[Podcast] Andrew Keyt on How Book Publicity Grew His Consulting Practice

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By Melissa Parks and Dave Goetz

If you're writing for a niche audience, chances are your fantasy of becoming a New York Times bestselling author will remain a fantasy.

That was Andrew Keyt's realization as he wrote and then promoted Myths and Mortals: Family Business Leadership and Succession Planning. Andrew is an internationally known business strategist and succession planning expert for family owned businesses.

Some authors attempt to widen the appeal of their book to make it "more popular" (and hopefully sell more copies), but that's a recipe for average.  A niche book like "Myths and Mortals" has a specific and small audience: the owners of and leaders within family businesses. 

To make it have wide applicability is to excoriate the essence of the book - that which makes it unique, enjoyable and referable. 

According to Andrew, you have to wrestle with this early on, both internally and with your publisher. Once you come to peace with what the book is, you can promote your book with great success.

Dream It First

With the help of Cave Henricks Communications, a PR firm, Andrew drafted a dream list of publications he wanted his book featured in. The first eight weeks of the book's launch, the PR firm reached out to its media list and the book was featured as the Book of the Week by Times of London and was reviewed by Forbes. The firm also locked in some writing gigs for Andrew, which continue to draw attention six years since the book's publication.

For Andrew, the big win of this PR splash was that he was connected with one of the wealthiest family businesses in the United States for his consulting practice.

For the six years following its publication, Andrew continued to sell books, often by brokering a deal when asked to speak. He'd say, "My fee is $10K for the speaking engagement, book I'll do it for $5k if you buy 100 books."  Buzz  is created when 100 books go  out into the world at once. And it's much better than selling one here and one there via Amazon.

Since its publication, Myths and Mortals has been translated into Mandarin and Russian, and is in the process of being translated into Spanish. Proof that even a niche book can have legs for a long stretch.