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Home » Business And Finance Articles » How A Published Author Can Become A Paid Public Speaker

How A Published Author Can Become A Paid Public Speaker

A book is your golden ticket into the speaking business. If you had a book published by a "real" publisher within the last 12 months in your hands, you have the calling card you need to get those speaking engagements now.

Some authors-to-be and new authors have trouble figuring out precisely how to leverage that book into speaking. First, when the book is printed, ask the publisher for a few hundred copies of the cover, as "overrun." Usually you can have them free or at cost. They make large-sized, noticeable postcards to send to meeting planners to attract their attention.

Next, you want to get media. Radio, print, television appearances based on your book are all critical. Capture the name of the show, the host and the date you appeared and put it on your website, in your speaker's package, and in your file. Eventually, you will collect all of your TV clips and ask a professional video editor to combine it into an excellent montage. These will impress the heck out of a meeting planner and should be used liberally.

Now that you've got some ammo, and assuming you have a website touting your brilliance and your book, it's time to petition all those hapless meeting planners out there. Write letters, make phone calls, send post cards, follow up and be persistent.

You can buy a book of meeting planners in any industry online. Then, you make them your new friends. Go to their meetings. Hang out. Cold call them and be friendly.

I personally love cold calling. I also don't even notice rejection. I suggest you adopt my personality for a little while each day. In the speaker trainings I do, I make them all recite a mantra that will help their business. "The most important thing that I can do is make 12 calls between 10 and 2." That refers to the minimum I expect from a speaker-to-be. Make 12 calls each day to meeting planners, offer them you, a free copy of your book, send them a postcard thanking them for their time on the phone written on your book jacket cover, and make at least three follow up calls (or fewer if they tell you to quit calling.)

Make those 12 calls five days a week. Give them what they ask you for. If you do this, you will make 3,120 calls in a year. You will have gotten speaking engagements simply by the law of averages. Your investment of time will be small, but results can be huge.

Good luck!

(c) 2007, Keller Media, Inc. Want to use this article in your publication? Reprints welcome so long as the article and by-line are reprinted intact and all links made live.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Rewards Cards: Convert Your Current Card

If you are a current credit card holder â€" MasterCard or Visa -- you may be overlooking an important way to make your card work even better for you: by joining a rewards program. Why possess a plain old credit card when you get rewarded for using the same card? Let's take a look at how you can receive benefits from your current card.

Some cards are offering rewards based on your purchases. Depending on the card selected, your rewards card can offer to you a variety of benefits such as:

1. Cash back. Receive 1% or 2% back on all purchases. Usually not redeemable for cash until your balance reaches a certain amount, such as $20. Some card plans allow for you to use the "cash back" as a credit toward future balances and/or purchases.

2. Airline miles. Some cards have tie ins to one particular airline while other cards allow for you to accrue miles that can be used for mostly any carrier. Similar plans include cards that allow you to accumulate free stays at select hotel chains.

3. Car purchase. One prominent automaker allows for card holders to receive as much as 5% credit toward a future purchase of a new vehicle â€" one of their models, of course! Add these credits to other discounts offered by the automaker at the time of your next purchase and your savings can be huge.

Rewards cards offers do vary between card issuers and your offer can be changed or amended at any time [usually in writing with prior notice given]. In addition, your points may expire after a certain period of time.

If you do not pay off your credit card balances monthly, you lose the advantage of accumulating points as your APR will be greater than the points accumulated.

So, why hold onto a "do nothing" credit card when you can make the one you have work for you? Call your credit card provider today and request that your current card be upgraded immediately.