#134: Book Lessons Learned
My first book was just released.
And I'm sitting here with all sorts of different emotions.
Excitement, relief, and just this feeling that I gave birth to something new and I can't wait to get it into as many hands as possible.
And then also managing all of the last minute newness that happens when you're doing something new for the first time and trying to compress all of the activities into a single 24 hour period.
So if you are thinking about publishing a book, or you know someone who's publishing a book, let them know about this podcast episode. I'm giving you everything that I learned about publishing a book in a single podcast episode today.
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Laura 00:00
Hey there, friends, writing a book is a huge undertaking. I'm recording this podcast episode, the day that my book released. And I'm sitting here with all sorts of different emotions. Some of the emotions are excitement, relief, just this feeling that I birthed something new into the world and I can't wait to get it into as many hands as possible. And then also managing all of the last minute nests that happens when you're doing something new for the first time and trying to compress all of the activities into a single 24 hour period. As much as we are all fantastic at planning. And if you know me personally at all, you know, I'm a planner, I don't like last minute stress, I really like things to be organized and run a well oiled machine. There is a bunch of things that are happening today that I want to let you know about. First of all, in case you ever publish a book yourself, or know somebody who does. So if you are thinking about a book, you know someone who's publishing a book, let them know about this podcast episode. I’m giving you everything that I learned in a single podcast episode today and the next level leap podcast.
Laura 01:10
Welcome to the Next Level Leap podcast. I'm your host, Laura Meyer top growth strategist to some of the country's fastest growing brands, and mentor to consultants. My signature leap methodology has changed the way 1000s of companies look at growth strategy, and this podcast shares, best practices, and inspirational interviews to help you make that next level leap in your business. Stick around and join me as I share the journey of how we as founders can multiply our income impact and influence by landing on the other side of our next big leap. Let's go!
Laura 01:52
The idea of writing down your ideas and pushing them out into the world, documenting your thoughts, the concepts that you have that enter into your brain every single day and all of the different thought patterns that occur as we live our lives is something that I think is a human innate desire. We want other people to know what it is that we've experienced, we want our lessons learned to have meaning we want all of the work that we've done to become knowledgeable as a subject matter expert to be able to help as many people as possible. And as early as 3000 BC Sumerians were using pictograms and writing on clay tablets. And then Egyptians began using papyrus scrolls at the same time to record history and philosophy and stories. The first books were written around 500 BC as handwritten scrolls. What this says to me is that most people want to create, and most people want to create with their deepest desires, the things that they have learned what it is that they have found meaning in, and their ideas, most importantly, something that we've been doing for 1000s of years. And now with the modern day technology that we have access to, and the different methods and strategies that we can utilize that have pretty low barriers to entry. It's actually relatively easy to get a book up and running. And what I've found is that the idea of it is pretty simple. Thinking about well, what
is it that I get asked about a lot? And what do people come to me for advice around? Or what is it that I find myself saying over and over again? Or what is it that I should when I share people say, Oh, I've actually never heard of it from that perspective before or I that's, that's kind of new to me, I didn't even realize that that could be a possibility. And I'm going to go and utilize it in my life or my business or as a parent or within my relationships.
Laura 03:57
And so that is why if you have a book and you I would recommend just getting started. What I found is in the beginning stages, the writing part of the concepts was something that if I were to set aside my phone and put on some really good focus music on Spotify, that came pretty easily. I was able to write the outline, I looked back on my different podcast episodes lives, the ones that resonated the most all had to do with relationship marketing. And when I really sat down and thought about well, what is the advice that I give basically, in a nutshell, and then how can I break out that advice into more detailed sections and how to guides that started to flow out of me. What I found to be the most challenging part of publishing a book was the mechanics of getting it done. And that's what I want to share with you today. Even as an experienced marketer, like myself and somebody who's been an entrepreneur for a long time, it caught me by surprise eyes how challenging, the little detailed nuances are of the tiny things that can go really well or not well at all. And my experience having been behind the scenes of major books and best selling authors from traditional publishing houses, is it this applies whether you're a huge author getting a multi six figure advance from a well known publisher, or if you're self publishing my like myself and learning along the way, these are lessons that are going to apply either way. So if you're a huge influencer, and you're getting your first book done, listen up. Even if you have a publisher, this is this is going to apply. And if you have a book in you, and you really want to get your message out into the world, this will apply equally as well to you. So stay tuned, I want to talk to you about my first lesson learned next.
