Recently I found a recipe for homemade oatmeal cookies that looked good. I like to do some occasional baking so I gave it a try. After setting the oven, mixing the ingredients and putting them in the oven for the prescribed 13 minutes, I pulled them out and took a bite.

“These are gross. They taste like weird biscuits.”

Then it hit me… I had left out the sugar!

One simple ingredient was the difference between great tasting cookies and weird biscuits.

The same goes for your book. There are ways to build the marketing into the manuscript that, if left out, could be the difference between selling through your print run and ending up on 80% off table at Barnes and Noble.

The following are three examples of how authors baked the marketing right into their books.

Drive by Dan Pink

Dan included a “Type I Toolkit” at the end to help you implement the ideas in his book.  At the back of this toolkit is a 140 character Twitter summary and a 100 word “Cocktail Summary” that you can share in less than a minute.

By providing pre-written ways to share the ideas in his book, Dan made it very easy for people to spread the word.

Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman

Josh split his entire book up into short, 1-3 page chapters.  It makes this very heavy book easy to consume, and interestingly, easy to share.  At the end of each chapter is a link to a corresponding page on his website.  That page hosts a video of Josh talking about the idea in the chapter along with the key points listed below.  This is a fantastic way to use online content to support a book.  It also makes it easy to share.  For instance, check out the chapters on Permission Marketing, Free and Reputation.

4 Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss

“It looks like it was constructed from 20 years of Men’s Health and Cosmopolitan titles.”

This is what a friend of mine said after reading through the table of contents of 4 Hour Body.  Of course it was not meant as a compliment, but it struck me as brilliant!  Magazines spend an exorbitant amount of time, money and effort figuring out the right combination of words to get people to buy their latest issue.

Tim knew he would be releasing his table of contents across the web to drive pre-sales of his book so he used phrases like “How to lose 20 pounds in 30 days without exercise” and “Going from 5K to 50K in 12 weeks” to grab people’s attention.

How can you do this?

These are just three examples of how authors sculpted the content in their book to catch people’s attention and make it easy to share.  How can you create a recipe that bakes your book marketing right into the manuscript?

A part of the Tribe series.

The following six steps are the framework for everything we will be doing to build your tribe. It is the funnel that we will use to move people from first contact into fans that are passionately behind your movement.

In future weeks we will break down each of these steps in more specifics detail and action items.

1. Find where people are already showing up and join them. Your potential fans are already congregating together in different places. Show up in person (or better yet, get an opportunity to speak) at conventions and conferences. Follow people on Twitter and get involved in Facebook groups and pages. Do interviews with other experts in your space. Find where people already are and then get involved.

2. Start a blog and write regularly. This is your home base and everyone that finds you online will inevitably land here. Use it to expound on your ideas and teach what you are learning.

3. Setup your email marketing. Gain access to directly email your fans. This is your most important asset! This is where the people that truly care about what you are doing are going to be. You must move people from being more than just blog readers to email subscribers.

4. Train your community to get involved. This is key and the thing people often overlook. Start small with things like Q&A's but ratchet it up over time. From early on, teach your fans that you expect them to roll up their sleeves and work with you.

5. Cultivate your top 1%. As you ask your community to get involved you'll start to see a few people's names show up over and over. Invite them in to interact with you and start giving them tools to get even more involved. These will be the people that will have the biggest impact on growing your fan base.

6. Connect your fans to each other. The goal is not to grow a large list of disconnected followers. The goal is to build a community. This means they need to interact with each other. Give them opportunities to do this via digital and physical means. Forums, Ning communities, workshops and book signings are all examples of this.

These are the steps you will use to start building your community of fans that will buy your book and help spread your movement.

Homework

Spend some time thinking through each of the six steps and making notes on how you think you can best engage your community in each one.

Every leader cares for and supports a movement.

This ties in closely to the homework I assigned in the previous post. Your "movement" is connected to your Idea Sentence. Your job as leader of your tribe is to care for and support your idea.

Think of your movement as a small house plant. To help it grow you provide direct care such as watering it regularly and protecting it from pests and harmful environments. You also support it's growth by making sure it gets enough sun.

What can you do for your movement and idea that provides the proper environment and care for it to grow and spread?

Here are a few ideas:

• Challenge the status quo. Point out the ways you are working to change things. Identify a common enemy (a person or an idea).
• Create a culture. What makes the people in your tribe different? Do you have a common language? Common ideals or backgrounds? What would you want people outside your tribe to know about you and your followers?
• Have huge amounts of curiosity about the world you are trying to change. Never stop learning. Always be looking for bigger and better ways to care for and support your movement.
• Communicate your vision of the future. What do people's lives look like after they have been a member of your tribe for a long time? How is their life better?
• Commit to your "idea" and make decisions based on that commitment. Your Idea Sentence from last week should be the litmus test for everything you do. All of your efforts and movement should be to spread your idea further.
• Go first. Leaders are always the ones that step out first and then call people to follow them.
• Put your own skin in the game.  Be willing to make mistakes (and admit them) and move on. People respect and follow a leader that steps out and risks their own reputation.

