4 Book Writing Myths You Shouldn't Believe

Many people still believe they need a literary agent to become an author. They also think being an author means they have to be a good writer. I'm going to chat about those myths and more for you today. If you're ready to bust some more author myths, then this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the book broad. I'm the founder of a fabulous self publishing services firm called Book Launchers. At Book Launchers, we help you write a book that is set up for marketing success because a big part of what we do is help you market your book when it launches and beyond. We have all kinds of ways that we help authors. We have a course that will help you write a book. It's taught live over 12 weeks. We have writing coaches who will coach you to write a book, and we have writers who will write the book with you so you don't have to type. Essentially, there's no excuse for not writing a book. We have a solution for you. But many would be authors are clinging oh so tight to some myths that are keeping them from succeeding. So let's make sure that is not you. Myth number one I'm not a good enough writer to be an author. Writing a great book has very little to do with being a great writer. It has a whole lot more to do with hiring a great team of editors and being able to communicate in some way what the vision is for your message and your reader. So you can direct your team to create the book to that will connect with and help your ideal reader. If you know your reader and you know how you can help them, you can be a great author. Maybe you need the help of a writer or you need to talk the book out before you can transcribe it and edit it. But there is a way to get the book done. There really isn't an excuse because we have worked with authors who are blind, dyslexic, have adhd, and more. There really is not an excuse to not write a book. It's you can help someone with your material. The bigger thing you need is the belief that you have knowledge that is of value, knowing who that is valuable to, and the ability to share that knowledge in some way that will get the book done. Myth 2 Books don't sell or also authors don't make money. Oh yes, there are plenty of nonfiction books that don't sell very many copies. You're in the top percentile if you sell more than 250 copies. But the vast majority of our authors are in that top percentile because they do the things that must be done to sell books. And they write a book with good positioning. They work with talented professional editors, talented marketing professionals who are positioning the book from the beginning and throughout. And they have designers who are looking at competitive books as well as their branding. And finally, they invest time, energy and resources into selling books. If that sounds like work, guess what. Creating success as an author is almost never an accident. But believing that books and authors don't make money just isn't true. And, and I believe you get what you focus on. So for me, I focus on creating prosperity. I focus on helping people and getting my book into the hands of as many people as I can who need the help my book can offer. And when you focus on that, you might find yourself feeling like you've stumbled into a huge contract that pays you double what you made last year. Or you might find yourself growing your business at twice the speed, or getting a call from someone who wants to invest a large amount of money or capital into your business or investments that you're making. There is money to be made as an author. Sometimes it's in selling books, but often it's in other ways that come up as a result of you writing a book and putting yourself out there to find readers. Myth 3 you need a literary agent to be published. I mean, you're watching videos on being a self published author, so I feel like you already know this, but every single day I meet or hear from somebody who wants help finding an agent so they can get a book deal so they can get published. If you want to sell your book to foreign publishers, I would recommend getting a foreign rights agent. But if you want want to sell your book in your market, self publish and keep your rights, royalties and all the control, your book will be out in the world so much faster doing this versus finding an agent. Waiting. Waiting while the agent shops you around and then waiting while you negotiate a contract if you can get one. And then working on the publisher's timelines at Book Launchers, we turn edits around in three weeks. In the publishing world, your edit is back fast. If you get it back in three months, most authors will be in edits for six months or longer. So you can start to get a sense of the speed of traditional publishing. And the big thing most authors don't realize is no matter whether you get an agent and a book deal or not, there's only one person who is responsible for selling books and it's that lovely face looking back at you in the mirror. Not mine. Your face looking Back at you in the mirror. Myth number 4. You need inspiration or the right time to write. A friend of mine was in Las Vegas recently, and we hit the poker tables at the Venetian Hotel. He'd been losing money like crazy the day before this, and when we sat down at the 13 Texas Hold' Em table, he promptly started winning. After two hours, he walked out with twelve hundred dollars. After sitting down with three hundred, I walked up 133. So I was happy. But I was also kind of jealous. I joked that I was clearly his poker muse or good luck charm and that my cut was 25%. He just laughed because it's not really true that I made him win, just like it's not true that you need inspiration or a muse or the perfect time in your life to actually write a book. The downside of even believing this is a little bit true can negatively influence your behavior. Yeah, you may have moments where you feel so inspired and the book just flows out of you. But if you actually believe that this is true, you will miss out on all the opportunities and situations that can spark curiosity or where you create something just by sitting down and doing the work over and over again. Creativity does not reside outside ourselves, and your brain can be taught to produce and be creative. Look, if you have a story, a method, expertise, or a solution that can help someone, you likely have a book inside of you that could be great. You don't need skills, a publisher, inspiration, or even the right software to write a book. You do need determination, energy, and the ability to surround yourself with the right people. But you can write a great book, and you can absolutely make money from it if that's what you want to do. However, if you want me to come play poker with you as your muse and pay me 25% of your winnings, I'm game. What other myths do people believe? Let's chat about them in the comments below. And when you comment the day a video is released, you get entered to win some of our fabulous hashtag noboringbooksswag, and you move a little bit closer to being one of my YouTube besties. And if you want our support to write a book, we have three ways. We help courses, coaches, and writers connect with us@booklaunchers.com or post a comment below asking for help, and we'll get you the links you need to check out the options. Now, maybe you're trying to figure out what book you should write. Well, this video right here is going to help with that. And if you're thinking about how you're going to make money as an author. Well, here's a video I did on sponsorships and ads that might give you some new ideas. Both are really awesome, so go on over and enjoy.