7 Author Mistakes to Avoid When Publishing a Book | Livestream Replay

Hello and happy Tuesday as I make a quick adjustment. All right. Hello and happy Tuesday to you all. Today we're talking about author mistakes. We're helping you avoid them because we don't want you to make the mistakes that we see all the time at Book Launchers. And I'm Julie the book broad. If you're not familiar and if this is your first time joining a live or a live replay, this is go ahead and post hello in the comments. We love interaction on these things. And of course, if you're joining in, make sure you are saying hello because there are prizes or participation in every one of these fun things. So make sure you're saying hello. A couple of quick housekeeping things. On Saturday, which is May 21st at 10:00am Pacific Standard Time, we have a deep dive training happening. And this is an extra special deep dive because we have a rare special guest joining us. So I was at the National Speakers Conference in, I don't know when, I don't know when or where, but it was a few months ago and I had the pleasure of meeting and spending quite a bit of time chatting with a couple of guys from a media company. And, and this one guy, we got to talking and he's been on more than 500 different shows. He's basically an on air personality, goes from show to show. He's an author, he's written a book, and now he works in this PR company with his friend and colleague. Anyway, so he's going to be joining us and he's got a really great presentation on how you can pitch yourself for media, how you show up prepared, what the media is looking for and, and how you can turn one appearance into many. And it's a really, really great topic. You know, it's something that we do at Book Launchers is, is pitch you for media and different appearances. But he's so focused on television media and media appearances. And he's done so much that I asked him if he would kindly come and share with the Book Launchers community. And so that is what's happening on Saturday. As luck would have it, I booked this months ago and then my son's school announced his preschool graduation, which is a drive through graduation. But anyways, we do what we're going to do. And so I will not be there for the most of the deep dive. But Sarah Bean, our book marketing manager, she'll be hosting. And Angela Jones, who's probably here. Yes, she is. Hello. Our operation manager, she'll be there too. So they'll take amazing care of you, but make sure you get registered. That's@book launchers.com deep dive Typically, we don't post replays of these trainings, so you have to be there live to learn, and it is going to be an awesome, awesome session for all authors. So book launchers.com deep dive. Efren. I, too, have a conflict. But you know what? For clients, we, you know, sometimes make the replay available. So shoot us an email on Monday and we can probably hook you up. Okay. It is also something. We usually post them in the foundation library. I don't know if we've been doing that on a regular basis, Angela, but it did occur to me after the last one, we had one of our authors asking for the replay, and I realized that I don't know if we've been posting them in the foundation library like we used to or like we had planned. So we'll hook you up, Efren. I, too, have a conflict, so I will be watching most of the replay myself because I have to drive through my son's graduation. Okay. And let's see. Just reading the comments. So Sean's in the house. Hello, Sean. Kat. Hello from New Zealand. Fantastic to have you here. Robbie is here. Hello. Poetry from the heart, of course. Efren, who I just commented on. And Jennifer smiles now. Oh, I love that. That just makes you want to smile. So welcome. Some different names. I don't think we've seen some of you on. On these live streams before, or at least not very often. So welcome. Okay, so. And Benny Bullock's in the house. Hello. And Deborah Lloyd. Always wonderful to have you here, my friend. Okay, so today's topic, now that I've gotten that part out of the way, the deep dive, which I'll remind you at the end. But I do hope that you're able to make it on Saturday and. And cheer on Sarah and Angela, who are going to be hosting without me. So, seven author mistakes to avoid. That's what we're talking about today. And it was inspired by some of the podcast interviews that I've done, because one of the most common questions that I get asked is, what is one of the mistakes you see authors making the most? Or what's the most common mistake you see? And the truth is, there's a lot of different mistakes, and it varies widely depending on what phase in the whole process an author is at or that I'm looking at the book. Um, but I did narrow it down to seven of the more costly and and yet common mistakes that I see. And these are things that ultimately have the biggest impact on a book's success and its ability to help the author achieve their goals. So I'm going to dive into those seven here in a sec, but I want to kick it off with a prize right off, right off the hop. So today is the 7 17th. It is actually my husband's birthday, so we'll be celebrating with a dinner out this evening. And so there's not 50 comments yet. So I can't say 50 in celebration of how many years old he is, but I can say May 17th. So 17. So going from the top, Angela, let's do 17. The 17th comment that says, hello, we'll give you a prize. And today I actually have a mug because it came to me by accident. So some one of you out there that won one of these, it got sent back to us, so I got it today in the mail. So you will have a shot at winning the mug, the oh so soft journal, or a copy of Self publish and succeed Whenever we find out who Comment number 17 is. Let's see. Happy birthday. I'll let him know. I doubt he's. I doubt he's watching. He's probably kicking back in the sun by the pool, enjoying his day. I'm not