Creative Marketing for Authors; The Money is in your Message (Rejoice 102.3)

Transcript

Show Introduction

Speaker 1 0:00

For Published in Black the go-to radio show for black authors , creatives and entrepreneurs ready to turn their stories into success . Hosted by publishing expert and brand strategist , tiffany A Greenhood , each show will deliver real talk , powerful strategies and insider knowledge on self-publishing , brand building , wealth creation and making an impact with your voice . Whether you're writing your first book , growing your business or scaling your influence , published in Black will equip you with the tools , inspiration and unapologetic confidence to thrive . Listen now and be informed .

Speaker 2 0:37

Hello and thank you for once again tuning in to Published in Black Radio . I am your host , tiffany A Greenhood . It is good to be back . It's good to be back . I have a lot to cover . Today we are going to be talking about marketing Marketing , the number one issue that most authors run into . But first I want to talk about a couple of things . I want to welcome you to my show . If this is your first time listening , who am I ? I am Tiffany A Greenhood . Publisher , coach , brand strategist , author , guru , publishing , self-publishing that is , self-publishing guru , and so this is your go-to show . I am on every Tuesday at 12 noon to 1230 .

Speaker 2 1:30

Okay , that's CS time for those of you who may be listening online or through the website . Um , we reached the Chicago area and Northwest Indiana , so , yes , so definitely put us on your list to you know if you are looking to tap into your book , your story book project , finish it . You know something that's been sitting for 10 years . You want to reignite it . All that good stuff . Ok , also , I want to talk about guess what this month is . This month is my birthday month . I am so excited about that . So I'll be turning 50 , june 14 . So , hey , hey , shout out to me . So , june , we got some really , really good stuff coming up in June . We have a lot to cover . A lot will be uncovered in June . We're gonna have a lot to cover . A lot will be , um , uncovered in June . We're going to have a lot of content that will definitely help you get to the dollar . You know that's always my goal .

Social Media Strategy for Authors

Speaker 2 2:35

Um , so happy June birthday month to me Also . Um , we're going to be focusing today on creative marketing and promo for authors .

Speaker 2 2:43

Okay , and just to remind you , if you are looking to , if you've been listening , whether it's your first time or you've been listening to a couple of episodes already . I think I've been on for about 30 days now . Um , you can go to publish with tiffanycom If you would like to work with me . If you think you just need a little help , if you're looking to book a coaching session or you need full blown production for your book , ok , so you can feel free to go to publish with Tiffany dot com . Everything about me is at that link . So also , you can go directly to book with Tiffany nowcom if you want to book a session . And then we also have our magazine . So if you're looking to be featured on the cover . The website for that is publishandblackmagazinecom .

Speaker 2 3:36

Okay , so just wanted to give those little notes before we get started , because y'all know , once I get started with my content , it's like we'll forget . I forget to promote and all that , so let me just hop right in . Okay , so we're talking about creative marketing for authors , okay . So the first thing I want to touch on is social media . Let's talk about it . Social media is what it is . Okay , it has definitely excelled and leveled up over the years .

Speaker 2 4:08

But one thing I'm going to say is everybody is there . Everybody is there . Most of everyone that you know has . They have a phone , and what are they doing on their phone ? They have internet on their phone . They have a phone , and what are they doing on their phone ? They have internet on their phone .

Speaker 2 4:26

So you need to make sure that you are posting your book , your business , your brand , whatever it is . This is the show for authors . But if you don't have a book yet , not yet . But you want to know how to promote your business or whatever this is for you as well , okay , so let's talk about social media . Promote your business or whatever this is for you as well , okay . So let's talk about social media , so you want to definitely make sure that your presence is being , um , I would say , being seen in a great way on social media . So what am I talking about ? Listen , do not be , on social media , focused on the garbage , okay . You want to be focused on promoting who you are and what you do . That's what you want to be focused on . That is the goal . Why you say that , tiffany ? Because what are we doing all this for ? We want people to buy books , although I teach you not to focus on just a book sale , okay , and we talked about that a little bit when we had the show for um , about the anthology and stuff . So here's the deal we are not just focused on somebody buying books , but you want to be able to present yourself not just as an author , but you want to present yourself as a speaker . You want to present yourself as a leader . You want to present yourself as a publisher . If that's something that you're offering , most people who have published a book or two of their own , then go forward to offer publishing services , right . So ? But here's the deal .

Speaker 2 5:55

If you are not posting this , let's say I'll use Facebook as an example . That's the longest living social media platform . That's been around , right ? I think that was the first one , okay . So if you have a profile on social media , whether it's your personal or business , okay , it should work together .

