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 219: Selling 1M+ Copies Of Multiple Books & Getting Your Book In Airports with Jay Papasan
SPS 218: Portable Stories, Great Case Studies, And Writing Books People Share with Joey Coleman
SPS 217: Mastering the Art of Writing & Selling Books with Bestselling Author, Dr Shefali
SPS 216: Growing Your Marketing Agency Using A Book with Erik Huberman
SPS 215: The Secrets To Editing Success, Fictionary, And Making Your Story Unforgettable with Kristina Stanley
SPS 214: The Pursuit Of The Wall Street Journal Bestseller List…Exactly What It Takes with Steve Chou
SPS 213: She Builds: The Anti-Hustle Guide To Book Marketing & 1M+ Copies Sold with Jadah Sellner
SPS 212: Lessons Learned From 5,000+ Calls With Aspiring Authors with Chad Aleo (The Book On High Ticket Sales)
SPS 211: Writing A Book While Raising 8 Kids & Running A 7 Figure Business with January Donavan
It's my birthday, but guess who's getting a gift? That's right, it's YOU! Visit selfpublishing.com/birthday to grab it
SPS 210: Profitably Running Book Ads & Staying At #1 For 135 Days Straight with Nate Hambrick
Announcement: Life Changing Event, Huge Speakers, And Prices Going Up Soon
SPS 209: Your Two Weeks Notice & Doing $1M From Your Book Launch with Amy Porterfield (Behind The Scenes Of Her NYT Bestseller Launch)
SPS 208: Landing Your Dream Job & Advice From In The Trenches Doing 2,800+ Author Coaching Calls with Michael Lachance
SPS 207: How To Relaunch Your Book & Build Your Personal Brand with Andrew Biernat
SPS 206: From 100’s Of Copies To 230,000+ Books Sold In 2 Years…How I Did It with Tiffany Aliche
SPS 205: Mind Your Mindset: How To Think Like An Author with Michael Hyatt
SPS 204: High Performance Author: Lessons Learned From Kobe, Durant & Steph with Alan Stein Jr.
SPS 203: Using Your Military Experience To Write A Great Book with General Mari K Eder
SPS 202: From Book To Entrepreneur & 8M+ TEDx Talk Views with Carrie Green (Female Author Association)
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