How to Anchor Your Sales Potential with a Solid Book Marketing Strategy - BM414

Susan Friedmann [00:00:30]:
Welcome to Book Marketing Mentors, the weekly podcast where you learn proven strategies, tools, ideas, and tips from the masters. Every week, I introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books.

Today, my special guest is Alyssa Berthiaume. Alyssa is a professional writer, native Vermonter, practicing feminist, recovering middle child, wannabe superhero, and a mom who's pretty sure she's just winging it. She holds an MFA in creative writing and is the lady boss owner of The Right Place, Right Time, her virtual boutique, ghostwriting, and coaching services. Whether she's writing for herself or her clients, Alyssa believes in emotionally compelling, honest, and powerful stories that are told in an authentic voice, come straight from the heart, and celebrate bravery, grit, and hope.

An industry colleague who I truly admire, Alyssa, it's an absolute pleasure to welcome you to the show. This has been a long time coming, and thank you so much for being this week's guest expert and mentor.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:01:50]:
I'm so excited to be talking to you today, Susan.

Susan Friedmann [00:01:54]:
Finally. I could have sworn we'd had you as a guest, and I need to find out how many years we have known each other that you've never been a guest on the show. So we are changing that. Listeners, by the way, Alissa's introduction was just one of those introductions that you're like, it made you laugh. It just came from the heart. There was just so much in that. And if nothing else, listen to that because it was truly an introduction that sets you apart. Alyssa, good for you for doing that.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:02:32]:
Thank you. I like to say that what you see is what you get. That includes by reading my bio. You know exactly the type of person who might show up to a podcast or a call or a networking event. I like to try to be as authentic and consistent no matter where I go and who I'm talking to.

Susan Friedmann [00:02:50]:
I love the idea of winging it as a mom. You know, it's like, yes. How many times do we wing it as being the parent? There wasn't a guidebook. You know?

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:03:01]:
None. None. Absolutely none. I realized that so much more so now as a parent, like thinking about how my parents parented and, you know, my siblings and family dynamics and things like that. And I thought, oh my gosh. God bless parents everywhere because we're all making it up every time with each child. And it's one of the hardest, also most fulfilling, but one of the hardest jobs.

Susan Friedmann [00:03:24]:
It really is. Because, as you said, it doesn't come with that guidebook, which is a great segue into, I know, what you and I were discussing before the show about, you know, what should we really talk about that's slightly different in terms of this whole aspect of writing and marketing your book. And what came up for us was that we've got a book. And however we wrote the book, if we had a coach or we didn't have one, there's this idea of maybe not necessarily knowing exactly what the message in the book is. And it's a foundation because working with my clients, and you too, it's like a foundation that we're building off of, you know, knowing that message, then using it in our marketing and just everything else that goes into our speaking, our training, our coaching, being on a podcast. What if we don't have that foundation? We've got the book, but somehow, we think the message is the whole book. Yeah. Guide us with that.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:04:38]:
It's like floating at sea, and you need an anchor. What do you have available to you to use to create 1? Right? So, I like to get people started in reverse. Have an anchor first before you head out to sea. You're about to work on your book. Figure out who you're trying to talk to, what you want to say, why it is relevant to them, what promise you're making, and what you wanna do with the book in the long run. I see all of those as pieces of the anchor that you then return to again and again and again as you develop the book and eventually have the book so if we reverse engineer this. Right? Now you're in the boat.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:05:14]:
You've got the book. You're out there. You're floating around. And you've got to build an anchor. You've got to look around your boat to see what you've got accessible to you to build now something that's going to help you feel regrounded or rooted in what you're doing, which at this point if the book is published, is marketing and promoting. I would say that, you know, one thing you can do is, number 1, take some time and space away from the book. Because sometimes when we are too close to something, we can't see it clearly anymore. And this is certainly true if we're coming off the writing and development and publication.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:05:48]:
We've looked at this thing now every which way, and we need a break to come back to it and read it fresh. What I would do is take a copy that's your highlighting copy and highlight the inside of the book, the things that stand out to you, that resonate. Then afterward, scan those highlights and look for connections, things that stand out as being similar to each other. There's probably a clue in those highlights of those most powerful moments that speak to the essence of what you're going for. The other tactic would be to ask those earliest readers, whether they were your beta readers before the book was published, your endorsers, or the first handful of people who bought copies that you know of. Right? Get in touch with them. Ask them what they got from your book. And again, if they're saying similar things, listen to what they're saying and take that under advisement to evaluate if there's a nugget of truth there about what the main point is of your message.

