Leveraging Self-Publishing to Build Authority and Credibility

Sandra Nomoto is a book whisperer for authors with impact and vegan hype woman. Over the 10 years she ran Conscious Public Relations Inc., the company was the fourth public relations agency in Canada to earn B Corporation® certification, and she contributed to eWomenNetwork Vancouver earning the Best Social Media and Community Engagement Award. Nomoto authored two books, including the world’s first vegan marketing book, Vegan Marketing Success Stories, in 2022.

Dr. Linda Pajoel: Hi everyone. Welcome to this episode of Dr. Linda Show, and today we are going to be talking about, how do you move from being an entrepreneur to becoming an author, leveraging the self publishing process to build authority and credibility. And with me here is somebody, okay? Her nickname is book whisperer. All right, but so Sandra, over to you. Please introduce yourself.

Sandra Nomoto: Thanks so much, Dr. Linda, I’m so thrilled to be here. Yeah, I’m Sandra Nomoto. I’m a solopreneur in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Book whisperer is one of my titles. So through that, I help authors or aspiring authors to get books published through various services. And the other part of my life is, ‌I’m a vegan. And so my other title is vegan hype woman. And as a vegan hype woman, I help vegan leaders with administrative work, content, marketing, and publicity services. So although vegans can definitely be authors, they are sort of two separate streams of my work. Yeah, and I’ve‌ been raised in Vancouver for most of my life, so this is where I live and work. And previous to the business that I run now, I ran a public relations agency called Conscious PR for just over 10 years. So that’s a little bit about me.

LP: Okay, welcome on the show. We can’t wait to hear all the insights you’re going to be sharing with us today. And for those that are watching, please watch to the end. I have lots of questions that I’ve prepared for Sandra to give us insights too. And if you’re watching live, feel free to use any of the platforms to Comment your questions. So if you have a question, drop a comment. We’re going to see it. I’ll pick it up and ask Sandra so you have your question answered. And if you’re watching us a replay, of course, still stay to the end so that you can see the questions other people asked and the responses Sandra provided. So Sandra, back to you. What inspired you to transition from, you know, running your public relation firm to, you know, becoming a book whisperer.

SN: Yeah, that was a transition that happened over, I would say, two or even more years. So I decided to close Conscious PR in 2018. Before I closed it, I sort of felt like I knew things were changing. So my our primary service at the agency was helping clients to get in traditional media, so newspapers, TV shows, radio shows, online media, but a lot of the traditional media, and I knew that a lot of people were putting their budgets more into digital marketing, and I didn’t want to be just another digital marketing agency in town. There are already so many of those in Vancouver, so I decided to close in 2018 and that was the right time to do that.

And then for about a year and a half, I was exploring different career paths. I didn’t think I was going to stay in the marketing industry until I sat down to meditate and I got that booming, intuitive voice that said, “You’re a writer, you’ll always be a writer, and you’re vegan now. So put those two things together.” And so at the start of 2020 I actually started marketing myself as a vegan copywriter. So I tapped into my network, and I started asking folks, “Who do you know who runs a vegan company who needs help with their content?” So that’s how it started.

And because of the pandemic, I had more time on my hands, so I started taking courses in book editing and formatting, and that’s how I got started working with authors. I had self-published my first book already, and just wanted more experience in the whole process of publishing books, particularly with book editing. ‌So yeah, that’s really how it started, and then it sort of evolved into more and more services over the years, which I’m glad, yeah, I continue to offer. And, yeah, so that, but that’s how the transition happened.

LP: Okay, that’s awesome. And so from what you’ve said, there is the book writing part of your brand, and there’s the vegan marketing part of your brand, right? So like, do you have a mission for each of these aspects of your brand? What’s the mission?

SN: Yes. So my vision, my mission as the vegan hype woman, is to help vegan leaders become more visible. Because, in my opinion, the more people who are visible as vegans, the more it’ll maybe influence people to move more in the direction of becoming vegan, and I do that with assistant services helping with their content and publicity.

And then on the author side, I mean, publishing books is definitely one way that vegans become—can become visible. But on the author side, if they’re not vegan, maybe they have another mission, so it’s to reach people with their story and impact people positively. Or if you’re an entrepreneur, maybe you want to showcase your expertise and use a book to help get you more customers or clients. And my mission as a book whisperer is to help authors who want to have a positive impact on people through books. I won’t work with just anybody, but as long as that author has a mission of helping people in a positive way through a book, those are the folks who I want to work with.

LP: Awesome. So what I hear from you there is that you help people to write books, and it is not only for vegans. That’s great. Oh, okay, cool. So now let’s take a look at your book. You know, writing services in general. To say, what are the services? What are the core services that you offer?

SN: Yeah, so there’s three core services. One is ghostwriting. So this is for folks who don’t have time to sit at a laptop and type, or they don’t think they’re a good writer. My preference as a ghostwriter is actually to sit down with authors on Zoom and record them speaking their book. And if that even seems hard to you, you know we can come up with a list of questions that I can ask so that it’ll prompt you to give those answers. And really what we need to do is get to 30,000 words and that’s a book, that’s a manuscript. So that’s really what it takes as a ghostwriter, or if you’ve already written your book and you now want‌ the services of an editor, that’s what I do.

So there’s different types of editing. The one I focus on is copyediting. So not only removing, you know, spelling or grammar mistakes, things like that, also fact checking, clarifying, making sure your references are in order, that sort of thing. And then the third is formatting. So I don’t have a traditional graphic design background, so this is how this is as close as I get to being a graphic designer. If you really need a professional, like, if you, if you really want your book to, you know, have very complicated design, I would definitely refer you out to a graphic designer. But if it’s pretty simple, like text, black text on white paper, I can format the interior of your book, and I can also format the ebook, which is really important. You want to make sure that your book is also available in ebook format. So those are the three core services. I also have a few things that I do by the hour, but, ‌yeah, those are the core services.

