The ONE strategy I recommend to publish a book

This is episode 18 of Author Audience.

Welcome to the Author Audience show, the podcast that helps you reach more people with your message. Create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz.

Welcome to Author Audience, where I'm on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. It's time to let your light shine. Today I'm rolling out the red carpet and inviting you to join me as I share about the one Strategy I recommend to publish a book. My name is Shelly Hitz and lately I've had several people private message me or contact me and ask me what the best way is for them to publish their book. And I always have the same advice. And so I thought this would make a really good podcast episode so that I could share this information and this advice with all of you. It will also be an episode I can refer people to again and again. I believe you have a God given message to share with the world. The question is, are you ready to shine? It's time for this week's Center Stage Spotlight training. This is where I share training and strategies to help you grow your business or ministry through writing and publishing books, marketing online and creating products and services to sell on the back end. Today's podcast is episode 18 titled the One Strategy I recommend to Publish a Book. I'm excited to share this information with you in today's episode, so let's dive right in. I do have to make the obligatory disclaimer. I'm not a lawyer and I don't Play 1 on TV. You will need to get your own legal advice and consult your own lawyer and accountant on what are the best options for you. So now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's get into the content. There are different ways that you can choose to publish your book. If you you can choose to go with a traditional publisher, you can choose to go with a small publisher, you can choose to self publish, or you can choose to independently publish. So what are the differences? That's what a lot of people get confused about. I've actually had several people privately ask me recently, Shelley, I know that you're an author coach, I know that you've published books. How should I publish my book? And so I know that this a question that many first time authors have and some of you may even have this question if you've published books before. And so I wanted to talk to you about this and the first thing I want to talk to you a little bit about are the differences between these four different types of ways you can publish. When you choose to publish through a traditional publisher, that means you're going to get, most likely have an agent, you're going to be writing up proposals, you're going to be submitting things to different business, big publishers. And it's going to take a lot of work, it's going to take more time, but you potentially have an opportunity to have a lot more exposure. Now, I will let you know that this is not my area of expertise. I have never pursued this, I have never wanted this, I have never really needed it because I've been able to sell enough books and earn enough income, by the way, that I published, which I'm going to talk about in a minute. But I have people that do this. So if this is something you're interested in, just let me know and I can refer you to the right people. But there are less and less traditionally published contracts available. And so there's more and more people that are trying to get smaller and smaller contracts. And you don't get a ton of royalties with a traditional publisher contract. And so it's something to consider. But for the most part, unless it's something that you really, really, really know that you're supposed to pursue, maybe God has even put it on your heart and you know that this is what you're supposed to pursue, there's probably a better option for you. So the second option is a small publisher. And a small publisher is going to be just a small press, a small publisher that may be willing to publish your work. This might be a good option if you just want someone else to do all the work for you and you know that, that you've read all the fine print and that you're going to be able to keep the copyright to your books. However, for the most part, I still don't recommend this option to many people. And the reason is because there's a lot of fine print that you can get caught up in. I've talked to a lot of authors that have published through small publishers and they're like, oh, they're going to publish me. And yet they end up paying thousands of dollars to do this. They lose the copyright to their cover or to be able to publish their book in other formats in other languages. They lose control and it really isn't the best option in the end. And so make sure if you do choose this option, you read the fine print of everything. I had an author tell me that she specifically painted or, I don't know, she was an artist and she created her book cover. Well, she didn't realize it, but when she signed a contract with a small publisher, she gave away the rights to that cover. She couldn't use it. That picture. Even though she created it, she couldn't use it anywhere else. So really make sure that you don't get into a contract that you regret later. I've heard too many authors say that this has happened to them. So. So the third option is self publishing. And I have a book. Self publishing, Books 101. Self publishing is what I teach. It's what a lot of people know me for. But it's still not the number one strategy I recommend. Self publishing is basically when you go and you just upload your books directly to Amazon and to other places, but you're doing it under their name. So let's say you use CreateSpace for your print books. CreateSpace is going to show up as the imprint on your book, as the publisher. You still have control. You still are able to do everything on, you know, and arrange everything on your own. But what I want you to consider and what I want you to do and think about is to be able to independently publish. What this means, you might hear authors say, you know, indie authors. Indie authors are those who independently publish. And what this means is it means that you form your own publishing company. Now, a lot of authors get like, that sounds too hard. It sounds too much. But all you have to do really is choose a name. And basically you're saying, this is my publishing company name and I'm publishing under that name. So for us, my husband and I, we chose Body and Soul Publishing as our publishing company name. We chose that. And I don't recommend having your own name. So I don't recommend, like, Shelly Hits Publishing or CJ Hitz Publishing because you want it to be like a level of professionalism. You're not trying to trick anyone. You're not trying to be dishonest. You're not trying to say something that you're not. But it just gives you an extra layer of professionalism when you have a publishing company name. And so what we did was we formed our name and then we practiced underneath that name, and we ran our business as a sole proprietor. So we ran it under my Social Security number here in the United States until 2014, and that's when we formed an LLC. So you can get started simply in the United States. At least I know you can get