Now on Amazon

On Amazon Grow Your BusinessJust published on Amazon – ‘Grow Your Business: a crash course in online marketing' – my new book.

It's a real “paper” book. Not an e-book. One my readers can hold in their hands and even read in the bath if they want to 🙂

Finally I have launched it on Amazon and Kindle and here's a picture of me holding the first print of the proof.

The grey stripe across the title just says it's a proof copy which wasn't for resale. It's live on Amazon now – click here.

Who Is It NOT For?

It won't tell a seasoned blogger anything you don't already know. Although see below for some ideas on how to use it to grow your business too….

Who Is It For?

My book is aimed at the small businesses who don't yet have a website or blog. According to clutch.co, 36% of small businesses don't yet have their own website / blog.

Those of us who already have blogs may find that surprising, but there was once a time when WE had no blog. Imagine how many more traditional, small High Street businesses and services have yet to dip their toe in the online water that we take for granted.

So my book is a whistle stop tour round the why and how small businesses should and can get started. It includes resources and links to help them out-source the ‘nasty bits', that they'll only need to do once – as long as they get it right.

The setup stage is followed by advice on adding content and building a list to stay in contact with their clients.

List Building Story

Experienced bloggers and online marketers know how important list-building is, but many people don't.

For example, even my very intelligent and entrepreneurial son just couldn't understand the point of building a client / prospect list.

So I told him how, a year ago, I had my oven cleaned by a local firm. That firm has been sending me cleaning tips all year (which of course I didn't follow). But when he sent me the reminder that my oven was due for cleaning before Christmas – well, there I was with my credit card. I requested a call back at about 1am (that's when I do things) and he woke me up at 9am with a phone call to book my appointment.

My son can think of better uses for my money – but I can't – and I will have an oven to be proud of on Christmas Day. No – you don't get to see a picture of it uncleaned.

Grow Your Business For Bloggers

Although it won't teach a blogger anything new, you could use it as a sales aid.

My book explains that prospective blog owners will need domains, hosting and an auto-responder. Services that many bloggers and website designers already sell.

You could use the paper-back or Kindle (at a low introductory price in November 2019) to explain to potential clients what services they will need and why. You can then offer to be their ‘expert' who will take away even the minimum steps that the book encourages them to do themselves.

Hopefully your ‘explanation' time will be reduced and you will have a captive audience when they have read my book.

Thanks To Chris Payne And Nick James

This book was one I started about three years ago! It was badly targeted and I guess it just fizzled out because I knew in my heart of hearts it was ‘wrong'.

But being a published author had always been something of a dream, since I won a couple of essay prizes at school. Of course, in those days ‘being a writer' wasn't a career that sensible parents would encourage their day-dreaming daughter to pursue.

So it remained an unfulfilled dream.

Retirement Business

Then, through Nick James, I bought a book creation course with Christoher John Payne, and things started to fall into place. Chris works with coaches and consultants who want to take their business to the next level.

In the course Chris sets out the system that he has used to help many of his clients produce books they can be proud of.

One client and his book that you might be familiar with is Internet Marketer of the Year, Nick James and his book on the right.

At the time of writing you can request a free ($6.95 P&P worldwide) copy of Six Figures a Year in Info Publishing, which Chris helped Nick create and publish.

The Process of Writing The Book

Chris was very patient with me, working with my abandoned book, even though I hadn't followed his process. So he was really getting my failed project back on course after the fact, and must have been tearing his hair out.

Nevertheless we managed to achieve a first draft.

At which point I discovered that just loading my Word document onto Amazon wasn't going to cut it.

So Chris sent me the course book template, which I promptly messed up. Big time.

Fortunately Chris was able to supply the name of a lady who could repair it for me, and she also offered to proofread and index my book. As I was close to tears trying to get the template back into Amazon-ready form, I was more than ready to hand over the responsibility to someone else. I'm finally accepting the benefits of out-sourcing….

Cover Design

I am too embarrassed to show you my first attempts. They were dire.

But I knew the concept I wanted to convey – a target audience of micro-businesses.

So I sent my blundering suggestions to Chris's recommended designer and he worked some magic and delivered the cover below.

Grow Your Business - a crash course in online marketing is published on Amazon

There were misunderstandings and miscommunications on my part which resulted in my printed cover being rejected by Amazon as mis-formatted. But thanks to the arrangement with Chris's recommended designer, these were corrected at no extra cost and finally we were there – almost.

The Photo Saga

I just hate having my photograph taken. It's my idea of torture and I usually close my eyes, put my tongue out or pull a stupid face at just the wrong time. To put this into context, I have paid for two sets of professional photos in the past and only found one out of the fifty paid for that I was prepared to show the world. Sadly that was a few years ago, so I was due for an update.

So when Chris suggested I needed a better photo for the back cover, for the dismay I felt, he might as well have suggested I rewrite the whole book.

I kid you not. Every day for a week I asked each group of people I met to take a headshot (or ten) then selected two or three of the day's attempts to send to Chris. He made kind suggestions as to how to improve them.

Eventually I ran out of groups of people to ask – and of course they all now think they have produced the perfect photo. Oops.

So in desperation I went into the local library, drew a deep breath, and asked the librarian to “Take the author picture for my next book, please“. He was very kind and took several in different locations in the library, but….

Finally I bribed my long-suffering son with an expensive afternoon tea and, juggling my smartphone with two dogs who just wanted their walk, he took another twenty pictures of which two made it to the short-list for Chris and we selected one.

So there I am on the back cover, windswept and exhausted, but made it!

Kindle Formatting

This was another mystery to me and due to more miscommunications with another very patient freelancer, 90% of the links in my book came back unclickable. So that needed to be redone.

All this was being done between a visit from my other son (who lives in Spain) and his 5 and 7 year old children. Not a good time to learn new skills. So at one point I had about 4 different (and incorrect) versions of the Kindle book on my phone.Grow your business

Finally I made it, and the paperback and Kindle versions are now available on Amazon.

Thank-you And A Request

Thanks to Chris and his course I am a published author.

Now I understand the process and have had the learning curve of rescuing this book from its 3-year doldrums in the dust of my hard drive, the next book will be far easier.

If you know any small business that would benefit from taking their business online, please recommend my book on Amazon, Grow Your Business – A crash course in online marketing.