← Beyond Blind Blaming
Beyond Blind Blaming
Building a Platform, Overcoming Publishing Pitfalls, and Getting Traditional Book Deals | Randy Peyser
00:36:09
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- [00:00]
A
A book is either your option or a priority. If it's an option, it will never get done. If it's your priority, you absolutely will make it happen and nothing will stop you. And that was true for me when I started my publishing journey writing my first book.
- [00:15]
B
Today I'm joined by Randy Peiser. Randy's the founder of Author One Stop, a literary advocate, the book coach, editor and speaker who helps authors turn their ideas into published books and more importantly, into powerful messages that reach the right audience. With over two decades of experience and strong relationships with literary agents and publishers, Randy's helped countless first time and established authors land book deals and gain national exposure. Her client's work has been featured in Time Magazine, Oprah Magazine and Wall Street Journal USA Today Best Seller list as well, and even option for Film.
- [00:50]
A
There's two main factors to get a book deal and part of it has to one, part of it has to do with your content. You have to write a really super book that publishers believe they can sell because they believe readers want to read it. So your content has to be very relevant. But then the other side of the equation is strictly about numbers, and it is a numbers conversation.
- [01:25]
B
Welcome to Beyond Blind Blaming. This is the place where we explore how easily hidden truths can hold us back, trapping us in cycles of frustration and blame, often without even realizing what's truly stopping us. Each week I'm joined by experts and professionals who share their journey of taking back control of their story, overcoming hidden challenges, and discover how to stop blind blaming from dictating their outcomes. The insights you're about to gain will help you see beyond your current limitations, find the courage to seek new perspectives, and ultimately live a life that's both purposeful and powerful. So if you're ready to break free from blind blaming and discover what's possible, you'll definitely want to listen to my next guest. I'm your host, Kevin St. Clergy and today I'm joined by Randy Peiser. Randy is the founder of Author One Stop, a literary advocate, the book coach, editor and speaker who helps authors turn their ideas into published books and more importantly, into powerful messages that reach the right audience. With over two decades of experience and strong relationships with literary agents and publishers, Randy's helped countless first time and established authors land book deals and gained national exposure. Her client's work has been featured in Time Magazine, Oprah Magazine and Wall Street Journal USA Today Bestseller list as well, and even optioned for film. She's also the author of several books, so I'm excited to have her on the show. Through her work, Randy helps people move from idea to impact, guiding them through writing, positioning and pitching their message. So it just doesn't exist, but actually gets heard and read. Randy, welcome to the show.
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A
Thank you very much, Kevin. I'm very happy to be here.
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B
Well, let's start with your journey. What led you into the world of publishing and how did you become the go to person for helping authors land book deals?
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A
Well, it's kind of a funny story, but I like to say that I slept my way into the publishing industry. So what I mean by that is I actually got into a relationship with a publisher of a very large Bay area, San Francisco Bay area magazine. And the relationship did not last, but I wound up taking over the magazine. It was a lovely experience. There were no harsh feelings. And then I became editor in chief of a national magazine. And then I started writing books myself and looking for publishers. And so my journey was very organic to the place where just even like a year or so ago, I sold 16 books to publishers in one year. I mean, that's a lot of books. So there were like six business books, two whistleblower books, two mind body, spirit books, a self help book, a memoir, a guidebook, a political book, you know, a couple of novels. You. I just sell a lot and I love helping first time authors in particular because everybody has a dream and I'm the person who gets to open doors to fulfill dreams for people who want like a New York publisher.
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B
Amazing. I bet you have a lot of impact on people's life. Not just with the authors, but I think the folks that they help sounds like.
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A
Absolutely, absolutely.
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B
Well, you've also worked with thousands of authors over the years. What do you think separates the ones who actually get published from the ones who stay stuck with an idea?