sure. So. But I will pass on your wishes. So thank you, everyone. Let's see, I'm just waiting for Angela's prize here. So make sure you've said hello. And of course, you know, if you're enjoying it already, click that thumbs up. Or you could just click it thumbs up for Dave, who does cameos to try to make my videos a little more interesting and funny and break up some of them. Some of the ones he does are so wacky, my editor doesn't even include them. He doesn't tell me why he doesn't include them, but I have to have to assume that sometimes he. He thinks they're a little bit too over the top for my video to include what Dave has done. All right, Robbie. Hello. Number 17, you have won. So you need to email Angela@teambooklaunchers.com and let her know if you want the mug, the journal, or the book. If you are not in North America, you get the book. We've had all kinds of fun trying to ship to places outside of North America so you will win a book. Okay, so kicking it off with mistake number one, thinking your book is for everyone. I have this conversation with authors every single week. Some have written their book without a clear audience, while others are looking for help with the process. And they insist their book idea is for everyone. This is quite common with memoirs because especially when you're telling your story, your intention or your belief is that your goal, your book will offer hope or it will be inspiring. And while that is likely true, I mean, I have the absolute privilege of hearing some just absolutely incredible, incredible stories from people. And I mean, some of the people here are authors and they're working on books and they have phenomenal stories, stories. And I'm so excited for their books to come into the world. But even if your book is something inspirational, it is still not for everyone. And so you have to drill in to figure out who specifically is going to be inspired by your story and what they're now inspired to do or what the challenge that they're currently facing is that they are going to find meaning in your story and be able to come out the other side with some sort of an outcome. It's the outcome of the outcome. But that outcome of the outcome, the hook that we talk about, it's specific to an audience. So you, you really. A lot of authors fall into this trap and they believe that their, their book is for everyone or they want to believe it's for everyone. Cause they think that means they're going to sell a lot more books. But if your book is for everyone, it really is going to appeal to no one. And I just over and over, I recommend you get super clear on who that audience is, is and just drill into it. I mean, even if you think so, if you think your book is, say, for it's going to offer somebody a solution to find fulfillment, even that isn't enough. It's. You got to find who that person is that's going to find fulfillment in your message and what that fulfillment is going to mean. So you need to figure out is that fulfillment for somebody who's been in the same career for 40 years and they feel stale, or maybe it's a relationship fulfillment, or maybe it's a health fulfillment. You know, their kids have left the home and now they're retiring and they just, you know, who are they without kids, in a job? So you got to get into that. And so I'll give you a couple examples because I actually heard, I was listening to a talk the other day and I heard someone mention a charity. And I thought, man, that charitable organization has a really, really cool target. That would be a great book. And so there's was. I don't actually know what the charity was. I never caught the name, but it was for Special Ops people after they leave the service. And it was all about helping them figure out what their personal mission is after they're no longer assigned missions by others. So who you are, and this is my own words, not theirs, but like, who are you when you don't have a uniform on? You know, that's a very clear audience. You know who they are, you know where you're reaching them, you know how to talk to them, you know what they're feeling, you know what their problems are. So get into that reader and get specific, because your book is not for everyone. And if you think it is, it's going to be for no one. And that's probably who's going to buy it. So we don't want that. So that's why that was mistake number one, it's absolutely the biggest and most common. Number two, thinking that once your first draft is done that your book will be out in a couple of months. And I'm, I'm giggling because Efren's here, his draft is done, his book is not coming out for in a couple of months. So he can be, he can tell you firsthand that the first draft is just a first milestone. And it is possible. I mean, the reality is you can finish your first draft and publish it unedited. Tomorrow if you want to, you could upload it to KDP and 48 hours later you'll have something on the market. I don't, I dare not call it a book, but it is possible. But if you care about producing something that is great, something that is your best work, and you want to be proud of what you've created for years and years, your first draft is a milestone, but you still have miles to go. Typically you're going to need six months, maybe nine months after your first draft is done to get it into launch. For most authors, content edits, copy edits, a proofread, these things all take time. And realistically, depending on what your first draft is like when it comes in, you know, your content edit alone is going to take a few months to work through, and then the copy edit is another month, month and a half. The proofread is usually, you know, a lot faster because it's pretty, it's pretty smooth sailing at that point. But it's still, you know, that's a three to six month process, depending on how intensive that content edit is. So if your book is done and you're