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Interview: eFlirt Founder Laurie Davis Edwards On Landing A Book Deal And Building A Brand

Learn how to juggle entrepreneurship and newfound responsibilities as an author, precluded common mistakes first-time authors make and how to leverage a new book to solidify an international...

Photo: Love at First Click by Laurie Davis, Founder of eFlirt
Photo: Love at First Click by Laurie Davis, Founder of eFlirt

Last Update: February 12, 2015

Have you ever wanted to become a published author and leverage potential best seller success to expand and build a world-class business?

Laurie Davis decided to do just that – write a book and market it to support her growing brand. As the Founder and CEO of online dating consultancy, eFlirt Expert, Davis grew her NYC-based company in 48 hours with $50 and a Twitter account.

Since launching her firm, she has worked with hundreds of clients in seven countries. This January, she released her new book entitled Love @ First Click: The Ultimate Guide to Online Dating, to help singles convert online crushes to offline love stories.

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Laurie to take you behind the scenes and share how she secured her first book deal.

Learn how Laurie juggled entrepreneurship and newfound responsibilities as an author, precluded common mistakes first-time authors make and how she is leveraging her new book to solidify an international brand.

 

What inspired you to write your new book: Love at First Click: The Ultimate Guide to Online Dating?

I started my business eFlirt Expert three and a half years ago. My mission has always been to help singles find love at first click. I saw a book as an opportunity to help more singles because we can only reach so many people one-on-one. I also saw it as an opportunity to grow our brand and as a result it has created a really unique customer acquisition flow for us too.

 

Once you decided to write your first book Love at First Click, what immediate business challenges did you have to overcome?

I wrote five proposals before I sold this book. Part of the reason being I had another large publisher interested in developing a business book [to discuss] how I started my company with $50 and a Twitter account – and teach entrepreneurs extreme bootstrapping techniques using social media.

Ultimately, I went through a couple of different concepts before I ended up with the final idea. It has been a really long journey. I worked with my agent for over a year before we got the deal together. I think it is rare for an agent to work with an author for that long, too.

 

You opted to work with a traditional publisher instead of taking the self-publishing route. Do you recommend the same for other entrepreneurs who want to write a book?

I have seen a lot of entrepreneurs self-publish successfully. But, I would recommend taking the traditional publishing route as well. If you don’t know an agent you can put a proposal together and pitch an agent to represent you. I was very lucky in that I did not have to [pitch agents] because my publicist had worked with my agent in the past. So he made the introduction and she was immediately interested from our first meeting.

 

Why should an entrepreneur choose the traditional publishing route over self-publishing?

The support I have received from my publisher has been unreal. Their team shared the perspective that I needed to make my book a success. Also the marketing and publicity support behind a reputable publisher is an important resource for new authors. They have done this before.

If you choose to self-publish, you are on your own. It is hard to write a book. It is even harder to market your book and figure out all of the nuances by yourself.

 

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