203. Write, Publish, and Market Your Book like a Pro: Tips from Tyler Wagner

00:00:10 This is happiness solved with America's happiness. Coach Sandee Sgarlata.

00:00:21 Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining me today. So happy you're here. I'm Sandee Sgarlata. I was born in Virginia Beach and raised in the Baltimore Annapolis area and had very humble and tragic beginnings. And as a result, my life was a hot mess.

00:00:37 Thankfully, 33 years ago, I got my act together and since that time, I have dedicated my life to serving others and raising awareness that no matter what you've been through, you can choose happiness and live the life of your dreams. Happiness Solved is dedicated to giving you content that is empowering, motivational, inspirational, and of course, a dose of happiness. It's my way to give back to the world and share other people's stories. This thing called life can be challenging and my guests share their amazing stories, wisdom and life lessons that demonstrate anyone can choose happiness. You see, happiness is a choice and the choice is yours.

00:01:17 Today's episode is amazing and I am so grateful for you. Thank you for listening and don't forget to leave a review and follow me on social media at Coach. Sandee Sgarlata. Enjoy the show.

00:01:35 Tyler Wagner I'm so excited to be having this conversation today. How are you? And thank you for being here. Yes, I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.

00:01:43 And, yeah, I'm pumped just as much as you. And before we hit record, we had like the best convo. So sorry to everybody. I know I'll have to remember everything we talked about because we shared some good stuff there and we learned how kind of interconnected we are and we know a lot of the same people, which is so awesome. So before we get into your business, which we're going to talk a lot about because there's so many people out there that want to write a book and we'll have that whole conversation, but what is your backstory?

00:02:13 How did you get into the line of work that you're doing today? Yeah, so it's cool. I actually fell into it. So I was in college, I was in my second year of college in South Carolina, columbia, South Carolina. Oh, you were at USC.

00:02:28 Yeah, USC. Awesome. Yeah. Go, Cox. Go game cox.

00:02:32 Right.

00:02:36 Regardless, I read this book. One of my entrepreneur friends was like, you got to read this book called The Four Hour Work Week. And I'm like, oh, that sounds like a scam. I'm not going to read this book. And the next thing you know, I'm reading it and I keep turning the page and I finish it in like four or five days.

00:02:53 And honestly, before that, the only book I had really ever read was like, half of Harry Potter when I was younger and I had decided that I hated reading. So it was just like, that was the first book that I was like, oh, my God, I actually like to read it's. Just what was put in front of me when I was younger wasn't the material I was seeking, I guess. So. Regardless, though, that book literally changed my brain or something and made me realize that basically two things.

00:03:22 One is college was not going to get me to where I wanted to be. So it was like, why would I pay for something for a degree or diploma when that degree diploma won't even get me what I want? So that kind of clicked. And then the second thing was, entrepreneurship can be risky, but it's actually not as risky as I feel like people make it out to seem in the sense of like, if it's calculated, it's like solving people's problems. Right?

00:03:53 So the four hour work week, what it showed, it's like, okay, here's how you can start a business, here's how you can hire virtual assistants. And the worst thing that could happen is you end back at home with your parents and you start over again. Right? Like, he has a formula in the book where it's like, you run all your decisions through this formula of what's the worst that could happen? And my parents do pretty well.

00:04:16 So in my mind, the movie Billy Madison, if you've ever heard of that movie with Adam Sandler, I was like, oh, well, end back in my parents pool. Whatever. Not that bad. So I was like, I dropped out of college and I was like, I want to be a public speaker. And then I realized that most public speakers were best selling authors.

00:04:36 I decided to write a book called Conference Crushing. It becomes an Amazon bestseller. Next thing you know, hundreds of people are asking me how I wrote it, published and marketed it, and twelve years later, we've done over 3000 books. You've done over 3000 books? Yeah.

00:04:51 Whether being published, ghost written, or marketed, combined, we're a little over 3000 that we've worked with authors on. Wow, that's really incredible. Yeah, and I had no vision of this at all. Like, when I wrote my book, it was 100% to pursue public speaking like we were talking about, and this just took off way quicker because everybody wants to write a book. At least that's what it seems like in my world.

00:05:18 Well, there is I run across so many people that want to write a book and just how do I do it? And I always like, People refer, oh, you need to talk to my friend Sandy. And I'll get on a call with them, and I help them out and this and that. And before we hit record, I was telling you because when I was looking I always prepare for my interviews, usually like 20 minutes before the interview starts. And I'm looking at your website, I'm like, Where the frick was he?

00:05:49 February of 2021, when my second book was released, because we're in the middle of a global pandemic, I had no idea. I mean, I had been on Facebook for years just because not because I was running a business. And I had no idea what to do. I literally did nothing for my book launch. I didn't have a book launch.