LP: Awesome. Okay, it’s good to know, because, you know, if somebody say they have to write books, and that’s different from, you know, seeing what aspect, because sometimes I notice that some people have already started. So maybe you see somebody who has finished, they have a manuscript, and then they need somebody to maybe copyedit it, or they’re already done with that thing. What they just need help with is formatting. So it’s important that we like from what you have said, you know, shining light that those services also exist for authors.

SN: Yes, yeah, absolutely, yeah. A lot of people don’t know what’s involved, because, in the past, before self publishing was even a thing, the only way that you could get a book published is if you signed a contract with a publisher, and then the publisher has all, you know, their team in house that does all of these services, and you don’t as the author, you have no idea what’s happening in the background, like your cover is getting designed. People are editing your book. Like, yeah, it’s been a mystery for a long time how a book comes together. But now that self-publishing is a whole industry into its own now, yeah, you now have control over these things and who you want to hire to help you create your book.

LP: Awesome. Okay, so you yourself. How many books have you published so far? For yourself,

SN: I’ve published two.

LP: Tell us more about them. What are their names?

SN: Yeah, the first book is called The Only Public Relations Guide You’ll Ever Need. Very long title. I published that in 2019 so I had actually written the book—it’s a workbook. I’d written the book before I closed my agency, and then when I closed my agency, I thought to myself, Should I still put this book out there? Because I’d already, you know, I’d already closed my company. I didn’t really want clients coming to me, but I thought to myself, I’ve always wanted to be an author, so let’s do it.

And I’m really glad that I did because it gave me that experience using Amazon, Amazon’s publishing service, to publish this workbook. I didn’t promote it a whole lot, but yeah, it just gave me that experience of putting a book out there. So I’m really glad I did that. That was—that’s still available on Amazon, or if you just want the PDF, you can get that from my website.

And then the second book I published is this one, Vegan Marketing Success Stories. It’s the world’s first vegan marketing book, and I came up with that in 2021. When I Googled that summer to see if somebody had published a vegan marketing book, nobody had done it. And actually, there was only one book about vegan businesses called Vegan Ventures, published 10 years ago, and I just saw a huge gap in the market. I thought, wow, like the vegan industry is a growing industry, and so I better publish this book. So I published it in 2022 and it’s just yeah, the journey of this particular book has been really amazing.

LP: And I love the cover design. Can you show it to us again?

SN: Yeah. So this was done by my friend Joy Lopes, a very talented graphic designer who happens to be vegan, and she’s also done two other author clients of mine. So anytime an author comes to me and says, “Who do you know who designs a cover?” I just send them to Joy, because I trust her, and she’s so great to work with.

LP: Yeah, I see, and it’s so good. You know, writing a book for a niche, like talking about identifying a place that there is a gap, and instead of just like maybe writing a book that there are already 1000s of it out there, could you talk more about that a bit?

SN: Yeah, so my book is actually similar to other marketing books you might see out there. I really wanted to cover all of the tactics that you could possibly do when you’re developing a marketing strategy for your business. The only difference with my book is all of the case studies, the stories that were contributed, and the examples that I use are all vegan companies. So that’s the difference with my book ‌, and that’s why I published it. I thought maybe I’ll get some clients out of this, because this is my niche. These are the folks who I want as clients. And yeah, and I’ve gotten some clients out of it. No huge contracts yet, but I would say, the one thing that it did for me was it made me sort of a name in the vegan world.

Before I had published this book, I wasn’t really well known because, you know, I’m not a public speaker. I don’t really do those kinds of things, but soon as my book came out, I just got a lot of invitations to appear on vegan-related podcasts. A lot of them were on my media list already, but yeah, so to date, it’s close to three years after my book’s been published and I’ve appeared, or the book has been featured in 80 media or podcasts. So that’s really amazing. And I continue to get invitations, which is amazing. I still say yes to doing them.

And then the other thing that it did for me was it got me speaking invitations. And again, that was something I was not a goal when I published this book, but I experienced this is what happens when you publish a book is the invitations just start coming. And one was a local business meetup. But the other events have been vegan-related. So whether they’re online summits or one company invited me to prepare a masterclass on branding for their vegan audience, and then several in person vegan events. So yeah, so that’s the like. I would say that’s the number one unexpected thing that happened as a result of me publishing this book.

LP: You know, because the next question I had for you, but you’ve answered it, was, how did your latest book help your brand? But you’ve already thrown more light on that. But I don’t know if you want to even add something more, but one of the things I’ve heard you say here is, how is like, you know, someone can be chasing speaking engagements and maybe not even getting them, and then another person goes and write a book, and speaking engagement is chasing the person. You know, it’s like a flip, right? Yes, but yeah. How else did it help your brand?

SN: Yeah, I would say, not only did my name sort of just circulate around the vegan world because the vegan world is quite small, you know, we’re what we’re at best, 4% of the population globally, or something like that, but people started calling me like vegan marketing expert or vegan marketing queen. You know, these are titles I did not give myself, but that’s again, because my book is not just vegan related, but marketing-related. That was the whole point of it. People started associating me with that, with marketing and that was my goal. And so, yeah, it worked.