Speaker 2 6:18

But you should have professional headshots . You should have content that speaks to who you speak into , okay . So that's another key you need to know who you are speaking to . Who are you speaking to when you're posted on social media . You shouldn't be reposting other people's videos and all that good stuff . And I mean , listen , how do I know this ? Because when clients come to me and want social media , social media marketing , or they want me to , they want me to schedule their social media posts for them . I have to inspect their profiles and it don't always look good . So I'm telling you this is how you can show up and be informed . I mean , you know , make sure that you're informing your audience .

Speaker 2 7:07

So you want to definitely have your headshots . You want to have professional images ? Okay , we all have cell phones and , yes , I'm team iPhone over here and you know the iPhones take the best photos Okay , but even if you don't have an iPhone , some of the Androids take great pictures . That's cool to post here and there . But you want to take the time to invest in a professional photo shoot ? Okay , professional , so your images should pop . You should make sure that you have a media kit . What's a media kit ? A media kit is kind of like your business resume .

Speaker 2 7:47

Okay so I know you all probably thought all of this stuff you don't really have to worry about until you make it . As people you know , that's kind of the language they use no , no , I want you to do that right now , cause you're preparing to get to wherever it is that you want to be . So if you want to be , you know , the heavy hitter , the household name and all that , then you need to have all this stuff in place now . Okay so , and social media is the best place to do it . How do I know ? That's where I started and that's what helped me . And I started at the bottom , not to say that I'm all the way at the top now , but listen , I done came up a whole lot of levels Just using free social media media . We have to keep in mind that social media is a free platform . They don't charge us to create an account , and so you just have to know how to use it strategically . To you know .

Speaker 2 8:44

Grow your business to promote the book and not just promoting the book , because I think a lot of authors let's just stay on the author tip real , because I think a lot of authors let's just stay on the author tip real quick . I think a lot of authors get used to just promoting the book . No , stop doing that . Promote your message . Remember I said the first . I think that was the first episode . I said the money is in the message , the money is in the message , the money is in the . I'm going to say it again the money is in the message , your money is in the message , the money is in the message , the money is in them . I'm gonna say it again the money is in the message , your money is in your message . So it's not your book you want to so much focus on . I believe that's when . I solely believe that's where authors get stuck at is focusing on the book .

Speaker 2 9:26

If they don't have no book sales , then they think life is over . Oh man , I don't got no book sales . Ain't nobody buying no books . I have heard that for years . That is so not true . You are not presenting

The Money is in Your Message

Speaker 2 9:38

what you're selling right , and so that means your message , your face . That's where the professional photos come in . That's where your social media graphics need to look amazing and vibrant and clear and crisp . Right so ? And you don't have to be a graphic designer , hire someone to do that for you . Okay , I'm a graphic designer . If you need graphics for your social media platform , your Facebook cover , your videos , I offer that service . If not , go to this website called fiverrcom . Thank me later and we're gonna take called Fiverrcom . Thank me later and we're going to take a break real quick . Enjoy , enjoy .

Speaker 3 10:38

Life was bitter to the core . There was nothing to live for Until love came . And even second times around , happiness could not be found . Until love came , I was left all alone . My heart was breaking . Thought was my own , soul was aching . Tears covered me . We've been through the whole night and I need some relief . Joy comes in the morning .

Speaker 3 11:12

Been searching for Many years now Keys to life's door . Needs to know how . Brought to my knees , savior , can you help me ? And was led to believe . I'll tell you I was to believe . His love showed me . Love said not so , even with the odds against me . Love showed me . Love sent , not sold , without a reason for cause . Peace and joy placed on pause Until love came , having no hope at all and not a lover , one , a cold , dear . Love came . I was left all alone . My heart is breaking . All that was mine so amazing . Tears covered me . I've been through the whole night and I need some relief .

Speaker 3 12:11

Joy comes in the morning . I've been searching for many years now the keys to the light store . Brought to my knees , it was led to me . I tell you I was too weak . Love showed me . Love said not so , even with the odds against me . Love showed me Love , said not so Keep on holding on . Love showed me . Love , said no . Love told me don't let go . Love showed me love , said not so Ah , love's a mess . Oh God , I don't need no love . That's what he told me . He told me not to Awesome .

Speaker 2 13:31

We are back . So I want to hop right back into what I was telling you guys about promoting yourself across social media . As an author , as an entrepreneur

Beyond Book Sales: Speaking and Visibility

Speaker 2 13:41

, as a brand creator , whatever it is that you have book , brand or business you should be promoting yourself on social media . Yes , they are . There are other marketing avenues , but today we're talking about social media because that's kind of like the biggest platform that is popular now and it works . Ask me how I know , okay , so I'm going to hop back in and talk a little bit about that . So here's the deal . What I'm trying to get to is and why I'm connecting your book to all these different ways to market yourself is because it starts with your book . It starts with your message . The money is in your message . Without your message , you wouldn't have a book , right ? So no matter what your book is about whether you have a self-help , a memoir , a life story or now Now here's the deal .

