#133 What is the Minimal Viable Product for Your Book?

Hey Hits, what's family? It's Shelly Hits here. And today I wanted to talk about what is the minimal viable product for you to get in order to publish your book. Today I had a next steps coaching call with Christian Book Academy members and I also had a one on one coaching call with one of our members. And on both calls I was talking to soon to be first time authors who are going through the self publishing or independently publishing process and they were feeling overwhelmed with all of the details, details and everything that needs to get done when you independently publish your book. And I was reminding them that there's a lot of things that you don't have to get right, just, you know, perfect right now. And for example, you can do a lot of research on your categories and keywords, but you can just put something in there right now and you can go back and do that later. You, if you have a deadline or if you just want to get it out, you know, you can spend a lot of time with writing a book description or you can write something, get it out and you can always update it later. If you don't have your email list set up yet with a lead magnet, you can always go back and edit your book and add that link to your lead magnet later. So there's just a lot of things that I think, we think have to be done a certain way. And honestly it can just get out there, get it out there, get it done, press the publish button and then you can improve it as you go. So I was also thinking about this because right now I am planning my next writing week challenge and this has been something I have hosted since 2015. And so we've done this a lot of times. And the very first challenge, it was the minimal viable product. I just had my videos and things and I've kept adding things over the years making it better. And this time I had went through a course on how to do challenges and so I'm making it even better. And then there's things in there though that I just can't get to right now. We had two of our VA step down. I'm still training a new VA and I'm doing most of these tasks myself right now. So I just can't do all of the things that they suggest in this program like paid ads on Facebook or getting, you know, sending out the masterclass promotion to my entire list later and all the things. So anyways, I was thinking about it and this is the same concept. I am getting the challenge out there. It's helping people Is it perfect? No. Does it have everything in it that I would like it to have? No. Am I doing paid ads yet? No.

But I was thinking next time I run this challenge, which I'm hoping to run it twice a year live, so. So I'm thinking maybe in January, then I can add these other things because hopefully by then my VA will be trained well enough that he can do a lot of the tech stuff that I'm doing right now. And it just got me back to thinking about minimal viable product. A lot of times we stop from releasing anything into the world until we think it's perfect, until we have all the puzzle pieces in place. But you know what? The truth is, you can release something right now and it can be good and it can impact lives and it can be helpful for your family. It can bring an INC come and it can do things and then you can keep improving upon it. Just like I'm doing with this challenge. Just like, you know, we have done with books in the past. My very first book, Mirror Mirror, Am I beautiful? Looking deeper to find your true beauty in Christ. Like, I did everything wrong on that book, but I kept updating it, I kept improving it, and now it's a much better product. But I didn't have it right in the beginning, but I released it. And guess what? We got emails from people around the world that were finding our website, downloading the PDF for free because I gave it away for free, or getting the book at one of my speaking engagements, and they were accepting Christ because they read the book. And the thing is, if I would have waited until it was perfect, then that wouldn't have happened. And so, you know, sometimes we're waiting for a unicorn, right? The unicorn that doesn't exist. We're waiting for that perfect opportunity when it may just be time to release it. Maybe time to click that publish button without a lead magnet yet and then go back and add it later. It may be time to get started on growing your platform. Even though you feel like you don't know what you're doing, start with one thing and then go from there. And so anyways, I'm just passionate about this because I think we stop ourselves and then it stops being, you know, us from being able to impact other people's lives. So let me pray for you, God. Thank you so much for every Kingdom writer listening right now. I just pray if there's something that they're to release into the world, they would release it when it's time. And if they're to release it as a minimal viable product, Lord. Show them. Show them what that is, that they can release it and then they can come back and they can keep improving upon it. So, Lord, I just thank you that you are leading and guiding us, that we can partner with you so that we can finally finish our book and. And, you know, impact lives through the message you've given us. And I just thank you for what you're doing. We give you all the honor, glory, and praise in Jesus name. Amen. All right, friends, I'm in it with you. I'm doing this with my challenge right now. I'm releasing the next challenge. It'll be. Be listening and watching because we're going to open registration on August 1st. But I'm not. I don't have all the puzzle pieces yet. I. I'm not doing everything that I want to do yet. Yet. And I'm still releasing it. And there will be so many writers that get so much done and make so much progress because I was willing to release this into the world now instead of waiting until it's perfect. All right, friends, great talking to you, and I hope you have a great rest of your day. Bye. Bye.