LP: Well, amazing. You know, for me asking you that is also to let the person who is listening now know that there’s a lot writing a book can do for you and your brand as the person listening, right? And like today, you’re sharing your experiences. And like, for example, I was out, um. During the weekend. Was it weekend or Tuesday, I think. And, you know, I was doing book signing, a lady just walked up to me and said, “Hey, we have this thing coming up. Would you like to come and speak” Like we haven’t even talked for one minute. Like that was, I’ve not met her before, and our first conversation is, “Can you come and speak?”

But the question is, what was it that made that person feel like you can come and speak because they already seen you have a book already. So for you to have written a book, you must know a topic. So it’s like you can spend one hour trying to convince somebody that you’re an expert, or you can write a book and the book convinces them in a few seconds, because just seeing the book alone already shows that you are putting some work on this topic.

SN: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it’s instant credibility is what it is. You can meet somebody on the street and say, “Hey, I’m a marketer and I help authors,” but they’re not going to believe you. But if you, if you show your book to them and say, “Yeah, I’ve written a book on marketing,” then it’s instantly people believe you and that it’s that instant credibility factor that makes the whole difference.

Yeah. And I’ve been trying to network with groups of professional speakers and public speakers, and I’m so surprised that none of them are promoting the idea of publishing a book to their members. It’s so surprising, because this really is the fast track to speaking on more stages. If that’s part of your business. I’m honestly—and that’s why I’m on podcasts like this, trying to tell people, if you want to be not just a public speaker, but a paid public speaker publish a book, because that’s the ticket to making that happen.

LP: True. Wow. Okay, let’s dive deeper. Because now you know, when we are talking about publishing, we already talked about how sometimes in the like, people can easily feel like, oh, I don’t have, you know this, 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of dollars to give to a publishing house. But you know, the person may not even understand that well, while that is still okay and possible, there is another way, which is the self-publishing route, right? Which is the main focus of today’s conversation. So let’s start by defining what ‌it mean to self-publish a book?

SN: Self publishing a book means that you as the author have the rights to the content. And so let’s say you publish a book and you win an award, you know, shortly after, and you want to put the award seal on your cover. You don’t have to ask anybody to do that. You can go and get your designer to, “Hey, I want an award, put the seal on the cover.” Or, let’s say, within a year you have more updates that you want to share, and you want to publish a second edition of the book. You can do that at any time. You have the rights to your book, and you can change them at any time. You can even recall your book and like and say, I don’t want to sell it anymore. That’s the difference.

Whereas when you sign with a traditional publisher, you’re not paying anything. In fact, some publishers may want to pay you, you know, for the rights to your book, if you’re, let’s say, an influencer or content creator, you’re already well known, you might get an offer from a publisher who will pay you to write a book. But the thing is, they will hold the rights to your book for as long as that contract states, so that can be anywhere from a year to 10 years, and as long as that publisher has the rights to your book, you do not have control over what you can do with your book. That’s the difference.

I also briefly want to mention there’s also the hybrid publishers. So the difference with a hybrid and a traditional publisher is with hybrids, you maintain your rights, so you’re still actually technically self-publishing, but you’re paying an agency or a company to help you go through all of the steps to publish your books. So like I was saying earlier, you know, you need an editor or a couple of editors. You’ll need a formatter. You’ll need a graphic designer for your cover. You may need marketing support.

So that agency will charge, you know, a certain amount to help you get this book out there. But yeah, I would caution people, if you’re looking at the hybrid route rather than the traditional route, make sure that you have, you retain your rights as an author, because you don’t want to give that away to any company. So just make sure that, yeah, with any path you go, you know what your rights are.

LP: Yeah, okay. What I hear from you there is the ‌idea that you have control over what you do. Like, one aspect of control that I’ve noticed is even the control to give away the book however you want it, right? Like, sometimes you have a book, let’s say you are selling on Amazon, but you want to also give it away for free on your website, like you’re not going to have a problem, compared to like, if there are people who have put money and resources and perhaps even have rights to your book. You may not be able to distribute it as you wish.

SN: That’s correct.

LP: Yeah, different ways that could even help you to maybe get the book in the hands of people. Because it’s one thing to write a book is another thing to get people to read it, or to get it in the hands of people, right? So, yeah, having that control and then having the right which means you can do whatever you can do whatever that is necessary that you want to do.

SN: That’s correct

LP: Yeah, okay, what are the common myths or misconceptions about self-publishing a book?

SN: Yeah, I think one big one is the assumption that it’s not going to be a good book. And that might have been true in the early days, you know, when Amazon, you know, first rolled out this option, and a lot of authors you know were designing their own covers, or they didn’t hire editors, and so you could see a lot of mistakes. I think that was maybe true in the early days, but that’s certainly changed now, especially because there’s so many professionals like me who offer these services for authors, and there have been so many success stories of self-published authors.

So I’m actually going to be doing a blog series soon on this, because I really want to highlight those people. So for example, EL James, who created the 50 Shades of Gray romance trilogy. I mean you, if you haven’t read the books, you certainly know the movies. They’ become Hollywood movies, and so that’s a huge success story for her. Another one is Mel Robbins, who is traditionally published now, and who you know, is very well known as a speaker, but her very first book, I’m forgetting the title now, but she originally self-published it, and she actually made waves from the ebook and the audiobook.

So it actually wasn’t, you know, physical copies and bookstores that got her, you know, to the bestseller list, it was the ebook and the audiobook. So yeah, and, you know, that’s not going to be everybody. Those are just very rare success stories. But yeah, I think we’re sort of past that phase now, where, where?

Yeah, people think that self-published books aren’t good, and the other thing is costs. I mean, yes, you have to invest in the upfront costs, but I would definitely suggest, you know, you hire a good editor and you hire a good cover designer, because that’s your packaging, that’s your marketing for your book. And so you really want to make sure you invest in that.

