Secrets to writing a business book

Join Melody Ann and Sandra Nomoto to talk about how to:

1. Incorporate stories into your business book
2. Get media attention for your book, and
3. Get your book into the hands of readers

Melody Ann Owen: Hello and welcome to Author Nation. I am Melody Ann, your host. Author Nation takes you from idea to published book, so you don’t make those common and costly mistakes and you don’t get overwhelmed or stuck along the way. If you are just starting out, grab our nonfiction checklist, checklist for nonfiction authors. The link is scrolling past you right now, or you can find it in the description.

Today we are talking to Sandra Nomoto about building a better business book, because I like alliteration. While earning her degree in English literature, Sandra Nomoto published poetry in literary journals and film reviews online at 25 she founded Conscious Public Relations Inc. Inc, an award-winning virtual agency that was certified as a B Corporation. After a decade in business, she authored and self-published The Only Public Relations Guide You’ll Ever Need in 2019. Living vegan since 2018, Sandra is now a content writer and editor for vegan businesses who also helps vegan and spiritual nonfiction authors. She aspires to eat vegan food around the world and blog about it, and she lives in Vancouver, Canada, with her husband. Let’s welcome. Sandra Nomoto, hello. How are you today?

Sandra Nomoto: Hi, Melody. I’m so great. Thanks for having me back. Great.

MO: I love the idea that you want to go around the world and, like, eat all the vegan food you can find. What’s your favorite? What’s your favorite type of food?

SN: Oh, gosh, I’m a foodie, so it’s hard to choose. It depends on my mood. I guess sometimes it’s ‌burger and poutine. Other days, you know, Pad Thai and spring rolls. So yeah.

MO: So everyone out there knows we live in the same city and we’ve actually bumped into each other at restaurants.

SN: At the best pizzeria in town, Grano.

MO: The best pizzeria in town. That’s exactly it, I agree. Alright, so why did you decide to become vegan? Let’s just start there, because the book is about vegan business. So let’s talk a little bit about your personal journey.

SN: Yeah, so I saw Earthlings at the end of 2007, and that changed everything for me. It took me 11 years to fully go vegan, but yeah, after seeing that footage, I just couldn’t unsee it and ‌had to change the way I ate. So it took me a couple years to cut meat out of my diet, and then for a good number of years, I was still technically pescatarian. I’ve never been a big seafood or egg fan, so I sort of just learned to cook vegetarian or vegan during the week, and then when I went out on the weekends, I might eat some fish, some fish and chips, some egg.

And then, yeah, when my husband and I went on our honeymoon in 2017 we went to Iron Chef Morimoto’s restaurant, I ate the best seafood meal of my life, and I said, it’s not going to get any better than this, so I’m going to leave on a high note that’s and that was my very last seafood meal, and then from there, it was just dairy.

So yeah, didn’t really plan on, you know, going vegan very quickly after that, but I have had a digestive condition that has gone undiagnosed by my health team. I believe it’s underactive stomach, because I learned about this around the same time I went vegan, and yeah, I just woke up in the middle of the night with a really bad bout of acid reflux, and I was like, I gotta go to back, go to my naturopath, and she suggested taking a food sensitivity test. So I took this test, found out I was sensitive to dairy, which I later learned many people of color are, and then did a cleanse of these foods for four months. And then after that four months, I was like, “Well, I did. I cut out dairy for four months. I guess I can do it forever now.” So, so that was it. That was the start of my journey in spring 2018, and then from there, of course, I’ve, I’ve, you know, not chosen to purchase animal-based clothing, personal products, and all of that. So, so, yeah, I’m four and a half years in as a vegan.

MO: So it was a, it was a, it’s not an overnight thing. It was a slow journey. So that’s not, that’s interesting to know. Yeah, um, so you wrote a book specifically for vegan businesses. And so a lot of people tell me, Oh, I’m writing a business book. It’s for everyone, but you’ve really niched down, right? So why did you make that choice? Is it different for vegan businesses?

SN: It’s actually not, and so I honestly did not expect to write this book. How it came about was around the time of my birthday last year, I had an intuitive reading. The intuitive told me, “You’re going to work on a book, and you’re going to work on it, you know, while you’re not working for clients.” And I went, “What?”