00:06:13 My husband videotaped me opening up the book when I got my first copy, which half of my family had already gotten their copy before I got mine. Right? I had to order it on Amazon because I hadn't ordered you get so many free ones from your publisher or whatever, and I hadn't gotten those yet. And so we did the that was my book. That was it.

00:06:35 And I'd never videotaped myself, ever. And it was just hysterical. Still not on YouTube. It was just hysterical because I'm like I've never even videotaped myself. I just had no idea what to do.

00:06:49 So this is such a valuable service because I'm going to let you talk about it because there's a lot of myths about publishing, because people I know, people come to me and they're like, well, should I get a literary agent? And I want to get a publisher. And I'm like, because I don't want to have to do anything. And I'm like, can you talk about that? Because what people don't realize is even if you're picked up by the biggest publisher on the planet, you still have to market your own book.

00:07:15 Yeah. Unless you're JK Rawlings. Right? Yeah. And even her, though.

00:07:20 I mean, it's interesting because I just had one of my mentors on my podcast, and he just launched a book, and it was with one of the top five publishers, and he was actually open about it that he was not happy with it. Right? And he said if he could go back, he would have self published. So what I want to say is that here's how I view it. I think like a decade or so ago, a traditional publisher was way more valuable than they are now.

00:07:48 The only true value I see in traditional publishing now, and there is some big values, actually. One is the distribution into the bookstores and stuff, right? So if you self publish, you can actually get into the stores, but it takes a lot of legwork and groundwork and stuff. Whereas if you're with a traditional publisher like Harper Collins or something, you're in the stores, pretty much, you'll get in there. So there is a benefit, and then I'd say the brand, right?

00:08:17 So if the brand of having, like a Penguin or Harper on the book is important to you, do your thing. And there are some benefits of a network that they have. Other than that, though, the reality is, and I've heard the story over and over again, if you publish with one of them, they're not going to do any marketing for you. Literally. They're like, okay, great.

00:08:39 You signed, and you don't even have full creative control over your book anymore. Like, they actually have the N say normally, and then they're going to take 80, 90% of the royalties and you're doing all the marketing. So to me, doesn't seem like the best deal I've ever heard. I think the other way, and I'll actually speak to Authors Unite, just easier for me to speak about what we do. We work with people wherever they're at.

00:09:05 We'll meet you where you're at, but we can do everything from the writing all the way to continued marketing. So a picture I could paint is if you came to us with a book idea, we could write the book for you, edit it, publish it, market it to a major bestseller list like Wall Street Journal, even New York Times. And then at the end too, we have partners that we'll refer out to that help with PR and reviews. So at the end of this, you could have thousands of reviews and featured in all these outlets. And I'll give you some of these contacts after the show if you'd like.

00:09:39 But it's just incredible. And that's how I've kind of built this, is I saw that the biggest hole in the market was there's a lot of publishers, but they don't do marketing. So Authors Unite was kind of the bridge for that. I was like, okay, if I offer marketing too, and it's good, I think people will either come to me for the whole package or they'll come to me for the marketing part at least, and that's become true. Yeah.

00:10:06 And I was on your website, which is Authorsunite, correct, authorsunite.com. You have so many client success stories and every single one of them are at least one or two, like Wall Street Journal best selling author, USA Today bestselling author. I think it looks like most of these people are all they're on at least one or two of these sites. I mean, that's really incredible. Yeah, you're probably looking at the home page because you've been to our website, you've probably seen some of our retargeting ads.

00:10:48 We've been chasing you on the Internet. But I actually have, like I said, we've done over 3000 books now, and out of those probably over 2000 are marketing. So we've done a lot of best seller campaigns, so we really understand how they work. And what I want to tell people, too, actually, real quick, is that becoming a best seller is just the start. Because I think that's a misconception a lot of times is like, oh, you're a best seller.

00:11:14 That's it. But in reality, once you become a best seller, that's when you would really want to put your foot on the gas and leverage the accolade. Right? And that's when things can really happen. So just so people know, it's not like you become a best seller and then you're on the beach.

00:11:30 That's actually when the work starts, in my opinion. Well, yeah, because I know you have a client testimonial on there that he got asked to paid to speak on stage.

00:11:43 That's what happens. You end up you need to get on the speaking tour. You've got to do there's so much you have to do. Yeah. No, 100% speaking podcasting, featured blogs, even TV nowadays.

00:11:57 I have some clients that been on Good Morning America and stuff, and I think there's this balance, right? So to me, Good Morning America, they do have an audience, but again, it's more about the brand, right? Because you could do, like, Facebook ads and spend way less money than it would take to get up to that level of Good Morning America. And you could be seen by millions of people with online advertising. I think there's a balance of branding and then visibility, and if you can combine them effectively, you could have a book that just takes off.

