235 Arlene Gale: Words of Profit

Arlene Gale is a bestselling and award-winning author who helps executives and entrepreneurs write books to build their businesses, and nonfiction and fiction writers build businesses around their books. CEO of BookWritingBusiness.com, Arlene also has an eighth bestselling book out right now called Book Business Blueprint: Build Credibility, Stand Out from the Competition, and Skyrocket Sales by Writing Your Book.

Melinda Wittstock:         Arlene, welcome to Wings.

Arlene Gale:                      Thank you, Melinda, for having me here.

Melinda Wittstock:         I’m so excited to get into your personal story. What makes an author decide that they want to help other people write their own books?

Arlene Gale:                      Wow. Okay. Well, for me personally, I’ve been writing since I was about eight years old. I’ve been writing fiction and non-fiction, and I kept journals. Then I continued to write all of my life. When I got into the professional world I wrote for other people. So written hundreds of books and thousands of magazine articles, and radio and television programming and advertising. I just have a passion for writing.

But after about 25 years of writing for everybody else and watching them bring in millions of dollars to build their business, but then also watching them share their message with the world, with a larger audience, I had been thinking for years that I wanted to tell my story. I finally did get around to writing my first book about three and a half, four years ago now. It’s called Face Forward Move Forward, and the subtitle is, The Journey to Discard a Painful Past and Determine a New Legacy of Peace and Possibilities.

That story is about me growing up in a family where there were multiple generations of abusive alcoholics in the family on one side.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, gosh.

Arlene Gale:                      Yes. Then religion and culture used against the women on the other side of the family. I knew writing this book would come at great cost, but I prayed that it would make a difference in people’s lives. What I wanted to do when I wrote this story was to reach children who had been raised in abusive environments to help them understand that they’re not alone, and it wasn’t their fault.

Then also potentially even impact the abusers. To let them see and hear the damage that they’re doing to their children. Because a lot of abusers think, oh, my kids don’t know. They don’t see us. They don’t hear us. You know what? Children see and hear a whole lot more than you as an adult might think. For me, I was not a very smart child evidently because I was the one that kept trying to get in to keep my father from hitting my mother or hitting my sister. So I ended up taking that on a lot directly.

So I wanted to tell that story because it meant so much to me. I came to a journey of discovery of, why did I survive? Why did I … and realized that why is the wrong question. My question really should be, what if? What if I survived all of these things for a reason? After processing that I knew that communicating my story in this book was the reason to reach more people.

I got this book out Face Forward Move Forward, and it won lots of national and international awards. Number one new release in four genre categories. Number one best seller in those categories for a year. I started doing speaking and grew my business that way. Then I had people come to me and say, “Hey, will you help me write my book?” I’ve been doing business communication through the written word, and combining that with marketing for 25 years. And it never occurred to me to take this out on my own. Take my own show on the road kind of thing, but I did. That’s how the book writing business coach was born.

I help people write their personal story to help either build a coaching career or a speaking career. Or whatever they want to use that story to do on a personal level. But also helping people write their professional story. What makes them the go-to expert in their business? What sets them apart from their competition? In my eighth book that just came out a couple of weeks ago is the Book Business Blueprint. It’s how to build credibility, stand out from the competition, and skyrocket sales by writing your book.

So that’s my passion is helping people write a personal or professional story that helps them grow their business and expand their reach. Whether it’s statewide, nationally, or throughout the world, to get their message out there. Because all of us have powerful stories to tell. It’s just a matter of telling it in such a way that we can make a positive impact on the world, and that’s what I love to do.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, wow. I mean there’s so many questions that I have for you. But before I get into any of that, I mean my goodness, thank you. Thank you so much for having the courage to share your story with the world. And use I guess instead of what happened to you, perhaps reframing it as you have, what’s happened for you so you can help so many other people. I just want to say thank you.

Arlene Gale:                      Well, thank you for that. I appreciate it. For me, it was a mission. There was a lot of healing and self-reflection and positive stuff that came out of that. Because the second half of that Face Forward Move Forward book, it’s all about the tools that I used for reframing negative self-talk. Drama killing things tools.

