Book Publishing Strategies with Publishing Expert & Best Selling Author Jenn Foster on Episode #0006

Expert Authority Checklist  [0:00]  

EA Interviews, episode six. It’s a great day to be alive, Expert Authority Nation, and I wanted to ask you, have you ever wanted to share your story? Have you wanted to get your message seen and heard by the largest audience you possibly can for your business, maybe even considered publishing a book? I know I have. And that’s why I’m excited for today’s show. I have none other than Jen Foster, who is a publishing expert and eleven-time best selling author herself. Jenna started in web development and crafted her skills as an online marketer. She has had many entrepreneur mentors in her life including her own grandfather, the founder of the Western oil company, Maverick County Stores. She’s the owner of Biz Social Boom and has helped hundreds of businesses become first-page news and major search engines. She is also the owner of Elite Online Publishing which was started by Jen Foster and Melanie Johnson at a marketing conference where they brainstorm and created the website logo Facebook, Twitter and all the pages for their video trailer during the breaks and it’s exciting for me because I remember when they were doing it years ago, we were all at the same conference together. So, congrats to both of them. They had their first successful book writing retreat three months later with 100{d1d47f886dfada3fbec120c845cf21cbf2de07a46032aee93c7c36510b4a5e81} of the attendees becoming number one best selling authors. They now work with high level authors on a personal one on one basis as well as training at the retreats, workshops, master classes, podcast and their YouTube channel. Jen has appeared on podcast radio and television and has been honored guest speaker and panelist and major marketing conferences across the country. She broadcast weekly on her podcast elite expert insider on iTunes and other radio channels. I’m excited to bring her up right after we thank our sponsor.

Belive.TV  [1:47]  

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Mario Fachini

Here she is, Miss Jenn Foster. Jenn, welcome.

Jenn Foster  [3:55]  

Thank you.

Mario Fachini  [3:57]  

I am excited to have you here. So, we’re going to be sharing with everyone publishing secrets, and that’s very exciting. So, my first question I always ask everyone is: what inspired you to start your business? What is the why behind what you’re doing?

Jenn Foster  [4:13]  

Yeah, I’ve always wanted to be my own boss and my own entrepreneur. So, I’ve actually been self-employed or entrepreneur my pretty much my whole life since I’ve been married- married and divorced, I guess, I’m single now. But yeah, so I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur. And, now I have three teenagers to support and so, I just love having my own business, setting my own hours, being a mom and an owner of…a business owner. And I think my why really is my kids and my lifestyle and being able to control my schedule.

Mario Fachini  [4:46]  

Well, very good. So, tell us about the book process. Who do you help and how do you do it? Because there’s a lot of people out there that helped publish books, you can say, self-publishing, regular publishing, what would you say… Why is one better than the other? What are the pros and cons? Well, how do you do what you do with your audience?

Jenn Foster  [5:08]  

Yeah, so you mean, since I had my very first book, what you saw in that trailer just now. And the it…I would say, like my very first book, I did, it transformed my business. And because I had a book, I became that instant expert and authority. And so I had a passion for helping other people to get that same status. So when someone wants to write a book, or an author comes to me and says, I’ve written a book, I don’t know, you know how to publish it, or what to do, then that’s when we take over and we help them to publish their book and market their book, and then help them to use that expert status as a best-selling author to get on stages to speak, to get more media exposure, just to do all the different things that are booked can give you. And, I guess she has kind of the process you want to kind of want to know, kind of the process that we use, or…

Mario Fachini  [5:57]  

Yeah, so tell me more specifically about your process.

Jenn Foster  [6:01]  

Yeah, well, our… what we like to do with authors is whether they come to us with an idea or come to us with their book already written, we like to help them to get their book in ebook and paperback. So it’s published on Amazon. If they want a hardback and an audio, we do that as well. And we get that distributed everywhere. We believe in the everywhere philosophy, where you are everywhere. So we want you your book to be everywhere books are sold. So, everywhere, online, everywhere offline. And of course, you having books, being able to order books yourself, set the price how you want it. So we do a hybrid publishing, which is where we’re still your publisher, because we’re helping you with all the details, like the book cover, the formatting, the title, the description, bio, all the parts that make a book, we help you with all of that, but you are, are really just self-publishing the book because we want you to keep all your own royalties, we want you to keep all your own rights, and we want you to be able to use your book how you want to use it.

