Category Archives for "All Posts"

Interview: So you want to start a business

If you’ve been thinking about starting a business, and are keen to get a behind-the-scenes look of where an established business began (along with avoiding some big mistakes along the way), then I’m excited to share the So You Want to Start a Business podcast with you.A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be […]

New interview: Turning entrepreneurs into authors on Business Brainfood

Ever wanted to write a book but you don’t have the time and you don’t know how to get it out there?In this episode of Business Brainfood I share with Ben Fewtrell how you can finally make the leap. In this episode you will learn: How a book can help you stand out from the noise How […]

Is content king? Find out on Taking Care of Business

For the last few years, content marketing has been the king of marketing your business online.The theory is simple – if you provide your potential customers with enough value up front, when they are ready to buy you will be the first one they think of. The ultimate goal is to have them thinking, ‘If I […]

Book launch: A behind the scenes look at my plan for Book Blueprint

The other week I shared some of the reasons why you might consider a book launch even if your book isn’t brand new. This week, I wanted to share some of my thinking behind the relaunch of Book Blueprint, in the hope that it will help you with your own launch strategy.Some background – why […]

Should you relaunch your book?

I can still remember the day…It was mid-August, 2015. I had an event coming up on the 22nd where I’d be sharing my business journey with an audience of 400-500 people, and I wanted to make sure my book was available to take on stage and to sell afterwards.The week before, six boxes arrived on my […]

What goes on your copyright (or imprint) page?

Open up any professionally published book. On page 1 you’ll see the title. On the flipside, you’ll see a bunch of scary legal information – copyright symbols, disclaimers, ISBNs, Dewey numbers, publisher details and more. This is your book’s copyright page, or imprint page.If your book is being published by a traditional publisher, or if […]

Front matter and back matter (aka: what are all the things at the beginning and end of your book?)

One of the most common questions my clients ask, and one of the areas that’s most commonly forgotten, is what goes around your book’s content.What are all of those bits and pieces that should come before your introduction and after your conclusion if you want your book to look like a high-quality, professional product, rather […]

Interview: Business success lessons on The Entrepreneur Way

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be interviewed on The Entrepreneur Way by serial entrepreneur Neil Ball about the biggest lessons I’ve learnt on my entrepreneur journey – check it out at Positioning Yourself as an Expert in Your Niche with Jacqui Pretty.Just some of what we covered included: Entrepreneurial role models The biggest difficulties when […]

2x your conversions and 3x your rates by tapping into your customers’ secret desires

I launched Grammar Factory as a freelance editor in 2013. I was charging $1,500 for a structural edit, and my goal was to book three to four clients a month so I could quit my corporate job.While I had some leads coming in, I lacked the business experience, social proof, and referrals to sell them on my […]

Strategic book giveaways will boost revenue and build your business

One of the common concerns entrepreneurs have when writing a book is how many they should gift as strategic book giveaways and how many they should sell.The typical advice in this area is: “Give away as many as possible. The more books you have out in the world, the more likely you are to get […]

Think publishing a book’s too expensive? Here are 4 steps to raise $1,000s with sponsorships

Self-publishing a high-quality business book isn’t cheap, with quotes ranging anywhere from $3,000 to $15,000+ depending on the suppliers you use, the number of rounds of editing you need, how many books you get printed and more.The problem is as a business owner, that level of investment needs to make sense. When making any investment, you […]

How to write a media release for your business book that journalists can’t wait to print

One of the big goals of most entrepreneurs writing books is to get featured in the media – newspapers, TV, radio, blogs…But how do you do it? There’s not much point in publishing a book if no one knows about it.Enter the media release! A media (or press) release is a page about you and […]

How to rapidly generate 20+ ideas your audience can’t wait to read

I’d just gotten the biggest guest posting opportunity of my career – the chance to write for a site with more than 500,000 engaged subscribers.Everything was at stake. A great post would take my business to an entirely new level. A bad one would make it tough to ever get that kind of opportunity again.There […]

How one entrepreneur got a $25,000 contract ‘because you’re a published author’

How often do you see your potential clients trying to do it all themselves? With the accessibility of online technologies today, any entrepreneur can  create their own website, do their own copywriting, design their own brochures and manage their own social media campaigns. Unfortunately, even though they can achieve all of this themselves, it’s a challenge to do […]

Market research lessons from the greatest art con of the 20th century

When working on a client’s book, it never ceases to amaze me when I come across content that isn’t relevant to their target readers. This could include terminology they don’t recognise, examples they won’t resonate with, or information that doesn’t clearly relate to what they’re trying to learn from the book.The end result? This content […]