Leadership In Law Podcast

44 Make a Big Impact with Your Book with Melanie Herschorn

• Marilyn Jenkins • Season 1 • Episode 44

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Unlock the secrets to elevating your professional presence through the power of book publishing with our special guest, Melanie Herschorn. As a seasoned publisher and book marketing expert, Melanie takes us on a journey through her career from PR and journalism to entrepreneurship, highlighting the transformative potential of becoming an author. Discover how publishing can boost credibility, attract clients, and create new opportunities, backed by real examples like a Texas attorney's bestseller success story. Melanie shares actionable strategies for structuring a book to enhance business growth, offering insights particularly valuable for professionals like estate planning attorneys.

Explore a wealth of knowledge on writing methods, the advantages of independent publishing, and the strategic benefits of creating an imprint. Whether you're contemplating authorship or seeking innovative marketing strategies for your law firm, this episode provides a roadmap to success. As we wrap up, I invite you to connect with a thriving community of like-minded professionals through the Leadership in Law podcast. Stay engaged, subscribe for future episodes, and explore our resources to propel your firm's growth.

Reach Melanie here:

Make a Big Impact with Your Book https://amzn.to/3OQypQw
Get on her Calendar: http://meetmelanie.vip/
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-herschorn/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/melherschorn
https://www.facebook.com/bigimpactbooks
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/bigimpactbooks

Join our private community, Law Firm Growth Guild, Your Shortcut to Marketing Mastery and More Clients at
https://checkout.lawmarketingzone.com

Ready to level up your law firm marketing? Book a FREE Discovery Call with Marilyn Here: https://lawmarketingzone.com/bookacall

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Leadership in Law podcast with host Marilyn Jenkins. Cut through the noise, get actionable insights and inspiring stories delivered straight to your ears your ultimate podcast for navigating the ever-changing world of law firm ownership. In each episode, we dive deep into the critical topics that matter most to you, from unlocking explosive growth to building a thriving team. We connect you with successful firm leaders and industry experts who share their proven strategies and hard-won wisdom. So, whether you're a seasoned leader or just starting your journey as a law firm owner, the Leadership in Law podcast is here to equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to build a successful and fulfilling legal practice.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to another episode of the Leadership in Law Podcast. I'm your host, Marilyn Jenkins. Please join me in welcoming my guest, Melanie Hirschhorn, to the show today. Melanie is dedicated to helping you step into the spotlight as an authority. As a publisher and book marketing expert for attorneys, wealth consultants and business owners worldwide, she empowers authors to share their message with the world. With over 20 years experience as a celebrity publicist, award-winning journalist and radio, print and TV, as well as a clothing designer and entrepreneur, Melanie is uniquely positioned to support authors in becoming thought leaders in making a significant impact with their books. Her latest book, Make a Big Impact with your Book, is now available. I'm excited to have you here, Melanie Welcome. Thank you so much, Awesome, Awesome. Well, tell us a little here. Melanie Welcome. Thank you so much, Awesome, Awesome. Well, tell us a little bit about you.

Speaker 3:

You've got such a great background in PR and stuff, how did you get started? It was actually how I got started in PR. I was living in Canada at the time and I wanted to move to LA and so a friend of mine said you know you'd be really good in PR.

Speaker 3:

I said I think you're right, that sounds like a great plan, and so so I mean you kind of took everybody through the circuitous route of PR and then I got a master's in journalism and I worked in radio and other news organizations. Then I got laid off when I was pregnant and took a left turn and started designing and manufacturing breastfeeding clothing and so I sold the clothes on Nordstromcom and on Amazon and boutiques.

Speaker 3:

And then in year seven, I made a bad hire, which a lot of people can relate to, and fortunately this person was supposed to help with marketing. But what she really did was belittle me every single day until I stopped believing that I could do anything. Oh no, several years out of that, so I'm back to me. But after that I shut the business and I thought what can I do now? And the thing that really that I you know, I look back on the trajectory of my career, the through line. It was always helping people get their voices out in the world, and so publishing just made sense Publishing with marketing together, because when you publish a book but you don't have a marketing plan, it's like a. It's like having a car with no gas in it. It's a beautiful showpiece you can leave in your driveway, but it's not going to take you anywhere.