thinking, okay, it's May 17th, I'm going to launch my book in July, it's not likely to happen if you're trying to create your greatest work. So I always tell people, be patient, because this is the part where your book gets great. This is where I used to give my aunt my papers in university, and I would hand her something that had good ideas, it had research, but it was probably a C minus paper at best. And she would work it over and come back to me with work that I needed to do. And by the time we were done, it was an A paper. I almost always got an A, but I hated that part. I did not like her feedback. I didn't like her corrections, but I kept going back to her because I kept getting A's. And that's what that editing part is like. And it takes time, and it's important. Now, I was just trying to think of what else I want to say about that, but this. Usually the secret to getting through editing faster is to remove yourself from the process, or if not removing yourself from the process, trying to remove any feelings you may have about the process and just focus on learning and growing and improving the work and focusing on the reader and how to get through the. To the reader. Because what often slows things down is, are things that aren't really adding value. At the end of the day, the content edit is different. But when we get to copy edit, it should be straightforward. But this is where authors sometimes will allow those monsters. We've talked about those a lot here. They'll allow the monsters to control their process, and suddenly they'll be questioning whether they should use a certain word or another word. And it gets very, very into the minutia, if you will, and it's no longer adding value to the overall project. It's just slowing it down. So that is one way, you know, you can either designate someone else to make the decisions on the copy edit and the proofread, or you can just try to really come at it without an emotional feeling, which is hard for some authors to do. All right, let's see what you guys are chatting about over there. And then we'll go into the next number three. Mistake number three. Let's see. First draft. Mike's laughing at first draft. Let's see. Oh, Zen's in the house. Hello. Welcome. And Cynthia King. Hello. Great to have you here. And Robbie says, yes, I know mine is not for everyone. It's going to have colorful language and a lot of military references. Yeah, exactly. I.B.H. s sounds from Philadelphia. Welcome. Great to have you here. And I'm just reading your guys's comments, and Robbie says, oh, I'm so sad mine is taking so long to edit. It happens. Okay, so. Oh, Robbie says, I don't know when to stop editing. Okay, so we do have a video that Angela can grab for you on exactly that. I think it's called when to stop editing your book. I am pretty sure that is the title. Hopefully you can find it, Angela. There is one. It's got a red stop sign on the thumbnail. I can visualize it. I don't know the precise title, but if Angela can find it, she'll drop it in the comments for you, Robbie, because that'll help. Efren said, being humbled is a painful gift. Oh, I love how you worded that. It is. It is. Editing can be humbling. I've learned to remove myself quite a bit from the whole process and really try to just take the feedback in, but it's not always easy. Okay. I find walking, going for a walk, reading the feedback, doing nothing, going for a walk, and then coming back is really beneficial. That's just. That's my technique for a lot of things. If somebody makes me mad, I go for a walk, and then I come back. Okay, so mistake number three, launching a book and then trying to figure out how to market it. This is why book launchers exist. This is my fundamental philosophy, and is that you. To set yourself up for success, you need to be thinking about where you want to go before you get into the whole process. But this happens all the time. So if you've done this, it's okay. You're in good company. It's happened many times. We now are just rolling out what we call a marketing booster service, which is for authors that have a book that's out and they're looking for marketing. But it is by application and invitation only, because the book still has to have the fundamentals in place for the book to succeed and for it to be worth the investment in our marketing services. But we have recognized that this is something we've been asked for so many times, still only nonfiction. So, my fiction friends, it's going to be a long time before we ever do fiction. We want to be the best you possibly can be in the nonfiction space. So that will take a few more years. The challenge is that after a book has launched and it's not selling, it's hard because it's like you have this gigantic boulder that is stuck in mud, and now you have to start rolling it, and it's just. I mean, you can just visualize that. Right? Like, it's stuck in mud. It's huge. And it's going to take a tremendous amount of effort to just get it rolling versus if you have done things that lead into launch that have built that momentum, even if it's slow, if, even if the boulder is just rolling slowly, it's still moving and it's going to take way less energy to push it and get it rolling faster than if it is stuck in that mud. And that's really the difference between launching the book and then going, okay, nobody's buying it. After I put it on Amazon, how do I sell it versus, okay, it's eight weeks out. I need to get people to do reviews. I need to start looking for podcasts to interview me. I need to look for partners that might promote my book. I might want to get some endorsements for the book. All of those things are little things that add up to momentum and movement and will get that boulder rolling. So even if you don't have an enormous launch, your boulder is still moving and you can build on it. And it's much easier to get that boulder moving faster if you've