Mario Fachini  [7:01]  

That’s really awesome. I remember when I was doing my first book, and it’s always a fun experience, because a lot of people don’t realize that. So speak on the the publishing and what you just said there about the keeping your own publishing rights, keeping all of that in your name. And that was a concern for me, because I was… I’ll let you continue on it.

Jenn Foster  [7:25]  

Yeah, yeah. So my business partner, and I actually wrote this book, ‘The Seven Costly Mistakes When Choosing A Publisher’. And it’s really good, because it teaches certain… tells you all the differences between self-publishing and hybrid publishing, or traditional publishing. And, you know, usually a traditional publisher will give you some kind of commission or advance for your book, but then they own the rights to your book. So, they get to choose everything. If they decide to take out a part of the book, they can, if they want to take out a word, they can. If they want to change job pictures, they can, like anything they want, they can do really, you don’t really have a lot of, I mean, you have some say, but there are pretty much in control of your book. And that goes for pricing as well. And then they don’t really do a lot of marketing unless you hire them to do the marketing. And so you’re still left with doing all the marketing. So, the publisher will help you and get you the world, you know, you’ll get a commission, but you might only make like $1 a book, or you have to read the fine print, because it might say, after they give you that 10,000 or $20,000 advance, it might say, in fine print that if you don’t sell a certain amount of books, you have to pay some of that back. So you really have to read the… the fine print, for sure. With self-publishing, of course, it’s all print on demand. You don’t have to buy a ton of books, and you’re just making what you’re making on the book. You know what… it could be… I don’t know, it depends on the book. But the main thing is that you’re in control your book.

Mario Fachini  [8:58]  

Well, that’s a really good tip, because a lot of people go, Well, I want to get published, I want to do that and not a lot of them realize they can take out the words they can take out the pictures and all that. So it’s… it’s a matter of how much are you willing to lose? Like, is it really worth that 10 or 20 grand? Or do you want to keep the rights because you see it turning into six figures, seven figures, and beyond? So definitely something to consider. How… what is… while we’re talking about the financial aspect of it, how would you say, what’s one thing you tell your authors as to how they can monetize it, other than just book sales?

Jenn Foster  [9:34]  

Yeah, well, that’s… you know, Mario, because of this year book, you do the exact thing that we teach all of our authors, which is to have a ‘call to action’ in your book. So, of course, you’re gonna make a little bit of money from your book sales, but you’re not going to make a lot of money from your book sales. And so in order to get those six and seven figures coming to you, you have to have a call to action. And that’s what we teach all of our authors, you have to have a why or purpose behind your book. So maybe the reason why you wrote the book is to share your message, maybe it is to get speaking gigs on stages, maybe it’s to sell your coaching program. You know, there’s all these different ways to make money and we want your book to help you to sell that, right. So like, for instance, at a dental practice. I have a doctor who wrote a book about his cosmetic dental practice, and all of the, you know, secrets behind it. And also the myths and the frequently asked questions and all those things. And that book helps him to sell his bigger item, not just a book, which is the dental implants or the veneers or the cosmetic dentistry. So, you know, you got to have something like that to upsell or to… a call to action, so to say, in your book. So whether it’s to ask you to speak on a stage or to sell you something else, or to get more information from you. You want to have that call to action.

Mario Fachini [10:16]

I appreciate you for sharing that. So, the call to action is what gets people the results beyond the book. Let’s talk about your specific results. You don’t need to name names. You don’t need to give specific clients. But let’s talk… it’s a two part question: the specific results you’ve seen, and what’s the biggest success story you’ve had?