Homework

Get a piece of paper and write your Idea Sentence at the top. Now go through each item in the above list and write down at least one concrete step you can take to care for and support your movement.

Conventional wisdom says it's better to buy a home instead of rent. There are exceptions to this rule, but generally over a long period of time, it is better to spend your money, time and effort on an asset that you own instead of one someone else owns.

Traditionally, authors are in charge of writing the book and the marketing job is left to publishers and publicists.

If you leave it completely to other people to sell your book, what asset do you have once the whole process is done? All of the money you spent on the publicist and publisher is gone and you have nothing besides book sales to show for it. The next time you have a book come out you have to spend the exact same money to reach the exact same people. And considering how quickly the markets are changing, you will more than likely spend the same money to reach fewer people.

Is there a better way?

By building your own tribe you are creating something that will help you for the rest of your career. By gaining permission to stay in direct contact with your fans, you will be able to grow a relationship over a long period of time that will not only help book sales, but also your speaking career, consulting company, products sales or whatever else you plan on doing in the future.

Where do publicists and publishers fit in?

Depending on your goals and resources, publishers and publicists can still be a significant asset in selling your book, however this should be done in conjuncture with building your own permission list. Make sure the work they are doing to sell your book also builds your own online platform.

Your goal should be to build your online platform to the point where it alone can sell thousands of copies of your book.

Yesterday Google announced their eBookstore. While at first glance another online bookstore doesn't seem to matter all that much, but Google has a history of knocking down giants. So what do you need to know about this initial launch of the Google eBookstore?

1. Distributed/social comments

To leave a comment on Amazon.com you have to be logged in with your account. They also take steps to make sure people aren't spamming the comments or running multiple accounts. Google eBookstore on the other hand is aggregating comments from several different sources. GoodReads.com is the main source but there are also comments from editorial sources and Kirkus.com. You can also leave your review directly in the Google eBookstore.

My question is, what are they doing to protect from people spamming comments? Are they checking for people using multiple accounts either through Google or GoodReads? The consumer reviews are very important in online sales so I would love to see more information on what they are doing to protect the process.

2. Device Agnostic

The Google eBookstore launches with support of reading on the web, Android phones, iPhone, iPad, iPod, Barnes & Noble Nook and Sony eReader. Curiously left off the list is the Amazon Kindle although I would assume that will happen in the near future. Google's site says, "Currently, Google eBooks are not compatible with Amazon Kindle devices, though we are open to supporting them in the future." Once it does, I would start to wonder why anyone would buy an ebook anywhere BUT a store like Google's that allows you to remain device agnostic. Hopefully this will twist the arm of the other major players to decide on a single format for ebooks that can be used (and protected) across all devices.

3. Huge amount of titles available

Google launched with over 3,000,000 titles! That is bigger than any other store currently.

4. Google is crawling the entire book

Depending on the copyright of the book and the publisher's requirements, Google is crawling the content of the entire book. The most exciting thing about this is that books will start showing up in search engines for terms outside of the authors name, book title and short description. What this will do to actual book sales is yet to be seen, but I can only assume this increased exposure will increase sales as well.

I'll pause here and mention that the launch of the Google eBookstore was made possible by a settlement in the class action lawsuit brought against Google by the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers and a handful of authors and publishers over three years ago. By reading through some of the information on this lawsuit it sounds like a lot of decisions have been tentatively made and there is a lot of progress yet to come.

5. Book previews

Publishers will have the option of making 20% to 100% of their book available for preview to readers. It will also make it very easy to embed portions of the book in your website. This is exciting as it will make it much easier to share portions of the book and make them available to potential readers.

6. Analytics

The Google eBookstore will integrate with their analytics software as well. From Google site:

Online reports let you manage your account information, view how many consumers have looked at your titles, see click rates on purchase links, and review other stats related to the Google Books program.

For those of us that focus on analytics and website optimizations to drive sales, this is an exciting feature. I would love to see the other retailers follow suit on this one. The ability to see stats and user actions will help make decisions on how we are driving people to the various online book stores.

7. Adwords integration

An obvious move, the Google eBookstore integrates with their Adwords product to make it easier to purchase and track advertising campaigns.

