"My expertise is worth literally billions of dollars. Why would I put a $5 (or less) price tag on it?" Yes, I completely agree that your expertise is absolutely worth plenty, and certainly a whole lot more than $5 for a single copy of your booklet, and charging even less when filling a large-quantity order. There is no denying it, even for a split second, by anyones definition. And this is something I hear at least several times a week from you as a booklet author or someone consider creating one or more booklets. Follow me for a moment into a slightly different perspective and then tell me what you think. When was the last time someone paid you $5 for your business card? Yes, your actual business card, the one you pull out of your wallet or snazzy business card holder. Or even $1 or less for your business card or glossy company brochure? Im guessing that has yet to happen. And then, at their own expense and effort they sent that 'business card' to thousands (maybe tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands) of people you have yet to meet. And these people who got your 'business card' turns out are wanting to do business with you in a big way, people who can well spend thousands and thousands with you, who came to you through that 'business card' that you were paid $5 or less for. And you turned several hundred percent in creating and distributing that 'business card' in the process. How do you feel when you look at it from that perspective? Quite a bit different, isn't it? Instead of paying out of your own pocket to reach beyond your current client base to generate additional business, someone else not only did it for you, they paid you to allow them the chance to do so. How does sit with you? It turns out that booklets are more of an emotional experience than you may realize when first getting started. You feel that your image is on the line. Understandably so. It is not uncommon to hear you say the content needs to represent everything you know or ever expect to know on your topic. You are not realizing a booklet is the entry point for the reader into your expertise, that you will develop other products to take the reader further. You think the design of your booklet has to be a 4-color cover with photography, a glitzy interior design, include reference to every product and service you offer, and have not a single typo anywhere in it or it is nothing at all. Yes, image is important and excellence is the goal. There is no disputing any of that. It is, however, more important to realize that overproduction of your booklet can make it too expensive for large-quantity buyers to bring into their budget, even with the current technology lowering the costs. Remember that those large-quantity buyers are your representatives. They want to pay you for them to reach a much larger fish bowl than the one in which you currently swim. If the large-quantity buyer wants a more involved or elaborate design, on a big enough quantity they can probably do a good job of that within their own company's production activities by licensing specific print rights from you. When print is a large part of your buyers everyday business function, they can do production less expensively than you can. Find those large-quantity buyers. They are at the head of the sales or marketing departments of corporations. They might even be at the head of investor relations for the company. Several years ago a booklet author licensed a booklet to that department for $30,000. It was a wonderful transaction and that 'business card' reached some very important prospects for the booklet author's business. Look also at associations. Have the association make the purchase from you so they can engage one of their sponsors in subsidizing it. The members of the association get your 'business card' and, once again, are potential clients for your business. Do you still feel you are undervaluing your expertise by charging $5 or less on a booklet? I didn't think so. |
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