And so I went to her another time and asked her, “What is this book supposed to be about?” And she said, “You’re going to teach people how you do what you do.” And so I’m a content writer by trade, and I’m just like, I can’t teach people how to write. That’s too hard. But I kept thinking about the industry that I was in. So I’m a content writer specifically for vegan businesses. I’m very interested in what’s happening in this industry right now, and I have a PR background, I have that to draw on. And I thought, you know, let’s see if there’s a book out there about marketing for vegan businesses.

And of course, there’s not. So the closest thing to it was Katrina Fox’s Vegan Ventures, which she published in 2016. So I read her book, and her formula is exactly what I was thinking of doing for my book. So drawing on case studies, her book is about how to run a vegan business, and she has a couple of chapters about marketing. So I just wanted to take that, you know, those couple chapters she started on, and flesh that out into an entire book, and then just draw on examples from who’s around the world right now, and let’s learn from them: what are the marketing tactics and strategies they’re using to grow their businesses today? So, that was really the catalyst for the book.

MO: Yeah, no, I love that and it’s interesting that you say, well, it’s not that, it’s different, but there, it’s worth writing a book that’s more niched, right? Instead of just writing a book to everyone, writing a book for a specific group of people. And not only that, you brought them into the book, and so they became part of the book, which we can talk about promoting later. I think that there’s, you know, not only you finding readers, but you’re, you know, people are motivated to promote the book as well. We’ll talk about that later. So your area of expertise is content writing, but you’ve also worked in public relations, so marketing must feel like a comfortable place for you.

SN: I would say so. Yeah, when I closed my PR business, I was like, I’m stepping away from marketing. I’m out. But yeah, just a couple years later, I sat down to meditate, and my intuition told me, you know, you’re vegan now, and you’re always going to be a writer, so put those two things together and help this industry. And so that’s my, you know, my personal and professional mission right now?

MO: Yeah, perfect. Love it. So I noticed this book covers a lot of material. How much research did you do?

SN: In terms of, like, marketing strategies and tactics, not very much. Like, a lot of it was just in my head, right? Like I also drew on my previous educational background, I’ve taken a couple courses in marketing from BCIT, and they really lay it out for you. And so I was like, I know, you know, these are pretty that helped me structure the chapters in terms of, like, you know, I’m going to group these tactics, and that’s going to form a chapter.

And then it was really the contributors, the vegan businesses that I invited to submit their stories. They really formed this book for me, and because there were some gaps, like, I really wanted at least one example of a vegan business for each tactic. And not all of the contributors talked about all of these tactics. And so I just, you know, did some research online, found an example there, and then got their permission to use it. So, in addition to the 47 contributors that are in the book, there’s another, you know, maybe three dozen examples that I threw in there. So you’re so they’re, in total, there’s about 80 companies that yeah, kind of helped me form the book.

MO: Wow. Love it. Can you give us a breakdown, like, you know, content, structure…

SN: Yeah, chapter one is marketing basics, which I actually wasn’t going to write, but because of this, again, of the stories that I got, and a lot of them were talking about, you know, when I named my company or I chose this title, that was an important part of my marketing. Vegan Business Tribe, a lot of their marketing depends on the customer journey. So that inspired a whole section on customer service. So chapter one is basics. Chapter two is advertising and direct marketing. Chapter Three is sales promotions. Chapter Four is public relations. Chapter Five is digital marketing. Those are the two biggest chapters, PR and digital marketing chapters. The next chapter is events and direct sales, so all the face-to-face stuff, and then the last chapter is called everything else, which you know were our sections that you know aren’t long enough to form a whole chapter on their own. So in that chapter, I have how people marketed during the pandemic, a section on diversity and inclusion, and a section on how businesses transitioned to becoming vegan and how to use that in marketing. So yeah, I really covered, or at least tried to cover, the gamut in this. And I’m really proud, yeah, of the book.

MO: That’s amazing. And so it’s called Vegan Marketing Success Stories, just so everyone knows, I’m not even sure we’ve said the title yet, right? So Vegan Marketing Success Stories, but it’s not just stories. It’s actually you. The stories illustrate the learnings in the chapters. Is that accurate?