got that momentum going into launch. So I mean, that's if you want to make sure you're positioning your book and you're set up and the boulder is moving. That's why I wrote Self Publish and Succeed. So. So grabbing a copy of that would be a great first step if you haven't read it already and you might win it today, right? So comment. There'll be one more, one more participation prize. And if you're watching the replay every Tuesday and Friday when a video comes out. If you comment the day a video is released, you get entered to win, Self Publish and Succeed or some of our great swag. Okay, mistake number four is designing a cover yourself. So. Or alternatively having a family member design the COVID We've had that happen too. Now, some people have a really good eye for design and they come up with decent looking cover designs. But that doesn't mean it's a great cover that's going to sell. Just because it looks good to the naked eye, it doesn't mean that it's actually going to sell your book. Because there's category, book category considerations. There's also a lot of things with regards to, sorry, there's like a fuzzy floating around my face. There's also things to consider around trim and color and fonts and a lot of those things. But a lot of it comes back to that category that you're going to be competing in. And book covers are a far more Complex process than most people realize. We do not hire somebody that is just a great graphics designer for book covers. They have to have previous book cover experience. At one point, we had somebody on our team that was a former album like record album designer. They did okay, but there was like, the designs were strong and eye catching, but it still wasn't quite right for books. There is just a special skill that is that makes a great book cover and a great, great book cover design. And part of it goes back to understanding how to fit in but stand out in a category. And then there's a whole host of other elements too. And I mean, a lot of people, if you're on a budget, I would say you have to invest in an editor and you have to invest in a professional book cover design. Your book cover is your first impression and it's the first impression you'll make on a reader. So it really needs to be the best possible impression to set your book up for success. Success. So the participation part, I'm curious. I have one, two. I think I have three left. Yeah, just checking my notes to see. Yes, I have three left. Three mistakes left. I'm curious if anybody can guess what one of the three last mistakes are. And while I'm giving you guys a chance to put that in the comments to win a prize, of course, I will head over to my random name picker where I have put all the names from everyone who commented on the last four videos and I've put you all into the random name picker and I will draw our two winners for today. So first up, Em Lee, congratulations. Thank you so much for commenting the day a video was released. I don't know. I don't think I saw you here today, but hopefully you catch the replay and you can email Angela@teamoklaunchers.com and let her know what prompt prize you would like. Make sure you include your mailing address when you email Angela. She does not know where you live. She needs an address to send these things to. All right, let's do one more. It's spinning around and Martha Tatenborn. So Martha wrote a book. Hacking Chemo, right? Hacking Chemo. I think so. My brain just had a melt meltdown moment. Hold on. Yes, actually, I have her book right here. What do you know? It's on the top of my pile even. It's like it was meant to be. So here's Martha's beautiful book cover and she wins this round. So I'm not sure what prize she does not have, but hopefully she Tunes into the replay. Or Angela can reach out to her because we have her contact information already. You can find out what she wants. So congratulations, Martha. Cool. Okay, I'm just checking to see who. Who is here that has one of the mistakes. That's what I'm looking for. Would love the self publish and succeed. So one of the best places because you get some cool bonuses to get. I mean you can get self publish and succeed anywhere books are sold. But self publish and succeed. I'm just putting this into the comments. Is a great place to buy it because you will get as long as you're in North America. I don't think it ships outside of there. But this is for ibh sisters sister sounds I should say. So I've just dropped that link that is going. So this is a setup. I'm diverging, taking a detour. So please, please walk with me on a slight detour. So I set it up so that we can run ads to promote the book. So we run ads on Google and YouTube going direct to this page. And I set it up through Shopify and Lulu. Although we're actually going to be dropping Lulu from that because they've raised their prices by 30% in this year and it's now made it more expensive than what I'm charging for the book to ship and print through Lulu. So with. With the fees on Shopify and. And PayPal. So. So goodbye Lulu. And we're currently investigating a handful of other options for that. So once I do that, I will let you know what we're doing because right now that was our previous solution and it was working quite well, but it's not. It's costing more. But I, I haven't fixed it yet because we don't have a solution. So. But anyways, that was my, my tangent. So let me see what you guys are saying. So one of the mistakes that Kat said is not launching or fear of failure. Great, great mistakes. Definitely those weren't the three that was. I should say that was one of the three that I've written down. I got to check my. I got to check my three. Okay, that's a good one. I think I'm gonna have to add that if I, if I turn this into a YouTube video in the future, I'm gonna. I'm gonna borrow that one. Not launching is a really big mistake. So that's great. Earn says