Non-Fiction Book Projects We Turn Away | LIVE Replay

All right, welcome everybody. Happy Tuesday. It's Julie Broad with book Launchers, of course, and today's livestream regularly scheduled programming, as they say on tv. Today, we're going to chat a little bit about some of the reasons we turn projects away. And really, in sharing that, I'm hoping that it will give you some guidance as to, you know, what we and the experience and expertise of the people on my team. What everyone here kind of feels like makes a book boring, which our hashtag is noboringbooks. Hey, Scott, nice to see you. Welcome. And if you do join in, do say hello, even if you're just watching the replay, say hello and let us know you're watching the replay. And of course, if you're watching on YouTube, you always get YouTube points to become one of the YouTube besties when you comment on the videos. So, yeah, today I want to talk about really some of the reasons we turn projects away and not and I want to do it to help you understand what can be a challenge for a book project. And we only want to work with people that we feel we can help create success. So if you're getting in the way of your book project being great, then we're not going to be able to work with you to create success. And that's our ultimate barometer. I mean, being a nonfiction author with typically some sort of a goal from writing the book is kind of the starting point. But then from there we want to help you create success from the book. So the book is a tool that you'll use to open doors and so on. So I'm going to share a couple, three reasons, actually that have come up recently why we turn away projects. And of course, if you have any questions, you can let me know. And we have prizes. And there's lots of chaos going on around here. They're doing a chocolate form fondue in the office. So I'll cut this short. This will be fast because I got to get out there for fondue before there's none left. True story. I'm not even kidding. But hey, Amber. Yeah, it's Tuesday. It's been a long month, hasn't it? And it's the last day of April. Can you believe it? Tomorrow is May 1st. This year is flying by. So welcome. Thanks for joining in. All right, so also I want to give a shout out before I dive into that topic. Gautam Bade, I actually just gave away his copy of his book, so I can't even put it up here. But his book is called the Joy of Compounding doing super well. Really excited for Gautam. It was number one in investment portfolio management, I believe as a new release and even as a launch, it continues to be number one in that category. He's selling a lot of copies of the book, so it's pretty awesome. And then also this book came out last week, a Doctor's perspective on cbd. Mark Lindholm, a chiropractor. Really, really great. And you can see it's a quick read, super easy if you're wondering if CBD Oil can help you with any ailments. And actually I learned a lot about what CBD Oil has been successful curing or not really should say cure, but helping assisting people with different ailments. Fantastic, fantastic read. And also doing really well selling a lot of copies. So really excited for those two authors. And this week also, I think the official launch date is next week, but Robert Workman's book, Hired Gun 2 coming out and he's got a big, big launch party this weekend. So that's kind of why I'm announcing it now. Really excited. This is his second book and what a fun book. It's for salespeople and it's talking to top salespeople because having been one himself, he actually knows that as a top salesperson, you're quite likely going to get fired for being the top salesperson. And he talks about why and how to prevent it. And it's really cool, fun. He's got a great sense of humor. So that book's coming out this week. Really excited for him. So congrats to all of you guys. Really, really great work on your books. You worked hard and I'm really excited to see where they take you. If you join in, do say hello. So I know you're here and of course we have prizes, so that's always a bonus too. And you can always smash that thumbs up button whether you're on Facebook or YouTube because it makes things fly across the screen and it just looks fun for me. Anyway. All right, so three reasons why I turn away authors and their book projects from working with us. And these are also a way that you can look at how your book may not be. You might not be setting your book up for success. The first one is really the concept doesn't have a clear point. Trying to say this nicely. I read one book last week where I was five pages into it and I had no idea what the author was actually talking about. That's one issue, right? That's definitely an issue. The bigger issue is that when I addressed it with the author, the author thought it was my fault. It was me. I'm not the right person to read the book, which maybe may be true, but the fact that I couldn't even figure out what the book was really about was a big challenge. And the fact that the author was. Was not