SN: Yeah, I wanted to make it like an A to Z guide for marketing. So if you’ve even if you’re new to starting your own business, you know nothing about marketing, this will give you everything you need to know. And of course, you’re not going to be able to implement all of these tactics at once. That’s not the point. It’s to help you form your own strategy so that you can go out in the world, test a few things, see if they work, and then whatever works, you keep doing. That’s how how marketing works, right? And then, and then, and then, obviously, be inspired by the companies that are in the book and using these strategies and how they’ve used it to grow their business. So, yeah, I wanted to make it both kind of a compilation of stories as well as a practical guide.

MO: Yeah, and this isn’t your first book, though, is it? So did you pull on lessons from your first book to get this one done? Like, was it easier the second time around?

SN: I would say it was not easy. But because the first book, I published it after I had closed Conscious PR, and so I didn’t make a huge splash of it. I also did most of the work myself, aside from hiring an editor and somebody to design the book for me, it was very much a solo project.

Whereas this one, I was like, I want a vegan team. Everybody who’s involved in this book is vegan. I wanted it printed on vegan ink. So initially I was going to go with IngramSpark. They told me they don’t use vegan inks. So I went to Lulu, which uses vegan inks, and they’re a certified B Corp.

So I learned a lot doing this book, and an audio book, that’s a whole different gamut, and you can’t, actually, I was telling you behind the scenes, you can’t control the date of when your audiobook goes live. So I was telling everybody, audiobook live on November 1, and then November 1 rolled around, and it wasn’t until, like, a few hours and in the morning I got the email and it said your audiobook’s live. So I was like, Okay, that was pure luck, right there. Yeah, so I learned a ton from this book and I’ve put, like, way, way more marketing into this book, also, because I want to just do the companies justice and get them out there as much as possible too.

MO: Yeah, no, and that’s great. So who? And, I, you know, I know the answer this question, but I really want to ask, you know, who’s the ideal reader, and what are you promising them?

SN: I would say the problem of the primary ideal reader, or either vegan businesses or marketers of vegan businesses again, yeah, who want to learn how to form a marketing strategy, and draw on a lot of the examples from the book. And then a secondary audience is, if you’re just interested in entrepreneurship or the vegan industry or marketing, you will learn all of that in this book as well. You don’t have to be absolutely don’t have to be vegan to learn stuff from this book.

MO: Yeah, yeah. And I alluded to this earlier, but I want to make it really clear so some people will tell you, you know, it’s it that’s a really small niche, Sandra. That’s a really small niche. And most authors want everyone to read their books. What is your response to that?

SN: Well, the number of vegans is a very small niche. I 100% agree with that. But if you look at the vegan industry right now, and all of the companies that are getting in, all of the investment dollars that are going in right now, like this, is going to be a multi-billion dollar industry in the next 10 years. So even if I don’t make a big splash right now, like people five, 5, 10, years down the road are going to look at my book and look at it as, like, one of those early books that talked about this. I know that for a fact. What else was that going to say?

Yeah, I lost my train of thought.

MO: That’s okay. So you’ve written the original, you know, vegan marketing bible. That’s what you’re saying, right?

SN: Yeah. The other thing I was going to say is, yeah. One question that I asked all of the contributors in this book is, how many people on your team are vegan? Because even if the CEO or whoever founded the company isn’t vegan, like I wanted to know, and so 60% of the contributors, so that 60% of the that 47 group had at least one person who was vegan. So that doesn’t mean their entire company is at least one person on their staff is so that 40% either they didn’t answer, they didn’t want to answer the question, or they’re not vegan. So again, these are vegan businesses. These are businesses that just happen to have no animal involvement at all in their business. That doesn’t mean that the CEOs or the teams themselves are vegan.

MO: I find that really curious, because in my mind, I would think that, um, you know, vegans would want to work for vegan businesses, and that when you were looking for work, if you weren’t vegan, you wouldn’t necessarily be attracted to working for a vegan business or‌ as a founder. You wouldn’t be a founder of a vegan business if you didn’t really buy into the idea. So I find that really curious. Do you have any thoughts on that?

