Self Publishing School: How To Write A Book That Grows Your Impact, Income, And Business

SPS 001: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World with Your First Book, with Michael Hyatt

May 9, 2017

Michael Hyatt, a New York Times bestselling author and former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, shares his insights on navigating the publishing world. He recounts the near-loss of his first book, emphasizing the crucial role of tenacity. The discussion highlights the importance of building an author platform, effective audience engagement strategies, and the necessity of content marketing. Hyatt also introduces a five-stage model for platform growth and shares vital tips for aspiring writers to connect with their audience before launching their books.

50:17

Episode guests

Michael Hyatt

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Michael Hyatt emphasizes the importance of resilience in the writing journey, revealing how perseverance led to his initial book's success despite early rejections.

He highlights the necessity for authors to understand and meet their audience's needs, reinforcing that effective communication of their book's benefits is crucial for sales.

Hyatt outlines a structured approach to building an author platform, advocating for a focus on blogging and audience engagement to facilitate successful book launches.

Deep dives

The Journey to Authorship

Michael Hyatt shares his journey into writing, highlighting his initial uncertainty when he wrote his first book, 'Platform.' Despite being a literary agent, he found the writing process challenging and faced multiple rejections from publishers before finally securing a deal. This experience taught him resilience, as he navigated a significant time crunch while managing a full-time job and family responsibilities. His dedication to completing the book eventually led to its success, landing on the New York Times bestseller list and selling over 350,000 copies.

Intro

2min

The Author's Journey: From Rejection to Success

16min

Building Your Author Platform: A Five-Stage Model

5min

Building an Audience Before Your Book Launch

3min

From Inspiration to Implementation: Navigating Book Publishing Strategies

2min

Maximizing Content Efficiency

21min

Closing Insights and Engagement Opportunities for Aspiring Authors

2min

Michael Hyatt is one of my favorite people in our space. He does things absolutely the right way and always works from a place of integrity and quality. You may recognize Michael as the author of the New York Times bestseller Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World and the coauthor of Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want.

In addition to being a highly successful author, Michael has worked in nearly every facet of book publishing in the 30 years since he began his career at Word Publishing (which was a part of Thomas Nelson) while a senior at Baylor University. Perhaps most notably, he played a large role at Thomas Nelson Publishers, which is the largest faith-based publisher in the world and is now part of HarperCollins. Michael was the company’s CEO from 2005 through 2011, and remained there as chairman until the company was sold in 2012.

Our conversation today includes Michael talking in detail about his experiences with the writing, publishing, and publicity processes. As you’ll learn here, his first book came very close to never being published, and only his own tenacity and persuasiveness saved it.

In addition, he’ll offer incredible value in the form of advice for anyone interested in writing or publishing a book. He explains, for example, why having your own platform is more important now than ever before. He also offers recommendations on topics such as starting with a blog (using social media instead is “like building a house on a rented lot”) and why you might want to rethink those gorgeous, image-filled emails to your mailing list.

For all this and much more, listen in to this episode of the Self-Publishing School podcast!

Watch the free training: https://selfpublishing.com/freetraining
Schedule a no-cost call with our team: https://selfpublishing.com/schedule

Here are some links that might come in handy:

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Self Publishing School: How To Write A Book That Grows Your Impact, Income, And Business

SPS 001: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World with Your First Book, with Michael Hyatt

Episode guests