Beyond that, it’s really up to what your marketing budget is, right? And you should really think of marketing, but there are several ways if you don’t have this you know this budget, find a sponsor, crowdfund a campaign, and give people, you know, perks for supporting you and‌ investing in your book. So there’s several ways that you can fundraise for what you need. But, yeah, I would think those are maybe the top two misconceptions folks have.

LP: I get you. I get so some though, when you were talking, you had mentioned that maybe a situation where you have a client, or you can even sit with them on Zoom right? But can you elaborate on how entrepreneurs can leverage existing content like blogs or interviews in their publishing journey?

SN: Yeah, I love that, because people might not think that they already have a book ready to go. You know what I mean? Like, like, you know what people might think, if you’re an entrepreneur, you’re like, Yeah, I would like to publish a book, but, oh, like, how do I get to that 30,000 words? Well, if you publish a lot of content, like, if you’ve already got blogs, if you’ve already done a lot of podcast interviews about your expertise, that’s content right there. And so you can just, you know, hire a VA or take the time to transcribe audio to text and get help with putting that all together.

You know, have an outline for your book and then fill in those gaps, and you might find you already have the book ready to go, and you might not even need to type a word into Google Docs. So, yeah, so I think you answered it in the question, right there. Any existing content that you’ve already got is potential content for a book.

LP: That’s good. And we’ve talked a bit about this as well, but how does authoring a book differentiate an entrepreneur in a saturated market?

SN: It’s, yeah, as we spoke about earlier, you know, there’s a difference between saying you’re a CEO or a founder, and, you know, being a CEO, founder or leader with a published book. And you know, if you reach number one in any category on Amazon, you can tell people you wrote a bestselling book, and that makes the difference, right? Because if you want to draw new clients and customers to your company, the book shows people that you know what you’re talking about, or you already have that track record of success, versus a competitor who may not have a leader who’s published a book, it just gives you that instant credibility and also the ability to tell a story.

You know, right now, we’re in a world of short content for the most part, right? You know, reels are, you know, 90 seconds before people start scrolling away. But if you have more to share, then a book is a great way to do that, because you can tell it in long form. And then an audiobook is really the audio version of that, right? And so my book is about five hours long if you listen to it in audio form, but, yeah, it can be shorter, it can be longer, but again, that’s another way that you can tell your company’s story.

LP: That’s good. You know, sometimes when you talk about books, and we sort of forget the audio version or even the e-copy version, because they are more like on the background. You don’t see ‌them. But in fact, for me, it’s about, how do you have that book in different versions? Because they all play their own different role while somebody may listen while they are driving another person. Just want to put something on their shelf or hand it over to somebody when they are maybe meeting for the first time, or something like that. So just important for us to keep in mind that there are different versions.

SN: Yes, absolutely, three formats of a book. Yeah, that’s what you want to think about when you’re considering publishing a book.

LP: Good, okay, what are the initial steps an entrepreneur should take when considering self-publishing their first book?

SN: Yeah, I think I would say number one: Know who your target reader is, and people always, you know, think about, let’s come up with a brilliant idea first. Well, yeah, you know, ideas are everywhere, but I think you should have an idea of who the target reader is.

The next thing I would suggest is come up with an outline, because that’s going to help guide you with the writing. Or if you decide, you know, I want to go for a traditional publisher, and I want to pitch the idea of the book. You actually don’t have to write it. You just submit your proposal. But it’s a good idea to have an outline to show people this is the journey that I want to take a reader on.

And no matter like what kind of where you are in that writing process, as soon as you start and you as soon as you start being serious about doing this, I would start thinking about marketing, because as soon as you know who your target reader or readers are, then you can start developing your strategy as you’re writing the book as to how you’re going to get this in their hands. And that’s super important. There are authors who publish their books, and then they come to me and they say, like, now I need marketing help. And it’s like, you know, you should have been thinking about this before you launched, because now, now you have to invest more time and effort into marketing when your book is already out there. So definitely think, like, start developing your strategy as you’re writing the book, so that by the time it’s launched, you know exactly where, yeah, kind of where you’re placing it, and all the different tactics that you’re going to be using.

LP: Okay. So I think the next question I have for you here is, what kind of book should an entrepreneur write if the goal is to build authority in their field?

SN: Yeah, so you’re going to be doing a nonfiction book. Clearly, it’s not going to be made up. I would say, that’s really it. You know, from there, it’s about the story. What kind of journey are you taking the reader on? Some folks like to have a bit of memoir elements in there. So, you know, maybe parts of your childhood that talk about, you know, how ‌that journey influenced the creation of your company. You can sprinkle in more personal elements, certainly, if you want to. But I think if you want to just stick to, you know, like a hard business book and being practical, then, yeah, I think that’s usually the path that people go to.

LP: Yeah, okay, you know, coming up with that question, I think, okay, sometimes you’re talking to people, or maybe you read somebody’s profile and you see this idea that, Oh, yeah. We need to write a book in order to gain authority, and maybe the person have written a children’s book. Now this is the if you’re, if you’re into children business, you know, toys for kids, writing children’s book will be the right place to go, right? Because that’s your business, yeah, and that’s what you’re doing. But let’s say you see a professional, you know, doing something totally different, but then feels like writing a book is good, right? And then maybe, but what book, then, children’s book, but my what is going on in my mind is, yes, writing a book is good, but is it just any book will writing a children’s book with professional, you know, help to create that authority and instant credibility that we are talking about when it comes to book writing.

SN: That’s a good question. I mean, I find I come across a lot of folks actually on LinkedIn who tell me, “Oh, I’m working on a children’s book,” or “I’ve already published a children’s book,” and that’s great. I think it can, it’s another thing, like a title that you can add to your resume or your LinkedIn profile to say you are a published author.

