For most of those two years, Patrick devoted one hour a day to book work. For Casserly, it was every Friday-a practice she's kept up even after publication, to work on book promotion.
Most books require a big financial investment, too. Be prepared to spend at least $10,000 for editing and manuscript preparation and another $10,000 or more for marketing and promotion.
Compliance
For financial professionals, regulatory compliance is another important consideration. Do not publish without securing approval from your firm's legal department and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (finra). Patrick, of Integrated Financial, spent the better part of a year and $10 per page to pass muster.
The more general your advice or personal your story, however, the easier the time you're likely to have.
Maintaining Creative Control
Some entrepreneurs take a different route to publishing. Nicholas Newsad, a senior analyst at Health Inventures, a Broomfield, Colo.-based operator of surgical facilities, set up his own publishing company for his book, The Medical Bill Survival Guide: Easy, Effective Strategies for People Experiencing Financial Hardship. Why? To maintain creative control and "underwrite production costs and marketing activities," he says.
Newsad had to set up a legal entity with a tax ID and a business license, but it was worth it. "As the publisher, you are at risk for the costs of the editor, typesetter, cover artist, printing production and marketing," he says. "You have to contact the distributors and submit a proposal to see if they will distribute your book and get it stocked in bookstores and libraries. [But] you are also entitled to a larger percentage of the sales revenue."
Newsad figures his per-book royalties amount to four to ten times those of a traditional author. Because he wanted a substantial quantity of books on hand, he rejected the print-on-demand option and instead "chose to do a large offset print run for less than $1 per book," he says.
Building A Promotion And Marketing Plan
After the book is done and published, publicity is the final push. Newsad hired separate publicity and distribution consultants, which cost him an extra $10,000 to $20,000 in the first year alone, he estimates. Besides launching an online presence that includes Facebook, Twitter and a discussion forum, these experts helped ensure what's called search engine optimization, meaning his Web sites would receive maximum exposure from Internet searches. "I get more than a thousand new visitors each month," says Newsad.
As a result, he and his book have been quoted and/or reviewed by NBC's Today show, the New York Daily News, the Los Angeles Times, the Health Radio Network, SmartMoney.com and many other outlets.
But financial professionals must be extra careful about their promotional messages, especially in the tight confines of Twitter. "You can't exactly put a B-D disclosure in 140 characters or less!" says Andrew Oster, president and CEO of Triton Wealth Advisors, a wholly owned subsidiary of Oster Financial Group, in Edmond, Okla., and co-author of Plan of Action: Strategies to Help You Build and Preserve Wealth, referring to the standard regulatory documentation required of broker-dealers.