Welcome to the Rich Coach Club, the podcast that teaches you how to build your dream coaching practice and how to significantly increase your income. If you're a coach and you're determined to start making more money, this show is for you. I'm master certified life coach Susan Hyatt, and I'm psyched for you to join me on this journey.

Just imagine your name in print gold glossy lettering on the cover of a book that you wrote. Imagine holding that book in your hands. Imagine signing your name inside, autographing it for a fan, or imagine casually strolling over to your local bookstore and seeing your book inside. Oh my gosh. It’s an incredibly feeling, unlike anything else.

Lots of coaches dream about writing a book one day. That’s why I’ve been doing this special three-part series that’s all about books. In part one, which got released a few weeks ago, I shared the story of how I got a literary agent and eventually scored a book deal. In part two, I talked about two very precious resources, time and energy, and how I carved out the time and energy to actually write the dang book.

And today, in part three, I’m going to talk about the book launch. This episode is all about how I marketed my last book successfully and sold a whole lot of copies and became a number one new release in self-esteem on Amazon, while having a lot of fun doing it my way. Well, mostly fun. A couple of stressful moments too, but that’s life, y’all. Here we go.

Alright, this is the part of the show where I give you a pep talk. Sometimes it’s two minutes, sometimes it’s 10 minutes. Don’t argue. Just prepare to be inspired. Here’s your two-minute pep talk of the week.

When you sign a book deal with a publisher, you’re promising two things. Number one, you’re going to deliver a book manuscript to your publisher by the deadline you’ve agreed upon. In other words, you’re going to write the book. And number two, you’re going to do everything within your power to promote the book and help sell a whole lot of copies.

Yes, of course your publisher is going to help some, with PR marketing and all that stuff. They’ll do what they can. Some publishers are more helpful than others. Trust me on this. I spend a lot of time helping my author friends keep their head on right around this.

When it comes to marketing your book, the publisher is really relying on you, the author. I don’t care how big they are, they’re relying on you to hustle your booty off and sell, sell, sell this book. They’re expecting you to do a big bulk of the legwork.

I know, it’s surprising, right? You think, “Oh, they’ll put up billboards, they’ll take out magazine articles, they’re going to do all these things,” and in honesty they don’t. It’s up to you, the author. So what does a book launch marketing plan look like? What kinds of things can you do to promote and sell your book?

The short answer is whatever you want because the options are endless. Just like when you’re marketing a product, a coaching program, or anything else you might want to sell, there’s truly no limit to what you can do. For starters, you can send some newsletters to your mailing list to announce the book and drum up sales. You can post about your new book on social media. You can email your friends and colleagues and favorite clients and say, “Hey people, I’ve got a new book coming out soon.”

You can offer fun incentives to encourage people to pre-order your book before it actually comes out. Like for instance, everyone who pre-orders gets a bonus music playlist, a bonus video, a free class with you, something like that. That’s a common strategy that many authors use.

There are tons of other things you can do too. Media appearances, speaking engagements, online challenges to build buzz and excitement about your book, and on and on and on. And when it comes to marketing your book, here’s my biggest piece of advice. Well actually, two big pieces of advice.

Number one, before you decide what you’re going to do to market your book, first decide what success means to you. What does a successful book launch mean to you personally? What does victory mean to you? Does it mean selling one million copies? 10,000 copies? 1000? For you, success might involve reaching a specific sales number. It certainly did for me. Or it might not.

For instance, maybe you’ve decided to self-publish your next book. You’re not bound to a publisher. You’re doing this whole thing independently, on your own terms. So maybe for you, success means printing 300 copies of your book and then donating all those beautiful books to public libraries, public schools, giving them to your clients, family and friends.

If that’s what success means to you for this particular project, great. Know that, own it, and plan accordingly. Or maybe for you, success is more about attaining a particular feeling, like feeling proud of yourself for completing a big project. Feeling at peace. Feeling inspired.

I’m not here to tell you what success looks or feels like. That’s for you to decide, and I encourage all my clients to decide and define success on their own terms. But I urge you to think about this. Take some time to consider what a successful book launch means to you and why. And once you’re clear on that, then we can start figuring out the nuts and bolts of your marketing plan.

I mentioned I have two pieces of advice for you regarding book launches, and here’s the second piece. Find a way to make the marketing process feel meaningful, fun, and pleasurable. Marketing does not have to be a boring slog. It can feel energizing and creative and fun. And it can feel really emotionally rewarding too.

As part of my marketing plan for Bare, I did a series of book events in 12 different cities. But I didn’t want these to be your typical book store events where people sit in uncomfortable folding chair and their backs hurt and then line up for autographs and pose for awkward photos under horrible fluorescent lighting.

No ma’am. I wanted these events to feel really special. So my vision was let’s make these book events feel like a girl’s night out. It’s all about luxury and beauty and inspiration and deeper connections. So instead of book stores, let’s do these events at beautiful venues that feel more private. Private venues. Swanky restaurants, people’s homes, backyards, gardens, that sort of thing.

And at each event we had food and champagne and curated music playlists, and people got dressed up, which make the whole vibe feel really special. I gave a talk and shared my personal story about dieting and body image drama and how I escaped that awful cycle. And why I even wrote the damn book.

And each event felt more like a gathering of friends rather than strangers. These events were so moving and allowed me to connect closely with so many amazing women and girls. I’m so glad I did these events and I did them my way, with selfie photo stations and beautiful food and beautiful flowers and no expense spared.

