MackCollier.com

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Disagreeing Versus Being Disagreeable Online

A few weeks ago, I found a post on Snarketing 2.0 where Ron focused on a post I wrote, and disagreed with several points I raised.  What I really appreciated about Ron’s post (and comments) was that he focused on the IDEAS he disagreed with, and wasn’t disagreeing with ME. Too often in this space, it seems disagreements stem not because someone disagrees with someone else’s ideas, but rather that they disagree with the person presenting the ideas.

Ike found the post and tweeted the above.  Several people either RTed Ike, or chimed in that the back and forth between Ron and I was a great example of disagreeing in the comments of a blog.  That troubled me a bit, because how Ron and I handled our disagreement in the comments (focused on points vs people) is how EVERYONE should handle disagreements online.

And before anyone thinks I am trying to prop myself up as being the master when it comes to handling disagreements, I have plenty of experience causing and participating in trainwrecks online.

Unfortunately, it seems that too often the disagreements we encounter, at least in the ‘social media circles’ seem to be focused on the people versus the ideas.  And it seems that we have far too much agreeing.  It’s almost like we’ve forgotten how to constructively disagree with each other.  Here’s the basic rules for debate that I try to follow online:

1 – Be respectful to the other person’s opinion and understand that they have a unique perspective that shapes their opinions.

2 – Disgree with the idea, but NOT the person expressing the idea.

3 – When I disagree with someone’s ideas, I try to explain WHY I disagree.  Saying ‘Your idea is wrong’ helps no one.  Learn to say ‘Here’s why I think your idea is wrong..’

4 – Know when to walk away.  I honestly struggle with this one a lot, but when our ideas are challenged, it’s far too easy to dig in and keep charging ahead.  It’s best to know which battles are worth fighting, and when it’s best to wave the ‘agree to disagree’ flag, and move on.

 

But again, I think as a whole, this social media marketing/branding space has far too little disagreement and challenging of ideas.  And the disagreements we do see are often centered on the person versus the ideas.  Folks, we learn via disagreeing.  When someone says ‘I’m not sure I agree with that, Mack, how about this?’, it not only gives me a new perspective to consider, but it challenges me to re-examine my own ideas.  So I benefit from having my ideas challenged, and we all do.  My fear is that a lot of potential disagreements are stifled because the person that disagrees decides not to air their disagreement because its with someone that has a larger following or readership than they do.  I am afraid they believe that the person with the larger following must know what they are talking about, else why would they have more Twitter followers? 😉

Just remember, there’s nothing wrong with disagreeing, just try not to be disagreeable 😉

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#Blogchat Adds a Sponsor Plus Two Special Co-Hosts For July!

I have three BIG announcements for #Blogchat in July!  The first is that Club Med will be the official sponsor for #Blogchat in July!  Club Med offers vacation resorts in several locations around the world!  Club Med is also considered the original all-inclusive resort, and one of the most recognizable brands in the world!

Club Med, Sandpiper Florida

So I know what you’re thinking, ‘So Mack, does this mean Club Med is going to give away a trip to one of its resorts? ;)’

Uh yeah, that’s exactly what it means!  As part of Club Med’s sponsorship of #Blogchat in July, they will give away a 7-night stay at a resort for 4 people!  ONE lucky winner will receive a stay at their choice of two different Club Med resorts:

Sandpiper Bay, Florida – This resort is located in Florida and perfect for families and offers plenty of sports and family-related activities.  It also has the only L’occitane Spa in North America.

Turkoise in the Caribbean –  This resort is for singles and couples and located on the island of Providenciales, in the Caribbean Sea.  It is known for its beautiful beaches and snorkeling.

The winner will be responsible for travel, and can claim the prize for up to one year, or till July 31st, 2013.  In order to be eligible to win the trip, you need to do two things:

1 – Follow Club Med on Twitter

2 – Participate in #Blogchat from 8pm-9pm Central each Sunday in July.

That’s it!  On July 29th shortly after the OPEN MIC #Blogchat ends, we’ll announce the winner!  So please follow @ClubMedOfficial on Twitter and participate in #Blogchat in July, and you’re in the running to win a trip to either Turkoise or Sandpiper Bay!

And now it’s time to cue the cheezy cable informercial guy voice: But wait, there’s MORE!

In July we will have not one but TWO special co-hosts!

