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Have you identified your Point B?[/caption]
By Patrick Donnelly
Account Manager for AlphaGraphics St. Louis
I can't wait to go on my honeymoon.
My fiance and I have batted around more honeymoon destinations then I can probably count. First, we wanted a beach with sand and palm trees and pina coladas. Then the wind blew and our thoughts drifted to the romantic moonlit skyline of Paris in June. Soon after that delusion of grandeur entered our heads, reality paid us a firm smack in the face and reminded us that we were not, in fact, (thankfully) born into the Kardashian household nor did we have a tree littering our front yard with hundred dollar bills a la the now famous StubHub ticket tree (by the way, if anyone knows where we can procure one of those trees, we would really appreciate it). Our dream honeymoon, now featuring a very prominent red hand print courtesy of reality now shifted to a more reasonable locale: California.
California is a perfect destination for us. It has everything for us to do and explore: from Disney Land, to world famous wineries, to Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. It is a place neither of us has been before, save for a brief stint I enjoyed in high school during a choir tour. It is a completely new and exciting experience for us; a fitting allegory of what our lives together will undoubtedly entail. For us, California serves as the Point B to our journey which started with a nervous young man with a ring in his pocket and a lovely young lady unknowingly perched upon Point A. The vision of our honeymoon went through many different destinations and locations, many manifestations and forms before finally settling on the right Point B for us.
This story has a purpose. It serves to illustrate the importance of visualizing where you are going: which happens to be Step 1 of the
Take Your Book to Market process. Recall
last week's blog wherein I outlined the
7 Steps to Building your Roadmap:
1. What does my destination look like and what are my goals?
2. Who are my customers?
3. How do I find my customers?
4. What products do I need to grow my business?
5. How much will it cost?
6. When will I do what?
7. What should I be doing differently?
Question 1 is what we are covering today. In the
Take Your Book to Market series, AlphaGraphics goes in depth into each and every one of these points, dedicating an entire chapter to showing the value and importance of these points and outlining a succinct, easy to follow guide that assists Entrepreneur Authors in building the most value into the marketing and promotion of their books and ultimately make it as successful as possible.
Visualizing where you are going is based around the idea, the principle, of establishing a well thought out and insightful "Point B". We have discussed in previous blogs the importance of following a plan and sticking to it. You cannot create a plan unless you know what your destination is, what your Point B is. Without a Point B, your strategy is erratic and aimless, doomed to fail regardless of your content or your message. Again, as I discussed in
Part 1, most small book authors and books fail not because of their content, but because they have no plan. Creating a Point B is the first step on your road to success, and with it your strategy is empowered by a vision that is tangible. Along that same path, having a vision empowers your staff and your support as well. People are naturally drawn to goals and vision, it is in our DNA! We want to succeed and achieve collective success, and having a well thought out and distinguished Point B serves to further that end.
Take Your Book to Market also provides a method to honing and perfecting the short term goals necessary to achieve Point B. In the book, we go into detail on how Point B should inevitably be a destination many months, even years away. For my fiance and I, we did not just up and decide we were going to California and
POOF it was so. We had to set clear goals and objectives along the way: We have to plan our route, secure our convertible for driving like movie stars on the Pacific Coast Highway, buy tickets for Disney Land, scout which wineries in Sonoma and Napa Valley we wanted to imbibe in, and plan where we were going to rest our heads at night! Your strategy is no different. No book survives on its merit alone. If that was the case, there would be no point to writing this blog and no point for the
Take Your Book to Market process to exist! The process details ways in which setting achievable goals and objectives gets you to your Point B, to your California.
I started, and ended,
Part 2 by saying that there was no magic bullet. It is never more evident than when you sit down and start planning for your book's success: if you don't have a plan you will fail. Simple as that. AlphaGraphics is not in the business of simply allowing authors to flounder and fail, because not only does that make for a lousy business model, but more importantly it is our job to shepherd the next generation of great Entrepreneur Authors to their Point B.
Your success as an author and the success of your book hinges on the implementation and execution of a well thought out plan of action and your ability to identify the important hurdles and obstacles standing between you and your Point B. It is the difference between a wildly successful first printing of your book and the
stacks of dusty boxes alluded to in Part 1. The difference between California and a "staycation".
As for me, I've got a date with a pretty lady and a convertible.
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Interested in having a free copy of the
Take Your Book to Market program referenced above?
Click Here or on the book below to request a copy!
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If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, leave them in the space below or send us an email! AlphaGraphics is a Marketing and Printing Solutions company in St. Louis, MO that has provided the St. Louis business community with quality service for 16+ years. Visit us at www.stlprint.com to learn more!