March 29, 2021
I talk to a lot of folks looking to write and publish expert positioning books. Sometimes they’re driven by the desire to tell their personal story; sometimes, to share their unique process for fixing a particular problem, or to carve out a place in an overcrowded market. Sometimes a person is on a mission to change society, to alter the status quo in some very specific way.
While any one person can have multiple motivators, I can pretty much tell which has primacy after a ten-minute conversation. (By the way, one motivator is no better than another; it just is what it is.)
Take Dr. Mary Barbera, for instance. She’s looking to turn autism around for millions of children around the world.
Know what? She’s going to do it!
When Mary and I sat down together, she wanted to write a knock-out proposal that guaranteed a big traditional publishing house deal. She wanted her message to reach a lot of people in a short period of time, so traditional was the way to go. Mary also happens to have a HUGE platform so she was by no means barking up the wrong tree. What she wanted was a hook, that unique idea or message that agents, acquisition editors, and readers latch onto, that reels them in.
Mary’s hook?
Developmental delays and signs of autism usually show up before 18 months of age, yet children are often not diagnosed until they are 4 or 5 years old. Parents can’t afford to worry and wait in long lines for evaluations and treatment while not knowing how to help their children. Instead, they can intervene with simple strategies to dramatically improve outcomes for their children.
In other words, catch autism early enough and you can turn it around.
That’s a pretty bold promise.
Hay House bought the book off of that proposal.
This book is about to change the lives of a lot of people.
Mary’s story is very personal. She missed the early signs her son displayed and the opportunity to reverse his outcome. But Mary didn’t fold up shop or beat herself up for the rest of her life. She transformed into a doctoral-level Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA-D) and the author of The Verbal Behavior Approach: How to Teach Children with Autism and Related Disorders. Turn Autism Around is her second book, and it’s destined to impact families in a big, big way. (You can hear her tell her story right here.)
Mary’s book, Turn Autism Around, comes out today, Tuesday, March 30th. If you or someone you know is worried about a young child, is questioning the possible signs of autism, can’t get a timely evaluation, then you’ll want to grab a copy of this book. It might change the entire trajectory of that child’s (and family’s) life. Oh, nab it now and you’ll also get a ton of valuable bonuses.