Dont Write a Crappy Book - Book Review plus Happy National Authors Day

All right, hello and welcome, everybody. Today is another episode of the first look book review show with Julie, the book broad. That's me. All right, so if you are new to the show and you're watching the replay, the number one rule is to say hello. In fact, that's the only rule. So whether you're just tuning in to the live stream or you are capturing catching the replay, make sure you say hello so that we know that you're there. And if you're watching the live stream, make sure you say hello. For sure. For sure. Because Jacqueline from my team will be checking all of the people who say hello and give us a shout out while they're here. And she'll be drawing for a prize because we like to reward the folks that. We like to reward everyone and say thank you to everyone, but we really like to reward the folks that join us live. And today's prize is fabulous Book Launchers mug with, of course, the hashtag of no boringbooks. And today I've topped mine up with some lovely cold brew that I get from our Saturday farmers market here in Playa Vista. So I'll be caffeinating myself. It's one of those days, let me tell you. So I'll be caffeinating myself while we go through today's show. So got lots of cool stuff I've got on a kind of a personal business note. I've signed a new lease for Book Launchers headquarters. So if you've been tuning into the live streams, you know I've had some technical struggles, and I've also had some space struggles. I've moved offices quite a few times. So Book Launchers will have a new head office still in Playa Vista, but in a building that has kind of a cool history. So before I go too, too deep in today's book review, I just. I gotta tell you the history of this building because it's kind of neat. And this is where I'll be live streaming from come January, so. And welcome, Jacqueline. I was just. I was just talking about you. So the history of this building is kind of cool. The one that I'll be in starting in January is in. It was built for MySpace. So it's actually two buildings. It's like two sister buildings. And it was built for MySpace headquarters, but, you know, they kind of went and never actually moved in. So it's been vacant. The honest companies on the top floor of this building and Samsung's down below, but the couple of floors that I'll be on, they've been vacant. Since 2008. So I'm really excited. It's a really cool space and it's really set up as a campus, so there's all kinds of really cool stuff there. And there's going to be a classroom, so we can probably have some events in the classroom. So I'm really, really excited about that. Okay, so that's as of January. In the meantime, you'll see me all over the place and I'm not going to get too fancy with these live streams until I can get hardwired in and all set and smooth. So thank you for tuning in in the meantime. So today we're going to talk about I've got a couple things on book launcher side, a little bit of news, and I've got a book review of a book that's called Don't Write a Crappy Book. And I'm excited to share. I've got lots of tips from that book for you, so I think you'll enjoy that. Hey, welcome, Dave. Good to see. And yeah, definitely say hello, give us a thumbs up, let us know you're here. Thank you. And then I've got a new book coming out this week, or not me, someone's been working with book launchers. So I'm really excited for you all to check that book out. So I'm going to give that person a shout out today and of course, prizes. So as I mentioned, if you're here watching live, make sure that you say hello and then you'll be entered to win a prize. And so far, so far it's going to be a small draw, so definitely say hello. All right. And if you are watching the replay, do say hello as well because we always like to know who's watching and give you a shout out. Okay. So hopefully you subscribe to the launch letter. The first piece of news I have, I just kind of wanted to touch on it right now and I brought it up in this week's launch letter. So if you don't already subscribe, make sure you get on the list@book launchers.com seven steps or gameplan. So either way you'll get on the newsletter list because I'm always giving you updates on what's going on. The thing I was talking about this week was the revamp of the Apple Books app, and I won't replay it for those of you who are subscribers. But the big news for me is that a lot of people maybe aren't even caring that Barnes and Noble is going away. But here's the piece that as a self published author or an indie author, whatever you want to call yourself that I think you want to pay attention to is the fact that the industry is shifting and the options are there for you as an author to get distribution, to get your book into the hands of a lot of people. And Barnes and Noble is for sale. And that's really where traditional publishers have really added value, so to speak, in recent years, is that they still have a hold on that traditional book channel. But as Barnes and Noble fades into the distance and players like Kobo and Walmart team up and Apple steps up and starts to do more with their books, we're just going to have more and more options that are available to us as equally as they're available to traditional publishers. So it's pretty, pretty cool. Hey Kevin, thanks for staying awake. Always great to have you here. I'm curious actually. So where you're at over in Europe is Apple Books at all paid attention to? I know Kobo is kind of something you guys use. I'm just curious what the Kobo Kindle, Apple or if there's some other ebook version that you guys use. I'm just kind of curious since you're here. All right, and this week, Thursday is National Author's Day, so yay. And of course, tomorrow is Halloween. So I put there it is the Jack O Lantern that we carved last night. That's my free handing, freehanded pumpkin carving skills showcased for you guys. But Thursday's National Author's Day, so I'm going to be going live on America Trends and