receptive to the feedback. The author said that it was my problem, not the author's problem. I was the problem, not the book. That's gonna make it really hard for my team to work with you. Ultimately, we're always gonna tell you, you're the CEO of your book. You have the final say. This is self publishing, so it is your book. You can decide. However, there's really no point in hiring professionals and getting their expertise if you're not going to at least consider it. Take a step back and review it and think about it. And we've clients who have said, you know, one of our clients, she said. She said I was right, pissed at you guys. Like I was mad. But she's, you know, after her book came out, it's done really well. It's in bookstores, you know, on and on and on. You know, she said, you know, I'm so grateful for that feedback. It was hard to hear and it was hard to digest and work through, but it made my book way better. It would not be the book it is today without it. So that's the kind of person we want to work with. And if you're paying experts, you need to be able to take that step back and absorb the feedback and decide sometimes you're going to choose to do it your way. But for us, if it's a concept that we don't get and the author's not receptive to making it something, that's understandable. That's just not going to work for us. You're not setting yourself up for the chances of success. And we're going for anything is possible. But I don't function on possible. I function on probable. I want to help people who have a high probability of achieving success with their book and the book idea and creating a book that is highly probable to succeed, because anything is possible. But I want what's probable, and I want what's probable for you, too. The second main reason. Hey, Ann. Welcome. And thanks for smashing that, like, button, Scott. I saw it made me happy. I go like this because it floats up across the screen here. So the second reason is they've already invested in their book, which is awesome. You know, you've recognized the value of having, you know, professional editors, et cetera, work on your book. But they've already invested in their book. They don't want to invest more. And here's what I run into all the time with this. People have hired editors, but the editors haven't done what needs to happen early on in your book, which is make sure there's a hook, make sure there's good stories. Your credibility is there. They haven't developed the concept, so they've just done a typical edit where they've made sure the sentence structure is correct. They followed one of the style guides. There's different style guides out there, and I'm not an expert in style guides, but there's different, you know, the Chicago style or MLA style or whatever. Like I said, I'm not an expert in that stuff. There's people on my team who are. And then we have editors who will edit to different styles. But that kind of editing is very different than what our writing coaches will do and what our content editor will do. And both of those function differently, too. Our writing coach will dive in and make sure, like, is this book interesting? Is it engaging? Are you addressing what that reader needs to hear to get your message across? And a lot of books have been edited for, so they are proper, but they're not actually good books. And so a lot of people come to us and say, my book is already edited. I don't want editing, and the book's not good. There's potential, but it's not good. And so that's another area where I will turn people away and I get kickback there. People are really frustrated because they want to pay us to get cover, design and publish. But if your book isn't good, it doesn't matter what we do after that. And, you know, it is unfortunate that somebody has invested in editors that did their job but didn't actually give you a good or great book in the process. But it happens. And, you know, that's largely why I started Book Launchers, because I wanted to bring greatness under one roof. So everybody on my team is working towards helping you create a great book. That's interesting. But, yeah, so that's another area where we'll turn people away, because I get it, you've invested in your book, but if it hasn't got you to something that's going to sell in the end, you have a choice at that point, and you can stop investing in making it great, or you can step back and do what you have to do to make the book fantastic and kind of take it as a lesson learned. Just seeing. Hello. Oh, Amanda, hello. Welcome. Good to have you here. Okay, so the third point is unrealistic expectations. The third reason we'll turn people away is unrealistic expectations. And these come in all forms. Some people have, and I mentioned this, they have an unrealistic expectation of what is probable. Sure. Dr. Oz or Ellen or Oprah or. Well, I won't even say New York Times bestseller. It's not really probable or possible. I should say New York Times bestseller as a self published author is almost impossible. It's a