We all know the scene from The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy and her motley bunch of friends finally make it to the Emerald City in the enchanted Land of Oz. They have survived attacks from angry apple trees, a field full of narcotic poppies, and their own bouts of self-doubt. They have made it to the Promised Land, but the little green guy at the door with his shifty eyes and bushy eyebrows bars their way into the place they have fought so hard to get to. But he relents and lets them in because Dorothy has something he wants—the ruby slippers. They’re magical; they’re powerful. They protect people from bad witches, and they hold the key to Dorothy’s success.

Almost everyone in the world wants to write a book. Really. Eighty percent of the population thinks they have something important to say. And you know what? Everyone should be an author, especially if you’re a businessperson. Why? Because a book changes your life. No matter what you do in your business, whether it is taxidermy for turkeys or helping people market themselves on the Internet (both legitimate businesses with books attached to them), you want to be perceived as the expert, and there’s no quicker way of getting that “expert” tag than with a book.

So in other words, your book is your very own pair of ruby slippers. When you get to the door at Oz, and you don’t have a book, then the little guy says, “Why, you’re not allowed in. What business would the wizard have with you?” But when you knock on the door and he pulls back the little peephole and sees you have a book, he says, “Why, that’s a horse of different color. Come on in.” And in that instant you have gained access to the wonderful world of Emerald City, the land of published authors where everyone is rich, skinny, and has great hair—well, at least they have a better life.

With your book—your very own customized ruby slippers—you get to play with all the different colored horses. This is everybody in the publishing world: editors, agents, publishers, and people who are going on radio and television and could talk about your book. With a book, you’re in. You’re now a VIP, and you have all the privileges of a VIP: the networking opportunities, the joint venture and affiliate prospects. You also have access to a variety of smaller wizards: the TV producers, the radio guys, the editors in the top publishing houses. And sometimes you even get to see the Grand Wizard herself, Oprah!

I know all of this because I am a published author. I’ve made it into the inner sanctuary of the Grand Wizard, and I’ve promoted authors for thirty years. I’ve done all the things that I talk about—hundreds of radio shows, dozens of TV shows, write-ups in the New York Times, and a front page appearance on the Wall Street Journal. The company I founded more than thirty years ago, Planned TV Arts, helps writers of all shapes and colors publicize their books. I’ve seen it a thousand times; publishing can change your life. And as an Entrepreneurial Author, it is one of the essential items on your “to do” list that needs to be checked off sooner than later—because as an Entrepreneurial Author making your way through the minefield of marketing, you want something that makes you stand out from the rest of the folks out there who do what you do or make what you make.

Publishing as a Strategy

Entrepreneurial Authors are aggressive in their marketing because they find as many opportunities as they can to get their message out loud and clear to the world. What better medium to do this with than a book? A book presents many different marketing opportunities because of one significant difference. You get on radio shows and even TV shows—arenas that you don’t have to pay for, by the way—because you’re not talking about you; you’re talking about your book.

Books give you credibility. Think about it. When you see celebrities on a talk show, they’re there because they’re promoting their latest movie. Authors do the same thing. It’s always a much tougher sell to promote yourself. Your book is you once removed, and so it makes you more user-friendly.

Also, being an Entrepreneurial Author is about using your imagination to develop marketing strategies that will capture your target market. With the advent of Amazon, you don’t even need to be in the major bookstore chains to get your book out there. I know hundreds of authors who made it to the top of Amazon and their book never once graced the aisles of Barnes and Noble. And if you are marketing your book well, you can reach your niche public much more efficiently with a book than through any other medium.

And of course, the hallmark of any Entrepreneurial Author is to use your imagination; for books, especially small, “how-to” type books, are the best kind of business card you can pass out. You give them out to people just like you do a business card, and it gives your new contact a much better picture of who you are. This helps you to build a relationship with them—another hallmark Entrepreneurial Author principle—even before you sit down with them face-to-face, because they have read all about you.

Where Your Book Comes From

Now, don’t start thinking, I’m not a writer, how could I ever publish a book? This is the great part. You don’t have to be a writer. If you reread what I’ve said up to this point, I’ve been saying published author, not published writer. You hire someone to write your book for you. Ghostwriters and editors—good ones—are worth their weight in gold because they take your story and they make it sound good. I’m not actually even the writer of this piece, but I am the author. These are my ideas that are being presented.

To put a book together, all you need to do is gather up your content in some way. Have a friend interview you. If you know anything about Internet marketing, you record a teleseminar, or a series of them; have someone transcribe what you said; and then you either edit it into book form or pay a good editor to do it. Just know you are the expert at what you do. Tell someone about it, and then put what you said into a book. Yes, it will take time, not a small amount of energy, and definitely a lot of push to get it done. That’s the nature of putting a book together, and it’s part of being an Entrepreneurial Author.

The Entrepreneurial Publisher™

David Hancock founded Morgan James as a way to help authors leverage the power of their books to promote themselves and their businesses. It was created by an Entrepreneurial Author for Entrepreneurial Authors. From a publishing standpoint, he took the best of the traditional publishing world and combined it with all the best of the self-publishing world and made it into the best way to publish your book, with The Entrepreneurial Publisher™.

Getting a book published can be daunting. It requires work to get the book done and on the shelves of bookstores everywhere. But it’s as necessary for your business as breathing, because no other marketing technique can catapult you to the big time more than having a book. So get to work. You too can have your very own pair of ruby slippers. See you in Oz! Submit your proposal now, here.

Rick Frishman
Publisher
Morgan James