Julie Broad (founder of Book Launchers) presents seven key lessons she wishes self-publishing nonfiction authors knew before they write and publish. Core messages: you can’t DIY every part of book production (many specialized professionals are involved), you must define readers by the problem they have (not demographics), a great book alone rarely makes a bestseller (marketing and platform matter), friends/family feedback is often unhelpful, publishing is a beginning not an end (use the book as a tool), different kinds of editors are needed in a specific order, and marketing is ongoing, requires testing, and should start early. The video ends with a call-to-action to buy her book Self Publish and Succeed, post reviews, and subscribe.
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When you self publish, you retain control over your book. You don't get shoved into a cover you don't like and you keep all rights and royalties. It's a pretty sweet situation to be in, but there are some pretty major things that most self publishing authors don't know before they get into this, and I think they should so if you're thinking of self publishing a book, especially a nonfiction one, then this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the Book Broad, founder of Book Launchers, which is a fabulous professional self publishing services company. Just look at some of these awesome books we've worked on recently. So many awesome authors, self publishing and some incredible books for you to check out. And throughout the process, I'm sure they have all learned the seven. Yeah, that's seven. The seven things I'm about to share with you that I wish every author knew before venturing into self publishing. Number one, you won't be able to DIY the whole process if you want a good to great book. And conversely, you also won't be able to hand off the entire thing to someone else and get it done well. There are at least one dozen. Yep, that's 12 different professionals who work on a book that comes to Book Launchers. The reason it's not one person is that there are so many skill sets required to create a great book. Writing the book is such a small portion of the process when you really get into the whole thing. But a book also can't exist without the author. Even if you have a writer helping you write, the book still needs you. Book publishing and book launching is a team sport. You won't be able to do it all yourself if you care about creating something great, but someone else doing the project can't do it successfully without you either. It's a team project and we're more likely to win if we play our best position, trust each other and support each other to get the best result. 2. Your reader is not a demographic if you think your book is for men between the ages of 40 to 55 who've gone to university and are married with kids who want to make more money, I'll introduce you to my husband Dave, who meets those demographic criteria. But I still don't have a clue if your book is actually for him. Because because a demographic doesn't define your audience well enough for you to write and market a book to them. What problem does your book solve? What experience will it offer the reader? How will their life be different after they read the book? Now if you Tell me your book is about the mountain biking trails of North America that the masses don't know about or your book solves the problem of how to get a recurring role in a network TV show as an actor starting their career in their 40s. Okay, now I can say that book is for my husband Dave. If your book is about how to advance your career to the C suite level or how to succeed as a man in a female dominated industry, Dave doesn't care. He hasn't had a real job since I dragged him out of his commercial mortgage broker job in 2008 to help me build our real estate training and education company. He got a taste of freedom and I don't think he's going back. We humans have so much in common, but but we all look to solve our problems and achieve our goals in different ways. So please don't define your reader by their demographic, define them by the problem they're trying to solve and how you solve it differently than other books. 3. You're not going to be a bestseller based on a great book alone. I read so many incredible stories every day. You probably have had quite the life as well and have a great story to tell. But that is not enough for a bestseller. In fact, a great book is barely part of the equation for making a book a bestseller. Some books get lucky, but most bestsellers are created by a lot of marketing work before the book comes out and after it's been out. Networking, platform building, consistency plus a great book can get you there. But it's not overnight and no book gets published and just starts selling without any work at all. If a book launches and nobody talks about it, does anyone buy it? Hmm. 4. Your friends and family are not the best people to ask for advice on your book. I realize they know you well, but that is the same reason they aren't the ones that will give you the best advice. Sometimes they're too harsh, trying to protect you from embarrassment or whatever they fear in their own life, and all too often they're just too soft, not wanting to hurt your feelings or just wanting to be supportive and encouraging. The end result is bad advice. But even more than that, they aren't experts in your subject matter, they aren't your ideal reader, usually, and they aren't professionals in the publishing industry, so their advice doesn't have the value that you need. I can't tell you, and really I can't tell you because of our confidentiality agreements with our clients, but it's broken our hearts more than once to see our Clients kill great books because of a sentimental reason that drives the COVID or the opinion of friends that kills the title. Remember, your book might be about you, but it's not for you or for your friends or family. It's for your ideal reader. Your cover, your title and your content needs to appeal to your ideal reader. That's the question you need answered, not whether your wife or your best friend thinks your cover and title are good. Numerous cinco that's five. All right. Number five, publishing the book is not the destination. It's a stop on the way to the destination. Your book is a tool and should be used that way. My book Self Publish and Succeed is something I'm using right now to grow book launchers. We're co sponsoring the 2022 North street book Prize, for example. That opportunity is a direct result of me having a book. And and now every single person who enters a book into their award for 2022 gets a digital copy of my book. If you've written a poetry book, a creative nonfiction, or a memoir, you absolutely should look at entering their award. I don't generally recommend awards, but they give a huge cash prize and they're in this business to support authors. Check out the winning writers. We're also leveraging the book launch to get podcast interviews, speaking opportunities, and other partnership opportunities like the one with the North Street Book Prize. When your book is published, it's the beginning, it's not the end. Be open to the possibilities that will come your way. Ultimately, I'm running Book Launchers because I published a real estate Investing book in 2013. My life didn't change in an instant when the book came out, but it shifted little by little. And here I am connecting with and building the most amazing community of people supporting authors to write the highest quality of books and market them to achieve their goals. Number six There are different kinds of editors and you need more than one kind and you need them in a specific order. Probably this is the thing that makes me the saddest because well meaning authors hire editors and great editors are expensive, knowing their book needs help. But they hire copy editors when they need developmental editors and wonder why their book is grammatically correct but not actually better. If you haven't read my book Self Publish and succeed. Grab your copy now so you don't make these kind of expensive, heartbreaking mistakes. Number seven Writing the book is hard, but marketing is harder and no one method will work for every author. Marketing is about testing and there are no guarantees. Book marketing is not about launch or even something you do only when your book is done. It's something that you should pay attention to the minute you think you're going to write a book. If you want to succeed, you're going to write a book with marketing in mind. And once your book is done, you're going to do one thing, at least one thing every day to market your book. Each. Even if some days that small thing is sending an email to a potential reviewer or posting a picture on Instagram. There are a lot of things I want all self publishing authors to know, and really that is why I wrote Self Publish and Succeed. So go ahead and grab your copy and after you read it, please post a review. And after you write a review, shoot us an email@teamoklaunchers.com and let us know. We have parties for reviewers when we hit milestone review numbers and we'd like to invite you. You're pretty fun. Have you hit subscribe so we can hang out more often? Please do that now and hit the like button because it feels so good. Go ahead, try it now. You need to watch this video right here on when to stop editing or this one on book writing surprises because they're both guaranteed good times. Come on, I'm waiting.