8. Resources and Education for Authors and Publishers

While it is current pretty sparse, Google has created a resources section to help authors and publishers take advantage of their new platform. Keep an eye here as this section is sure to grow quickly.

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I'm most excited about what this move by Google will force the other online retailers to do, especially Amazon.com. Will Amazon open their Kindle format? Will they allow authors and publishers to track their analytics? I'm very interested to see what comes next.

I could not locate very much information on how much control authors and publishers will have in the listing of their books. Will you be able to change the primary category for your book? Will you be able to customize the author's page with video and other content?

Google has a history of launching a product and then quickly growing it and adding additional features. What will be next for the Google eBookstore and what will they continue to push the other major retailers to do? Time will tell.

Tim Ferriss, one of the greatest living self promoters, recently launched the book trailer for his upcoming new title, The 4-Hour Body. Creating these video trailers is becoming increasingly popular in the publishing world, unfortunately most of them are worthless at converting to sales of the book.

Tim Ferriss' take is exceptional because it follows the three rules for creating a book trailer:

1. Keep your audience in mind.  Tim Ferriss has a huge following in the younger, internet savvy demographics.  His next book will appeal, broadly, to the same audience and his trailer reflects this.  It features music by heavy metal band Sevendust, several young, hip athletes and very modern video editing.  It feels exactly right for the audience.
2. Keep it short. This is a commercial, not a television episode or infomercial.  Tim kept his trailer to 59 seconds - long enough to get the point across but short enough to hold people's attention.
3. Sell the book. What you would think is an obvious point is often overlooked in book trailers.  Tim's trailer makes several promises of the type of information that can only be found in the book.
   

   "Imagine if you could... hold your breath for 5 minutes, lift 500 pounds, run 100 miles, lose 100 pounds... do the impossible."

   You then have to read the book to find out how.  It leaves you gasping for more. Don't read an outtake of the book, interview the author or anything else that doesn't spell out the promises that are only fulfilled by purchasing and reading the book.

Follow these three rules and you will have a book trailer that will actually sell your book.

The short answer:

A tribe is a group of people connected to an idea, connected to a leader and connected to each other.

What does this mean for you, the author? Let's go through each element individually.

Connected to an idea

When people join your tribe, what are they becoming a part of? What is the bigger "idea" behind your work? If you are a non-fiction writer, answer the question "How are you trying to make the world a better place?". For the fiction writer, start with a question like "What is the world I'm inviting people to be a part of?"

People join a tribe because they want to be connected to something bigger than themselves and, even when it's your fans, something bigger than you. What are your ideals? Why are people connecting with you instead of one of the other millions of authors out there?

Answering these questions is a key step towards building your tribe. The ability to put this into one phrase or sentence allows you to easily communicate to people why you are someone worth following and connecting with.

Connected to a leader

In this case, YOU are the leader. In next week's email I will go into more depth as to what your job is as the leader, but for now, know that for your tribe to exist, you will be inviting people to connect with you.

This can look different depending on the tribe you are building (more on this subject in the weeks to come) but start thinking about how your tribe is going to connect and interact with you.

Connected to each other

You are one person and can only do so much. It is important when you build your tribe to connect the people in your tribe to each other. This will allow them to engage around you and your ideas without your direct involvement. Give your fans opportunities to share with each other how your work has changed their lives for the better.

By connecting your fans with each other you will increase their enthusiasm about your tribe, give them comradery around your idea and allow you to distribute the work of building and supporting your tribe to others.

Your Homework

Take the time to sit down and put together your tribe's "idea". Start by writing out everything you are trying to accomplish with your book(s) and your career. What are you calling people to be apart of? Then put that idea into one sentence. This will be the sentence that drives everything else you do.

Extra - Download our free 16 Principles for Building and Leading a Tribe ebook.

I recently switched my credit card processor from Paypal to PowerPay.  This was a result of Paypal freezing my account and sitting on thousands of my dollars for ten full days.  I was trying to upgrade my account with them to add a few features we are needing here at Out:think headquarters.  The result was Paypal locking down my account so I could not withdrawal or use my money in any way.  It took a week and a half, several emails, four phone calls and losing my temper with a "customer service" agent to get them to release my funds.  The ripple effects of this caused huge problems internally.

So I switched.

The problem is that several people had been telling me for a long time to switch away from Paypal.  I had heard plenty of horror stories similar to mine, yet I didn't switch.  Why not?  One word: inertia.

My company cards, bank account and invoicing were all tied into Paypal.  Switching involved paperwork, phone calls and lots of internal changes.  Every time I thought about it I would put it off because of the work it required.  It took a huge amount of pain to finally break that inertia and get me to switch to a better option.

