Hybrid Publishers, 12 Week Year Book Review & More - LIVE

All right. Hey, guys. Oh, wow. I'm really weirdly lit. Hey. All right, let's see if we can just change that up. Let's just maybe turn that off. Wow, the lighting in here is really strange today. All right, welcome. Yeah, I'm not used to having the light look so weird, so. Hey, it's Julie Frod with book launchers, and I just want to say welcome to the first look book review with the book broad. I'm just gonna check over here and see if everything is. And hopefully you don't mind the fact that I'm, like, really illuminated here. Maybe if I adjust the camera. Let's just see if that'll help fix it. There. Maybe that's a bit better. Okay, cool. All right. Hey, Happy, Pat. So good to have you. Yay. All right, so today we've got lots of cool stuff to talk about. We're gonna cover. Let's see. We're gonna, of course, be doing a book review, and I'm gonna tell you about how book entered in for a book review, which we'll be doing every single month. Will be. I'll be selecting one of your books to do a book review from, and I go ahead and I buy the book and read it, and if it's great and I can give it a four or five star review on Amazon, I'll even do that for you guys. Hey, Jacqueline. Welcome. Hello. Okay, so we're also going to do a draw prize. So I have a prize, and I'm going to tell you how you can get entered to win that for the next live video that we'll be doing. We're going to do live videos every other Tuesday at 2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern Standard Time, which you guys found it for this one, so that's awesome. And I'll tell you how you can win that prize then. I'm also going to talk a little bit about hybrid publishing companies because we did a lot of research this past week or two into some hybrids because we had somebody asking us questions and potentially doing a deal with a hybrid. So we wanted to know all we could find out about the different hybrids. And it's a rabbit hole. But I've got some stuff to share with you in case that was a route you were thinking about. And of course, if you've got questions, you can go ahead and ask me. So I'm assuming the sound is okay. If there's any issues with it, please let me know. And at any time, feel free to hit that thumbs up that love. Because if you haven't done one of these before. They fly across the screen, and it just makes you happy. Also lets you know that you're not talking to your sound, so that's always useful as well. So do interact and ask questions and chat. It makes it much more fun for me. And, of course, you might meet some cool people, too. So, Pat, meet Jacqueline. Jacqueline, meet Pat. I know you guys are here. If anybody else is here, feel free to say hello and we'll just dive right into it. Okay, so if you don't already know, I'm Julie Broad, founder of Book Launchers. We help people write, publish, and sell fantastic nonfiction books. We work with a lot of different authors, but our focus is primarily on helping people write a book that will build their business, grow their brand, and really help them kind of move into a different level, you know, where the media wants to talk to them, they can get paid speaking engagements, that kind of thing. But again, we work with all kinds of folks as you guys will be hearing about over the next year as we help these folks launch their books. Okay, how to enter your book into the book review draw. The lighting is so weird. I'm going to move over here. It's a little bit better back there in the office. As you can see, it's all glass around here, so the lighting can get a little. A little freaky. So what we do, your book has to be nonfiction only because that's what we focus on, and that's primarily what I read. So if you have a nonfiction book, what you do is in any of my recent YouTube videos, you can go to those, and you can find the YouTube videos at Book Launchers TV, which is also where I'll do a replay of this video. So any of the recent videos, you just go ahead and say you want to be entered in for the Amazon book review and include your book name, your name, and ideally the link to get it on Amazon. And then when we come back here, I think our next live video is May 2nd. If that's right, May 2nd, we will do a draw like we did two weeks ago. And so Katie Weiser, it was the winner of that one. And I'll be doing the review for her book on the next live one when we also draw for another book review. Okay, so until YouTube lets me do live, if you were on the last one, you know that YouTube and I have been having some struggles with live videos. So until YouTube lets me go live again, I will be doing them live on Facebook just like you are here. Okay? So before I get in to this, I want to give a huge, huge shout out to some fantastic folks who've been very interactive on my YouTube channel lately. So Skyler and friends, thank you so much. I checked out your YouTube channel. They have fun children's books, it looks like. And the latest video was a picture of a video of him on the scooter with a dog. And I think, if I'm not mistaken, I think the marketing was on the back of the scooter. So, like in this sign on the back, you know, like, like almost like a pizza delivery but on a bike. So it's very cool. So thank you, Skyler and friends. Also, Ava Monroe has been very active on my videos. So thank you so much to anybody who's commenting and active. I really, really appreciate it. It is always fun to have people commenting and interacting on the YouTube videos. Now the big thing, I want to reward people for commenting the day the video comes out. My new videos always come out on Fridays. So if you aren't already subscribe to Book Launchers tv, you can go ahead and subscribe to the channel and then make sure you hit the bell. There's a little bell notification, so make sure you hit that so that you get