Why You Don’t Need More Book Sales (You Need Better Readers)

All right, welcome everybody to our BSPU call today. Got a banger for you today. At least I think so. I call it the 10K to 100K reader. How one book reader can and should become a vi a high value client to you.

I’m going to give you seven steps to a $100,000 reader. Here’s the core idea before we get into the seven steps. The core idea is this. We talk about this, but let me be clear. Most authors, not necessarily BSP authors, but most authors focus on how do I sell more books? Seems logical, seems reasonable. But there is a better question than that. The better question is, how do I get more books into the hands of the right people? How do I then convert the right reader into a client? You see, the right reader can be worth $5,000, easily, $10,000, even $100,000 or more. And I’m going to show you examples of that with my client’s books. And I’m an example of that with the books that I’ve written. You don’t need thousands of readers. You need the right readers and you need a path for them to move closer to you. Now look, if you’re like a John Maxwell who’s now on his 90th book or so, and you have a tremendous mass market appeal, then probably what I’m saying right now does not directly apply to you. But let me tell you something. It applied to John at one point. in his business and career. And that point is generally prior to you reaching this mass market appeal status. See, most authors, they they come into this this game of authorship and publishing and they think, you know, I’m I’m going right away after the mass market. I’m going to write the mass market appeal book. And it goes nowhere. It doesn’t attract the right person and honestly doesn’t attract anybody because the platform isn’t yet in place. What’s better and far better is to shift your thinking, especially in the beginning of your publishing and authorship career. And I’ll say the beginning is your first five books, five books or less. Or if you come in with a big built-in platform already, but you still need to write to that platform. Amateur thinking is a bigger market, a bigger addressable market, a broader market equals more readers, which equals more success. That’s not true. It’s not. Especially if you don’t have the mass appeal or the platform in place. You see, a professional thinks better readers are really what I’m after because better readers equals revenue. Okay? So, let’s go through the steps. I’m going to give you seven steps to speak to and reach this $10,000 reader or even $100,000 reader and beyond. Step one, you need to define who your 10K to 100K reader is. You have to define that not all readers of your book are equal. Your 50k reader, 10K reader, 100k reader is someone who has the problem that your book solves. Number one, he or she is aware of this problem and in fact is reading your book looking for the solution. He or she also has resources to invest in solving the problem and they value speed, expertise and results. This is where a lot of authors go wrong because as I said they write for everyone. They write for general audiences. They write for broad appeal and broad appeal produces very low intent. People have no intent. There’s no urgency and because of that there’s no conversion. At Bestseller Publishing, we want you to focus on a specific reader that has a specific problem that is looking for a specific outcome. When you do that, especially in the beginning of your authorship and career, you are going to make a return on investment with your book. You’re going to because you’re going to be able to provide that specific outcome that they’re looking for to solve that problem. And when you write to that reader, that reader is going to find that book. That’s step one. Step two, align your book to attract the right reader. Your book is not just content. It’s not just story. Your book is the filter. You’re filtering out those that you’re trying to attract from those that you’re repelling, that you can’t help, that you’re not going to solve their problem. Everything in your book should signal, hey, this is for you, Miss Wright reader, Mr. right reader or this is not for you. And that’s done by your title, your subtitle, the chapter titles, and of course the chapter content itself, your stories and your examples need to point directly to that ideal reader. Your language, your tone, the problems that you emphasize, the solutions, the outcomes that you promise. If the wrong people love your book, then the right people are going to ignore it. You want the right people to love your book and because of that to love you. That’s step two. Align the book to attract the right person. Step three, build your reader journey. A reader does not become a client automatically. Okay? I mean, they can read your book and fall in love with it and hunt you down if you’ve not made the path clear to get back to you. And some will do that. But most will not, even if you’re perfect for them. Even if you solve the exact problem, you’ve got to make it easy for them. It is not automatic. There is a progression. They start as an interested person or party, maybe because of your catchy title, a hook for them, your cover. They