This week we’re doing something different. Welcome to the very first self-publishing school podcast where I haven’t interviewed anyone. As most of you know, I’m in the home stretch of preparing the second edition of my best book of all time. A lot of you may have read my book Published.: The Proven Path from Blank Page to Published Author. Today, I’m going to go behind the scenes and tell you why I’m republishing this book, and why you might want to relaunch one of your books.
I’m going to share five lessons I’ve learned on the writing side of things. I’m also sharing five lessons I’ve learned on the launch side of things. Come back next week, and I’ll give you a behind-the-scenes of how the launch went and lessons from that. The book officially launches on December 14th. If you’d like to support the launch and get a free copy of the book and be entered in a drawing to win a MacBook Air, enter here. The new book has a new subtitle, Published.: The Proven Path From Blank Page To 10,000 Copies Sold and a new cover.
Show Highlights
- [03:05] The first edition launched in 2016. We have evolved a lot since then. As a company, we’ve published about 6,000 books. Our curriculum has evolved and improved. The book was still the same.
- [04:05] The book was good, but I knew it could be better. I wanted an updated and revised edition and a relaunch. This is the definitive book for people thinking about writing a book.
- [06:18] I started writing on September 1st and the book is being published December 14th.
- [07:15] I want to get to 2500 reviews by the end of January and 1000 reviews on the audiobook. I would like this book to be downloaded or sold over a million times next year, so I have big goals.
- [08:40] In chapter 21 on page 168, I talk about the five types of relaunches. Check out this chapter if you’re relaunching your book.
- [09:25] Writing lessons learned: 1. Plan out everything ahead of time. Block the time off on your calendar.
- [10:16] 2. The power of daily consistent progress. Block out 60 minutes to two hours a day and really make progress. Make daily consistent progress.
- [11:00] 3. Use the MORE writing method framework. This stands for mind map, outline, rough draft, and editing.
- [11:47] 4. The crisis of meaning is real even for seasoned authors. Chapter 8 is all about this. Don’t get discouraged while editing.
- [13:08] 5. When in doubt do more mind mapping and outlining. When in doubt, go back to the outline. I turn my mind map into an outline.
- [14:30] Launch lessons learned: 6. Build buzz before you launch. Follow the building buzz checklist. Share your author journey and build buzz throughout the process.
- [15:43] 7. The shotgun versus the rifle approach. The shotgun approach is where you try everything and hope something works. The lesson is that you need to stick to 3-5 launch or marketing strategies.
- [16:38] 8. Hand-to-hand combat or one-on-one launch strategies. Reach out to people early and often.
- [17:59] 9. Build evergreen assets. One off promotions are great, but you need promotions that turn into evergreen assets. Build these assets, and they will work for you year round.
- [19:13] 10. The power of a launch team. Launch teams work. They are the single best thing you can do to launch your book.