The July 1st #Blogchat will kick off Club Med’s sponsorship, but it is also the night we will welcome Alexis Grant as co-host to help us learn how to Get Your Guest Posts Accepted!  This is a topic that y’all have been asking about for a while, and I said I wanted to wait till I found the perfect co-host for us!  Alexis fits the bill, as she is a digital strategist, but also the editor of Brazen Careerist!  Alexis gets pitched constantly from bloggers that want to write guest posts for Brazen Careerist, so she’ll walk us through how to craft the perfect pitch for our guest post submissions, plus how to decide what to write about!

Then on July15th, we welcome back C.C. Chapman as co-host!  Our topic on July 15th will be How to Create Content During Your Family Vacation.  I think this will be a very interesting topic as C.C. does a lot of traveling with his family, and he’ll give us some tips for not only creating content during our vacations, but also how to balance our time between recording our memories, and making those memories!  Of course, C.C. wrote THE book on content creation along with the fantabulous Ann Handley, The Content Rules!

The topics for July 8th and 22nd haven’t been set yet, but I’ll post them on Twitter and #Blogchat’s Facebook page as soon as they are!  I’m so grateful to have Club Med on as sponsor and so excited that Alexis and C.C. can join us PLUS for the topics they’ll be teaching us about!  And very happy that one of you will win a very kickass vacation!

So it looks like we are in for a big July with #Blogchat, and guess what, there’s more big #Blogchat announcements coming soon 😉

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Two Quick Tips For Building Online Engagement Like a Rockstar

One of the great things about writing Think Like a Rockstar is that it’s giving me an even deeper understanding and appreciation of how Rockstars cultivate their fans.  And it’s no coincidence that Rockstars have made excellent use of Social Media to better connect with their fans.  Here’s two quick lessons you can learn from Rockstars if you want to build more engagement around your Social Media Marketing:

1 – Use the tools in the same way that your audience does.  Rockstars like Amanda Palmer do an excellent job of using social media tools to connect with others and share content.  When we see that our favorite Rockstar uses Twitter and Facebook just like we do, it makes it much easier to relate to them, and connect with them.  And for the Rockstar, this can have real benefits…

Amanda Palmer, Kickstarter, Think Like a Rockstar

Understand who your audience is, and how they use/consume/share social content.  Once you understand their behavior, then you can follow their lead, and create the type of content they are looking for, and share/use it in the same ways they are.  Which will make it that much easier for your audience to engage with you.

2 – Don’t be afraid to be real.  Lady Gaga created a bit of a buzz recently because she tweeted a picture of herself without any makeup.  What’s the big deal?  Gaga did this because she knew it would make her fans more comfortable connecting with her, and it would make her seem ‘more real’ to them.  It’s also a sign of letting her guard down for her fans, and that makes it easier for them to trust her.

Lady Gaga, no makeupMost brands have never really understood this, but your biggest fans WANT to go behind the curtain.  They want special access and to see what happens behind the scenes.  It helps them better connect with you.  When Gaga tweets a picture without makeup, she’s saying to her fans ‘See, I have to go through putting makeup on just like you do’.  Again, it’s all about helping fans feel more connected to their favorite Rockstar.  Years ago when he was at Microsoft, Robert Scoble took a videocamera around and interviewed Microsoft employees as they were doing their jobs.  Sure, sometimes their Windows-based PCs crashed, but you know what?  It worked because it helped to humanize Microsoft.  We got to see the real faces of Microsoft’s employees, and in doing so, Microsoft went from being a huge brand that we can’t connect to, to one that has real people working for it, and once we could attach faces and voices to that brand, it was easier to connect with it.

So there’s two quick tips for helping you build engagement around your brand’s (personal or company) social media efforts.  I’ll be sharing many more tips and lessons like this in Think Like a Rockstar.  If you’d like to join the Think Like a Rockstar Book Tour, here’s details.

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Three Blogging Questions You Need to Ask (And Answer!) #Blogchat

Thanks to Natalia for suggesting tonight’s #Blogchat topic, how to create a blogging strategy.  Even though we have covered this topic before, its terribly important to have a strategy guiding your blogging efforts, so it deserves another look.  But, I also know that when you say ‘blogging strategy’ that a lot of people’s eyes glaze over.  So I wanted to take a different approach with the topic tonight and focus on Three Blogging Questions you should ask and answer:

1 – Why Are You Blogging?  It all starts here.  Do you want to blog to grow your business?  Or do you want to blog to share your life as a farmer in Kansas?  Whatever your reason, think about what you want to accomplish via blogging.