curated bestseller selling list. So even if you did sell more than 10,000 copies in a week to, you know, hit make the numbers that are likely needed to be on that list, you probably still wouldn't make that list because it's curated. But you might make the Washington Post, for example. I know some self published authors who've made the Washington Post. Right. I think that's what it's called. Washington Post best sellers list or in Canada maybe the Globe and Mail bestsellers list. Maybe there's a few different lists you might make as a self published authority. But you don't have control over that. Okay? You do not have control over any of those things. It's just not something that is within the realm. Oh, I'm seeing the people walk by with fondue, all these strawberries and pineapples and everything dipped in chocolate. It is chocolate fondue day at the office, you guys. So this, this is going to be a short live stream, but so people come in with unrealistic expectations of what is possible or even what is probable. I mean, these things are possible, but it's not that likely. So set your sights on something that you can dig your teeth into, you can control. And that is likely to happen. And that's why we don't make big promises here. We want to promise what is highly likely, what is possible for you or what is probable for you. And it's okay to think about what's possible and dream, but let's make your goals something that are likely. And a lot of people also think that these things are doable with a small budget or on a very fast timeframe. And the reality is just taking a bestseller list, like a New York Times bestseller list or one of those lists, those authors and the companies that work with them, they're investing big, big bucks. They have a big team of people. It takes a coordinated effort to drive a lot of sales volume in a short period of time through the channels that require to get the Scanned book sales that you need that will count towards those lists. It takes massive, massive resources to make that happen. So that is typically not something an author is showing up at the door ready to invest the time, effort, money that's required to do that. So you want to make sure there's an alignment between what you want to achieve and what you're willing and able to invest, both financially, energetically and time wise. And so this is the other area. If somebody comes to me and is expecting the moon on a tiny budget or on a fast time frame, it's just not going to be likely that we're going to achieve success for that author. And again, that's our number one goal. We want to help the authors we work with achieve success. So I'm looking for folks where this is probable, this is probable and it's still a ton of work. Even when you've got us helping you, there's still a ton of things you have to do in order to move yourself towards that goal. And the more time you give yourself and the more money you have to invest in a lot of different options and marketing efforts, the higher your chances of success. So lots to it, but those are three things. So hopefully that helps give you guys some perspective on challenges a lot of authors face. Okay, a couple other notices and I'm going to do the prizes for today. First of all, we are hiring. So if you know anybody or maybe you have worked with nonfiction authors and you're looking for new opportunities over the next two months, we're going to be adding a couple of employees to the company as well as some more contractors. So you can check that out. Book launchers.com forwards jobs there's lots. There's quite a few opportunities. So the postings aren't all up. You can just fill out the application, include your resume. Let me know what you're looking for, where you think you'd be a good fit and we'll get in touch. Okay. That's one of the big things. The next thing is we are about to hit 10,000 subscribers on YouTube. So, you know, big, big, big virtual hugs to all of you for all of your support on YouTube. And we are going to do a big a live stream party. I contemplated doing an in person party, but there's just so much going on for my team this month that it was going to be too much. You know, we have, I think 1, 2, 3, 4, 4 different books that we're supporting launching in May. So lots going on. So I didn't want to add that to their plate. But we're all going to get together. Not all of my team, but my core team. Tim, Jacqueline, Sarah, myself, we're all going to get together here in the office and do a live stream for you full of prizes. I have some really, really prizes for you guys. Not just, but also the of course, the no Boring Books mug. Of course we have that and we also have the Journal. But I have a secret. I'm not telling you what it is yet, but I have a super secret prize that I'll be giving away just for the 10,000k or 10,000k. That would be nice. That would be really nice. Someday, 10,000 subscribers. Just for that live stream, we'll be giving away a really cool prize. I've just ordered it today, so I'm excited for that. Plus we'll have lots of books to give away, lots to celebrate. So it's really going to be about you on May 30th and I think I posted the time on YouTube. I think it's going to be at 2:30 Pacific Standard Time. So super late for you, Kevin. I'm so sorry. Kevin is in Europe and he stays up late to watch a lot of these live streams. So it tortures him when we move it even later. So sorry for that, Kevin. I'm really. I did think of you when I booked it, but you'll get to meet a lot of the team, ask questions, get prizes. It'll be lots of fun. And thank you so much for helping helping us hit that milestone of 10,000, which I think we're gonna break. 