Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                00:21

Welcome to book marketing mentors, The Wiki Podcast where you learn proven strategies, tools, ideas, and tips from the masters.

Every week can introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books.

Today, my special guest is Tom Anton.

Tom has never had a job.

He's an internet multimillionaire.      00:53

Well, you could say he's the guy next door and founder of the only licensed dedicated internet marketing school in the country.

He's the subject of a Hollywood documentary, the American entrepreneur that's going to premiere in the summer of 20 23.

He's a longtime colleague, and someone I've admired for many years, Tom, It's such a pleasure to welcome you to the show, and thank you for being this week's guest expert and mentor.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         01:06

Oh, Susan, I am thrilled to be here, but, you know, I did apply for a job 1 time.

It said it had a 401K, and I thought, man, that's a good starting salary.

401000.

I didn't get that job.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                01:25

Too funny.

That's a good one.

I really like that.

Tom, you and I were just chatting briefly before we went on air.

And you said you were into the internet before many people knew about out to it, and I'm 1 of those people.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                01:59

And I remember way back when you were talking about this thing, the Internet.

And I was like, what is this guy talking about?

And now look at us 20 plus years later, your mister internet mister digital marketer Let's talk about it as it relates specifically to our authors who are primarily, as you know, non-fiction authors.

So why should an author concentrate on this whole idea of going digital or being digital?

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         02:22

First of all, it was 29 years since we got started on the Internet.

So time flies or you're having fun, I guess.

Right?

You know, I've I've spoken that some of the major author events, you know, over 20 years' worth.

And I see everybody desperate to get the book contract with somebody and, you know, the advances are almost nothing now.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         02:43

In fact, the advance I got from 1 of my printed books they would nickel and dime me  to pay for the graphics and for indexing and all kinds of stuff.

It just drove me crazy.

So when I got into the digital world selling ebooks, is virtually no cost.

I mean, you could be homeless and make a fortune selling ebooks.

Because there's no development cost.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         03:07

The covers you can do on Canva, you can do a Word document, convert it to PDF.

I mean, in 1 of the titles for this event is how it made four million dollars on one ebook.

And there was no development cost and was written in four hours.

So some of the things I'm gonna be talking about today I'm gonna show you how to get your books out really fast.

I have a buddy that's been 40 years telling me he's gonna write a book.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         03:22

It's not out yet.

So the one I just said made $4 million on, 4 hours, and it's no BS.

I'll tell you how I did that.

And I gotta tell you how to get really high quality, large quantities of books printed for free.

I'm gonna tell you 2 ways to do that.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         03:51

And Also, I heard you and Brian Judd on a previous call.

He's really great, and you were talking about a sponsorship deal.

I'm gonna take that to another level for the folks today.

So the digital world means there's low risk, super high returns because you can get the same amount of money for an ebook as you can get for a printed book.

And it's actually less work, less hassle, and the money is, you know, they download it themselves.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         04:04

The money goes into your checking account, bam wham.

You made money.

So It's way less risk and authors are making way more money going digital than trying to fight it out in that other world of

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                04:11

the print world.

We're gonna have a few people who printed books.

They're gonna say, oh my goodness.

What have I done?

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         04:21

Well, no.

I mean, you can sell it like crazy online too, but you need to learn the digital world, which makes it way easier to sell the print books.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                04:52

Well, and that's true because I know that many people you know, a fearful of that ebook alongside of a printed version because they say, hey, well, if they buy the ebook they're not going to buy the printed version.

And I say, no, that's not necessarily true.

You know, I've bought an audiobook.

I've bought a printed version and I've got the ebook of some books that I really like because there's a whole different experience, which each 1 of those different assets.

So let's get down to the nitty gritty.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                04:56

Alright.

And you've made a multi-million, $4 million did you say

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         04:59

Yeah.

I mean, I gotta say that for last for you.

But

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                05:08

Okay.

Yeah.

People have to hang on for that.

So how do we get started?

As you've listened to many of these broadcasts, which I am thrilled.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                05:41

Thank you for doing that.

Very rare that my guests do that so kudos to you for taking the time.

But as you know, I always like to start, let's start at the very beginning because that's always a very good place to start, as they say, and we want to, as you say, you put out a book in a few hours or a weekend, And now obviously with chat GBT, it's made it even easier, which is crazy.

But if I'm coming to you for the first time, Tom, what would you tell me?

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         06:00

Yeah.

And this artificial intelligence stuff just came around recently, but none of the stuff that I'm talking about had anything to do with that.