2 – Who Are You Trying to Reach?  Building on the first question, think about who you are trying to connect with.  Obviously, if you are blogging for your business, then your answer is ‘your customers’, but think about who these people are and why your blog would interest them.  And if you can’t answer this question yet, it’s not the end of the world, just think about it as you move forward with your blogging.

3 – What Will I Blog About?  Think about what you will post about, and how it will be presented.  Will you blog about your day-to-day life?  Will you blog about industry news?  Also note that as you are figuring out what to blog about, this will help you answer the first two questions, as you’ll have to think about who you are trying to reach, when you decide what to blog about.  So all three questions and your answers are really dependent on each other.

So if you can answer those three blogging questions, you’ll be well on your way to crafting a blogging strategy!  And if you need help, please check out #Blogchat tonight on Twitter, starting at 8pm Central!  If you’ve never joined #Blogchat, here’s what it’s all about.

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Think Like a Rockstar Book Tour Update

I’ve started confirming the first few dates for the Think Like a Rockstar Book Tour and I wanted to give you a heads-up on where I’ll be!

The first confirmed stop (for now) is Social Brand Forum in October!  I’m super pumped about this as I’ll be keynoting along with my friends Ann Handley and DJ Waldow.  It’s being put on by our friend Nick Westergaard in Coralville, Iowa on October the 17th and 18th.  Not only will I be presenting Think Like a Rockstar, but I’ll also be conducting a LIVE #Blogchat as well!  If all that’s not enough, the first 100 who register will also get a copy of Think Like a Rockstar, plus DJ’s new book, Rebel’s Guide to Email Marketing!  This should be a great event and it’s my first time in Iowa, so I’m excited about that as well!

The second confirmed stop will be in Nashville next May, I’ll be speaking to the local AMA chapter.  More details on this event as we get closer to that time.  Also, another event is confirmed for February that I can’t talk about yet.  Trust me, it will be a BIG surprise to all of y’all 😉 You can check here to see all the latest confirmed stops on the book tour.  I’m also talking to a couple of other events and hope to have those confirmed soon as well.

Now if you want your event or company to be a part of the Think Like a Rockstar Book Tour, there’s 3 options available to you (All rates are for speaking in the continental United States only and don’t include travel):

1 – You can book me to present Think Like a Rockstar for $1,000.00.  This is HALF what I normally charge to present Think Like a Rockstar, and this rate is only valid for the remainder of 2012.  Half this fee will be due 60 days before the event, the balance due when I arrive at the event.  So for example if you wanted me to present on Sept 1st, I’d need $500.00 by July 1st, and the remaining $500.00 would be due when I arrive at the event.

2 – You can book me to present Think Like a Rockstar for $500.00 plus pre-ordering 50 copies of Think Like a Rockstar through Amazon.  The $500.00 fee will be due 60 days before the event.  The best part about this option is Amazon won’t charge your credit card for the pre-orders until the book goes on sale (April 2013).  Think Like a Rockstar will be paperback, so the price will likely be $14-16 dollars.  Also note that you can always take the books and resell them to recover most of your cost.

3 –  You can book me to present Think Like a Rockstar if you pre-order 100 copies of Think Like a Rockstar through Amazon.  Again, Amazon won’t charge your credit card for the pre-orders until the book goes on sale next year.  And you can always take the books and resell them to recover almost all of your cost!

I am offering such low rates on presenting Think Like a Rockstar because I want to build as much momentum as possible for the book prior to its launch.  The presentation will be 60-75 minutes including 15-30 mins for Q&A.  We can also add this with other services, for example if you’d like to bring me in to present Think Like a Rockstar PLUS do a Live #Blogchat, I can work out an impossibly affordable deal for that.

Also keep in mind that these slots will likely start filling up as we get closer to August when the book is available for pre-order.  Plus I have a couple of big announcements concerning the book before then that should drive additional interest 😉

BTW if you would rather have me present Think Like a Rockstar after the book has come out, we can totally do that as well.  Think Like a Rockstar will go on sale in April of 2013.  The exact pre-order and on-sale dates should firm up as I finish the manuscript, which is 50% done right now!  Just email me if you want to schedule a date in 2013 after the book has gone on sale.

