The Self Publishing Blueprint – Key to Bestselling Books

The selfpublishing blueprint with Jane Tabachnick

 

The selfpublishing blueprint with Jane Tabachnick

Why Write a Book?

Writing a book can be a game-changer. It instantly elevates your status as an expert and enhances your authority in your field. Your book grants you greater visibility and credibility, as a quick Google search of your name will likely yield your book listing on Amazon. People’s perception of you will soar. A book is not just about personal achievement; it’s a powerful tool to impact and inspire.

Navigating the Publishing Journey: Goal, Successful Self-published Author

While self-publishing is accessible to all, ensuring your book reflects the quality of your work is a crucial consideration. For visionaries and change-makers like you, whether you’re an entrepreneur, coach, consultant, healer, CEO, or professional, you like the speed of self-publishing. Still, you are concerned with making sure your book doesn’t look amateurish. You’ve worked too hard to build your brand and reputation. Whether you plan to go it alone or work with an in-demand writer’s coach, you want a memorable outcome. 

Writing a book can seem overwhelming and even daunting, especially if you are staring at a blank page and trying to figure out where to begin navigating the self-publishing waters. 

“If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results.” – Tony Robbins.

This post outlines our method for success for self-published nonfiction authors. It covers our proven process for creating bestsellers based on a tool used by books that have seen traditional success on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal lists. Whatever your definition of success is, a blueprint will help you have a better, less stressful author experience.

Introducing the Self Publishing Blueprint

In this post, we’re diving into the essentials of crafting a successful nonfiction book. It starts with a fundamental step of self-publishing-  time spent brainstorming your book idea and thoroughly fleshing out and planning it out. We’ve identified the critical points of clarification you’ll want to identify before starting to write your book. We call this The Book Blueprint. We modeled it on the book proposal, a tool used to garner traditional publishing deals. 

Understanding the Publishing Blueprint

Before we get started, let’s define what a publishing blueprint is. It is a roadmap that outlines the full details of your book. It includes the [ideal reader] who, what, where, when, and how of the book you plan to write. This blueprint is your secret weapon, providing clarity and ensuring your book effectively conveys your message and methodology. 

The reason is simple: it compels authors to plan every aspect of their book meticulously. This process has several benefits, some less obvious but equally vital.

Your book blueprint is created as a tool just to help you refine your book idea and to help you write a well-thought-out book. If you are working with a ghostwriter, it is a valuable tool when placed in the hands of writers, helping them understand your ideas and intent. We have found it to be one of the best ways to predict future author success.

Your self-publishing blueprint will be the most important step in your author journey. 

A Self Publishing Blueprint Forms Your Writing Roadmap

The gift of clarity around your book is that it helps create a smoother self-publishing journey, starting with your writing. Now that you have fleshed out the big ideas, your next big concern is your outline. As part of the process, you will create a detailed table of contents [capitalized?]. This forms your writing roadmap and makes your book easier to write now that you have identified your themes, topics, and goals from the very beginning. In fact, you have created a complete guide to your book. 

As a publishing coach, one of the biggest challenges I see authors make is when they haven’t created a book blueprint. They often struggle to decide what content to include in their book—sometimes going off-topic or too broad, weakening their book’s strength. 

Creating a book blueprint by planning your book upfront gives you the necessary guide to what content belongs in it. 

With your table of contents in hand, your first step can be to block out your writing time. Now that you have completed the first mile of the journey, you can predict your delivery times for your first draft and are on your way to becoming a bestselling author. 

In the next post, I’ll share a comprehensive guide to the self-publishing blueprint. 

 

Related Content:

The Self-Publishing Blueprint Podcast

40 Famous Author Quotes on Writing Nonfiction to Inspire You

famous author quotes on writing nonfiction

famous author quotes on writing nonfiction

We’ve gathered the best famous author quotes on writing nonfiction to motivate, inspire and help you write your business-building book.

If uncovering the truth is the greatest challenge of nonfiction writing, it is also the greatest reward.

