How to WIN with Your Book – In Just 7 Minutes with Anthony Raymond

Resources/Links:

• Find out more about publishing your book and succeed in it. Click here: www.Readkp.com

Summary

Do you feel overwhelmed by the complexities of publishing and marketing a book? Many aspiring authors struggle to navigate the maze of traditional publishing, self-publishing, and creating a clear plan for their book’s purpose, often leading to missed opportunities and disorganized content.

Anthony Raymond is the publisher at Kallisti Publishing Inc.

In this episode, Anthony shares actionable strategies to turn your book into a powerful marketing tool. By focusing on the book’s role in your broader business strategy and avoiding common pitfalls, such as overloading content, Anthony reveals how to create a polished product that drives revenue through courses, coaching, and speaking engagements.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 02:36 – Anthony’s ideal client: My ideal client is ideally a speaker or a business person, even a writer.
• 03:58 – The problem he helps solve: I take that idea or that book that that person has written and give it a place to go.
• 05:42 – Symptoms of the problem he is solving: Feeling overwhelmed looking at all the publishing options from the traditional publishing experience to self-publishing and not understanding what would be best for them.
• 06:32 – Mistakes clients commit before seeing him: Two things: One, trying to do everything by him or herself. And number two is what I call kitchen sinking a book.
• 07:38 – Anthony’s Valuable Free Action [VFA]: Share your work and listen to feedback.
• 08:31 – His Valuable Free Resource [VFR]: Find out more about publishing your book and succeed in it. Click here: www.Readkp.com
• 09:06 – Q: What’s the difference between a writer and an author? A: A writer is someone who actually writes all the time and more than likely makes their living from it in one form or another. An author is anyone; anyone can be an author.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Anyone could be the author of a book, but very few people are writers. And to win it, have a bestselling book, you do not have to be a writer.” -Anthony Raymond Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:10
Greetings everyone, and a very warm welcome to a special edition of Marketing The Invisible. I’m Tom Poland, beaming at, as always, from the sunny Sunshine Coast here in Australia. Joined today by Anthony Raymond. Anthony, a warm, good day from down under. Where are you hanging out?

Anthony Raymond 00:23
I’m up here in my beautiful home office in beautiful Pennsylvania, in the United States.

Tom Poland 00:27
The most dapper man in the whole of the USA. Folks, every time I’ve met with Anthony, this is the, well, I say every time. We’ve met twice, he has his own tailor. He is a part of a dying breed. He has integrity, he has ethics. And my God, has he got the suits?

Anthony Raymond 00:43
I try. It’s a pleasure to have you have me here.

Tom Poland 00:45
Folks, Anthony and I, I was referred to Anthony because I was looking for a publisher for my next book and I was introduced to Anthony. It was a prestigious introduction from someone whose opinion I value highly. So we’re going to be doing a project together for my next book. And I’m looking forward to that, Anthony. And I thought, why not get Anthony on the show? Because he doesn’t, talking about tailors, he’s not cut from the same cloth as a lot of traditional marketers. He’s got this to me. Anthony, you’re a hybrid. You’ve got this fascinating, I don’t know how to describe it. You’ve got some street fighter in you.

Anthony Raymond 01:16
Oh, absolutely.

Tom Poland 01:18
You’re kinda like someone, once described, someone had the, was so clear about the mission in life and assertive, but just a pleasure to deal with. Kinda like the iron fist with the velvet glove.

Anthony Raymond 01:31
At times. Sure.

Tom Poland 01:32
So, I think, because folks, this is an important background for you. I’m not just stroking Anthony’s ego here, but what I’m saying is Anthony understands the gorilla marketing type approach, but he also has a very strategic head to understand what’s going to sell and what’s not going to sell. And following on from that, how you actually sell your book and more importantly what the backend is. Because one of the first questions Anthony asked me is, sure, we can probably sell your book, but how are you going to make more money out of it with a backend product? So the backend product is, people read your book, they’re impressed with your credentials and your story and everything else. Another good tip Anthony gave, you’ve got to start with a story, but we’ll unpack more of that hopefully. But what are you going to sell from the book? Because that’s where you can make exponentially more money. So, that’s the reason you’re here. Anthony, everyone, I want you to know that that’s why Anthony is here. So let’s kick off. Anthony Raymond is the publisher of Kallisti Publishing, Inc. And that’s his bio. I told you he was elegant. The title is, How to Win with Your Book. Anthony, our seven minutes is going to start now. Who’s your ideal client?