It’s funny because I grew up in a house full of drama, and I swore I hated drama. I’d never be involved in drama as an adult. Then I realized, oh, the only drama in my household is what I’m creating. So how do I stop that? But-

Melinda Wittstock:         Isn’t that so interesting where we have something traumatic happen in childhood … It could be anything, and we say, “Okay, I’m going to be different. This is never going to happen to me.” Then fast forward 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years even, and by gosh we’ve created exactly the same thing. It’s curious to me how that happens? Whether it’s just because the universe presents us with an opportunity to heal it when it shows up in our lives when we’re ready? When we’re capable of being able to look at it?

Arlene Gale:                      Well, I think for me, one of the big light bulb moments for me to use a cliché that we tell writers to do. But that light bulb moment for me was growing up and saying, “I don’t want to be angry. I don’t want to be this. I don’t want to be that.” Well, when we’re focused on something our head, our eyes are looking at that.

So if we’re looking at the things we don’t want to be and if that comes from our past, what happens naturally is our head goes in that direction, because we’re focused on then. Then eventually physics takes our whole torso and our feet, and our whole body is now turned and focused and moving towards the things we don’t want. We make those things self-fulfilling prophecies. Quite frankly, it’s easier to do that because those are now habits.

What I discovered is instead of saying, “I don’t want to be angry. I don’t want to be this. I don’t want to be that.” It’s like, “What do I want instead?” So instead of anger, I want to be hope-filled, okay. So what is it in my life that gives me hope? I want to be peace-filled. How do I act or respond to the world when there’s not a lot of hope sometimes or not a lot of peace, how do I respond that makes it true to that response? True to me as a hope-filled and a peace-filled woman. And that’s what I need to focus on instead because that’s the light. Moving into the light and our past does not have to define our future unless we choose to allow it to do so.

So I would encourage people instead of saying whenever you say, “I don’t want,” just bite your tongue and think, what do you want instead? And then that’s what needs to start coming out of your mouth. I want to be … I want to have … And then that’s where we focus and that’s where we move and that’s what we do.

Melinda Wittstock:         I learned this on my own journey recovering from a lot of painful things in my childhood, including an alcoholic father. And it’s so interesting, when I finally learned to do exactly as you’re saying. And my vernacular for it was just flip it, right. Like whatever it is you don’t want, focus on what you do want. And then I add a twist to it. I now imagine it is as if it’s already happened. I have this already and really feeling that with gratitude. Because our brains and neuroscience now proves this, our brains don’t know the different between the positive and the negative.

Arlene Gale:                      Right.

Melinda Wittstock:         So being able to do that and take power over our own lives and get out of victimhood and … I can see how you did that with the book.

So for years, there you are, Arlene, you’re writing for everybody else. Like you’re ghostwriting, you’re prolific, you love to write. You’re making lots of people, lots of money. And what was that moment, though, when you said, “Okay, now’s the time to tell this deeply, vulnerable, and very personal story.”

Arlene Gale:                      Well, I think, I had wanted to do it for years. To write my story. But I had the same fears and blocks and things that I hear other people say now. Even though I did this professionally, I still thought, well, I don’t have the skills. I don’t have the time. I’m afraid to do this. I don’t know how to do that. What about publishing? How long will it take?

And so I had all of those fears … All those things that people say now to me that hold them back and keep them from writing their book, I was right there. I was in that same neighborhood with them. And it just finally got to the point where I had to make it a priority.

And for me, personally, I became a mother and I realized that I would really rather be dead than repeat this legacy. And these children that I was blessed with deserved better from me than I thought I deserved for myself. And so there was a while there where I lived a better me for my children until I got strong enough and healthy enough to be able to live a better me because it was the right thing to do for me.

