Research- a vital component of book-writing that most authors fail at, not because they’re indolent about it but because they’re lacking the right strategies. Know the why’s of market research, how to do research the right way, and which platforms and search engines can give you the most compelling data that will make your message stand out. Tune in as Michael reveals how successful market researchers roll!
“You don’t want to be an echo. You want to be a voice.” -Michael D. Butler
Highlights:
- 01:40 Why Research
- 04:05 How to Research
- 07:11 Where to Search
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Inspirational Quotes:
- “You don’t want to be an echo. You want to be a voice.” -Michael D. Butler
Who’s Michael?
Michael D. Butler is the go-to expert in the publishing world. He is a renowned Book Publisher, Global Speaker, and Media Coach. He is the Founder of Beyond Publishing, a company that specializes in creating best-selling authors. If impact is what you wish to make, craft your message and let Michael handle the rest!
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Transcription:
Michael Butler: Welcome back to The Publisher Podcast, I’m your host, Michael D. Butler, founder of Beyond Publishing and The Publisher Podcast where we dive deep for seven minutes every week and talk about your book. And every seventh episode, we interview a celebrity from Hollywood and the literary world. So how’s your book coming along. We’re talking today about market research and doing the market research before you launch your book. If you picked up a new copy of my book, BEST SELLER STATUS, I spend the first section of this 80 page book talking about doing market research. You can go grab a free copy now at bestsellerstatus.com and don’t miss out and learn what thousands of other authors have learned, the value of doing market research. I’m going to say this, you want to be different, you want to stand out, you don’t want to be an echo, you want to be a voice and you’re wanting to be in your call to be a unique voice to the world.
“You don’t want to be an echo. You want to be a voice.” -Michael D. Butler Share on XEvery child finds their voice and they learn that when they find their voice. Somebody will bring them a pacifier, somebody will bring them a bottle, somebody will come and pick them up. So I would encourage you if you’ve lost your voice along the way, if you’ve been inhibited by others, if you’ve been controlled by others, now is your time. And since you feel this and sense this calling to write your book, I’m going to challenge you to be very bold and confident in this calling and this idea in your heart that you’re following now. And as you begin to do your research, you don’t want to be like everybody else. Now, it’s okay to have mentors. It’s okay to have people that are heroes that you idolize. I mean, I have my favorites, I have John Maxwell that I love to read. I have people that I love to read and follow, but I don’t want to sound like them. And I don’t want to just repeat them. And a lot of new authors make that mistake because they lack self-confidence. They have too many quotes in their new book, in their first book, and that’s a sure sign that they lack confidence and they’re a little fearful. I want you to get comfortable and competent in finding your own voice. Ask yourself as you do the research, what makes my message unique? That’s the thing that’s going to help people. If you’re already a public speaker, or if you’re already doing workshops, or if you’re already a coach and your coaching clients, and you’re helping them and that’s paying your bills, I would say, let’s exploit that low-hanging fruit first. Let’s monetize that. If you’re a financial advisor, let’s get you in front of more customers to see your program and to hear your pitch. So let’s construct the book so that we set the appointment.
How do you do research? It’s a simple law of supply and demand. If you’re providing practical answers and solutions that people are asking and typing into Google and they’re not finding it readily elsewhere, they’re going to turn to you. So we want to construct the book and do the market research of the book. We’re doing a book on finances, it’s not like everybody else’s book on finances. Maybe there’s a chapter in there on how to repair credit. Maybe there’s a chapter in there on how to leverage life insurance for funding your own dreams. We want to be different. And talk about savings, talk about planning, talk about all those kinds of things and financial instruments would be different. What makes you different and unique? As a case study, the Cashflow Quadrant, Sharon Lechter and Robert Kiyosaki created that about 20 years ago, they co-created that together. Half of the people on the planet now know that they want to be on the right side of the Cashflow Quadrant. And that was a visual, that was proprietary. detected, almost looked like a tic-tac-toe board, just a simple X with a line and a line this way and you could determine if you were an employee, or if you were self-employed, or if you were a business owner, or if you were an investor. And the proprietary value of the Cashflow Quadrant, not only did they sell 30 million books and publish over 30 titles, but that proprietary intellectual property went on to have tremendous value for both of those co-creators with workshops, keynotes speaking, open doors. I know Sharon Lechter was on the financial literacy board for president Obama and president Bush as a result of being a part of the Rich Dad series of books and Rich Dad’s advisors.
So build a strategy around your book. What we do at Beyond Publishing with all of our authors, and we encourage every author in the Beyond Publishing group with 1200 authors there, we encourage them to do a business strategy, do a business plan around your book. Because face it, even if you’re a New York Times Bestselling Author, you’re not making enough money to live in the Hamptons or to even live in Orange County, California for that matter. There is got to be more income than just writing and publishing books. Even though readership is up globally, even though book consumption is up globally and continues to go up and will continue to go up, you need to realize that the way people consume content is different. And as an author, you want to plan for the fact that you’re building a business. And the goal for an author is to have a five-year plan that says, I’m going to break even and not just on the money. I’ve invested my book and launched my book, but I want to have residual income on the back end. Yes, book royalties. But I also want to have coaching clients. I want to have platinum members. I want to have a membership website. I want to be doing masterminds, and I want to be public speaking. I want to speak and get paid to be on stage.
So when it comes to market research, one of the best search engines in the world is Amazon. Now Amazon’s only about 50% of the world’s book sells, but it’s a great search engine specifically for books. If you’re writing a book that is very topic specific, go buy the top 10 books from the top 10 best-sellers who you may say your competition. But basically, they’re already speaking to the audience that you want their attention so you’re going to become friends with these people, you’re going to buy their books, you’re going to read their books and then you’re going to interview them and get to know them. And you’re going to follow them on social media, you’re going to give them a shout out and thank them for how much they’ve helped you. But then you’re also going to notice the deficits. You’re going to look at where they’re getting the most response in the chapters, and the blogs, and the YouTube videos, and their Facebook lives from their fans because their fans ultimately determine what content they want. It’s like, if I’m going into the restaurant business, I’m going to go eat it with all the nearby local competitors before I launch my restaurant. I’m going to do my market research and decide, because you know what? At the end of the day, we all have the same basic four food groups, but it’s how we prepare the food. It’s how we present the food. And it’s the way we take care of the customer and make them feel.
So I want you to dive deep in who is your avatar, like we talked about in the last podcast, and now we’re going to do the market research. Next, we’re going to talk about how to leverage our book to get on more stages. You’ve been listening to the Publisher Podcasts, and sponsored today by writebook60days.com. That’s writebook60days.com where 70% of our students after eight weeks online have completed their manuscript. Now we charge $897 for this epic eight week course, step-by-step instruction A to Z on how to write and publish your book, but the first seven people that sign up today are absolutely free. Go ahead and register for the next Zoom preview webinar and see if you got in on time and let’s write your book in 60 days at writebook60days.com. Be sure and grab bestsellerstatus.com. Take a read., it’s a quick read, but it will help you do the market research and dive deep to understand, before you put a single word, before you type a single sentence to know exactly who your avatar is and exactly what the goal is for this book.
Thank you for listening. Be sure and subscribe. Be sure to post your questions and comments in the Facebook group in the show notes. And thanks for sharing the show. I’m your host, Michael D. Butler. We’ll see you next time on The Publisher Podcast.