But obviously, the audience for a children’s book is going to be much different from whatever your business or the company that you work for sells, and so that’s the difference. It’s the audience, right? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with publishing a children’s book, but it’s probably not going to support your business or your career unless, like you said, you run a toy company or something like that. So yeah, I think you just have to be strategic. There’s nothing wrong with publishing a children’s book, but yeah, if you really want it to support your business, then yeah, I would say, maybe come up with a different target reader.

LP: I see and good. I love the way you have even put it, because it’s more like trying to explain why that may not be the right place to go. Because if you have published children’s book and the audience, the reader is different from the people you serve. That means, even when you’re promoting it, like you’re promoting to the audience, that is not your business audience, right? So it may end up not, you know, adding that visibility to your own business that you should really should be promoting.

SN: So, yeah. And that’s why I say, when you come up with the idea for your book, think about the reader right off the bat, because then you know who you’re writing for, and then you know how to reach them. So for children’s books, you know you’re most likely going to be targeting parents, because parents are the ones buying books for their children, unless it’s like a youth—more of like a young adult book. So you’re actually targeting parents, and maybe parents are not your target client or customer for your business. So yeah. So I mean, depending on the genre you go to, you always have to think about who the target reader is. It’s the same thing with any business you know, you have to think of your target market. So, yeah, it’s the same thing with a book.

LP: Okay, thank you. What common challenges could first time self-published authors encounter, and how can they avoid it?

SN: Yeah, I think we’ve touched on it already. The first challenge might be just writing. Writing the book, right? If that’s the challenge for you, I would suggest there’s so many ways you could do it. Join a writer’s group, hire a writing coach, you know, set a schedule for yourself. So maybe it’s like 1000 words a day, or even less than that, right? If you set a goal of writing 1000 words a day, and you need to get to 30,000 words, you could be done your book in a month. You know, like people think, Oh, 30,000. Wow, I’m going to be at this for years. Well, it depends how much research you need to do to finish this book, right? But once ‌you’re done the writing, I say, I always say, the writing is kind of the easy part.

The other part of is the marketing, and that’s where a lot of authors fall short. They have not thought about a marketing strategy to get their book out there. They think that even if they’re—they’ve been picked up by a publisher, that because their book is in a lot of bookstores that it’s just going to sell itself. No, there’s so there’s hundreds, maybe even 1000s, of books in every bookstore around the world. And so yours just isn’t going to fly off the shelf, you know, out of instantly, right? You have to put the work in to, you know, show up at book launches or market your book online and appear in the places where you need to reach that target reader. So I think that’s the number one thing that I see where, where authors fall short is they put the book out there and they think magically, people are just going to buy it. And that’s‌ not the case. You really have to have a strategy behind it.

LP: Okay, yeah, because my next question is how can self-published authors leverage media outreach to gain visibility and establish themselves as thought leaders? I know you’ve touched on it, but maybe let’s give it its own space. What are the—maybe we can say—two or three strategies that an author can employ to market their book?

SN: Yeah, so if you’ve got a budget, you can hire a public relations agency or a publicist. So you can choose somebody, maybe, who lives in your area, who can help you get more local coverage, or a publicist or an agency that specializes in the audience that your book is targeted to. So there’s different ways of going about it, but if you have the budget, hiring a professional is a great way to go, because then they can do all of the work in reaching out to the media on your behalf and arranging those interviews for you, or just getting the book out there.

You know where it needs to be if you decide to do your own media outreach, like I did, you’re going to have to come up with a media list, and I would suggest that list is at least 200 outlets long, because you’re not going to get into every media outlet. If you can, great, but it’s usually not a 100% success rate, right? So in your with this media list, you want to look at local media. So the media in your area, because maybe they want to highlight somebody local.

You also want to look at media or podcasts related to the industry. Let’s say it’s a business book, so the industry that your book is about. So you can find databases of podcasts where those hosts or producers would be interested in having you on as a guest to then talk about your book. So I don’t, I don’t have, like, a whole list of, you know, these databases, but Rephonic, I believe is one of the ones that I’ve used for clients before.

Or, yeah, you may find other other places where you can find lists, but essentially, you want to build a list of media who would be interested in either featuring the book or‌ interviewing you, so that once you appear in those places, then the listeners or the readers or the viewers will then say, oh, like, yeah, this, this person has released a book, and I’m really interested in that topic, so I’m going to go out and buy it. That’s honestly how vegans learned about my book is—because I went out there and did all of these interviews. So yeah, there’s different ways to go about it, but, but yeah, I would say those are the top two ways.

LP: I get it. What about using like? What about social media? What can authors do like social media related that can help with promoting the book?

SN: Yeah. So this is really important. If you’ve already got a social media presence, definitely you want to spread the word about your book. I would suggest maybe two months, or at least a month in advance of your book coming out, so that you know, if it’s on pre order, you can already start selling copies before it’s even out, and then definitely at least a couple of months after the book is out, you want to continue spreading the word on social media.

Personally, I don’t think you need to be on every social media account, because that’s what I did for my book and I wish that I had just stuck to maybe Instagram and LinkedIn and maybe a little bit of Facebook too, because those are where my biggest audiences were at the time. And honestly, I don’t think like posting on X like really helped.

So you don’t need to be everywhere, but definitely, if you’re already, if you already have a presence, yeah, utilize that. And if you don’t have a social media presence, maybe that’s something you want to consider. Want to consider building while you’re writing your book, so that by the time your book is out, you have at least a little bit of an audience that you can share it with.

