What: Book Ambassadors Defined

Book ambassadors are essentially launch cheerleaders for your book. - @jodibrandon

Book Ambassadors vs. Book Reviewers

At the time of your launch, these are not the same people. I repeat: These are not the same people. Book ambassadors can BECOME reviewers after they’ve read your book. But at the time of your launch, ambassadors have likely not seen/read an advance copy. They are merely cheering you on and helping you build buzz around your book launch.

Pre-sales are a hot-button topic in the book publishing world. You likely haven’t thought much about pre-sales, so let me break down a few of the most common pros and cons so you can decide what’s best for your book.

First, though, let’s define a pre-sale so we’re all on the same page. (See what I did there?) A pre-sale is, essentially, making your book available for purchase by setting up an advanced listing on a selling platform (e.g., Amazon or your website). When readers “buy,” they are simply reserving a copy, which will be shipped (if a print book) or released (if an ebook) on launch day, and at that time their payment will be processed.

A book, like everything else we create or produce in our businesses, needs to be marketed. A book is the ultimate evergreen product: Once it’s released, it’s ALWAYS available. And thus, it needs a strong marketing campaign that focuses on the launch, the short term, and the long term.

In my 20+ years in book publishing, I’ve never seen an author forget the table of contents. I have, however, seen these three elements of a book forgotten more times than I can count. You might not want or need any of these, but if you do, make sure you don’t leave it (or them) out!

Most creative entrepreneurs and bloggers don’t challenge the idea that writing a book could help their business growth. They know that a book can bring credibility, visibility, and authority; a book is almost like a business card as you establish and grow your platform as an entrepreneur. Finding the time to not just write but also learning the ins and outs of book publishing are usually the sticking points that cause them to hesitate. “I’ll write a book someday” is something I hear often. I won’t lie: Committing to writing a book is huge. The process can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be if you make space for it in your life and in your business beforehand.

All told, I recommend allowing four to six months to research, write, and publish your book comfortably. Can you do it in less time? Sure. But that pace will be a bit frenetic at times, and you might not always be producing your best work. Not all of this blocked time requires you to be actively working on the book. There will be chunks of time when the manuscript is with an editor or formatter, for example. (You thought I meant you’d be writing for six months, didn’t you? You can admit it.)

Still not convinced? Let me show you how it’s possible.

How do you know if your book topic is worth pursuing? With hundreds of thousands of books published each year, are there really any original ideas anymore? Well, not EXACTLY. Before you get discouraged, though, know that your particular take on a topic IS new and original. (Whew.) Validating your book idea will ensure that there is a market for your book. Of course, that does not guarantee book sales.

Writing a book in a short time frame — whether it’s 30 days, six weeks, whatever — is about quantity over quality. It’s about putting your head down and getting words on paper. Is it possible? Sure. Is it a great idea? Not so much, in my opinion. You’re interested in quality over quantity.

Please don’t misunderstand: Can you write a FIRST DRAFT in 30 days that you’ll then spend at least that amount of time revising and improving? Absolutely. But writing a draft in 30 days and then putting that book into production (that is, having it edited and formatted) is almost impossible if you’re publishing a high-quality book.

Repurposing is a buzzword in the online marketing  and online business world these days. Create something once and use it over and over again. Makes sense, right? Bloggers often ask me if there’s any way to repurpose content from a blog into a book — and if so, how to do so. The short answer is YES! Chances are, you won’t have everything you need in blog post form, but I bet you’ll be surprised by how much you DO have once you take inventory. Here are some ideas to get the wheels turning.

Writing is like a muscle. Use it or lose it! That means you need to write regularly to decrease the chances of facing such a block. Establishing a regular writing routine and practicing your craft regularly (preferably daily) is so important to good writing.

Surely you've heard of S.M.A.R.T. goals and why they are beneficial to your business. S.M.A.R.T. goals are:

• Specific.
• Measurable.
• Achievable.
• Relevant.
• Time bound.

Let's take the concept of S.M.A.R.T. goals and apply it to book writing so that your book serves your business in the way you want it to.

Writing doesn’t come naturally to every entrepreneur, and for those people, the thought of penning an entire book can be overwhelming — even if they know they want to write a book to grow their platform and have committed to doing so. If you stay organized from the jump, however, it’s not terribly complicated. Here’s the most important piece of advice I can give you: Build a daily writing habit. The sooner you do this, the better. (By sooner, I mean preferably before you start writing your book.) Writing is a muscle that gets stronger with use (an atrophies with no use!). A daily writing habit will train your brain about when it’s time to write so that you don’t waste your writing time each day. Day by day, the words will get written and the book will be built.

If you've been following the blog this month, you've seen me refer to my master checklist of self-publishing to-dos. You can grab that here. Writing obviously precedes publishing, but there are tasks that need to be done even before you sit down to type (or write, if you’re old school) the first word of your manuscript.

Back to that checklist for a moment: If you read the blog post that accompanies it, I talk about pockets of time. There are times during the publishing AND during the writing processes during which you’ll have pockets of time to move the big-picture process forward. Knowing when these are coming can be helpful.

Exactly when an editor fits into your publishing plan depends on a few factors, first and foremost what type of editor you want to hire. Remember there are three kinds of book editors: developmental editors, copy editors, and proofreaders. (Need a recap of what each of these editors do? Check out this post.) This blog doesn’t address proofreading, as that is generally a quicker process and it’s not as critical to book that service quite as far ahead as the other two.

Have you ever heard of frontmatter or backmatter? Unless you have worked in book publishing or have published a book, chances are you have not. A book map is basically everything that will be included in your book.

As those who’ve written books will tell you, it’s a major undertaking, and one that requires organization. It’s one thing to look at a book manuscript in Microsoft Word, but it’s entirely different when you start to actually put those files together, in order, as an actual book. You might start looking at various books in your office or home and realize that there doesn’t seem to be a cookie-cutter approach to books. They don’t all contain the same elements. So how are you supposed to know what the heck to do? What’s required versus what’s optional? I’ve got the basics covered for you with this post about the book sections/pages I get the most questions about.

Sure, you can start writing, putting together a marketing plan, and thinking about a title before you determine your launch date, BUT without an end date -- that is, a launch date — it will be impossible to set a time line with deadlines for your book production.

Have you ever made chili but didn’t add enough chili powder? It might have tasted okay, but it wasn’t, you know, chili. Creating a book is similar in that the ingredients are all necessary, and they must work together in order to achieve the final dish (book) that you want. A successful book is equal parts strong manuscript, professional editing and design, and appropriate marketing plan.

I am asked on a daily basis about traditional publishing versus self-publishing. (Did you check out the Path to Publication series to see which one is right for you?) Here are the five most common myths people seem to have — and why they really ARE just myths.

Self-publishing can feel overwhelming, especially if you are a first-time book author. The publishing industry simply isn't one most entrepreneurs are familiar with, so let me give you the lowdown of just what needs to happen to get you to the point where you are holding a printed and bound book in your hands.

This month’s edition of Off the Shelf takes a look at Brené Brown’s Rising Strong. This might be my favorite of Brown’s books!