Good morning. And welcome to the Monday morning marketing Podcast. I'm Esther
and I'm Melanie.
And today we're joined by Becky Sanderson, branding designer and publishing specialist at Ms. Design Media. And today we're talking about boosting your brand with books. Welcome, Becky.
Hello. How are you doing?
You've just added a whole minute to our podcast just with your intro.
It's seconds. Don't exaggerate, Melanie. Becky, it's so good to have you with us today. Books writing your own book, publishing your own book. Why on Earth would anybody do that?
It's certainly sorry. Melanie.
I was just going to say. It sounds awfully time consuming, but is it easy?
I would be lying if I said it was, but certainly I think there's so many opportunities within books, and it's not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but it can be easier than you might think.
Okay, so who can write a book like Melanie and I just wrapped up and write a Monday morning marketing book?
Absolutely. I think any business or any entrepreneur that has a brand, a course creator or whatever your specialism. I think there's an opportunity for you to repurpose your knowledge of expertise, your content, and that there's a book format, an audience suitable for you. Absolutely.
Okay. So. How does it work? Do people come to you with an idea, or can people actually do this themselves?
Absolutely. So people can absolutely do this themselves. I think it's a bit of a massive undertaking to take on a self publishing project and doing every aspect of it yourself. I think there's a lot of elements to it that you would need to outsource or get some expert support on, but it's absolutely achievable, and I think that there's just lots of different factors to consider in working with me. People come to me either with the idea that they want to create a book or that they've already written it, but don't know what their next steps are or at the other end of the scale I work with people who have already written their books, so they have a manuscript that's ready to be formatted and designed into a book and then published on self publishing platforms like Amazon, Kindlebreak Publishing or English or some of the many other platforms that you can use to self publish or to print and produce books yourself. But I also work a lot with book coaches and ghostwriters and Editors. Often some of the work will come by those kind of clients where their authors have already written and created their book, and it's been edited and proofread, and then it's ready to be designed into a book and published. Or, like I say, it might be somebody that's come to me with literally the startings of an idea and don't know where to begin. So I think it's very different depending on the individual, their own background and which angle they've come at me from. But I think the key thing to remember, is that for many business owners that have already created a lot of the content, it's a place of repurposing it for a book.
So what is the first step?
I think the first step is to kind of gauge where you are in that stage of the writing process. Initially, if you've already written, then there's a lot of different factors to think about in terms of the level of investment, your own personal skill level. Do you have the funds available to be able to get proofreaders, copy editors, designers involved, or is it something that you're going to have to produce yourself, which is totally doable. There's lots of free tools available for you to do that with. And the wonderful Canva makes it totally possible for you to create Bookcode designs or low content type books or journals, notebooks, this kind of thing. So again, there are so many different opportunities within the different book formats and the different tools that are available for people to do it completely independently. However, I would highly recommend that anybody wanting to make serious money out of publishing would need to make that serious investment on the other side of it.
So when there's a book, a book that's worthy of being self published, how many pages or how many words do you need to make it an actual book, if you know what I mean.
That is a massive question, and there's so many different possible answers to it. But in my personal opinion, working with such a wide diverse group of people and different audiences and different themes and topics. Personally, the beauty of self publishing is that it can be available to anybody. And I don't think anybody's got the right to say you shouldn't publish that because it's not good enough. It's personal perspective, it's personal opinion. And who gives the right to say you shouldn't sell that story? So I think that's the beauty of self publishing that it's available to anybody. There's people that are going to like the content of a book. There's people that aren't going to like it. So what? At the end of the day, it's a personal journey, and everybody has a book in them. Right? So why not have the opportunity to share it?
So another question then. So let's say we've got a 150 page book. Just an a four one like an a five one, if you like. And as part of this, you have the choice of either making a hard or soft copy or a download.
Yes.
How many people actually read physical books these days or how many people are actually using those downloads? Because I've actually purchased both in the last two weeks. Both cookbooks one was the one that was sent to me by an email and another one that was sent to me through Amazon.
I think there's always going to be a place for both formats. There always will be. People are die hard book lovers. They like to touch it. They like to feel they like to smell the ink and get a bit geeky about it. It's a really tactile thing. It's a comforting thing. It's a holiday thing, a bedtime thing, a place to get lost in a real book. Ebooks are always and downloads are always going to be there now in the digital age, there's a place for these in the world of media, in business, in terms of people being able to access large amounts of content without having it to be a physical book.
Who uses recipe books these days? I used to have a shelf full of recipe books. Why? I don't need them now I can just download a recipe or look at a recipe that I want. So I think there's places and times for each format. And the beauty of a digital format or downloadable is that it can be cross platform. Now, with all the various different digital devices, there's so much opportunity for it to be cross platform. Initially, when it came out, it was a difficulty for the designers and producers of them to make them cross platform to provide a good user experience. Whereas I think the formats that are supported now by Kindle and the like and the different devices are making that more accessible, more user friendly, more interactive, great content, videos, embedded pictures, embedded interactivity. There's so much possibility within each printed and downloadable or ebook format. So there's endless, endless opportunities for each. And I don't think that either will be going away anytime soon. Sorry, Esther.
