Have you written a book or considering writing one? If so, have you given distribution any thought? Most people don’t think about distribution until after they have done their book release party and already sold a few books, but…you really should have distribution set up well before you start selling any books! Unless you’ve already written a book you have no idea that there is an entire process surrounding the words of your manuscript. Being a self-published author means stepping up and knowing all of these processes. This is where hiring a coach that knows what they are doing will help you seamlessly manage all the stages of making your book a successful reality. Its about far more than the content and distributing your book awakens you to the idea that writing a successful book requires a smart business plan well before the words hit the page.

So you’ve perhaps already written a book and now you’re looking into the proper distribution...

Self Discipline and Passion

What is your passion and are you disciplined enough to go after it? 

Perhaps you’ve heard the quote “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment”? Or you’ve heard that “Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally. It comes from what you do consistently.”

Today is a bit of an emotional show…I generally go with what comes up for these podcasts. I do turn them into blogs on my Lets Get Your Book Published website too if you’d like to refer to them later. For me, writing is so healing and it’s always filled with tears. So before I get teared up again…lets get going!

Is there something you know that you need to do before you leave this planet? Do you get out of bed with a fire in your belly every morning to pursue your dreams? What motivates you? What are you willing to sacrifice to manifest that vision or create that reality? Are you pissed off enough? Are...

The other evening I finished up a class I’ve been taking to learn about email list building and SEO. It took me a very long time to complete the class because I was also writing out my value proposition and defining the audience I’m speaking to, generating ideas for lead magnets (that thing my target audience is drawn to and clicks to learn more about me), and making lists of key words (further identifying who I am and what I do). I also set up google analytics and played with a few other website monitoring tools. Have you done any of these things for your business? 

I have to admit that these items were just always kind of tossed in a corner and left for a rainy day for the first decade of my business. It wasn’t until recently that I began to really start thinking about how much more functional my business would be if I plugged in some back end enhancements and leveled-up my business. 

I’m super excited to now be able to monitor the...

I have been really doing my homework lately on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and all things content for both my website and my books and I wanted to share a few things about what I’ve learned.

I’ll be honest, it’s been a few years since I took the time to play in the online space. I really haven’t done much over the years to promote my business online or via events or social media. I’ve actually just been far too busy. In fact, all my marketing efforts and back-end business tools have always been something I just kinda noodled with in my free time and in between clients. I’ll also admit that I’ve never had a formal business plan, never a real formal sales agreement, and only the minimum content has ever been displayed on my website just to simply have an online presence. I always wondered why I needed to make the effort to do all these things if I had a thriving business. But, sometimes it takes backing up to go more seamlessly...

I was just having a conversation with a client this morning about some design ideas for her new book. I have been designing book covers for the last decade now and I have identified a few topics for discussion for today’s show as it relates.

My client is a therapist and she was telling me about the kind of therapy she does for her patients. She was telling me it is not uncommon to be called at strange hours of the night to pull someone off a bridge or to remove a gun from their hand and in the process of clearing their trauma… and some traumas of her own… she realized that she wanted a book that would showcase peace. 

Today we had a discussion about that and some of the attractive features geared toward someone who might buy her book. I told her that there are a few ways that we could approach this… 

We can approach it by having an image on the cover that would pull in the reader that is dealing with traumas and issues of their own…...

Happy New Year! Today is the first blank page in your 365 page book. Are you off to writing a good one? Literally! Are you?

So, you want to write a book and you have no idea where to start. I want to talk about how to get started. I know you’ve been thinking about it for awhile and you want to step into this decade as an author. 

If you’ve been listening to my shows you know that I’m a huge proponent of a few things as it relates to your book: 

1. Aligning with your values, goals, and objectives outside the book (your platform)
2. Using your book as a tool to leverage the material in other communication or training, and 
3. Using the book to set you apart and position you as an expert on your subject

If you’ve been listening for awhile you’ve heard some of this already so I won’t repeat myself, but now you’re ready to get started with some brainstorming but your not exactly sure where to start. 

In my podcast yesterday...

Happy New Years Eve! Things just got a little crazy here for me and I popped open a root beer kombucha and made a salad! I’m not much on traditional celebration for New Years, as I’m more about defining new goals and reflecting on past achievements. I always look back where I have been and forward to where I hope to go. I appreciate the quiet of this evening to set my goals. How about you?

Talking about celebrations…what would it feel like to celebrate becoming an author in 2020? I know you’re thinking about it! So lets talk about the obstacles that might be in your way and see if we can’t un-block a few of them and get you going toward the completion of your book in 2020…

So, the statistics are pretty low for those that want to write a book and those who actually do. Did you know that the last stats I read said that near 80% of the population wants to write a book and only 2% do?

So…are you willing to jump in with the 2%? What...

Perhaps you have an idea for a book but you’re at a loss for a title. Perhaps you have a strong title but no clue if your material is strong enough to support it. Either way, you likely have some ideas around a title. Sometimes choosing the subtitle and tagline get lost until you’re far into the book or done with the entire manuscript. You may need your editors help to flush these elements out, but let’s take a stab at it here and see what we can come up with.

As I state in my book (Let’s Get Your Book Published), Research at Thomas Nelson indicates that consumers first look at the book’s:

• Title
• Cover
• Back cover
• Flaps on the jacket
• Table of contents
• First few paragraphs of the book’s content
• Price

So it’s easy to see why strong titling (and design for that matter) is crucial from the outset.

TITLE DEVELOPMENT

Sometimes you have to write the entire book before you can give it a name or title. Maybe you can’t...

One of the largest questions I had when I thought about writing was not related to content so much, but more the process. I know many authors struggle with the content – both organizing it and defining what is useful or worthy of sharing. But, perhaps you are like me and need to know how the rest of the process looks to know if you can do it.

I’m all about knowledge. I get a bit fogged up when I don’t see the full picture. For some though this might be too much to know… or they just don’t care to know it and just want a book. But for those need-to-know folks like myself I wanted to do a quick podcast to discuss the process of registering a book and how that relates to its distribution.

After all the composing and editing…before you can make a book a book it has to get registered in a few ways. The first is with the unique identifier called an ISBN Number. The second is the with Library of Congress.

Let’s first talk about...

I’ve been asked many times by would-be authors whether or not their content is valuable and something people would want to read.

Now of course, my first thought or response is “would you read it?” My next response is that the content always depends on your motivation. Why do you feel compelled to write on that topic? And, what do you plan to do with after you’ve written it?

If you’re simply wanting to draw out your experiential stories and bind them into a book it might be a bit more like a diary or memoire. If you can relate to your reader or pose “what-if” questions you might better engage them. You can talk in terms of “you” verses “I”. But, when you write to your reader with an intent and provide them value and help give them what they want then you are creating an audience. But, as always, with any book you have to take it beyond the pages and get out from behind it.

Most writers don’t think when...