Ep14: 20 Important Steps To Make Towards Publishing Your Book

[00:00:00] Welcome back for another episode on the publish to impact podcast. I think this one's going to be one of your favorite episodes, because one of the biggest things I hear about when it comes to writing and publishing a book, Are the steps it's going to take, what's really involved. And I'm gonna give you 20 important steps that it takes to publishing your book.

[00:00:21] But what I'm going to do, I'm going to break these down into two different episodes, because I don't want to overwhelm you with all these steps. In one episode, I want to break these down step-by-step so that you have a clear idea. Of the really important steps that it takes to get your book in your hands written and published.

[00:00:37] And what we're going to start with is your why. So step number one is to identify your why. And your, why is what's going to be. Opening up your water. So your why essentially creates that book idea. So you can use your why as a reason to write your book. When you think about your, why. There's many different reasons.

[00:00:59] We all want to publish books. And a lot of the time it's quite surface level. I mean, we say that it's a bucket list thing that we want to do, but. Go deeper. Because. When you go that little bit deeper, you get to really understand your purpose of writing a book. You really create that clarity. And you align why you're doing it with something that's powerful. So for me, I wrote published to impact because I enjoy helping others write and publish their books. You might enjoy. Helping clients grow their business or helping clients live a more healthier life. You want to think about what intrinsically motivates you?

[00:01:37] Because when it comes to writing your why. There's internal rewards and there are external rewards. So you'll be writing a book to benefit your reader, and you'll be writing a book to benefit yourself.

[00:01:48] And those reasons of where the benefit comes in is really your purpose and your why. So for me, published to impact, I enjoy helping others write and publish their books. And I also use my book to generate leads and grow my business. So the internal rewards come from helping others write and publish their books and the external rewards. Comes through lead generation and growing my book, coaching business. So really think about your, why. Is it a passion of yours? Do you want to leave a legacy or create a legacy? Maybe you want to increase your leads and sales in your business and improve your network and build your personal brand.

[00:02:26] There is many reasons as to why you want to write and publish a book really think about it taped down and then you can move forward into that next step.

[00:02:33] And that next step is to decide your publishing options. So when it comes to your publishing options, I'm not going to go too much into detail because you can listen to episode four on this podcast. If you like, that will give you an indication of why I choose self publishing, but also it gives you a background about the other routes, which is traditional self publishing and a hybrid publishing. Now you want to choose which publishing pathway you want to go through and you want to be prepared as to what you can expect to go through when you tackle that pathway and your pathway will always be based on your book goals, your writing goals, and essentially what you want to do with your book.

[00:03:12] Now step number three is to validate your genre and your book idea. So, what is your genre? Who are you writing your book to? If you run your own business, it's highly likely that you're writing your book to your audience or to your ideal clients. You want to really align who you're writing your book to, and then you're able to validate the actual book idea. in itself.

[00:03:35] Now, how do you validate that idea? Well, how do you want to validate your idea? is to figure out the problem you're trying to solve for your radar. Now everyone's going to have different book writing goals, but ideally, you're going to want to write a book that does one of these four things. One helps your rate to solve a problem. To empowers them. Three, make them feel good and ready to take action or for humour them

[00:04:00] and that really comes back to your goals for writing a book.

[00:04:03] So how I would encourage you to validate your idea. is to really connect. your genre, and align it with your idea, and to really important to ask yourself these questions, what expertise do you have? Do you offer any programs or courses that can help. You're ready to take action in your book. What problems do you solve for others? And what transformation have you undertaken that can be really beneficial for your reader? What were the results of that transformation? Even on Abraham, senior and questions, like, what do you love to talk about?

[00:04:32] How can you help someone? All these questions are really important because it's going to really solidify and question your own book ideas, and really get that clarity in not only your idea. But what you know, that your reader is going to respond to and how you can create a real powerful impact with that book.

[00:04:52] And once you validated your genre, an idea, you'll then move into step four. And that is to think about how you're going to structure your book. Now there's a few different structures. When it comes to nonfiction book writing. Your book might be a chronological narrative, which in essence is a memoir.

[00:05:09] So you're taking that storytelling approach that presents events in order they occur. And it really follows a timeline. So in this type of structure, you might recount real life events, other people's experiences or. Any unique aspects that's happened throughout your life that you might want to include in a timeline format?

[00:05:30] And the other popular structure is called conceptual design. And it's really most common for those who have an expertise in a certain area. So you might find business owners will write these types of books, business owners, leaders, teachers. People who want to use their experiences. And share their expertise with somebody to help them take action.

[00:05:51] So in a conceptually designed book, the topic is what drives this structure.

[00:05:56] So instead of focusing on events or individuals like you would in a chronological. Narrative. The type of book that has a conceptual design structure. Delves into topic exploration. It really encourages rate is to consider new perspectives and to really problem solve. Because we all have our own unique perspectives when it comes to our own expertise that we share. We have a certain way that we deliver those experiences because that's what makes us who we are. And you want to be able to use that inside your book.

