Ep26: Month Four...How I Wrote And Published My Bestselling Book Publish To Impact

[00:00:00] I'm back full month for in how I go about writing publishing and launching my book published to impact. So, if you haven't been listening lately, I encourage you to go back to the previous three episodes where I give you a breakdown month by month in how I'm writing, how I'm publishing and how I'm launching, published to impact into what it is now.

[00:00:21] So just to recap, weeks, nine to 12, we're now in weeks 13 to 16.

[00:00:26] Week nine. I finalized my draft. I submitted it to my editor. I. I went through a self editing phase. I negotiated a timeline with my aunt at its heart for the return of the edited. Manuscript and I made sure the communication was clear with my editor and I made efficient use of the downtime I had when it comes to waiting for the book to come back as. Actually.

[00:00:49] Wait 10, I explored cover design concepts.

[00:00:52] I focused on the simplicity and brand representation when I did that. I also looked at the decision-making process for selecting the most suitable cover design. I went through different cover concepts and really decided

[00:01:06] And I made sure the cover designer was in alignment with my genre and with my audience, because that is one of the major things is having a cover designer that knows the type. Type of genre and has experienced in the type of genre that you're writing to.

[00:01:19] Wake 11. I selected my Amazon categories and keywords to enhance the visibility of my book and to try and hit the potential bestseller status. I looked at the metadata in terms of the Amazon algorithm and looked at all the elements that were involved in that

[00:01:35] I also looked at my book details, which included my book description. My blurb, just to make sure that everything was on track and ready to go for the publishing process.

[00:01:46] And then wait 12, I received the edits back from my editor. And made efficient changes quickly and effectively. I then sent them off back for a subsequent round of edits, which had a shorter turnaround time. And now it's moving closer to finalizing the manuscript. We're getting ready to publish. So what happens now?

[00:02:07] Well, now I can officially set a launch date and that launch date was the 30th of January, 2024.

[00:02:15] I communicated this to my email list to let them know

[00:02:18] that my launch date is going to be that date. And to start building hype around the book.

[00:02:24] What would normally happen now is I would start to recruit people to be part of my launch team. Now I want to be clear in this specific book. I never had a launch team, but I've had launch teams in my previous two books. The reason why I didn't have a launch team in this book was because I was also releasing a podcast on the same date. And for me, it was too overwhelming to try and keep up with my launch team and trying to email them getting on top of. Getting reviews and all of that kind of stuff.

[00:02:53] So I chose not to have a launch team and if you're debuting a book, I would always encourage you to build a launch team. I just didn't do this with published impact, but I have done this in. The six pillars of rewarding life and evolve your skills. If you want to learn more about how to build a launch team, you can read that in my book, published the impact as well, which he can get in the show notes too. So.

[00:03:18] So I didn't build a launch team, but what I was also doing is starting to prepare episodes for my podcast to be released on the same day. And what I did was I announced my release date for the book. The same time. I announced the release date for my podcast. So I sent an email blast out to let people know that the podcast published the impact is going to be released. The same day as my book published impact as well. So that's what I did in week 13, communicate to my audience that I'm releasing a book, I'm releasing a podcast. And behind the scenes, I was also working on my podcast as well. Week 14, this was where I began to format my book . Now. I format my own books through a software that I use, but if you are writing and publishing a book,

[00:04:01] You may not format it yourself because you might not have that software.

[00:04:05] I would always encourage you to outsource it because it's going to save you time and it's going to save you money in the long run as well. So I formatted my books. I can do it fairly efficiently. It takes me a couple of days to do it. I then let it rest and then I'd go back and I look at the formatting and make sure that everything's all in order the tables I've put in any tables, any graphics and illustrations. Uh, all in line and I'm happy with the type of font setting that I've chosen for my book as well. In paperback format is. Now I use a program called vellum to format my books that is for Mac. If you were on a windows and you want it to format your book through windows, there's a software called Atticus, which is really good. I've had great reviews as well. So there's two options to format your books through.

[00:04:52] And there's also Adobe InDesign. I believe. So those are the three popular formatting software that you might use to get your book published or. Or you'll by payer. Format of two years and they'll likely use one of those three

[00:05:05] so flight programs as well.

