January 2018

Happy New Year!  January is a special month in my family.  My husband’s birthday, my birthday and my son’s birthday all fall in January, as well as the birthday of my twin sister.  In celebration of our birthdays, I am offering the members of the SkillBites community two valuable gifts, worth $150 each!  See below for more information.

2017 was a record year for SkillBites and we believe 2018 is going to be even better. A few of the many upgrades we made during 2017 included:

• Added more marketing services, including book launch services, social media campaigns and PR campaigns, so authors can gain better results from their books;
• Simplified service offerings, to better meet the needs of aspiring authors; and
• Launched a training course on book writing, so those seeking to write a book can acquire the knowledge and tools to get their book done quicker and easier.

I want to thank all of the SkillBites authors, as well as the members of the SkillBites community and my wonderful staff, for making 2017 such a memorable year.

1. New Authors

SkillBites will soon be publishing Kim McDonnel’s book, You Change, They Change:  How to take control of your life by losing control over others.  Kim is a holistic health coach and spiritual counselor who has helped hundreds of people improve their lives.  Her book provides the roadmap for those who are stuck in unhealthy or sub-optimal relationships find the path to success and take control over their lives.

SkillBites has been assisting Dave Bookbinder revise the cover of his bestselling book, The New ROI:  Return on Individuals, and get his book on other distribution channels besides Amazon.  Dave is a corporate finance executive with a focus on business valuation.  His book delves into ways to quantify the value of human capital, as well as how CEOs can improve and enhance the success of their employees and ultimately their organization and its bottom line.

2. Get Your Book Done in 2018

Becoming a published author can establish you as an expert in your niche, which will enable you to attract your ideal prospects and grow your business.  As a business owner or professional, you may have lots of questions, such as:

• How do I find the time to write a book while running a business?
• How do I decide what topic I should write on?
• Will anyone be interested in my book?

You can learn the answers to these and other questions in the SkillBites Book It! Course, and you’ll get a roadmap that will make it much easier and quicker for you to get your book written.  This course has a 100% MONEY BACK GUARANTEE, so what do you have to lose? Click here for more information.  AND, if you sign up by the end of January, 2018, my first birthday gift is one hour of book coaching, worth $150, at NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE.

Alternatively, if you want to get a book written but don’t have the time or interest in writing it yourself (or figuring out how to find a good editor, layout designer and cover designer, and how to publish your book), SkillBites has you covered.  We are now offering a Done For You package, where we conduct interviews with you to get your expertise out of your head and then write your book for you.  Not only is your book done with minimal time and effort on your part, but we also handle all of the steps from manuscript to publication as well as book launch and promotion services.  You can be a published author in as little as 6 months!  For more information or to sign up for this package, click here.  If you sign up for this package by the end of January, 2018, my second birthday gift is to reduce the fee for this package by $150.  If you know you want to get a book done, take advantage of these opportunities and save.

3. The SkillBites Show

Each month, we bring you an expert to help you get your book done, leverage your book, grow your business or improve your life.  The shows are recorded, so if you can’t listen to one live, you can listen to the recording by clicking here.

Our next SkillBites Show will be held on January 16, 2018 from 12 to 1 pm ET (note the change in date and time).  Our guest will be Mitchell Levy, the AHA Guy at AHAthat (http://AHAthat.com).  Mitchell is an accomplished entrepreneur who has created twenty businesses in Silicon Valley including four publishing companies that have published over 800 books. Mitchell is a TEDx speaker and international bestselling author with fifty-eight business books.  He will talk about thought leadership and getting a book done in 8 hours or less.

To listen to the live presentation, you can call in at (641) 715-3660, Access Code: 467398. 

Last month we heard from Susan Friedmann, owner of Aviva Publishing and an internationally recognized niche marketing expert. Susan provided a number of book marketing tips and strategies.  If you missed this presentation, you can listen to it by clicking here, or you can read some of the tips from this show on the SkillBites blog at http://resources.skillbites.net/blog/.

SAVE THE DATE:  Next month, the SkillBites Show will be on February 21 at 1 pm ET.  Our guest will be Dr. Gayle Carson, otherwise known as “the Spunky Old Broad”.  As President of the Carson Research Center, she served as a consultant to 50 industries on six continents, advising them on current business trends and cutting-edge opportunities to stay ahead of their competition.  The author of five books, she hit the Amazon’s best sellers list, was a winner of the Best Seller Quill Award and was inducted into the National Academy of Best Selling Authors.  Currently, she hosts a dozen radio shows per month and is the founder of the sobradionetwork.com.  Gayle will share her wisdom on how to get media exposure and give a good media interview.

4. For Those Interested In Speaking . . .

Speakers are more likely to get more and better speaking engagements if they are also published authors.  Published authors who aren’t speakers can leverage their books more if they seek speaking engagements.  Both speakers and authors who want to speak can benefit from the ezine of my colleague, Cathleen Fillmore, president of Speakers Gold bureau.   The ezine focuses on how to get paid speaking engagements. Cathleen also provides marketing services to speakers to help them make more money doing what they love.  To learn more about Cathleen’s speaker’s bureau and to sign up for the ezine, go to www.speakersgold.com.  

5. Tip of the Month:  Should you publish your book on Amazon or Ingram?

Amazon has over 60% of the book retail market, so all authors should have their book on Amazon.  Getting on Amazon directly, through Amazon’s affiliate CreateSpace, is free.  Moreover, you can choose to have Amazon distribute your book on Amazon’s various international outlets, such as Amazon Europe, Amazon Japan and Amazon Brazil.  You can also select “Expanded Distribution” at no extra cost, and Amazon will make your book available to bookstores and other online and offline book retailers.  If you use an Amazon ISNB in your book, your book will be eligible for distribution to libraries and academic institutions as well.

What Amazon does not tell you, however, is that very few bookstores, libraries and academic institutions purchase books through Amazon’s distribution channel.  They utilize other entities, primarily Ingram.  But Ingram will not publish your print book if it is already on Amazon.  If you start with Amazon and later decide you want your book on Ingram so that bookstores and libraries are more likely to purchase your book, you may be in trouble.  You can take your book down from Amazon, but then you’ll lose all your reviews.  You can seek to transfer title from Amazon to Ingram, but you may still lose all your reviews on Amazon.

By going with Ingram first, Ingram will not only make your book available to bookstores and libraries, but it will also get your book on Amazon as well as all the other major online book retail sites, such as Barnes&Noble.com and iTunes.  It costs a bit more to get on Ingram, and it takes longer for your book to show up on Amazon, but then your book is more readily available than just having it on Amazon. 

6. Earn Commissions For Referrals

Do you know anyone who should write a book but has been stalling?  Let them know that SkillBites offers a variety of services to make book writing and publishing easy, quick and convenient.  For each person who signs up to purchase SkillBites services through your unique referral link, we’ll give you a commission on the revenue from your referrals.  

Thanks for supporting SkillBites.  If there is anything you think we ought to be doing better or anything we should be doing that we’re not, please let us know.  We value your input.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season,