- [04:37]
A
So what I tell people, I've given over 500 talks now on how to get a book deal with a publisher. And I always conclude my talks by saying a book is either your option or a priority. If it's an option, it will never get done. If it's your priority, you absolutely will make it happen and nothing will stop you. And that was true for me when I started my publishing journey writing my first book. So for example, I'd written a book called Crappy Too Happy. And I was out there pounding the pavement, couldn't find a publisher, couldn't. You know, I kept hearing great, great writing, but where's her platform? A platform means the publicity you already have in place that you're bringing to the table, which is very Very important for publishers. And I wound up at that time working for a magazine. And this is a little story that I call how I found happiness by working for Embezzlers. I told you I'm pretty funny, but it's a true story. I was writing for a new national magazine and it turned out the magazine was being funded by embezzled money, which I had no idea. You know, I'm just a freelancer writing and I was supposed to be paid for six months of work. And instead I got an email saying there's been a slight delay. The mother of the publisher had embezzled over $4 million from UCSF where she was head cashier at the time. So she got arrested and I never got paid. I wound up doing a one woman show. And as a result of the show, and here was a person who was just at that point really terrified about getting up in front of people. But I wound up doing a show, reading parts of my book and putting together little skits. And as a result of having that visibility, those eyeballs on me, I was able to get my publishing deal because I was very visible. So I say if I hadn't worked for embezzlers, there's no way I would have put myself way out of my comfort zone to get the book deal and to start my career.
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B
That's really interesting because I think a lot of first time authors just figure if they find a publisher, they're going to do all the marketing, but they want you to have a platform to go from as well. So that's a very interesting.
- [06:46]
A
Definitely, definitely. Yes. I tell people there's. There's two main factors to get a book deal and part of it has to. One, part of it has to do with your content. You have to write a really superb book that publishers believe they can sell because they believe readers want to read it. So your content has to be very relevant. But then the other side of the equation is strictly about numbers. And it is a numbers conversation because first the book will go to acquisitions editors who fall in love with it and they're falling in love with content and they think it's very sellable and they just love it. They feel like you're bringing something new to a conversation that's great, great positioning. But then the book's going to go to a different department and I call those people very affectionately, the bean counters.
- [07:35]
B
Right?
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A
And so the bean counters are going to be purely looking at your numbers and looking at how many books they think will sell. So for example, a mid range Publisher wants to sell 3,500 to 5,000 books in the first year. Simon and Schuster, Pangolin, Random House, minimally want to sell 10,000 books in the first year. So they're going to be looking at your social media numbers, your speaking engagements, the amount of people you're in front of to make those kinds of buying decisions. So obviously people tell me like, you know, what numbers do I need? And I say, you need numbers that are higher than someone else that they're considering. And so what is that? So, for example, business authors. I sell a lot of books in the leadership and business space and I will pitch HarperCollins leadership, HarperCollins business, Wiley, Penguin, Random House, portfolio. Every single one of them wants to see a person who has 100,000 people, 100,000 people between their LinkedIn and their newsletter. I have to be able to prove that those numbers and show links to them.
- [08:42]
B
So that just goes back to an old adage, the money's in the list.
- [08:45]
A
Yeah.
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B
And it literally is. If you want to be a public, if you want to get published by someone else, it sounds like you have to have a list.
- [08:51]
A
Yeah, well, that is true. A mid range publisher, if you have like between 30 and 50,000 people, a mid range publisher will most likely consider a project. And that's between wherever your audience is, if your audience is on, where are they? If there are your demographics on Instagram, build your Instagram.
- [09:13]
B
Okay. I love it. So in the world of writing and publishing now, we'll get into blind blaming a little bit. Where do you see blind blaming showing up most often? And if you remember, blind blaming is where you think you know what the problem is, so you start trying to fix it, but you end up solving the wrong problem perfectly and it ends up being something completely different. Do you ever see things like that happen in publishing authors?