10,000. If not this week, it'll be the start of next week. So thank you so much for that and funny fact to wrap things up for you guys. So if you use Draft 2 Digital, I've talked about Draft 2 Digital before. It's an aggregator that allows you to publish your ebook to multiple sites without having to upload it to Google Play and Apple, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, all these places. So we often use it for our clients to upload to multiple sites. It gets it into overdrive, the Library system and a few other places. We had a book kicked back last week or this week, I should say, because it had the word Amazon in it, referencing a TV show on Amazon so it wouldn't publish because it had Amazon in it. So we had to edit it and change it. So we were laughing around here. Because imagine if you've written a book set in the Amazon jungle. You are going to have problems because clearly there's a turf war going on. And you can't talk about Amazon if you're publishing to other places. How about them apples? I thought that was funny. All right, so. So we've got the prizes. This is for anybody who has commented on the day a video has been released. And so I'm going to shake this up. And this is all of the YouTube commenters. So every Tuesday, every Friday, a new video goes up on book Launchers tv. And when you comment on that day, you get a prize. And then I'm going to give you guys a prize for being here today too. So stick around. Don't leave. Don't leave just yet, even though there's amazing chocolate fondue happening. Okay, here we go. There, there, there, there. Come on. I think I got two. Let's. It's stuck. They're stuck together. Okay. All right. Do I have two? Oh, I have three. Okay. Okay, there's two. So now I'm gonna leave it to you guys. Okay. Right hand or left hand? I'll just take whoever says first. Right hand or left hand? Thanks for the thumbs up. It went across the screen. Oh, that's Steve, my husband. Hey. Thank you. All right, waiting for somebody to say right hand or left hand? Going once, going twice. Anyone? Oh, there we go. Left. All right, left hand. Who's in the left hand today? It is. Fee o'. Shea. Yay. Sophie, send us an email@teambooklaunchers.com and we will get you. We need your mailing address and we'll get you one of these. Or if you would prefer the ever so soft and useful journal book Launcher journal. You let me know which you'd like by email. So, team t e a m book launchers.com and for the participation prize for today, let's see. Dave, what do you think? What do you think? Oh, hey, mom. Mom's on too. I'm asking my husband. What should we. How do I choose who's on who's on today for the prize? Let's see. Maybe a number. Do you want to give me a number and I'll just go by countdown by comment or should we do a skill testing question? I need help with this. So since Dave's on there usually comes up with something. Oh, you're up. You're up. Hey, Kevin. Welcome. Oh, you're still in participation. You're good. I'm still waiting for some excuse or reason. Skill testing question. Okay, so I just said. I just gave the answer. What day am I having the celebration for 10,000 YouTube subscribers? Let me See if anybody was paying attention, taking notes, writing it down. Yeah, I could do that as a backup question. Dave, if nobody gets this, if nobody was paying attention, this is going to hurt my pride. You guys were just, you know, watching Game of Thrones on reruns while I was talking. Okay. Whoo. Amber. Hooray. All right, so we've got a winner. Amber. Let me know. Team T E A M book launchers.com if you want a mug or a journal and send me your mailing address, and we will get it shipped out to you probably this week. I'm in charge of the shipping department, so sometimes I'm a little slow. All right, thank you so much for being here, everyone. It was an absolute pleasure to have you join me today. And I promise not to post too many pictures of the chocolate fondue that I am about to go dive into out in the lobby of my office. All right. Fantastic story, Kevin. I know that was kind of a disadvantaged question. You weren't here for the answer. But we're having a party on May 30 to celebrate 10,000 YouTube subscribers, so hopefully you stay up for that day. I did post it. I remember we had this conversation, so you would have known the answer. All right, everybody, thank you so much. Have a great Tuesday.