[00:06:26] So how I would encourage you to find out your structure is to have a look inside of you at some of your favorite books. Look how their books are structured. And I know you probably have a fair idea of how you want your book to look, whether it's going to be a memoir or efforts, a different kind of structure. It's okay to work off the. structure of Allah books, because you realize that there's going to be a different theme in the types of books and all these structures will start to make sense. Once you get an idea for it. You know, published to impact my book is a conceptual design book because it's very how to it's very, action-based. Of all of your skills was still a conceptual design, but in a different kind of structure, because I used more storytelling, then very action-based ideas and strategies. So. Choose your structure because after you choose your structure, Then you can move into the outline and the mind map, which leads us to step number five.

[00:07:18] So in step five, you want to map an outline your book idea. When you create your book outline, it's all about developing a plan of attack to write your memo, new script. So you essentially want to write down. Every single idea that you have about your book. And arrange those ideas into one what's relevant to what's important.

[00:07:39] And three, what's not important. So you want to really decipher all of those ideas that you have on paper. And then organize those ideas from. Most important to least important. So when you do this, I recommend using physical paper that way you're writing down your ideas and you start to get more clarity in your ideas rather than getting lost or distracted on a computer screen.

[00:08:01] And it's also exciting just to see how your ideas take shape as you write what's in your head.

[00:08:05] I won't go too much more into this step because I do have a podcast episode on it. And it's episode number nine on how you can map out an outline your book idea. So if you want to head to that one, you can, after this episode, so we're going to move into step six now.

[00:08:19] And step six is to write a draft introduction and draft conclusion. This is before you write your manuscript. Now you're probably wondering why. I suggest writing a draft conclusion, even though you haven't started writing your book yet.

[00:08:34] The reason why I suggest it is because I want you to think about where your reader is going to end up. How I look at a journey of a book is they've started at a certain point.

[00:08:44] They've ended up at another point of where you want them to get to. So you're essentially holding their hand through that journey. And how I'd describe it is when I wrote published to impact, I wouldn't have started my chapters with how to publish a book.

[00:08:59] I started my chapters with how to get into the right mindset to write and publish a book. So you really want to. Establish that journey of transformation throughout. And the best way to really think about that for your own sake is to write a draft conclusion and to draft the introduction. The introduction is where your reader is going to stop.

[00:09:18] And the conclusion is where you're going to end. Then, what you can do is all your ideas that you collaborated in the previous step. It then becomes, a clearer picture of how you can organize them and structure them. In the way that you want your reader. To be taken on that journey. But just know that the intros and the conclusions, they're not set in stone. They are drafts after all. Because what you actually going to find is when you do write your whole manuscript, you're going to reread that draft conclusion and that draft introduction that you've done.

[00:09:50] And then you're probably going to find that you'd want to rewrite those entries in those conclusions to make it really more powerful because. You've written the manuscript. You worked through it tirelessly and you're really clear in the journey that you've taken your reader on.

[00:10:04] Alright, now, let's move on to step seven. And this is where you actually write your manuscript. So you can write your manuscript. In six to eight weeks.

[00:10:12] If you work on your book for an hour a day. Five to seven days a week. You can make that happen because. An hour a day. gives you that sweet spot when it comes to the writing process. And you can smash out a thousand words in an hour. easily. And the more you practice, the better you get at it. So consistency, in writing your manuscript is what it's about is that's.

[00:10:35] What's going to get you. Closer and closer each day, it's not writing for a day and then give it up for a week and try again. It's the act of sitting down and writing. That's what's going to get your manuscript written because a lot of us thinks it's too overwhelming to sit down and actually write our book and it's, you know, too energy intensive, but all the steps that I've mentioned previously lead up to this point, all those steps make this point so much easier because what we think about when it comes to writing our manuscript is that it's too hard.

[00:11:08] It's going to take too long. I don't know what to write about. The first six steps. Makes this possible and makes this effective. It makes it really easy for this to happen.

[00:11:18] So once your manuscript's been finished, we move on to step eight. Step eight is to self edit your own work self-editing so important because you really want to gain that clarity and confidence in your book concept, and really feel that what you've written is going to be conveyed effectively to your reader. So how you want to self edit is you want to do it through two ways. The first edit is a verbal edit. This is where you're going to be miming or reading your book out loud and the first edit is going to help pick up the initial areas in your book, whether that's in your sentence, structure, grammar, spelling. You want to make sure that before you then consider. Your book from the point of a radar. You want to edit by the way of a writer? The next type of edit then you want to do is an eye scanning edit. After your verbal read through the ice scanning edit. Offers a fresh perspective. So rather than you taking in the view of the author, you're taking in the view of the reader and you're stepping back into viewing your work from a distance.

[00:12:17] Here you want to really make sure you focus on these three things. Spelling and grammar is really important formatting and the flow of your book. This is where you want to really become familiar with your manuscripts, familiar with your chapters, the topics and your points, because it's going to really help cultivate your ability to work with your editor. Because after that, you're then going to want to hire a professional editor. And for me, this is a non-negotiable. When it comes to writing and publish a book. If you want to write a book, that's going to make an impact. You need a professional editor. There are many different ways to find one.

