Coffee+ Converse With Dina Berhman

How To Leverage A Multi-Author Book In Your Business With Dina Behrman

TRANSCRIPT

TRANSCRIPT AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED [00:00:00] Diane: Hey, Hey, today's guest Dina Behrman is a journalist turned PR strategist and publisher. She helps entrepreneurs become the go-to expert by showcasing their brilliance in bestselling multi-author books. If visibility is on your business goals list listen up. Hey Dina. Welcome to the show. Dina: Thank you so much for having me very excited to be here. Diane: So let's start with a quick intro to you and your Dina: sure. So I'm a PR strategist and publisher. I work with coaches, consultants and experts who are fed up a feeling like the Internet's best kept secret. So I help them to share their story and their expertise in multi author books and in the press. And then I help 'em to leverage that so that they can create a bigger impact and more. Diane: can you clarify what exactly a multi-author book is and why we should consider that strategy? Dina: Yeah. So, a module of the book is a collaborative book where you have a group of experts, each contributing a chapter on a particular theme. So if you think about the chicken soup for the. Style books. It's exactly like that. And they've become really popular over the past few years. And it's something that I started doing. A year ago I had been doing PR before that, and then I joined a certification to learn about self-publishing and to learn about how to create these multi author books. And they're just a. Powerful way for people to be able to share their story and expertise and to get published without having to write the entire book, [00:02:00] the. Diane: in this day and age, more so than ever in the online space in the online world, you are the company that you keep. So how do we vet who we're jumping into a book with? Because it's not like you've done a JV webinar with someone like your name is in print with this person for essentially the rest of. Dina: Yeah. Yeah. So the way that I do it, I have a a program that I sell that when people sign up to it, they become a contributor in the book and they get the training and guidance on how to write their chapter. What to include, how to structure it. And then we have an editor who, who edits all of the chapters. So in that sense, everyone is receiving the training and the guidance to make sure that they're writing a really great chapter, that they're sharing their story in a really impactful way that they're sharing their wisdom. And then we have. You know, people doing the editing and the proofread and the formatting to make sure that it's a really high quality product. And then in terms of who the other co-authors are, each book that I produce has a particular theme. So you are, you are jumping into the project with people who are like-minded and have an expertise in a particular area or they have experience in a particular area so that they can talk about that particular topic. Diane: So, can you tell us some of the, the themes that you've done in the Dina: Yeah. So, the first book that I did was called creating impact and it was change made change makers who have overcome adversity to create a positive impact in the world. And so, it tends to be the people that join the books tend to be quite established in business. Some of them are at the six figure mark, the seven figure, mark. They have a lot of knowledge to share a lot of life experience to share. And so we get people across a whole range of different industries. But they have [00:04:00] kind of. Personal stories to share along the theme of the book and also their sort of knowledge and their wisdom. So the first one was creating impact. I had one called creating success. The last one was creating joy. So that was all about rituals and the practices and the wisdom to create a more joy filled life. And the one that I'm working on right now, which should be coming out towards the end of the year is called entrepreneur secrets and it's entrepreneurs sharing the secrets of their success. So it doesn't matter what industry the person's in, but it's people that can talk about those particular themes and really share. We always look for people that can share their personal story. So their journey. What they've been through that has got them to the point that they are at now in their business. So all the things that they've overcome, the challenges, the adversity, whatever it is and, and what they've done. To get to where they are now, and then being able to talk about what it is that they do now, who do they help? How do they help them? And then also alongside the story part quite a few people that do the multi author book first, and then they go on and do their solo book. And that works really well because. First of all, when you are writing a chapter for a multi-author book, you are doing typically between 2000 to 3000 words. So it's, it's just very doable. It's not overwhelming. they're also sharing their expertise. So they're sharing some of their, their wisdom. Maybe they have like a signature system that they use with their clients. And so they can give an overview of that or they can share their tips or whatever it. Diane: Why do like a multi-author book instead of kind of, if we're talking about our framework anyway, and our story as part of the multi-author book, why would we not just expand that a little and write your own whole book? Dina: Yeah, so we actually have You can get it done in a few hours as opposed to having something that's gonna be like a year long project. It's a good way to experience [00:06:00] the process of being published. And get an idea of how it works and what that's like, you know, go through the writing process and kind of, you know, perfect your writing. So it's a really good starting point if you do want to go on and do your own book and when you do the multi