don't be a perfectionist. Hey, great to have you here. Definitely is a good. Is a mistake to avoid. It's not one of the three that are coming up on my list next. But I like that one too. Thinking the book will sell itself. That's pretty close. Let me see. Yeah, it's not quite. We'll see if we can get one closer, but you're pretty close. Jennifer. Efren. Not. Not building an email list. That would be a mistake. I don't think that's on my list, but that's a good one. Assuming everybody already knows about your book. That's a really good one too. I might have to change this and make it like the 25 mistakes in the future. Those are good. Let's see. Not having a platform. Yeah, that's great. Not having an elevator pitch and explaining it in too much detail. Launching and forgetting. Not marketing your book. Yeah, those are all really good mistakes. I definitely have to refine my list. Still not there. Haven't seen it. I'm not making it part of a bigger business. I mean, I agree with that one. Earn. That's not for some people. They really just want to write a book and don't want to build a business around it. But that's a, I think, a missed opportunity for many. Does the illustrator have to read your manuscript? Okay, so we'll save that question for later. Let's see. I'm just reading to see if I missed anybody up above. Okay. Well, I think I'm going to give it to Jennifer. None of these were exact, so a mistake would be a poor title. Absolutely, Efren. And that's a harder mistake to fix. So I'm gonna go with Jennifer. Nobody got it quite with the three that I'm going to. Which is great. That means my mistakes will surprise you. And I'm going to borrow some of your mistakes and elaborate on this and make a whole new YouTube video. Because you guys, you guys are smart. Those are awesome mistakes. So I'm going to borrow them. But for now, we'll say Jennifer, congratulations. Thank you. So this is Jennifer Smiles Now. And I think it was Jennifer Smiles Now. Yeah, I'm not having. There was one. Sorry, I've lost it. Yes. Thinking the book will sell itself. So that was hers. It's close to what these other ones are. So we'll call it. So congratulations. So email Angela teamokons.com let her know which prize you would like. And thank you for playing along, all of you, and for giving me some awesome content, because I'm going to use it. All right, so my fifth mistake is not asking for reviews. You need reviews. You need lots of them. The more the better. And I Gotta tell you, one of the most frustrating things is getting reviews and then having them disappear. I was Self Publish and Succeed was about to cross 100. I was at 99 reviews. And I was so excited because I figured the next time I opened up Amazon and looked at my book, I would be over a hundred. I opened it up yesterday when I was prepping for this video, or maybe it was on Saturday, but it doesn't matter. And I was at 95. Amazon took some of my reviews down and I heard from somebody else that they had posted because I was specifically asking people to post reviews on the audio version. And I had heard from two different people that they had posted reviews on the audiobook, but it got pulled down. So you need reviews. You need lots of them. You need to ask everyone one that reads your book to write a review because, well, they disappear. Amazon pulls them down. But also the more the better. So I mean, here's my ask. If you have read Self Publish and Succeed, please post a review. And if you post a review after this, post it in the comments, let me know that you put a review. And you know, I would. I can't, I can't bribe people for reviews, but I do show gratitude. So let me know if you post a review after you watch this video. It's hard to ask for reviews and it feels like you're always asking, but reviews are the lifeblood of a book success. And you know, how I will say it to you is help me find other people who need to read my book. Help me find other readers just like you that will benefit from reading this book by posting a review and saying who it's for. And it, it is a service to other readers as much as much as it is a service to the author. So asking for reviews, not asking for reviews is a mistake because that some people will just naturally go and post a review, but those are rare. You really have to proactively ask, beg, plead. You can't bribe, but you know, you can promise gratitude for reviews. And it's just so, so important. Okay, mistake number six. Asking friends or family for their input on your title, your cover, your book content. And this one is maybe one that I see more than most people would see because we see the development of a concept and you know, we're working on even author branding and positioning early on. And we know the author's goals, we know what they're trying to create with the book, we know where they're trying to go. And so we have this big picture vision and then we Get a cover or a title. And we've worked really hard, you know, keyword research, brainstorming, and we've put a lot of effort into helping the author really do something that is going to position them in the marketplace and position them towards their goals. And then they post it on Facebook or they send it to friends and family, and all of a sudden they come back and they say, it's not right. We got to change it. And sometimes every once in a while, you end up with a really, really great concept. Most of the time, we end up watering down what would have been great or making changes that just tweak it enough that it's no longer got the power that it had before. I hate to pick on this, but friends and family, most of the time, they mean well. Sometimes you'll even get somebody who says an offhanded remark out of jealousy or out of trying to keep you small because they see you're about to create something great. And so that feedback can deter you and it really isn't of value. Your book is for