And realizing that being happy, it really is a whole lot easier than being angry. Seeing myself through my children’s eyes was very, very powerful. Until I got healthy enough that I could see myself through my eyes. And that sense of power and that sense of control and love … Receiving when I didn’t think I was worthy of it because that’s what I’ve been told all of my life, was so powerful I thought, how dare I not share this with the world?

If it can impact one person, a handful of people and I can tell from emails and cards and other things I get, it’s impacted more people than I ever imagined possible. But if I could tell my story in a way that could change one life, could make one little girl look in the mirror and see herself as valuable that it doesn’t matter what other people … It doesn’t matter what other label’s put on you, you get to decide what labels you wear.

And I’m not talking Vanderbilt or Gucci or you know, I’m talking worthy, lovable, peace, beautiful, talented. You get to label yourself. And when I discovered that truth, it was all I … I mean, I just couldn’t contain myself to get it on paper and get it out so that maybe it might be able to make a positive difference in somebody’s life. In the world somewhere.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, gosh. I love this so much, what you’re doing and how you have focused on this.

And so how do we stop right there and say, “Okay, you know what? I’m not going to be a victim. I’m going to take responsibility for this.” And the most radical thing for me was that moment where I said, “What was it about me that needed what I brought into my life, I guess from childhood?”

The need could be something as simple as just familiarity, right. It’s just something we know. And so without being conscious of it, we’re going to be destined to repeating it.

You know what I find so exciting right now is how many women, just with the Me Too movement and everything we’ve seen around the Supreme Court, really feeling emboldened to just share and tell our stories. Because as we do, we realize we’re not alone, we’re not isolated, everyone has some version of this. Everybody is trying to heal. The more that we talk and the more that we share, the more that we write books about it and talk about it on podcasts or whatever it is, the more people we help.

And it shifts, I think, exponentially. And so it’s a really interesting time, I think.

Arlene Gale:                      It is. It is.

Well, and you know, for me an exercise that I would offer to your listeners, is, I have a Masters degree in Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations. And we did an exercise one day in one of my upper level classes to design a billboard for our lives.

And so billboards, to be powerful, they have to have five to seven words. Much more than that, and you can’t read them when you’re driving down the lane, the highway at 70, 75, 80 miles an hour. So what can you write on a billboard for your life that will keep you on your path and not derail you when life goes crazy? Or people get crazy in your life?

So for me, that exercise was very powerful because for me, it all came back to legacy. So the billboard for my life is that I’m living a legacy of love, laughter, and learning.

So what kind of legacy or what kind of billboard, what kind of words have power in your life that you can cement in your brain, even if it means you put it on a hundred sticky notes on every light switch, every doorknob, every everything. In your house, in your car, and fine tune it as the spirit moves you, as your heart says, oh, I like this word versus this word. What kind of seven words can you create as a positive motivator, a billboard for your life?

Because for me, those seven words, living a legacy of love, laughter, and learning, that’s all I need to focus on when time get … When things get crazy or things are bad or I’m sad or I’m depressed or somebody says something mean, it doesn’t matter because that’s not my legacy. That’s not … What somebody else says or does to me is not about me. It’s about them.

Melinda Wittstock:         Mm-hmm (affirmative). Right. I love that. A billboard for your life. I mean, it’s almost like a … It’s sort of a vision board meets your, yes, your legacy.

At an entrepreneur group not so long ago, we were given a challenge to write, come up with seven words that we would literally want on our tombstone.

Arlene Gale:                      Oh, wow.

Melinda Wittstock:         Right, and that … Wow. It kind of concentrates the mind. Because you think of how many people get to the end of their lives and they say, “Oh, God, I wish I’d had another meeting.” I wish [inaudible 00:28:16].

Arlene Gale:                      That’s what I tell people when they go to write their book. When they say, “Well, I don’t have time for this. I don’t have time … I don’t have time to write my book. I don’t have time for one more thing.” And then they sit down and they figure out that they’re spending four hours a day or two hours a day on social media.

And I tell them, “Nobody laid on their hospital bed on the verge of death wishing they spent more time on Facebook. I’m sorry, but it’s just true.”