- [09:31]
A
I see it from the author's side, not so much from the publisher's side, but from the authors. There's a couple of things. People will do things out of sequence. That is like a huge no, no. And what I mean by being in sequence is there's a sequence to making sure the book is perfect before it's sent out. So for example, if somebody brings a manuscript to me, the first thing we're going to do is analyze it, go through it page by page, use the comments bar and word, point out anything we're seeing that the author needs to improve. And then after that it'll go back to the author to input changes. Then it can come to us for editing. If it Needs it. Like when people tell me they're just reaching out to publishers and sending a query letter, hey, would you be interested in this? If I write it, it's like, no, that's not going to go anywhere. I had an agent, top agent, who said, Randy, I'm getting 1,000 submissions a month on email. I'm not even opening them. When you have something for me, text me. That's a whole other level of relationship.
- [10:32]
B
Wow.
- [10:33]
A
You know, building relationships. So doing things out of sequence. Or for example, sending a book proposal, which is a business plan, it's absolutely required for all nonfiction projects. They have to have this business plan of 20 to 30 pages. And people think they might know what that is, but they really don't. And they'll send off a half baked proposal that hasn't been reviewed. You know, I've written proposals that have gone six figure deals and bidding wars. I know where these proposals need to be, you know, and I will glance through anybody's proposal, you know, at no charge, just to see how powerful is it. Where does it need to be strengthened parts of my secret sauce to add to it also. So people are like querying but not really understanding what needs to be in a query letter. That's going to get a publisher or agent's eyebrows to go from their eyebrow line to their hairline, because that's what we need to do immediately.
- [11:29]
B
Interesting. I love it. I haven't heard the things like that. I think I had this back in the day. I mean, I've written several books as you know, but I've always self published them. So I've never actually used a formal publisher because I always had a business behind the book.
- [11:42]
A
Right.
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B
And so we had a revenue stream, but there's a lot of authors that just want to make money with the book and the speaking, which I totally get. But I had no idea. I thought you just pitched it to as many people as you can and they say yes. And I also thought, if I'm not mistaken, last time we spoke that it was important to have the book done. And if I remember, you wanted a rough outline and a first draft manuscript, which is what you just said. Right.
- [12:05]
A
When I pitch anything I say, the majority of everything I pitch is completely polished. It's not a draft, there's no rough outline. It is polished. Everything is completely ready to go. So for example, everyone I'm pitching is pretty much someone who knows me and I know and I've known for 20 years and I've sold to them and so they'll Open up my emails very, very quickly. So, for example, I have a Mind, Body, spirit book that we just edited. And within two weeks I already have one publisher offering a contract and a second one bringing it to committee. These are real relationships. They're established relationships.
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B
So you want it done?
- [12:43]
A
Yes. Like, you know, I was speaking with someone just today and they said, I just want to shop it based on a proposal and some sample chapters. I'll still do that for people, but I will tell people, good luck with that because. Because the competition is so high now, if a book comes in from someone, let's say all things being equal, people have the same amount of, basically the same amount of people, they can reach what's called their platform. So they're equal in those regards. And one book is polished and ready to go and the other one is needs a lot of editing. Which one are they going to choose? I like to pitch the whole thing, the whole enchilada, because I do get people book deals. There's very, very, and I mean very minuscule amounts of books that I read a pitch that don't get sold. The vast majority of everything I sell, I pitch gets sold because I know what publishers are looking for. So for example, the last time I was in New York was just pre Covid. I had 25 meetings in two and a half days pitching 22 publishers, three top literary agents with 16 projects that I was pitching. So that's me, you know, that's just part of my network. And now everything since COVID everything is via email. We don't do in person meetings so much anymore. But, you know, I still get the results.
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B
That's great.
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A
Yeah.
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B
So tell me about what some of those book deals look like. I mean, if you can't give any numbers and you don't want to, that's fine. I'm just curious. So you get somebody that's polished, they have 100,000 or more followers. They're the ideal type of client. We'll talk nonfiction because most of our audience is entrepreneurs, but I'm sure there's some aspiring authors anyway. But we can talk about. I'm just curious, what do those book deals look like? Is there usually like an advance? Do they buy them for 100 grand and then go from there, or do they kind of focus more of the earnings on the back end? How does that typically look?