Speaker 2:

That's a good way of describing it. Well, tell us a bit about what do you see with the benefits of publishing a book, oh gosh.

Speaker 3:

Well, there are many, but we'll just start with the big one, which is credibility. And when you publish a book, you are instantly more credible than the next guy who does pretty much what you do, who doesn't have a book. But it also is a great way to attract your ideal clients, because they read the book and then all of a sudden they know you and they start to trust you, sometimes before they've even met you on a consultation, and so then that leads to profitability, because your book is getting out there, and so then people are hiring you because they read your book or simply because they have your book. They may not even have read it, and also, as an author, stages open up to you that are closed when you don't have a book. They may not even have read it, and also, as an author, stages open up to you that are closed when you don't have a book Very good.

Speaker 2:

That's true. We work with our clients, with building that know like and trust factor, and a book definitely does the same thing as makes you an authority in your space, especially if you're working with like we're talking local attorneys. Yeah, you're getting known, and someone pointed out to me that they had purchased books of people in their local area and, even though they've never read them, they would never throw them away.

Speaker 3:

Never. You may recycle or throw away a business card, but you're not going to get rid of a book.

Speaker 2:

That's right. That's right, I love that. And how would you so say? You, you like, you get a book. You've written a book and you're an attorney, say, a local family law attorney.

Speaker 3:

How would you leverage that book for success? I love this question. Okay, so we were just working with an attorney in Texas and she we did her her bestseller campaign on Amazon. So over the course of a week my team and I got her book to have more and more basically purchases and so she hit number one in three different categories on Amazon. So all of a sudden now she is an Amazon bestselling author and her book is now a bestselling book and that is something very exciting because she can put that on her website, she can talk about it in conversation and it keeps people, it keeps you top of mind.

Speaker 2:

And you keep a tag on your book on Amazon, right? Do you get a seal or something that shows your bestseller?

Speaker 3:

Not, no, unfortunately.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I'm saying, change their cover art and put it on there.

Speaker 3:

Yes, you can absolutely change your cover art. I have a book Well, it's a pile over there, but I have a book that we did that we changed. We changed the cover, so now it says number one international bestseller on Amazon. And you can do that. And you know we, we help you integrate that whole piece into your marketing campaign for the book. Other other ways to leverage the book is to send it out to prospective clients and you may say well, you know, I paid X amount to to create this book. You know, is it going to be lucrative for me? Absolutely. I know an author who only published 12 physical copies of the book and made hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Speaker 4:

It is absolutely possible.

Speaker 3:

We don't get rich on book sales. Just want to put that out there. You know, every time I get a royalty check Check, it just goes into my account. A royalty check in quotation marks from Amazon. I'll be like, oh, I just made eight dollars, now I can go to Starbucks and have a drink and a half, but yeah, no, I feel that it's not.

Speaker 2:

we don't do that. I've got a few books as well, and we don't do it for the money, so do you? What does it look like to work with you? So say, someone wants to do a book and I have no idea what I want it to be about, but I'm an attorney in Charlotte, north Carolina, and I really want to get out there. What does that look like?

Speaker 3:

Okay, now I'm really excited, Marilyn. Thank you for giving me this, because I love love. My favorite thing is to meet with an attorney and then ask them a whole bunch of questions and I am going to help them discover what is special and unique and sellable. And then we get to. You know, I help them pull out their magic and I guide them in the writing process and then we have a whole team that will edit and publish the book using their it's, under their own imprint. We help them create their own imprint so they keep all their IP, they keep the royalties which are, you know, I'm not agreeing, but fine.

Speaker 3:

But it's really about I'm not taking anything of yours, I'm just here to support you and get your message out to the world and or, in this case, to Charlotte, north Carolina, and so, and then we also were all about the marketing piece. So, after publishing, we're going to help you market the book, because I believe, as I mentioned with the car analogy, if you have a book, that's great, but if nobody knows about it, it's not certain, right? No, you know, there are a lot of publishers who will do that gross upsell where they're like okay, all you need is a book and then you know you get the book. You pay them all the money. Then they're like oh, and now join our marketing plan for three books gross. There's so much predatory behavior in the publishing industry and I I have been called the pioneer of integrity here.

Speaker 1:

So I'm excited about it.