[00:05:08] So my book is now formatted and I'm able to see what it's going to visually look like. On print. And I'm also able to see what it's going to look like on Kindle as well.

[00:05:17] All in all this took me a week to get my book formatted and ready for uploading to Amazon. Now, this is the exciting bit. This is where I get to upload my files into my Amazon dashboard. So I can order up proof copies for my book. So week 15. Wait 15. I went into my Amazon dashboard and I downloaded my formatted copies in vellum. And just to note for when you have your formatted files, there's likely going to be two different main files.

[00:05:46] You'll have your paperback file, which is in a PDF. And you'll have a publishing file, which is four Kindles. So there's going to be two different files that you would upload into Amazon when you're creating your paperback book and publishing your Kindle version as well. So you download those files. If you have a format or the format, or we'll deliver those files to you. You then go into your Amazon dashboard. And now is the fun part because now you get to create your own paperback book and create your own Kindle version as well. There's two separate versions. You're going to have to create. If you're going to have to two books.

[00:06:22] What you would do is you would have created an Amazon KDP author account it's free to create it's free. So then you can upload your books. You then start to create your book we need to do is click the create button in your Amazon KDP account. Then follow the steps. So you will decide whether you want to publish a Kindle ebook. Or you decide whether you want to publish. a paperback book. After you've selected what you're after you're then taken to. The publishing details page. This is where he put in the title of your book. Any addition numbers, if you have an addition, you put your author name. Any contributions

[00:06:58] but the key thing here is in the details page, you will also. Select your categories and keywords. I've done that background work prior. So I will know the categories and keywords. I've done that research so I can then put them there.

[00:07:10] After I've put in all those details, I press continue and then that takes me to the content page. I'll upload my files from the content page. If it's a paperback. I'll upload the PDF, or if it's the Kindle version, I'll upload the Kindle file.

[00:07:24] Amazon then just does a background check of that.

[00:07:26] And then I move on to pricing. I've now selected the price. of my book and it now it gives me availability to order proof copies. before my book is live in before it's published. So the end of week 15, I've essentially. Published my book, but I haven't launched it. I haven't properly published it yet. You want to make sure when you publish your book? Prior to it being live, that you've checked your proof copies. This is

[00:07:53] really important because you're going to use those proof copies. as ways to proofread and make sure the quality and the professionalism of the book, you're going to be distributing.

[00:08:03] And people going to be buying is of high value is professional. And you're happy with it.

[00:08:09] Then what happens in week 16? I received my proof copies and they didn't take that long to deliver either. They took me five to seven days. So when you receive your proof copies, that will have a, not for resale sticker on the front. That's how you know, it's a proof copy. Your book's not live yet. Your book point, have an ISB and barcode on the proof copy, but this is what you can use to give out to friends, give out to family. And proofread your book. So you're catching

[00:08:36] any areas that you want to fix before your book goes live?

[00:08:39] Now when I received published impact my proof copy, I was really happy with the cover design, stoked with the formatting. But the one thing that I didn't like was the spine of the book. I thought that something was missing and. I wanted my initials at the bottom of the spine. Just to kind of create that extra element to it.

[00:08:58] So I went back to my cover designer I gave him a JPEG file of my initials. I went, can you please put these JPEG on the spine and send it back to me for proofing? They sent it back to me. I was happy with it.

[00:09:09] It looked awesome. They sent me the file straight away. And then I went back into Amazon and uploaded the new cover design. And boom changes happen straight away. So it's easy for you to fix any areas in Amazon. Amazon. We'll also let you know if they catch a spelling mistake in your manuscript as well.

[00:09:27] That's one of the awesome things that they do do.

[00:09:29] So what I spent doing in week 16, which was the final week for this podcast episode. I was reviewing my book, looking if I needed to make any changes. So my book was ready to go live. And I gave that roughly one to two weeks because I wanted the feedback back from other people.

[00:09:46] And I also wanted to be able to be confident and know that my book is ready to go live. It's ready to publish. And we're on track for that date of the 30th of January. So that's all for today's episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back again for month five.

[00:10:02] And this comes down to strategically launching my book. I appreciate you listening and I'll chat to you on the next one.