your reader. You should ask yourself and your ideal reader if the title, cover, and content is appealing to them, does it make them want to click buy now or pull out that credit card? That's the only person that really, really matters in this. And ultimately, that's who you really have to focus on. And it's just be careful when you put feedback out in. When you're putting a cover or a title out onto social media, asking for input, because you're getting input from your peers, from your family, from your friends. And many of them think they want you to succeed, but they have their own issues. And that comes through in the feedback that you get. And it is a mistake. And it breaks my heart because you've. Especially in our case, because people have paid us for our professional opinion. We've worked really hard to position a book, and then it goes on a complete detour as a result of this. So, yeah, I've told people, look, you wouldn't go to your mom for accounting advice, right? And you wouldn't necessarily want to go to somebody that's not a lawyer for legal advice. So why do you go to somebody who's not a book publishing expert or your ideal reader for book advice? So, same thing. I'll leave it there because I could go on a tangent on this for quite some time. Number seven, the final, the final mistake. Until I update this and add all of your guys's great contributions, putting too much emphasis on launch and not enough on the End goals. And this is why I gave Jennifer the. The prize. Because ultimately, I think what happens is there's so much emphasis in the publishing world on having a great launch. And it's fun and it's exciting and you do want some momentum. But it. If your launch isn't enormous, it's okay. Especially if you're building a business around your book. If you're using your book as a tool to open doors, to get media, to get speed speaking, a launch is great. You want to have some momentum, but it's not the be all, end all. And a lot of people put a lot of emphasis into launch and then do nothing. And you have to continuously market your book for it to succeed. And ultimately, I also rec. We've talked about this in a previous live stream about aligning your tactics to your overall strategic goal. And, and this is where that really comes into play, because you. If you're using your book, if your goal in writing a book was to become a speaker, you don't just launch a book and then go, ooh, I hope that by the law of attraction, I'm going to get speaking engagements. Now you have to be actively sending that book out to meeting planners, talking to people, getting on podcasts that are talking to that specific audience and showing that audience how you solve their problem or what message you have that is going to be absolutely critical that everybody in that target audience hears this message. So it's doing something every single day to use that book to get you in front of the people who can book you for speaking engagements. And so doing something every day to market your book, but marketing it towards your bigger goal is really, really important. And, yeah, I think that's all I'll say about that. I just want people to know that, you know, you want to have a launch that's strong. You want to put as much of your emphasis, effort, and energy into a good launch. But then that's not it. Launch is not the destination. Launch is just like, kind of like that first draft we talked about. Beginning launches, a milestone, celebrate it, and then get to work. Keep working, keep working so that your book actually gets you where you wanted it to go in the first place. Whew. That's my seven tips for you all today. So what questions do we have, Angela? I will check out some of the comments here. And I see Angela saying, I've got lots of talents, but mind reader isn't one of them. She kind of reads my mind sometimes, so she does have that talent to a point. But knowing where you Live. That's stretching it. Okay, let's see. Checking out what else you guys are talking about. Okay, let's see. Getting a referral from anyone in any industry is hard. Mike says. Yep. How many reviews as a minimum? Wa Blinko. Welcome. I would shoot. I mean, kind of the tipping point that we see for Amazon ads and even media requests and some other things to start improving is 25. The rule is, have as many as you possibly can. To me, 25 is kind of one, and then getting over that hundred is the next one. And then, you know, everything after that is, you know, icing on the cake. So. But 25 is the first tipping point that we have seen where Amazon ads generally start to perform better. Media wins come in a little easier because you've got social proof, you know, so that's kind of the first goal to shoot for. Wa blinko. I need 50 sales first. Well, actually, to get reviews, you don't even need sales because you can give books to people for in exchange for an honest review. Like I said, you can't bribe people. You can't pay them to write a good review, but you can pay certain review services to then solicit reviewers and you can give people copies of your book. So you don't even need 50 sales to get reviews. We've also talked about review sites where we've used them. I think I did a video on different review sites, so Angela might be able to find that video for you as well. Okay, let's see. Also, if we have reviewed, I guess we need to check every so often to make sure it's still up and write another one. If it's been taken down, you could try. Alan, I certainly appreciate that. If. But my guess. And you can let me know. But my guess is if it's been taken down, they've flagged the account and you won't be allowed to post it. It won't even let you post the next time. But try it and let me know. You can just write a short review so you don't have to go to a lot of effort if your review was taken down and let me know. Okay, let's see. Jennifer smiles that. I had a family