Speaker 3:

I fit. So all I can say is that we do it all in one. It's a 12 month container and we're we're getting you know from inception to publishing, to promotion, because we're going to show you how to leverage. We are going to get you a press release that goes out to the media and local media, as you know, because you are very familiar with marketing local media is really excited to talk about their local people they are.

Speaker 2:

There's always space for that, especially. That's a feel good story. It is.

Speaker 3:

And then what about, you know, becoming the expert attorney on, you know, abc, blah, blah, blah Charlotte.

Speaker 3:

I mean yeah, so we. So you're going to get those logos and you're going to get the press release out to the media. And another thing that we do is a podcast tour. So you know it's a little meta. Right now we're on a podcast you have been so kind to bring me on to to talk to your audience and your listeners and your listeners are my ideal audience too. So getting to leverage other people's audiences, that's something that is so vital, and you get to do that when you're an author because you have been elevated in status.

Speaker 2:

That's great. I really like the way you say that you put that out there. Now, when you come to local marketing, ok, so doing the press releases is excellent. You can get on radio stations, on TV stations, any of those kinds of things Do you actually help if the client wants to actually get their printed book in, like a local bookstore? Because I know I don't know if they still do they used to small bookstores, independents, and maybe Barnes and Nobles would have a local authored book signing if you had something like that. Do you help with something like that or do you discourage that? I do not discourage it.

Speaker 3:

However, it is on a case by case basis, because that's the whole thing about. About this book marketing piece is that you can't do what everybody else does and expect to have the same result.

Speaker 2:

So we're not using the book to make, you know, make it sell a million copies. We're actually using it as a lead magnet, in essence.

Speaker 3:

In essence, it is Absolutely, and so does it make sense to have a book signing at a Burns Noble. I don't know what's the book about. Is it about, like, children in North Carolina who are, I don't know, maybe this is an attorney who focuses on children of divorce, okay, so they focus on all about kids. So maybe there's this big event that happens in Charlotte and they tie it to that, and so I mean there are so many factors so it's hard to get into the question. But I'm going to say, on a case-by-case basis, and while I'm not going to be the party planner, I will absolutely be the strategist, okay.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that makes complete sense because it really depends. If there's a good event happening, I can see that would be a great opportunity to maybe go out there with a few copies or something like that. But do you so? You, I wouldn't have to. So I know that a lot of people think about writing a book and it's just one of those things that they go yeah, I could never do that. I just don't have time, it's just I can't. And I look at that as thinking of, like this big gray cloud of a project that you'll never get into. You know, and it's not really that. You know how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, right? So how do you structure to make them, say, not feel overwhelmed at even the thought of it?

Speaker 3:

Well, I'm glad you asked because it's exactly right. If we look at it like that a big fuzzy cloud, we're never going to jump in. So we have a process where we meet weekly and we start by creating the outline. Sounds like that's not so difficult, but that's actually the hardest. Part of all is coming up with the outline. But when you have somebody that's working with you, it makes it so much easier and more streamlined. Because I've done this before. I'm happy to share our processes and it's like what's your goal? You know, anytime we meet with an author, the first thing we ask is what's your end goal? Because we're going to reverse engineer this book so that it offers the results that you're looking to get from it. It's not just about writing a book. It's about building your reputation and your legacy Right in a room and you're not there and it's doing what you need it to do for you.

Speaker 2:

So if I'm, say, an estate planning attorney and I really want to focus on growing estate planning as opposed to maybe probate or conservatorship, but specifically this particular thing, then through this interview process, this outline process we're going to focus on that's my end result, so that's like a larger case value. I want to focus on that, so I want that to build business. For me Is that what we're talking about, the outline you're going for. My end result is to grow my estate planning business.

Speaker 3:

Yes, absolutely Absolutely. And so you're an estate planning attorney, and so we're going to figure out what goes in your introduction. It's probably going to be your backstory. Why did you become an attorney? What makes you different? What do you offer that's different from the next guy? We're going to get out from you some of your amazing client wins, some of the client transformations. Maybe you have a process that you use that's proprietary or that you've developed over the years that really works and you can share that. Another thing is what are the questions that every single person asks you? When you get on your consultation, you know it's like how much does this cost? How long will it take me so you can answer some of those questions, so that you're not feeling like a broken record? And then people, you've set the expectation already prior to even meeting with a person. So it's going to save you time in the long run and energy which time and energy? That's like all we have.

