Author Susan Hensley describes working with Julie Broad and Book Launchers to self-publish her book, Art for You: How Art Journaling Can Help You Manage Chaos and Unleash Joy. She explains her background (former journalist, 20+ years as an HR executive), why she chose self-publishing, the timeline (spoke with Julie in August with a goal to publish by May and actually published in June), and highlights Book Launchers’ design/layout, speed, and guidance as key benefits. She attributes the project to launching a new career and recommends Book Launchers for authors who want an efficient, high-quality self-publishing path.
Questions this video answers
Art for You: How Art Journaling Can Help You Manage Chaos and Unleash Joy.
In August (year implied by context).
She aimed to get the book out by May and it was released in June.
More than two decades.
Within a day or two.
Chapters
I really knew Book Launchers was right for me after I heard Julie on a different podcast. And then when I spoke with her, the process she laid out and what I would call the low sales pitch, I really appreciated. I could tell that she was ethical. Her goal was to run a company that did what it said it was going to do. And that really instilled a lot of confidence in me. So I think very early in the process, I knew Book Launchers was a good fit for me. I'm Susan Hensley. The name of my book is Art for your. How art journaling can help you manage chaos and unleash joy. So my life before I wrote the book, I had been working full time in a corporate job. And really the book was the first thing I did in retirement. And as I was thinking through the transition into retirement, I realized what an incredibly powerful tool art journaling had been. I was an HR executive for more than two decades before I left that job. And I had a first career as a journalist. And someone I was working with suggested writing a book about the power of art journaling. Not so much for learning art, but the power, the process, for helping us through transitions, big life transitions. Research shows we go through a transition about every year to year and a half, and sometimes we go through huge ones. So I had no idea how to write a book, but I just sort of told myself I would write every day for 30 days and see what I had. And I started to explore writing a book. And I thought, oh, I can tell. Self publishing is going to be the way for me. I knew right away I didn't want to try and get a traditional publisher. And so I reached out to Julie at Book Launchers, and we did a call and she explained the process to me. And within a day or two, I had signed up because I could tell Book Launcher service is exactly what I needed. I didn't want to spend the time to pitch to publishers or to try and do it on my own. I believe I talked to Julie in August. My goal was to get the book out by May, and we made it out by June because I really wanted to be able to talk about the book at a wellness retreat that I knew I was going to that coming May. What I really appreciated about the monthly service with Book Launchers is if somehow I needed to pause, I could. They were really able to help me meet my goal, and they brought the expertise every step of the way. It would have taken me three times as long if I ever would have done it if I hadn't used Book Launchers, I saved a ton of time and it really launched me into a new career. The learning curve, if you've never done this, is really high. So I put a lot of faith and guidance into Book Launchers to help me through the process. It was really fun, actually, to learn the process. I realized how much I learned about publishing and the industry, even though that wasn't my my primary reason. But I really did get terrific, terrific learnings. And as I think about what my next book may be, I will tell you I'm so much smarter, right? And that I learned so much. The number one benefit that I experienced working with Book Launchers is their design and layout team. My book is beautiful and because it was about the process of art journaling and it needed to be in color. And although there were many, many other benefits, the design of the COVID which gets comments from everyone who sees it, and the interior look is so professional. I think one of the strengths of Book Launchers is getting very clear that you're not writing a book to necessarily become a best seller. That would be fantastic, but you're really writing a book in service of something else, either an existing business or, in my case, wanting to take my career in a new direction. I recommend Book Launchers because you can spend so much time and so much money and energy spinning your wheels. If you know you have a book and you're clear that you want to put it out into the world, Book Launchers will help you do that. They were by far the quickest, highest quality, and most efficient way to get my book to the world.
