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publishing an non-fiction book or business manual

Alter

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Originally Posted by yerfdog
I think from a money perspective, it would actually be the other way around. Write the book and get your name out as an expert practitioner of your area of business. A book like that won't be a best-seller since it's so niche, but it will put your name out there and you will be able to say you literally wrote the book on international sales of capital goods. The weekend workshops, on the other hand, you can charge a lot for, or at least you should be able to once you get your name out.

I agree with this but there is nothing wrong with putting together a two-day seminar to get your feet wet and start to build your credentials. The more things you have to put in your bio, the better. The challenge for the seminars will be marketing it in such a way that you get the right people to attend. You could contact one of the sales training organizations, like Miller Heiman, and see if they have any interest as adding this topic to their portfolio of training seminars....but they will probably want proprietary rights to allow other trainers to deliver it. But that may not be a bad thing.
Actually, now that I think of it, I have a contact at ASTD ( http://www.astd.org/ ) that is in Chicago. I will pm you or we can discuss later this month. She should have some good insights into this topic.
 

globetrotter

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Originally Posted by Alter
I agree with this but there is nothing wrong with putting together a two-day seminar to get your feet wet and start to build your credentials. The more things you have to put in your bio, the better. The challenge for the seminars will be marketing it in such a way that you get the right people to attend. You could contact one of the sales training organizations, like Miller Heiman, and see if they have any interest as adding this topic to their portfolio of training seminars....but they will probably want proprietary rights to allow other trainers to deliver it. But that may not be a bad thing.
Actually, now that I think of it, I have a contact at ASTD ( http://www.astd.org/ ) that is in Chicago. I will pm you or we can discuss later this month. She should have some good insights into this topic.


thanks, that would be extremely helpful.
 

Harold falcon

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I wrote a guidebook on a Pennsylvania legal issue. To get it published I made contact with publishers who have produced similar books in the past.

As a first time author I did not get rich off this book, but it is useful to those who have it and it has helped bring in some business.
 

globetrotter

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Originally Posted by harvey_birdman
I wrote a guidebook on a Pennsylvania legal issue. To get it published I made contact with publishers who have produced similar books in the past.

As a first time author I did not get rich off this book, but it is useful to those who have it and it has helped bring in some business.


HB - when you say "not get rich" did it bring in enough money for a nice vacation, or a car or actually zip?

I am sort of thinking that if I could get enough pocket money for a few extra things, that would be worth my time, and it I could get a training program running that paid me an extra months salary a year that would be cool. those are more or less my material goals out of this.
 

imatlas

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Originally Posted by globetrotter
hmmm. another market research question - if I offered a 4 weekend workshops over the course of a year that covered the A-Z planning global expansion would that be something that your company would be interested in? I envision something that would be workshops with no more than 10 people each, 20 hours of intense work that would involve discussing how to plan and then working on plans.

what I am sort of thinking about is writing a book and then having seminars and/or workshops to support the book. I actually have the time within my work to do this - maybe as many as 8 weekends a year if I wanted to.


I think this is an excellent idea that potentially would generate some decent income for you - you should be able to charge several hundred dollars per person per day, up to thousands pp/pd if you become a "recognized expert" in the field.

At my organization definitely has a case of the "we're smarter than yous", meaning that it's hard to get anybody to listen to expert advice. We'd probably be great practice for you in terms of selling your training services. After a crappy quarter our board is pulling back a bit from our international expansion.
 

globetrotter

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^thanks, I think the idea is solidifying in my head.

I am not sure that a book would make me any money, but it might drive a business that involved 4-10 weekend seminars/workshops a year. that might be a better working model.
 

imatlas

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Originally Posted by globetrotter
^thanks, I think the idea is solidifying in my head.

I am not sure that a book would make me any money, but it might drive a business that involved 4-10 weekend seminars/workshops a year. that might be a better working model.


^ Sounds like a good plan.

You can start laying the groundwork now by starting a blog and actively posting on LinkedIn in your subject area.
 

globetrotter

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Originally Posted by imatlas
^ Sounds like a good plan.

You can start laying the groundwork now by starting a blog and actively posting on LinkedIn in your subject area.


hmmm.... more and more work. I really have to think about the business model. I was thinking that writing a book could get me a one time windfall of 2 months take home salary. that might be overly optimistic. then, I figured running 4-10 seminars a year might get me one extra take home salary. now I am thinking that it might mean a lot more work for what I get out of it. have to think...
 

Harold falcon

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Originally Posted by globetrotter
HB - when you say "not get rich" did it bring in enough money for a nice vacation, or a car or actually zip?