Susan Friedmann [00:06:48]:
Yes. Sometimes, other people help us with that, but we become very myopic and can't see the wood for the trees because we know so much about the book, and it's this message that I want to convey and it's that message. But summing it all up into one sentence, which is really the most challenging thing, is to say, This is what my book is about. It helps people with this, or I work with people in this particular area, which is hard. It's hard to do for yourself. So, yes, engaging other people and, as you rightly say, people who've read the book or even, you know, who would interview you. That it's like, okay, what is the basis of your book? And then it's about talking about it. People often feel embarrassed about talking about their book, which seems counterintuitive now that you've got this book.

Susan Friedmann [00:07:46]:
You feel the end is the end, whereas we know perfectly well this is just the beginning.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:07:53]:
Couldn't be more true. I like to think of writing a book like, you know, motherhood. And really, you know, you might send your child off at 18 to go get their first apartment or go off to school or something, right? But you don't stop being a parent just because they're not living under your roof. It's the same thing with having a book. The book might have left the building, and it's out there for others to engage with. But that doesn't mean that the job of rearing it and raising it and nurturing it is over. It still has a lot of life left for you to cultivate and nurture. And so you have to get out there.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:08:26]:
You have to talk about it. And I think that the rub for people is a lot of folks are very uncomfortable with selling and the idea that they're selling something. And for whatever reason, selling comes with this sleazy connotation of forcing something down other people's throats when they don't want it. Right? And I think if we took the approach of this isn't a sale, it's a conversation, even in selling our books and promoting our books. We might come to it differently than feeling shame or embarrassment or overwhelmed in knowing that we have to talk about the thing that we just spent all this time working on?

Susan Friedmann [00:09:09]:
I listen to people's passion. When they talk to me about the book, I want to hear and feel that passion. If that's not there right from the get-go, then if they're not excited about it, it's really hard for me to get excited about it.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:09:28]:
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, you know, charisma, confidence, energy, humor. These are just some things that come to mind that are contagious. Right? And when you put them out there, you draw in people. You draw in their engagement. You draw in their attention. I think, you know, if you're very vanilla or basic about your book being out in the world, it's not going to wow anyone.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:09:52]:
It won't make them want to go and, you know, click on the link and even look at the cover. You are your best spokesperson. So if you're uncomfortable as a spokesperson or uncomfortable with promoting, that is where I would say it's time for some skills development. You did the job of writing and publishing a great book. Awesome. Now, you have to learn new skills to be the spokesperson and the CEO of your book and get it into the hands of people you've written it for because they're not going to come by it naturally. They're relying on you to tell them that it exists and why they need it.

Susan Friedmann [00:10:28]:
Very much so. And any time somebody says to me, Oh, I don't like to sell, and can somebody else do it for me? And some times people have said to me, Will you sell my book? I was like, There's nobody other than you who can really sell that book. Like you said, it's your child. You gave birth to this child, and you want to love that child. So nobody can do that for you.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:10:53]:
Yeah. And it's actually interesting. What just came to mind is you were saying that is I know somebody in, like, the talent recruitment space. She has explained as a part of hiring that, you have to know when you're hiring somebody, you have to know how to do their job when you are the founder of the company so that you know what goes into it. And you're not just blindly handing over the reins without truly understanding the scope of work. When you just said like people coming to you and saying, can somebody else sell my book? Well, how do you train them on how to sell your book if you haven't done it yourself and you don't know how to do it? How can you give over the reins and expect them to know how to position or message your book when you don't have the language yourself to tell them how to do it well? You have to really learn who your book is for and what your book is about if you haven't already. If you haven't done that along the way, now is the time to pause, take a beat and go back to those foundations, go back to those basics, and ask yourself, who am I trying to target here? Why is this book going to matter to them? What am I truly offering my audience? What are the benefits or features of this book that would speak to them? I don't think it's until we, as the authors, have those answers that we can expect anybody else to have them.

