A Book Is Critical to Your Business

First, a couple of announcements.

The 2025 Content Entrepreneur Expo (CEX) Call for Speakers is now open. Please submit your application to speak at CEX (August 24-26, 2025) in Cleveland, Ohio. We are looking for breakout speakers who can talk to building and operating a content creator business. Submission ends December 1st, so get your application in today. Second, there will be no Orangeletter in two weeks. My hope for you is peace during this upcoming holiday season.

Why You Need to Care More about Your Book Strategy

This week I’ll be presenting at Author Nation, a conference for authors working to build businesses from their books. When I attended last year, I was blown away by the authors I met and chatted with.

For perspective, I’ve written and published nine books in my life (eight non-fiction and one mystery novel). Of all the people I talked to, I had published the fewest books. The average person I chatted with had 30, 40 or even 50 books published. Truly unbelievable.

But what many of these authors had in the way of writing and publishing, they missed in the form of revenue and strategy.

Let me give you an example.

Most authors have one, maybe two, revenue sources. Simply put, they make money from their print books, electronic books and audio books. While this is fine and very normal, it’s almost impossible to build a sustainable business. Sure, there are the James Pattesons and JK Rowlings of the world, but those are the one percenters.

Let’s look at the average individual for a second. Like authors, most people who collect a salary from a business generally have one or maybe two sources of income (their paycheck and possibly an investment account).

Millionaires, on the other hand, have multiple sources of revenue coming in, whether that’s through several businesses (and multiple products and services within those businesses), real estate transactions, countless investments and more.

It’s not that authors who only drive revenues directly through their books can’t be millionaires. It’s just that the odds are stacked against them.

When I speak at the event, I’ll talk about how you can take the concept of your book and build an entire business around it, generating revenue in five, six, seven different ways.

For example, an author who thinks a little bit different about what business their in can drive sales through:

• Consulting/coaching
• Online courses/workshops
• Print and audiobook sales
• Affiliate marketing
• Speaking fees
• Membership programs
• Advertising/sponsorships
• Live and virtual events
• Subscription fees
• Merch sales
• Sponsored content
• Donations
• Products

I’m probably forgetting a few, but this is a good starter list. But the truth is, every time you add a revenue line you increase your odds of financial success.

Before we sold Content Marketing Institute in 2016, most people thought all our revenue came from our event, Content Marketing World, in the form of attendee fees and sponsorships. At that time, we also generated a significant amount of consulting fees, paid email rental, digital sponsorships, webinar programs, and even book sales.

One of the reasons we created Tilt Publishing (a hybrid publisher for non-fiction authors) is because so many creators were forgetting about the three legs of the publishing stool, which makes it possible to increase your lines of revenue.

What’s that you ask?

If you want to build a publishing empire (think multiple lines of revenue), you need three things.

1. A go-to place for people to find your content. This could be a newsletter, a podcast, a YouTube show or perhaps a blog. Basically, answer the question “where is your show at?”

2. The big idea or concept you talk about at your content destination is then sculpted into a book. That book becomes the best business card on the planet. It opens doors that were never visible before.

3. That book leads to speaking opportunities. The sad truth is, if you don’t publish a book, you’ll have a harder time getting an organization to hire you to speak. If you don’t speak in front of people, you’ll have a harder time sharing your message. Without sharing your message, people can’t spread your message.

And once you speak in front of people, they’ll want to connect with you. They’ll go to your “show” and subscribe, and you’ll start to build a customer for life, one where you can sell them multiple things.

It really is that easy. If just takes time and patience to make it happen.

If you are working on a book (the second leg of the stool) and need a bit of help with design, editing, production and marketing, I hope you consider Tilt Publishing. Check out some of our new authors here.

Are You Selling the Wrong Way?

Our big Night at the Races was last week and a few days before the event we were still five race sponsors short. The program was being finalized and we needed to get sponsors in time to print the program.

Everyone on the Orange Effect board did a great job selling tables and horse names, but for some reason we fell short with individual race sponsorships.

So, my wife asked me if I could get them sold in a few hours.

I was able to, in less than an hour.

Now, mind you, a race sponsorship is $150…not a large sum of money. But the sell is easy if you follow the basics of a limited inventory model.

When I’m going through this, I want you to think about your inventory. Maybe you have a newsletter. Or a podcast. Or an event. Or your website. Whatever you need to sell, I want your thoughts on that.

The first to-do with this model is, make it personal. The reach out needs to be friendly. Don’t bcc out your media kit. Approach each person with their name and say something related to your relationship with them. That removes a lot of the friction involved in the ask.

Where most content entrepreneurs fail is that they just ask for sponsorship or support. I have sponsorships available for my podcast, would you like to be a sponsor? Or, we have our big event coming up, we’d really like your support.

Although sounding very nice, you’ll most likely hear crickets.

It’s not, sponsor my podcast. It needs to be a thing. And, when you do it, don’t treat it like there are a thousand of these. There may be five, or three, or one, but the offer is extremely limited. So treat it like one.

Here’s an example.

Hi Julie…it was so nice seeing you again at CEX. I hope that referral I gave you worked out.

I’ll get to the point. I need a favor and I think you might be interested.

The sponsorship for the opening of my podcast just became available. There’s only one of these, and I need a company I trust to fill this important slot. Each episode is $500 and I basically shower you with love and give out a link for my followers to contact you. I’m recording the next episode next Monday and I don’t want to ask anyone else until I know you can do it or not. Can you let me know by this Friday?

While not perfect, this is pretty good. You’ve done a couple things here.

First, you’re friendly. You aren’t selling. See how they are doing first.

Second, you are not asking for a podcast sponsor, although that’s what you are selling. You are filling one very rare spot that doesn’t come around very often.

Third, you are giving them a specific price with specific deliverables.

Fourth, you are giving them a deadline.

Now let’s say you have three podcast sponsorship slots available for your podcast. You could take the same ask and do this for midroll and for closing thoughts and sell all three spots.

Once you get the initial yes, then you can discuss timetable, invoicing, and all that, but get the yes first. Once you get the yes, everything else falls like dominos.

So back to my Night at the Races dilemma.

Here’s what I said.

Hey Paul…congrats on the new role. So excited for you.

I need a favor. I have five $150 race sponsors left for our Night at the Races next week. Any chance you can fill one of the spots for me? You get your company name and brand at the top of one of our races to over 200 people at the event. Can you let me know either way by the end of day? Eternal thanks if you can.

Don’t overcomplicate your sales. Make it easy for people to buy.

If you would like me to talk about something specific for next issue or ask me a question, just reply to this email.