These are ways you can do it without that.

That will help you.

But you just wanna be careful with plagiarism because, you know, it's grabbing stuff from every which way and then you don't know what gonna get you in trouble for plagiarism or not.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         06:19

So mine doesn't account for any of that.

My thing is about getting stuff done fast.

You know, I don't know if you remember this book, but I had a book There was a thousand and 42 pages called click the ultimate guide to electronic marketing for speakers.

It dominated the industry for 10 years.

But the thing is it's so big.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         06:37

By the time I was trying to edit part of it, the other part would go obsolete.

And so, nowadays, I broke it down into much smaller chunks that people can absorb.

So that's the first thing, is don't try to write war and peace.

Right?

A specific how-to things that are very targeted.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         07:05

Now, there's a couple tricks to make this really, really fast.

Some of them some of your authors that are real snooty are gonna be, you know, think this is blasphemous, but I don't care I don't care about high quality and the money.

So that's what we're talking about.

The first tip I want to tell people is when you're developing a book on a topic, go to Amazon and type in your topic, and then a bunch of books will come up.

Right?

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         07:38

What you do is is you click on 1 of the books and then there's the "look-in" function.

You click on look in and it's gonna lay out the table of contents on that topic and you do that for 5 or 6 books and you now have all the kinds of things you should cover in your book without stopping and thinking about it, looking at a blank screen all day.

So that's the first thing.

Use the "look-in" function to see what else is out there, and they've already thought this out for you.

Second thing, and this is the blasphemous part, is called PLR.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         08:03

That stands for private label rights, where just about on any topic you can dream of, you can go buy a book.

And get the rights to put your name on it.

Now do I suggest doing that?

No.

But I suggest going ahead and doing it, and then go through the book, throw out the stuff that's crap, put in your personal stuff, change the cover, and now you have an ebook.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         08:36

My last 2 books, I started on a Friday, I put 4 hours in 1 and 8 hours in the other, and by Monday, 2000 bucks had come in.

Trying to tell in his book.

So the speed is important.

The last thing would be to get a ghostwriter.

Some of my most famous books, my instant urology book, my wedding toast and wedding speech books that brought in between them, almost a hundred and $20,000  a year were ghostwritten for 260 dollars each.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         08:49

Including the sales letter.

Then I tweaked them, I put in a bunch of extra resources, and they sold for 9 years straight, bringing in a $120,000  a year.

So that's how to get stuff done fast.

How

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                08:49

do

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         08:49

you like that,

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                08:56

It's pretty good, and I remember the wedding book.

I was like, why is Tom writing this?

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         09:00

I didn't write it.

Tom put his 2 cents worth it.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                09:02

Put his 2 cents worth it.

When I

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         09:29

found the market, that had a need.

And the thing about the digital stuff, Susan, is it's the instant gratification.

Most of those wedding toast books were bought, I suspect, by drunk bachelors at the bachelor party thinking, oh my god, I gotta do a toast tomorrow, and Brian will kill me if I mess it up.

Because they would clunk down their 17 bucks for my wedding toast book.

And then the father of the bride got the wedding speech book.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         09:45

And, you know, so and the instant urology was an urgent need for people, you know, in distress.

So those are just little niche things that just made a lot of money.

That's a more salary than an executive makes, you know, just from that few hour hour investment and that 1 for 9 years straight.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                10:09

And kudos to you, Tom, because what you've done is, as you rightly say, you've looked at where there's a need in the marketplace.

And these are very simple things.

You know, probably most people who have been, you know, to a wedding, and they've had to listen to somebody giving a speech, and they're awful.

I mean, awful.

I've had my fair share and more of them.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                10:41

Yeah.

So putting together something decent like that, I love and the idea of PLR, which I'm familiar with, but I'm not familiar with it in the way you've used it, and that is, as you say, buy something on a topic, check out what is garbage.

And put in your own anecdote to your own stories because at the end of the day, that's most of what the book is you know, really makes it different from anybody else's because as you and I know, there's nothing new under the sun.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         11:02

Exactly.

Right?

So why agonized over, you know, days and weeks and months to write something that could have been done in a few hours and bringing money in.

Now the next thing I wanna talk about is how you can get high quality, large quantities of books actually printed for free, and I have personally done this.

There's 2 methods.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         11:28

1 is, is you have to know a little bit about commercial book printing.

This isn't print-on-demand.

Commercial book printing is done on these enormous presses where they fold a big piece of paper down into little booklets, and then they glue the booklet together called signatures.