SN: I think, you know, values are values. So if you’re a non-vegan, and you just want to work with an ethical company. And you see that there’s this plant-based businesses over here, and they’re touting, you know, that they’re not using animals, that they’re great for sustainability. They’re doing things differently. You’re probably going to want to work for a cool company like that.

And then on the flip side, you know, founders of these, especially the large ones, the ones that have a lot of investment dollars and are growing, they’re not necessarily vegan themselves. They just see that this is where the world, this is where the food system is going, and they want to be a part of that. If down the line, they end up going plant based or vegan, great, but that’s absolutely not the case right now, yeah, of course, as a vegan, I want to work with a lot, as many vegan founded businesses as I can, but because, like I said before, we’re still a very small percentage of the population, I don’t want to limit myself. And so as long as your business is vegan, that’s really my criteria.

MO: Yeah, I find that absolutely fascinating. So it’s like, I see this trend. I’m not in it , but I see it as a trend, and so I’m going to jump onto it as a business, not necessarily in my personal life. I find that absolutely fascinating. Let’s talk about the process of writing the book. How many business owners are like? Let’s just back up a little bit. How like, how did you even find businesses like, how did you seek out who you’re going to interview, and then eventually, how many did you actually interview?

SN: Yeah, so I had my own, like, dream list of a couple dozen that I really wanted to approach, and then there were a lot more that I drew from, like, I’m signed up to a lot of newsletters. So Vegan Women’s Summit, vegeconomist, green queen, and then every time I would just see, you know, so and so companies doing something cool, I would add them to my list. So I figured if I wanted 50 case studies, I should reach out to about 200 companies. That was my line of thinking. But because I didn’t hear back from a company or they said, No, I would just move on to the next. I would just keep adding to my list. So, in the end, in order to get that 47 contributors, I reached out to almost 280, so‌ that was how high it went. But yeah, after I got that amount, and then, of course, threw in and got the permission for some other examples. Yeah, I felt like it was substantial enough of a book.

MO: Yeah. So you interviewed 47 was it? Yeah, in the end, 47 businesses.

SN: I should also say I sent out a Google form so it, I mean, it’s interview-ish, and then some of the folks who, you know, requested a video interview. Instead, I accommodated those folks. But some folks, you know, their stories were very short, just to some of them are two sentences long. It’s like, here you go, here’s what I’ve got. And so, yeah, they really varied in length from, you know, like, a page long or a couple sentences to, like, you know, a page long. Yeah.

MO: So 47 out of 280. I just want to stop here just for a minute, because I, you know, I, you know, I work with authors all the time, and we talk about, you know, interviewing and doing your research, and it’s scary to reach out, right? It’s scary to just kind of knock on doors, and you don’t know if anyone’s behind them, or they care, or they’re nice. Or they might tell you, you know, to go away in an unpleasant way. So tell me a little bit about how you kind of kept your vigor up as you kind of knocked on doors and not knowing whether you’d get responses or not. How did that affect you? What was that like?

SN: For me, it was more exciting than nervous because this is the first book of its kind. This is the world’s first marketing book. So I’m like, if they say, no, you’re a fool. You’re a fool not to get into this, you know, because it’s publicity for your own business too. You have to look at it as that opportunity as well. So yeah, of course, it was kind of like, all right, I’m sending the first few, you know, requests for stories out, I don’t know. And then. As when I got that first one, I was like, alright. Then you feel the momentum, yeah, kind of building and yeah, and shout out to Kevin Newell at Humane Wildlife Solutions. I sent him a signed copy. He’s over in Scotland. He was, he was, he was the first one that ‌responded and, and yeah, and so and so. When you start seeing those first ones come in, it really builds that momentum and gives you confidence.

MO: Yeah, yeah. The first couple of no’s can be hard, though I can imagine, but you kept going and you did it, and you got 47 interviews. How many of them actually show up in the book?