Jenn Foster  [11:16]  

So I guess the first part of the question would be… I mean, my very first experience with having something happen because I was an author because I was a best selling author was I had a phone call, it was actually a voicemail and the voicemail the guy said, he says, three in the morning, and I just finished reading your chapter. And I’ve read it three times. And he says, I have a marketing business. And my chapter was all about marketing. He says, I have a marketing business and I realized I’m doing it all wrong and I need you to be my agent and do all of the white label services for my marketing company.

Mario Fachini  [11:49]  

Wow.

Jenn Foster  [11:50]  

So it was pretty, pretty amazing and pretty exciting to get that opportunity. And I mean, there’s been multiple, multiple things come out of the books that I’m writing. I mean, even today, the books that we Melanie and I have written or the books that I’ve written on my own or Melanie’s written on her own have gotten a speaking opportunities as well as new clients. And we publish… we’ve had over 60 authors now. And almost… I think we’re at we’re like 1950 books on Amazon right now.

Mario Fachini  [12:21]  

How… say that again.

Jenn Foster  [12:23]  

Yeah, we have 1950 of our own books on Amazon, as well as we’ve helped over 60 authors.

Mario Fachini  [12:29]  

Wow, that’s fantastic. Yeah. 1900 are you pushing for 2000? 

Jenn Foster [12:34]

Yeah, we’re really close.

Mario Fachini [12:37]

Well, you got time to get… you got time.

Jenn Foster [12:39]

Yeah.

Mario Fachini [12:39]

So as far as your biggest success stories, who has been so someone comes to you, they want to get published you they wanted to go through the whole gamut with everything you’re talking about. Who would you say? And again, you can call him Mr. Mrs. X – that’s what I do if you don’t want to share who it is specifically. And if they don’t mind, feel free to plug them. But who is the biggest success story that you saw, they came into your program, and it was like day one, they were at negative 10 and within 30, 60, 90, 100 days, whatever your… yours is they got to, like, 20.

Jenn Foster  [13:14]  

Yeah, we actually have quite a few stories of authors that have come to us and now are doing the things that they set out to do with their book. But I will mention one of them. And I don’t think he’ll mind if I mentioned his name. So he’s a speaker, and a trainer and his… he’s an author – best selling author. And his name is Joshua Evans. And he actually started with us, he used to work as a salesman, and then he quit his job and did the whole book writing thing and author and now he speaks all over. He’s been speaking on cruises. He’s been speaking on stages all over the country. And he just landed a gig. I mean, he gets paid to speak, I’m not going to say the amount but he gets me a lot to speak now. And his book is called ‘Enthusiastic You’. And so he helps corporations with their…their employees and their enthusiasm and helping them to really find, you know, their purpose. But what was really awesome was he just landed a gig doing a really big banquet, and it was like… normally they have it was, I think, for over I think it was like, almost 1500 people, but they usually have an astronaut or some really big, big name that comes in and speaks. And this year, they asked Joshua Evans to come in. So…

Mario Fachini  [14:28]  

Wow

Jenn Foster  [14:28]  

Really cool.

Mario Fachini  [14:29]  

That’s quite an honour.

Jenn Foster [14:30]

I will tell you one more… a success story. So our author, Marylyn Barber, we helped her publish her book, ‘Just Like Human Business’. And right after she got her book published, she… we launched it. she got a number one bestseller, and she started doing some private clients and helping people to dress for success. And then a I think it was ABC had called her and said, we saw your book, and we’d like to have you come in and talk to our audience on TV about the election and what Mrs. Trump is going to be wearing for the elect. You know, for the I think it was for that integration, actually. So, anyway, it was… it was amazing. She went on TV, and they loved everything she did. And they said, if it’s okay, we’ll just keep doing a segment every single month. And we’d like to title it the same as your book, ‘Just Like You Mean Business’. And, of course, she said yes. And so now…

Mario Fachini [15:22]

Let me think about that.

Jenn Foster  [15:23]  

Yeah, they do these segments, and they feature her and she comes in and talks and does her expertise of fashion and just and how to dress and they go to different places where they go in the studio, they go to different dress shops in… in Texas, and it’s just really awesome. So. she’s doing really well.

Mario Fachini  [15:40]  

That sounds like fun. Alright, so two more before we go to the sponsor again,

Jenn Foster  [15:46]  

Oh, two more questions. Or two more success stories. I just have so many.