Speaker 2 14:33

I'm not necessarily talking about fiction authors , okay , we're talking about nonfiction . So that's the memoir , that's the life story , that's the um . You know seven steps to X , y , z . Or you're showing someone how to do something . You're teaching someone how to get from one point to another , even if you're a coach and you teach transformation , if you are a confidence coach or transformational coach , all that good stuff . So , and just FYI , all of y'all should have books , ok , just in case you didn't know . So why , tiffany ? Why should I have a book ? Because your book equals social media exposure . It equals magazine features , podcast interviews , pitch letters , speaking opportunities .

Speaker 2 15:21

What Y'all thought it was just about book sales ? Absolutely not . It is not just about book sales . It's about getting your voice out here in front . Wait , listen to this , this in front of the people who don't know you . Okay , because soon as we start a business , let's just be real in our community . Soon as we start a business and we selling something , who do we go to ? We go to the people we know .

Speaker 2 15:47

Now , that's cool , but , to be honest with you , I started making my big money with strangers , people who had no idea who I was , and came across my Instagram live on my Periscope live . I started on Periscope for those familiar with , periscope was the first live streaming platform and I started on there , afraid , scared and all of that , but I kept going for some reason . I knew it was power in consistency . Okay , so I went live . I was in Atlanta , broke , you know , didn't know where I was going to go from there , but I still had my love for black authors and self-publishing . So I started going live , talking about what I knew about self-publishing . I didn't have no professional headshots , none of that . I didn't have no , nothing , just my voice and this free platform . And I started there and from there I started my publishing company and everything else I have going on right now .

Speaker 2 16:54

So you have to start somewhere . So , but I need for you to know and really hone in on it starts with a book . Now , if you already are established with your business or your brand , then you can actually still implement a book . Okay , so don't never think that it's too late to implement a book . I feel like every business , every brand , every leader needs a book anyway .

Speaker 2 17:18

I mean , what are we doing when you go and you speak in front of a large audience ? They need you to take home with them . That's good . They need some of you to take home with them . So , once you get through speaking and you've captured and you've gotten your message out and all of that , right , what are they going to take home with them ?

Speaker 2 17:37

Usually , you'll have a table when you get to doing paid speaking engagements , because that's where I'm pushing you to , it's not just about the book . Once you start doing paid speaking engagements , then when they come out to the lobby , you're going to have a book , you're going to have a table with your books that they can purchase and guess what ? They get to take you home with them . So all the strategies and examples you gave and the coaching that you gave in that 30 minutes or 45 minutes that you spoke , they get to then take with them . Okay , so that's something that is very powerful .

Speaker 2 18:13

I know that y'all kind of thought that people make six figures or millions just with the book itself . Now , I'm not knocking somebody who has done that , but a lot of times it's all these other things that are in that same circle of selling copies of your book . You also implement these things , and so speaking engagements is a huge one . Okay , I do have an episode on my podcast specifically about how to get paid to speak , how our authors get paid to speak . Okay , so you can check that out at publishedinblackpodcastcom and we're going to take a break like a castaway search for strength inside .

Speaker 4 18:58

Was it all in vain ? Because the deeper you dig , you find more and more pain . Don't let your tomorrow be like yesterday , because I spoke to god , I called out your name and , on your behalf , I just asked if he would be there for you . I want you to be blessed . Don't live life in distress .

Speaker 3 19:46

Just let go , let God , he'll work it out for you , it out for you . I pray that your soul will be blessed forever in His revenue in .

Speaker 4 20:09

His testament . Enter a place when you never have to cry , never have to live a lie , never have to wonder why , never want for nothing . You're always satisfied In the peace that his arms will provide . He will erase any guilt or shame , any bad habit you've got . You won't want to do them again . He will erase any guilt or shame , any bad habits you got you won't want to do them again .

Speaker 2 20:41

Okay , we are back . I love that song , be Blessed . And that's what I need for y'all to do With all this content and tips and tricks and strategies I'm giving about the publishing game . I need for you to be writing this stuff down , taking notes book marketing in your brain , because it makes real money . It really does , and it's nothing better than being able to get paid from all the foolishness and mess and bad and good that you have been through and made it through . Okay , so I want to hop back in . Okay , so I want to give you guys one major tip that I discovered myself and started using . I started buying the domain to my book titles .