SN: So that’s the total of the contributors in the book, out of the 270 whatever companies that I that I reached out to, and I have to say, like, not very many came back and said no. The ones who did were, were more like, “I’d like to get involved. I’m just too busy right now.” So I kept following up, and then at some point, you know, you just got to stop following up because they’re too busy. And I think one other person said, “You know, marketing changes too quickly. So by the time your book comes out, it’ll already be outdated.” And that’s‌ a fair assessment, right? She’s absolutely right. Marketing moves very quickly. And ‌then some were like, “You know, we want to get involved, but we don’t have a marketing story. We’re too new. We’re still less than a year up in business. We don’t have enough data to be able to tell you, like, what works for us.” And so some folks were like, “We want to be part of your part two book.” So there’s a potential there for me to put out a second edition.

MO: Yeah, that’s brilliant. So how did you out of the people who answered? How did you pick the 47 who are in the book?

SN: Yeah, so long as they answered the question and they had a story to tell. So even though some of the folks who submitted only a few sentences, if that was substantial enough, and it contributed to, you know, part of a chapter, it went in. I think there were only three that, like, didn’t even really answer the question, you know, they didn’t share any information. And so I followed up and said, “Hey, you know, I need a little bit more substance. You know, would you be willing to even hop on a, you know, a Zoom call with me for 10 minutes?” And they said no. So, so yeah, there were really only three companies that I said no to, but the rest, yeah, the rest went in.

MO: Brilliant. How did you ensure that you had products and services and a variety of industries? Like, did you, did you work at that? Did it work out? Did it just work out? Was that even a concern?

SN: Yeah, I wanted to get as much of a range as possible so geographic locations, male founded, women founded, even queer founded, if you know if, if they did come in, yeah, solopreneur, all the way up to big corporations. I have to say, though, the big corporations did not respond. So this is very much a small to medium size kind of book and yeah, I was very lucky. It naturally happened that, yeah, I got a good mix of products and services as well.

MO: Yeah, it’s interesting that the larger corporations didn’t respond. You would think that they would have marketers who, who would have the time right there, you know, you think, if you’re a solopreneur, your tiny little business, you’re constant, you’re in the constant hustle, right? But if you’re a large corporation, you would think that there’s a marketing director or marketing manager, or someone who would have the time to sit down for 10 minutes and, you know, speak with you. So I find that really curious. Do you have any thoughts?

SN: I think they were too busy.

MO: Really, okay. They’re all still hustling, even the big…

SN: And they’re working with larger budgets too. Yeah, that, unfortunately, that’s something that I wanted to include. You know, how do you work with a six-figure, seven-figure budget. How do you plan that strategy out? But yeah, I think in the end, they’re just too busy. But yeah, maybe I was on another podcast interview with Kathleen Gage, and she’s like, maybe your next book will ‌cover all the corporations and so, you know, if they reach out to me, I’m open to that.

MO: And, well, that’s what I was just about to say. Now you have the first book out, could you leverage that and say, I’m going to do, you know, the how to move up to that next level and use that to reach out just to corporations who are up at that next level, and see if they’re, they’re ready to, kind of, you know, dive in now that you have one book out, and your name’s on it, and it’s doing well, I’m wondering if that is something you could leverage and do another book.

SN: So, yeah. I mean, if folks express interest in wanting that kind of book, or a company says they want it, yeah, they want to form a chapter, then yeah, I’m totally open to it. Yeah, like I said, some folks were like, oh, we can’t be a part of this one, but we want to be part of your next one. So you know, there’s potential for a second edition, for sure.

MO: Yeah. So you said that you found a lot of them through emails that you’re on, or, like, because you’re in the industry, you’re on emails, you go to events, summits, and you found a lot through that. But that doesn’t mean you actually met these people. So you had the name of the company, I’m assuming you had a list of the name of the company, and you would have to kind of look up a contact person, and then you kind of had to find an email. And then what did you send them? An email saying, “Hey, are you interested? Or did you just say, here’s a Google form. Fill it out.” So we can talk a little bit about the process and how that worked, and how you decided to approach it.

SN: Yeah, that’s exactly what I did. I had a Google Sheet with my list, which kept getting added to and added to. And then, of course, for the bigger corporations, yeah, looking for the marketing director or manager, you know, that type of person not looking for the folks in the C suite, yeah, and then finding their emails, either through LinkedIn or yeah, sometimes they listed on the website, or yeah, most often it’s like just the generic hello or info at and then, and then the customer service people would forward me on if they were doing their job well.