become a purchaser, and they still have to become a reader and an engaged reader. You’ve got to take them to that step. From there, they could they become an interested prospect. And hopefully because you put the things in place that we’re going to talk about in just a couple of seconds, that turns into a conversation and some of those conversations turn into clients. Most people stop, most authors stop at reader, right? They’re not thinking about taking that reader and making them a prospect, an interested prospect, and turning that into a conversation and turning that into a client. You have to guide them along the path and to the next step. We’ll talk about what that looks like. You see, the right the right reader can lead to tremendous opportunities for you. This is a story that I tell a good bit because it is the best story that I know of of how one reader one how a book found on one reader’s desk can be life-changing. this uh book Florencia by Doug Bowman and and John Mullen, clients of ours. They came to me to help them do this book and and launch it. And the brief story is this. If you want an expanded version of the story, I can tell it another time, but there’s too many uh that I I have to tell for this. But the brief version is this. They went to Mosamb beek 15 years earlier. They were moved by the plight of the people in Mosamb beek who because the country was war torn from 20 25 years ago. There were landmines throughout the country that were removed but but there were hundreds of thousands perhaps millions of people that were maimed by these landmines and they needed prosthetic devices. And if you know anything about prosthetic devices they must be changed regularly. not every year but every few years because people grow, they change, their bodies change, etc. And so they were moved by this. They wanted to do something about it. They wrote this book and we could have gotten this book in 15,000 people’s hands and it not meant very much at all. And it did do very well and sold tens of thousands of copies. But we were able to get a copy of this book onto the desk of the president of Mosamb beek, the president of the country. And because he engaged with the story, read the story, loved it, he then introduced my clients to the ambassador to the United Nations from Mosambique. He invited them to come to the UN, which I went with them with a film crew, introduced us at the Indian consulate to the largest NGO in the world that dealt with prosthetic devices. They presented in front of the United Nations General Counsel an amazing time for someone like myself, right? And them. And within about three or four months, they raised millions of dollars because the book was on one person’s desk. One. 10,000 other people that read the book did not lead to that kind of impact, but one did. Getting your book to the right person can make all the difference in the world. Step four, you have to create a movement or movement points within your book. Now, if you only have one person’s desk to get it in front of, that’s not as hard because you’re going to keep following up with that person by phone, scheduled appointment, perhaps direct mail, email, etc. But in most cases, that’s not going to happen. It’s going to be we’re trying to get in front of 10,000 people or 100,000 of the right people. So we have to create like a process of action that takes place in the book itself. Points where the reader reads and thinks, you know what, I have that exact same problem. I have that exact same issue. They’re reading a story in a chapter and you’re explaining a case study and that case study directly applies to them and they think, “Wow, like I need help with this exact thing. The author of this book helped this company with that exact same thing. They can help me. It exposes both their challenge and their gaps as well as your frameworks that can solve the problem. Case studies will create desire. They create like moments of realization. People People can be reading something that gives the steps, but when they’re they’re centered around a story that feels like them and sounds like them, oh my gosh, all of a sudden they’re like they can put themselves in the shoes of that person that’s going through that exact thing. And then they see you. They see your process as what can serve them and what can help them. The goal is to create clarity for them and desire. And then from there, the next steps to bring them to you. That’s step five. You have to give your reader a clear next step. This is something that surprisingly too many authors do not do a very good job with. Most books fail at this. They don’t have a bridge from like the value you’re providing to action. Right? You just showed somebody in a story about yourself or a case study that like you know exactly how they feel. You know exactly what they’re going through. You know exactly what their pain points are. And you got the solution. And then you leave them there. Oh my gosh. You’ve got to give them a path. So what is the path? Well, the path is perhaps not at the end of every single chapter, though it wouldn’t offend me if it was, but at the end of many of the chapters, you want to give them next steps to