member get very upset with me because they wanted to get. Wanted to give advice, and I let them know they weren't my ideal customer. Yes. Yay. That's amazing. Deborah says, my mother was an accountant. I still wouldn't go to my mom for accounting advice even if she was an accountant. But that's me. I just find there's so much bias from people who, you know, well meaning family and friends. There's. There's so much bias and projection that happens. I like to have third party advice. But that said, that's funny. But I said I wouldn't go to my mom for accounting advice. I'd go to my account. But all right. Angela said, oh, oh, here we go. Question one from Robbie. Does the illustrator actually have to read your manuscript? So when you say illustrator, I think children's book, I think comic book. I think, you know, those kind of books. And in those cases, I'm not an expert in those genres, but I would say yes, they have to read the book to get a sense of it. In what we've done with some books is there'll be like comics kind of drawn inside and they don't have to read the book. They just need to have a description of what the comic is illustrating and maybe the context that that is going in for the graphics. I mean, most of our books are business how to self help and so the graphics are. Let me just see. Of course, I'll probably knock something down grabbing these books for you. Here's one on called master your mortgage from Brighton Gabarzia. And like, so, I mean, this is what most of our graphics look like. Charts and things like that. The illustrate. In that case, it's a layout person. I'm just seeing if there's any other graphics inside of that one. The marijuana haters guide to making a billion dollars from hemp. I don't think there's any. Oh, there's. I just saw something. Oh, that's just an image. So no, they don't have to read the book for those things. If you do have somebody creating tables and charts, I would have a proofreader go over those afterwards, just FYI. Okay, question two, wa Blinko. Can you please recap the mistakes? Sure, I would love to, thanks for asking. But I do have to go back to my notes because I don't remember. I do know. Oops, I just opened the wrong file. Oh, here we go. Okay, so number one, thinking your book is for everyone, you really have to get focused on a specific reader. And of course you can go back and watch the replay to get all the juicy details that I shared about this. Number two, thinking that when your first draft is done, your book will be out in a couple of months. Editing process takes time. You want to. If you want to create something great, you have to invest time in that part. Number three, launching the book and then trying to figure out how to Market it. I'm recommending thinking about marketing early and starting the marketing before you launch. Number four, designing the COVID yourself or even having a family member design it that is not a professional book cover designer. Number five, not asking for reviews and asking and asking and asking. Number six, asking friends and family for their input on your cover title and book coverage content. Number seven, putting too much emphasis on launch and not enough on your end goals and just really thinking that it's all about launch and not the after, not the post launch marketing, not the post launch activities, which is really when you're going to make your money, especially if you're building a business from your book. Launch is where traditional publishers make their money. We didn't talk about that. That's why there's so much emphasis on launch. Traditional publishers, they generally make their their money in the first 60 days of a book and that's why there's so much emphasis on launch. It's from that traditional model. But if you've got a good solid book with an evergreen concept that you can leverage into courses, consulting, services, speaking, you know, building that business around that Ern mentioned, you're going to make your money from all of those things using your book and you're going to do that in the long term. So cool. There you go. Let's see here. Question 3 Mark Hill. What is better for non fiction social media presence? LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram or Facebook? Depends where your reader is because not all non fiction is necessarily there. Generically answering that, I would say LinkedIn, there's groups, it's professional, it's a good space. A lot of our authors have created good followings there by doing video live streams, posting articles. And it does seem like you can get traction there a little bit faster than I mean Facebook. I haven't seen a lot of success on Facebook these days. Instagram, we have some authors that have done really well on Instagram. TikTok is all the rage right now and we've even seen some people in nonfiction doing well. It's primarily fiction that is doing really well on TikTok, but we have seen people with nonfiction build audiences fairly quickly on TikTok as well. Question four, can we put positive review quotes on the back book flap? So when you say back book flap, I assume you're talking hardcover with the dust jacket which. Sorry to keep turning my back on you folks. This is a hardcover. This is the Maestro monologue by Rob White. This is a dust jacket. Right. So like this versus do I have, I did have a hardcover that didn't have this. I think I gave it to somebody the other day. There's some. And I just blanked on the name where it's just the hardcover, where it's actually painted onto this. So if you're talking about this, Efren, you can put. Usually the back flap is dedicated to the author. So you can see this is, you know, the author bio and there is a little bit of a quote at the top from him and from the book. On the inside flap, you have the book description and then the back of this particular book is all endorsements and quotes for the book. So that's