Usually 8 pages or 16 or 32 pages.

Well, there's almost always when you go this route blank pages at the end of the book.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         11:58

So what I did is I sold advertising in those blank pages, which paid for the printing bill, So I got to books for free in quantities of like a thousand or 5000.

I sold them at the back of the room for 20 bucks.

That's 1 method is to sell ads on the blank pages at the back of the book.

The other is to pre-sell the book to distributors for that specific topic.

This works better on how to information that's niched.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         12:21

So if you're into go-karts or archery or golf, there's always distributors that service those markets and you can pre-sell them and then that pays for the print bill.

Of course, you're just gonna have stuff in the book that leads back to you for coaching, consulting, speaking, whatever.

Those are the 2 ways you can get high-quality commercially books printed for free.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                12:31

I love that idea.

That is dynamite listeners.

Pay attention to that.

And if you missed it, I recommend that you replay that section.

That was brilliant.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                13:08

It's interesting though that you say that because with regard to the ads, I've put together 6 of those anthologies, you know, women's authors and there are multiple authors.

And it's almost like a summit, but in a book format, they purchased that.

When you've had 12:15 people pay for that, they pay for the cost of the printing, the editing, you know, everything that takes care of the book and I end up with books for free.

So I've known that one which is a great way, but I've not heard of it in your own book.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         13:37

The reason I like this better Susan is that I don't have to deal with 15 other authors and just be lumped in with them.

Yeah.

I'm dealing with companies that have bigger purse strings that the amount that I'm charging them is nothing to them pretty much compared to an author that you gotta nurture them and get them and then you're diluted with a bunch of other authors.

And both ideas work, but this one you're dealing with bigger companies that have bigger purse strings and they're not gonna bother you.

They're gonna give you the ads.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         13:40

You put it in the book and that's the end of it.

There's no editing, nothing.

So

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                13:54

And you make it sound very easy because I know 1 of the questions that I might get is, well, how do you get to these companies?

And who do you speak to there?

And -- Mhmm.

-- you know, so, you know, give us a dummies version of

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         14:06

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's not gonna be the same title in every company, but it's gonna be basically the marketing or promotions manage sponsorship division if it's a big enough company.

You have to do your research on these.

Yeah.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         14:29

I'm making it sound easy because of our short time.

Period, but you have to do all of these ideas take some research that you find out who to pitch to and your pitch will improve and there's unlimited numbers of companies out there that would go for these kinds of ideas.

And you'll get the idea with certain company.

They call it a marketing manager.

Another company would be the promotions manager.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         14:33

You know, so you have to do your research for each particular company.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                14:51

Tom, in that case, would you go to companies where the subject matter was of interest.

So let's take the wedding book for instance.

Would you go, let's say to a bridal store or would you go to some other service that would

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         14:56

bakeries.

Photographers.

Yeah.

And yeah.

It's gonna be way easier.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         15:28

I mean, it's crazy to put something really offbeat.

I mean, you might get a bite on something, but why would you do that when you get something related so that it's even a bigger benefit to them to put an ad in your book?

Because the bride or groom is gonna give that book to the next bride or groom and then your ad is the ad for that company is gonna pay off better.

The ROI is gonna go on and on and on because brides talk to other brides about what services they used and what worked and what didn't.

And so

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                15:45

they'll pass the book along for sure.

Yeah.

That makes so much sense.

I mean, even doing it on a state level would be interesting, you know, because you usually buy things within a local area you know, a bakery, obviously, or a photographer you use.

You don't want to stop paying excess.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                15:50

So yeah.

Okay.

Some different ideas together, Tom.

Go crazy with us.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         16:03

Now, you and Brian had a really cool talk about the sponsors and you know, getting big companies to buy multiple books and all that.

Right?

Alright.

I'm gonna take that to another level for you.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                16:04

Go for it.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         16:16

Alright.

You could be homeless and do this idea and come out with enormous amounts of money.

Alright.

So here's how it works.

Let's use a sample of let's say you wrote a book on volunteerism.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         16:59

And let's say you went to the Red Cross who live on volunteers and you go to them and you say if I could give you and you have written this book, and so you have at least a mock-up or a print-on-demand version to take with you to this whatever meeting you can get with these folks.

And you asked the Red Cross if I can get to 50000 copies of this book, would you distribute it to your volunteer network?

And that's what you're attempting to do.

And you're attempting to get them to say on their letterhead that they will distribute 50000 of these books to their volunteer network if they're given to them for free.