start a two-way relationship with you. Right now, they only have a one-way relationship, right? They’re they’re reading your book right now. You don’t even know they’re reading your book. So, if you send them back to download a free resource here, you saw the steps that I did. If you’d like to see my three video trainings on how this can be implemented in your business, go to www, etc., etc., and then ask them to put their name and email address in. And now you have a relationship. You have a connection with them. You can ask them to attend a workshop, join a training, book a strategy call if you want. Ideally, it has to be connected with the content that you you just taught. That that’s that’s the non-lazy way to do it. The lazy way to do it is, hey, book a call with me. H they may not be ready quite for a call with you, but you know what? If they’re intrigued by the content of that chapter and you give them another way to consume more information about that chapter, they’re going to want that, right? they’re reading something and if you tell them, hey, I have a video series explaining this now, they want that as well. So find a natural continuation from the content that they already love that you’re giving them to more content and a deeper relationship with you and do that. If not in every chapter, do it in every other. Do it regularly throughout your book. Not just one time at the end or one time at the be beginning, but give them opportunities to connect with you. That’s step five. Step six, you have to create conversations. You have to create conversations. The goal is not an immediate sale when someone’s reading your book, right? Even if they’ve fallen in love with you, and some will, some will read your book and go, “This is exactly what I need.” when we did um Jennifer Edgar’s book, Resilience, and Jennifer works with large corporate clients and does fairly large corporate consulting agreements, 50K, 100K, 150K. And Jennifer, when I interviewed her um on this book, we just finished her second book up not long ago. Jennifer said that she mailed 200 copies of this book out, 200 copies to people that she knew or people that she had like one degree of separation from. And those 200 copies, just 200 people that didn’t even buy the book, they got it for free, led to $500,000 in new corporate agreements. Now, over a two-year period. Now, did those people read the book and then find a link and click a button and give her $100,000? That would be nice, but no, that doesn’t happen. The goal is to take someone like that that’s going to spend $100,000 with you to take them from engaging in content where they’re building their trust in you to now having a conversation. That’s how high ticket programs and products are are sold. They’re sold through trust, through clarity and dialogue. There needs to be conversation. So your book creates this interest, even excitement that you are a an expert, a trustworthy individual in an area that they need help in. And now because they’ve engaged with you in one form or another, you have an opportunity to create a warmth in the relationship and a conversation which leads to a conversion, a new client for you. Step number seven, high ticket 10K, 50K, 100K opportunities convert through clarity, not pressure. These are not people that are going to be converted because you have the right sales script or because you have the gift of gab or because you are great with people. No, the these these clients are going to come to great clarity and trust in you because of what they’ve read, because of the conversation that you have, because of your book. As they read, they’re going to understand your philosophy. They’re going to respect your expertise. They’re going to value your approach. And by the way, if they read your book and they don’t like your expertise or respect you, they don’t see the value in your approach, they don’t think that you have the right answers, then guess you’re never going to know about that. Don’t worry about that. That’s not your person. There are plenty of people, I’m sure, that have read my stuff and are like, “This guy’s an idiot.” Maybe they’re right, except for all the other people that I’ve been able to help that read my books and have thought, “Wow, this guy can help me.” So, that’s the cool thing about like having your magic in a book, letting the book do its work, is that it sorts the people that are attracted to you from the people that aren’t, and you don’t have to have conversations with them. the other day. This happens on occasion. I got referred to to to somebody and if someone is directly referred to me, I will speak to that person that is referred. Otherwise, they go through kind of our typical sales channels and read my books and and watch my videos and content and and speak to David or Rean or Elaine or one of the folks on the team. And I spoke to this individual and um the first thing the person said is, “Okay, now tell me what you do.” I’m like, you know, this is not a conversation that I’m used to having. I don’t have like I don’t do networking where I kind of, you know, do my song and dance and see if there’s an interest. That’s the beauty of books, right? Another life ago, I