author book, first, it puts you in a really good position. For when you're ready to do your own book, because it helps you to build up that audience. So then you have that audience there. When you do do your solo book, like I say, it gives you that experience of going through the process. You learn about the best ways to promote the book and market, the book and everything like that. So it's a really good starting point. If you do want to go on and do a solo book afterwards. And then just in terms of how it works when you're doing the multi-author book, because it is a co collaborative project, you get to tap into the audiences of all of your co-authors and that's something that you wouldn't get when you're doing your own book. So with the collaborative books you get exposed to the audiences of all the other co-authors So everyone's promoting the book to their own network. So you get to you know, have your business and your expertise. Shared with all the networks of the Other, co-authors and then there's a really lovely kind of extra element, which is that we have lots of collaborations and joint ventures that happen between the co-authors because these become. Your new network and people that you can you know, we have people that do guest expert sessions for each other, or they go into each other's podcasts. So there's that extra element there. So it's really for people who you know, like the idea of being a part of a co-creative project they like the idea of networking and they want to maybe kind of dip their toe into. Writing and be able to become a published author without having to write an entire book. Diane: And how does this work from a money perspective? Because I know like [00:08:00] people's wheels will be turning and thinking like, Hmm, is this a diversified source of income for me, other people are helping me promote it. The all sounds magical. Am I getting rich or for co-authored book? Dina: So what we focus on is helping people to leverage the book, to make additional sales in their business. So rather than obviously, if you were to have your own book and you'd be focusing on. Sales of the book and having like residual income from sales of the book, this is a different model. This is about using the book and really leveraging it so that you make additional sales in your business. So. Focus everything around that. So, the, the program that, that I run, we have trainings in there on how to monetize the book, how to leverage the book, how to use the book to land media coverage. So my background in journalism as a journalist for 10 years when I initially started my business, It was doing PR I worked as a publicist and I also taught PR I did PR coaching and I had PR courses. And so it's really bringing in that element to it and helping the authors to leverage the book to land, you know, major opportunities you know, to get onto podcasts, to get onto their local radio station, TV station, whatever it is. And then leveraging. To make sales in their business. So even right from the start, when they're writing their chapter, writing it in a way that showcases what they do and how they can help people. And then each of the authors, they have their author bio at the end of the chapter. And then, like I say, we are really empowering them to, to use this book as an asset in their business that they can take along to networking events. They can send it to potential clients. They can sell it on their website. You know, there's so many different things they can do with it. And the other thing is once you have the paperback version of the book you know, They can buy [00:10:00] them at wholesale price from Amazon and then sell them on their website if they want to, or wherever they want to sell them and keep the profit. So there's the option there to sort of actually make money from the sales of the of the paperback book, but it really is that focus on how can they use that book and leverage it? Because when I was before. Did the mul books when I was working with clients to, to help them with PR to get featured in the press, it was always about being very strategic with the PR and never just getting featured for the sake of it, but always thinking about how can we do this in a really intentional way, in a really strategic way so that it's actually gonna grow the business. So it's taking that and then applying it to the book as well and thinking, how can I. Very intentional in terms of what I'm sharing in the book. And then how can I be kind of strategic in the ways that I'm leveraging the book and what I'm helping it? You know, the, the opportunities that I'm going, going to get from, from the back of this book the book mentor who I worked with when I was learning about the publishing process, she, when she was part of a multi book, she made $82,000 off of the back of. Book that she was a contributor to M contributor in because she sold, I think it was a $150 program that she sold when the book initially came out and then she upsold some of those people into her $1,000 program. And then she upsold some of those people into her 15 K mastermind. And and it worked really well for her because the people that had read her chapter. You know, they, it creates that emotional connection with those people. It builds the no like, and trust factor. So they feel like they're already, you know, getting to know you before they've even thought about working with you. So then you can kind of put an offer out and it's something where there's new people that are gonna be reading the book, but also it's. [00:12:00] Using the book and sharing it with your existing networks and the people who are already in your world, but maybe you've never spoken to them. They've never spoken to, but they're there, you know, we all have those people that like we are connected to and having something like a piece of media coverage or, or a book, you know, when it's a best selling