Unlocking the ROI for Non-Fiction Authors | 591

Leveraging Thought Leadership

In today's episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, our host Peter Winick is joined by Bill Sherman, co-host and COO of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Dr. AJ Marsden, an organizational psychologist and statistician, Josh Bernoff, author of Build a Better Business Book, Marissa Eigenbrood, President of Smith Publicity, Inc., Alison Schwartz, COO of Gotham Ghostwriters, and Naren Aryal of Amplify Publishing Group.

They discuss the findings of their recent research into the Return on Investment of publishing a business book.

In today's presentation we will have a first look at the data that was gathered from hundreds of authors about their experiences getting published, the expenses incurred, and the results the book had on their business. These authors were reached through not only the friends and colleagues at Thought Leadership Leverage but those from many supporting sponsors such as Greenleaf Book Group, Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches, Page Two Books, and Zilker Media to name a few. Before the research could even begin we had to ask the questions "What is ROI? How can you measure it? How much does an author spend? What is the effect of different publishing models? And what type of returns do authors see? In answering these questions we explore what the data tells us about the three different publishing models (Traditional, Hybrid, and Self Publishing), the role RP and Ghostwriters can play in the success of each. We also investigate the hard and soft costs involved in writing a book and what the returns could look like. While many expect the sales of the book to account for much of their profit, we learn how using the book as a key part of a platform and gateway to other parts of the business is where real impact can be found. More questions will be asked and answered in the white paper that will be released in September as we continue to pour over the data. To get a copy of the paper when it's released e-mail [e-mail]