Julie Trelstad Demystifies Book Publishing
a Smart Conversation with Julie Trelstad and Yvonne DiVita
Talking with Julie Trelstad about books is like talking to a fine chef about his latest and greatest culinary work of art. Why? Because she brings decades of experience in writing, publishing, and marketing books to the discussion.
Julie and I met on LinkedIn – isn’t that often the way? – and knew we had so much in common, we had to share with the world! Truth is, Julie is so experienced in book publishing and marketing, and so approachable and willing to share, she is the epitome of talent and kindness.
For instance, she’s the founder and publisher of 82 Stories, a book production studio for content creators, and Julie Ink, a book marketing consultancy. She’s been publishing books for over three decades. She’s worked with hundreds of authors who have collectively sold millions of books at Reader’s Digest, The Taunton Press, and John Wiley & Sons as her own publishing company, which she sold in 2010.
As an acquisition editor in traditional publishing, owner of a publishing company, and as the digital rights director for a large literary agency in New York City, Julie knows firsthand what makes some books soar and others fail to take off. Her goal, she tells us, is to demystify the often obtuse and discouraging world of book publishing and help writers succeed in producing, publishing, and marketing their books.
On our talk, Julie supports the advice I’ve shared many times, that YOU, dear author, are the best person to be marketing your book. You are the right person to take charge of this amazing product you just created. Of course, we both agree that sometimes you need help. From someone like Julie. Julie also shares her experience with other ways to sell books. Meaning, we don’t always have to depend on Amazon.
We’re not saying don’t use Amazon. Yes, you have to deal with the 800 pound gorilla in the room. And print on demand is not going anywhere, any time soon. It’s here to stay. But what if you had more options for printing, publishing, and distributing your book?
What if you were in charge of sales and could offer selective offers, via a warehouse that would connect with your ecommerce and ship books when needed. Much like print on demand, but if you do a small print run. let’s say between 300 – 500, we aren’t trying to break the bank here, folks, and use a service such as PSSC (Publishers Storage and Shipping), you can do color insides, you can autograph the books and use them in your workshops, or at a keynote.
It’s not enough to just do social media. Julie admits social media has its place. But it can’t be the whole package. (she even has a course on her site for Tik Tok for Authors. You need to check it out!)
You need to watch this to learn about the concept of 1000 true fans, which began with the music industry but works for books, too. Learn how to do one minute videos. Create a series of them for your site. Julie shared a program she took that changed her life and view on doing videos – visit the link above to get on the waiting list. I did.
Your book is your lightning rod. Listen to Julie tell you how to attract the right kind of lightning to build more success from your hard work writing and publishing that book. Yes, it involves getting podcasts (but do your homework there – get on the right podcasts), understand how powerful the concept of Book as Business Card is (oh, we have an ebook on that!), and think about creating a workbook to use in your webinars, workshops, masterminds, and more
Write the book only you can write. That’s Julie’s advice and I concur. After all, people don’t buy just one book on a topic they’re interested in. Just go into any library and look around. There’s a reason they have all those books. It’s because people read them! Why shouldn’t yours be one?
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Now, on to the show!
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