book and, and there's a lot of bars around it. It, it gives you something very tangible that you can share with your audience and it really engages your audience. And I've, I've had this when I've had articles out. I had a piece out in Forbes a couple of years ago when I shared it with my existing networks. I had so many messages from people that I was already connected to, who I'd never spoken to, who were like, oh my God. Wow. I saw you in Forbes. I wanna find out more about working with you. And it was really interesting because it wasn't necessarily new people that I was getting front of. It was people like maybe like, you know, connections on LinkedIn and. Instagram and things like that. But it engages people. And I think that's the big thing that people don't necessarily realize is that you can really use it to engage your existing networks and create a lot of buzz that way. Diane: There's something to be said for, you know, in the age of technology and online, everything. To be able to put something physical into somebody's hand. We see a lot of gift box companies starting up. And I know a couple of people in, in less online spaces who actually do almost like pre-client gift boxes. So like, if you think about all the stuff that you would put in your funnel, they've turned it physical to deliver it. And so I guess, The book gives you the opportunity to have that kind of top of funnel option, that's a low cost entry point for somebody into your funnel Dina: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, you get to share in a lot more depth in the chapter than you would do in. Kind of a smaller opt in or, or whatever else because it, it, you know, [00:14:00] it's like, It's an opportunity to share like your story and, you know, whichever part of your expertise you want to share and really kind of dive deep into that. So absolutely I think having something physical and also when the, when the physical paperback version comes out there is something about, you know, one of my um, authors from my last book, she's just done a giveaway on Instagram and she's created this bundle of goodies with she's got some like gorgeous photography of the book with some other bits and pieces that she's put into this bundle. And it was a really it's like a really bright color. Book cover. So it looks really great in photos and it's something where like, it's, it's exciting to have like a physical thing that you can use in a giveaway. Or another one of the authors just did an in person event and did a book signing. And so it's something where you can again have like this physical thing and she had all photos from the event and it's something where, you know, you, you have this thing that you can Give to people that they can leave, you know, the event holding this thing in their hands. And I think that is really powerful. And like you say, we're so used to just having everything online. And sometimes things can feel quite disposable because we get a million opt-ins and freebies and whatever. So when you have an actual book, it's like, okay, this is something I'm gonna keep. I'm not just gonna like, delete it. Diane: And I also think people are more likely to finish a book. I saw the. CEO of Instagram, whose name? I can never remember. Doesn't ask me anything. Usually on a Friday and somebody asked about getting verified. And one of the things he said was if there's press about you, if there's a way to validate you, then it makes it much easier for us to verify you. And. . I wonder if being able to say like, Hey, I'm a bestselling author, here's the book. Plus here's the press off the back of the book [00:16:00] would help facilitate that because a lot of people are getting hacked and copied and, cloned at the moment, just as a complete like side benefit. I know it's not like your primary. Hey, get verified on Instagram. Write a book. Dina: yeah, no, absolutely things like that really helped. Definitely. And there's also the kind of SEO that you get. Amazon is such a big kind of search engine in itself. That as soon as you get published on Amazon, when people are searching for your name, that's gonna be one of the top results that come up. And it's a real kind of credibility piece when people are searching for you. And they're like, oh, and I can see this person's book, you know? So there's that side of it as well. But yeah, absolutely. You have to have Particular types of PR coverage, you know, to get that kind of blue tick because it is considered as a as a real it's, it's the credibility thing. And so I think the book part and the PR part are both such kind of credibility, boosters, and ways to position yourself as an expert. Diane: How do you thinking of like, oh, I'm gonna go into, Amazon and I can now see that, like, all these people wrote this book together. How do you decide who gets to go first? Both in the book, but also on the Dina: So we've we've done it a couple of ways in the past. sometimes it depends on. creating a flow in the book. So if one of the chapters is more kind of heavy and, you know, because sometimes with people's stories, they're sharing quite kind of deep things. So we might put one that's heavier and a deeper kind of subject next to a lighter kind of subject and create that kind of flow. So I'll work with my editor and my formatter to kind of work. The order. But aside from that, we'll often do alphabetical order and it's just, whichever way it falls. Diane: I'm always super curious about, oh, that must get to be a really interesting situation. So I love this idea and I like all the background, cuz obviously you see these come out and I always think like, how did these [00:18:00] people get together? Were they all working with the same coach and they decided to do a book together. So to see that kind of behind the scenes is really interesting for me. I know that you have probably only touched on like a sliver of the things