In this episode we'll speak with author and speaker, Tim Koegel about his experience self-publishing and distributing his book into airports.

1.43-Tell us a bit about your book, and the audience you try to reach with it? Also, can you tell us a little bit about your original publishing journey and why you originally went that route?

• I originally self-published because I thought it was the easiest and the fastest. I had a lot of people attending my workshops asking if I had a book, and all I had at the time was a handout.
• I had the idea that I should put a workshop into a book.
• I had a deadline, I was speaking to an business school class and wanted to have a book to give at the workshop.
• At the time of the deadline for writing the book, we just had our second child, so the only I had time to write was 3 hours before he woke up and 3 hours after he went to sleep.
• Finished the book on time on that schedule and sold 500 copies.

3.42- Why don't you tell us a little bit about the book and what you do as a trainer?

• The book is called the Exceptional Presenter and I work with people to improve what they are saying, their message, how to organize it, and how to deliver that message.
• The book is for anyone who has a message and needs help delivering that message.

4.20- Talk to us a bit more about your self-publishing journey. You went and did that on your own, and made some great headway by yourself!

• I was excited to be on this journey and get the book anywhere I could.
• I was handling the mailing, the billing, from all different organizations. It was so difficult keeping track of everything. I realized that's when I needed some additional help.
• There were hundreds and hundreds of invoices I couldn't keep track of everything.
• I talked to a client of mine, and he advised me not to go through a New York house, but the problem there, is they may give you 30-40 days before they move on to another project. Not long after that he came to me with Greenleaf after an article he saw, and suggested I reach out, and that's where the relationship with Greenleaf began.

5.55- Why was it important for you to be in airport bookstores? Tell us about your experiences getting your book into Hudson’s airport bookstores. What roadblocks did you hit, and how did you overcome those?

• It was important for me because airports mean business travelers and my books is a business book, and that's the audience I wanted to get in front of.
• Originally, I would take stacks of books to airports and give them 5 books and see how fast they sell and if they sell.
• I started getting really good feedback from said airports, so they did a trial basis, the book sold well, and they decided to roll it out.

7.04- Assuming our typical listener doesn’t know how airport placements works, can you help our audience understand the economics at play here? (IE, pay to play, worth it from a marketing perspective if the book supports speaking/consulting but not worth it for book sales alone).

• You have your option of where you want the book. I always wanted a face out option.
• However, there was a range of prices. You pay more for the face out, you pay more if it's on a table, you pay more if it's up by the cash register, it just depends if you are getting enough clients and traffic from the book.
• It just depends how you are tracking your relationships of who is purchasing your book and where.
• Over time, it just became too expensive.
• There are so many different ways to market your books nowadays.
• It just became too costly over the years. Every year it was more money for the placements.

9.17- Eventually, you made the decision to work with Greenleaf to facilitate your airport placements. What was the tipping point for you? What value did Greenleaf offer that met an unfilled need?

• The big key for me was presenting in front of large audiences. I could self publish and sell that way, but it just became too much.
• The transition to Greenleaf was just so easy. Everyone at Greenleaf really takes pride in their work, really enjoys working with you as an author and your book. It almost felt like an extension of my staff, like I had hired this whole division to help me with my book, it just took away the hassle and headache.
• Working with Greenleaf was attractive to me, because I could still provide these large audiences with volumes of books, and not get crushed by a traditional publisher, where I am getting $.25 cents per book and working with someone who isn't interested in my book anymore anyway.
• I could make more money with the model at Greenleaf compared to any of the large publishers.

11.12- Any parting advice for authors like you who are experts in a specific area and want to leverage their book for the most possible impact?

• The book gives you credibility. Do it, if there's any question.
• How many times do you get to capture something, put it in print, and then share it with an audience, and get the range of sharing it with that many people.
• Consider me and my workshops. I could do workshops every day until I drop, but it still wouldn't give me the reach that the book does. The reach is significantly further.

12.08- For authors who have self-published and may be at a point where they are considering partnering with a distributor, what advice would you give in terms of making the decision to bring on a partner for distribution? What criteria should they consider?

• I think if they are thinking if starting the journey, just look at your options. Listen to what each publisher has to say.
• There are more expenses when it comes to the hybrid model, you need to look at it from a business perspective and weigh your options and looks at how each option plays out.
• Look at all 3 versions of the way to go.
• With the hybrid, you get the most help, but with self-publishing it's quickest to market, however, the quality suffers.
• When I look at the book I had done on my own, compared to the book I have now since working with Greenleaf, it's night and day. The level of professionalism has been bumped up 50 notches.
• It's amazing when somebody knows what they're doing, how each aspect of the book looks so much better.
• You also need to consider foreign languages, working with Greenleaf helped me publish my book in 9 languages. If you self publish there is no way that will happen.

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About Tim

New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Timothy J. Koegel has over twenty years of experience as a presentation coach and consultant to such business giants as Cisco Systems, Xerox, ExxonMobil, Forbes, Jones Lang LaSalle and Deloitte.