I'll be celebrating National Authors Day with all the authors everywhere. So for those of you who already got a book out, congratulations and celebrate, make sure you toast on national authors. Also this week, our writers retreat is on. So this is the Last one of 2018, probably the last one we're doing for a while. I might do a virtual writers retreat in the first half of 2019, so if that's something you're interested in, let me know. I thought the appeal of coming to LA to get out of winter would be stronger, but people are so busy these days, traveling can be tricky to fit into the schedule. So we might try and do a virtual one. Oh, it's only 11:00pm all right, gotcha. That's still late. I appreciate you staying up. Okay, so the big book launchers news for this week and I'm going to be sending an email, but just so you're all ready, it's on your radar. We are changing our price, we're changing our prices, but we're also changing our offerings. So if you're somebody who's already working with us, you're totally fine. But if you're somebody who's thinking about working with us, you should probably talk to me right away if you can. Because we're changing how we offer our services a little bit and the price points are going up. So I'd love to chat with you now and get you in so we can get your book published in 2019. Probably in the first half or in the first three quarters anyways, for sure. But also just so you can get in at today's prices if you want. We're adding value all the time. We're constantly adding value and we're finding that to create books that are the same or better quality than a traditionally published book. And that's really my big goal is besides no boring books right there. We want to help you build a business and a brand around your book. And that means this book has to be something that you're super proud of, that can represent you and your business for years to come. And that takes a significant investment in hiring high quality people. Like high quality editors, really, really brilliant cover designers, interior layout people. It takes a significant investment and we want this book to be fantastic. We're not about getting it done cheap or fast. We are about quality and achieving your goals. And our prices have to go up little bit to reflect the high quality people and the costs of having those high quality people on our team. Kevin says I don't have a clue on what they use here. My wife goes to the library for her and her bookstore for our daughter. Nothing ebook for her. So yeah, you guys are all print. Totally cool. So thanks. I was just curious. Okay, so book review. Don't write a crappy book by James Ranson. And for everybody else that's here, make sure you say hello. Jacqueline is taking tally of who is here and she'll be letting me know who wins a prize. She just does a random draw of everybody who says hello while you're on the line. So make sure you say hello. Okay, so don't write a book. Don't write a crappy book by James Ranson. And I was given this book for a review, but I was actually pleasantly surprised. It was delighted. It was a delightful, really easy, great read. And of course, whenever somebody agrees with your own perspectives on things, it's makes you enjoy it more. Of course, that's just life, right? I may have enjoyed it if he said the opposite thing. Hard to say, but he really is in very close alignment with my beliefs in book launchers and all the people that work for book launchers, their stance on things. So that made it easier to enjoy. But it was a delightful, easy read packed full of great tips. I was trying to think of who specifically I would say it's for who should read it. I can tell you is pretty much anybody who is thinking that they want to write a book fast, that, you know, they're thinking speed is really, really important, or they just. They think that because you can self publish and do it super cheap, you should. So those kind of people, but they're not necessarily the people I think would read this book. So I would love to see a lot of authors that are a lot of people who are thinking about becoming an author read this book. So some of the big points he makes, you know, at the early in the book, he's. He says, you don't want to write a crappy book because a crappy book repels money and a great book attracts it. And a crappy book risks your reputation. But a good book builds your credibility. And those are things that I firmly believe. Kevin says, I just finished a cup of tea with my no Boring Books mug. So cheers to that. Jacqueline says, I need people to tally, so make sure you say, hi. I know we have some people here who are hiding in the weeds anonymously, not saying hello. So maybe they're tuning in and just to hear what I have to say about James's book, I don't know. And they don't want to say they're here, but that's fine. If you say you're here, though, you will be entered to win. Plus, we can be friends, we can talk. As much as this is me talking to you guys, it's way more fun when you interact back and chat with me. So. All right, so I loved how James then talked about, okay, so why do good authors write crappy books? And then he breaks up the book into three danger zones and the mistakes people make in each of those danger zones. So it's really easy, really easy to. Easy to scan, too, which I like, because there's some things that you're like, yep, totally know that. And you don't necessarily want to have to read through a whole bunch of text to get the gist of it, or if there is something where you're like, oh, this is great, you want to read into it in detail. I found the book really, really easy to scan. And everything I read read beautifully, and it was so enjoyable. So why do good authors write crappy books? Well, they're not taught not to. And he basically said that this is in large part. And I'll say it's. I think there's two causes of this. But he talks about this is the prevalence of those loud, bright, shiny programs that teach you how to write a book in a weekend or, you know, 90 