So you got to figure out what you’re priorities are and what you … We all get the same 24/7. See, now you got me on my soapbox.

And you know people who have … Look like they always have it all going on. They got it all together, they’re organized, they seem to get so much done. We’re capable of that too. Each one of us gets the same 24/7 and we’re each capable of living life to it’s fullest. The different is, is we got to prioritize what’s important for us to get done. Whether we’re talking personal, professional, spiritual. I would highly recommend sitting down and figuring out what are the priorities in your life and then everything else you do should fit under those buckets. Or in those buckets.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, yes, this is so true. Well, I mean, what an interesting segue into writer’s block, or rather procrastination. I mean, the many people, and you can put me in this bucket as well, who have been planning on writing the book but haven’t actually written it.

And so for someone who … Because we all have stories to tell. Right, so what do you think … I mean, there’s a couple questions in this kind of sequence that I want to ask you.

What do you think it is that stops people from just jumping in and getting it done? Because at any given time, I can just say right, that’s it. I could apply all the same things that I applied in my business life and just get it done.

So what holds us back?

Arlene Gale:                      Well, I think some of it is … Well, some of it’s fear. Because it’s not something that many … That people have done before. So there’s a little bit fear and trepidation about starting at that process. There are people who have started and stopped and started and stopped. And so again that … It’s discouraging. It’s stressful. And I get all of that.

But what I would say is, again, instead of focusing on the negative, what I would say is it becomes easy to write when you have the right support system, you have the right accountability partner. And that’s kind of what I do.

But when you’re organ … Think about anything in your life. When you’re organized and you have a plan and you take a big picture, like writing a book, and you break it down and your organize it and you create bite size pieces. Little step by step goals. I ask my kids, how do you eat an elephant? Right, one bite at a time. And that’s how you write a book, too. One section at a time.

And so being organized, having a good, solid marketing plan that keeps the focus on the direction you’re going with the content of the book. Staying focused, creating those step by step pieces, and I think, too, being clear about why you want to write the book and how you’re going to use it really is the differences between just writing and publishing a book versus writing and publishing a sellable book. A book that’s going to build you business, that’s going to get your message out into the world.

And you mentioned writer’s block. I don’t believe in writer’s block as in I think we just … We give it permission. We give stress and fear and all of that negative stuff permission to shut us down. And sometimes it’s because we’ve set goals that are too big. And sometimes we haven’t gotten enough clarity to set any goals. So for me, if you do have a plan, and you have goals, and you have a clear direction, great. If at that point you come up with what’s called “writer’s block,” in quotes, then I would say writing is a creative process. Sometimes if you just change the scenery, that clears the block.

And people think also … No, let me step back. If you’re sitting in your office and it’s a dark, cloudy day, and so now your office is dark and cloud and dull and uninspiring, go to the living room or go to the kitchen or go to the back porch. There are times where I go and sit at a coffee shop or in a park or something. And just the fresh air, sometimes the movement, a new location, all of that clears up what I’m going to do that day. So that can be part of it.

The other part of it is people think that you need to write a book from front to back, and that’s not the case. Again, if you got a goal, an outline, a plan, you can write from anywhere. The middle to the back or whatever.

Let me give you an example because I know that sounds a little crazy. But if you’re writing a nonfiction, whether it’s a … It’s a professional story, let’s say, for an example. And you decide that you got an outline of this book, you got the x number of chapters, and every chapter is going to have a case study based on your professional experience in it. And there’s going to be some research in it. And there’s going to be some other words of wisdom from your professional heart and soul.

Well, lets say you don’t really like research and if you have to start every chapter with research, you’re not going to really want to do it, are you?

Melinda Wittstock:         Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Arlene Gale:                      So case studies. If that’s what turns you on fire, if that’s what lights you up, then lets go through every single chapter and get that theme for each chapter and write each case study first. And you know what? Now you’ve got all these case studies and you got a third of each chapter in your book now written.