Susan Friedmann [00:12:11]:
Yeah. And really know that book inside out, and as you said, and even talk to people about it. If you're not 100% sure about it, then talk to people about it and say, As I'm talking about it, what's resonating with you? Because sometimes getting that clarity from somebody else, maybe you think it's one message, and you talk to somebody else about it, and they'll say, No, no. What's resonating for me is bravery or perseverance, hope versus something much more mundane that you think it might be about.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:12:47]:
And I think that's really tapping into the understanding of the underlying emotional thread of what you're writing and talking about versus the situational elements of what you're talking about. In memoir, we would call that story versus situation. The story is the kind of universal element or the thing about the human experience that your situation or what happened to you in life illustrates. So your story might be about belonging and making a home when you never felt like you had one, right? The situation might be that you were abused as a child or you were homeless as a child, Right? Stories about belonging and situation are those experiences that the author has been through. Well, somebody who might not have ever been homeless could relate to the theme of belonging because we all want to belong on a human level. Does that make your book for everybody? No. You still have to have a target audience. But your story, the emotional pieces is what speaks to the reader.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:13:52]:
And those are the things you talk about, and you try to boil down that one sentence about what your book is about. And in nonfiction even, even if your nonfiction book is a business book, let's say, and you're teaching a framework on, let's say, business success for, you know, executive leaders. What's the pain point? What's the thing they're going to get from having read your book? Is it actually more confidence in what they're doing? Sure. You might be talking about different methods within that framework, but what you're really driving at, right, is trying to boost perhaps their self esteem in what they're doing. So looking at your book through the lens of this is maybe what happens or this is something that I'm teaching versus this is at the heart of what I'm really going for, I think makes a difference as well.

Susan Friedmann [00:14:42]:
You bring up memoir. As you know, we've had a few guests talking about memoir, but even talking about memoir has got to be challenging. I'd never quite thought of it like this before, but you're doing a speaking engagement. You've written a memoir. What aspect are you highlighting there? Are you just telling stories about your life, or is there more to it? Well, I

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:15:10]:
think this actually goes right back to the universal element piece. What's the human element of your story? That's where you start and you build out your talk or your presentation or your keynote, and then you can pull in the situational experiences from your memoir and your life. But what you're offering them is not necessarily the book trailer of all the things that happen in the book. You're offering them the nugget of wisdom that you want them to walk away with. So, for example, my memoir was published in 2020. It's called Dear Universe, I Get It Now, Letters on the Art and Journey of Being Brave and Being Me. It's a book of letters to the universe about life's greatest lessons and how those lessons really were actually trying to put me on the path that I was supposed to follow. And what I would want people to take away from this memoir, ultimately, is you have already been given all of the divine guidance and wisdom that you need to be on your truest path possible if you're willing to open up and look at your past and how it's affected your present.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:16:13]:
When I got asked to speak at an event in Dallas a couple of years ago live, it was actually for business owners in the virtual space. So, virtual assistants and people who were working in virtual business models. And what I decided to focus my talk on was how being brave and being yourself was actually the best gift to your business. That was the thread of my keynote. What I found myself doing was pulling in some of the same stories from my memoir because my memoir was about being brave, and it was about being authentic, and it was about braving your path. In that memoir, it turned out that the more like myself I was, the more true I became, and the more successful I became when I jumped on the entrepreneurial path. And so my message to that audience for that presentation was about being brave and its benefits to business. That was what I wanted them to take away, but I leveraged stories from my memoir to help illustrate that point.

