Tara R. Alemany is the founder of Emerald Lake Books,
a boutique hybrid publishing company. She is also a multi-award-winning author
and speaker, as well as a serial entrepreneur. (She started her first company
more than 30 years ago at the age of 19.) The combination of her extensive
business experience and writing skills enabled her to create a unique
publishing company that blends coaching and publishing to help her authors
successfully use their books to build their business or brand.
1.
Tara, as the publisher of Emerald Lake
Books, what have you seen to be the formula for success as a hybrid book
publisher?
A wise man
once told me that there is a market for every business. It’s just a matter of
making sure that your ideal client knows you exist. It’s the same when it comes to publishing.
Authors have options these days. They can work with a traditional publisher,
self-publish or work with a hybrid publisher. There’s no single right answer.
But each publishing model has its pros and cons. As an author, it’s your responsibility to
match up the needs of you and your book with the publishing model that’s the
best solution for you. A reputable, high-quality hybrid publisher is the
perfect solution for an author who wants to use a book as part of the marketing
of their business or brand. We provide the author with more creative control
and a shorter timeline to publication, while providing professional services
that reflect well on the author and their brand.
2. What kind of
books/genres do you look for? Why?
In our experience, books that target a
niche market are the best. It’s easier for an author to connect with the reader
because they can be very clear about who they are writing for and what issue
the reader is trying to solve. So often, an author writes what they are
passionate about. Words tumble onto the page, eager to be helpful. However, if
the author doesn’t have a clear picture of who their ideal reader is, there can
be a disconnect between what the reader is looking for and what the author has
written—not because the author isn’t knowledgeable enough, but because the
information wasn’t organized the way the reader needed to process it in order to
achieve the desired effect. But when you write with a specific reader in mind,
the connection between the reader’s needs and the book’s proffered solution can
be made much more easily.
3. What inspired
you to pen Publish with Purpose: A Goal-Oriented Framework for
Publishing Success?
As Emerald Lake Books developed as a
brand, we created a coaching program for our authors that prepares them for the
release, launch and long-term marketing of their book. Our authors repeatedly keyed
in on certain exercises that helped them the most, not just with their book,
but with the vision they had for their business and author brand. These
exercises helped them get clear on who they wanted to work with, what they had
to offer, and why they were doing it. But it also helped them identify what
made them unique and set them apart from the competition. Sharing some of our
program helps other authors in their own writing journey while improving the
quality of books being published. But it
also allows us to showcase what makes us different as a publisher and invites
those who are interested to explore working with us.
4. What advice do
you have for the struggling writer?
Often, when we sit down to write, we
think about what we want to say. Instead, if you think about your ideal reader
and what it is they need to hear, it takes the pressure off. It’s easier to
answer a question than to write a monologue. So, ask yourself the questions
they might have. How would you respond to them? Start writing there. The rest
will flow. I would also recommend finding a trusted group of people who are
willing to critique your work for you. That might mean joining a local writers’
group or finding or creating your own critique group, but being able to share
and receive writing critiques is a powerful way to improve your writing, even
if it’s someone else’s work being reviewed.
5. What mistakes do
many writers make when putting their book together?
Whether you’re writing fiction or
nonfiction, there is a “story arc” to follow. Sometimes, it seems that it’s
easier for fiction authors to keep that arc in mind. Yet nonfiction authors
need to pay attention to it too. Nonfiction
authors take their readers on a journey. So, it’s important that you start at
the beginning, where they currently are. Describe where they’re going to go and
what they can anticipate along the way, so that they’re prepared for the
journey. Then tell them how to get there, instructing them along the way with
the key pieces of information they need to reach their intended final
destination. And once they get there, remind them of how far they’ve come and
how much fun it was to reach their new destination. When we remember that the
reader is our audience, it makes for much more compelling material.
6. How can authors
get to identify or know who their ideal reader is – and how to market to him or
her?
There are many ways to identify your
ideal reader; too many to cover here unfortunately. But I’ll touch briefly on a
couple. Sometimes, it’s simply picking a
specific family member or friend who you know would benefit from or enjoy what
you’re writing, and then writing specifically for them. I did that with one of
my books, The Best is Yet to Come. Or if you’re writing about how to do
a specific thing or solve a particular problem, ask yourself who has that
problem? Jot down some defining character traits for them. This is where
writing for a niche market comes in handy. When you have an ideal reader in mind,
everything you write, from the book to your marketing copy, becomes more
conversational and targeted. It’s easier for the reader to determine whether
you’re addressing them or not, so they can appropriately self-select. “Yes, I’m
part of that audience.” Or, “No, that’s not me at all.”
7. What is
“goal-oriented publishing”?
Goal-oriented publishing is the
methodology we developed for publishing our books. For every book that’s
written, there are essentially three goals that need to be considered for the
book to be a success. The first two are straight-forward, but the last is a bit
more esoteric.
1.
What was the reader’s goal
when they opened the book and started to read?
2.
What was the author trying
to accomplish for their business or brand by writing the book?
3.
What impact is the book
intended to have?
When we write, our words are
far-reaching. They can change the life of someone we will never meet. And by
changing their life, they respond and act differently, creating changes in
their own circle of influence. Those ripples of change extend outward,
impacting others as they go. While this often happens organically, being able
to envision what that would look like often provides the fuel an author needs
to press on with the difficult task of marketing their book.
8. Lastly, why do
you love about books and working in the book publishing industry?
When I was young, books became my
sanctuary. I used stories as a way to escape things that confused me and find
friends who would always be there. Yet as I grew, I became more aware that words
have both the power to build up or tear down. Since it’s easy to tear things
down, I developed a deep appreciation for anyone who strove to build others up.
It’s why we emphasize that we work with positive people. We want to work with
those who are the problem-solvers, the inspirers, the bridge-builders,
encouragers and leaders in our world. It doesn’t matter what genre they write
so much as it does the attitude and approach they take to what they’re doing. I
love the fact that books permit authors to give the best of who they are. And
we get to be a part of helping them do that successfully.
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