Laura 06:02
The first lesson that I learned is the importance of a book team. Not just a book team, but a book launch team, I should say. And this is something that I observed when several of my clients who are part of huge publishing houses, missed best seller lists or made best seller lists. And what it came down to was their book launch team. You see, there used to be a time in which somebody who had a lot of influence could go to all of their corporate sponsors and all of their partners and say, hey, on the day that my book releases, can you pre buy a whole bunch of books? And can you pre purchase all of these what they call bulk book buys. And that way, I'm going to get on all of the bestseller lists right away. And thank you so much for being my collaborator in this. There was a time where that was possible. But that trick subsided, because what the bestseller lists found was that it gave people of influence and unfair
advantage on a book that may or may not be bestseller worthy. So whether you have a traditional publisher, or whether you're self publishing, you need a book launch team.
Laura 07:20
This book launch team caught me by pleasant surprise, I wouldn't consider myself somebody who has a huge following. I have a modest following online, although it's growing rapidly. Thanks to you. Thanks so much. And this is something that I didn't even think that there will be that many people in my audience that wanted to be part of my book launch team. When I started sending out emails, offering it to people in my audience, people in communities that I'm part of, we had hundreds of you sign up, I was so surprised and really blown away by your support. So I just want to say if you're part of the book launch team, you're listening right now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So you may be asking yourself, like what is the role of a book launch team? Well, a book launch teams role is to not only purchase the book on the day that it releases, but leave a review and to let other people know about it. And in exchange for being part of the book launch team. We are providing our book launch team members a behind the scenes, tell all launch review of our book launch, plus all of the tools, templates, resources, emails that went out checklists, book launch plans, so that they can use that in their own business or in their clients business. I'm just handing over the entire Google folder to our book launch team and saying thank you have fun, use what we've developed here, our social media plans, our content, everything. So it was a pretty juicy bonus to be part of the book launch team. And what we found is hundreds of people sign up. It was awesome. We just had a really simple form, asking people to be part of the book launch team. It was just a kind of a Google form very, very modest in terms of just a couple different questions, contact information agreement to share the book on the day of the launch and why they want to be part of the team. So I posted to social media. Do you want to be part of the book launch team? Here's the bonus. Many people responded in the comments and DMS and from our email lists, and they signed up. And now today on the day that the book is launching many of my book launch team members have already left a review. This is like nine o'clock in the morning that I'm recording this podcast. They've shared it to social media, I received a tremendous amount of texts and direct messages. And the book is already number one best seller on Amazon. Oh my goodness, so exciting.
Laura 09:52
My first book, and what I want to share with you is that if I can do it, you can do it too. You have people that know and love you I mean, there is a whole contingency of women that I play tennis with shout out Kennett Square Country Club that have left book reviews that like, don't even have a business aren't in business. They just liked the book, and they want to support me. So, you have those people in your life, who would be thrilled to be part of your book launch team. It's very exciting to launch a book to people. It's like having a baby. If people are like, oh, I want to be part of the baby shower, like yes, include me, invite me. And I just found
that that to be a really fun and easy ask that people were excited to be part of and was the main reason why the book is where it is on Amazon today. My goal wasn't to be on like the New York Times bestseller list or anything like that, I really just wanted to be number one on Amazon. So, I could put bestselling author in my bio, which you know that I immediately changed all of my bios this morning. And that was a really fun surprise to wake up to. So, book launch team all the way, this is not something that your traditional publisher will do for you. It is something that you need to mobilize on your own. And it is well worth the effort.
Laura 11:16
The second is take control of your marketing and be relentless. Of course, that's easy for me to say I'm a marketer. But I went through a couple of different publishers, I even had my book picked up by a traditional publisher, I, when I looked at the contract, I was kind of like, no, I'd rather keep my copyrights. Thank you so much. And with all of those experiences, I still drove the marketing for this book. And for the clients that I've had that are real best-selling authors on all of the big lists the best selling lists, they drove their marketing as well. They didn't expect their publisher to do it, if they were self publishing and part of a self publishing package that quote unquote, came with marketing, they didn't rely on somebody else to do it. They drove the marketing, because ultimately, a book is coming from you, your heart and your soul in your brain. And if you are somebody who wants to put your thoughts and your dreams out into the world, people want to connection with you. They want to know that you care about this book that you're publishing how much effort you put into it, they want to see behind the scenes, they want to know the story behind the book that has to come from you. And so with the book marketing, we had a pretty long ramp up period, our last launch for our most recent program closed in September, and today I'm recording this on December 6. So immediately after that launch ended, we spent two months ramping up the book launch, I would recommend that if you're launching a book to leave at least eight weeks of runway up until your book launch. So it's all you're talking about on social media. It's all you're writing about all four podcasts. Within the five weeks leading up into this point, we're about the book, all of our emails going out to our list for the last six weeks or so we're about the book, all of the social media posts are about the book. I've heard other authors say that by the time their book is released on the day, they're like, pretty sick of the book. And I can see that, I'll be real honest, I could see that, where you're so sick of talking about the book. But that's what needs to happen.
