From Manuscript to Market: What REALLY Happens After You Finish Writing Your Book

You've just finished your manuscript. You're excited, you're relieved. You're thinking the hardest part is over. I'll upload this bad boy to Amazon and in two weeks I'll be a best selling author. Oh, sweet summer child. It only feels like the hardest part is done. In fact, your author journey, it's just begun. And I want to prep you for what the next year is going to look like. So if you want to be ready for the road ahead as you self publish your book, this video is for you. Hi, I'm Julie the Book Broad, founder of Book Launchers and your host here at Book Launchers tv. We are your first choice for writing, publishing and promoting a nonfiction book. Every week I speak to folks who are gobsmacked when I tell them their book isn't going to be edited, designed and launched by the end of the month. Even though it took them a year to two or sometimes five to write, they literally think it's done and they're going to be published right away. A quick edit, cover and boom. Well, yeah, you can do that. But your book is not going to be anywhere near the best that it can be. And in fact, six months from now, you might even be embarrassed by that product. And nobody wants that. So let's get ready to rock this publishing thing. I'm going to take you through the real timeline of self publishing, a 12 month roller coaster ride that most authors don't. You don't expect. But if you embrace the journey, you'll end up with a book that's not just published, but positioned for success and hitting the hearts and the minds of your ideal reader. All right, month one, I'm done. Or am I? Finishing your manuscript feels like crossing the finish line of a marathon. Well, at least I assume it does Me. I never did marathons. I was more of an adventure racer, charging confidently in the wrong direction as I raced through forests or orienteering trying to find my way to my mountain bike or my kayak so I could finish the adventure. But the same idea applies. You've been going for hours and hours and hours and you think you're done only to discover that was the warm up, the real work, the actual race. It's just starting in book terms. Well, now comes the developmental editing where your manuscript gets ripped apart. Lovingly, of course, but think of it as your personal trainer for your book. Your they're saying great first draft. Now let's strengthen the core, cut the fluff and turn this potato into a page turner. The content edit or Developmental edit is the edit that makes your book a great read. The editor goes through it for structure, flow, readability, credibility. They ask questions, make suggestions, and ultimately give you a glorious, or rather your book a glorious workout. Month two let's call it Kill your darlings and strengthen your story. Your editor has now sliced and diced, telling you to cut that entire chapter that you thought was genius. But don't worry, you can turn it into a blog post or a video or something else later. Don't get rid of it completely. They've also taken the middle of your book and moved it to the start and said you need a better ending. It's like when your personal trainer, when you're already laying on the floor ready to die, says give me 10 more and you look at them with hate, but you do it anyway. And then you realize how much more amazing you feel at the end because you did more. And that really is the best analogy for developmental editing. After the editor is done and you are done, your book is so much better. And now you're off to copy editing, which I equate to being graded by your high school teacher that showed you that you know nothing about grammar or punctuation. Your book comes back redlined word by word, but you suddenly start to see how smart you are and that you're actually a good writer because dang, this book is starting to really shine. Month three you're standing out from the crowd with your cover. Honestly, the truth is, you're still working on your edits in month three, but you should be finalizing your book title with some keywords and setting yourself up for cover design. This means you've got that keyword research category and pricing research done. You've also probably got a shiny new author photo taken and you've looked at competing book covers and you're ready to turn your book cover designer loose to work their magic. This isn't just about pretty fonts and colors. It is about standing out and creating that cover that gets clicked on when it's this little big. Now let me give you a tip. Let's say you can't decide which cover to choose from, so you run a cover poll. Well, remember, opinions are free and you get what you pay for. Because you're going to have one friend that says I love it and another one that says it looks like a kid made it in Canva and suddenly you'll find yourself stress eating chocolate. Take it from me, do your research and hire a pro who understands how to make a book cover stand out and appeal to the genre and category you're in. If you haven't, I strongly recommend you watch our recent deep dive training on cover trends with our lead designer, Cassie. She is brilliant and I bet you walk away stunned at all that goes into a brilliant cover design. All right, Month four We'll call this the final polish. Your book is finally done with the gutting, the cleanup, and it's ready for the final polish of a proofread with a million tiny changes. While this is going on, you're hopefully starting to build up your advanced reader team. You're researching book launch strategies. You have secured your book distribution options, and I hope you've also built or starting to build a fabulous author website while your proofreader is adding 200 commas. Or maybe that's just me. I apparently do not use enough commas. You should be getting your marketing ducks in a row. Month 5 this is the final designs. This is time for the interior where you take elements from that cover and they're used to craft a glorious experience for the reader by bringing that feeling to the inside of the book. Images, fonts, white space, they're all choices that come together to design that book. That is a great reading experience. And