days to a bestseller. We've definitely talked about that here. You can write a book in a weekend, and you can write and produce a book that gets you bestseller status on Amazon in 90 days. But should you. That's really the bigger question, that you really have to look deeper inside of yourself. And I've talked about this before. If you can't afford to hire editors and to hire some key people on your team, then you should save up for that before you put your book out in most cases. And again, this is applying to nonfiction. I think that there are. There's room in fiction. Not to say that a bunch of typos are okay in fiction either. But for me, again, we're talking about nonfiction books that are here to build your brand and grow your business, and it represents you. And so a sloppy book is. Shows people that you're probably sloppy in what you do. And that is why I always emphasize that you really need to have a, you know, put out a great quality book. So he says we fall for the questionable marketers because we want their pitches to be true. And if we think we want it hard enough, they will be true. And we also feel entitled to the results that those pitches offer us. And he has a quote from somebody I'd never heard of, John Acka, you if in a book called Start. And he said, people think I don't really want to learn how to be a great public speaker. I don't really want to spend hours editing that skill. I don't want to spend time mastering. I just want to do it a few times, have everyone recognize me as a master and enjoy the rewards. And we see that all the time with books. People, you know, think they have because they have all this expertise and they've put it down on page that it's good to go. And that's just not the case. So. Hey, Talita. Hello. Welcome. So, yeah, make sure you guys are saying hello when you're here. So welcome. So we can give you a shout out and Jacqueline can enter you to win. He has three danger zones that he breaks the book up into. Writing a book that you're not proud of is danger zone A. Danger zone B is Writing a book that doesn't connect with your audience. And danger zone C is writing a book all by yourself. I'm not going to go too deep into all of these things, but there was some really, really cool points that I'll highlight for you. And then I'll just recommend that if you're loving this and loving the tips, then definitely pick up this book. Oh, and hey, I have to give a shout out to Dale Roberts. He was quoted in this book along with a lot of other authors. I think he's. I can't remember how many. I think they said 26 different authors and kind of speakers, types of people were interviewed for this book. So Dale. But I saw Dale's quote in there, so yay. Hey Dale. He had this tip on bestseller status. Write a book that deserves the title whether you receive it or not. And I think that that is great. I of people say I want to be an Amazon bestseller. And I've harped on this before. If you have missed my lecture on this, so to speak, you can go to booklaunchers.com and there's a blog post on there that basically says why you're wasting your time chasing Amazon bestseller. But I love the principle of writing a book that is deserved of a best seller title. And I kind of laughed out loud because he said he learned that from his dating coach. So he's really open and I like that because you kind of get a feel for who he is in reading it. And then one of the other tips I liked is he talked about rushing your book and why you shouldn't rush your book. And he said, as they used to say in Texas, the only way to drive cattle fast is slowly. Your book is a herd of cattle. It has a mind of its own and if you try to rush it, you'll be sorry. Six Ways to Sunday his advice? Try to only write. Try to only rush the writing process, not the post production. And this is the piece that I find a lot of people are like, it's written. Just publish it. And when in reality you have a finished first draft of a manuscript, it is going to take probably three months to get that manuscript ready to go to market. And even when it's ready, I still think it's best if you spend six to eight weeks getting it ready to then go to market. A lot of people get it done and then want to publish it right away. But you haven't spent enough time building momentum, reaching out to influencers, getting your reviewers on board. There's a lot of pieces that take time. If you want to get blog reviews and podcast interviews, that stuff needs to be happening six to eight weeks after your book is done, so they can look at the book, the finished product, maybe even hold it in their hands, potentially. So there's so many things to do, and I think a lot of people rush the process, which is why they either end up with a crappy book as he talks about, or they end up just with lackluster results. And they're wondering, why didn't my book do as well as I thought it should have? So, yeah, so I thought that was really, really good. Good tip. And he had a great ask at the end. And I always encourage people to kind of, you know. You know, you. You want to focus in on what you're asking people for when you write your book. You know, do you want to have. Do you want to ask people to go to your blog or download a course or a website or give you an email address, or do you want to ask them to get Amazon reviews? And so he set a goal, and he made it very clear, and he says, so here's my big, hairy, audacious goal. I want don't write a crappy book. To get 100 views on Amazon by the end of 2018. So he put that right in there with a plea to add to go to Amazon to write a review. So if reviews. And reviews are super important. So if reviews are your goal, then ask for it. If you're trying to build a bigger email database, then that's probably where you want to focus. And then you're just gonna have to be very personal and proactive in asking people for reviews. So overall, fantastic book. Highly recommend you read it. If you are just thinking about writing a book right now and you're looking for, you know, just