Susan Friedmann [00:17:11]:
People love stories. I mean, this goes back to our childhood. We always wanted to have a story, and even the same story told repeatedly. We didn't get sick of it. We just wanted it again. It just was familiar. So yes, I mean, just memoir or even any nonfiction. I mean, the more you can add stories to it, the more you will endear people to you.

Susan Friedmann [00:17:39]:
And again, as you rightly say, picking out what is that message, what is that emotional element that is universal, that we all feel? As we say, if it's bravery, if it's sadness, if it's happy being, yeah. We just want that. Love. Yes. Talk to us more about this element of the story, too, because that is so key to whatever you're writing, whether it's a memoir, whether it's nonfiction or a business book. Personally, I've always been challenged by the story aspect. You know, I write the 10 tips of how to do this and the 12 ways to do that, but it's adding that story element. Is there a trick? Is there something that you could share that would make it easier for people like myself?

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:18:40]:
I would back into it. If you are a person that's like, oh, I got the, like, the theory and the application, I got all that stuff down. You know, let me tell you about the 10 stages of grief or let me tell you about 10 ways that you should be marketing your book today. What I would actually do is start with what you know. Get those pieces to those people who have those pieces in place, like those frameworks or methods or whatever. Get the stuff that you feel really confident about down on paper first. And then ask yourself, What have I experienced personally or witnessed somebody else experience that might illustrate this piece of what I'm trying to teach and educate on? Susan, what would be one tip that you find yourself repeatedly telling authors that they should be keeping track of when they're marketing?

Susan Friedmann [00:19:29]:
I always go back to your niche. Who is your target audience? Who are the people who really need what you have to offer?

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:19:40]:
Okay. So I would then say, in response to that, tell me about a time that you had a client who didn't have a niche and wouldn't listen to what you had to say. And how did that end up for them?

Susan Friedmann [00:19:54]:
Yeah. They're selling books in onesies and twosies because they're struggling. They think their book is for everyone, but they suddenly find they're not selling books. And they're wondering why that's happening.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:20:08]:
Yeah. What I would then do is I would then say, okay. Let's take that example and let's expand it. Do you remember a conversation you had with them? Do you remember what the title of their book was or what they were writing about? Do you remember something specific they said that has always stood out to you? What we're doing is taking an example that illustrates the tip that you want to share and educate. And we're taking an example. We're now creating a small little story around it that has dialogue, tension, and a few sensory details, And we're allowing your reader to lean in and see how this plays out for this person, right, in this particular way. And then what I would encourage you to do is say, okay. Can you think of 1 or 2 examples of success stories where somebody did listen to your advice, narrowed down their niche, and had much better success than this other person that you just told us about? Right? And then same thing.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:21:03]:
Can you quantify how many copies they sold and in how many weeks? Do you remember what their energy was like? Do you remember something they said to you specifically that stands out? We can start with what we know. We can back into an example that might illustrate that point and then blossom that example into a short, tightly contained story that helps the reader engage with the material and learn through that anecdote without necessarily having to spend a ton of time giving them the whole story arc. But you don't need to say necessarily, We worked for, you know, 8 months, and here's, you know, what happened in the beginning, and here's what happened in the end. It's more like finding the cliff notes version, if you will, of that thing that's going to help you make the point that you're trying to make. And that's really the power of story. And that's why there's a difference between story and situation, right? In this example, right, with your tips and whatnot, if you know that the story you're trying to tell is making writers feel more comfortable and confident in their marketing, then your tips are one piece of that. And then the individual experiences, the situations that help to elevate that point right, is where we then get back to the story. The main point.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:22:19]:
Right? Getting them confident and feeling in control of their marketing.