Also, please note if your company or event is within driving distance of where I am, such as Memphis, Nashville, Birmingham and Huntsville, PLEASE contact me as I will give you a very good deal on having me come in and present Think Like a Rockstar.  So if your local chapter of the Social Media Club or AMA, for example, wants to bring me in, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

I’m so excited about this book and can’t wait to finish it for y’all.  In fact the biggest reason why the manuscript is only 50% done at this point is because I keep re-writing the chapters I’ve finished cause I think of a way to make them better 😉  I hope you’ll enjoy it and I hope I can see YOU when I present Think Like a Rockstar!

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Social Media Isn’t Free and Neither Am I

Amazingly, this story I’m about to tell happens about once a week, and it’s usually coming from a large brand.

A week or so ago I got an email from the director of corp comm for a decent-sized company.  She had read a post I wrote on responding to negative feedback from customers, and that’s what she needed help with.  She told me that her company had been dealing with a customer stemming from an issue in 2008.  Since that time, they claimed the customer had repeatedly complained about their service, the company claimed it had tried to work with the customer, but the customer continued to post negative comments on its Facebook page, etc.  I was even given a word doc with exchanges between the customer and the chain.

The director of corporate communications then ended her email by asking ‘What should we do now?’

I informed the director of corporate communications that I was a Social Media Strategist that gets paid by corporations such as her’s to help them with issues just like this.  I told her my blog was here to provide her with FREE help via the content I provide, and that if she wanted more extensive help, that she would have to PAY for it, and gave her my rate.

She responded by saying she might be interested in working with me in the future, and asked me if I could give her some examples of my work.  I responded with this:

“I’m confused, XXXX.  An hour ago you were willing to have me advise you on how to handle a customer-service matter that’s been an issue for your company for 4 years, for free, but now that I want to charge you for that help, you want to see examples of my work?  I would assume you had already determined that I was qualified to help you with this matter, else why would you have contacted me to begin with?”

Shockingly, our email exchange ended at this point.  Every consultant that’s worked with companies for any amount of time can probably tell stories just like this one.  If it’s a small business or mom-and-pop outfit asking for free advice, I don’t mind quite as much.  But when it’s a major brand that can afford to pay, it’s inexcusable.

Oh and BTW to the brand that contacted me about a customer service issue it’s been dealing with for the last four years, maybe you would have figured out how to fix this problem by now if you weren’t looking for a FREE solution.

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Why Isn’t LinkedIn Proactively Alerting Members to its Security Breach?

I was on Twitter earlier and saw a few tweets from CK, asking some very common sense questions.  Basically, she wanted to know why LinkedIn wasn’t making its users more aware of what happened with the recent security breach that resulted in millions of passwords from LinkedIn members being stolen, and also what LinkedIn was doing to correct the problem.

She’s exactly right.  This morning, LinkedIn finally verified the security breach via a post on its blog.  But if you go to LinkedIn’s site, there’s no mention of the issue (that I can see).  So far there’s been no communication from LinkedIn to its members (LinkedIn has said it’s emailed the affected users to let them know to change their passwords).

But if LinkedIn can address the situation on its blog, why can’t it email its members to let them know what’s happening?  This is Crisis Management 101: When there’s an issue like this, you communicate as soon as possible to those affected (hint: It’s ALL your members, not those with stolen passwords only), and let them know what has happened, and what steps are being taken to address and correct the situation.

Because if you don’t, you are sending a very bad message to your members.  You are telling us that you only send us emails when it’s important, like when you want us to upgrade to a premium account, or update our profile, or connect our email address book to our account.  But when it comes to our security, well that’s not important enough to warrant a ‘personal’ email.  As a result, we are finding out about this mess via the press, instead of via LinkedIn.  See?  In a crisis situation, we WILL find out the rest of the story, you can either tell us yourself in a proactive manner, or we’ll find out from other sources.

Trust is very hard to win, and incredibly easy to lose.  Because of how LinkedIn has handled this situation, they are communicating to me that the site places its own self-interests above mine (all companies do, but don’t make it so obvious!).  And to be fair, I totally get needing to do an internal investigation and understand exactly what the situation is before you comment publicly.  My point is LinkedIn has ALREADY commented, on its blog.  Guess what…not all of its members read its blog.  If the company can email us with self-promotions, why can’t it email us to alert us to a situation that could affect our membership, and our online security.