did do networking and it was like, tell me what you do. And so, I had to have my, you know, one one great line and phrase, right? And and faint interest in what they do and all that stuff. I’m being a little facicious. I actually like people and so I don’t mind networking but I don’t want to get business that way. Me primarily because generally when someone reads the book they understand my philosophy they respect my expertise. They see the value of how we do things and they come with all of that base knowledge in place. It’s not like they come and go okay now tell me what you do and why I should be interested. That’s not a conversation you want to have. That’s why books are so powerful because they pre-ell your 10K, 50K, 100K clients thinking. And if they get to you, they want you. They already want you. Then it becomes a matter of pricing, ability to do the job that they specifically want, etc. See, a,000 books sold by you at 10 bucks a book, that’ll make you $10,000. a hundred of the right readers with 10 of them being really good conversations and three of them being $25,000 clients. That’s 75 grand with just a hundred people. And I’ve proven that this works over and over and over again. The math for us is typically with publish promote profit if a thousand people get the book then that will turn into about a hundred applications. The other 90 do not fill applications. They they read the book. They either decide that, hey, I I I’m going to I’m going to do this myself. I’m going to go my own direction or or you know what, this is interesting. I’ll see if I can apply it. Whatever. But 10 of them fill applications. And of those 10, about three of them become clients. And usually that will range in the $25 to $50,000 client. And it’s not somebody we have to chase. It’s not somebody we have to do a hard close. It’s just x number of readers equal y number of people applying equal x number or or or or z number of new clients to bestseller publishing. That’s the math. Many authors, and I hope this is true of you, don’t have a book problem. You have kind of a a conversion path problem. Maybe you have some readers, but you’re not moving them from the book back to you. Or perhaps you weren’t specific enough in the problems that you solve. And so because of that, they’re not raising their hands going, “You know what? You you’re the guy for me. You’re the gal for me. You can help me.” For us, the BSP reframe on all of this is that your book is not just a product. Is it a product? Sure. Do you make a little bit of money from it? Sure. But really, it’s a it’s a trustbuilding client acquisition tool. As I said about Jennifer, it wasn’t how many books she sold. It was the fact that she got 200 copies of this book into the right 200 people’s hands and because of that it led to a half a million dollars in new business. I love this book. I I wish I or BSP did it, but this is Dr. Ben Hardy’s book, The Science of Scaling. I read this book two times and I applied for his coaching program and paid him $24,000 just from reading the book. Never had a personal conversation with him. The book itself sold me on what he could do. And in fact, he didn’t sell this book. He gave this book to me. He sent this book to me for free because I was in a pre previous low ticket program of his and he diagnosed that I was the right client and he was right. We could go on and on and I could certainly go on with examples of this. So, you have to ask yourself and hopefully ask yourself before you write your book, who is my 10K reader, 50K reader, $100,000 reader. Does my book really clearly speak to them? Does my book like solve their big problems? Does my book give them the next steps that they need to take to get back to me, to find me after they engage, appreciate my way of doing things, etc. Am I creating conversations or just hoping that they’re going to consume it and then find me? And and hope is never a great strategy. We don’t necessarily need more readers. We need to have better alignment, really clear positioning on who we’re looking for, what we do, how we help, and then we have to have a sweet, strong pathway right back to us because one reader can make all the difference. It can change everything. So, let me give you the seven again, and then I’ll open it up to any questions. Step number one, define that 10K to 100K reader. Step number two, make sure I align my book to attract that reader. Step three, build their journey, the reader journey. How I take them from just interesting interested prospect all the way through engaged reader conversation and client. Step four, create movement points inside the book. Step five, give the reader a clear next step. Maybe not every single chapter, but a lot of them. And ideally clear next steps that we think through and that we make appealing because it’s attached directly to the content. Not email me to learn more. Not no something is attached to the content. Step six, create conversations. Not just hope for conversions. And then step seven, we convert through clarity. Not pressure, not the right sales tactics or any of that. Because all the pre-elling is done by the previous six steps. So we convert through that kind of clarity.