notified when a new video comes out. And if you comment on the first day a video comes out, your name will be entered to win. Dun dun da. Here's where you need sound effects for these things. Drumroll. Your name will be entered to win this sweet new mug that we've got. So we've got some company swag. And this says no boring books. If you can't read it, it looks like it's in reverse on the screen. I don't know. Is it in reverse? So you will be entered to win? Of course, it has the book launcher logo as well. They're kind of nice. So you'll be entered to win. So inside of here we have the names of the folks who commented on my video that came out on Friday of last week, which was a fun little tip on how to be a better writer. So those names are in here. So I'm going to draw that in a few minutes. So you'll find out if you win a mug. If you're not in North America, I'm probably not going to pay to ship you a mug. Yes, it is reversed. Yeah, for some reason. Anyways, it reads properly when you're looking at it, I swear. So, yeah, so if you're not in North America, I'll still let you win, but we'll figure out some other prize. Because I'm not going to pay to ship a mug all the way across the ocean somewhere. But if you're in North America and you win, you just have to send me a message on YouTube or an email and let me know your mailing address so you can get the mug shipped to you. So we'll draw for that in just a minute. And again, what you have to do is be. You have to comment on my video on Friday, so the day it comes out, and then you'll be entered to win. And we'll do those draws every two weeks when we do the live videos. Okay. Retreats, Cool. So I've been asking a lot of our clients and last week on the live video, two weeks ago on the live video, I asked you guys about retreats, so I got some input. And basically what I'm thinking is there's lots of people who think there would be a lot of value in a writer's retreat. So. And really the format, as I mentioned, would be some sessions. So, you know, perhaps an outlining session, maybe marketing sessions. I had a few different ideas I talked about last time. And then half the time would be writing time. So it's a chance to get away, get focused, get some work done on your book, as well as learn some things that would help you maybe do some title brainstorming sessions. Some brainstorming sessions to work on your chapter titles. All those kind of things, I would say about 70% of people that I've actually reached out to, one on one, I said, this is awesome. I would definitely want to attend or I would have wanted to attend earlier on in my book writing process. So I'm thinking of going ahead, but I'm thinking I want to do a test run. So something maybe not at a mansion in Malibu, which is what I'm thinking for the actual retreats. Maybe just something in our offices to test the format. So we would do that at a very low cost just to test the format. So if you're interested in that, let us know. So I can maybe start hammering out some dates and really kind of make. Make a plan to move forward on just kind of testing the format, testing the time away and testing working with my team one on one at face to face for those kind of things. Okay, the first look, book review. So the book I'm reviewing today, and again, if you've just joined us, please do say hello, hit that thumbs up button or whatever kind of emoticon you want to send across because it flies across the screen, which is really fun. That's selfish. You know, there's really no benefit in you doing that. It just makes me feel good. All right, so the 12 week get more done in 12 weeks than others do in 12 months. That's the book I read. And I'll get to my recommendation, who this book is for. I definitely think it's for the busy, overwhelmed entrepreneur or someone with a side hustle who wants to turn it into their full time gig. Lots of good gold in it for people. Just feel like there's more to do than there are hours in the day. What I loved about this book, the concept. It is a great concept. I mean, here we are in April and if you started a annual plan, you know, you kind of set out with your goals at the start of the year, you might be thinking, looking at going like there's seven and a half months left and you know, I haven't achieved what I wanted to, but there's still seven and a half months left in the year. Like it feels like there's so much time left to still achieve your goals. So a lot of people won't push as hard as they should at this point. And the 12 week year helps fix that because they, they basically go, okay, ditch the annual plan and focus on only 12 week chunks. And it forces you to kind of create that. What do they call it? I wrote it down. It's like this tension to get it done because you don't have all this time left in the day to get these, these books done. So yeah, they, they create tension that high achievers use to move forward, take action, and then you measure as you go. So, you know, they, they show that it helps you get focused and get more done in bite sized chunks. I love the concept and I've actually talked to quite a few people who are writing books using this 12 week year. They're writing for 30 minutes every day, five days a week or for an hour three. But it's there like it's intense focus time and they block it off. And this book talks about kind of having three different blocks, time blocks. So you've got strategic blocks, buffer blocks, and breakout blocks. So it's a great concept. Really think that a lot of people would get value from it. Also really enjoyed the chapter on accountability versus ownership. And we see this at book launchers too. Some of our authors kind of need, quote, unquote accountability. Like they need somebody to be like, you didn't do it. But the ones that really make progress fast are the ones that just take ownership. They're