your new program. Give them options for helping you choose the book’s cover or title or chapter topics. Say, “I’m creating my 90-day Catch a Star and Make Your Dreams Come True program. What do you want me to include in this program?” Facebook is a great place to survey: “Here’s my 10 titles. Which one do you like best or what other title would you use?”
• Your one title may not resonate with your niche! Be benefit focused.
• Be brand consistent with your book.
• Just do it. Stop getting ready to get ready to get going to start. One client told Caterina that she was “in beta.” She had one year of her coaching, a year in her mastermind group, and her revenue was growing but she was running her business like a corporation. It was taking her 2 years to get out there. The longer you do that, the longer you are pushing off your revenue!
• Send your book to the Library of Congress to copyright it.
• Buy an ISBN so it can be tracked on Amazon. You can buy one for $125 or a block of 10 for $250 (or more).
• On vacation, be on vacation. Caterina said it’s hard to shift to business space when she’s on vacation somewhere. It just doesn’t work.

  

• Create events talking about your book. Be loud and proud about being a speaker. Tell family, friends, or clients: “I want to go to Houston. Do you know of any massage therapists I could speak to while there?” This may not be an event, but you can create an event ahead of time! “If you put 25 people in a room, I’ll come and speak to them.” Learn to power think. Do workshops to promote your book!
• Be open to travel anywhere in the world. If you are thinking you’d love to speak at that event to promote your book or programs, you might be able to speak next year at it! Sometimes Caterina pays for her traveling on her dime. It’s worth it. She took her dad to Venice, Italy and he cried. Traveling is a great opportunity of life.

  

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