This is what you are fighting when you are spreading your idea and growing your tribe.  If you are asking people to change you are fighting inertia on some level.  So what can you do to break this?  Here's a few tips:

1. Focus on the pain points - The truth is there were a lot of reasons I should have left Paypal long before they froze my account.  The problem was I kept ignoring them and assuming it wasn't that big of a deal.  When you are asking people to make a change, focus on the points of pain they are living with and how life will be better by coming over to your side.  Force them out of ignoring the problems.
2. Offer a better option - While many people suggested switching away from Paypal, the question had to be answered of what was the better option.  If you are asking people to change, you have to clearly show what you are asking them to change to.  Make it easy and focus on the benefits.
3. Never say "I told you so" - Obviously, a part of me felt like an idiot for waiting until a disaster hit before I made a change.  When I told my story to a friend that had recently encouraged me to ditch Paypal, he just laughed and said "We've all been there."  You have to base everything in love and caring.  Your motives have to be grounded in wanting to help people, even after they've been burned by not taking your advice.

Causing changing is often a long, hard process but it can be done.  Focus on the pain points, point out the better option and always base it in love and you will continue to make an impact.

When I was in highschool I was a fan of a small, indie band.  At one point I heard they were coming through town to do a show. However, just buying a ticket to the show wasn't good enough for me, I wanted to figure out a way to actually meet them. After forgoing a few ideas that would end in restraining orders, I decided to shoot their manager an email with an offer to volunteer. I'd help them unpack the truck, collect tickets, whatever they needed. I figured if I was hanging out for a couple hours before the show I would get a chance to meet the band. My idea worked. My offer to help was accepted and as a result, I got to chat with the lead singer for a few minutes and met the rest of the members. It was pretty exciting.

Fans are looking for ways to get involved

I was looking for pretty much any way I could help out the band. All they had to do was provide me with directions and I was ready to hop to it. This is how people act when they are part of a tribe. They want to get involved and help. Are you giving your tribe ways that they can do that?

"What's in it for me" still applies

The only reason I volunteered was so I could meet the band. Sure, I was a fan and wanted to help out, but I was still mainly interested in what I got out of it.

When you are inviting your tribe members to get involved, always put yourself in their shoes and ask "What's in it for me?".

It should be easy to volunteer

For me to volunteer I had to track down the band manager's email address and then send a message hoping it would end up in the right place. As a result, I was the only volunteer to show up and the band ended up doing a lot of the work themselves. If it had been a lot easier to get involved, a lot more people would have shown up.

How can you get your fans involved?

1. Give people jobs to do. In the book Switch by Chip and Dan Heath, they discuss the idea of scripting the critical moves. Make it very clear how people can get involved and it will increase the amount of people that take you up on the offer.
2. Make sure there's a "reward" for getting involved. In a lot of cases, this could merely be special access to you. Maybe some emails back and forth, special webinar, etc. However there are also inherent rewards that go along with other actions. Just make sure you answer the "What's in it for me?" question.
3. Make it easy to get involved. It should be easy to find out how to get involved and sign up. The instructions should be clear and prominently displayed. If you leave basic questions unanswered, you'll lose people.  Make the path short and easy to follow.

One of the best movies of 2010 offers up several rules for surviving the zombie apocalypse. Good cardio, the "double tap" and always wearing your seat belt are essential tactics for surviving Zombieland. However, in between dodging blood thirsty zombies and looking for the last Twinkie on earth, the four characters of Zombieland teach some of the basic principles of Tribes.

Build trust slowly

You see? You just can't trust anyone. The first girl I let into my life and she tries to eat me.
-- Columbus

Just as Zombieland is filled with brain dead attackers, we are bombarded by content and advertising every day from the moment our clock radio wakes us in the morning until we're browsing the web before bed. The sheer quantity is overwhelming and causes us to start out with mistrust.

Building relationships with your fans takes time as they learn to trust your expertise and staying power. Stick with it and over time you will see their loyalty grow.

Always be prepared

Don't kill me with my own gun.
-- Tallahassee

In Zombieland, you can't go anywhere without being prepared. The same goes for building your Tribe. It's a 24/7 job. Every time you return a reader's email, do a book signing, speaking event or merely attend a conference, it's an opportunity to build your tribe. Always be prepared.

It has to be about other people

And without other people, you might as well be a zombie.
-- Columbus

The minute the only goal of leading your Tribe becomes selling books or making yourself famous, you might as well give it up. It will never work.

Building and leading a Tribe is about changing the world and making your followers' lives better.  It centers around an idea bigger than yourself.

No matter how you slice it, building a Tribe is hard work.  By putting in the time, building trust and focusing on making your fan's lives better, you'll end up with a group of passionate people that are willing to stay the course with you.