LP: Okay, these are helpful insights. Now let’s look at for an entrepreneur that is contemplating writing a book. Maybe all these things we’ve been saying that they’re like, “Okay, I think at this point I should really be writing a book, right?” What mindset shifts are necessary to embark on this journey, this book writing journey?

SN: Great question. You know you might not need a mindset shift. I guess it just really depends on where you are, like if you’re already pretty familiar with doing media interviews, for example, or speaking on stages, this is just another tool in your toolbox to help get you or your company out there. And so you may not need a mindset shift. You might just need somebody like me who can be like, alright? Which path do you want to take?

And, you know, if you want to hire a ghostwriter, let’s go. Let’s start doing this. If you’re not quite there yet, yeah, I would say maybe draw inspiration from authors that you already admire. You know, look at their books, see what you like about them. Maybe look at their publishers, because maybe you want to pitch to that same publisher with your book idea and see how it goes.

Again, you don’t have to have written your book already to pitch a publisher. When you pitch a publisher, you’re just pitching them the idea, and then you don’t start writing the book until you’re that contract is signed. And so you can go that route, and‌ have the mindset shift when you’ve signed that contract, because then, because now it’s serious. Now you’re on a deadline and the pressure is on. Maybe people work better that way, right?

So, yeah, and even, like, if you don’t want to go that route, if you’re thinking of self-publishing, but you really just need that motivation, talk to a coach. Like, I’m a book coach. It’s not one of my core services. But if you need accountability, let’s say, as you’re writing and you want to hop on Zoom with me for half an hour to see where you are in the process. If that’s something that you need to ‌shift that mindset, then, yeah, there are people like me out there who can help you do that.

LP: I get it like one of the things that was coming to my mind, even as you, as you were speaking, is, you know, could there be people feeling like, well, it is people who are very big experts that should be writing a book. I don’t know if I know enough to write a book. I don’t know if somebody is saying this to themselves or you know what, what message do you have for them?

SN: Everybody has a story, and if you think your story might be possible to put out in book form, absolutely it is. I can tell you that it is because‌ I did it. And as you know, kind of referring back to my other question, or the other question, had Katrina Fox not put out that first book called Vegan Ventures and been the first one to do it, I might not have had the confidence and motivation to be the first one, and so it was really her leadership that gave me the motivation. And so, yeah, I forgot the question already, but…

LP: That’s okay, you can, you know, because sometimes it’s like, we’re saying something, and then an idea comes in, and you just want to, you know, shine more light on the idea. So that’s really…

SN: Yeah. Especially if you’ve—like I did. Do some research. See if somebody’s already done a book that you’re thinking about doing. If nobody has, then that’s kind of your calling. You should be the first one to do it, because it’s an underserved market. And as I’ve talked about, being the first one to do something in a category, or the first book in its category will then, you know, boost your personal brand, or your business brand, if it’s business related.

Like I said, I was the first, you know, this is the only vegan marketing book that’s out there in the world. And, yeah, it’s kind of—like, what is it—it’s a small pool of books about veganism, or vegan business, but yeah, that’s, that’s how you stand out. Because you don’t want to do a book, as you said in the very beginning, that’s just like everyone else’s, because that’s not a good marketing strategy to do a book that’s just like everyone else’s.

LP: Okay. Now, what about if somebody is thinking, I’m just trying to imagine what somebody can be thinking, right? Yeah. See if you look at behind you, there are lots of books behind me, lots of books and libraries, lots of books. Do I really need to add to these books? There are enough books in the world. Somebody is thinking like this, and this is the thought that is stopping them from wanting to go on to become an author. You know? What message do you have for them?

SN: If you have a calling, an inner calling, to publish a book because your story is unique. Even if there are millions of books out there, I think, like they say, about a million books get published every year. But everybody is different. All of us, 8 billion in the world, have a different story. So if you’re thinking about it, about putting your story or your expertise out in book form, absolutely there’s room for it because, because there’s been millions that have come before you and‌ there will be millions coming after you. So it doesn’t matter how many books there are out in the world, it’s about the story and whether there is an audience for that story. And so if you think that there is then yeah, I would say, do it. Yeah.

LP: And to add to what you have said as well, is like, even if there are a million books out there, you know, none of them have your name on it when it comes to, like, branding or talking to your audience. And you know, everybody is also different, right? Like, your audience wants to hear from you. The people you are serving or going to serve, they want to hear from you. There are other books, but those are for people who have written those books. So if somebody is listening to you, they feel you’re an expert. They want to learn more about what you have to say. So even if there are books already in that in your niche, it’s still possible for you to add your voice, for the sake of your own audience, for the sake of your own branding. You know, yeah, absolutely.

SN: So if I give the example of my category. So there are still only four books that are about vegan business, and all of our books are very different. So Vegan Ventures is about, you know, how to start your own vegan business. Mine focuses on marketing. The Future of Food is Female came around this, I think, just before mine was published, and that focuses on stories of female-founded vegan food businesses. Still another different book.

And then the fourth one highlighted, I think, about 35 different vegan businesses, and that came from a column that the author used to write in the Vegan Food and Living Magazine in the UK. So even within, you know, our category, all of our books are so different. So absolutely like, if there have been books out there written about, you know, your industry or your field, do that research. Look at what’s out there, and then see what you can bring to the table that’s new, because things are always changing.

And so these, especially with nonfiction, the information is always going to have to be updated anyway. So it’s already been, you know, close to three years since my book’s been out. A couple of the businesses have closed, you know, that’s, you know, we can still learn from their stories. But, yeah, a couple of‌ them closed now. So things are always changing, and so there’s no better time than now to put yours out if, yeah, if you’ve got a differentiator.