- [14:36]
A
So advances are all over the place, especially depending on the amount of celebrity the person is or has. They just are. So pre Covid, if someone had 100,000 people or more, it Would have been easier to get a six figure advance. A number of my clients have gotten six figure advances for books we've ghostwritten. I just had an author who got a $50,000 advance on a book that we ghost wrote. And so I see, you know, less in terms of the advance. Some publishers aren't giving advances, but they're giving higher royalties. One of my authors just now has been offered a no advance contract, but with a 20% royalty instead of an 8 to 10% royalty. You know, it's just hard to say, you know, who's paying what and for what.
- [15:24]
B
Okay. So I was just doing the math on my calculator. It's $4 a book. It's not bad when you look at those publishers with big followers and things like that.
- [15:31]
A
Sure. And you know, I like self publishing and I like traditional publishing. When I speak with anyone or everyone, I tell people I have no agenda. I want what is highest and best for you. I tell people, generally speaking, if you want to make more money per book and get a book out quickly and have control over every word in it, then do some form of hybrid or self publishing that you're paying for. However, if you're writing a book that potentially you want to get into Time Magazine, Oprah Magazine option for a Hollywood film, airport bookstores, you know, all these opportunities open when a book comes out through a traditional publisher that most likely are not going to open. So if you're using your book for your career, I highly advise people, you know, if you're local or regional, you want to be national or international, you want foreign rights, audiobook rights, all that, try for a traditional publisher. So even my first book, my first book was called Crappy Too Happy. As I mentioned, Julia Roberts holds it up in the movie Eat, Pray Love and buys it in a bookstore scene. I had no idea. I mean, you have no idea what can happen when you have the book out through a traditional publisher.
- [16:43]
B
So that was the traditional publisher paying the movie. The movie? No, no, no, no, no.
- [16:49]
A
Not at all, as it turns out. Because, you know, I contacted them, they said they had nothing to do with it. And I was speaking to someone I knew within the film industry who told me that it would have been a props person who found it in a bookstore because it's funny, you know, crappy to happy. It's got pigs on the COVID It's a bookstore scene. I'm sitting in a movie theater at that time in Santa Cruz with a circle of friends, opening night of Eat, Pray Love, having no idea. My Book is in the movie.
- [17:17]
B
Well, that ought to feel good.
- [17:18]
A
Yeah. And so I contacted one of the agents I work with and we tried to get royalties, but they said Sony came back and said, we just gave her a product placement worth $150,000 in our movie. And we said, thank you.
- [17:32]
B
Thank you. That's right. Thank you very much. Did it result in some book sales? I would think it did.
- [17:37]
A
Oh yeah, definitely an uptick in book sales. And years later, I got emails two days in a row from someone in France, someone in Spain. Is the book in French? Is it in Spanish?
- [17:47]
B
Wow.
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A
But it was. So many years had gone by and I'm thinking, E pray love must be going through Europe because people saw the movie and of course the book was not in French or Spanish.
- [17:56]
B
Sure, yeah, but it did. I mean, the nice thing about those films is they have a shelf life and they're forever because with streaming stuff, they're all over the country or all over the world now. So.
- [18:07]
A
Yes.
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B
Well, congrats. That must have been amazing. I can only imagine what it felt like to go, oh my God, that's my book.
- [18:12]
A
Can I share with you one of the wildest stories?
- [18:14]
B
Sure.
- [18:15]
A
One of the wildest publishing stories. So I had a woman contact me about her book. And she was a board housewife in East Bay of California. And board housewife, she and her boardhousewife, two friends got together and they decided they were going to pursue the dreams they had left behind. And they called themselves the Chicks in Charge. And my author, M.J. margraf, her dream was to be a pilot, except she had to face two major obstacles. One was it's a very male dominated industry. She had to learn how to fly a damn plane. But she mastered that. And the writing is absolutely fun and superb in this book. And then she doesn't stop there, she becomes a flight instructor, but she doesn't stop there. On the International Space Station, there's a game that she invented with high school students that was played. And so Bored Housewife wound up with a full page feature in Oprah Magazine. And the book is called Finding the Wow. People hear this story and go, wow. It's like, yes, Finding the Wow was the name of the book and it won various awards and things like that. In fact, I accepted one of the awards in New York for that book, Wow. I mean, it's just. Wow is right. I mean, just from board housewife to Oprah, not bad. I mean, you have no idea what new doors new worlds can open for you when you write a book.