Alright, with me so far.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                17:00

Yes.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         17:38

Then, again, you're gonna do your research.

You're gonna go and find every vendor you can, and many of them brag that they sell to the Red Cross.

People that sell things to the Red Cross, bandages and, you know, alcohol swabs and you know, whatever the Red Cross buys a lot of stuff.

And then you're gonna go to those vendors who probably make millions of dollars a year off the Red Cross and you're gonna show them this letter that says, hey, the Red Cross needs money to finance this book that they wanna give to their volunteers.

And we'd like to know if you'd like to participate in it.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         17:55

Right?

Now they got millions of dollars of contracts and maybe your whole budget is $200,000 dollars for this deal to get 50,000 bucks.

And so you could have exclusive sponsors.

I know you and Brian talked about that.

They pay a lot of money or you can have a bunch of smaller sponsors.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         18:27

And so they're gonna wanna keep the Red Cross happy.

And you got this paper in your hand that says they want these books.

I'm a I just laugh at this because This is so simple.

Typically, in these kinds of deal, Susan, you can take a 30 percent management fee.

So not only do you put together the whole deal to print the book, do the editing, do the all the thing, and put the major sponsors, let them write the forward, get the CEO band aid company or Johnson or Johnson or somebody to write the forward, which you write for them.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         18:52

And you get the book printed, have them delivered to the Red Cross, take your 30 percent management fee.

And in addition to that, you just got the Red Cross to distribute 50000 copies of your name as the author to this book.

And they probably will let you have access to their PR department to help promote the whole deal.

There you go.

That should make you rich folks.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                19:01

Oh my goodness.

I'm like, you're blowing my mind, Tom.

I knew you'd be good, but I didn't expect my mind to be blown quite so much.

I didn't even

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         19:07

get to the 4000000.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Under came warmed up.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                19:07

I know.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         19:30

You get the idea.

You get a major well-known entity to agree to take delivery and distribute large quantities of books, you go to all their vendors that wanna keep their contracts happy and they all have marketing departments too.

When you tap into those budgets, put the deal together, take your management fee, and take the PR that you get from being associated with this major.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                19:34

So this is a printed book.

Correct?

This would be printed.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         19:48

Yeah.

I mean, I think you can do stuff with ebooks.

With codes and stuff, but they're I'm still old school too.

Everybody likes to have a book.

I mean, you don't wanna send somebody a thumb drive as a gift or with an ebook on it.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         20:16

I still like to mark up my books.

And plus, you know, the old school people at the Red Cross are gonna understand a printed book that's gonna be given to these volunteers, and Red Cross is gonna be on it and all are it's just gonna be beautiful.

And the bad thing about ebooks is everything's hidden in electrons.

So this is why I said, if you mix both of these worlds, you can be a very, very highly paid author and make a lot of people happy and do a lot of good.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                20:21

I love it.

It's a fabulous idea.

Fabulous.

Fabulous.

Okay.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                20:34

Let's talk about your internet marketing school so people could know about that.

We're gonna keep, you know, the $4 million piece sort of that's what's the Paul Harvey thing?

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         21:00

Well, the school was developed because, you know, I started getting really well-known in the field of Internet and digital marketing.

You know, my program is a one-on-one program.

It's very high level.

And all my staff works with you one-on-one.

But it's only a finite amount of people you can help that way, or you have to just jack the be up so high.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         21:19

It's just unreachable.

So I thought, how am I gonna do this?

And also, how am I gonna fight the fact that, you know, this is an unregulated field.

There's so many scammers.

I actually have a TV show in development Hollywood called Skamprogate, and you may be aware in our past of me going after some big name people in our field and how that went.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         21:39

So the school I thought, you know what?

Nobody on this earth has gone through the scrutiny that I have to go through to get a license for an adult education facility.

It's actually Internet marketing is actually considered vocational.

It's like plumbing and heating and air conditioning.

It's if you don't have to be digging ditches or welding or something.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         22:14

So I went through 3 years to get the license background checks, financial checks, curriculum checks, the whole bit to get the licenses in school.

It's been running, I think, 12:13 years now.

And that way, I could help more people at a lower fee, and I could save them from the, I don't wanna say, indoctrination camps, but that's what I'm thinking.

Of the typical 4 year school nowadays, which they just teach you how to protest, and then you got 300000 dollars in debt and you're competing for jobs at Starbucks.

When I went to school, I'm a big educational fan, but it's different now.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         22:32

I gotta tell you, you know, you say the wrong word, they bury you.

