Could a Book About Your Company be Worth $1.7 Billion? Building
Value Through Publishing
"Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) to purchase Clayton Homes for
$12.50 in cash per share. Deal worth $1.7 Billion."
>From an article in the Knoxville News Sentinel -- a
University of Tennessee professor sent Warren Buffett the
self-published autobiography of James Clayton as a gift. Less
than 14 days after receiving the self-published book, Buffett
contacted CEO Kevin Clayton, (James's son). After only three
conversations, Buffett was expressing his interest in purchasing
Clayton Homes. Another short two weeks later, the deal was in
place.
James Clayton was out of town during some of the talks, and not
wanting Buffett's name to be floated around the company's
open-air headquarters, he suggested a code name for him: "Mr.
Sunshine."
Indeed, he was.
--- The Ultimate Calling Card --- Interested in
creating a way to communicate your legacy, build value and
credibility, stand out from the crowd, and increase your
company's value in the market?
How do you get the word out about your company? How do you let
your clients and investors know that you and your company are
truly experts at what you do? Believe me when I say the correct
answer has nothing to do with traditional sales and marketing
techniques. The real answer? Self-publish a book showing off
your firm's expertise, distribute it for free your core clients
and trade associations, use it as a sales tool in all your
prospecting efforts, and sell it anywhere you can--and in the
process, hopefully, make your company the ones to turn to when
expert information is needed about a topic in your industry.
Your book becomes the ultimate calling card for you and your
sales staff. A self published book cuts through all the clutter
that your clients receive from dozens of companies just like
yours. Cold calls are are a imeless way of creating sales - but
wouldn't they be much more effective if you could have created a
lasting impression of your credibility and value in advance?
Maybe you'd rather keep sending that "full-color" brochure or
cheesy calendar.
Your book is far more than just a marketing expense -- but you
might find it easier to budget it as part of your existing
campaigns. The ultimate cost of producing your book can vary
widely, but it will typically be based on the number of pages in
the book, its trim size and format (for example paperback or
hardcover) and how much assistance you need in publishing a
book.
Most often the cost for publishing a book breaks down into two
categories -- Publishing Services and Printing Services.
Publishing Services are the services involved in creating the
files that go to the printer -- including the design of your
interior and cover, any editing or proofreading, the actual
composition of the pages, and more. Costs are almost always
regardless of page count and depend heavily on the level of
editorial assistance needed and the degree of "retail" marketing
support you want for your book. Most self-publishing companies
include some number of books in their packages.
Printing Services involve the costs you assume when printing
additional copies of your book. These costs are completely based
upon page count and book format (paperback, hardcover, trim
size, and whether or not you have color pages -- most every book
comes with a color cover) -- and they can vary considerably from
publisher to publisher. Printing Services for a typical 150 page
paperback book can cost from approximately $3.98 per unit at one
company to as high as $13.10 at another. Other companies will
charge $12,000 to $30,000 to produce your book traditionally
(meaning you need to purchase thousands of books from them
upfront).
Thousands of successful self-published authors can attest to the
fact that a strong case can be built for deciding to self
publish a book. This argument can be made in your attempt to
build your company credibility in the market (and thereby
increase overall revenues or revenue-per-sale) or if you'd just
like to add a high-return product to your overall marekting
campaign. A good example is a market research firm who learns
everything possible about the purchasing habit at the ultra high
end of the market -- the purchasers inhabit the most wealthy zip
codes, send their children to the ulitimate in private schools,
and spend $50,000-plus on their cars. You would be quite right
in thinking that the ultimate purchasers of a book on how to
successfully conduct focus group for these people and identify
their purchasing habits is a group that is incredibly small.
But, what if your company provided these types of services to
the companies who needed it? Tiffany's, other high end
retailers, and ad agencies that cater to these retail
establishments. The customers who need the information in this
book are willing to spend quite a bit to get to it... The owner
of this research firm self-published a 150 page book that sells
primarily through the Web site -- at $275 per book! Average
sales are less than 250 copies a year -- yet that's around
$70,000 in book sales -- what piece of marketing material do you
have that actually more than pays for itself?
There are of course no guarantees that your book will work (as
with any marketing piece -- but you'll have a great book on your
bookshelf that separates your and your company from the
competition.