And, and then sometimes I tried, so, you know, DM on social media that way as well. But yeah, I would, that’s, that’s really all the methods that I would try. And then I would, yeah, in an email, I would introduce myself. Here’s my idea for the book. If you want to be involved, please fill out this Google form by this date, and yeah, and then just a lot of following up.

MO: Okay, yeah. So the first email was, this is who I am. This is the book project. This is what I need from you. Here’s the Google Form. Look forward to hearing from you. And then the follow up, follow up, follow up. How many times did you follow up before you gave up?

SN: I would say, for each company, yeah, if I, if I didn’t hear back in a week, I followed up once and that’s about it, unless there were some companies that I really wanted in there. And so I did. I tried, you know, tried all the different ways to try and get a hold of them. Twitter, you know, different folks on LinkedIn, so some folks, I tried a little bit harder and still didn’t get a response back. But, but yeah, I would say if I didn’t hear back within a week, I sent out at least one follow-up email.

MO: Oh yeah, I’d love to hear some of the stories. What is your favorite story from the book?

SN: Well, you know, that’s like saying who your favorite child is, right?

MO: A favorite story, but I would say one of your favorites.

SN: Yeah, one of the ones that stands out that I’m so impressed and honored to have her story is a woman named Meredith Marin in the US. Her company is Vegan Hospitality. And so a number of years ago, she was living in Aruba, and I don’t know how it came about, but she started this whole campaign called Vegan Aruba, with the goal of making the island more vegan friendly for herself, of course, and those traveling to the island. So she did an amazing campaign. So appeared in as many local media as possible to talk about the importance of veganism. She partnered up with local restaurants and helped them create vegan menus and vegan dishes. And because of that, she got more coverage. So she was in travel magazines that were in every hotel room, and then on the backs of airline seats, yeah, she taught vegan cooking classes.

And then she partnered up with the Aruba Tourism Authority to sponsor an influencer trip. So in 2018, they brought six influencers out to the island. Showed them a good time, obviously. And yeah. And then those influencers went on to create some great content, some of which is still very top ranking on Google today.

Yeah. And then Happy Cow, which is an app that locates vegan restaurants and such. Make it easy. Make it easy to find, named Aruba, the most vegan-friendly island in the Caribbean. So she is freaking amazing. I love Meredith, and so lucky. She threw in that story, and it just shows you the power of one person. You know what? I mean? Yes, of course, she built community, but she did all the work boots on the ground. Of course, digital is a part of it, but just the steps she took to create this campaign, is so amazing, and so now her company, Vegan Hospitality, helps ambassadors. So if you’re a person in your location, you want to do exactly what she did in Aruba with where you live. Um, you can learn all of the steps from her. So, that’s one that stands out that I’m so fortunate to have included.

MO: Yeah, that’s amazing. So, um, I have question though, and I love that story, but I’m gonna ask you to tell another one for for a reason, I know a lot of people, when they think vegan, they think food. That’s it. Vegan equals vegan food. What about non food vegan companies? Can you just pick a non food vegan company that either they’re in the book or someone you really admire, and just tell us a little bit about what does that mean? Non food vegan?

SN: Yeah. I mean, it’s it, I think, because we eat three times a day, right? And so it’s easy to make that link between, okay, not eating any animals on our plates, but, but, yeah, animals are used for so many other things, clothing, entertainment, science, you know, cosmetics. Use them, yes, absolutely, absolutely, beauty, cosmetics.

So yeah, vegan really is, is the entire lifestyle an animal free lifestyle? So another story, I reached out to Jessica Lohmann. I believe she’s in Germany. She runs an agency called Ethical Brand Marketing, and so she got the opportunity to help create an outdoor ad for Doctors Against Animal Experiments. So this is a European nonprofit organization, pretty self-explanatory. All they want to do is take the animals out of labs in science experiments. And the managing director of that organization had a friend called Markus Barth. He’s out in Germany, and he uses a fleet of trucks. So he has a fleet of trucks that goes across Europe, and he uses them for animal awareness.

