I am so pumped for this. I’m on a mission to bring Power to Storytellers. And this podcast is all about helping you turn your stories into an empire by expanding your revenue and readership beyond books.
Welcome to the Beyond the Book podcast 🥳. You can watch episode 1 on YouTube below or listen on your favorite podcast app above.
I think it should be available on all podcast apps, but if not, forgive me, the RSS feed is populating as we speak!
Listen to Beyond the Book Episode 1 here.
In this first episode, I cover:
My dream of seeing the first indie author billionaire come to life and why it will happen by going beyond the books (and my secret wish is that it ends up being one of the listeners of this podcast 😉)
My background in helping authors go beyond the book and working beyond the scenes for one of, if not, the largest creator empires in the world
What you can expect in the podcast, including the four core topics we will cover (1) URL to IRL: creating physical products and experience beyond your books, (2) Community: creating digital experiences that bring readers together, (3) The Dream Machine: turning your stories into other media formats, (4) Scaling Your Business: how to grow your brand and readership while keeping your sanity.
This podcast is going to blow your mind. You’ll realize that going Beyond the Book isn’t just for best-selling authors.
In fact, doing so can help you grow your readership and business even when starting with zero fans (in a few weeks I’ll share a story with you of an author that went from $1k months to $100k+ profit months by going Beyond the Book in just under a year).
Together we are breaking the rules of publishing.
Together we are rewriting what it means to be an author.
Together we are boundless.
But before I get too excited, I want to share with you the real story behind how Beyond the Book came to be.
How to Nail Your Book Positioning Using Your Storytelling Superpower
You likely have never heard of a podcast like Beyond the Book.
It’s one of those that I hope you share with your author friends and in Facebook Groups far and wide 🫣 because it’s both extremely valuable, exciting in premise, and uniquely suited to be created by me.
In short, this podcast is positioned well. And the same framework I used to position this podcast you can also use to position your stories.
Great market positioning for your book (this is what separates you from your competitors) just needs 3 ingredients:
A set of tropes, genre, or niche that has an engaged audience. In my case, this overall genre or niche is business podcasts for indie authors. Pretty niche… but not niche enough. There are over 100+ of these podcasts. Why listen to mine? What makes it special? This is still not enough.
Combine your core genre with other tropes, characters, and plot mechanics that create a familiar yet unique premise for your readers. Most importantly, you want to make sure this premise is uniquely suited to your strengths. In the case of Beyond the Book, I’m combining tons of business insights from other industries and verticals to help authors expand into being community-builders, product creators, and multi-media empires. Now all of a sudden, my competitors have gone from 100+ to less than 5 (there are maybe a few people who cover these topics regularly). Now we are getting somewhere with our positioning!
Share your positioning in an easy-to-understand sentence. For me it’s helping authors go beyond the book… or more simply… Beyond the Book. In three words, I have conveyed the new opportunity that exists for authors in the publishing market and maybe even got you excited about it. This is how new genres are created and new kinds of stories that end up going on to define categories of fiction. Your positioning is now one-of-one. If people want the thing you are describing… they have to come to you.
If you nail these 3 elements, you will have a killer positioning that makes it infinitely easier to sell your books. Luckily, going Beyond the Book often helps you to do just that.
But… you don’t need to have unique one-of-one positioning. It just helps a lot.
If you copy someone else’s playbook, you will always be second place.
Instead of swimming up the market against a sea of competition, great positioning can help to differentiate yourself from the crowd. It can even bring the crowds to you.
This is WAY easier said than done.
I struggled with this for months.
You see, Beyond the Book was not supposed to exist.
I had recorded the first 2 episodes of an entirely different podcast called the Author Helpline. It was a call-in show for authors where I’d share advice and help them deeply on their problems live.
To be honest, I think the idea has some legs. I’d love to see someone try it.
But I realized… that it wasn’t uniquely tailored to my strengths. In fact, it was two coaching calls with authors that changed my perspective on everything.
They both came to me for the same reason. They wanted to grow their readership in novel ways that didn’t involve their books at the center but instead their stories and creations.
One of the authors even said on the call “going beyond the book”.
It all clicked for me at that moment.
That’s what I’m meant to do. When it comes to my courses and podcast (the stuff I go really deep on), I have to help authors go Beyond the Book. Note: this is not changing the goal of the Author Sidekick newsletter to help authors grow their readership and revenue… this is just for the podcast and the courses 😁.
It plays to so many of my superpowers:
I’m a futurist and am obsessed with the Creator Economy. I even wrote a book about it called Creator Economy for Authors: A Guide to the Future of Publishing.
I have already helped thousands of authors make millions going ‘beyond the book’ and building a community of their superfans + expanding into new product lines (I just never viewed it with that language… but that’s how powerful language is… a few words can change everything).
I spent time working for MrBeast, one of the largest creators in the world, who has gone beyond the content to build a massive empire of chocolate, lunch products, and more.
When my friends or other authors come to me, I’m always offering them helpful insights on how to go beyond the book, think differently about publishing… and often times, they ask me these questions directly.
And even in my own business, I’m going Beyond the Book. I spend a huge chunk of my time creating nonfiction content for authors and use those stories to build a “mini-Disney” for storytellers. That includes software like Reader Meter and upcoming accelerators, summits, and masterminds with Beyond the Book.
When I look back at it, this opportunity was staring me in the face. It was almost obvious. Yet, it took me months to see it.
So don’t worry if you don’t have the perfect positioning on day one.
Don’t be afraid to make changes (we all do it!).
And most of all, listen to your readers and the people around you. The biggest signal about what makes your story special is what readers are already resonating with (even if you just have 1 or 2 beta readers).
And that’s how you use YOUR author superpower to unlock your positioning.
I’ll be sending the next episode in an email tonight. Normally, this podcast will be released every Wednesday. Today, I’m releasing the intro episode and the first interview with a very special guest. Sorry for barraging your inbox with two emails in one day 😆.
As a reminder, you can watch the intro episode of Beyond the Book on YouTube here.
I’d love to hear your feedback on this episode. In the meantime, don’t forget…
Together we are boundless,
Michael Evans
P.S. In June, the founding cohort of the Beyond the Book Accelerator begins. It will consist of coaching, hours of recorded classes, and live sessions on how to help you unleash your author superpower to go beyond the book and turn your stories into an empire. You can join the waitlist here.
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