that go into writing the book, promoting the book. Leveraging the book, where can the list know, find out more about this and other kind of PR strategies from you? Dina: I have a free Facebook group where I do regular trainings and I'm, you know, posting. And kind of tips and advice around the PR side and the publishing side. So that's called get known PR and publishing secrets for entrepreneurs. Diane: Awesome. Okay. To finish up. I always ask my guests the same two questions first up. What is your number one lifestyle boundary for your business? Dina: My number one, lifestyle boundary, I think having kids, I And I don't always get this perfect, but I like to, when I'm focusing on work, have that as my work time and I'm focused on work. And when I'm focusing on my kids have that as my family time and I'm focusing on my kids because in the past I would kind of try and do both at the same time. And, you know, then you feel like you're not giving enough attention to one area or the other. And so. I think that would be the thing that if I'm taking a day off, then that's my day off. And if I'm working, then I'm fully focused on work. Diane: I bet that can be hard to manage sometimes. Dina: Yeah. I mean, the other thing is obviously being flexible when things come up and yeah. Being able to. rearrange things if need be. But I definitely feel like if I'm with my kids, I wanna be spending that time with them. And I think we're also used to constantly checking our phones, you know, and having emails all hours of the day. So, like I say, I'm not perfect at this, but I try to, you know, check my emails [00:20:00] during the working day when I'm focusing on my work and not outside of. Diane: Yeah. I think people are more accepting of you're not just your job. You're this like entire person who has and whole life going on around you. So finally, what is the worst piece of cookie cutter advice you've been given as an entrepreneur? Dina: The worst piece of advice. When I first started out, I was told to post in Facebook groups and offer free discovery calls and just get people on a call and sell to them. And that was from a coach who had done that in her business, and that had worked for her, but it was not taking into account that someone else may. You know, different circumstances in, in terms of, you know, having children or whatever, or a different personality type or, you know, strengths in different areas. And, and so it, it didn't work for me. Like I gave that a go and I was just like, no, I'm, I'm, I'm not enjoying this. So. That definitely made me realize that, you know, you've got to do business in a way that works for you. You've gotta do the stuff that feels aligned, and it's just not gonna work. If you try doing something that doesn't feel aligned when I'm working with clients and, you know, they're, they're thinking about what they wanna share in terms of their story. And it's great to stretch your comfort zone, even the, even the idea. Pitching to the press or being in a book like that can really stretch your comfort zone, but also there's a fine line between stretching your comfort zone and doing something that is totally out of alignment. So I think you've gotta learn how to stretch your comfort zone and do the stuff that kind of is slightly scary, but, but exciting. And then you've got the stuff that is just totally not aligned at all. And that's the stuff where it's like, you don't have to, you know, for example, air every single. Dirty laundry, because someone online says you have to be authentic or someone [00:22:00] online says you have to be vulnerable. If that doesn't feel aligned, you don't have to do that. And so I think it's understanding that, you get to do stuff in a way that works for you and you, and you get to do it in a way that feels aligned. Diane: and I think understanding like where that advice has come from, like that's advice has come from someone saying to you, this worked for me. Isn't always presented as this worked for me. It's usually presented as this is the Dina: Yeah. Yeah. And you've gotta do it like this and yeah. Diane: And for somebody, like, if I was talking to somebody whose business was PR that's a more advanced strategy. People who are looking for PR and leverage and, and that kind of exposure don't necessarily want a 60 minute free call. And what you are gonna get is a bunch of kind of freebie seekers, who then can't. Step into what you're offering anyway. So I think being able to discern who that advice is coming from and their business versus your business and their life versus your life. So key. So key. Oh, this has been so good. I wanna go on Amazon now and search for multi-author books because I feel like, I can't remember what that thing's called the like, once you're aware of it, now you see it And I feel like that's gonna happen to me. But if people wanna carry on this conversation with you, if they wanna ask you questions, what's the best social media for them to, to slide into DMS or check out your content. Dina: Yeah. If they from request me on Facebook, if they search for Dina Berman, then that's probably the easiest place to find me. And I'm always happy to chat in the DMS and answer questions. Or yeah, Instagram is D Berman as well. So yeah, definitely like reach out, come and say hi. And yeah, I'm happy to. Diane: Roughly what's your cadence for books so that if people are thinking, Ooh, that's like a Q1 goal for me or a Q2 goal for me, they can make a note to come back. Dina: yeah, kind of, roughly every quarter or so, so definitely like reach out. See what the next book's gonna be. Because yeah, you know, if it's, if it's a title that [00:24:00] resonates, then I can let you know what it's gonna be about and chat about. If it's gonna be a fit. Diane: Awesome. I will be sure to link everything in the show notes so people can find you. Thank you so Dina: Thank you so much for having me


