One day, you might vaguely recall what it was like to begin growing. But for now, you’re just starting out. However, you’re determined to succeed, aren’t you?

You’ve created a business entity from your book. Well done. Now what?

I assume that you have published a book and that you’ve established a website. The latter is necessary, and I explain how to do it elsewhere.

Once the business is established, legally or through a mental commitment, your first step is attracting fans. Welcome to Entrepreneurship 101. A methodology exists for creating something from nothing.

If you’ve published your book, its purchasers are fans. However, whether you’re traditionally published or self-published, you can’t access them. The publishing system is designed to prevent you from accessing them.

Regardless of how you publish your book, your distributor retains the contact information of your book purchasers. Your fans’ email addresses are a highly valuable business asset, and collecting those addresses independently is an essential business objective.

If you self-publish, you can collect email addresses. Update your book with an additional statement at the end. It should say something like, “For more, visit my website at ….”

That will give you a start. If you’ve published traditionally, try to have your website featured on your author’s page at the publisher, distributor, and any social media sites you’ve already set up.

Your next step is to share quality and relevant content online. If you self-publish, your business typically owns the contents of your book, so you can use it as you like. However, if you published it traditionally, you would likely need to ask for permission to use any of its content due to copyright concerns.

If you have traditionally published, check your contract (or have your lawyer review it) to see if you can legitimately use some or all of its content. Otherwise, discuss the possibility with your literary agent or publisher. If all these efforts fail, your book will serve as inspiration for new content rather than posting some of its words online directly.

Your book is a source of quality and relevant content, whether directly drawn from it or inspired by it. Regardless, new content will emerge, potentially leading to your next book. Even a self-published book can generate fresh insights through fan interactions, possibly resulting in a significant revision or a completely new manuscript.

Pick a topic discussed in your book and generate a website article based on it, whether inspired or copied verbatim. How long should it be? I advocate short, quick 1,000-word articles with four to five sections.

Now that you have a website article, you have a valuable asset for your business. Conclude each section of your article with an accompanying image. This practice signals search engine optimization that your article deserves a higher ranking instead of a lower one.

Next, create a podcast episode based on the article. Begin with a standard introduction that includes a captivating hook, read the article itself, and conclude with a strong ending hook. I also explain how to create a podcast elsewhere.

You’ll also want to create long-form and short-form videos. A single long-form video is highly produced and only a few minutes long for the entire article. Multiple short-form videos, 59 seconds or less in length and based on each section of your article, are meant to be personable and casual.

I will explain how to create both types of videos elsewhere. Similar to article writing, podcasting and video production are straightforward. In fact, you should be prepared to produce many of them, although it can become tedious quickly.

Once the podcast and long-form video are finished, incorporate them into your article. You might say, “Keep Reading … Or Watch/Listen Instead!” With the end-of-section images, your article has now transformed into a multimedia experience that search engine optimization values and rewards.

Now, share the article, podcast, long-form video, and short-form videos on social media platforms. Which platforms? Essentially, all the popular ones.

When you have many fans, you can review your analytics (or survey your fans) to discover which social media platforms they prefer. Until then, maintain a presence on all platforms. Later, you can decide to support certain communities fully.

But don’t get trapped into thinking your success depends on the number of followers you have on one social media site or another. The number of followers is a vanity metric. Your goal is to get email addresses from your audience because that is the business asset that matters.

You can nurture your audience through emails with their voluntary email addresses. The forms these emails take are discussed elsewhere. It is sufficient to say here that two in ten attempt to sell them something, a low-cost item that may originate from another source and a high-cost item from you.

This series of ten or eleven emails is called a community email cycle. I will provide a separate article on this topic elsewhere. However, before you can establish one, you’ll need fans.

Once you reach your goal of having fans, the number is your business decision, and then many things start happening quickly. First, survey your fans to learn which social media sites they prefer, and then drop the others. You don’t want to waste your valuable energy.

Second, start your automated community email cycle. This series of emails, sent over a few weeks, will initially be quite simple. However, as podcast interviews and fan interactions occur, it will evolve further.

Third, you will start developing your product stack based on what you learn about your audience. This may begin with a simple 30-day course that you presell to gauge interest. It could also include paid consultations for fans who want more, faster.

This is not the end of your business endeavor; it is merely the end of the beginning. Later, we’ll discuss hiring. You’ll want a video editor now that you understand how to brand them.

One day, you might vaguely remember your early days. Perhaps keeping a journal could help you capture these cherished moments. For now, though, you’re just getting started.

• Do You Edit Your Videos?
• On Social Media, Where Is the Best Place to Reach Your Fans?

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