Susan Friedmann [00:22:23]:
I love the word confident, and you've said that several times, that feeling of confidence. And I think you're right in terms of, you know, reengineering this, looking at it and developing each of those pieces, which was beautiful because I'm like thinking in my mind, Yes, this is how it builds. And with that comes, as you said, that confidence that if you've got the tip and the story that goes with it, that's all part of this building, and it's solid. And you can feel confident about taking this to the marketplace. So I really like that. I don't know if that made any sense.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:23:12]:
I was with you every step of the way.

Susan Friedmann [00:23:14]:
That's good. Later in the afternoon, it gets really interesting what comes out of my mouth.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:23:20]:
That's okay. I feel you. I usually have a 3 o'clock slump when I feel pretty useless and the only thing that's going to help is a nap.

Susan Friedmann [00:23:28]:
Yeah, I love it. It's a great segue into having you tell our listeners how they can find out more about you and potentially work with you. Take it away.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:23:41]:
The best place to come and hang out really is my website because then you'll get one. The first right is write, the first right is w r I t e, and the second one is r I g h t. So thewriteplacerighttime.com. You can even access from there, you can access a "5-Step Writing Guide to Starting and Finishing Your Memoir," which is a nice little cheat sheet really to help you understand the various steps involved in writing a memoir. Although, quite honestly, the steps involved in writing a memoir pair very nicely with really any nonfiction because you're going to go through a lot of the same moves even if the genre is slightly different. Right? Story versus content. Those are 2 things to come over, kind of, and check out and grab. And I guess the only other thing that I would say that I'm really excited about is that I have a new book that's available for preorder and officially published as of March 5th, and that's called Do Not Write a Book Until You Read This 1. And it's a beautiful kind of one-stop shop desk reference for the nonfiction author to pen, publish, and profit from their nonfiction book and do it the right way from the very beginning.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:25:02]:
And you can find that already on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and all the other online retailers.

Susan Friedmann [00:25:07]:
Beautiful. I love that. You're gonna make a sale here.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:25:12]:
Yay. Yay. That's what we wanna hear. Right? That's what we're all trying to do out here in the world.

Susan Friedmann [00:25:16]:
Very much so. And I'll put all that in the show notes. And by the way, congratulations, I did not know about the book. And I love the title. Great title.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:25:26]:
Thank you.

Susan Friedmann [00:25:27]:
As you know, Alisa, we love to leave our listeners with a golden nugget. What's your golden nugget?

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:25:34]:
Well, what's coming to mind right now is that your book won't write or market itself. So going back to my boat analogy from earlier, you are the captain of the ship. The only way the ship moves forward is by you rowing the boat. So whether you're in the earlier stages of writing the book or still developing the book and you're looking to publication or it's already published and you're now having to promote, you have to be at the helm and the book is relying on you to put it out there. You once believed in it enough to get started and to get this far. So keep believing in yourself, keep rowing forward. And when your arms get too tired, look for support.

Susan Friedmann [00:26:17]:
Beautiful. That ties it up nicely with a bow. You started with the boat, and you're ending with the boat.

Alyssa Berthiaume [00:26:24]:
Yes.

Susan Friedmann [00:26:25]:
Oh, Alyssa, this has been wonderful. I wish you every success with the book. That's amazing. As I said, I will put that in the show notes. Thank you for sharing your wisdom. We'll have you back because you have so much wisdom to share. This is just the beginning. As I said, I thought I'd had you on the show many years ago, but I was incorrect.

Susan Friedmann [00:26:48]:
But you have been now. So thank you. And listeners, if your book isn't selling the way you wanted or expected it to, let's you and I jump on a quick call together to brainstorm ways to ramp up those sales because you've invested a whole lot of time, money, and energy, and it's time you got the return you were hoping for.
So go to BrainstormWithSusan.com to schedule your free call. And in the meantime, I hope this powerful interview spots some ideas you can use to sell more books. Until next week, here's wishing you much book and author marketing success.

Download Alyssa's free gift: "5-Step Writing Guide to Starting and Finishing Your Memoir"
Buy a copy of her latest book:  "Do Not Write a Book...Until You Read This One: The Only Guide You Need to Pen, Publish, and Profit from Your Nonfiction Book"