[00:12:54] For example, you can look at read Z up work, or you might know one personally. With my idea to asset program, I had an editor that I freelance out. So writers are in my program. They have access to a professional editor. It's a really important thing for me, especially to really push that. The people who want to write a powerful book and make a difference. Professional editing is important. And once you've hired a native C, you can then move into professional cover designing and. I do believe in hiring a professional cover designer. If you want to make your book professional and really make a difference. I mean, you may know freelancers who are able to do it, but you want to be able to trust someone with your concept of your visually appealing idea. A really great book cover is your most potent marketing tool.

[00:13:43] People appreciate great book covers and I will do a podcast episode. More about boot cover, designing and getting the right cover. But you want to really make sure you're including these four elements you want to attract attention to the cover. You want to make sure it's really striking and really grabbed potential reader's attention. Okay.

[00:14:03] You want to convey your genre and content. So your cover should really give you a rate as an immediate sense of your book genre. And your subject. And it really helps them understand what to expect when they pick up your book. The third aspect is you want to evoke emotion.

[00:14:17] So you want to elicit to emotions that really resonate with your target audience, because that's going to set the tone for the Raiders experience. And then finally you want to establish branding. So if you've got any branding image that you want to convey, You know, your book cover should really suit the color styles and tempo of your business, of your personality and of your brand. And I just want to say designing a book cover is actually a really fun process to go through. And it's really exciting to know that your book has almost come to life. So you want to find the right cover designer. That's going to articulate your vision and. Work together with you to create a cover that captures your book's essence.

[00:14:54] It's a really crucial step in the publishing journey, especially if you want your book to really make that difference in people's lives.

[00:15:00] All right. And the final step we'll final step for today's episode. Step 10.

[00:15:06] Is to create your lead magnet and resources to include in your book. So if you have a business and you want to use your book to grow your business and generate leads and really connect with other people who read your book, This is crucial. So. There's going to be two different kinds of lead magnets that you're going to have in your book. You're going to have a soft lead magnet, which presents itself at the beginning.

[00:15:30] This is something that you give away for free. So for example, publish to impact, I give away a free resource library. And people can scan the QR code or go to the website. And they have access to that library in exchange for their email address. So that's the soft lead magnet and the reason why. I put that at the beginning is because the reader doesn't necessarily know me yet.

[00:15:53] And I want to create that trust and build that connection with them and give them the utmost value I can. And really help them on their journey to writing and publishing a book. So hopefully that they can work with me in the future. And if they don't decide to work with me, they've got tools that can really help them on their way to that journey. And then at the end of the book is a hard lead magnet. So that's where I invite people into my world of how they can work with me. So at the end of published to impact, I have my program. It's called idea to asset. So essentially this reader has started reading my book. And they might've gotten there. Free resource library from the beginning. And if they've read all the way through, they've built that trust.

[00:16:36] And they've really gotten to know me, my experiences, how I can help them write and publish a book so that when they get to the end of the book, They see how I can help make their dream a reality. And that dream is to write and publish a book. I introduce them into my idea to asset program, and then we can potentially work together from there. So those two lead magnets are really important and especially how you place them is even more important and then also just in regards to your other resources, those other resources yeah.

[00:17:07] Your acknowledgments, any references and resources that you've used throughout the book, you'd put those at the end. It could be a dedication. Where do you include your dedication at the beginning?

[00:17:17] So really getting those resources together because. Once you send that manuscript off to your editor, you can start formulating all those resources so that when it comes time to format your book, You're ready to go.

[00:17:29] All right. So I'm going to quickly run through the recap of these first 10 steps in part, one episode of 20 important steps to make towards publishing your book.

[00:17:38] The first step was to find your way.

[00:17:41] The second step was to decide which publishing option you're going to go towards, whether that's self publishing, hybrid publishing or traditional publishing. Those are the main three. Third step was to validate your genre and idea. Fourth step to find your book structure. This will then determine your outline because step five is where you want to mind map and outline your book, using all your ideas that you have laid all out on all page. Step six is to then write your draft introduction and draft conclusion.

[00:18:09] This will help you get clarity in that journey that you're going to take your reader on when you write your manuscript. Because that's step seven, step seven. You're going to write your manuscript. And I would recommend spending an hour a day consistently working on your book probably no more than an hour, because you don't want to overwhelm yourself.

[00:18:27] And I'm sure you're busy doing other things as well. So write your manuscript is step seven.

[00:18:32] Step eight is to then find a professional editor. Step nine is to find a professional book, cover designer. And then step 10 is to create your lead magnet and resources for your book.

[00:18:45] So I really hope you learned something from today's episode because next week I will release the second part of it.

[00:18:51] So what we've essentially covered today is the writing process. So, what we've done today is we've covered. The writing process and a little bit of the publishing process. Next week is the rest of the publishing process. And then the launching process. Because when it comes to writing a book, there are three different phases, writing, publishing and watching. So I hope you learned something from this episode. I hope it had some takeaways. And if you did, please reach out to me and let me know what. it is you've learned, or if you've got any questions. Otherwise, you can get a free copy of publish to impact in the show notes, but until next time until part two, I'll speak to you soon.