the Ones that are like, I'm getting this done, and they just go do it. And if they haven't met a deadline, they're the first ones to say, you know, I didn't do it, but I'm going to make up for it this week. And I really like the distinctions he was making on that same thing with interest versus commitment. And it's all in the language people use, too. You can kind of tell when you talk to somebody, they say, yeah, I'd really like to, versus I'm going to. It's a small difference, but in your mind, these words actually program you. So much science behind it, which he doesn't get into, which leads me into something that bugged me. This book. So many things said. Studies show. Studies show. That's what it would say. There was no study reference. There was no university, no scientist, no. Just a studies show. And he said that over and over again with regards to the location, how this works. Studies show that this is how you do it. So I was kind of like, where was the study conducted? And what did you just not. Were you too lazy to do it, or did you just make stuff up? Like, that kind of bugged me a lot. The other issue I had was that this felt like it could have been three long blog posts to help get this, you know, get all the things I needed to know down. I really didn't need to have it in a book. And as a result, there was a lot of fluff in it. Exactly. Give me some facts. We need some facts, and back it up. Like it's. Yeah, it's just. It's a small thing. And you can say, like, once in a while you can kind of say, studies show. But I think at the end of the day, you have to say, you know, the University of Michigan said this, or the scientist so and so, or, you know, the CEO of X company tested it this way and tested it this way, and these are the results. So the other thing about the book was just that I felt like there was a lot of filler. It was very repetitive. There's a lot of things being repeated to just get to the point. So for me, the book was about a three out of five. But I think for some people who could really use a good template, clear instructions to help you get more done, I think it probably could be a four out of five for them. So I can see how it was a New York Times bestseller, very popular book, very well reviewed, Definitely has merits, but I'd give it a three. All right, so hybrid publishers I thought we would touch on that. So get messages here. Welcome, welcome. Those of you who are just joining us, feel free to say hello. And if you've got questions, go ahead and post them or just comments. So hybrid publisher, we did. Hey Alana, it's good to see you. So, hybrid publishers, we did a lot of research on them this past week and there was, I mean, hybrid is kind of a funny word. And so if you're not familiar with hybrid, it's basically a model where self publishing meets traditional publishing in other ways. And there's so many different versions of it. So I'm just going to try to simplify it. I would say it is anything that is not self publishing and not traditional publishing. And a typical hybrid model is where you would pay the publisher a fee and in exchange they publish your book. So they give you a bit of a team. In many cases it doesn't include editing, so they're just taking your book and publishing it as is. But they, they don't take as high of a royalty as traditional publishers and in most cases they don't keep any rights. So the advantage is that they have more access to distribution like a traditional publisher, which distribution as in bookshelf space, is hard to get as a self published author. So what I, what we dove into was we learned there's some interesting ways that the hybrid publishers will hide the fees and they promise, or make it sound like distribution is promised when in fact they can't, they can't promise it. They're really accessing it in much of the same way that a self published author would, which is what we help you do. They really are. They have to get their sales team out to the stores, out to the airports to pitch your book and at the end of the day they may or may not carry it and the stronger the sales team, the more, the more chance you have of getting your book on those shelves. But still it doesn't, you know, it doesn't guarantee it. So there's absolutely no guarantee of bookshelf distribution. But otherwise you're getting the same distribution that you can get as a self published author if you just get your book into the Ingram catalog, which is what most of the hybrid publishers are doing. So there's to me only benefits if you have, if you go with one that has a great sales force and a known distribution line to those bookstores and that. And of course, does it really matter if you get your book on the bookstore shelves or not because there's not a lot of sales happening at the bookstore level anymore. Unless you have a huge driving force of marketing to get either display space or to get those people in the bookstore to buy it. But if you're doing a lot of marketing, they're probably going to go online to buy your book anyways. A couple things to watch out for. And Jacqueline, I know you were watching or you were online, if there's anything else you want to add, because I know you did a lot of this research this week too. But one of the things that we found that was very interesting was one of the companies said no publishing fees, however. Yeah, there are bookstores. One of the companies promised no publishing fees. But what was interesting was you had to buy 2500 copies of your book. Do you know how much space 2,500 copies of your book is going to take up? Just so you know, it's going to take up a lot and they're very heavy, so just keep that in mind. But. So they said no publishing fees, but you had to buy 2500 copies of your book. And they said it was at a $2 per book markup. So while there's no publishing fees, there's