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Do You Have A Publishing Plan?

This week I wanted to talk to you about publishing platforms and help you determine which direction is going to be most suitable for you as a newly published author.

The majority of new authors now have no option but to self-publish, as opposed to being published with traditional publishers who take care of everything for the author including editing, design and publishing in print and ebook format. They might guide the author through the process of recording their book for an audiobook as well.

For the self-published author though, the options are not entirely clear.

If you’ve already started exploring your options, then you might have noticed that there doesn’t seem to be one clear path that a new author can take to become published, which makes the process quite daunting.

It might even appear that there are too many options, making it too difficult to know what is the best course to follow without having a degree in publishing.

It really can be overwhelming to the point that some authors might just put their project on the back burner indefinitely, or worse, give up on their dream of becoming a published author entirely.

What I want to do today is give you clarity around your choices so that you can move forward with confidence.

I want to help you formulate your own publishing plan.

Is Your Story Worth Publishing?

How many times have you thought about writing a book about your life? Or even a part of your life?

Maybe you’ve had an experience that you think might be interesting or helpful to someone else.

Maybe your whole life has been full of experiences that would be interesting or helpful to others.

But how would you go about it? How would you know what to share and what not to share?

Where would you start?

How much would you share? Would you need to keep some things to yourself, or would you bare all?

What would people think? Would you be judged or ridiculed or rejected? Or would you be embraced and understood and received with gratitude for your courage for creating a space that gives permission to others to share?

Let’s explore this further…

Just One Thing…

Many of the people I work with and publish for are working diligently toward building a sustainable business as a coach, a consultant or a therapist.

They are offering (or planning to offer) 1:1 services for an hourly rate, which is a good honest business model that provides income for lots of people across the country.

The problem is that…if they are sick, or if their family needs them, or they aren’t able to generate and convert enough leads for their business, they don’t get paid, and their vision starts to become unstuck really fast.

What I see happening then is that they start working even harder, putting in more hours, pushing their business out on more platforms more often, and showing up at more networking events. Instead of generating more business, though, they exhaust themselves and burn out.

Are You Afraid Of What People Will Think?

Fear of rejection is one of the bigger fears that aspiring authors struggle with and it encompasses a number of fears all wrapped up into one.

Every author I come across can give you at least 10 reasons why someone wouldn’t want to read their book or why they can’t write or why they have nothing to say to readers that hasn’t already been said.

They will lie awake at night in a state of panic at the thought of someone reading their book and not liking it, or taking offence to it, or worse, hating it. And even worse than that, they worry that people might even be laughing at them because of what they’ve shared or be angry and aggressive toward them.

It feels exactly like it did in school when kids would whisper and point and giggle at you or they’d ignore you, and you had no idea what you’d done, but you felt ashamed and you wanted to hide.

How To Create a Super Sexy, Sacred Writing Space…

Hi and welcome. Today I am talking about why it is crucial that you create your own super sexy, sacred writing space.

If you are an author, you have ideas, and you have a deep drive to explore and express those ideas. That’s just our nature. Our operating system if you like.

Those ideas can be like demanding children competing for our attention, so there can be nothing worse to an author than having lots of ideas swimming around in our heads and not being able to give them the attention they crave and deserve. We need to be able to process our thoughts and see where they want to take us.

Obviously, this is a first world problem, but it is a heart-felt problem and one that has to be addressed or we literally ache.

Writer’s Block: Don’t Get It Right. Get It Written

One of the biggest blocks I have noticed with the authors I have worked with is the need to get their writing right before they get it written.

I talked about this briefly in one of my recent writing tips and it is such a big block for many authors that I wanted to go deeper and explore it further.

The idea that we have to write perfectly is a massive block for many writers and it literally stops them from writing anything at all. They freeze. And of course, not only can you not edit what hasn’t been written, you can’t publish it either.

We have to find a way to work through this if we want to become published authors.

Why Would Someone Read Your Book

One of the most common doubts I hear from aspiring nonfiction authors is: Why would someone want to read what I have to say?

Even if they don’t start their writing journey with that thought in mind, it will come at some point. Because there is a very uncomfortable space between aspiring and published where an author feels completely exposed, and vulnerable, and self-conscious about how their book might be received by the world. It’s almost rite of passage.

I mean it really is putting yourself out there in a big way when you share your thoughts and your experiences – both personal and professional – in a way that leaves you open to scrutiny and to the opinions of virtually anyone and everyone.

OMG. It can be very scary.

Inevitably there is the realisation and an even bigger fear that, maybe, no one will actually read your book. What if that happens?

Authors: Don’t Try To Be All Things To All People

This blog is for authors who want to write a nonfiction book where they can turn their experience and their expertise into a tool that will help people.

So many authors agonise over who their target reader is because they genuinely want to help people and they are afraid that if they choose too specific a group of people they will miss out on reaching a whole lot of other people who would benefit from what they have to share. And that really is a fair enough concern.

If you haven’t already given thought to who your ideal reader is, you will soon find out how difficult it is to choose a specific niche for your writing. Amongst other things, there is a fair amount of FOMO that goes on. And rightfully so.

So this particular blog is all about saving you a lot of time procrastinating and languishing in indecision instead of getting your book written and published.

How to use the Very Latest Technology to Become a Self-Published Author Today

Today in the blog I am talking about technology and how someone in business might use it to get published fast and make it work for their business.

This will be of particular interest to coaches, consultants or therapists, and anyone who would like to build a coaching business around their experience or expertise.

There’s a lot of competition for anyone in small business and that can make it hard to make a decent living working one to one.

Let’s take a look at how a book might make a difference.

What is the Most Important Thing an Author Must Do to Become Published?

The journey to becoming a published author is not straight forward. There are so many things to consider and put into place to make it a successful journey that brings the author everything they hope to experience.

One question I am asked most often is “How do I write a book?” And further explanation tells me that the author doesn’t know where to start or how to put what they know into some sort of order that will make sense. And once they’ve done that, what do they do? What is the process of becoming published?

They know their business or their story. They just want to know what to do and when to do it so that they can write their book and bring their book to life. I think most of us can relate. No matter what we are trying to achieve, if we know what to do and when to do it, we can achieve what we want to achieve.
So let me tell you what I think is the most important thing an author needs to do.