Speaker 2 21:27

I know that you didn't know that , but when you title your book , first of all , when you title your book , make sure that it's a unique title , okay , so make sure you're Googling it , you know . Put it in Google . See , if somebody created a song 20 years ago and it's , it might be it's copy written or something . You don't want to use those titles . Stop using titles that everybody else already has . Okay , create a unique , strong title and make sure it's brandable . So don't make it 12 words . You know your book can be one word , you know and so but what I want to tell you is if your book is called I don't even want to use that example , I was going to say how I made it through , but it's too common but whatever your book title is , I want to encourage you to purchase the domain . What is the domain ? The dot com ? Now you go to a website , www dot . Yes , buy the domain to your book title . Why do I want you to do that ? Because that is a way to not only market your book a lot easier , but it helps people find your website a lot easier as well , and that's that's one of the little tips that I um found to be very , very um beneficial in this field . Okay , so buy the domain to the title of your book .

Speaker 2 22:48

Another one I want to give you is get you a professional email . Get a professional email . I know we all got Gmail , yahoo and all that , and that's what we came up on , but when you tap into having a real business because books and publishing , it's a real business Okay , it's a real business . I'm here to tell you get you a professional email . That means your email should be hello or info at xyzcom . Whatever your website is , you should have a professional email to match that . Okay , it looks better . Why

Professional Branding and Marketing Tips

Speaker 2 23:21

am I making that a big deal ? It looks better when you start sending out pitch letters for speaking engagements and magazine features and all these different things that you're going to do because you are promoting you . Okay , the money is in the message , but you need to have these things in place .

Speaker 2 23:36

So that's why I'm kind of giving some of these little tips and strategies , because a lot of the people that are already there at the level you want to be at , they already know about this . So I'm telling you to prepare where you want to go . If you want to be a New York Times bestseller I hear that a lot Amazon bestseller , whatever , prepare for it , okay , before you get there . So I wanted to leave you guys with that . Get you a professional email and you can even create an email for your imaginary publicist . Yeah , you can do that . Yes , create an imaginary email for your imaginary publicist that you make up . Give her a name and when you send out your pitch letters for speaking engagements , send it from her email so that looks like you have an assistant . You have someone else speaking on your behalf .

Speaker 2 24:32

I'm giving y'all some heavy game today . I hope you're writing this down , or jotting it down or recording it or something , because these are the things that people don't tell you , the publishers do not tell you . So I really want you guys to hone into this , because this is how you prepare to get to where you're going . So when you get there , you already got everything in place . You got your media kit , your what we talked about . We talked about the media kit , your professional images . That's extremely important .

Speaker 2 25:06

Too many times I have authors inquire about wanting to be featured in publishing black magazine my magazine and I have to turn them away because they don't have the right photos . You would be surprised the photos they send and I'm like is this how you have ? Like , no , that's not cool . So we need to start being prepared . Work on being prepared and being ready . Don't you ? So you don't have to ? How they say , you don't have to get ready , you're already ready , don't you ? So you don't have to ? How they say , you don't have to get ready , you're already ready . So work on being ready . Have your professional photos in line . Have your pitch letters ready .

Speaker 2 25:42

You should be sending out 10 to 15 pitch letters per week . Yes , I said it Just like when y'all fill out for these grants . You shouldn't just be applying for a grant , that's a whole other topic . But , but fyi , you should be sending out pitch letters as well . 10 per week , 10 per month . Don't just send out one , send 10 . If you're sending out 10 per week , at least

Closing Thoughts and Resources

Speaker 2 26:06

one of them gonna email you back , right ?

Speaker 2 26:09

So I just these things are so important and I see from time to time how the information is not being given . So I feel like that's . That's why God created me , that's why I'm here and that's why my voice is so important , because I need for you all to know this stuff and it really helps you . When you get to where you're going , you're already prepared . It just leaves an amazing impression , you know . So you don't want to be , um , we don't want to be out here looking crazy . So I'm going to go ahead and close out . I hope that this episode blessed you today . My goal is always to bring real strategies , um , get you to the , the tips and the strategies that are going to help you profit in this business , in this industry , because it's not always nice and peachy , creamy , but there are so many independent ways you can again get the money . That's in your message , okay , so I want to encourage you to definitely go to my website PublishWithTiffanycom , bookwithtiffanynowcom , and Published in Black Magazine . Talk to you soon .

Speaker 1 27:48

You have been listening to , published in Black with publishing expert and brand strategist , tiffany A Greenhood . Listen next week for real talk , powerful strategies and much more . Again , we thank you for listening .