Speaker 2:

Yes, those are really the and we all have FAQs, no matter what you're selling, and that's the we encourage our attorneys to. You know, we're doing video marketing or videos as part of marketing, and that's one of the things that are running into. What do I say? Pick an FAQ, do a 30 second video answer the question.

Speaker 3:

And if you're not having a book, then you have an entire treasure trove of what do I say, because it's all there.

Speaker 2:

So about how long? So it's a 12 month process. Does it depend on the author about how long it takes to get all the content in and get the book printed?

Speaker 3:

How does that vary? Yeah, so it varies in terms of how long it takes the person to write, and you know, I can offer guidance on how to write 30 minutes a day and really get where you're going.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Good idea.

Speaker 3:

So that you know, not everybody's like that. You know I am the person when I'm actually writing another book and and so I go to Starbucks and I sit there. Six hours have gone by, oh, wow, ok, what just happened. So you know I'll do that on a Saturday. You know I'll say like sayonara to kids and my husband and I'll be like I'll be back later. But not everybody's like that.

Speaker 3:

Some people they may be the kind of person who wants to write first thing in the morning with their coffee they get up they go to their home office, they get a cup of coffee and they just start typing and you don't even have to type, you can voice to text, you can voice to text. I mean, there are so many shortcuts that we have. You know that people 20, 10 years ago didn't have Five years ago.

Speaker 2:

Very true, very true. You make it sound so easy, so I get my content out, I speak out what I want to talk about, and then your editors come in and take care of the rest of it, oh of it. And then I get the final approval before it goes to print. And who does the cover art?

Speaker 3:

Who does that? Yt? We have a phenomenal cover artist and the layout artist and so that it's going to look like you know, one of the big five publishers published Nice, but you get the control and you can have this book done in a year. I had a client once this was before I was doing publishing and she said I need to publish with a big five publisher. That's it's gotta be that. And I said, okay, great, it took 14 months. After she was finished, the draft, like the book, was done, it was ready to go. It took another 14 months for it to be published.

Speaker 3:

And they changed the title and they handled these notes. You get to own this stuff when you publish it independently.

Speaker 2:

Well, in so many times with the big publisher it just never happens. You're sold the bill of goods but it's like it just doesn't quite fit their catalog or they can't find an audience that they want to put it on and they just, even though they committed, they just never follow through. And that happens a lot more often than people think.

Speaker 3:

And, you know, maybe you have your own firm. Well, why not create an imprint with your firm's name so that anything you publish can go under that imprint? It just adds to that credibility and reputation building and the value of your company. That's true especially if you eventually want to sell it. Yeah, that exit strategy.

Speaker 2:

You've just added to that and then you could trademark the imprint Great ideas, Absolutely great ideas. So this has been fantastic. I love the whole process. I love that you take it from idea to the end and the voice I can write by just speaking. Yeah, I think anybody should reach out to you that wants to, that is even thinking about doing a book. It sounds like you make it sound really easy. Where can people reach out to you? I know, in case they want to do this or talk to you a little bit further, how can they reach?

Speaker 3:

out to you. Well, the best way is just to get on my calendar. It's just meetmelanievip.

Speaker 2:

Okay, We'll put that in the in the show notes and just get a, get a short appointment with you and yeah, that's fantastic. I love the idea. You know, having a book as a lead magnet. I've done that. It makes a lot of difference and, you know, when you find that high value client or potential client, you can always send them a copy of your book and that gets them started on knowing you and I think that's a great idea. Thank you so much for your time and coming on and explaining this to us.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Speaker 4:

Thanks for joining me today for this episode. As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, you can connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about. And if you're ready to take the next step with a digital strategist to help you grow your law firm, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to lawmarketingzonecom to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, thanks for listening to Leadership in Law podcast and be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Leadership in Law podcast. Remember you're not alone on this journey. There's a whole community of law firm owners out there facing similar challenges and striving for the same success. Head over to our website at lawmarketingzonecom. From there, connect with other listeners, access valuable resources and stay up to date on the latest episodes. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Until next time, keep leading with vision and keep growing your firm.

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Marilyn Jenkins

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