So let’s say, okay, I don’t really like the research. I’m going to write three or four case studies and then I’m going to write the research that supports the direction I’m going as a coach. Because it’s kind of like being on a diet. You do really well for a couple weeks and then you give yourself permission to go out and have a little bit of chocolate or whatever. You treat yourself. You work really hard and then you give yourself, within limits, a reward.

So that’s kind of my approach to writing a book. It’s what’s best for you, what works for you. Because I don’t want you to write my book. I want to help you write your book. But I’m going to help you get it out of you in the easiest way possible. The way that gives you the most passion possible. Because you’re going to be living and breathing and working with this book for a long time. So it’s going to build business for you. So you have to be passionate about what you’re producing.

Melinda Wittstock:         Absolutely. Well, it was so funny how even this podcast came about. Because originally, it was a book.

Arlene Gale:                      Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:         And as I started kind of working this through and figuring out my chapters and doing lots of interviews for it, someone said, “Well so how are you going to market the book, Melinda? You need a great audience for your book. Why don’t you do a podcast? Because that’s going to create your whole community. And by the way, when you’re doing these interviews, that’s part of your book.”

Arlene Gale:                      Wow.

Melinda Wittstock:         The podcast has taken off; I love doing this. And then there are several books out of it as well.

And I know, increasingly, as we have so many people come on this podcast to say how much a book actually grow your business.

Arlene Gale:                      Absolutely.

Melinda Wittstock:         So it’s not a luxury anymore. Oh my God, it’s like actually mandatory if you’re going to be a thought leader. It’s almost like everyone has a podcast now. Everybody also has a book. So …

Arlene Gale:                      Right, exactly. But Melinda, you hit on something really, really important that I do that I think that sets me apart in my market niche, is the marketing.

Again, so many people write, publish a book and never give any thought to marketing and that’s what I do with my clients first. We have really got to create a good, solid marketing foundation plan about the issues around you and your why and what and where. And then your client base and your competition.

Because if you wait to publish, you know it. There’s a lot of blood, sweat, and tears and heart and soul that goes into doing a podcast or writing a book or doing some of this other stuff. You want to do it to the best of your ability. And one of the things that strikes my heart is when I hear people say, “Well, I spent all this time and money writing a book, but then I didn’t know what to do with it. So it never really sold and never really did anything for me.”

And that to me is a tragedy. So the marketing piece before the book is written is huge to the ultimate success for building business. That’s my niche. Your book should be a business-building credibility piece.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah, absolutely because it helps you, oh my goodness in so many different ways. And I guess what I wonder about and you can shed some light on this, is there’s different publishing models you know? Do you go for New York Times Bestselling author?

And like, what’s the bump from that as opposed to just being self published on Amazon where you don’t get into bookstores necessarily but you can still have a big impact? Or doing some version of the two, like a hybrid model. And that’s where I’m stuck right now because I’m thinking, which way should I go? So walk us through how someone decides what’s best for them.

Arlene Gale:                      Well, and Melinda there’s a lot of myths, and fallacies, and limited scopes of information out there in the book writing realm. You know for example the publishing. You know I will give you credit because you’re smarter than the average bear.

Melinda Wittstock:         Thank You.

Arlene Gale:                      Because most people think self published or traditional publishing, and there are lots of in-betweens, there’s lot of hybrid models. But the other thing is, there’s university presses for example. You know, what if you’re writing as a woman entrepreneur you’re writing a book that can be a textbook, or an extra reading for a social work class, or a woman’s study class, or a therapy class?

You know, the university presses are very alive and active and that gives you a huge built in market. And there are other publishing options too but there are so many choices out there. When I work with a client I sit down at the very beginning.

I have a client who just got a contract based on a proposal for a mainstream publisher. But this is a person who’s written and self published a half a dozen other books and has a big social media following.

So if my client wants to go the traditional publishing route, we will write a proposal. I have a lot of experience writing good, successful, book proposal. But you have to back up even from there and some of them come to me and they don’t have a social media presence. Or they do but it’s all “Wrong” based on where they want to go with this book.