started by choosing a name and operating underneath your Social Security number. Now, I have a blog post that goes into depth the 10 steps steps to forming an independent publishing company on my blog shellyhits.com and you can find it there. But there's three reasons I recommended this strategy when you're publishing books. The first, like I said, it looks more professional. So instead of just, you know, self publishing and having that be empty on Kindle or having it say create space for a print book or whatever, you know, it looks more professional. The second reason is it can potentially separate your publishing activities from your personal income and assets. Now this can especially happen when you decide to formalize. So when we became an llc, it can shield your personal income and assets from any lawsuits and stuff like that. Now that wasn't real really the primary reason we did it, we did it for tax benefits too. And my blog post goes into that. But that is something to consider. And then the third reason is it gives you more options. So once you form your publishing company, you have more options. You may actually decide that you want to publish other author's books like a small publisher, or you may decide that you want to have, you know, publish anthologies or books with co authors. And so there's just all kinds of other options that it gives you. What I recommend to 99% of people that talk to me is to pursue independent publishing, you get more royalties, you have more control, you have the ability to do so many more options. I talk to people who've published with small publishers or even traditional publishers. They tend to not have the options of putting their book on discount or on free promotions or different giveaways because you're not the one in control. And so even if you get traditionally published or use a small publisher, you're going to still be responsible for majority of the marketing. So why not get a majority of the royalties and why not maintain the control of your book? Because that way you're going to have more freedom, more flexibility, and you're going to be able to get your message to more people. So that is the way that I recommend. Again, I'm going to have the link to that blog post in my podcast, Show Notes. I'm excited to see you guys take the next step and publish your books. I hope that you go and check out the blog post. I have the 10 steps to forming your own independent publishing company. And it's a lot easier than you think. And it will just add so much more to your efforts as you publish and it will also give you the ability to expand. So many authors that are self publishing, they're seeing it more as a hobby instead of as A business. And when you form an independent publishing company, you're taking that step and you're saying, I'm doing this as a business, I'm doing this as more than just a hobby. This is serious. I'm committed to this. It's almost like you're taking that commitment, that step, you're committing more to it. You have skin in the game. And so that too is another reason to consider independently publishing, because you're making that commitment and you're saying this is more than just a hobby for me. You have to consult your own lawyers and accountants and all of that. But for us, what we found is that we got a significant tax break when we formed our LLC and then we submitted our taxes as an S corp. And so that's something for each of you to look into or once your business grows. And we didn't formalize it in the beginning, we let it grow. But then there was one year that our taxes were just out of this world. And so we knew something. We're like, there has to be something that can happen. And so what was recommended to us is to form the LLC and then to submit our taxes as an S corp. And. And that saved us like almost half of our taxes this last year. So it's definitely worth looking into. Once you grow and take the necessary steps to set up your independent publishing company. I have the take action tip for you now for today's episode, your take action tip is to look at the four different options. Traditional publishing, publishing with a small publisher, self publishing, and independent publishing. Decide is independent publishing right for you? Because everyone is different now. You may have a different need and there may be a different way that works best for you. If independent publishing is the way you want to go, then I recommend sitting down and start starting to brainstorm different names. Start coming up with different ideas and different names that you could possibly use for your publishing company. Get some feedback from, from family, friends or just make a decision and get started on your publishing company. And tweet me ellyhits and let me know once you've chosen a name. I would love to hear that you've taken this step. Make sure to get all the show notes and all the resources from Today's episode@authoraudience.com 18. That's the number 18. Authoraudience.com 18 before we end, I want to give you a backstage pass in this week's Godly gains segment which is all about keeping Christ at the center of all we do now. I was never one of those people that dreamed of being an author. That may be you, but ironically that was never me. However, God has guided me and led me down the path that he has for me, and that has included independently publishing makes me think of the verse in Psalm 119:105 your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. We each have individual paths that I believe God has for us. You are not going to have the same path that I have, but God is able to lead and guide and direct each one of us with His Holy Spirit and His Word. And it just I love this verse. You know, it says His Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my my path. Now, that doesn't mean we'll be able to see everything right now, but we'll know enough for the next step. We'll have enough light for the next step. So I encourage you to not compare your journey with mine or with someone else, but to ask God, what is it that you have for me? And then to keep taking that next step as he shows you enough light to take that next step. It's my hope and my goal that these episodes are bringing you one step closer to being able to shine and reach more people with your message. I truly believe that you are unstoppable with God. All things are possible and I know that you have an important message to share, so keep fighting the good fight. Since we talked about publishing today, I want to offer you a free copy of my book, Self Publishing Books 101. You can download it@authoraudience.com Self Publishing and just go right there and download the book. Or I'll also put the link in the show notes for you. Next week I'm going to share about how to publish an audiobook with no upfront costs, so make sure that you don't miss the next episode and I'll see you next time.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Author Audience Show. Connect with us online@authoraudience.com where you'll find Find all the resources mentioned in today's episode. While you're there, grab Shelley's free video training on how to write and publish your book using her Six Step Ascent method. Join us again next week to learn how to reach your audience with your message.