And so he said, “Yeah, I’ll use one of my trucks for your organization.” And so Jessica told the story about how she got the opportunity to help design the truck ad for this particular nonprofit. So there’s a number of animals on the ad. I have a photo in the book, and then for some particular messaging, you know, saying that the animals are not happy. They’re not happy to be experimented on. So, yeah, so that’s one cool story that was shared.

And I always like getting those traditional marketing examples, because everybody, of course, now is using digital, right? But that’s a great example of yes, there’s this truck out there and it’s driving on the highway, but you can also take that, take photos of it, post that on social media, create a blog out of it, and then the organization put it in their magazine. So you also have to remember, even if you’re using a traditional tactic, that you can take it further by using digital.

MO: Yeah, perfect. That’s an excellent story. And I love the idea that, you know, the bus ads and the truck ads, and, I mean, they’re still, they still happen. I was at a conference earlier this morning, and somebody was talking about putting their photograph on the side of a bus, right? And something we don’t think about all that often anymore. All right, so let’s talk a little bit about promotion, because you have these 47 companies that are in this book that I’m assuming would like people to read your book, not just for the information in the book, but to highlight them as well. So have you been working with the companies in the promotion area as well?

SN: I think not on a deep level. So I released my ebook the first of September. So so yeah, soon as the ebook came out, I sent an email to everybody saying, you know, here’s the ebook is out, and I built a share kit, you know, with photos and samples social media posts, so that they could use it to, yeah, to post on their own. And then I did the same thing earlier this week, because the paperback and the audio launched on November 1. So yeah, sent out another launch email. And some folks have been following a little bit more closely than others, and so they’re, yeah, they’re sharing a little bit more. But, yeah, that’s really how I tried to mobilize the contributors to support the book.

MO: I know I’ve noticed. I was looking on your Instagram, and I noticed you have a lot of photographs of the people that were in the book. So was that part of what you asked them to do is just like, send off a photograph, and now you are also using that in your promotion? It’s promoting your book, and it’s promoting them, really, isn’t it? How did that come together? Was that a request you made of them?

SN: Yes, yeah, initially I was thinking of just pulling their logos and using that. But thankfully, I hired a marketing strategist to support me, because of the number of companies in this book that I needed to shout out. I was like, please help me with the content schedule, because I don’t know what to post when. Like, I’m pretty savvy on social media, and you are. I know how to post, but in this case, it was what to post and when. So she really helped me put, yeah, put a strategy together.

So told me exactly, here’s what to blog on every week, and then here’s what to say in your newsletter that’ll go out the same day the blog goes out. So I’ve been doing that on a weekly basis. And then she built a 90-day strategy for me for social media. So, one company posting, yeah, gets featured each day. A couple get featured maybe twice, and then I’ve continued that strategy on.

So, yeah, so throughout the month of November and a little bit into December, I’ll be continuing that as well, just because there’s a lot to talk about. So, I’m really glad that I hired her, and she runs, yeah, he’s, she runs an agency that is vegan, owned as well. Yeah, because, because the strategy is huge, a huge part of it. But with this kind of book, yeah, I just really needed to get organized about that exactly.

MO: So, what are some of the other ways you’re besides social media, what are some of the other ways you’re promoting it or plan on promoting your book?

SN: I’m doing my own publicity. So again, initially I was going to hire a publicist, but I’m like, Well, I’m going to put that funding to a strategist instead, and I’ll do my own PR. So yeah, since August, I’ve been reaching out to a whole number of, of course, media, but podcasts as well. Thanks to Kathleen Gage, she’s built a directory of over 100 vegan and plant-based podcasts. So that’s been very helpful to reach out to the ones that will be most interested in my book. Yeah, yeah.

Still, still on the podcast train, still doing interviews. And then I’ve got a physical launch happening this weekend. So if you’re in the Vancouver or Squamish area, I’m going to be signing books at Friend and Faux in Chinatown, which is underneath Vegan Supply. So I’ll be there Saturday from 12 to four, and then XMarket in Squamish. So PlantX has a is one of the companies I mentioned in the book. They invited me to do a reading and sell my book at their event on Sunday. So they’re, they’re going to be handing out vegan samples from 11 to three, and then my talk is going to be at noon.

