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 Instagram240: “The Empowered Woman” + Writing A Collaboration Book / Anthology with Marta Spirk
SPS 239: Launching An Updated & Revised Edition After 2M+ Copies Sold (Miracle Morning Behind The Scenes)…with Hal Elrod
SPS 238: Booking More Speaking Gigs, $40k Keynote Fees, And Bulk Book Sales with Cameron Herold
SPS 237: Rise Of The Reader & How To Market Bestselling Books with Nick Hutchison
SPS 236: Startup Santa: From Toymaker & Inventor To Author with Brad Pedersen
SPS 235: $80k/year In Royalties For 6 Years From One Book…How This Teacher Did It with Rob Plevin
SPS 234: BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! Unleashing the Power of Authorship
SPS 233: Be Seen: Discovering Your Voice & Booking Speaking Gigs Grow Your Brand with Jen Gottlieb
SPS 232 How I Sold 25,000+ Copies Of My Children’s Book with Delanda Coleman
SPS 231 How To Get Famous & Sell More Books By Getting On TV with Clint Author
SPS 230 Using AI / ChatGPT To Write & Publish Your Book with Jonathan Green
SPS 229 Grow An App Using A Book And Teaching Kids About Money with Scott Donnell
SPS 228 Post Pardon Me: Writing A Book About Postpartum And Other Difficult Life Experiences with Suzanne Yatim Aslam
SPS: 227 Marketing Secrets, Affiliate Book Launches, And Gorgeous Book Funnels with Julie Chenell
SPS226: The Journey To 110,000 Copies Sold & Relaunching Your Book…How I Did It with Sean Cannell
SPS 225: Why Affirmations Don’t Work & How To Use Afformations Instead with Noah St. John
SPS 224: The Engineer Approach To Millions Of Copies Sold with Todd Sattersten
SPS 223: The 2 Week Vacation Test & Scaling From 6 To 7 Figures with Austin Netzley
SP 222: How To Host An Epic Book Launch Party with Nick Gray (The 2 Hour Cocktail Party)
SPS 221: Mastering Marketing, Book Promotion and Hypnautic Writing with Dr. Joe Vitale
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