Today, I'm joined by Carlos Whittaker, a people's choice award winner, a former recording artist who spends his time creating new books and travels to speaking gigs. I'll be chatting with Carlos about how he sold his books "from the trunk of my car."
With a passion for writing starting with his blog, Carlos was pursuing writing in addition to a career as a singer. In 2010, he created a VLOG that went viral, which, in turn, produced traffic for his blog. At this point, he had 30,000 readers per day looking at his website, and publishers started to find his blog. "Although I was a singer, I had more people reading my words than buying my music."
When Carlos decided to write his first book, he chose his best blog writings from his work that created the most traction from his past seven blogging years. Moment Maker was birthed from his blog in 2014. Although it didn't sell well, "this was my little experiment, and I'm proud of it."
He took his first offer from a publisher that approached him. "The first book was a book that I wanted to write that felt good for me, and I thought that maybe this could help a lot of people." Carlos decided to be strategic in writing his second book and directly answered his audience's pain point. Doing beta testing, targeting sales, and tweaking his talks to target more book purchases in the lobby post-speaking. "Once I found that secret sauce, I just stuck to that."
With his third book, he is creating many Zoom talks and hasn't had as much success with video marketing. Carlos is looking forward to 2021, when he can hit the road and see people in person to market his book.
Listen in to find out how you can make your audience the hero of your story, how to set up your book sale to get more people to buy your book, and Carlos' pro tips for selling books.
Show Notes
[01:40] Why Carlos decided to write his first book. [05:16] Getting approached by publishers to write his book and had one offer. [07:01] Tips for bloggers who want to turn their blog into a book. [09:52] Why he wrote his first book. [18:18] How to make your audience the hero of your story. [24:26] Pro tips for selling books at speaking gigs. [28:05] Figuring out how many books to bring with you to sell. [32:14] What Carlos reviews when revising his talk to sell more books. [37:30] Parting advice for listeners about how to be a better author.Links and Resources
Visit Self Publishing School Online SPS Free Training Course How to Write a Children’s Book Online Course Visit Carlos on the web Connect with Carlos on InstagramSPS 084: How To Write A Book At 8 Years Old That Sells 1,000's Of Copies with Emma Sumner
SPS 083: How To Turn Your Nonfiction Book Into A Children's Book (Advanced Publishing & Fulfillment Strategies) with Ellaine Ursuy
SPS 082: How To Use Guest Posting & Media To Sell Thousands Of Copies Of Your Book with Susie Moore
SPS 081: How To Turn Your Book Into A Movie with Hal Elrod (Miracle Morning Movie Behind The Scenes)
SPS 080: How This Radiologist Turned Sex Coach Launched Her Online Business To $100k in 9 Months Using Publicity with Sonia Wright
SPS 079: CASE STUDY: An Educator's Guide To Writing & Publishing An Award Winning Children's Book with Merideth Tullous
SPS 078: How To Write A Book Proposal That Gets You A Book Deal And A Big Advance with Chad Allen (What Agents & Publishers Are Actually Looking For)
SPS 077: From Writing In Prison To 4x New York Times Bestseller & 1M Copies Sold with Wahida Clark (How To Create Raving Fans With Your Fiction Series)
SPS 076: 0 to 450k Subscribers In 3 Years - Using YouTube To Grow Your Business & Sell More Books with Gillian Perkins
SPS 075: Using Publicity & Influencer Marketing To Sell NEEDTOBREATHE Albums And Grow A Treehouse Business with Seth & Tori Bolt
SPS 074: This One Quiz Funnel Will Sell More Books & Turn Readers Into Paying Customers (Better Than A Free + Shipping Funnel) with Ryan Levesque
SPS 073: Build Your Personal Brand (And Double Your Business) Using A Book with Chris Ducker
SPS 072: Writing Great Fiction Using Beta Readers...And How To Build An Author Platform On YouTube That Sells Books with Jenna Moreci
SPS 071: Extreme Ownership, The Dichotomy of Book Publishing, And Using Publicity To Help Sell 2.5M+ Copies with Leif Babin
SPS 070: Keywords, Categories, & Using Amazon SEO + Publisher Rocket to Sell More Books with Dave Chesson
SPS 069: How A Former Circus Performer Unlocked The Author Advantage & Grew A 7-Figure Editing Business with Qat Wanders
SPS 068: Using Publicity & Speaking To Sell More Books & Grow Your Business with Sloane Ketchum
SPS 067: The Most Interesting Man In Book Publishing...25 Books Published, Prolific & Polarizing Writing, And What Kanye Taught Me About Book Marketing with James Altucher
SPS 066: Myers Briggs for Writing A Book: How To Use Your Unique Personality Type (And Strength) To Maximize The Success Of Your Book with Gary Williams
SPS 065: How To Write & Publish A Quality Children's Book That Kids LOVE to Read And Parents Are Proud To Buy with Marcy Pusey
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