So this is a highly in-demand field, digital and Internet marketing.

And in the middle of 6 months, you can get a certificate and be working at a high-level job.

So it's got a lot of benefits to it.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                22:37

Alright.

Something he does.

So how do our listeners find out more about that?

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         22:58

They can check it's IMTCVA internet marketing training center, Virginia dot org.

And this isn't something you click a link.

This is something I need to talk to you and you get your family involved and we make sure this is right for you.

But the tuition is so cheap compared to any other thing you could get into.

And like I said, it's super high demand.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         23:02

And everybody's on their cell phones and tablets anyway all day, might as well make some money for it.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                23:13

That's true.

But if somebody actually wanted to get hold of you and talk to you more about some of these other ideas that we've been talking about, how would they do that?

Yeah.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         23:30

They could go to my podcast site since I've never had a job.

It's called "Screw the Commute"

And I'm gonna give them away a freebie and that'll lead them to me anyway.

So it's ScrewtheCommute.com/Susan

And this is an ebook that I wrote on how to automate your business.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         24:03

See, I want people working with clients and customers and writing their books and developing products and services, not fighting with their computer.

And just 1 of the tips in this book is in as we estimated, this is not hype.

Save me 8 million keystrokes.

Save me carpal tunnel syndrome, because the computers will do so much if somebody would just teach you how to do it.

And this 60 or 70-page ebook shows you all the ways I automate myself so that I'm lightning fast, taking care of people where the money is, and not fighting with my computer.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         24:07

ScrewtheCommute.com/Susan will lead them to me.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                24:22

Fantastic.

You've been a road warrior with this.

You've tried and tested all these things, you use your own techniques.

So I highly recommend that.

We'll put that in the show notes Tom so people couldn't download that.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                24:29

Absolutely.

Okay.

So now before we go to the golden nugget, let's talk about your 4 million dollar book.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         24:54

Okay.

Well, my overriding principle, Susan, which all of your authors, no matter what they write, and not novel stuff, not fiction.

That's and I'm too stupid to write fiction.

So this should always lead to bigger stuff because I have said for many years, a book is the most hassle, least profitable thing you'll ever do in your entire life.

It's what the book leads to where the really big money is.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         25:21

And I'm talking consulting.

I mean, you could write a book give it to a bunch of CEOs and come out with a 50 or a hundred thousand dollar consulting contract.

If it's a more business-to-consumer, you could come out with coaching contracts, you can come out with speaking engagements, and membership sites that give you recurring income.

So that's the overriding principle.

But in this particular case, the way this works, and I'm on radio and TV all the time, and I get this is called a hook.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         25:39

And it's like, I couldn't stop the money coming into my checking account if I tried.

Couldn't stop.

I'd have to go hide out in Mexico.

And the mechanism here, I remember vividly writing this book Susan, there was about a 4-hour layover in McCarran Airport in Las Vegas.

I wrote this book.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         26:11

And the idea here is that you do something once and you sell it forever, but it also leads to something that sells forever.

So what I did is I wrote a book on how to do something.

But you can't do it unless you purchase or lease or rent the tool to do it.

I make between 607 hundred and 20 dollars per person per year if you do what I say in this book.

This is called a residual affiliate program.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         26:31

If for some of your listeners aren't familiar, an affiliate program is where I recommend something.

And then if you buy it through my link, I get a commission.

That's like a 1 off.

A residual affiliate program means that if you buy it through my link, every time you buy it again, I keep getting paid.

It could be a membership site.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         26:48

It could be supplements.

In this case, it's a shopping cart system.

That's the mechanism that this happens.

So if I promote this and somebody buys it, I start making 600 to 07:20 dollars a year per person.

I've had, I think, 16, 1700 users of this.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         27:12

So this is a lot of money.

Yeah.

I think we figured it out.

And all the time I've been doing this, just this 1 ebook has brought in, I think, about 243,000 dollars a year, which is a rich person's salary by any stand Right?

But that's just from that writing that 4-hour ebook that tells people how to do it, it's something and then hooking it to a residual affiliate program.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         27:47

And you can go just type in residual affiliate program and then your topic or residual associate program, sometimes they call it.

Also, a recurring affiliate program is another term you can use, and there are thousands of these out there and there's bound to be something that would fit your topic.

So that's the mechanism, Susan.

Now I want to tell you why I love Amazon KDP.

The reason is that when I do my students, it's either a PDF, e book or it's an Amazon Kindle.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         28:14

We don't mess with anything.