Because conventional book signings in book stores, I mean, any publisher will tell you, they’re depressing. Like hardly anybody comes unless you’re a celebrity, and it’s just not the same. So peeps, a really good question to ask yourself as you’re putting together your marketing plan for your book is how can I make this marketing process feel emotionally rewarding and meaningful?

What would feel meaningful to you? Maybe you want to host an intimate dinner party to kick off your book launch. Maybe you want to give a talk and read an excerpt from your book somewhere unusual, like an eating disorder recovery clinic, a domestic violence shelter, or a women’s prison.

Maybe you want to mail the book with a handwritten thank you card to a few of your mentors. Give it that personal touch. I know I did that. I sent handwritten cards to Martha Beck and Brooke Castillo and many others. Find a way to make marketing feel really meaningful because ultimately, marketing is all about connecting, human to human, heart to heart, with people out in the world. People who need the message you’re sharing in the book.

And lastly, y’all, have fun with this process. Writing a book is a big ass deal. Put on your sparkly dress. Get your hair done. Shout from the rooftops. Tell everyone the good news. Tell the waiter at dinner, “We’re celebrating my first book, it’s out today.” People will be stoked for you. Get excited about this because it is exciting. Don’t just steamroll right past this amazing achievement. Allow yourself to celebrate.

One thing that I did was I had the first kickoff party here in my local town and I rented an amazing venue and I just made sure that it was literally the most bomb food, photos, flowers, friends, family. And afterwards, there was an afterparty where I had my closest friends and family go to a really special private dinner. And it felt so good to share this with the people that I love.

And of course, this goes for any goal you’ve achieved, not just books. Launching your website, your new coaching program, enrolling your 10th client, making a fuss over yourself, celebrate this milestone. This is epic. And you are a big deal.

Now we’re moving into the part of the show where I give shout-outs to you. Listeners, clients, all you wonderful people in my business community. It just warms my heart. Please leave me a review because I just so love hearing all the different ways this podcast is reaching and helping you.

But today, I want to give a shout-out to somebody who calls themselves Rent. So Rent says, “Susan is legit. One of the reasons I love, love, love this podcast is it talks about the side of business people, especially women forget. Self-care, fun, energy. But it talks about it hand in hand with sales negotiation and marketing tools. It’s the best of both worlds. Plus, Susan’s approach is always easy to understand and it’s not just overwhelming theory. It’s action as well. It’s my must listen every week.”

Thank you so much Rent. I love that shout-out and if you have something to say about this show, go ahead and post a five-star review on iTunes or Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also tag me on social media, @susanhyatt, and you might hear your name in a future episode. I love you guys. Thank you for the love.

Alright, last but not least, this episode was all about marketing you book, or marketing anything you might be selling. Of course, there’s so much to this that can’t be summed up in a simple podcast episode. But before we wrap up, there’s one more quick thing I wanted to mention. Have you heard of the Summit Awards?

This is a marketing and advertising award, honoring the best web, design, video, advertising, mobile, and social marketing from creative agencies worldwide. And the website is summitawards.com. Now, what’s really cool about this is that you can browse through a huge gallery of winners from past years.

It’s all organized by year and category. For instance, you can click and see who won in 2019 for best book marketing or best email newsletter, or best in guerrilla unconventional marketing and so on. They even have an award for best idea that never actually got produced.

Oh my gosh, I typically act on all my ideas that I really want to do, but I have notebooks full of ideas that never actually got produced. I think I should enter that category. You can click around and then it shows you the winning projects. So if you’re ever feeling kind of blah and uninspired about marketing, this is an amazing collection of brilliant ideas from the best minds in the world.

Instant inspiration. One of these winning projects might trigger some new ideas for you. Something you might want to try in your own business. So go check it out. Again, that’s summitawards.com. Now that I run Susan Hyatt, the agency, I think my agency needs to enter to win some of these awards.

Note to self, enter for the 2020 Summit Awards. The award-winning Susan Hyatt agency has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? Alright, I will keep you posted on that. Bye for now.

Thank you for listening to today’s episode. I hope you enjoyed this special three-part series all about books. I’m going to recap this whole series in just a few words. Here we go. If you dream of writing a book, do it. It’s not an unrealistic dream. It is doable. Creating a book has so many perks. It can unlock a lot of exciting doors for your career as a coach, it can lead to amazing connections and lots of things.

In order to write your book, you will probably need to make some tough choices about where your time and energy are going. You’ll need to be extra mindful about your boundaries. You’ve got to free up as much time and energy as possible so you can write your dang book.

And lastly, marketing your book can be meaningful, pleasurable, in service to people. Your marketing plan can be anything you want it to be, and success is up to you to define. That goes for books, for business, for everything in your life. Alright, bye for now. We’ll be back to our usual format next week. It’s all about hidden profits. I can’t wait to see you there.

Thank you for listening to Susan Hyatt's Rich Coach Club. If you enjoyed today's show, please head over to susanhyatt.co/cash where you'll find my brand-new money magazine. Now listen, we designed this magazine to be entertaining, educational, and help you make serious bank.

So you can download the magazine, there’s a money quiz inside, there’s an interview with one of my favorite clients who went from making no money and being served eviction papers, to making over six figures in a very short amount of time. So the magazine includes that feature, lots of resources to help you do it, lots of resources about creating wealth and investing money.

It’s pretty robust, y’all. So head over to susanhyatt.co/cash to get that magazine. And you’ll also find a link to join my free Facebook community, especially for coaches called Rich Coach Club. So bring your coaching practice and your income to the next level at susanhyatt.co. See you next week.