00:12:32 And we've had some authors that have achieved that, too, where they start out, we get them tens of thousands of sales, let's say 20,000 sales. A couple of years later, it hits, like, the tipping Point that Malcolm Gladwell talks about, and then it's hundreds of thousands, millions of copies sold. And again, these are outliers. Right? But it can happen.

00:12:51 So it has to be a good book, get it in enough hands, and then it can take off on its own. But you need both parts of the equation for that to have a chance. Yeah. I mean, I've heard stories of people, five years after they released their book, they finally became a best selling author. That's the thing, right?

00:13:08 So I love that you said that, because a lot of people will come to me, too. They're like, well, if my book is already out, can I still do a bestseller campaign with you? And I'm like, Dude, we've done books that are over ten years old. You can literally rebirth a book. You can do it.

00:13:25 So it's never too late, I guess, is the story there? Yeah, for sure. So you're running this amazing business, and I always like to ask entrepreneurs a couple of key questions, because I know I have a lot of business owners that listen to my podcast, because we all need a dose of happiness, right? Yeah. So what is it that you do that keeps you grounded?

00:13:51 Because running a business, you're juggling a lot of balls. You got to manage your stress levels. There's all sorts of things. What do you do and what advice can you give to others to help keep you grounded? Keep your head on straight.

00:14:06 You're like. Okay, I got this. Yeah. I think focusing on health as number one. So I actually have a doctor and I don't say this, I'm just saying so you see how much into health I actually am.

00:14:20 I have a doctor that I pay about six figures a year, too, just, like, directly. He's not in insurance outside of oh. Yeah, I've heard about those services. Yeah. So that is really my answer.

00:14:32 Though, because I think that there's like this evolution of an entrepreneur, and what it is, is you do everything yourself, and then you can hit about low seven figures that way, maybe, and then you burn out, and then you realize you have to give up control and focus back on your health to scale further. And that's what I did. So I do IVs every week. I work out every morning. I have a sauna and red light thing in my place here that I rent here.

00:15:03 I'm actually traveling right now. I'm down in South America at the moment. It's really focusing on health first, to make sure my brain and body are working at the highest performance it can. And then work is actually like, second. And I think if you want to get to the high seven eight figures and I'm not at nine figures, so I don't know yet, but at least to the high seven eight, you need to really because this thing just is always rattling.

00:15:32 I think as entrepreneurs, we're always thinking we could always do something, and that's great, but sometimes the thing you should do is go sit in the sauna for 30 minutes and don't do anything. I used to ask. They're really good.

00:15:48 I don't know, you just feel amazing after. So just a routine of health. That's the answer. I love that because I'm still rebuilding my business and really just having a different focus and whatnot and I already picked up on that because I'm such a high performer in everything that I do. And the piece that was really missing in my life was that, well, I was playing tennis.

00:16:24 All my listeners know I'm obsessed with tennis. And I started getting these injuries, and I'm like, I'm a former professional athlete. How am I getting injured? Well, it's like, duh, I'm not going to the gym. I'm not doing any strength training.

00:16:37 And so I've added that into my life. And I tell you what, I worked out with a trainer this morning. It just sets the tone for the day. And I know this, right, but you get complacent. When I was a skater, that was 20 years ago.

00:16:53 So 20 years have passed, and I definitely got complacent. And I was been so focused on work for the past ten years and now the past two and a half years, really focusing on rebuilding my coaching practice. And I wasn't putting that forward. I mean, I'm still very health conscious, but I can really attest the whole exercise portion of it is so key for your mental well being. It is the most important thing you can do.

00:17:24 I agree 100%. And I think too, and going back to this guy had on my show, there's this correlation I've noticed, and maybe you can relate to this. So I'll say this, the word addiction comes off as like, a negative, but I think a lot of times entrepreneurs have an addictive personality. And if you can shift it, though, towards something positive, like your business or health, it becomes a positive. So the cool thing to know is, in health, with the advances that there are today, you can go down a rabbit hole that is endless.

00:17:59 You can sleep in hyperbaric chambers, you can feel really good, and it never ends. So that's one thing. If you want to become healthier, there is always something more you could do. It might be expensive, but it's there. And then marketing for a business, that's the thing I love about marketing, is it's truly limitless.

00:18:20 So the way I see the flow of it is, like, I need to be healthy enough that I could work 12 hours in a day if I needed to, right? And so I'm always kind of putting health first. And I think, just in summary, a lot of entrepreneurs put health actually last, and then that does not end well. No, it doesn't. And I learned 33 years ago when I started on my journey, I learned that you have to put yourself first, period.