So we really start to try and fine tune their social media presence, their website because it’s written communication that’s consistent throughout all platforms. And there’s got to be clarity throughout all platforms. And if this is the book you want to write, then that’s the message that you want to be building your empire on if you want to go traditional publishing.

So those are things I work with my clients on. If they want to do self publishing or hybrid publishing I’ve got connections with a variety of hybrid publishers who have different models because you know some of them you pay 100% for the publishing but you get 100% of the royalties. Others it’s an 80/20 split or a 50/50 split. So there’s lots of considerations.

And I talk with my clients about what kind of budget that they need to have if they’re going to self publish or hybrid publish so that if it takes us six months or a year to write their book and get a final manuscript, that they’ve been saving money along the way.

Or we wrote the proposal and we’ve been shopping it out to agents along the way. And we’ve got lots of options that we’re building on again from the very, very beginning. Instead of, okay now I got a great manuscript, now what do I do? You know? That’s crazy to do that.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah, you have to really-

Arlene Gale:                      [crosstalk 00:41:39] That brick wall.

Melinda Wittstock:         Right. Well it makes sense to plan it like you would plan a business. You know?

Arlene Gale:                      Mm-hmm (affirmative)-

Melinda Wittstock:         You know if you’re a start up, you’ve got to figure out what’s your business model? What’s your product market fit? Who’s your audience? How are you going to get the word out? What’s your go to market strategy? You know, all those sorts of things right..

Arlene Gale:                      Right.

Melinda Wittstock:         …That you would do in a business. It seems to me that would be very similar in terms of launching a book. So where does it fit in your business? Why are you doing it? Whose it for? You know, and seeing it really holistically in that way.

One of the things that’s interesting about what you say about the marketing is that a lot of my good friends, and my mastermind, and women who have been on this podcast I think of folks like Christy Whitman whose written several New York Times Bestsellers.

Or Allison Maslan whose out with another book right now, “Scale Or Fail” which is an awesome, awesome book for any business owner trying to figure out how to get to scale. They all say, that the writing of the book was the easy part, it’s like the marketing and all that stuff that is really time consuming and how all that’s going to work. Is that consistent with your experience as well?

Arlene Gale:                      I think it varies because I work with people who have no content and no branding, and they’re at the very beginning and going out on their own. And we can outline the book and get it set up. And from there we can back out the branding and the marketing piece.

But then I work with other people who’ve got tons of content and they’re clear about their branding, and their message, and everything else, and we can write a book from there. But regardless of what end of the spectrum you work with, sometimes it’s just a matter of figuring out where to start first.

You know, what piece do you start with? And people who have a lot of content it’s like, “Well I want to write this book, and this book, and this book, and this book, and this book.” And I’ve ,got to say, “Which one first, where do we start first?” Because they don’t want to leave their other babies behind.

So I’ve got to get them to take a deep breath and say, “Okay, which one first?” And these are the reasons that we’re gonna do this one first, or second, or third so that they have pride and ownership in that part of their message.

And people who are new to the business, they’ve got great talent, they’ve got great experience, they just don’t know how to leverage it and they don’t know how to write and communicate what they know and what they do. So for some people the writing is the hard part, and the marketing is easy.

Everybody’s different and that’s what I love about my job, is that I get to know the people and I get to know their stories. And then I figure out how we’re going to make this process successful to benefit them the most. So I would just say the answer to that is an emphatic, it depends.

Melinda Wittstock:         Absolutely.

Arlene Gale:                      It’s all-important and you’ve just got to take it step by step by step. And I do what is best for the client so they’re writing their book so they have that pride of ownership.

Melinda Wittstock:         Got it. And so, how does it work with your business? So how do you work with an author? How long does it usually take? Because I know you do things like with groups of people where you’re sort of group coaching. But you also do individual. So tell me a little bit. Shine a light a little bit about how you work with your clients.

Arlene Gale:                      Okay. Well I want to start with, you know, it may surprise you that there’s a variety of definitions of writing a book, or what a book is on the marketplace. And I’m not talking about audio books versus Kindles, or paperbacks, or hardback. But you know, we’ve talked mostly about writing what I call the big bestseller. And that intimidates a lot of people.