overall guidance on, you know, where can I take shortcuts if I need to? Am I ready in my business to write a book? He has a great breakdown on that. So, yeah, lots of stuff there. All right. Hey, Dustin. Good to see you. And congrats again. Very exciting news. Okay, so. And speaking of congrats, huge congrats to Gillian Gertzen, who is publishing her book this week. And, Dustin, she's an anima White, so there you go. She's near and dear to my heart, because when I kind of raised the flag and said I was opening the doors to book launchers, she was one of the very first people to say, yes, I want to write a book. And I trust you, Julie. I know what you've Done. And I believe that you'll put a team together that can help me. And so I'm really, really excited for her. She's worked incredibly hard taking an idea, which is what she and turning it into a book that launches on Thursday. So you guys can check it out. You can buy it on pre sale. It's called Elephant in the Gym. And with this book, it's really, it's a fitness book. But it's almost like, I think one of the quotes she has, one of the endorsements she has says that she's the whistleblower on the fitness industry in a lot of ways. She's talking about why the fitness industry wants you to be fat. They actually don't want you to lose weight. So she talks about why you don't need a gym membership to be fit. You know, why traditional goal setting in the fitness industry actually sets you up to fail in a lot of ways. A foundation for your success. She kind of lays it out for you. It's really practical strategies to get fit. Love your body and. Oh, thank you. Jacqueline said. If you're just joining us, we're talking about don't write a crappy book by James Ranson. Now we're talking about Gillian Geertsen's book. It's coming out on Thursday called Elephant in the Gym. I planted the flag, not raised it. Raising is giving up. Oh, I waved the flag. That's giving up. Okay, sorry. Anyway, so congrats, Jillian. Super excited for you. And if any of the ladies out there are interested in getting a better relationship with your body, feeling fit, feeling stronger, feeling healthier, you'll absolutely love this book and you'll love Jillian. So check that out. All right, so I'm going to do you know what I didn't do? Oh, my goodness. For the first time in all of these live streams, I didn't put your names in a hat from your Friday YouTube comments. So I'm going to have to do an after the fact post on that. So normally what we do is we put everybody's name in a jar who says hello while they're here on the live stream. And we draw and then we give you one of these fantastic book launchers, mugs. But that's for. So that's for everybody who says hello, but we also do that for everybody who comments. Every Friday, I have a new YouTube video comes out. And when you comment on Friday, on the day the video comes out, I put your name in a hat and we do a draw. But I forgot to put all the Names in a hat today. It's just been one of those days. So I will do a post afterwards. I will do a draw. You guys will just have to trust me that I put everybody's names in and randomly draw it, which I promise I will. Or I'll film it for you so that you can see it after the fact. I owe you guys a prize, all you Friday commenters, so look out for that. And I'll get Jacqueline to do this. Let's see. Kevin McGuire. That must be why they tell you to carbo load. Yeah, they're tripping you up. They want you to eat the carbs, so then you have to buy their diet plan because you've eaten too many carbs and now you're fat. I don't know. I don't know all the schemes behind everything. But, you know, in a way it kind of makes sense that there are certainly going to be companies out there that really don't want you to lose weight, because if you lose weight, you won't be their customer anymore. Kind of makes sense. But, you know, then there's people who will have a gym membership and never go. So not naming any names, but we know somebody. Or we did. I don't know if she still has her gym membership, Dave. I won't call her out, but you know who I'm talking about. Dave says, seriously, congrats to Jillian, excited for her book to come out, and Jacqueline put a link to it. So that's fantastic. Thank you, Jaclyn. And yeah, I guess if that's all we have to talk about today, guys, then I will close it off with a promise to do the draw for the Friday commenters for the YouTube videos. And there's been tons in the last couple weeks. So thank you so much, you guys really, really appreciate your support on my Friday videos. And our next livestream is happening November 13th at 2pm Pacific Standard Time, 5pm Eastern Standard Time. And I'll see you then with probably another book review. I haven't decided what we'll do that day yet. We'll see what kind of news is happening and what everybody kind of emails me about in the weeks leading up to it. And yeah, if you guys have questions, you can put them in the chat box right now, or if it's after the fact, go ahead, put them in. I always check the comments, and if you're watching on YouTube especially, I pretty much respond to every single YouTube comment that comes in, so you'll definitely get a response from me. But even on Facebook, although Facebook gets it all muddled up and it's hard to find them. But I will still respond to you and maybe even shoot a video to answer your question. And, Jacqueline, who is our winner? Let's see here. Talita wins. All right, Talita, you just got your mug from the Friday commenters, but congratulations, you've won. Well, you know what? I have a productivity planner, which is a really, really cool product. It's a really cool journal, basically. So I will send you a productivity planner because I know you just got a mug. So thank you for tuning in. Thank you for being here. And let's see any last comments while we're wrapping up. Okay. So cool. That's it for today. We'll see you guys again on November 13th and have a fantastic Halloween and happy National Authors Day on Thursday. See you next time.