00:18:52 And it's not being selfish. It's if I want to be a good mother, wife, daughter, friend, sister, whatever, I have to take care of me. And so if you want to be a successful business owner, if you want to be a successful author, anything that you're doing, you have to put yourself first. Oh, I agree. It's one of the hardest things, especially for, I think, like, extroverts, because a lot of times and I don't know if you're extrovert or introvert, but me, I was always the biggest people pleaser.

00:19:23 So anytime somebody would ask me something, like, in the beginning of my business, and I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but I'm just saying, like it is when you want to scale business. Anything anybody asked me, I'd be like, sure, I'll do it for free. I would do everything for free, because I was just trying to help everybody, and I didn't want to let anyone down. And then what happens, though, at the end of that is you end up letting yourself down. Like, that's literally what happens.

00:19:47 So if you want to be the best version for everybody else, you actually need to ignore them at first and really focus on you, and then you can be the best for them. As a former people pleaser, I understand what you're saying. Yeah, I'm a former people pleaser too. That's hard to say. It's like a riddle.

00:20:11 So the other question that I love to ask is, what is the best advice you've ever been given that you hold on to this day, every single day, to keep you going? Okay, best advice. Okay, can I give, like, two? Okay. And actually I have three, but the first one I'll just skip really quickly, or I'll say it really fast.

00:20:37 So there's this quote. It's like, if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. So that I was at this conference called Mastermind Talks when I was younger, and that was kind of the theme of the event, and Tim Ferriss was actually speaking at it. And it just kind of made me realize I was like, oh, I want to up level my game. I need to start getting out of my comfort zone and hang out with people that are already in the places I want to be.

00:21:02 Right. Kind of a common sense thing, but I think overlooked a lot of times. Well, it's who you surround yourself with. Yeah, exactly. You're the average of the five people you surround yourself.

00:21:12 That's another one that's pretty commonly said, but profound, for sure. The other one that I was going to say, I might forget the third one. But the other one that I wanted to say is that there's a way and this is actually another company that I have, and I learned this from just doing it myself, but kind of watching other companies grow. You can grow a company without any risk. And the way that you do it is just through building relationships and partnerships.

00:21:41 Right. So from watching my mentors grow their companies, I started to realize it really wasn't Facebook ads. It wasn't funnels, it wasn't all this fancy stuff, although that can work. What it was is they were building strategic relationships, and I'll bring it all together. For me, I chose book marketing as my main thing.

00:22:04 So what I did is I literally reached out to every book publisher in the world that speaks English. And I'm not exaggerating. I mean, literally, my company, my assistants and stuff have reached out to every book publisher that has ever existed in this world that speaks English. And we have asked them to hop on a phone call and partner with them. And that's how we've grown our company.

00:22:27 So the piece of advice there is just like, don't overcomplicate it. Literally solve a problem. Find companies that solve a complementary problem, connect with them, and refer to each other at scale. That's all you have to do. It's not hard.

00:22:46 It's actually not hard. It's effort. I want to say that, but the actual how is not complex. The doing, waking up and staying healthy and actually reaching out to however, I think there's tens of thousands of publishers for sure. So we've reached out.

00:23:05 So I just mean the effort is hard, but the how, I feel like can be demystified with that. It's not this magic trick or anything. It's just no. Solve people's problems and partner with people. That's all you got to do.

00:23:19 Love it. That's incredible. So we're almost out of time today. Is there anything else that you'd like to share with the audience before we finish up? And also make sure people know how to get in touch with you?

00:23:33 Well, just based on the theme. So happiness solved, I'd say maybe I'll end it on something with that is that I'd say in my life, from being young and having no money and being older and having some money, I really don't feel like my happiness has increased that much. So what I want to say to people is that it really does matter more about family, friends, and just like for me, traveling relationships, I have come to realize the more I seek money, the less valuable I found it to be, although it's very valuable, and I intend on still increasing it. The things that actually make me the happiest are just literally sitting at the table at my parents house and having my mom cook me a meal, and that is literally $20 for the food. So I don't know.

00:24:26 Hopefully that hits a chord with your audience. Well, what you're saying is that money doesn't buy happiness, period. Yeah, exactly. That's what it boils down to. Yeah.

00:24:37 It can help with things, but it's not the core, though, to be and then, yeah. For me, authors unite if you're interested in books and then my instagram, if you want to connect with me, it's just Tyler B. Wagner is the handle. Awesome. And I will make sure all of that information is in the show notes as well.

00:24:59 Tyler, this has been such a delightful today. First of all, you are such a great person to have a conversation with, and I just really appreciate what you're doing, and I'm sure we'll be working together at some point in the future. Thanks for having me. All right, thank you.

00:25:25 I certainly hope that you enjoyed today's interview. Thank you so much for joining me. And as always, I hope that you and your family are healthy and safe and that your lives are filled with peace, joy, and happiness. Take care, everyone.