- Speaking engagements are a fantastic way
to sell books as an author.
It's also a bonus when you can be paid to speak
and sell books as part of the arrangement.
But a lot of authors think
that they can write a book, step on stage,
and be paid for all of that without really prepping
or having a lot of things in place first.
And that rarely happens.
If you're planning to get speaking engagements
as part of your book marketing or as part
of what happens after your book is out, especially
if you wanna be paid for those talks,
this video is for you.
(upbeat music)
Hey there, I'm Julie the book broad from Book Launchers.
We're your professional self-publishing team helping
you write, publish, and promote a nonfiction book
that grows your brand, builds your business,
and makes you money.
Our super power is caring more about you and your book
than any other company as we support you to succeed.
And the best part, you get to keep all the rights
and royalties and have full control.
So, you're writing a book or maybe your book is written,
and you want to leverage it into speaking engagements.
That's wonderful.
I found that giving talks to be one of the best ways
to connect with new people, spread a message,
and sell books.
If you've never given a talk before,
you really need to be ready for this.
And there's a lot more to it
than just putting some powerpoint slides together
and standing up and delivering your expertise.
So, there's a few things you should have in place
before you begin pursuing speaking engagements.
The first thing is your talk topics.
The cool thing for authors is that if you've done
a really good job of crafting a book
with a juicy hook,
that rhymes, craftin' a book with a juicy hook,
and you've been following what I teach,
you likely have chapters in your book
that would make a good talk.
So you can pull out some of those ideas
and put them on your speaker's one sheet.
You know, something that looks like this.
Or this.
Keep in mind the audience that are likely to hire you,
and if you're expecting to get paid in a keynote type
of scenario where you're gonna transform
the way the audience sees the situation
or you give them a new way to think versus
a workshop scenario where
you're giving tactical, practical tools, tips,
and approaches to solve a problem.
Those are very different talks that
would have very different talk titles.
So you wanna iron that out first.
Number two, the core of your presentation rehearsed
and ready.
I have a confession.
Some of talks I've given have consisted
of me throwing together some powerpoint slides, getting
on stage, and walking the audience through them.
(laughs)
That is what you should not do, especially if you wanna
be paid for your speaking engagements
or you want an engagement to roll into referrals
to other engagements.
I heard Michael Port speak recently.
He's a professional speaker trainer.
And he said you can compare the show "Hamilton"
on Broadway to an improv show.
Tickets to "Hamilton" are $500 to $1,500.
An improv show ticket can be $5 to $40.
Both are very entertaining,
but "Hamilton" is precise, practiced,
and highly professional.
Improv, while those performers
are very practiced in their craft,
what you're getting is not
a precisely practiced entertainment thing (laughs)
that you're doing for a specific, (mumbles)
that's coming out all wrong.
Improv, while those performers are practiced
in their craft, what you're getting
when you go to an improv show is not precisely practiced
for a specific reaction and emotional feeling.
That's why they call it improv.
So do you, as a speaker, wanna be an improv show
or do you wanna be the production of "Hamilton"?
(laughs)
I love that analogy.
So, are you rehearsed and ready
because sometimes opportunities come out of no where
because the speaker they had booked canceled last minute.
Number three, speaker photos.
Like author photos, but is often full body
in action on stage.
Having these for promotional purposes can go a long way
to lookin' like the pro that should be paid.
At the very least, follow the advice in the video I have
on getting a great author photo
to get a professional headshot you can use as a speaker.
Number four, practice time in front of unpaid audiences.
We pitch our clients for speaking engagements,
and all too often, a client who has never spoken
in front of an audience at all expects to be paid
the first time out.
But really, is that reasonable to expect
when you've never spoken before an audience.
Your material is completely untested.
You don't know if you're going to get any emotional reaction
or any action taken as a result.
Stand up comedians are a great example.
You can go to open mic nights all over LA,
and you're likely to see
a well known comedian practicing material
for his or her next show
because they're not gonna test out their material
on a live audience that's paying them
like at the comedy store or for recording
for their Netflix series until they know it's likely
to get laughs.
You need to be sure your talk is going to have an impact
if you want if you're getting paid for it.
So you need to test your stories out and hone your craft
in front of lower steaks audiences
before you're paid to perform.
Number five, a demo reel.
Besides the fact that you need to test your material,
you also need to get a demo reel together
because every major booker is going to ask for it
unless they've seen you speak or you've been referred
by someone they trust completely who saw you speak.
(laughs)
When I started speaking, the majority of my talks
were in front of meet up groups.
These ranged in size from six people to 200 people.
You can use those groups to record your demo reel.
And that size was also great because I could see
the faces, engage in the audience, and even speak
to attendees afterwards so I got a better sense
of what material mattered to them.
Those meet up groups, by the way,
were also incredibly flexible and happy
to help me sell my books.
In many cases, they actually bought my books in advance,
had me sign them, and gave them to the folks
that attended their meet up.
As a speaker, you have to start somewhere
and I recommend you start smaller and work your way up,
and build your material you need to be a highly paid speaker
as you go.
Have you been paid to speak as an author?
Have more to add to this subject or question,
please share in the comments below.
And when you comment the day a video is released,
you'll be entered to win some sweet.
#Noboringbookswag.
Like this oh, so, soft journal.
And if you want more tips,
I have a couple of other great videos
to help you land speaking gigs
and leverage them to sell books.
Like this video right here.
So go ahead that one out if that's your focus
at the moment.
But if you're feelin' pretty solid on that,
this video right here on how to write
a great about the author section is a must watch.
You're gonna need a great bio for your speaker's one sheet
as well as your book page.
So, go ahead, choose a video.
That one or that one, and I'll see you there.
(upbeat music)