Before you even START to write your FIRST book...Read this one!

Whether you’ve already started to write, are still thinking about writing, have written already, or are anywhere on the road to publishing a non-fiction book, this book will guide you through the process. From starting, finishing and polishing your manuscript, to understanding the self publishing vs traditional publishing models and then handling your marketing and distribution challenges you'll find out how to AVOID Expensive learning curves and traps for new authors!

With the experience of publishing, marketing, and distributing dozens of non-fiction books in the last 10 years, Dixie Maria Carlton openly shares all that she’s learned about the process of going from Idea to Author-ity that will save any author time, significant money, and frustration when faced with “I wrote a book – now what?”

Having helped more than 50 authors, to write/publish/market/distribute and get leverage on their books, Dixie knows what it takes to get from just having a 'gem of an idea' all the way through to actually earning an income from writing books and using them as a paid expert or thought leader. A strong background in promotional marketing, social media, and being entrenched in the global professional speaking industry for many years, Dixie and knows how it all fits together too.

CONTENTS:

1: Planning and Writing Your Manuscript
2: Finishing the First Draft
3: Pre-Press and Production
4: Book Design
5: How to Get and Use Great Reviews
^: Printing Options
7: The Publishing Industry
8: Publicity
9: Distribution
10: Talk It Up
11: Online Marketing Options
12: Using Social Media to Promote Your Book
13: Get Ready to Sign Copies
Bonus Chapter - WORDPRESS for Authors

This book also includes a simple template for helping you plan and layout your book so that writing it is easier than you ever imagined, ensuring it has excellent (reading) flow.

When it comes to marketing your understanding of the basics can potentially save you thousands of dollars on advertising, marketing and branding. This book covers the basics of each of the key areas of marketing and branding, including:
• Identifying Target Markets
• Marketing and Brand Planning
• Media and Promotions
• Websites and Social Media
• Customer Service Essentials
• Gaining Repeat and New Business
• Building Your Reputation Through Public Relations

This book will help you to understand the basics of business and marketing plans, branding, image, customer service and public relations so that you can grow your business through simple and smart marketing practices. Getting the basics right can make such a difference to the outcomes. Measuring the results of your advertising can lead to effective decision making about what to spend and where to invest your marketing budget.

When you understand ‘how it works’ you get a lot more punch out of your advertising and marketing campaigns.

Bonus tools and templates included.


If you are in business for the first time, or the 100th time, getting your marketing right and understanding the basics is going to save you a lot of money in experimenting, time wasted in taking pot shots at advertising, and frustration when you find out how much easier it could have been to get it right the first time.

Dixie Maria Carlton has helped dozens of businesses, entrepreneurs, and managers to sort out their marketing plans, get them free and low cost publicity, and to rise to the very top of their industries by using their resources, reputation, and brand differences to stand out from the crowd. This includes helping them several clients to become national and international award winning specialists in their industries.

Contents:

Foreword
1 - Marketing Basics
2 - Understanding Who You Are and Who Your Customers Are
3 - Positioning Your Business
4 - The Importance of Having a Great Customer Service Plan
5 - Gaining Market Share, Increasing Business Turnover and Maximising Profitability
6 - Networking
7 - Branding = Projecting an Image
8 - Promotions
9 - Media Options
PRINT MEDIA
ELECTRONIC MEDIA
ONLINE MEDIA
10 - Building a Strong Reputation
11 - Websites and Social Media Marketing Tools
12 - Planning is the Key to your Marketing Success
Summary
TEMPLATES AND FORMS/Bonus Content

When a young Scottish woman is raised traditionally but wants more from life than marriage and a brood of children, what more can she do but run away from home and discover what city life is like in the 1930s.

For Margaret McKenzie it's exciting, and leads her into the arms of Nate, and the swinging jazz scene of downtown Auckland in wartime New Zealand. Soon she learns the hard way about life as a single mother, and has to go to extraordinary lengths to protect her children from being taken away from her. But what happens when her former spoilt rich young lover returns with his wife not far behind him.

His idyllic life is not so sweet, and soon Margaret must fight once again for her children.
And why is the mysterious Thomas Morris following her from the day she arrives in Auckland as a young teen, only to turn up unexpectedly time and again to turn her life upside down.

Life for a determined single woman in the mid 20th century can be anything but straightforward it seems.

"This book takes young Margaret, fresh off the boat from Scotland to Downtown Auckland New Zealand in the early 1930s. The small city is swinging to the sound of jazz in clubs, the beaches are tranquil, and the yearning for more is almost a tangible desire for Margaret. Falling in love is one thing, but there's more to loving than just having a great time. Finding herself pregnant and still not wanting to marry seems like a good idea at the time, until the stuffy social services team come to find out what she's up to. And who is this strange young man who keeps popping up in her life? Is he really someone she can trust or is there a lot more to his presence. As for her fancy boy... he's maybe the worst of them all - but surely she can trust him can't she?"

