Susan Friedmann on Why Your Book Is a Tool, Not a Product, and How Niche Focus, Bulk Sales, and the Right Mindset Turn It Into a Business Asset (The Price and Value Journey, Episode 165)
Most authors believe that once the book is written, the work is done. Susan Friedmann, founder of Aviva Publishing and author of 18 books, has spent over 35 years showing nonfiction authors why that thinking is exactly backward. She joins host John Ray on The Price and Value Journey to make the case that your book is not the product. It serves as a gateway to unimagined opportunities.
Susan breaks down the most common and costly mistake authors make: trying to market to everyone. A book with no defined audience is nearly impossible to sell, and she explains why going deep into a niche is actually what creates pricing power. When you are the recognized expert in a tight vertical, you face fewer competitors and can charge accordingly. She uses the example of a general practitioner versus a pediatric cardiologist to illustrate how specialization reshapes what the market will pay. She also pulls back the curtain on bulk sales, the strategy that allowed her own first book to move 500,000 copies to a single company, and how consultant-authors can identify similar opportunities within the industries they already know.
Beyond strategy, Susan addresses the mindset barriers that keep authors from marketing effectively: the fear of rejection, the used-car-salesman image of selling, and imposter syndrome. Her shift is simple but powerful. When you stop thinking about selling the book and start thinking about helping the person who needs what is inside it, marketing becomes service. That reframe is where the real momentum begins.
The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by North Fulton Business Radio, LLC, an affiliate of the Business RadioX® podcast network.
Key Takeaways You Can Use From This Episode
- Your book is not the product. It is the tool that opens doors to speaking, training, consulting, and other revenue-generating opportunities. Ask what doors this book can open, not how many copies you can sell.
- Niche focus is a pricing strategy. When you are the go-to expert in a defined vertical, you compete against fewer people and can command higher fees for both the book and your services.
- Amazon is a shop window, not a sales team. You still have to bring people to the window. Do not mistake a listing for a marketing strategy.
- Marketing is a long game. Quitting after a few months leaves most of the value unrealized. A well-positioned book can sell and generate opportunities for decades.
- Bulk sales are an underused opportunity. Organizations and corporations will buy books in quantity when the content supports their goals. Start with the industries you already have relationships in.
- When you shift from “selling” to “serving,” the fear of marketing shrinks. Framing your book as a tool that helps people solve a real problem is not salesy. It is precisely what your audience needs to hear.
Susan Friedmann, Aviva Publishing
Susan Friedmann founded Aviva Publishing and has spent more than 25 years helping nonfiction authors figure out what to do with their book once it’s published. She has worked with over 400 authors to build authority and generate real business opportunities through their books.
Susan holds the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation and has written 18 books of her own, including the international bestsellers Meeting and Event Planning for Dummies and Riches in Niches: How to Make it Big in a Small Market.
Susan is also the host of the Book Marketing Mentors podcast, which recently surpassed 500 episodes. Susan works with nonfiction authors to stop chasing noise, find their niche, and turn their book into a platform that builds lasting authority and opportunity.
John Ray, Host of The Price and Value Journey
John Ray is the host of The Price and Value Journey.
John owns Ray Business Advisors, a business advisory practice. John’s services include business coaching and advisory work, as well as advising solopreneurs and small professional services firms on their pricing. John is passionate about the power of pricing for business owners, as changing pricing is the fastest way to change the profitability of a business. His clients are professionals who are selling their expertise, such as attorneys, CPAs, accountants and bookkeepers, consultants, coaches, marketing professionals, and other professional services practitioners.
John is a podcast show host and the owner of North Fulton Business Radio, LLC, an affiliate of Business RadioX®. John and his team work with B2B professionals to create and conduct their podcast using The Generosity Mindset® Method: building and deepening relationships in a non-salesy way that translates into revenue for their business.
John is also the host of North Fulton Business Radio. With over 900 shows and having featured over 1,300 guests, North Fulton Business Radio is the longest-running podcast in the North Fulton area, covering business in its region like no one else.
John’s book, The Generosity Mindset: A Journey to Business Success by Raising Your Confidence, Value, and Prices
John Ray is the author of the five-star rated book The Generosity Mindset: A Journey to Business Success by Raising Your Confidence, Value, and Prices, praised by readers for its practical insights on raising confidence, value, and prices.
If you are a professional services provider, your goal is to do transformative work for clients you love working with and get paid commensurate with the value you deliver to them. While negative mindsets can inhibit your growth, adopting a different mindset, The Generosity Mindset®, can replace those self-limiting beliefs. The Generosity Mindset enables you to diagnose and communicate the value you provide to clients, which allows you to price your services more effectively in order to receive a portion of that value.
Whether you’re a consultant, coach, marketing or branding professional, business advisor, attorney, CPA, or work in virtually any other professional services discipline, your content and technical expertise are not proprietary. What’s unique, though, is your experience and how you synthesize and deliver your knowledge. What’s special is your demeanor or the way you deal with your best-fit clients. What’s invaluable is how you deliver outstanding value by guiding people through massive changes in their personal lives and in their businesses that bring them to a place they never thought possible.
Your combination of these elements is unique in your industry. There lies your value, but it’s not the value you see. It’s the value your best-fit customers see in you.
If pricing your value feels uncomfortable or unfamiliar to you, this book will teach you why putting a price on the value your clients perceive and identify serves both them and you, and you’ll learn the factors involved in getting your price right.
The book is available at all major physical and online book retailers worldwide. Follow this link for further details.
