Your attention matters to me
An email address without the attention of the recipient is worse than worthless. It costs money. It costs money to acquire, and then it has an ongoing cost to maintain on a list.
It also has a reputational cost to the recipient and the sender.
I don’t have an interest in overwhelming your inbox with garbage, nor do I want my emails lost between a thousand other emails you get on topics of fleeting interest to you.
Therefore, I’m working hard to provide content relevant to those who wish to build great publishing businesses.
I created this website to earn the attention of those seeking to build a great publishing business.
Let’s begin with what you won’t find here
- Funnels,
- fake scarcity
- gambits,
- hacks,
- get rich quick schemes,
- or promises of a secret formula to make your books sell.
None of this has anything to do with becoming a full-time author or writing fiction or non-fiction.
It won’t help me build trust using or teaching these concepts.
You also won’t find me trying to capture your email the minute you arrive or leave.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find places to “opt-in.”
The reason is that I don’t want some crappy email address that you give to get a lead magnet you don’t read.
Instead, I’ve designed this site to help you educate yourself on how to build a great publishing business.
When you give your email to me, I want it to be willingly and in anticipation of what comes next.
What you typically find in white papers or industry studies requiring an opt-in is public. Read and learn.
If an idea resonates with you, keep reading and applying the concepts to your publishing business.
You decide when the time is to act—today or two years from now.
You’re on your journey. I’ll be here when you need me.
The times I ask for an email address, it’s because I want to help you further through a series of emails on a concept.
The email series will be explicit in its purpose, the number of emails, and the duration of the sequence. If you tire of what I send, you can opt-out of that sequence or all emails with one click.
I practice what I preach.
What I preach is:
- We are looking to build wide bridges rather than weak ties in our network of customers.
- Cumulative advantage is built by getting individuals to connect their identity with your products and your community.
- No one wants to be treated like a transaction.
Why direct digital marketing fails authors
Direct digital advertising and social media platforms were great equalizers.
They allowed anyone to find an audience.
It was great until everyone adopted these methods.
There is a regression to the mean when we all adopt the same methods and the market saturates.
Go on YouTube and watch how the ads are all the same; the funnels are the same; the opt-ins are the same.
Based on your data profile, YouTube (or pick an advertising platform) has determined what they think you want.
Show an interest in digital marketing, and all you’ll get served is digital marketing ads.
They tighten your bubble.
The great thing about the human brain is it is predisposed to filter out sameness.
But that sucks for you if those same ways are what you use.
I call this the vicious marketing cycle, which will wear you down and chase your customers away.
It creates a vortex that will suck the joy out of publishing.
Breaking Free the Vicious Marketing Cycle
The virtuous marketing cycle provides a way to attract customers rather than call for their actions at a specific time. The virtuous marketing cycle offers a unified experience that a user relates to and identifies with.
I design this site around the concept of the virtuous marketing cycle. Those attracted by the ideas can create their adventure. Explore the ideas at your own pace and decide when you’re ready.
What is your business optimized for?
Most authors optimize a business for conversions. Yes, it would help if you sold more books, but not at the expense of a customer relationship.
Too often, a business system is nothing more than a direct marketing funnel designed to get a reader to buy your book now.
We then optimize that system on the wrong metrics.
I want to optimize my business so that I have what you need at the right price when you’re ready to get what you need to move to the next level.
In my virtuous marketing Cycle, I’m looking to build a relationship that builds trust, so when you finally get to six figures, I’m the first person you contact to run your back office.
Just like other authors have done.
I’m not against advertising.
It’s easy to categorize what I say as anti-advertising. That’s patently false.
I think advertising has its place, but it’s not the panacea.
I’ve been able to reduce advertising costs in multiple genres, increasing profitability while growing top-line sales and title ranks at launch.
The trap is the expectation that advertising is scalable. It’s not.
Like any customer acquisition method, advertising has a growth curve, and what it delivers is tied to your budget and your business growth curve.
I’m for customer delight.
Create a unified customer experience from the words on your page, your newsletter, your Facebook group, and every touch point.
There is no shortage of people trying to grab my attention, but very few earn it.
If you’re like me, you want to earn a reader’s attention and trust to determine if you have something to offer them.
I want to help you figure out as quickly as possible if this is the place for you and if I can help you smash through the roadblocks between you and your great publishing company.
Is this the right place for you?
The work I do is to help authors build great publishing businesses. You’re in the right place if you’re interested in a career as a full-time author.
Regardless of where you’re at in your growth curve, I have material to help.
Cold Hard Truth Warning: Only a few people ever write a book. Even fewer make enough money to earn a living from writing. This means that many people come here for help to achieve the dream of writing for a living but won’t.
I know authors that had just started when I first met them. A year later, they were in my private client group with six figures in sales. They are the exception to the rule.
I know far more than years after my first meeting is still unpublished.
My approach is to treat you like the author who will make six figures in a year until you prove me wrong.
I know that I can meet you where you are in your career at this moment and help you get better velocity.
Here is what I offer
I am constantly researching ways to build a great publishing business.
Everything I apply is within a systems thinking paradigm. Another way of putting it is Ray Dalio’s principle, “everything is a Machine.”
The content-rich website offers thousands of words in well-researched articles about building a great publishing business.
Where are you on your growth curve?
Every business has a growth curve, and once you know where you are on that curve, you can do the activities that move you to that next plateau.
Moving you up to the summit is what I help you do. I’m your publishing mountain guide.
Free Tools
Check out my Author Capital Planner. A free planning tool for determine what it costs to publish a book.
What’s for sale
Currently, I have the following ways I work with clients. I will develop more and update this list.
Treat Your Writing Like a Business (TWLAB)
I only sell the book and course direct on this website.
There are two supplement courses.
Accelerate: For profitable authors operating as Sole Proprietors
Propel: For profitable authors ready to incorporate a business in the United States
Advantage
A book on how to build cumulative advantage in publishing sold at all major retailers.
Black Label Private Client Group
This is a complete back-office solution for authors earning over $150,000 yearly in gross royalties or $300,000 if you are co-writing or acting as publisher.