Julie Broad, founder of Book Launchers, says writers often reject their own book ideas before anyone else gets the chance. She walks through four steps: stop asking friends for validation, choose action over regret, hire someone impartial to develop your idea, and test it with actual readers in your target market.
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Me? Write a book? No, nobody will buy it. It'll just cost money and I'll never get that money back.
If that's what you're thinking, stick around. Hey, I'm Julie the Book Broad Award winning author and founder of this fantastic company that cares about authors and their success so much, called Book Launchers. If caring was a superpower, it would absolutely be our company's superpower. Before we dive in, make sure you subscribe to the channel and turn the notifications on so we can hang out in the comments when a video comes out. There are prizes for commenting. The day a video is released, you can win some cool Book Launcher swag. Plus, commenting makes us friends and I love and appreciate you for it. So thank you Kevin McGuire. I am the possible Solution Focus Keith Wheeler Books Elegant, Spicy and so many others who take the time to comment on all. Almost every single video I put out big virtual hugs for you. So when my first book was turned down by publishers, I almost gave up. There was this big part of me that felt I needed the validation of someone else saying my idea was good enough for them without a publisher saying you're good enough. I didn't think I was, at least for a while. My husband Dave kept saying I could self publish like our friends Nick and Tom Carradza had with their book, but I just kept thinking I wasn't going to sell enough books to matter. It was a really, really crappy feeling and I was at a low point for a while. Even worse, a handful of my friends got book deals when I didn't. I started to suffer from comparitis. What did they have that I didn't? Why were they worthy when I wasn't? So if you're self rejecting your book idea or looking for someone else to validate it, here's my advice. Number one, do not ask friends or family if your idea is any good. I don't know your friends, but my suspicion is that only a handful of them will accurately judge your book idea and even few of them will be honest about it. I have a lot of bad ideas and I have some very smart friends. But I don't have very many friends that have ever, ever told me that my idea stunk. And I know I've had some stinkers. So if you've been told by your friends that your book idea is good, how do you really know? Number two, ask yourself what you will regret more. Writing the book you feel compelled to write. Even if nobody ever validates that you should write the book or not writing the book. Ultimately, this is what got me off my butt. I knew I had to write a book whether a publish was telling me I was good enough or not, and I knew I was going to regret it if I didn't do it. Number three if you want help developing the idea so it has a much higher chance of succeeding, hire a company like Book Launchers who has an impartial view of your idea and a strong sense of what can sell. Remember, nobody knows for sure what will work. It's why publishers want you to have a million followers or a newsletter list of 100,000 people. They don't know for certain if your book idea will be good enough, but they know that they can count on your audience to buy from you. Number four if you still feel like you need validation, what do your ideal readers think? Strangers will be more honest than your friends. So go to a meetup group, go to a conference. Wherever there's a group of your ideal readers hanging out. Chat with some of them about your book idea and get their opinion. Don't worry about somebody stealing the idea. Nobody can write your story but you, and a book is so much work that very few people are going to steal it, even if they think about it. If you want more help getting started, check out this video on getting started writing a book. We also have this. Ta da. Fantastic. Download the 7 Steps to Plan and write a nonfiction book that boosts your business. You can download that@book launchers.com 7Steps I guess you're supposed to just go watch another video now. Go watch one of the other videos right now. See you on the next video. Me.