Anthony Raymond 02:36
My ideal client is ideally a speaker or a business person, even a writer. And they have an idea or something they want to market, whether it be themselves or a product or again, anything, a service.

Tom Poland 02:51
Okay, A to Z, what does your service encompass?

Anthony Raymond 02:55
I’m a publisher. And so I publish books and what I found is that books are the best business cards a business person or a speaker can have. Because as the old joke goes, they give that person authority, and it’s just a great marketing platform. Because if you go with a press release to the paper, boom, ‘I’m an author, I have this book coming up.’ You’re getting noticed, you’re getting interview requests. And so the power of the book, I call it, is a key to markets and marketing avenues that you never even thought about.

Tom Poland 03:31
And I think that’s a big distinction between someone like Kallisti Publishing and a normal publishing house. So most publishers don’t give you a lot of advice in regard to marketing and the mechanics and the back end and everything else. It’s just, there’s a book put in the shops and seller. So it’s a different style of book, folks, is what I’m saying. We might all dream of being published by Penguin et cetera, but there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to make more money with Anthony’s approach. So tell us about the problem you solve.

Anthony Raymond 03:58
Problem I solve is I take that idea or that book that that person has written and give it a place to go. We dress it up, we make it look pretty, we make sure it’s edited properly, right? And beyond that, as you mentioned, we look at it and say, what are you, the business person, the writer, the speaker, what are you really trying to accomplish? What are you looking to sell? Where are you going with the book? I have no problem with an author or a person plugging all their businesses in the book and looking and saying, ‘Okay, after this I want to sell a course and then I want to sell a coaching program.’.

Tom Poland 04:35
Right.

Anthony Raymond 04:36
That has to be included in the book. And believe me, that’s where you’re going to make the most money. Because the sad truth of matter is very few people get rich off of books, but they get rich from their speaking engagements. From their licensing deals. And courses and everything.

Tom Poland 04:52
Yeah. Tick, tick, tick. But you got to do it, right? A bunch of people try to do this on their own. Don’t get the formula, don’t get the recipe right. And that’s just the reality of it is, it’s when I work with someone like you, the book goes to a different level. That’s what happens. It’s better thought out because I’m not a book marketing specialist. And so we’re always better to defer to the specialists in these areas. One of the secrets of success is that you don’t actually have to be very smart about anything. You just have to be smart enough to know how dumb you are and get help.

Anthony Raymond 05:21
That’s absolutely true.

Tom Poland 05:22
So tell us, question three and I better skedaddle because the clock is ticking. Question three is the typical symptoms that people experience who don’t have a book, or maybe the people who have published a book but hear cricket. What would you say is going on? Give us a heads up. I guess the question is this, what’s going on in someone’s life that they know they should be reaching out to you?

Anthony Raymond 05:42
Feeling overwhelmed looking at all the publishing options from the traditional publishing experience to self-publishing and not understanding what would be best for them.

Tom Poland 05:53
Right.

Anthony Raymond 05:53
And I’m saying those are going to be the two big ones for brevity’s sake because that overwhelming feeling and just not understanding how publishing works.

Tom Poland 06:02
Yeah. And all, everything’s a bit complicated or black box. Yeah, okay. I think, folks, if context is so important when you’re looking at execution of a tactic such as writing a book and context is that strategic overview of what’s going to have to happen from A to Z because that context gives you a point of reference to what to do with the book. And I know that’s a bit high level, those wording, but maybe rewind and listen to that again. What would you say is a big mistake that people make when they do their own book?