And there are a lot of people out there who are not quite ready to even think about doing that. While there’s others who are chomping at the bit and ready to start, and they just don’t know how. So that’s the big bestseller.

And for non-fiction, a big bestseller, the sweet spot is between 55,000 and 75,000 words. Now, there’s two other types of books that I help clients with that have different reasons to exist. And one of them is a website based book. It’s never designed to be published or printed unless somebody downloads it from your website and prints it from their printer at home.

But it’s a say, 5000 to 7000 or 8000 word 10,000 foot overview of what you do in your business. And every business that has a website should have this website based book on their website because what it does is, it helps them capture names and build their client list.

Because it doesn’t matter how many thousands of people you have on social media, if you use any word, or say anything, or do anything that gets you removed from any social media platform, and that’s the only way you do business, you’re stuck, you’re dead in the water. So owning your own list is so powerful and it’s so important.

And it’s a key to you being able to market to your people because these people have come to you based on this website based book saying, “Hey I like what you’re saying, I like what you’re doing and someday I’m gonna do business with you.” So that’s one thing is that website based book.

The other one is the little mini marketing book that people may have seen. It’s a 3X5 or a 4X5. The website book is 5000 to 8000 words, the mini marketing book is maybe 8000 to 12,000 or 13,000 words. It brings people a little closer in to see what you do and learn about you. And it’s an inexpensive printed book. I mean you could upload it to Amazon and sell it for $2.99 or $4.99. There’s no reason why you couldn’t.

But the real value here is to print these off. And they make cost $1.00 or $1.50 a piece. But let’s say you’re a speaker and you want to make an introduction to somebody who is putting together a big event, you send them this book so they get to know what you do, and what you speak on and its kind of a warmer handshake introduction than just an email.

And then lets say you get that job, well now that person who hired you to speak in front of this group of 200, or 300, or 400, or 500 people, now they want to buy that book from you to use it as a giveaway to those 500 people in this audience that you now have taken a deeper dive, made a deeper connection with them. So it’s another marketing tool.

You may hear some people call it the new business card. So there’s a variety of different books that I help people write. But it depends on where people are in their journey as to what they need and what they do. I help write website content.

I help write social media content and teach people how to do that because again, all of these things are successful when the business has a powerful written message that’s clear, and consistent across all platforms that help them grow and reach not just more people but reach the exact right kind of clients that they want to meet.

So I do one on one coaching. I do small group workshops, emphasis on the work because when you come to one of my workshops I’m not gonna lecture to you. We’re gonna find out what you need and what you want, and how to get it done.

You’re gonna actually leave there with … Do you hate it when you go to conference and you learn something and you go home and you’re all excited about implementing what you learned and then you feel like you missed or didn’t take the right notes on that one piece and so you’re stuck, you can’t do anything? That’s not my workshop.

Melinda Wittstock:         Do you go through a lot of this in your current book? Because you have a new book out right now that I want you to have a chance to talk about.

Arlene Gale:                      I do.

Melinda Wittstock:         So, tell us about that because I know it’s very much geared to all of us in business who have a business story and a business brand to articulate. As well as our personal brand.

Arlene Gale:                      Right. Thank you very much for that. This is my eighth book. It’s called … Easy for me to say. It’s called, “Book Business Blueprint: Build Credibility, Stand Out From The Competition, and Skyrocket Sales By Writing Your Book.”

And this book I wrote it in little bits and pieces and chunks so it was easy to read, and consume and process for busy people who want to learn. But sometimes we learn so much it doesn’t really sink in.

So I wanted to address all of those issues. So there’s case studies in here. There’s cautionary tales in here. There’s hints, and tools, and tips, and tricks fr getting started writing your book.