So yeah, and I’ve also been invited to speak at a Meetup in December. So yeah, all of these things coming my way. You got to say yes to it, because that’s how you get the book out there.

MO: Nice, well done, well done. Friend and Faux, F, A, U, X. Friend and Faux. Just if you are in the Vancouver area and you’re curious, it is not F, O, E, it is F, A, U, X, yes. Um, just a little, little thing, they’re little play on words there that could be confusing. So what do you hope this book will do for you and your career, and your business? I think it’s too new to ask you what it’s done so far. But what do you hope?

SN: Well, I mean, yeah, that’s exactly another reason why I wrote this book is just to show people I’m a content writer. I can write. I’ve written an entire book, and you can pick it up and read it and see how I write, if you’d like. And I also have a number of services that I offer to self-publishing authors, so folks just like me, if you want. Yeah, I of course, I could not edit my own book, but I do editing services.

I formatted my entire book, both the print and the ebook. So again, if you want to see how the book looks and you like the work that I do, I do those services. I did my own index as well, because I learned how to index and indexes can be tricky. It’s very easy to get them wrong. But yeah, I’m really proud I carved out the time to do my own index. So, there you go.

MO: Yeah, brilliant. And so people can get you at LinkedIn, Sandra Nomoto and also SandraNomoto.com as well. Where can they get the book?

SN: Ebook is wherever books are sold online, paperback, I prefer you get it at Lulu. Friend and Faux will be selling it after I’m there this weekend. And there’s a small e-commerce retailer in the UK, RockChocs.com, she’s got a few copies. So if you don’t want to wait for Lulu and you’re in the UK, you can get them from her. And then the audio is available on Audible.

MO: Brilliant, excellent. What’s next for you? Do you know yet, or are you still deep in, deep in this project?

SN: Yeah, I’m still deep in this. Yeah, obviously, another month, probably. And then, of course, the podcasts that I’ve booked for 2023, because people book that far ahead. But yeah, I think after this‌ month, my content will at least go back to more of its normal pace, and then, yeah, I’m still open for business. I never stopped. So if you need a content writer, or yeah, want some help with self-publishing your book, I’d be more than happy to help you.

MO: Sounds good. Where can people get in touch with you?

SN: I’m everywhere with my name, SandraNomoto.com and same thing with social media.

MO: Perfect. So just once more, that is, if you want to know more about Sandra, it is SandraNomoto.com or if you’d like to find her on LinkedIn, you can find her on LinkedIn at Sandra Nomoto. Perfect. Thank you, Sandra, very much for coming out. Did we miss anything? Is there something I didn’t ask that I should have or is there anything missing?

SN: I don’t think so. Again, I just want to reiterate, yes, this is a book for vegan-owned businesses and marketers who may be vegan, but your average person, if you’re just interested in what’s going on in the vegan industry. You’re new to marketing, you’re new to business. You can pick this book up, and you’ll get a lot of great tips as well. So it’s, yeah, I know you’re not supposed to say it’s for everyone. There obviously is a niche, but I think, yeah, anyone who does pick up this book can learn a few tips.

MO: Yeah. Well, here’s the thing, you know, when authors come to me and say it’s for everyone, my response is, you know, yes, I understand that everyone could buy it, but if you write to everyone, you won’t write in a personal way, and no one will buy it. But if you write to one specific person, like you really care about them, everyone will feel like they are that one specific person, right? So I understand like we talked about earlier. You know, vegan marketing isn’t necessarily drastically different than the rest of it, and so this book could serve anyone in the end, right?

So I agree with you. All right. Thank you so much for joining us today at Author Nation. We are here to provide you with a path to publishing from idea to successfully published nonfiction author. Join our community. I’ve put that up. It’s AuthorNation.community. You will find like-minded people who have great ideas they want to share with the world there, and you will also find your path to publishing as well. All right. I look forward to seeing everyone next week. I’ll be talking about money and authors. This is something that every author really, really needs to see. So I hope to see you there. Till next week.

 

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