- [19:42]
B
Yeah, it's wild. I got lucky and had Jack Canfield, Chicken Soup for the Soul. He read my book. He was only the second person I'd read the book. And so we got a video testimonial from him which is all over blyblaming.com where we have the book. Awesome. And it definitely helps.
- [19:55]
A
I know. I love it.
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B
Without a doubt helps. So even though he's getting a little older and a lot of younger folks don't know who he is until I say Chicken Soup for the Soul and they're like, oh, that guy.
- [20:04]
A
Yes. Yes.
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B
Well, what do you think the biggest mistakes people make when they're trying to pitch their book or get noticed in a crowded market?
- [20:11]
A
Not having a strong enough platform is part of it. And you must be able to answer the question, what's in it for me? From the reader's perspective. So for example, memoir, but not only memoir. A lot of books, publishers don't like that self aggrandizing. It's all about me. It's all about me. Because they don't care about you. They care about their reader. And so even with a memoir, I'm asking myself two questions. When a memoir comes in, is this a book that's all about me or a book that's going to answer the question in the reader's mind, which is what's in it for me? Because that has to be the second book. It just has to be.
- [20:51]
B
And I would see that if somebody writes it from the perspective like, learn from my mistakes or learn from my successes. Is that what you mean?
- [20:58]
A
It can be that. But for one of the things that makes memoir more sellable is to do prescriptive memoir, which is what I did for Crappy to Happy. In Crappy to Happy, I have stories, in my case, short stories. And following each story where I changed or transformed a crappy experience into some happy outcome, like, you know, how I found happiness by working for embezzlers, things like that. I have four steps to happiness after every story. And so what I tell people is if you can write steps after each of your stories and don't expect the reader to extrapolate just by reading your story, you know which they might be able to do. But to include those four steps or three steps, whatever it is, just be consistent from story to story. And those steps are either insights or action steps. Insights or action steps. That can be the difference between a sale and no sale. So, for example, the Crappy to Happy, my subtitle was A Journey out of the Pits. And into the Fruit of Life. And I thought, gee, that's witty. Publisher's gonna love it. No, their marketing department changed my crappy to happy subtitle to Small steps to big happiness now, because it answered the question in the reader's mind, which is what's in it for me? And that is critical. It is just critical to the sale.
- [22:19]
B
It's interesting you say that because when we first launched Beyond Blind Blaming, we had a different subtitle and it was the editor who says, you need a different subtitle. And I think we came up with it because it's worked. We had to. We had to shift midway through the launch because we started in self help genre and then we found that self help people, when they read it, who didn't have anything to really shoot for per se, gave it four stars. But every single entrepreneur that read the book, the message was always the same. Five stars. You changed my life. Five stars. You changed my life. So we switched the category and that's when it really started to take off. So have you ever seen that happen?
- [22:54]
A
I haven't. This is the first time I've heard of that.
- [22:57]
B
Yeah, it was interesting. It was my decision. I was like, look, I'm not used to this. She's like, what do you mean? The person who was helping me get it on Amazon, and we were kind of doing a virtual book tour to launch it, and I was like, look, everybody that's read this so far. She goes, well, aren't all your friends entrepreneurs? And I'm like, yeah. She goes, well, let's change the category. She actually just wrote an article about it because she never had to do it either. And it was my suggestion, but it worked really well. And then a few months later, we hit number one bestseller in entrepreneurship for or on Amazon for a day. But it was still. It happened. It was after a big podcast and I had a bunch of book sales and we just got lucky on a Sunday afternoon. I'll take it because I got a good screenshot of it. But, yeah, that's what happened there. I was just curious if it ever happened. So.