at least a $5,000 markup. And as we dug into it, Jacqueline found something that indicated they were selling the books. I think it was for $10 a book, which means there's actually like a $6 markup there. So they're actually making $8 per book. So you can do the math, right? $8 times 2,500 copies. That's a gigantic publishing fee for somebody who's still going to take probably half of the royalty. The royalties did vary. They take less than a traditional publisher. Yeah, you get to keep the rights to your book, but if you're doing that, I kind of was wondering, why not just self publish? Because those, those guys were the same ones that they make it sound like you're getting distribution, but what you're getting is the same as what you would get as a self published author. So I really felt like unless you do your research and make sure that you go with a very, very good hybrid, and there's only really a couple that seem to be consistently recommended, the benefits are very minimal to you and the drawbacks are higher. So if you're going to invest in your book, which is great, I love that people want to invest in their book, obviously, I would highly recommend going the self published route and either using a company like ours to do a lot of the hard work for you, or just dig in, do the research and get it Done yourself to create a great book and get it out there. Because it is entirely possible to get yourself into bookstores, if that's important. But at a minimum, you can absolutely get distribution online, everywhere for your book, even as a self published author. So if you've got more questions about hybrids, let us know. We did a lot of research, like I said this past week, so there's lots we can do. Hey, Lara, good to see you. Welcome to my office. This is the Book Launchers headquarters. You'll see lots of people walking by, but they're not all, they're not all with us. I'm in a co working office space. Cool. So I just want to check my notes, make sure I didn't miss anything. And now we have. Oh, Pat, she said, I just published with CreateSpace using the assigned ISBN with expanded distribution. Yeah. So I'm glad you brought that up, Pat. Thank you. So expanded distribution through CreateSpace with their assigned ISBN. Couple of issues. Nobody other than Amazon wants to buy from CreateSpace because CreateSpace is the Amazon company and so of course bookstores aren't going to support Amazon by buying your book through them. So while it says extended distribution, the reality is your book will not be available for purchase to anyone else. Also, if you used their ISBN number, it's actually, I think it's the AISBN if I remember correctly, which means it's not actually an ISBN, it's not the International Standard Number, it's an Amazon number. So it, unless I'm, unless there's something else in there that I'm missing. But that's my understanding with going that route and not using your own ISBN number, which means they wouldn't be able to list it in a Barnes and Noble, for example, you need to have your own. So it's a challenge. You will not. The bottom line, you're not going to get expanded distribution that route. Even though they could in theory buy it, they won't. There's no margin in it for them. And at the end of the day, they're not going to support Amazon because it's running them out of business. Right. So if you want expanded distribution, you have to get your own ISBN number for print book and go through ASIN is eBook. Thank you. See, and when you're on the fly, it's like trying to do math. When you're public speaking, it's impossible. And so what was that? Oh yeah. So if you want expanded distribution, pay, I think it's $40, upload it to IngramSpark, get your own ISBN number to do that for a print book, for an ebook, I don't think you actually have to have an ISBN number. But, you know, I double check on that, too. That's not my department. That's Jacqueline's. So hopefully that helps. But yeah, Pat, I mean, just because they can access it doesn't mean they will, unfortunately. But yeah, thank you for bringing that up. Okay, and also, there's videos on this on my YouTube channel and book launchers TV that cover Ingram versus CreateSpace. So if you're hearing all this for the first time and you're going, what is this? There's videos that explain ISBN numbers, Ingram versus CreateSpace, and all these kind of things, you can find other videos on my YouTube channel. Okay, so now for the draw again, to win this lovely mug, you just need to be a commenter on one of my YouTube channel channel on my YouTube videos when they come out on Friday. And when you do that, you'll be entered to win. And we'll do this draw every two weeks when we meet here to do the live video. Okay, so there we go. I'm not looking. Right. And the winner of this lovely mug. Well, not this one. I'll give you a new one, not one that I've been drinking out of, is Andy. And so Andy commented on my video on Friday. That was a quick tip to help you be a better writer. So, Andy, write me with your mailing address, probably contact me on YouTube so I know it's you, and write me with your mailing address, and we'll ship you off one of these beautiful books. All right, so that's it for today. Thank you. Thank you for stopping by and saying hello. And if you're watching this after the fact, you can still hit that thumbs up button. Ask questions, post comments. We will definitely get back to you and answer questions. And we just might include it as a subject to chat about in two weeks when we meet again here. I think it's May. Is it May 2? Let's just check, see if I wrote it down. May 1. May 1 at 2pm Pacific Standard or 5pm Eastern Standard. All right, thanks, guys, and thanks for answering those questions, Jacqueline. I appreciate it and congrats. Andy and Katie will be reviewing your book on May 1st. We'll see you there. Bye.