February ‘21 Newsletter

9 years ago this month, SkillBites was born.  We’ve come a long way since then.  Initially, SkillBites focused on helping entrepreneurs and professionals write short, practical how-to eBooks.  Then we expanded to print books, then any length book.  We’ve even helped authors writing memoirs, a few children’s books and novels.  We also expanded our service offerings, including our strategic book plan service, book coaching, ghostwriting, marketing and PR services and getting your book made into an audio book.  We created 2 virtual courses, on how to write a book and how to publish, promote and leverage a book.  Our aim is to make it as easy and convenient as possible for people to accomplish their goal of a becoming published author.  Let us know if we can help you in any way.

February is a month with many interesting holidays, particularly for chocolate lovers such as myself.  Did you know that February is Chocolate Month?  Of course, there’s Valentine’s Day, a great time to give your loved one chocolates.  February 14 is also National Crème-Filled Chocolates Day.  Make Mine Chocolate starts on February 15 and ends on Easter, which is April 4, 2021.  National Chocolate Mint Day is February 19, National Chocolate Covered Nuts Day is February 25 and National Chocolate Souffle Day is February 28. Earlier this month was Dark Chocolate Day (February 1), as well as National Chocolate Fondue Day (February 5).  Here’s hoping all you chocolate lovers receive some delicious chocolate this month!

1. Anniversary Gift For You! 

In celebration of our anniversary, we have a gift for you.  During this month, you can download a free copy of our workbook, 7 Steps to Create a Strategic Book Plan So You Write the RIGHT Book and Achieve the Best Results.  This is the workbook that our clients get when they sign up for our strategic book plan service, which is normally $797.  As with any other important project, it is important to identify the results you want to achieve from your book, and to develop a plan that spells out how you will achieve those results.  You’ll also want to identify the right target audience and that audience’s needs so you can select the best topic that aligns with those needs and your objective for the book.  Use the workbook to determine these and other critical issues so you know your book will be on the right track to enable you to achieve the best results.  To download the workbook, click here.

2. How To Quickly Write Your Book

Last month, my book writing webinar was so popular that I have decided to offer it again.  On March 2, at 2 pm ET, I will be providing again my 1 hour webinar entitled Rise Up:  How to Quickly Write a Book that will Explode Your Business.  There’s no cost.  You’ll learn such valuable strategies as:

• How to determine a profitable topic for your book
• A system for carving out the time to write your book
• 4 ways to quickly write a book even if you aren’t a good writer, or hate writing
• The pro’s and cons of the three most popular publishing options
• The 8 steps you need to take after your manuscript is completed

For more information and to sign up, click here. Limited space available.

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 on February 15, 2021 at 1 pm ET / 12 CT / 11 MT / 10 PT.  Our guest will be Juliet Clark, a dynamic and sought -after speaker and podcaster who has spent the last twenty years helping authors, coaches, speakers, and small businesses all over the world build expert platforms.  Juliet will discuss why a platform is necessary before you publish a book and how to build your platform.

To listen to the live presentation, you can go to https://zoom.us/j/98012759802?pwd=ZW51UjQ0OGlDWnlCWHZ1M2pNWnhnQT09 or call in, using a line local to you:

+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)

+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abAXTgmoXv

Meeting ID: 302 156 4627

Save The Date:

Next month, the SkillBites Show will be on March 17 at 1 pm ET.  My guest will be Steve Feld, business coach, author, professional speaker, and award-winning business management executive. Steve has over 30 years of extensive senior-level experience in highly competitive industries. He has created and owned six high 6 figure businesses, operated divisions for 3 brand name Fortune 500 companies, and has written 4 books about business.

Steve will present eight simple strategies that any business owner can implement in their business today without having to spend more money on marketing or advertising that will generate immediate cash flow while tripling the number of your leads, conducting more transactions, improving your conversion ratio, increasing your prices, and more than doubling your profits. Most business owners usually see an increase of $10,000 to over $100,000 in revenue in 90-days.

Last month, my guest was Cathy Fyock, the Business Book Strategist.  Cathy is the author of ten books, including The Speaker Author, and Authority. Cathy provided several tips for utilizing a book to move your business forward. If you missed this presentation, you can listen to it by clicking here, or you can read a summary of the show on the SkillBites blog by clicking here.

Do you have expertise that you believe would benefit the SkillBites community of entrepreneurs and authors?  If you would like to be the guest on the monthly SkillBites Show, contact me at judy@skillbites.net or 610-783-4519.

4. Tip of the Month: Book Sales

For most business owners and professionals who want to write a book, book sales are not the primary reason for writing a book.  Getting the book into the hands of lots of people, however, is a common goal for business owners and professionals, as it can lead to more people knowing about the author’s expertise.  Book sales and lead generation, however, are not mutually exclusive.  If you can sell more copies of your book, you can earn some money from the book sales and get more people to know about your book.  How can you do that?  Here are a few ideas:

• Offer a two-for-one deal, where you will provide a free copy of your book or eBook to anyone who buys a copy, which they can then give to someone else.  Your sales will increase as people love getting something for free, and they can give the extra copy of the book to someone else who can benefit from it.  And it gets your book into the hands of twice as many people.
• Offer a book bundle.  If you have written multiple books, you can offer a bundle of two or more of your books at a discount.  If you haven’t written multiple books, you could offer a discount off of a product or service you provide for anyone who buys your book.  Alternatively, you could team up with another author who has a book that your target audience could benefit from reading and offer the two books at a discount (or bundle your book with the books of several other authors).
• Offer to sell your book in bulk at a steep discount.  Who has an audience who could benefit from your book?  Perhaps there is an association that might be interested in giving a copy of your book to any new member or member who renews their membership; or a charity who could give your book to anyone who donates a certain amount of money; or a training firm that gives courses on the subject of your book.

Let me know if you have more ideas for increasing book sales, or if you have been able to benefit from any of these ideas.  I’d love to hear about that.

5. Earn Commissions For Referrals

Do you know anyone who has been wanting to 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.  When you sign up to be a SkillBites affiliate, you can get a commission for each person who signs up to purchase SkillBites services through your unique referral link.  To obtain more information and to sign up for our referral program, click here.

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.

Cordially,