Laura 13:26
Because that runway is really important. Showing the cover as soon as you can, showing cover options and letting them know which one you chose and why unboxing your book, I know that that can feel a little bit like, you know, trite or overdone, but people love it just like make it fun or unique. My dog ended up like jumping up on top of me when I when I unboxed my book on social media and like made for great content. So you can just continue to market your book leading up to it, I promise you people aren't sick of it, I promise you, they need that
long of a runway. And we had a social media plan content plan for about two months leading up into the book. And again, this isn't something that you can just throw together like the last week and hope that Amazon ads will carry it. I've seen book marketing packages from both Self Publishers as well as traditional publishers. And they're fine, right? They may include a book tour or some press and all of that is fantastic. But fundamentally, I believe that your book marketing has to come from you, from your heart, from your soul from your perspective, the behind the scenes, like all of that is what makes writing and publishing a book interesting to your audience. And it also lets them know how hard you worked on this. And how important it is that they get a copy leave a review and recommend it to others. So having that long runway is extremely important in side of the book, we have tons of giveaways where you can get access to the audio book for free, that you can get access to a video training series for free, a bunch of tools and templates as well.
Laura 15:12
And again, packing your book with not only great value, but ways that people can keep in touch with you is not only part of the marketing that takes place leading up until your book launch, but is part of the marketing that allows you to develop a deeper relationship with your audience, as your book continues to generate sales and becomes a way in which leads come into your company. So thinking about the holistic marketing plan, what are the activities that take place prior to your book? What are the posts, the content, the emails, the interactive videos, the different types of content that are going to capture people's attention. And then how will you get them on your list and continue to develop that relationship afterwards should be part of the marketing strategy that you put in place for your book. I think a lot of great books get released without enough buzz around them without enough reviews, and they end up becoming this thing that you work on for so long, and then becomes like a huge secret. And I don't want that to happen for you and your book. So I think that's something that we did really well is first the book launch team, as well as the book marketing. And then up next, I'm going to talk to you a little bit about my tougher lessons learned. And that has more to do with the book logistics, and working with Kindle Direct Publishing. So I'll end I'll start on two things that I think we did really well and end on some tough lessons learned.
Laura 16:47
Oh, my goodness, y'all, book logistics, that = put a couple more gray hairs on my head. Good thing, I have a great stylists, because, whoa, working with Kindle Direct Publishing, and just trying to figure out the pre order process was something that I thought I could outsource to the various service providers that I had hired to help me get this book out into the world. And I would just say nope, and nope, with a capital. No, that is not something that you can just hand off. Somebody like yourself or somebody on your team needs to really understand the logistics of Kindle Direct Publishing, how it works, the interior of that website. I mean, that was just one tough lesson after another. So I'll share a couple of things that I learned the hard way. And I'll
say at 9: 20 this morning, the day that my book releases, I'm still waiting for the paperback, which they promised to me at 7am would go live in the next few hours to be released on my Amazon site. So that just gives you a little bit of a window into some of the challenging aspects of operations and logistics, when it came to getting this book published.
Laura 18:08
So the first thing that I learned the hard way is pre orders. If you do not have a traditional book publisher, who is printing copies and shipping copies themselves the day that the book releases, Amazon will not do this for you. This was something again, I learned the hard way, about a month out from the book release day. I was trying to figure out why do I add paperback I mean, this is crazy what's happening here. And then I realized Amazon doesn't offer the ability to pre release a paperback. And I then researched further and realized that if you're self publishing, the only way to do that is through a service called Ingram Spark. And they are a third party self publishing company that specializes in printing and distribution. So if you want your book to little look a little nicer, like a coffee table book, or has a lot of images on the inside, you might want to consider Ingram Spark because they publish the type of quality that a high end book publisher would put out. In addition, they have the ability to print the amount of pre orders prior to your book launch date and ship them. I'm sorry if that got a little bit logistically hairy. If you are not planning on publishing a book, like don't worry about following me on that. But if you're publishing a book, or there's a time in which you do come back to this episode, and I promise you it'll make sense. But that was the first thing of like, What do you mean, I can't just like preorder paperbacks like all of these other really well known people that I know have pre orders for paperbacks. And that's why. The second thing is to have your manuscript ready at least a month before you publish your book. manuscript was going to be going into final layout got about a month beforehand. And I thought, not a big deal. Like, you know, we'll have the manuscript about three weeks beforehand, it's already done, it just needs to be laid out, I know exactly what I want it to look like. And then we'll upload the manuscript a few weeks beforehand. And that ended up being a lot of last minute scrambling. And the reason is, it goes back to pre orders, it goes back to being able to work with third party publishers like Ingram Spark. And it also goes back to the amount of time that Amazon takes to approve a book once you upload the manuscript. So for all of those reasons, we're down to the wire getting the paperback ready for the book launch day. By midday book launch day, the paperback will be ready. That's fine. It's already a best seller. That was my goal. I'm learning to let a lot of the other aspects of it go like wishing my paperback was live now. But again, these are really good lessons learned. And the other thing is, don't mess with your Amazon Kindle account.