- [23:38]
A
Well, see, I'm not involved with Amazon because once I've gotten a book into the hands of the publisher, under contract with a publisher or a top agent, I'm out of the picture. Okay, I've done my part. I tell people my lane is to help people get their content right, which could be book coaching, analysis, editing, ghost writing, whatever the person needs, and then to get that book pitched and under contract with a literary agent or Publisher. So that's my lane. It's kind of narrow, but it's what I do.
- [24:07]
B
Well, I think you've got a niche and you've worked for years. You know what to do. And I think that's good because then you can move on to your next deal.
- [24:13]
A
Yes. I was sitting with Angelina Jolie's literary agent in New York, one of those 25 meetings I had. Again, you know, like I say, I'm. I'm with. I play with top players. And we're sitting at the Javits Conference center, downtown New York, and we're sitting at a Starbucks table and I'm pitching him, and I see him do this. He picks up his phone, he's typing, and I'm busy judging the guy. And I'm thinking, God, that's rude. Well, it turns out he was looking up my author on YouTube and he said, not enough engagement. Who else you got? You know, And I see that. So, like when you were talking about mistakes, some people try to sell me on the idea that the book that it's the best book in the universe on their subject. And it may be, but if they don't have the numbers behind it, I can't sell it. And they'll try to convince me. And I'm like, I can't because if I send this book out to a publisher, they're going to stop considering what I send them because they're going to immediately reject and say, randy doesn't know what we want. And I can't have that happen. I just can't.
- [25:21]
B
Why are you still needed those meetings? I get it. That's good though, because I think you're almost a coach because a good coach knows when to client on and when doesn't. I just had to let somebody go the other day and not take on another client because we just weren't gelling is maybe a good way to sue it. You know, this person had some. Some things going on that I'm not an expert in. And. And we were, you know, it. It's interesting when you tell somebody and give them some good, honest, open feedback about what they need to do based on their goals, that they go find information to back up their initial thought and then send it. Yes, they send it. This person sent it to me. I was like, look, this is confirmation bias. We talked about this. It's. I can go find just as much information backing up my thought too, but I don't think this is a good fit for now. So I think you have to do that.
- [26:04]
A
Yeah, I Mean, we could still work with the content side of things. And I have various self publishing referral partners, people who have proven themselves to me, you know, for getting books into luxury hotels.
- [26:18]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [26:19]
A
Getting books to film. You know, for example, one of my connections worked on spongebob and Cocomelon. If anybody has a children's book, boy, do I have a connection for them. You know, they want to go to animation or to, I used to say adult films, but that comes out wrong. Films for general adult audiences. I have phenomenal connections, you know, for film or for various forms of self publishing. You know, I'm just happy to share resources, but we can still work on the content side of things.
- [26:52]
B
I love it and you certainly helped me with all the ideas that you gave me, so thank you again for that.
- [26:56]
A
Yeah, you're very welcome.
- [26:57]
B
So if somebody's sitting on a book idea for years, which I'm sure a lot of people listening are because we have thousands of downloads each week, what's the first step they should take to move from thinking about it to actually creating it?
- [27:08]
A
I don't want to sound self promoting, but I would say have a free conversation with me for 15 minutes so I can help you with your positioning.
- [27:17]
B
I love it and I don't think that's a bad thing at all.
- [27:19]
A
Okay, good. Thank you.
- [27:20]
B
Because you can self promote. Hey, we're. Most of the people listening to this are entrepreneurs, so we, we believe very strongly in shameless self promotion. So you're good.
- [27:28]
A
Yes. You know what's so funny that you said shameless self promotion, because one of the books I'm featured in is called Secrets of Shameless Self Promoters by Debbie Allen.
- [27:37]
B
Really?