common. It's your book. You can do it however you want though. Let's see. I'm just reading your guys's comment comments here to see if I answer that. Okay, so Efren's good with that. Cool. And now I think was the last. The last question. If anybody else has any last minute questions, let me know now. Otherwise, hopefully you join us for the deep dive on Saturday. We talked about that at the beginning. So if you weren't here, we're having a really awesome deep dive session on how to pitch yourself for media. We have a special guest expert who's going to come in and do a training session and he's going to. He's been on more than 500 news shows. Now he has a PR company. Normally these deep dives are just my team, but this was just such a valuable piece of content that I know will help every author. So I asked him to do a session for you guys and he kindly agreed. So it's going to be a really, really great session on how to pitch yourself, how to show up and perform for that session and get invited back and leverage one media into one media appearance into many others and, you know, ultimately build your brand, build credibility and sell more books. So you got to get registered for that@book launchers.com deep dive for that. And then Mark says, my daughter says Facebook is for old people. I think my son's 5. I don't think he's actually going to even know what Facebook is, judging by my nieces and other people. But who knows? John Blue says TikTok is wild. And Efren says, John Blue, your book is doing a service, a review request in, a compliment. I. I might have missed something up above. Okay, let's see. I've had hundreds of views on TikTok overnight, while the others are slow but more steady. Yeah, exactly. So that's great. Thanks for sharing. Do I have any ARC Tips. I have a video on arc actually which will give you better tips than I could possibly give you right now. So Angela, if you don't mind, to quickly grab that YouTube link on ARC. I'm pretty sure if you just type in arc and you'll find it on the channel. And can you recommend any TikTok creators to sonnet with? Off the top of my head, no. We. It depends what genre. I missed it if you said it up above wa Blinko. But you could always shoot us an email. We do have a few clients that are doing TikTok talk and we'd be happy to connect you with them if there's a good fit. There might be a good collaboration there and IBH sister sounds. How do I find out about your marketing services? You can go to our website, book launchers.com there's a tab there that says self publishing services. We don't have a tab specific to our marketing booster offering. So if your book is already out. But it would be. There's a fee for that, which is kind of a setup fee. There's deliverables and then you would roll into one of our monthly services with the monthly deliverables that you'll see under the promotion part of that. So you can also apply and you'll. You'll get Angela. You'll get an email from Angela at any time when you do this. I just put the link to apply down there. Let's see. Oh, there's a few more questions here. You guys are. You guys are on fire today. Mark Hill says, curious how many editors you should have. I've had a developmental copy and line and now proofreaders. That's the bulk of it. We also run books through an optional fact check. So in between what our books do is there's usually a developmental or content edit in the beginning, then a copy edit and in between the second round of copy edits, we offer a fact check. So some of our authors will do the fact check and others won't. And so that you can blend copy editing and fact checking. But we also find the fact checking process when the author goes through that can introduce errors. So we like to have a final copy edit and then a proofread after that. Sometimes after it's been in, we usually do the proofread, then we go to layout and then we do another proofread when it's in layout because layout introduces more errors. Some companies will just do the proofread in layout. We like to minimize the changes in layout as much as possible because it's so, so time consuming. If anybody does anything more than just add a comment, a comma, or change a typo, it causes a lot of problems with the entire layout of the book if you're adding a sentence or, you know, doing something more elaborate. So we like to do a proofread and then a final proofread, but doesn't always happen that way. Whew. I think we did it. And Ron, great to have you here. We're just wrapping up, but always wonderful to have the Green wizard in the house. Welcome. Oh, one more. One more follow up question. Here we go. For nonfiction, is it better to have the citation at the bottom of the page or the back of the book? Depends on how many for me, I put and there is like, if you want to get into APA and I forgotten all the. I actually just did a video too on all of the different style guides, you know, like Chicago manual style and all those things. And there are specific formatting things if depending on which style you go with, generally speaking, if there's only a handful throughout your book, put them at the bottom. However, if you've got a lot and it's going to clutter up the pages, you're going to put them at the back. It's more of a formatting choice than anything, and it'll be dependent on the volume. But there is style guides for that, for making that decision as well. Phew. Thank you, Efren. We will. It's a new. I haven't been to this restaurant, so hopefully it's good because I picked it. So hopefully it's a good choice for my husband's birthday, but that's it. So we'll hopefully see all of you on Saturday. Angela, Hopefully. I do hope to tune in as well. Otherwise, we'll see you back here in two weeks. And thank you again for all of your participation comments, questions. It was a fantastic session. At least I had fun. Hope you did, too. See you again next time.