For example, I talk in here about non-fiction versus fiction because most people can tell you how fiction and non-fiction are different. But when you ask them how are they the same they look at me like I just sprouted an extra head and started speaking a foreign language. But think about it, when you pick up a fiction book you want to read a character has flaws, who asks questions, who’s got personality, whose three dimensional right?

Melinda Wittstock:         Mm-hmm (affirmative)- Of course.

Arlene Gale:                      Okay, so when you write a non-fiction, when you write your story whether it’s personal or professional, people don’t want to know that you’re perfect that you have all the answers. They want to know that you have depth, you have personality, you’ve learned from your mistakes, but you’ve made mistakes.

So that’s kind of some of the stuff I talk about, about how to make your non-fiction as personable and powerful, and interesting as a fiction writer would make their characters, and their worlds, and their situations.

I talk about the biggest mistakes that people make when they start writing a book. I talk about why writing a memoir and how to write it in a way that helps you build a career, build a business from it. I give you all the steps for writing a book proposal if you want to go with a mainstream publisher.

And even why I think if you want to self publish or hybrid publish, I think that you should still be able to answer those questions in a book proposal because that’s basically your marketing plan. And that’s gonna set you up for the ultimate success in writing a book that’s marketable and sellable.

So there’s a bunch of tools, and tips, and tricks in this book, The Book Business Blueprint. I would just encourage anybody to check it out. I think it’s on sale right now on amazon.com. You know and if you’d like it, I’d love to get feedback either by email, arlene@bookwritingbusiness.com.

Or write a review on Amazon because publishing a book gives you credibility. That’s why everybody’s doing it. It sets you up as the go to expert in your field. Again, whether it’s a personal or professional story.

But you know what? The third part review, the reviews that are on my book or anybody else’s book, that’s somebody else who took the time out of their busy schedule to say, “Hey this is a great book, you ought to read it.”

So I highly recommend that if you’ve read a good book, mine or anybody else’s, please take a couple minutes and give it a good review because you’re helping build our credibility because you’re more important saying that you think we’re good than we are saying we are good.

Melinda Wittstock:        So this is so awesome Arlene. And I could talk to you for hours. How can people find you and work with you? And do you have any special offers for our listeners today?

Arlene Gale:                      Oh absolutely. Yes so go to my website, bookwritingbusiness.com and check it out. I’ve got speaking topics out there. I love to travel and speak. I go all over the world. And I’d love to invite you to check that out if you’re someone whose looking for speakers. And I talk on business topics as well as motivational inspirational topics from my first book.

So anyway, go to my website, bookwritingbusiness.com. And on the homepage if you go to the bottom, you’ll find my free website based book called, Five Tips For Writing Your Book. It’s free, download it.

If you go to the very end of it, read the tips and go to the end and click on the call to action. And you’ll get a short questionnaire, and fill that out, send it to me. And you’ll get a free initial consultation. And we’ll talk about what it is that you want or need help with, and how we can work together.

Also, on my website, you’ll find my upcoming workshops. I’ve got several on there right now. I travel for networking groups. If you’re in a networking group and you want to do a two day workshop, and start actually outlining and writing your book, and building your marketing plan, get a hold of me because that’s something that I love to do.

And I’d love to talk to you about how I can come to you and help you and your networking group write your book. And the bonus to that is, when you work that way together for two days, now you have a built in accountability group. So I just love that service.

I’m on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook. Arlene Gale. Arlene is, A-R-L-E-N-E. And I know Gale’s a little tricky because you can spell it a lot of different ways. But it’s G-A-L-E. Gale, G-A-L-E. And on any of those platforms you can find me as Arlene gale, or Book writing business.

Thank you Melinda. It has been so much fun to stretch my wings and talk about so many different topics with you. And I would consider it a huge honor and blessing in my life if you ever needed me to come back and talk to you again.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh well lovely. Well thank you so much for sharing your story and all of this amazing practical advice for all of us that need to get out there and get writing our books and telling our stories. Thank you so much Arlene for putting on your wings and flying with us today.

Arlene Gale:                      Thank you Melinda.

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Review on iTunes and win the chance for a VIP Day with Melinda