- [27:37]
A
I love it because years ago when I was starting my publishing journey with books, remember, I was editor in chief of a national magazine. I had credentials for writing, but I didn't have a publisher for my first book yet. I wound up standing off the 101 freeway in Marin, California, in Mill Valley at rush hour on a Wednesday from 4 to 5pm in a dress in heels, holding a giant sign that read author seeks publisher. So I love it.
- [28:06]
B
That's great.
- [28:07]
A
I call that my random act of chutzpah, or in my case, my randy act of chutzpah.
- [28:13]
B
I love it.
- [28:14]
A
And a publisher called me that evening. I wound up becoming editor in chief of his national magazine. I mean, you can't make this stuff up.
- [28:22]
B
Yeah. Because I know when we connected, I was too far down the path to go get a book publisher. And you said it's Pretty rare once you've done the self publishing and released it, that a publisher will ever pick you up, if at all. Which is fine.
- [28:32]
A
Yeah, it's hard because we have to prove numbers and if your sales numbers aren't where publishers would want them to be, then they're not going to typically take that book. And people will say, well, I'll write my next book and do that. And then they'll say, but your first book, your sales were low and so it's just really, really tough.
- [28:52]
B
Yep. Well, we got a TED Talk coming up, so I think that's going to be. I just got that book last week. I haven't told you that. But I'll be speaking at TEDx Cambridge on the same subject as the book. So I know that's going to help.
- [29:02]
A
Yes, it will help. In fact, I got a book deal for Karen McGregor, her book the Dao of Influence and wound up on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list for seven weeks as best hardcover business. Seven weeks. And she did a TED Talk and had a million. We were able to show like a million downloads. So those numbers speak, they matter because it means you have eyeballs on you. Eyeballs have always mattered. Years ago when I did my one woman show, it was before, it was basically before streaming everything, I had eyeballs on me. They mattered.
- [29:38]
B
Well, the platform, I wrote that down. The first thing is get. Build a platform.
- [29:42]
A
Yes, yes.
- [29:44]
B
So going back to. They've had the book idea, shameless self promotion. They come to you, what do they need to have done with you? Should they have a conversation first? Look, I've got this book idea. What do you think? Is that the stage you want to
- [29:55]
A
see them at any stage? So some people come in with manuscripts, in which case we're going to just start by doing a read through an analysis. I mean, I send everybody a confidentiality agreement and a rate sheet before anybody contacts me, you know, before, once I've had a 15 minute call before anything is sent over. So people have the NDA, you know, and then they're, they feel safe to send stuff over. I always tell people I will never waste anyone's money or time. I'm not about that. You know, I will pitch something, but the book has to be stellar, in which case, you know, we're through conversations. You know, I can assess whether someone is positioned for a book deal or not. Like right from the get go.
- [30:36]
B
I love it. Okay.
- [30:38]
A
Yep.
- [30:38]
B
Well, we'll go over your contact information at the end. But I always like to ask every person I have on the show you've clearly invested in yourself over the years. What are your favorite ways to do that? Is it reading, podcasts, masterminds, coaching, live events? How do you like to invest in yourself?
- [30:56]
A
Years ago, I joined an organization called CEO Space International. And I originally went there because I wanted to find ages, but I actually became the person who I was looking for over time.
- [31:13]
B
I love it.
- [31:14]
A
And then I was on faculty for this organization teaching about publishing for years. So it's just very interesting how the tables turned. The tides turned.
- [31:25]
B
Yeah, cool.
- [31:26]
A
But, yeah, I mean, conference, conferences.
- [31:28]
B
Do you like live stuff? That's great.
- [31:30]
A
I do like live stuff, but since COVID truthfully, I haven't done any live stuff. It's all been zoom.
- [31:35]
B
Yeah, I miss it. We're starting to get in some of the industries that we market our services too, because we've got. I just launched another book for another very kind of small micro niche, and they're still getting gathered live. So I've been invited to go speak and give that book away at the. At the conference. So. Well, if people want to get in touch with you, Randy, what's the best way for them to get in touch?
