There’s nothing more credibility-boosting than publishing a book. It opens a lot of doors. It builds trust with a specific audience. But at the same time, it can also be scary and seem like a lot of work. 

In episode 64 of The Campfire Circle Podcast, Dana Snyder joined me by the campfire. She is the founder of Positive Equation, a sought-after keynote speaker and workshop facilitator, host of the acclaimed global podcast “Missions to Movements”, creator of the Monthly Giving Mastermind, and one of the Top 100 Nonprofit Influencers shaping change in the sector.

Most recently, she took on the challenge of becoming a published author to amplify her thought leadership.

She wrote her book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind: A Framework to Build, Grow & Sustain Subscriptions for Good, in 4 weeks and published it in 4 months. In this episode, she shared the behind-the-scenes of how this book came to life in record time.

Writing and publishing the book is only half the battle; you still have to strategically promote and market it. Because what’s the point of writing a book if your ideal audience doesn’t know it exists? 

Get ready to hear Dana’s story, her writing process, and her book marketing strategy with 5 things she’s doing to promote her book and thought leadership.

“You definitely have a story in you listener, I bet. And it’s really [about] making the time to write it and put it down.” – Dana Snyder

1. Pre-launch book raffle

Amazon does not give you any information about who buys your book. So, Dana created a pre-launch raffle to stay in touch with these readers. 

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It works like this:

Step 1 – Purchase the book

Step 2 – Come back to the site and fill out a short form (First Name, Email Address, Order Confirmation #)

Once these steps are fulfilled, the book buyer will be entered to win three free months of Dana’s Mini-Mastermind, which consists of coaching calls and social media graphics to promote your monthly giving program (worth $750.)

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This is a great way to create a relationship with your readers even before your book is out by opening up an avenue for conversation and providing value.

The important thing about the raffle item is to make sure it’s not just something random. If you don’t have something like Dana’s mini-mastermind or a program to offer, don’t worry! Just make sure you are offering something that is valuable to your audience. 

2. Host an intimate dinner with influencers

During an upcoming speaking gig, Dana and a sponsor are hosting an intimate 20-person dinner to promote her book. She is inviting the speakers and other partners attending the event, so it will be nonprofit influencer central.

There will be a copy of the book, promo material, and a custom-looking rubber duck on everybody’s seat.

I know you’re probably confused about the duck part. Well, Dana shared that there’s a movement called Duck Duck Jeep. A woman in Canada left a rubber duck on someone’s Jeep to brighten their day. Now, Jeep owners all over the world continue the gesture. It’s common to see people with 20 ducks on their dashboards. So, to tie in with the branding and personalize the experience, everyone will also get “ducked”. If you can invite the right people to the table and create a memorable experience, that one event can go a long way to getting your book out there.

3. Sending promotional boxes to “influencers”

There are influential people who can make a difference in promoting your book that you can’t simply get together in a room for a meal. That’s where sending promotional boxes comes in.

Dana is sending her boxes to the 15 nonprofit organizations that are mentioned in the book as well as friends and partners in the nonprofit space to amplify awareness about the book.

Her boxes will contain the book, promo material, a special note, and a rubber duck that matches the receiver’s personality. Those items – especially the ducks! – serve as a light and fun reminder for the receiver to share the book with the nonprofits they work with or meet. 

The key is being strategic about who you’re going to invite to your influencer team, and thinking about who has built trust with the audience you want to connect with. Also, make sure there’s something memorable along with your book so people are reminded to share the information.

4. Partner with other brands

Dana is also doing a partnership with Kendra Scott, the jewelry brand. Kendra Scott has a billion-dollar business with a strong value of philanthropy and female entrepreneurship ingrained into her company, including “Give Back” in-store events to promote charitable living. She’ll be able to do book sales in the store, plus 20% of any sales in the store go back to an organization she selects. 

Dana is doing two of these brand partnership events: 

• in Atlanta, Georgia on September 7th, supporting The Hope Booth, which she is a monthly donor for
• in Sarasota, Florida on September 18th, supporting the organization that started her career, Take Stock in Children

5. Host a summit on the book topic

Dana had already established herself as a go-to voice, an expert, and a guide for organizations that want to build a monthly giving campaign of excited, bought-in monthly supporters.

So, another way she promoted her book on launch week was through her Monthly Giving Summit: A FREE virtual event experience dedicated to helping nonprofits build subscriptions for good.

In this case, Dana’s book is cementing her thought leadership on the subject of monthly giving. It was a perfect opportunity to combine these two events (the book launch and the summit) and she managed to get everything ready so the book launched on September 3rd, just in time for the summit to start on the 5th.

When we chatted, Dana said “If all things go to plan [with the Summit], there’ll be 2,500 people there. There’s already 1,300 registered or so now. And so that’s one audience that I will be talking to about with the book.”

That’s an impressive number of people to reach for an independent author right away! 

So, keep hosting an event or summit in mind as a most effective way to both promote your book and amplify your thought leadership.

However, if you have the book but don’t have the resources or aren’t widely recognized as a go-to voice yet, then you can start by participating in others’ events or summits and build from there.

6. Go beyond the book sales

These strategies Dana shared will help your book get in front of the right fit people, but this doesn’t always mean they will buy it. And that’s not a problem if your goal is to amplify your thought leadership.

On LinkedIn, it’s easy to get distracted by vanity metrics like likes and comments to judge how effective our content is. Similarly, with books, it’s easy to rely on book sales to judge whether a book is successful or not.

However, in both cases, there’s so much more to it than these metrics when it comes to thought leadership.

Dana’s publisher told her:

“Think about a book as the most powerful business card you have.” – Allie Trowbridge – Author, Founder & CEO at Copper Books

A book opens the doors to the other services that an author offers. It’s not necessarily about how many books are sold but how many opportunities it brings.

Let’s take Dana’s case as an example. She said she paid just over $14,000 to publish her book. She is a sought-after keynote speaker and workshop facilitator who asks for $8,500 in speaking gigs. This means that if she gets two speaking gigs through her powerful business card she’ll already have a full return on her investment.

Even if book sales are not high (although I’m sure in Dana’s case, they will be!) the book is still a success because not only did it pay itself back but reinforced Dana’s thought leadership in her field to make other types of opportunities easier. 

Go beyond the book sales numbers when you look at your book and focus on things like the impact it had on people and organizations (reviews and testimonials), the relationships it started, and the trust-based opportunities it brought to you and your organization.

Bonus: Want to learn more about different ways of looking at success of your thought leadership content? Catch up with Episode 40: Measure the Magic: Tracking Resonance Instead of Reach.

Connect with Dana Snyder: 

Website: positiveequation.com

LinkedIn: Dana Snyder

Instagram: @positivequation

Connect with Tania Bhattacharyya:

LinkedIn: Tania Bhattacharyya