LP: Good. Okay, how do you measure? Or, how does one measure the success of your book?

SN: Great question. I think that’s going to be different for everybody, but I will tell you that books alone will not make you rich. You know, if you think about, let’s, let’s say a book’s about $20, you’re not going to recoup 100% of that profit because you know, a percent needs to go to your publishing platform. A percent goes to printing, you know, yada yada. So you’re not earning $20 per copy, especially in the nonfiction category.

If you’re running a business, you want to think about what else it can bring you. So we joke that it’s like an expensive business card, right? It’s something you could put out there that proves that you’ve got the expertise that then hopefully you will draw in clients. And a lot of people like, they’ll put links to their courses in the book, or their free downloads. Like, those are great ideas so that, you know, even if somebody hasn’t finished reading the book, they might come across that link and say, “Oh yeah, I’ll just sign up for that course.”

And so you always want to have a strategy. Maybe, maybe the strategy is, you want to do more public speaking, and the book is the tool to help do that. Well, absolutely, as we talked about, you can get those invitations once‌ you publish a book, because events are always looking for more credible speakers.

So I think the answer is different for everyone, but don’t bank on the book alone bringing you business, because it’s more of a revenue stream, rather than a business model unto itself, unless, like, you plan to be a full-time author, like, that’s its own kind of entrepreneurial strategy, right?

LP: Yeah, I get a way to think—like, from what you said, it’s more like saying it can be used as a means to an end, you know, to get more speaking engagements, to get to draw in more clients, and, you know, more market, more visibility, rather than, “Oh, how much did I make from the book?” Yeah. Some people create books or publish books and give it away for free, yeah.

SN: Yeah, absolutely.

LP: Yeah. Okay. So what advice would you give to someone who has an idea for a book but feels overwhelmed by the publishing process?

SN: Yes, the first question that I usually have when authors come to me and they say, I have an idea is I ask them, which path do they plan to take? Because the process of publishing is going to be different, whether you’re going the traditional path or you choose the self-publishing path, and then, you know, hybrid can be part of that path. And so I think it’s good for people to just know the different processes.

And I actually have a video that I make people watch it, or I try as much as possible to make people watch it, because I explain the three different paths. And then from there, can I help them? Because I might not be able to help you if you choose the traditional path, right? With the traditional path, usually they expect fiction authors to already have written their book.

But if you’re a nonfiction author, you don’t have to—it’s actually discouraged that you have the whole book written because they want the idea first, and they want to build on that idea and collaborate with you on the idea for the book. So you almost just really need that, that big idea to sell, if you’re if you want to go the traditional path, and then maybe a few sample chapters, that’s that’s a good idea to do in your proposal when you’re going the traditional path.

If you’re choosing the self-published path, you’re like, “Yeah, I don’t want to wait to get accepted by some publisher and be subject to their contract,” and you want to do it your own way. You’re on your own timeline. You can get it done within a year. So it just really depends on which path you want to take. And then from there, I can guide people on your next step.

LP: Okay, so how important is a community or, you know, mentorship group in the journey of writing and publishing a book? Is that necessary?

SN: It’s not necessary, but I think it’s a good idea. So especially, as I said before, if you have trouble writing or you’re not confident in your writing, a writer’s group could be great, because then you could, you know, read out a chapter and and get feedback from real people. But for me, I actually relied on the stories that I received. So originally, my plan was, okay, I’ll get 50 stories, and then I’ll write the book. But as these stories started trickling in, I started getting like that, that I started getting inspired, and I started working on the book already, as the story started coming in, and just like filling and filling and filling in. So I think it’ll be different for everybody. But in terms of writing, I didn’t really need help with it, because my book relied on contributor stories. But yeah, there’s absolutely coaches out there as well. Who can‌ help you if you have that kind of block and you need that motivation.

LP: Okay. I remember, like, from grad school days where we used to write. It’s not a book, but it’s not like research papers and lots of words. You know, there used to be this writing group or something like they do maybe for a period of six weeks. You come every week with a certain number of time and everybody have to write their papers, you know, or maybe are writing dissertation or, you know, projects. It was really helpful, because when you go there, maybe you spend four hours. Everybody’s doing their own thing, right? But just having that moment to write together and networking, maybe in between when there are breaks, kind of help to, you know, keep it going, especially if you’re having, like, writer’s block or just not getting the motivation to keep writing.

SN: So that’s a great point, yeah, like, if you’re a procrastinator, and you do better when you’re surrounded by people, like a group like that. There are people who, like, host online co-working sessions, and you just hop on Zoom, and everybody’s just doing their own work, but it gives you that accountability with other people on the Zoom call. Like that could be your time to—that’s going to be my time to sit and write. That could be it. So, yeah, I can. It just depends on what tools motivate you, I suppose.

LP: Yeah, I know you are an expert in this, so I don’t know but let me ask you the question, was there a moment from your own publishing journey that was particularly challenging, and how did you overcome it?

SN: I would say, yeah The most challenging part was just sticking to a tight marketing budget, because I’m a solopreneur and, you know, I wish I had at least a $5,000 marketing budget. I did my own, you know, media outreach, as I said. I’m really glad that I actually hired a marketing strategist to help me plan out my content for about three months, and then I actually added another month on top of that, based on her plan. So I’m really glad that I did that, because I had, you know, roughly 100 companies in my book that I needed to mention on social media‌ to promote the book, and so that really helped me get organized. Yeah, I just wish that I had a little bit more of a budget for advertising—social media advertising.

