It was basically a presentation, first about his writing process and the three steps of marketing & selling a book, followed by a promotion of his program and Q&A. My post is about the first part only.
It was an interesting wrap-up of the Summit. [A very successful event, IMHO]. Chandler described it as "action packed, content driven, top-notch information". [I couldn't agree more.]
Chandler first talked about the three secrets:
- how to quickly & easily write your book in a few hours (secret #1)
- write the entire book without actually doing any writing (secret #2)
- how to sell it, make it a bestseller & use it to grow a 6-figure income without a list, audience or any marketing skills… (secret #3).
Let's move on to secret #1. The most common excuse people give is lack of time, but Chandler has a foolproof formula. If you follow it, you can write a book even if you have two jobs, kids…
What is his writing method? It's based on three things: Mind map, Outline and Write. [I recently read about it in his book, How to Not Suck at Writing, full of practical ideas. I believe first timers should give this method a try.]
The first step is mind mapping on paper: write the general idea in the center and then everything you can think of related to it (even if you feel it may not totally correspond). You can draw lines, circles, whatever makes sense to you. When the brain dump is through, you need to organize your ideas into sections by looking for common themes and patterns. At this point, you'll find the ideas that won't be part of the book and will discard them.
The second step is the outline. This is where the sections are organized into chapters and your book starts getting its shape.
The third and final step is writing. Your material is organized and you can start developing your ideas. However, Chandler recommends that you mind map each chapter for 10 minutes, outline it for another 10 minutes and then write your chapter in 40-60 minutes. Don't expect to be able to do this the first time around, but you should get the hang of it by the end of the first week.
And now on to secret #2. For those bad at writing, Chandler refers a new method he started using: mind map, outline and speak. (You can omit the mind map and outline, but you'll have more "cleaning up" to do in the editing phase.) The difference is only in step 3. Instead of writing, you speak your content to a voice recorder in your computer (Audacity, for example) or iPhone (Voice Memos), or to a program like Rev. Then you either transcribe the audio yourself or have it transcribed by Rev. When transcribing is finished, either by you or sent back by Rev, it's time to polish it off. You do the editing and improve your text. Or you can hire someone to do it.
Chandler says that the ideal length of a book is 15.000-25.000 words. The average person speaks 150 words a minute. This means that it can take you between 100 to 170 minutes to speak your book. [Not bad at all!] Other possible methods he mentioned: Ryan Deiss wrote a book out of a webinar; Michael Port has written books out of keynotes he's given; and Russell Brunson says that a course or a training can really help write a book. These are all forms of speaking your book.
We finally come to secret #3 about selling a bestseller without a list, an audience or marketing skills. [Seems almost impossible, doesn't it?! Well, let's see what Chandler has to say.] His first recommendation is that if you want to have success with a book, you need to be focused, have a targeted approach, a singular approach, what he refers to as a "rifle approach". Do not spread out to many platforms. Less is more! Your first marketing step is to purpose your book, define your purpose. He names a few: passive income, leads, authority, a passion project (linked to charity, for example), business growth, network growth. You need to know where you're going, which purpose aligns with you.
How can success be achieved? Here's how Chandler and James Roper, co-authors of The Productive Person, did it when they had no audience, no authority, no big list, nothing.
- Build buzz (step 1): get people – friends and family – involved by getting to them through social media and asking them to vote on the cover, the title. People started feeling as if they were part of the book and were ready to share it with their networks when it was launched
- Position your book for success (step 2): focus on one bookseller at first – Amazon -, and get into a market [a category, I believe he meant] where books sell, because that means that people are buying them. Model what's working, what is successful (check the number of pages of the most successful books, the best niche within your category). Get as specific as possible in order to reach the market you're aiming at
- Execute the launch (step 3): gather a launch team of friends and family and try to get as many reviews as possible, a factor highly weighed inside Amazon's algorithms. Focus on week 1 with a very strong start to try and reach the rankings. Amazon will help when your book is over the tipping point.
A launch team works great for people with no list or audience. Among your friends and family find the people that will really help and support you. It's a proven concept that works.
These three steps brought wonderful results for Chandler: podcast interviews, newspaper articles, a publishing deal, a 4.000+ mailing list, a product line on the backend and confidence in what he was doing and in his ability to take on bigger things. [I'd say that this was his most valuable achievement.]
To prove that these three steps work, Chandler wrapped up this part of the webinar by giving examples and case studies of himself and other authors in the Summit who have followed them and been very successful.
Thank you, Chandler, for a wonderful Summit, your great moderation of the many webinars I attended, and this wrap-up session with fabulous tips!