There’s no reason why they can’t.  And the fact that they are not speaks volumes.

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How and When Do You Find Time For Blogging?

blog managementNext Sunday we will be discussing Blogging Time Management, as suggested by Patrick Phillips.  Patrick noticed that over the past week or so that several people in #Blogchat were talking about how to find time for blogging, when they preferred to write, etc.  So we’ll go with Patrick’s suggestion, and here’s the link to follow him on Twitter.

I wanted to try something different this week.  Typically, 30 mins before #Blogchat starts, I ask everyone to share a link to their blog so we can connect.  But I thought it would be educational (and fun!) if instead we each talked about how we manage our own blogging efforts and writing, and then on Sunday we can share our posts and compare notes.  So that’s what I wanted to do here, and I encourage you to do the same on your own blog!

Now for the past month or so my blogging has taken a bit of a backseat as I’ve been working on writing Think Like a Rockstar.  Currently I’m writing about 1-2 posts a week, where before I wrote 3-4 a week.  I plan on going back to that schedule soon.

So here’s how I manage my blogging.  First, I do most of my writing either late at night, or first thing in the morning.  Ideally, I will write my post the night before, and set it to publish the following morning at 8am.  If I haven’t come up with a post idea by the end of the day, the following morning around 7am or so I will check my Google Reader and scan the blogs and sites I am subscribed to.  If I can’t find any inspiration from reading those blogs and sites, then I go about my day.  One thing I learned the hard way is that if I don’t have anything to say that day, then I DON’T PUBLISH A NEW POST.  It’s far better to go a couple of days without posting and then run a great post, than it is to run three straight mediocre posts.  If I’m not feeling it today, then I won’t blog and we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

Now I typically only focus on blogging from Monday through Thursday.  Occasionally I will post on Friday, and sometimes on Sunday, but almost never on Saturdays.  I follow this pattern because in watching my traffic patterns I’ve learned that the best days for traffic on here are in the middle of the week, Tuesday through Thursday.  So I focus on blogging on those days first.  If I can write a 4th post, it will typically go on Monday, then a 5th post would be on either Sunday or Friday.

So that’s how I manage time for my blog.  Typically, I will invest about an hour for writing a post.  If I can’t come up with a great post after about 60 mins, I move on.  Finding ideas for posts is usually the hardest part for me, after I have the idea, the post pretty much writes itself.

What about you?  When do you spend time writing for your blog?  Every day?  Morning?  Evening?  Weekends?  Please share what works for you on your blog, so we can all share our results this coming Sunday at the next #Blogchat!  And if you do write a post on how you manage your blogging and want to share a link in the comments, feel free!

BTW if you’ve never joined #Blogchat before, here’s what it’s all about!

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Want to Be a Part of the Think Like a Rockstar Book Tour?

Think Like a Rockstar

As soon as I announced that I was writing Think Like a Rockstar, a lot of people began asking me if there would be a book tour.  Of course there will be!  I have been holding off on locking down dates till we got a bit of clarity about the book’s production schedule.  We now know that Think Like a Rockstar – How to Create Social Media and Marketing Strategies That Turn Customers Into Fans will be available for pre-order in August, and will be on-sale in April of 2013.

Now since this whole writing/publishing a book deal is new to me, I’ve begun to learn just how incredibly important it is that your book get as many copies pre-ordered as possible.   Here’s why:

1 – Higher pre-orders signal to book resellers like Amazon and B&N that they need to order more copies.

2 – Higher pre-orders signal to your publisher that they need to do a larger print run.

3 – Pre-orders count when the book ships, which can greatly impact your book’s sales numbers in the first week it’s on-sale.  Which also greatly impacts its chance of making all those bestseller lists!

So, that means I am going to do everything I can to encourage pre-orders of Think Like a Rockstar from August through April!  Which means I am going to do a LOT of speaking.  And I’m going to do everything I can to make it as easy and affordable as possible to bring me to your company or event to present Think Like a Rockstar!

If you want to be a part of the Think Like a Rockstar Book Tour, there’s three options available (All rates are for speaking in the continental United States only and don’t include travel):

1 – You can book me to present Think Like a Rockstar for $1,000.00.  This is HALF what I normally charge to present Think Like a Rockstar, and this rate is only valid for the remainder of 2012.  Half this fee will be due 60 days before the event, the balance due when I arrive at the event.  So for example if you wanted me to present on Aug 1st, I’d need $500.00 by June 1st, and the remaining $500.00 would be due when I arrive at the event.