No, sorry, Becky, just leading on from that then the audible formats of the book. Would you recommend that the author themselves do the reading of the book or get a friend and we're talking small business books and small business owners writing books. So would you recommend that we'll go back to the example of the Monday morning marketing book, which isn't going to happen. Famous last words. But would you recommend that Melanie and I do the reading of that or that we actually get in a professional to do the reading of that?
No, we're characters.
In any example who should read their own book?
I think again, it's a personal choice. I think in the example of the Monday morning marketing podcast book that it would absolutely need to be you because it is about your personalities. Your people recognise your voice and it would be a really valuable extension to what you're already offering. So in that example, I would say absolutely you and again, depending on the content of the book, the brand, the person, it depends whether again they want literally their own brand voice on their audible book for others, depending on the content of the book, if it was more of a kind of novel or an autobiography, then in places it might be best told by somebody else. It depends on how confident the person is at speaking, reading, use of language, intonation all of these different factors are something that people are going to need to consider. And there's lots of services out there to do it for you. But again, I think it comes down to personal choices, the goals of the person who's publishing the book, what are they aiming it to do? Is it going to require that level of quality in terms of having professionals to do it? And again, it comes back to that investment. I hope that answers that question.
Yes. I've already got myself into trouble with mentioning a conference or workshop. So Melanie's not looking at me going, we're not writing a book just yet.
We're handling enough right now. Thanks.
You were mentioning branding and branding has something that we have talked about a lot on this podcast. How important is it to be yourself when you're writing your book? Could you just. Get somebody else, like a ghostwriter to write your own book?
Absolutely.
Would it sound like you? Would you then need to edit it and make it sound like you? We're talking like small business owners who are time per small business owners who are also money per. We're talking a lot of poverty going around here. But how do we get it that it sounds like us, but it's not maybe written by us or written by specifically on the brand. Would that work, or does it have to be branded?
I think it comes down to again, each individual's person and personality and their writing style, their ability to write well, or whether actually, again, investing in that service for somebody to be a Grace writer for you. So one of the ladies that I worked with very closely, I know that she does a series of interviews and questionnaires, and there is quite an in depth process to extract all of the information, details and feelings and personality. And again, that brand voice. There's certain phrases and words that they might use to communicate those elements of the brand and the brand voice. So it is authentic. I think there's always going to be a certain level of personality that comes in from the writing style of a ghostwriter anyway. But if a certain person isn't so confident with their writing, then this is a really good option for them. And it can still include the brand voice and personality.
So, as you know, Becky, because you've listened to the podcast as well, we market not just to start ups, but to establish businesses as well. So we're in your marketing model, which we talk about equally as often as branding, in fairness, is self publishing. Is it something you do early mid late? When is the best time to do this, to make it timely and cost effective and work
Again I think it would massively depend on the nature of the business. I work, for example, with a lot of coaches, consultants and creatives. So for a coach, for example, I would say early to kind of midterm in terms of their overall development, mainly because it's a great way to generate leads. The book is a great way to generate leads and develop that kind of brand voice and build the no trust factor, but also it's a great way to generate passive income. But more importantly, and the point of why I wanted to say this is that it's about repurposing the content that they're already creating, so they're not reinventing the wheel and repurposing that content helps to kind of build that brand identity, the brand loyalty for a coach. It would be really good to produce the book fairly early on to kind of two to three years into the business, I would say for creative, it might be again, at any point in their business cycle, they've got lots of opportunities to produce a book, to share skills, to produce a book, to share their creativity in terms of design or writing or photography, for example. And these are tools that can not only generate leads but generate that passive income. So from any point throughout their business journey, I would say for a creative for a consultant, again, it's kind of an excellent lead generation tool. A business consultant or a business advisor or a kind of marketing specialist has the opportunity to create all sorts of different book formats, whether it be downloads, ebooks or printed books. Which kind of help to put you on the map. So if you're a speaker for events and stuff, often event organisers won't hire a speaker if they don't have a book, what better platform to promote a book than an event? It's a bit of a chicken and egg. So again, you might want to think about that quite early on. So there's so many different reasons and different points in time why you might want to produce the book. It might be as a kind of staff handbook if it's a massive organisation or it might be downloadable user guides on how to use a new piece of equipment that you've purchased. For example, it doesn't have to be a book isn't necessarily about high profile, glitzy, glamour stuff. It can be more kind of everyday nuts and bolts things where people are getting information from. What's important is how that information is presented in the form of a book in terms of its structure, hierarchy of headings pages, page numbers, indexes, glossaries, these kind of things that help to make it into a proper book.
So layout is important. We've already talked about obviously using your brand, which includes your colours, includes your logo. What about people? Yes, your persona and your avatars. Who you're talking to? What about for brands or people? For example, my day job is with IPA Group, but I'm just one part of that. So could I, as owner or employee of that business, go off and write a book completely unrelated to that? Or how could that negatively affect my brand and my standing with that brand.