There’s one ad that I put in a magazine that no longer exists, that I don’t think did anything for the book. So I wouldn’t do that again. Some of this stuff is like test, you know, it’s trial and error, right? But the one thing that I regret not doing with my book, actually, is I didn’t do a virtual book launch, so I appeared in a lot of media. I actually did two in person launches.

So I did one at Vegan Supply, which is the vegan grocery store here in Vancouver, and they sold copies of my book. And then I got invited to do another event, the very next day. So this was a packed weekend up at XMarket Squamish, and they had an event where I was supposed to do a reading, but it was snowing that day, and it was just not the greatest day for people even coming to the area. So I didn’t end up doing the reading.

I did sell a couple copies, but I didn’t think about doing a virtual book launch, and I wish that I had done that, because most of my readers are not in my area. They’re around the world, right? And I think that’s going to be the case for most readers. They’re going to be around the world, and so doing a virtual book launch, or you could even have a series of these, right, where you somebody just hosts you on Zoom and you read an excerpt, or somebody interviews you that gives you access to, you know, the readers that you may never be able to meet in person. So I would say that’s the one thing that I regret not doing. But yeah, most of my challenges were, I would say, marketing-related, because I had a tight budget.

LP: Yeah, and your book have, you know, gone far and wide. So you did excellent as well with the budget that you had.

SN: Thank you, yeah. And I carry a few—I always have a few copies on hand, because you never know, like, what event you know I’m going to be networking at where I can show people or, or I can sell, you know, books in person. So yeah, I would say that’s a good way to also sell besides, you know, all the different online platforms.

LP: Okay, so what trends do you foresee in self-publishing that entrepreneurs should be aware of?

SN: Strengths?

LP: Trends.

SN: Trends? Oh, trends, yes. Um, AI is definitely a big trend. I would not suggest that you, you know, ask ChatGPT to write your entire book for you, because if you do that, you actually have to disclose that it’s co written by AI. But for sure, AI can help you write the book right? It can be, it can be an editor for you if, if you don’t have a budget to hire a professional editor.

I think we’re still kind of new in this field, but, yeah, AI is definitely changing the game. It’s helping a lot of authors get books out there, or at least, you know, like I said, edit‌ their book if they need to. You can—pretty soon, I’m sure we’re going to have book covers designed by AI, and what I’m excited about is, currently, Audible does not allow AI narrated books, but I think when it allows that, and there are people, there are companies building software where they can take your voice and replicate it so that you don’t have to spend five hours narrating your book.

I think when that point comes, that’ll change the game. When Audible allows for AI-narrated voices that sound like you, but you know, are obviously AI. I’m actually excited for that day, because I’m working on a memoir right now, and I’d like to put out an audiobook, but oh gosh, do I want to sit there for hours and do that? It’s a lot of work. So, yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes. It’s definitely changing the game right now,

LP: That’s amazing, AI is changing or reshaping how lots of businesses are done, or things within the businesses are done, yeah. Okay, what’s one book that have influenced your entrepreneur journey?

SN: It’s been a while since I’ve read it, but Double Double, which is by, I think he’s still in Vancouver. Cameron Herold, yeah, is about, you know, if you want to double your revenue in a certain period of time, I think it’s a year, that’s exactly what his book is about. So, yeah, Cameron Herold’s Double Double.

LP: Oh, that’s, you know, “double double” for Canadians means something else, coffee.

SN: Oh, yeah, that’s right, yeah, not a coffee book. It’s a business book.

LP: I get you, Double Double. That’s an interesting name, okay, so I’ll check the book out, by the way. Thank you for the recommendation. If you, yeah, if you give your, if you could give your non published self, that is yourself before you published a book, one piece of advice about writing a book? What would it be?

SN: I don’t know if I’d give them advice about writing, but I would just say, yeah, if you’re thinking of publishing a book, do it, because it’s not as hard as you might think. Especially if you’re a natural writer and you like doing that, yeah, that’s going to be the easy part for you.

LP: Okay, what’s your favorite parts of guiding entrepreneurs through the self-publishing process?

SN: Yeah. I mean, every author is different. That’s such a good question. But I would say just overall, my favorite things to do are ghostwriting and editing. So ghostwriting, you know, I sit with authors on Zoom who want to just tell, you know, speak the content of the book, and then I use Otter AI to convert the audio to text, but that still requires a lot of cleanup, and so it’s really like being an editor. I’m going in and I’m cleaning up the spoken word and just, yeah, just making it sound as tight as possible. And then, and then handing the, you know, the manuscript back to them. Or, if it’s you know, they’ve already written the book and they hire me as an editor, we move on to formatting.

Or they have their own formatter, but just that process of making words come alive, like, that’s what I love. I get in the zone when I’m there and lose all track of time. Like, that’s, that’s my favorite part of it, for sure.

LP: I get you. What advice do you have for entrepreneurs who are listening to us right now but don’t have a book yet?

SN: If you’re thinking about publishing a book, it’s definitely possible. Yeah, just do some research in terms of what’s already out there. Figure out what your golden nugget can be and what you bring that’s new to the table in that field, and do it. Do it because‌ the world needs to know the story that you have to share.

LP: Okay. Thank you very much, Sandra for coming in and, you know, giving us lots of insights for everyone that is watching. Thank you very much for staying with us to this time. Sandra, if you have anything else to say, this will be a good time to say it, and then we’ll go.

SN: Okay, thanks so much. Dr. Linda. This has been so much fun. I’m pretty easy to reach online with my name so SandraNomoto.com or the various places, places on social media, yeah. I look forward to talking with you if you want to chat about your big book idea, yeah.

LP: Okay. Thank you very much. And have a great day.

SN: Thanks. You too. Bye.

 

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