2 – You can book me to present Think Like a Rockstar for $500.00 plus pre-ordering 50 copies of Think Like a Rockstar through Amazon.  The $500.00 fee will be due 60 days before the event.  The best part about this option is Amazon won’t charge your credit card for the pre-orders until the book goes on sale (April 2013).  Think Like a Rockstar will be paperback, so the price will likely be $14-16 dollars.  Also note that you can always take the books and resell them to recover most of your cost.

3 –  You can book me to present Think Like a Rockstar if you pre-order 100 copies of Think Like a Rockstar through Amazon.  Again, Amazon won’t charge your credit card for the pre-orders until the book goes on sale next year.  And you can always take the books and resell them to recover almost all of your cost!

I am offering such low rates on presenting Think Like a Rockstar because I want to build as much momentum as possible for the book prior to its launch.  The presentation will be 60-75 minutes including 15-30 mins for Q&A.  We can also add this with other services, for example if you’d like to bring me in to present Think Like a Rockstar PLUS do a Live #Blogchat, I can work out an impossibly affordable deal for that.

The bottom line is that I want to make it so affordable for you to bring me in to present Think Like a Rockstar that you can’t say no!  I’ve already confirmed a couple of events in October and February 2013, but can’t announce them yet as the organizers are waiting to make that announcement.

If you have any questions about these options and want to discuss locking down a date, please email me.  Or if you really want to have me present Think Like a Rockstar but none of these options work for you, email me and tell me what your situation is, I’ll try my best to work out a scenario that works for us both!

BONUS: I will do Option #1, presenting Think Like a Rockstar for just $1,000$500 to the FIRST taker(plus travel)! I can only do this for $500 one time, and it’s dependent on you paying the $500 by June 1st.  After June 1st, the offer goes away.  Please email me if you are interested in discussing this or any other option to have me present Think Like a Rockstar at your company, event or organization.

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So You Want to Write a Book? Here’s 10 Things You Need to Know to Get Published

book publishing, writing a book

Note from Mack: This post was written in 2012 while I was writing my book Think Like a Rock Star. The goal of this post was to provide helpful advice for others, especially my many friends in consulting that were curious about the entire process of writing their own book. 

However, I am not in the publishing business, I am not in contact with literary agents, and I really can’t help you secure publication of your book other than what I’ve shared in this post. I work as a digital and content strategist to help companies with their content and digital marketing as well as helping them build programs that better connect my client with their customers. These can include blogger or influencer outreach or brand ambassador programs.  Here’s where you can learn more about what I do and some of the results I’ve achieved for my clients.  Thanks for reading and good luck with your writing! 

1 – Figure out what you want to write about.  This sounds very easy, but it’s not.  You need to figure out what book YOU were meant to write.  The book that no one else could write.  Four years ago I was approached by an editor to write a book on marketing on YouTube.  Remember this was 2008, and there were very few social media books at the time.  I was really excited at the prospect of having my own book for about 5 mins, till I realized that I wasn’t really interested in writing a book about marketing on YouTube.  And I also didn’t want to tour the country speaking on the topic.  I was pitched on a couple of other book ideas over the next couple of years, but I finally decided that Think Like a Rock Star was the only book I wanted to write.

2 – Figure out why your book is unique and fills a market need.  Once you figure out the topic of your book, you’re then going to realize that your book’s already been written several times.  You need to figure out what you bring to the table that hasn’t been discussed before. For me, there’s plenty of books on why companies should connect with brand advocates and evangelists.  The ‘Rockstar’ analogy helped me differentiate Think Like a Rock Star, but even that didn’t make the book completely unique, as there’s been a few other books written on what companies can learn about branding and marketing from the music industry.  I had to go deeper, and when I release the full outline of the book in a few weeks, you’ll see why Think Like a Rock Star is different.  But the point is, you’ll need to figure out what your ‘hook’ is.  What are you going to bring to the table that’s unique, but that will still have value for your readers?

3 – Find 3-5 books that you think are similar to your idea.  For each book, you need to explain what your book offers that the competing title misses.  And try your best to pick newer titles.  If you propose that your book idea will be competing against 5 books that were all written in the mid 1990s, that tells the publisher that your idea is dead, otherwise someone would have written about it in the past 15 years!