Barnes and Noble, Nook, Apple, nothing.

Because Amazon's got 80 to 90 percent of the market.

They have this 1 specific program called KDP Select, where if you make a deal with Amazon, They will give your book away for 5 days out of every 90 as long as you agree not to sell it electronically anywhere else.

And you say, well, big deal, Tom.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         28:31

What's the deal about giving away, you know, your book?

How do you make money that way?

Well, I just told you.

I want that book distributed because every person that does what I say in the book is gonna send me 600 to 07:20 dollars a year.

Depending on whether they buy it yearly or monthly.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         28:53

And Amazon gave away 2500 copies in 5 days.

I'm good, but I ain't Amazon.

And so a bunch of those people so Amazon for free promoted my ebook and gave me an income of 600 to 07:20 dollars a year per person.

Right?

That's why I don't mess with Barnes and Noble or anything else.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         29:02

So That's the idea.

Residual affiliate program and then a PDF version and the Amazon version in the KDP Select program.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                29:10

Whoa.

I'm, like, breathless here.

Yeah.

Because I said, you blow my mind and Yes.

This is is

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         29:13

quite so big.

There's a lot of fun.

 

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                29:27

There's a lot of fun.

You know, just thinking up.

And your original book that you were talking about I know that I bought the product because I know exactly which shopping cart is.

Oh, there you go.

So you've had plenty of money from me.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                29:28

I do.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         29:31

You.

I appreciate it.

I can buy eggs now.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                29:34

Yes, you can.

At the price they are, you

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         29:41

can do that.

I told my girlfriend that I'm gonna take her somewhere expensive.

So I said she got all dressed up, so I took her to the gas station.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                29:50

Oh, mister Romanzi.

Yeah.

Tom.

Oh, yeah.

We could go on for a lot longer.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                30:10

I know we could.

And I think this is looking for second invitation.

So we'll make a point of that because I know that there's so much more that you could share that we're just running out of time here.

If you can leave our listeners with a golden nugget, I know you've given us so many already, but I'm going to ask you for another 1.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         30:27

This is more esoteric, I would say, and, please, get your ego out of it.

I've seen so many people that they write for their ego.

I can tell you that getting a really, really big bank account will feed your ego better.

Right?

And pats on the back.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         30:56

So use these techniques, these electronic things for low cost, high return.

Remember, ebooks are 97 percent profit and you get the regular amount you would in a regular book that you enslaved over for years.

So get your ego out of it, get the money, and you can do so many good things in the world plus feed your ego, plus take care of your family.

So concentrate on doing a great job for people.

I'm not saying put out junk because that's not the way I roll.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         31:17

But I put great stuff at a minimum cost that everybody can afford that they actually want because I use things that have a clear demand in the marketplace.

And the money rolls in at 97 percent profit.

I mean, you got to screw up really bad trying to mess up at 97 percent profit.

So that's my tip.

Get your ego out of it.

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         31:21

Go for the money and high quality with low cost, high returns.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                31:34

Yeah.

I love that.

Interesting because I was at 1 point considering writing a book about getting rid of that ego because it does.

It stands in the way and stops you doing a whole lot of things.

So

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         31:48

I've got 25 books to my credit.

My latest 1 is called highly educated idiots.

Mhmm.

And it's about what's going on in the world today with the lawmakers in the crazy down to do it.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                31:57

Well, you're very street-smart, so we can learn a lot from your expertise.

And as I say, you've been in this, what now 29 years.

I'm sorry.

I

Tom Antion:                                                                                                                         32:05

didn't get a number right now.

Yeah.

I've been in business 46 years, but I started when the commercial Internet started in 1994.

Susan Friedmann:                                                                                                                32:29

Well, Tom, this has been amazing.

Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom.

Really appreciate it.

And as I said, we're gonna have you back for another episode because there's so much more that you can share.

And listeners, if your book isn't selling the way you wanted or expected it to, let's you and I jump on a quick call together to brainstorm ways to ramp up those sales. 

You've invested a whole lot of time, money, and energy, and it's time you got the return you were hoping for.

Go to BrainstormWithSusan.com and schedule your free call.

And in the meantime, I hope this powerful interview, really powerful interview sparked some ideas you can use to sell more books.

Until next week, he's wishing you much book and author marketing success.

Here's how to connect with Tom and get a free copy of "How to Automate Your Business: 7 Figure Guide to Getting and Handling Lots of Customers Without
Pulling Your Hair Out"

Click here to schedule your 20-minute brainstorming session with Susan

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