I am sort of thinking that if I could get enough pocket money for a few extra things, that would be worth my time, and it I could get a training program running that paid me an extra months salary a year that would be cool. those are more or less my material goals out of this.


It paid for a few rounds of drinks at the bar for myself and some friends.
 

Gus

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Having been involved in publishing since the 70's I would suggest that you consider the following model:

In order,

Step one - create a website and blog with regular entries. Give good information and sources but limit it to information that someone else could research on their own. You use this as an opportunity to describe your background and elite status in the field. People want to know they are dealing with a real "pro" who gets results. You will want to "feed" these entries to other blogs and setting yourself up as the sales professional resource in this field.

Step two- Create a free newsletter, that people sign up for on your blog/website. This goes out regularly, either weekly or twice a month. It offers more timely insights.

Step three- have seminars. You will promote these on your site and in your newsletter. This is where you start to make money.

Step four- create a subscription "insiders" newsletter with similar material that you have in seminars and that contains true insider information and updates. Charge maybe maybe $500 a year if it has really good leads and strategy.

step five-once you accumulate enough information from the above simple put it into a book format that you offer to your subscription base. I wouldn't expect a trade publisher to do be able to sell any more of a specialty book than you can. And you can potentially make more money selling a specialty title direct these days if you have an established base. With POD capabilities you can print small runs cost efficiently.

So the overall strategy is to drive people to your website by offering compelling information and retaining them with a free newsletter. You also want to put yourself out there as "The leading resource" in your field.

PM me if you want more details.
 

Piobaire

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^ PSG, well thought out plan.

GT: CHECK YOUR CONTRACT! Your employer might have a big problem with you giving out your trade secrets. They might have a good case you are arming the competition. Really, really check your employment contract. For instance, mine disallows me from any kind of dealing with anything that could be remotely construed as taking part in my current line of work...even passive ownership/investment in similar companies.

I'm not saying not to do this though. You could end up making multiples of your current income from this project (seminars are huge $$$) and just end up quitting eventually.
 

HRoi

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first off, how big is your market? i have no idea how many people in the world need to learn how to sell medical equipment globally. unless you think your lessons can be translated to any global industry, in which case the market is absolutely huge.

but in the second case, you have a different problem. like motivational speakers, you've gotta have a good global brand name for being a good salesperson - kinda like how people will pick up an investment book written by Warren Buffett, but not one by Professor Harry Buttox
 

Gus

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Originally Posted by HRoi
but in the second case, you have a different problem. like motivational speakers, you've gotta have a good global brand name for being a good salesperson - kinda like how people will pick up an investment book written by Warren Buffett, but not one by Professor Harry Buttox

That is why I said, "You also want to put yourself out there as "The leading resource" in your field."

It is branding and positioning himself as the leading resource. Nobody wants to take a seminar from #2.

I worked with a gentleman on a branding project and came up with the phrase for the very top of his blog , "The World's Number One_______ Site." Traffic to the site exploded after that and the phrase became widely used in his industry to describe him. It becomes self-fulfilling if you are good and have momentum.

It is just a guess, but I think he could expand beyond medical and include types of technical and specialty products that require similar selling and servicing strategies.
 

HEARTLESS-531

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Trotster,
You are on to something big-time. Here are a few guidelines for self-publishing:
-Hard-copy books are out. This has to an be e-reader. Unless you're the Secretary of Defense or some bull **** like that.
-Siemens, GE, etc - they are all re-tooling product lines and approaches to target the 'Bottom of the Pyramid' i.e. medical equipment to the 2 billion + people who can't afford it (think portable medical equipment - bring the clinic to them type of thing).
. SImply read the Elephant and the Tiger - I think (I read a book a week). By Meredith. It spells it out.
Any book you could offer about selling medical equipment would be scooped up.
Keep pushing to the front.
 

Alter

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Originally Posted by HEARTLESS-531
Trotster,
You are on to something big-time. Here are a few guidelines for self-publishing:
-Hard-copy books are out. This has to an be e-reader. Unless you're the Secretary of Defense or some bull **** like that.
-Siemens, GE, etc - they are all re-tooling product lines and approaches to target the 'Bottom of the Pyramid' i.e. medical equipment to the 2 billion + people who can't afford it (think portable medical equipment - bring the clinic to them type of thing).
. SImply read the Elephant and the Tiger - I think (I read a book a week). By Meredith. It spells it out.
Any book you could offer about selling medical equipment would be scooped up.
Keep pushing to the front.


Trotster? I like it!
 

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