while this is happening, you might want to also record an audiobook. So once your layout is done, you upload those files to Amazon KDP IngramSpark Draft 2 Digital PublishDrive. Wherever you're using for distribution, you order your print proof and a week or so later you're holding a physical copy in your hands. Now, hopefully when it arrives and you first open it, you film that box opening. Then you take a million pictures. Maybe you sleep with it under your pillow. You say things like it smells like success or maybe, maybe that's taking it too far. But if you go that far, it's okay because this is a huge accomplishment and you should be feeling proud and excited. Month 6 Nobody knows I wrote a book. The realization hits. Just because you built it does not mean they will come. Now you're diving into pre launched marketing. You're starting outreach for endorsements. Hey big name author, will you blurb my book? You're contacting reviewers for editorial reviews like Kirkus and hoping they'll be nice. You are sending out your advanced reader copies to beta readers and book bloggers and probably your nerves are a bit shot because someone somewhere is reading your book right now and you're nervous about what they think. You're also probably calling your favorite book Nook and asking if they want to host your book launch party. Or you're posting pre sale posts on all your social media. And maybe you're doing it all, which is awesome. You're setting yourself up for a great launch. Month seven Launching. It's go time. Your book launches on Amazon. Your emotions swing like a yo yo and you get your first review. The review says, this book changed my life. Which is kind of funny because it just came out. But that's cool. Now you think you're amazing. Your second reviewer goes, what an interesting story. I'm so glad I received a copy in exchange for an honest review. Four stars? Really? You liked it? Why did you only give it 4 stars? Happens all the time. 3rd review? Meh. It was okay. Come on, buddy. So frustrating. But you're getting reviews and now you're out there trying to get attention. Maybe you're having a book launch party. You're selling books and signing books and you're pitching yourself for media podcast interviews. You're posting on social media every darn day for a week or more. And then you're heading into month eight, which is now all about more reviews and more sales. Hopefully your book is out in the wild. And now you really do need more reviews to boost visibility. You need more tactics and strategy to get the word out, and you're tired of doing it all alone. Maybe you've picked up Self Promote and Succeed, which you can get for free@self promoteandsucceed.com audio. Or you've joined our business accelerator at authorbusinessaccelerator.com because you need a plan. You need support. You've also signed up for Get Authentic Book Reviews and other sites to get more book reviews. And you've started running Amazon ads. Maybe you're even obsessed with checking your ACOS score. Regardless, you are doing a lot of things to get your book into the world. Month 9 More podcast pitching and finding your people. Now the launch adrenaline has probably worn off. You realize you still need to keep going. So you might sign up for Pod Match. You can go to booklaunchers.com podmatch and sign up as a guest and get matched with podcasts looking for guests like you. Possibly you're applying for speaking gigs because books don't sell themselves, but speakers sell books. Hopefully you've been building an email list all along because social media algorithms are evil and you realize an email list is the best way to do it. But if you haven't been building an email list all along, you might accelerate your efforts on this now. Month 10 why am I still talking about this book you're tired of promoting. You feel like everyone has heard you tell the story, seen your book, and then you run into an old high school friend and they ask what you've been up to lately. You casually mention your book, kind of assuming they already saw it, and they go, what? No way. You wrote a book. I didn't know that. And you realize people who know you don't even know you wrote a book, there's so much more work to do. So you get to work and you repurpose your book content into social media content and blog posts. You look for authors that will cross promote your book with you. You explore bulk sales to sell books to corporations and conferences in large quantities. In month 11, it's beyond Amazon. You're selling smarter now because you kind of feel like you've exhausted your personal network and it's time to expand. So you want to focus on getting your book into libraries, because even though it's free books, it's new fans. You might be pitching corporate clients to buy books in bulk in exchange for you hosting a workshop on your content. Or maybe you've turned your book into a course and now you're promoting that as well. Month 12, the payoff. You're a real author now. A random stranger emails you and says your book changed their life. And just like that, it was all worth it. And as you look back on this wild year, you realize nothing happened as fast as you hoped. But here you are a year later, and you've booked a few speaking gigs. You're getting asked to be on podcasts, and there's no pitching required. People are just contacting you to do it. And books are being bought by people you don't know. Your book is officially part of your brand. And the next logical thought, of course, I should write another book. Okay, maybe not every author thinks that, but it's common. The truth about self publishing is it's a marathon, not a sprint. You don't just launch a book. You launch a brand, a platform, and new opportunities. And the most successful authors are still talking about their book 12, 24, 36 months after it launches. And that is where the real success comes in. So keep going if you want help. This is what Book Launchers is here for. We help authors write, publish, and write. Market books that sell. Reach out to us at team@book launchers.com and tell us what you need. Of course, be sure to let us know that you've also subscribed and liked this video. When you reach out.