If you have dreams of being an author but can’t imagine finding the time or energy to write one or have no idea where to start, a multi-author book is just what you need.

Dina Behrman walks you through how a multi-author book adds credibility and visibility to your business and sets you up to write your solo book later on.

Key Takeaway

A multi-author book allows you access to new audiences through your co-authors so you build your audience with immediate credibility.

We talk about

  • How a multi-author book works
  • The themes of some past books for inspiration
  • Why start with a multi-author book over a solo book
  • The inside scoop on the money from the book
  • Who gets to go first on the cover and in the book
  • Dina’s lifestyle boundary for her business
  • The worst cookie-cutter advice Dina’s been given on her lifestyle business

About Dina

Former journalist-turned-PR strategist & publisher Dina Behrman works with entrepreneurs who want to inspire millions, skyrocket their visibility and attract more soulmate clients. She helps them stop being the internet’s best kept secret, become the ‘go to’ expert and create a much bigger impact in the world by sharing their story and expertise in bestselling multi-author books and in the press. She launched her business following a decade working as a journalist, during which she was published in virtually every national UK newspaper and many magazines. She’s worked as a publicist for a number of 7-figure business owners, and has also helped hundreds of entrepreneurs learn how to do their own PR. As the founder of Inspired World Publishing, she publishes multi-author books featuring business owners with a story to tell and expertise to share. She’s an international bestselling author, and she’s been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Huff Post, The Guardian, BBC radio, amongst others.

Note:

This page may contain affiliate links. I earn a commission or reward on all qualified purchases made when you use these links. 

Disclaimer:

The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this podcast episode and article are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of this article or episode. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this article. Diane Mayor disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this article.