Putting together a winning team means more than just chasing the stars. It means building a business on the foundation of a great idea and finding the players you need to make that idea a winner.

In his years building the Orlando Magic, cofounder Pat Williams has learned one must pursue dreams relentlessly, and enlist teammates "because you can't do it alone. You've got to go out and sell." A renowned motivational speaker and author, he uses that strategy to market his books, too. "Somebody once said I could sell a double bed to the pope," he says. Even if he's not quite that good, as the author of more than fifty books (including three this year with Advantage), he has a lot to share:

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Advantage: Why does a sports guy spend so much time writing and promoting books?

Pat Williams: I'm very fortunate: The Magic's owner, Rich DeVos, is cofounder of Amway, and he built that company with motivational talks. So the ownership understands; they see a synergy between the ball club and my writing and speaking career. Speaking and writing supplement each other. If I give a talk that's well-received, my immediate reaction is, "This could be a book!" And if you have a book table where you're speaking, you'll sell more books there than in a year at a bookstore. Once published, in the eyes of many you're an expert, and you should be: Writing a book is like giving birth to a roll of barbed wire. You've got to be passionate to do that.

AMG: What marketing strategies did you use to build the Magic and other teams?

PW: In Orlando my job was to sell season tickets for a team people didn't even know would happen. To keep interest up, we created a mascot, Stuff the Magic Dragon. To launch him, we put eggs around the community to show he was about to be hatched. He came swinging down from the top of Church Street Station in downtown Orlando on Halloween night in '87. Long before we got players, we stirred up a following. When I was general manager for the Chicago Bulls, we thought it would be great to bring in Victor the Wrestling Bear to wrestle fans. But the animal cruelty folks said this would be cruel. To the bear. They let the show go on if they knew in advance who the wrestlers would be. So Victor had his way with me. It hit the news that night. A sign on my desk says, "When you don't promote, a terrible thing happens: nothing!" That goes for sports as well as publishing.

A sign on my desk says, 'When you don't promote, a terrible thing happens: nothing!' That goes for sports as well as publishing.

AMG: What advice can you give authors?

PW: Don't write a book and then try to figure out the hook to hang it on. Find an empty hook first. Then as a published author, you'll suddenly have a whole new line on your resume, true credentials. Get promotional books into the hands of chatterboxes. If you can get the army of cheerleaders talking about your book, or Twittering, or e-mailing, that's the ultimate.

To start, get a book and a press release into the hand of the media and just keep banging. You've got to package your product, and sell it relentlessly. Nobody really cares about this book except you. The publishing firms will do what they can, but they go on to the next project. So be the aggressor. I hired two people just to book speeches and promote books.

The hardest place to sell is a bookstore. Find a venue that doesn't sell books normally. Rich Wolfe is the best marketer of books I've met. His recent book is on Harry Kalas, the longtime Phillies broadcaster, beloved there. He died at the start of the baseball season, and Rich had a book out by June. He made a deal to put it in Wawa stores, and he's sold 50,000 in Philadelphia.

AMG: You;ve published with big New York houses. Why do business with Advantage?

PW: Once, I couldn't get a mainstream publisher for my book on public speaking. And you got it done. And this year we got Lincoln Speaks to Leaders out just in time for Lincoln's Birthday. I'm thrilled with Advantage. With big publishers, it;s a year from the time you turn the manuscript in until it's published. You can turn it out in a couple months with quality work and make every author feel like they're Ernest Hemingway.

Pat Williams is the Co-Founder of the NBA's Orlando Magic and the Advantage author of Lincoln Speaks to Leaders, Daly Wisdom, and Nail It! His website is www.patwilliamsmotivate.com