Mastering a Niche and Creating
Your Own Empire
by writing, speaking, publishing, and product
development
Newsletter #1 / November, 2008
Welcome! I’m Gordon
Burgett.
Let’s start what I hope will be a long-time sharing
exchange. I’ll do my best to directly address the most important
questions in empire building, from writing and speaking to publishing and product
development.
All new subscribers initially
receive three free bonus subscription reports. Earlier newsletters will also be
available at the archives
link in future editions. (And anybody can unsubscribe at any time. That link
will appear on all subscribed newsletters. )
Coming newsletters will be a couple of pages long, about
related, current issues I would want to know about if I were building my
empire. For now, a couple more introductory paragraphs in case you’re
bewildered, then let’s get to it…
I hope this free newsletter provides useful ideas for the creation and expansion
of your own empire. Its purpose is to help you create “LIFELONG WEALTH
BY BEING INDISPENSABLE.” It is automatically sent to you each
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clients, prospects, seminar attendees, or product buyers. If you’d rather
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If you have peers, kin, or friends or you know anybody else who would
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opt-in box that follows. As mentioned above, anybody signing up will receive
the three free reports as well. Finally, if you wonder who in the world I am
and why you might even care a whit about what I say, here’s a quick bio!)
PUBLISHING: How Should We Print the
Book?
Here’s a question I get at
almost every niche or self-publishing seminar that I give: “How do we
determine whether we have our books printed in full press run format (say
1000+) versus print-on-demand (one, a few, or maybe 100 at a time)?”
We use these very rough guidelines.
FULL PRESS RUN when (1) we’ve pre-tested a
niche book and we can quickly and easily sell 1000+, (2) we can easily
guesstimate a 1000+ sale of a general (non-niche) book to libraries and bookstores,
(3) we can comfortably predict 1000 sales back of the room at speeches or
seminars in the next 12 months, (4) we have orders from commercial clients for
1000+ books, (5) any 1000+ combination of (1)-(4).
P.O.D. when we need (1) a few backlist books
that are well past their selling prime, (2) LARGE PRINT editions of our current
books, (3) special short runs for commercial orders, (4) short runs that
require special inserts or imprints like logos, welcome letters, or customized
contents, (5) some bound copies of e-books, to sell or for a rare printed
packet, (6) customized book handouts, usually for workshops or breakout
sessions, (7) sample copies for peer and book reviews—but not for galley
copies, (8) reprints or replacement copies of (1)-(7). I usually stop P.O.D.
copies at about 100-150.
The harder decision is from
100-1000. I bid both kinds of printers at my target volume and let the full
price (print, shipping, anything else) and the delivery date
determine who gets the print contract. We used to over-estimate, then
let the stock slowly sell out. We are going with smaller runs now on bound
books as the demand for digital copies increases—and the P.O.D. printers
are able to fill an unexpected, quick demand for a short print run (1-8 in P.O.D.)
Not mentioned but part of the
equation is how many of the same items we will sell digitally, as a slightly
modified download of the same printed book, a significantly restyled e-book, or
in some other digital format. Oddly, the more copies were have in paper print
of some of our books, the more we will sell in digital form, presumably from
recommendations of the paper print readers. I doubt it happens much in the
reverse.
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Like a hub and the spokes on a
wheel, you need at least two critical elements to empire build: (1) a core
topic, the hub, and (2) some or many information dissemination means (IDMs). Through the latter,
the spokes, you establish, market, and share your knowledge and expertise.
Because finding a core topic is so
important, two of the three reports that accompany this kick-off newsletter
directly address finding ideas from which a core topic might come, and the
third provides some opening thoughts about creating the structure through which
you can develop “Lifelong Wealth by Being Indispensable.”
Once you have the core topic, by
which means can you best disseminate your information? Let me list about 50
below from which you can select those that work best for you and your clientele.
But don’t panic. No empire I know of uses all of them. Most start with
one or two and end up fully using 8-10.
IDMs: academic paper, article, audio
cassette, audio CD, book, booklet, brochure, bulletin, case study,
certification program, class, coaching, consulting, directory, fact guide,
manual, newsletter, newspaper, online course, podcast,
press release, product, radio or TV, release, report, resource guide, script,
seminar (workshop, breakout), speech, study group, talk, training session,
video, visual podcast, webcast,
website, white paper.
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WRITING: Query Letters Are Still
Needed for Major Article Acceptance
You can get digital articles fairly
widely accepted by just writing them, keeping them to the point, and sending
them to sources that provide digital copy to many seekers. A longtime friend
from PMA, Ed Rigsbee (www.succeedinspeaking.com), whose
niche is partnering strategies, recommends www.ezinearticles.com , and directs us
to Google (search under “article
bank”) to find others. The tighter and usually shorter the articles are,
the more likely they are to be used. Avoid self-promotion.
But if you want an expertise-strengthening
piece in a key publication near the heart of your core topic, you still need to
write that sharp selling query letter to see if the editor is interested.
One page is enough, but don’t
tell the editor that his/her readers need to read what you have to say. Ask
rather than tell. (Query is from inquiry. In this case, “Would your
readers be interested in…?”) Make the letter “jump” so
the editor says, “I’d be a fool not to have this piece on my
pages.”
Finally, write the query in the style
of the article yet unwritten. If it’s straightforward facts with some
quotes, that’s it. But if you want to inject humor,
that must also go in the query in about the same quantity and form it
will appear in the final submission.
And unless the editor says otherwise
(the current Writer’s Market is
a good guide), query by snail rather than e- mail.
How do I know? Beyond selling 1700+
freelance articles (mostly queried), I’ve been
that editor (still am) who said/says yes or no. Do the above—and make sure
the query is so tightly and clearly focused that the editor knows exactly what
he/she is accepting—or rejecting.
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MORE WRITING: How to Triple Your Writing Output
If you can write salable copy, that’s the
hard half. The rest is speed and proficiency. A week ago, I read a great e-book
that tells you how to do that other half. It’s Bob Bly’s
Super-Productivity for
Writers:
How to Triple Your
Writing Speed, Sales,and
Income in 90 Days of Less!
This new, second edition is hard to find. Get it
here and you can
have it in 10 minutes. Another digital miracle!
Contact us at Communication Unlimited
Gordon@gordonburgett.com
/ www.gordonburgett.com
(800) 563-1454 /