Mario Fachini  [15:49]  

Two more questions.

Jenn Foster  [15:50]  

Okay. Two more questions.

Mario Fachini  [15:52]  

And I figured you’d have a lot of success stories. So, I was curious who you were going to bring up because I know we’ve talked about him before. And, you know, congrats on your success. And continuing on, because I know you’ve been doing it for quite some time now. So this is kind of, it’s interesting, because I asked the questions, I asked everyone that are the same. And it’s how has publishing your book to help you and you kind of touched on it. But how has publishing your book to help you?

Jenn Foster  [16:19]  

Yeah, well, for sure. It’s helped me personally, to just grow and to become the person I am today. It’s…it’s really different. Like, you wouldn’t think it would change you that much. But it’s really different when you can say, I’m an author, and… and they say, 80{d1d47f886dfada3fbec120c845cf21cbf2de07a46032aee93c7c36510b4a5e81} of people say they want to write a book, they… they said it out loud, or they thought it in their mind, but only 1{d1d47f886dfada3fbec120c845cf21cbf2de07a46032aee93c7c36510b4a5e81} actually do it. And so, if you’re looking around, and you think everyone has a book, think again. Not everyone has a book. So you can have a book too, but it really has changed me personally. And I think my… my self-esteem and my personal development has grown for sure.

Mario Fachini  [16:57]  

You know, I really like that. I really do. Because I asked everyone that and everyone I have on the show is pretty much authors, speakers, and, you know, a certain level of success, if you will. And a lot of people speak to, oh, it was great, because I got to do this, I got more leads. I got this. And I would say the same thing. People ask me all the time. And I don’t think I’ve ever responded with that. So yes, that’s a… in my opinion, a much better answer than just, oh, it helped my business that you can do a lot of stuff for business. But I’d say yeah, it would definitely give you a confidence boost. And, you know, it’s like, if you want the information, here it is. So that leads into the next one, which is video. How has video marketing helped your business?

Jenn Foster  [17:43]  

Well, video marketing, for sure. I mean, that’s what my… my first book that I wrote on my own was about was video marketing. And that’s kind of what I’ve been doing for the last, I guess, 12 years is helping businesses with their video marketing, and SEO, and as well as the last, you know, three or four years doing public. And I think video really has helped my business just because for one, when people see you, they know like, and trust you, and two, you know, the exposure of that content out there, you know, the information that you’re providing on video, that’s what people want. I mean, just the other day, I was looking up on YouTube, how to fix my washer. So everyone’s going to YouTube to find out something to learn how to do something. And if you’re the one that they’re watching, then they’re going to follow you more and learn more from you. And whether it’s your YouTube channel, or Facebook Live, or all the other places you can watch video now. Of course, video is all over Amazon. So definitely, video can help you and it’s helped me a ton.

Mario Fachini  [18:43]  

Well, I’m happy to hear that. And you get me laughing a little bit because I was like, Yeah, I did that last year to how do you install the new polly system? And what are the parts here? And yeah, it’s amazing what you can find, you know, everyone watching this and hearing it, they’ll go… they’re probably thinking the same. Yeah, I’ve done that. I’ve looked the videos up. But the question I always like to ask is, how many do you have out there for your business? So do you… right before we cut? How many… when you’re telling your authors, when you’re telling your clients, what do you recommend they start with? Do you have a certain number or no?

Jenn Foster  [19:17]  

Yeah, a certain number of videos that they should start with? Yes, well, I think it’s different for each client. But I would say I always challenge my clients to do at least one Facebook Live a week, and whether they transcribe it, download it, upload it somewhere else. But I do challenge them to do that. And I also have them write down their top 10 second, last questions. Top 10 should ask questions. So that’s 20 questions that they can record one or two minutes, even five minutes if they want videos, and put those up. So that’s 20 videos there and they can put those up on their YouTube channel or on Facebook or anywhere else…. Amazon. I’m trying to think… what else and that’s pretty much the basics is the top 10 frequently asked questions. Top 10 should ask questions as well as their Facebook Lives. And if you don’t know what to say on Facebook Live, and I know when you’re scrolling through Facebook, you think everyone’s doing Facebook Live, I’m not going to do it. Or I’m too scared. But you just want to tell your story. Tell people what’s happening. Tell people your successes and tell people some things that you’re doing you know whether it’s an adventure thing or just you know, working or what you learned, a book you’re reading any of those kind of things. People want to know.