- [31:54]
A
The easiest way is to go to the website and just click on, you know, get on the schedule. And the website is www.authoronestop.com and the one is spelled out O N E. Okay. Not the number o n e author1stop.com.
- [32:10]
B
We'll make sure we put it in the show notes. And I know it's not out yet, but by the time this show airs, it may be out. Would you mind just mentioning and talking briefly about your newest book?
- [32:18]
A
Yes. So this is my third book. The first one was Crappy to Happy. The second one was the Power of Miracle Thinking. And the new one is called Bald. And it's a book to help cancer patients who are going through chemo. And this is a book that is actually not going to be sold on Amazon. It's going to be gifted to chemo patients. Oh, I love it. So I'm looking for sponsors for it. Truthfully, I'm looking for anyone who interacts with the cancer community or cancer associations. It could be hospitals, it could be insurance companies, it could be cvs, Walgreens. I mean, just anyone. Or if anyone is going through chemo, I'm happy to at least send them the PDF of it, you know, if they'd like it for free. So that's great project.
- [33:03]
B
Well, if you have a. If we can get. We'll put your website and your Contact information. And if you want, we'll put your LinkedIn because I know LinkedIn is a great place to connect.
- [33:10]
A
Sure.
- [33:11]
B
As well in the show notes. Well, thank you, Randy. Amazing information. I know there's a lot of people out there who want to write books, but they're not really sure where to start. And now they have a resource to go and start with, especially if they want to go the traditional, traditional publishing route. So thank you for being here. Anything else you want to leave the listeners with before we go?
- [33:26]
A
Yes, Titles can make or break a book. And one of the most important things to do is consider keywords. For example, I had a business book called the Loyalty Grab. I had named it for the author and he loved that title. I loved the title, but it didn't check out with the keywords. And the publishers changed it to 100 proven ways to acquire and keep Clients for life.
- [33:53]
B
I'll get better.
- [33:53]
A
I mean, and the author, Richard Wildman, I mean, he sold something like 6,000 books in the first four months.
- [33:59]
B
So yeah, I love it.
- [34:02]
A
Yeah. So think in terms of titles, think in terms of keywords. And the last, last thing is I'll tell you a couple of things. Various publishers have told me they like outcome driven titles. What is the promise of your book? Is the promise in the title?
- [34:18]
B
I like that because that's what we teach when we help authors, coaches that are trying to. Well, we say people buy outcomes. They don't buy courses, they buy outcomes.
- [34:28]
A
That's right.
- [34:29]
B
Where are they now and where are you going to take them after they're done if they're going to exchange money for it? So totally agree with that. I've just never applied it to books.
- [34:35]
A
Yes. And also think about the pain points that the person is saying in their own self talk. What are they saying to themselves? Because you might have a very fancy title like, you know, find your authentic self, but people aren't walking around going, oh God, I wish I knew my authentic self. You know, what are, what are their words that they're using so that you're, you're creating rapport with your, with your readers?
- [35:00]
B
I love it. Well, my noticebook is called how to Sell youl Audiology Practice Without Getting Screwed. Because I kept hearing people over and over again like, I'm just scared I'm going to get screwed, Kevin. I'm just scared I'm going to get screwed. And I was like, well, let's go with that title. And so far it's worked really well. We just launched it officially yesterday, but it is very direct, to the point, and kind of my style, too, but it's hitting home, and it's a little bit better than beyond blind blaming. Blind blaming just piques people's curiosity for some reason. It's worked with the show. They wanted me to change the title, but we went with it like that. So we'll see. I think the TED Talk's gonna be titled, you're solving the wrong problem, and so we'll see how that goes. That's what they want to go with. I don't know. I didn't get much choice when it came to picking the title. I was like, well, is there something else? They're like, nope, we think this is it. This is what keeping people stuck. I was like, okay, so we'll see. All right, Randy. Well, thank you for being on the show. We're out of time now, so I'll wrap it up, and we'll put everything together. And I look forward to having you back on the show when your new book comes out, because I promised you.
- [35:54]
A
We thank you. Thank you, Kevin.