Anthony Raymond 06:32
Two things: One, trying to do everything by him or herself. That’s a big one. And number two is what I call kitchen sinking a book. That means they want to include everything including the kitchen sink, every thought they’ve ever had, every idea they ever had into this big tome of a book. And what happens there is they just have this very disorganized book. And that’s where I come in as a publisher and an editor. And say, listen, you might have five different books here that’s actually happened. And says, because you have these five great little books that are going to be a lot of hooks in the water for this person. So they’re going to be making a lot of different sales and leading to a lot of different paths. So a lot of different money.

Tom Poland 07:17
Yeah. That’s very interesting. And there’s that old saying, ‘Kill your darlings.’ You can pack something, a whole lot of stuff in a book you think is just so wonderful. And yet it may not be on song, it may not be to the point. One valuable, free top tip. People don’t need you for this and they’ll need you to do this properly. But it might give them a step in the right direction.

Anthony Raymond 07:38
I’m going to say this, share your work. If you’ve written something, share it. And there’s going to be a sort of a part two to that. Listen to qualified feedback. A lot of people don’t want to share their work because they think, well I might want to sell them the book later on. It’s like, no, you want that initial feedback. You want to see if you’re actually hit in your market. Share it, get it out there, get that feedback and make sure you’re addressing people’s questions and concerns and especially for the topic on which the person’s writing.

Tom Poland 08:08
Yeah. And best of all, find someone who’s qualified to comment on it in terms of they are the target market, but make sure that you get a couple of grumpy ones because they’re the ones to tell you what you need to hear. They’re going to help because your mother’s going to tell you what you want to hear maybe, but they’ll tell you what you need to know.

Anthony Raymond 08:24
Exactly.

Tom Poland 08:25
Okay, so where can people go to find out more? What’s your website where they can make an inquiry or find out more information?

Anthony Raymond 08:31
Absolutely. Readkp.com.

Tom Poland 08:38
Say it again, please.

Anthony Raymond 08:38
R-E-A-Dkp.com.

Tom Poland 08:43
Readkp.com. Got it. Alright. What are they going to find there?

Anthony Raymond 08:48
That’s going to be my main website, but I have a lot of articles up there about writing and publishing. There’s a lot of free stuff there, including both my newsletter and everything.

Tom Poland 08:59
Fantastic, readkp.com. And finally, last question, what’s one question I should have asked you but didn’t?

Anthony Raymond 09:06
What’s the difference between a writer and an author?

Tom Poland 09:09
Ooh. And what is the difference between a writer and an author?

Anthony Raymond 09:14
A writer is someone who actually writes all the time and more than likely makes their living from it in one form or another. An author is anyone; anyone can be an author. Paris Hilton is an author of books. Snooky from, remember that Jersey Shore Show?

Tom Poland 09:33
Yeah. That was… Yep.

Anthony Raymond 09:34
She is a bestselling author.

Tom Poland 09:36
Author versus someone writing.

Anthony Raymond 09:38
Anyone could be the author of a book, but very few people are writers. And to win it, have a bestselling book, you do not have to be a writer.

Tom Poland 09:48
That is a breath of first year for a lot of people because I know a lot of people get freaked out when they have to put something down and write it. It suddenly gets very formal and it’s like those, it’s the equivalent of those voicemail messages you hear where you’ve got a good friend and they’re very relaxed and they’re very breezy and they’re very bright and you get their voice messages and it’s like, ‘Hello, this is… What happened? What happened to my friend?’ And very true. Some people write like that. It’s like suddenly they’re not them. So, that is a terrific, terrific insight. You don’t have to be a writer to be an author. Alright, this has been great. Anthony, thanks so much for your time and your insights and wisdom. It’s www.Readkp.com.

Anthony Raymond 10:33
Absolutely.

Tom Poland 10:33
Cheers. Thank you.

Anthony Raymond 10:34
Thank you.

Tom Poland 10:36
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.