Laura 21:02
I was trying to change the text alert from somebody on my operations team to my phone number. Because I was sick of trying to get in touch with her every time that I had, I wanted to
make a change inside of my book, book page on Amazon. And it locked me out of the account for about four days. And I was freaking out. It was about a week before the book launch. And just that one submission to change the text number locked me out completely. I did a bunch of googling online, this is not unusual. There's high security in the back of Kindle Direct Publishing. And that's for a good reason your bank account number is in there like I can understand why and at the same time, over around the time of Thanksgiving, I probably spent about 12 hours between phone and text with Amazon customer service trying to reinstate my account, so that it would be ready for my book launch day. So lesson learned, don't mess with your Kindle account once you have it up and running. So those were probably honestly the most stressful aspects of publishing a book writing the book marketing a book, that was really fun, the creative aspects of it was, I found pretty simple and straightforward. It was more than a back end like oh, my gosh, I didn't realize that all of these little detailed nuances are something that again, I ultimately need to be responsible for.
Laura 22:31
Because I think a lot for a lot of self publishing companies, these are things that they just know. But don't necessarily share it with you and you're looking to navigate it, I will say now that I know them. I'm like, oh, this is great. Like, I'm going to create a couple more books, I'm going to create a corresponding workbook to Win-Win, I'm going to create a lead tracking log, like I have all these ideas of what's called Low content books that I could create in order to support the main books. I'm really excited about that. And I'll be sharing more about it in the coming year. But the bottom line is just get to know the inside of your Kindle Direct Publishing account if Amazon is going to be your primary distributor, and do it well in advance when your book launches, ideally when your final manuscript is printed.
Laura 23:30
So my best friend reached out to me this morning and said, How do you feel, and I was like, I feel pretty good. I'm really excited to get this book out into the world, I feel a sense of relief and happiness and also anticipation waiting for this paperback to show up on the book details page. But with all that said, I want to say I think it's well worth it. It was well worth it with the visibility that I've received already the ability to put bestselling author on my bio, and most importantly, to get my ideas and as many hands as possible. All of my lessons learned, the things that I know will really help other business owners. Most of the programs that I offer are high ticket. My most inexpensive program is a group coaching certification. That's $3,000. So if that isn't within your price range, I still want to help you. And yes, I can help you with the podcast that you're listening to right now and with content and social media. But I want to help you in a way that's transformative.
Laura 24:35
And I think book authoring is the best way to do that. If you have a heart for your audience, and you have a heart for the people that you serve, and you know that putting your ideas and the things that you have learned out into the world will only create a more lasting legacy for everything that you've worked so hard for. I want to encourage you to just do it right The book, right, get the outline done. You have so many gifts and talents and abilities that are uniquely you. And one thing that I want to share with you, and I'll end with this is if you're listening to this and you're like, Yeah, but it's already been said, it's already been done. I felt that way too. I was thinking, Well, I mean, other people already write about relationships and relationship marketing. I mean, Keith, for us, He is the king of that, like, who am I to also have a voice in on this topic. But I'm really glad that I did not let what I call those thought Gremlins to sidetrack this work.
Laura 25:39
Because now that it's out to the world is uniquely me. It's my experiences, the stories of the people that I know my colleagues and clients, maybe even some of you are listening, were featured in the book. And that is so rewarding and exciting. And I would love for you to have the same experience. So let me know message me on social media, if you listen to this, and you're like, Oh, I wonder, you know, I wonder about this or that. Or I just want to let Laura know that like I'm working on my book message me. Tell me I would love to hear from you. And if you know somebody who is publishing a book, make sure to send them this episode. I really hope it helps them and serves them in a way that's encouraging uplifting and inspiring.
Laura 26:18
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