Who knows what really goes on behind closed doors...

What if you were married to someone you thought was dying, but then again, maybe it's all an elaborate hoax?
What if, someone else was really pulling all the strings in your relationships?
Maybe there's a lot more going on than first appears... James is up against something he has no control over, and maybe the only way out is with the help of an old Japanese professor of mythology.

Explore how the angst of a woman with declining mental and physical health can impact on the lives of those around her, as she struggles to keep a tight grip of her husband. All is not what it seems and Alice will go to extraordinary lengths to secure her own ultimate satisfaction, even if that means risking her own demise...or at least her own sanity.

The first in the Taboo Conversations Series - prompting the discussions we often don't have with each other but need to. How do we navigate the old or new relationships when our bodies and minds are often radically different than they once were. Do all our bits and pieces still work? And what do we really want now from our relationships. Dixie Carlton explores in lay-terms (no pun intended) how to cope with blended families when first dating again, working through online dating apps, and intimacy issues. Sex as empty-nesting menopausal midlife goddesses is a whole knew ballgame too - but here's your handbook on how to totally enjoy yourself horizontally and vertically after 50! (Ps - it's also for the fellas!)

A simple tale of three authors, three ways to write and publish a book, three different outcomes....

◆What non fiction authors really need to know getting leverage on their authority◆

Whether you’re writing non-fiction e books, or selling your expertise as a writer of blogs and articles, the business of being a writer is exactly that, a business. It’s a business for authors and experts who speak, retired professionals, people who have something to say and maybe want to change their corner of the world in some way. But what many authors don’t realise is that once the book is written, then the hard work begins as you tackle the difference between being an author vs authority.

This book covers areas authors need to know including file uploading, publishing options, social media, media training, planning your book and speaking professionally about your topic. These are the things many authors are totally unaware of at the start of their writing and publishing journey, but are critical to the success of any book.

Authority Island is a fictional tale describing the respective experiences of three non-fiction authors.

Independent Sue wants to do it all herself, learning mostly from the internet and a few she meets along the way. Not really wanting to put too much effort into her marketing, Sue gets to Authority Island and learns just how unprepared she is for what happens after her book is ready to publish on Amazon.
Bob has tapped into a lot of resources and feels confident about what he needs to do as an author and speaker, but discovers he still has a lot to do in order to master becoming an authority – despite all he’s so far invested and done to be ready for his publishing journey.
Kris however, works closely with people who can help her at every step of the way, so that her own learning curve is much smoother as she navigates her way around collecting the Five Keys of Authority she needs to open the Mystical Gate at the far end of the Island.

★This book is NOT an author training manual, but a story demonstrating valuable insights into what most authors need to know about:

publicity,
promotion,
branding,
social media,
and being an author who speaks about their expertise★

If you want to write a book, whether you plan to do this yourself, or find a book ghost writer to help you, you need to start at the very beginning. Start with the Draft. The first draft of a non-fiction book is not something you can just ‘magically do’ without a plan. So, here’s how to do the first things first, and start with the draft of your manuscript, by working through the easiest planning process to get that content out of your head and into the hands of your readers.

This book takes you through the preplanning – who your readers are, why they want this book, what you can do to help them take action making changes, and what kind of book it will be. Then you develop your contents using the very easy Tri-Variant FrameworkTM that Dixie Carlton has been using and teaching for more than 15 years.

Start with the Draft is also about how to start with the end in mind, so that your non-fiction manuscript draft can work hard for you as a marketing tool beyond the book you wish to write.

This book also covers:
- how to avoid the top mistakes authors make,
- how to overcome writers block,
- the value of pre-formatting your book draft,
- how to prepare it for the editing and production phase
- how to test content with beta readers before you finish writing a book.

A step-by-step easy process for planning, writing, and preparing a nonfiction book ready for publishing.

Dixie has worked with more than 200 authors, assisted in the publishing of at least that many books, across multiple genres and many have become best selling titles, award winning profile tools for authors who are leaders in their industries, across a range of topics.

Contents:
Part 1 – Before You Start
Dear author
Why do you want to write this book
Imposter syndrome
Your temperature checks
Worksheet #1: Thinking Through Your Book Details
Creating your book plan
Workshseet #2: Planning Your Contents
How many chapters?
FAQs, Fun Facts, and Case Studies
Using the plan to write your book easily
Writing a book pitch

Part 2 – Writing Your First Draft
The big question of size
Writer’s block
Sharing your work
Word vs Google Docs
Titles and subtitles
Perfection kills creativity
Don’t keep it a secret
Writers are readers
Author quicksand
Pre-formatting
Review your content
Your test pilots
What to do next