I'm not so sure in terms of how it could negatively affect other than being any kind of conflict of interest in terms of employment or that kind of situation. In fact, I could only ever see it as an advantage in terms of being that you're again establishing yourself as an expert in your field in terms of your credentials, it's only going to give you advantages and bonuses in terms of your profile and people's kind of respect for your level of knowledge in that particular field. I would say, okay.
Just one final question. I suppose when it comes to creating a book, because this is self publishing. At the end of this, we're thinking like selfhelp. Is there sort of like a template that people can follow?
Yeah.
Is there something that people can actively come away from today's podcast with what they need to put in to make this work, even if it is obviously to contact yourself directly as well?
Thank you. Well, shameless plug is that I've got my own Boost your brand with book ebook, which is available really affordably just 2.99 from Amazon. And within that, I take you through some of the different points that you would need to think about in starting your journey instead of publishing. I talk about working with Editors to work on your manuscript. I talk about the level of investment. I include a checklist and there's a glossary in the back of the book as well. For some of the more technical publishing terms that people come across and think what's bleed, what's trim page size, what some really technical terms that can just baffle people. I also talk about some of the different platforms and different book formats and file formats that need to be taken into account. There's some really technical information in there, but a really gentle kind introduction to the world of self publishing, which will really give you some really good pointers to start with, if nothing else. But certainly there are oodles and oodles of self study guides, lots of publishing groups popping up everywhere teaching people how to self publish books. So it's totally doable completely independently is what I would say. However, depending on the type of book, there potentially will need to be some sort of investment in either Editors, designers and experts in the world of just in the world of Kindle direct publishing, which can be a bit of a nightmare. But I think the potential opportunity to build that passive income is just well worth it. So really exciting for small business owners, I believe.
Brilliant.
Thanks very much, Becky. And apart from going on to Amazon and finding your book called Boosting your Brand with Books, where else can people find you connect with you? Interact, chats.
Lovely. Thank you. Well, there's a few different places I'm on Instagram Facebook at Mrs. Design media, you can find me on LinkedIn. Also, I also have a Facebook group called Boost your brand with books. Sorry. Boost your skills, boost your brand. You can see why I get tired of it not there. And within that group, I offer various different tips and opportunities to get involved, network and collaborate. So lots of support available from me via the group or people candidates get in touch with me to book either a free consultation or power hour to discuss their different projects and book ideas. And also another show has perk is that I'm about to launch my Boost Yourself Journal, which you two lovely ladies have also contributed your tips to. And this will be another Melanie's going bugger, I think. Have I? Yes, she did, Melanie. But this again, is another really useful tool for building and boosting your brand and boosting yourself and some really helpful tips in there. So another resource of helping support from me and many other ladies
and apparently me as well.
Yes, you did.
Honestly, it must have been a while ago because I can't remember that at all.
But this is the thing about books not being easy to produce, because even I thought, yeah, it'll be easy. I'll get other people to contribute, and it's taken me so much longer because I'm working on everybody else's books and online marketing that it's taking me longer to produce my own book. So it is not easy. And writing a book can take longer than you think. Putting the layout together can take longer than you think, but it's all going to be worth it.
Of course, it is one of my little Nuggets of information in there. Pure gold, Becky. Pure gold.
I can't find it particularly easily. One of the things that you asked about, which I kind of felt I didn't answer. So I'd like to just quickly get that in, if possible.
Yeah. Go for it.
You asked about the length of the book, how many words. And I think one of the things I would say is again, that it's anybody's personal choice as to how much they write or how little they write for the sake of producing something like a memoir or a self help book or something like that. I would say anywhere between 120 to 170 or 200,000 words would be a very good book. And the tricks of the trade are that you can adjust the layout, the margins, the text size and spacing to make it feel like a bigger book than it might actually be. So don't be too scared about things like that. But needless to say, you can also create low content books like journals, just using simple quotes, like the one that I'm producing or notebooks or workbooks. So if you're a course creator, you could reformat your course content to create a workbook which you could sell at a decent price to help to generate that passive income or to generate leads. So I think don't be too scared about the word count is what I would say. If you feel that you've got a complete set of content that does what it needs to do, then don't worry about the work count is what I would say.
Brilliant.
Thank you very much, Becky, for coming in today and talking to us. I think what a main takeaway that everyone can get from today is just do it. Just sit down and start writing or speaking. There's loads of software as well available where you just talk and the computer writes it for you.
Absolutely.
So you don't even have to sit and get writer's block. There's no excuse. Just do it.
Absolutely.
So you're going to write a book because you refuse to go live?
Sounds like a good compromise to me.
Actually, absolutely. I think it's been so therapeutic for me to work on my own book. Both the ebook about self publishing, but also with this Journal, it's been a really lovely experience. I've really enjoyed doing it, and I think that is the thing. It's very cathartic. A lot of fun if you like that kind of geeky sort of thing, writing technical stuff. But for any business owner, there's so many opportunities. So please do investigate it. If this has inspired you, even in the smallest way.
Brilliant. And keep an eye out for our upcoming book.
Yes. Absolutely.
That's it for today. Guys. Thanks for joining us once again. And we'll be back next week with more Monday morning. Marketing Bye Bye
bye.