4 – You need to create an outline and table of contents for your book.  This is where it starts to get serious, and we find out if you really want to write a book, or if you are just toying with the idea.  This will be a lot of work, but you’ll have to show this to a potential publisher, plus it will make the writing process much easier once you have a gameplan to follow.  It will also be incredibly beneficial to you because it will force you to flesh out your idea into several chapters, which will help you better structure your book’s message.

5 – Write the first 1-3 chapters.  This is another good test to prepare you for the process.  If you can hand a publisher a solid proposal for the book that includes 1-3 solidly-written chapters, you’re making an excellent case for why your book needs to be published.  And writing those chapters will give you a great idea of how long it will take you to write the entire book.  For example, if it takes you 3 months to write the first chapter, that could be a big red flag.

6 – Create a proposal for the book.  Thankfully, you’ve already done a lot of this by simply completing the first 5 steps.  You’ll need to tell publishers who the market is for this book, why YOU are the person to write it, what it’s about, competing titles, etc.  You’ll also need to include the table of contents and any of the chapters you have written.  Also, you’ll need to explain to the publisher how you will market the book.  This is where you want to mention any speaking you will be doing on this topic over the next year, as well as your online profile, your following.

7 – Having a killer idea trumps your online presence every single time.  When I started talking to publishers about writing Think Like a Rock Star, I assumed that my ‘online footprint’ would be a big plus for me.  It wasn’t.  Most of the publishers I and my agent talked to had no idea who I was, in fact most of the rejection letters we got started ‘We think Mark has a great idea, but…’  If your idea is great and publishers think it will sell, that’s far more important than how many Twitter followers you have, so don’t think you need X number of followers/friends before you can talk to a publisher.

8 – Figure out if you need a literary agent, or want to go it alone.  I’ve been talking to publishers about Think Like a Rock Star since 2010.  For the first year, I didn’t have an agent, then I realized that I was spinning my wheels and needed to get one.  There’s only a few publishers whose editors are actively trying to connect with potential writers in this space.  If you can get a suitable deal with one of them, fine.  I could not, and decided to go with an agent.

There’s a couple of obvious differences in going with an agent.  First, you’ll have to pay an agent, typically a cut of any money you get from the book, including your advance, royalties, etc.  The huge immediate benefit is that you get access to several dozen publishers and these are publishers that the agent works with regularly.  The agent can also look over any contract you are offered, and help you with the terms.

9 – If you go with an agent, you will likely get a LOT more rejection letters.  This makes sense, if your proposal is going out to 30 publishers, expect to hear ‘No’ a lot.  For me, while a bit disappointing, this was also a big help.  Because most of the publishers would explain WHY they turned down the book.  Maybe they didn’t think the book covered something that it actually did, or maybe they didn’t understand the actual focus of your book.  As long as they explain WHY they are saying no, that gives you something to work with when you send it off to the next publisher.

10 – Don’t expect to get rich from writing a book.  You’ll likely get an advance of $5,000-$10,000 if a publisher accepts your book.  Remember this is an ADVANCE, which means you’ll have to pay this money back to the publisher.

EDIT: I should have been more clear here, your advance is against the money you will make from royalties on the book.  So if your publisher gives you a $5,000 advance, you have to pay that back first from your royalties.  Which means you won’t get any royalty payments until you’ve covered your $5,000 advance.  If you never sell enough to cover your advance, then you don’t get any royalty payments.  But either way, you keep the $5,000 advance.  Thanks to Andrew and Don for the clarifications.

So in closing, if you are serious about writing a book and getting a publisher’s attention, absolutely kill the first 6 steps.  If you can hand a publisher a well-organized and written proposal detailing what the book is, who will buy it, and with 1-3 well-written chapters, you’re in great shape.

UPDATE: Before you email me asking how you can get your book idea published or leave a comment here asking the same, read this post.  This is the best advice I can give you on how to get a book deal.

NOTHER UPDATE: I continue to get many touching and heartfelt emails from people that have read this post and want to write a book,  typically based on their life.  Let me be perfectly clear: I am not an agent, I am not a publisher.  So I am not the person to be emailing about your book idea because all the help I can give you is in this post.  I’d love to help you more, but I simply cannot.