Mario Fachini  [20:34]  

All right, very good. Well, we’re gonna go to the sponsor and come back for the rapid fire questions. Thanks so much. And now to go to the sponsor.

Belive.TV  [20:42]  

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Mario Fachini  [21:49]  

All right, Expert Authority Nation. So we’re back, and as I stated before the break, we’re going to go to the Rapid Fire question. So Jen, first one, rapid fire 60 seconds. What’s the biggest problem you see that your audience has? And how do you help them fix it?

Jenn Foster  [22:03]  

And the biggest problem is they don’t know how to do like the technical aspects of publishing. And so we fix it by helping them do it. They publish their books for them.

Mario Fachini  [22:13]  

All right, very good. Number two: shortest path to the cash. What’s the one thing your audience should do to increase their profits the fastest?

Jenn Foster  [22:22]  

Change your mindset. It’s all in your thoughts.

Mario Fachini  [22:25]  

Oh, speak on that a little bit.

Jenn Foster  [22:27]  

Yeah, so I just got finished reading, ‘Think and Grow Rich’, as well as ‘A Man Think It and what you think about, you bring about so if you’re telling yourself, I can’t afford it, you’re not ever going to be rich. So you got to tell yourself, you’re rich. You got to have that abundance mentality, and you will have abundance in your life, whether it’s money or other things that are coming to you, you will have abundance.

Mario Fachini  [22:52]  

I like that a lot. All right. Customer Lifetime Value. What’s the one way your audience could maximize their Customer Lifetime Value?

Jenn Foster  [23:01]  

Yeah, well, definitely, you know, with a book, you’re going to capture the followers or the customers that you will attract. And to keep that lifetime value by putting out more books or more content, digital training programs, more information. That is how you get that long time value is just give keep giving them what they’re asking for.

Mario Fachini  [23:25]  

All right, very good. So we’re at the last little bit here, if you will. So what would you like to promote? Let’s… Let’s hear about… let’s pull back the curtain a little bit and hear about what you got coming up. Feel free to promote it where people can find you and I’m interested to know.

Jenn Foster  [23:46]  

Great, yeah. Well, Melanie and I, Melanie Johnson, my business partner and I have been speaking on different stages. We have a few coming up. I think there’s a Have a ‘Tude Warrior conference in Houston coming up here in November. So check that out and haveatudewarriorconference.com and we also have a couple book launches coming up. We have a lot of books, I think, one a week. I think we have a couple spots open in December if you want to get your book done before the end of the year. But we do have one a week… one book launch a week. So look for our book launches. We have really awesome authors coming up. Tomorrow actually we have a great author, Nicole Black, who has a book called ‘Fat Shame’ so that’s going to be really awesome book so check that out next week. I’m just trying to think some of the other books we have a bunch of different books. Jen Devereaux, she has an amazing story. She’s writing her book. it’s going to be out next month and we have a bunch of other offers of authors so just check them out. Check out our…our YouTube channel you can go to Youtube.com Elite Online Publishing 1 and that has all of our book trailers and are we do a podcast as well. So our podcasts is there as well.

Belive.TV  [25:01]  

Why don’t you drop the name of your podcast too because it’s a good one. And they should definitely listen.

Jenn Foster  [25:06]  

Yeah, our podcast is ‘Elite Expert Insider’ and we do one podcast a week so you can check that out.

Mario Fachini  [25:13]  

Very good. Well, we’re going to go to the finalized sponsor and that’s it. So, thanks for joining us and we’ll see you again.

Jenn Foster  [25:25]  

Great we’ll see you guys there.

Expert Authority Checklist  [25:26]  

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Belive.TV  [26:41]  

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