Writing nonfiction is more like sculpture, a matter of shaping the research into the finished thing. Novels are like paintings, specifically watercolors. Every stroke you put down you have to go with. Of course you can rewrite, but the original strokes are still there in the texture of the thing.

In this time of the Internet and nonfiction, to be on an actual bookshelf in an actual bookstore is exciting in itself.

I do think that narrative, long-form nonfiction is the perfect form because it’s rooted in something very real, but we’re also, you know, completely spiritual, emotional creatures driven by all sorts of desires and needs.

When you deal with nonfiction, you deal with human characters.

All writers are discontented with their work as it’s being made. That’s because they’re aware of a potential and believe they’re not reaching it. But the reader is not aware of the potential, so it makes no difference to him.

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, writing takes me to another world.

One thing you learn about doing nonfiction is that you’ve got to get it right, fact-check, do your research. You’ve got to not only get the facts right but represent the subject to the world in a way that insiders feel like it’s an access port and outsiders can access it. If you’re too insider, you block access to anyone else.

In nonfiction, you have that limitation, that constraint, of telling the truth.

The challenge for a nonfiction writer is to achieve a poetic precision using the documents of truth but somehow to make people and places spring to life as if the reader was in their presence.

The privilege of being a writer is that you have this opportunity to slow down and to consider things.

Most books aren’t pure nonfiction or fiction.

In Bosnian, there’s no distinction in literature between fiction and nonfiction; there’s no word describing that.

Maybe stories are just data with a soul.

In fiction, when you paint yourself into a corner, you can write a pair of suction cups onto the bottoms of your shoes and walk up the wall and out the skylight and see the sun breaking through the clouds. In nonfiction, you don’t have that luxury.

There is no longer any such thing as fiction or nonfiction; there’s only narrative.

Truth is stranger than nonfiction. And life is too interesting to be left to journalists. People have stories, but journalists have ‘takes,’ and it’s their takes that usually win out when the stories are too complicated or, as happens, not complicated enough.

Nonfiction writers are the packhorses of literature. We’re meant to carry the story. If we can make it up and down the mountain by a reliable if not scenic route, we have delivered. Technique is optional.

I still believe nonfiction is the most important literature to come out of the second half of the 20th century.

Nonfiction is both easier and harder to write than fiction. It’s easier because the facts are already laid out before you, and there is already a narrative arc. What makes it harder is that you are not free to use your imagination and creativity to fill in any missing gaps within the story.

Non fiction is never going to die.

We often think that language mirrors the world in which we live, and I find that’s not true. The language actually makes the world in which we live. Language is not – I mean, things don’t have any mutable value by themselves; we ascribe them a value.

When I’m writing fiction I’m thinking, God, this is so hard – I have to make all this stuff up! I wish I were writing a nonfiction book where all the facts are laid out and I don’t have to be so much at sea.

Writing a nonfiction story is like cracking a safe. It seems impossible at the beginning, but once you’re in, you’re in.

An author’s ability to bring a marketing synopsis to the table – along with a great manuscript – makes a difference in what books get picked up. This is true for both fiction and nonfiction titles. You need to show your publisher what you’ve got in your marketing arsenal.

Nonfiction requires enormous discipline. You construct the terms of your story, and then you stick to them.

What I felt was, if you spend your life just writing fiction, you are going to falsify your material. And the fictional form was going to force you to do things with the material, to dramatize it in a certain way. I thought nonfiction gave one a chance to explore the world, the other world, the world that one didn’t know fully.

One of my favorite things, as a critic, was finding books by new writers who possessed a distinctive voice and vision, an inventive gift for storytelling. I also loved immersing myself in works of nonfiction that taught me something about the world, that made the past come alive or shed light on hidden corners of history or the news.

You can tell a more over-the-top incredible story if you use a nonfiction form.

What I felt was, if you spend your life just writing fiction, you are going to falsify your material. And the fictional form was going to force you to do things with the material, to dramatize it in a certain way. I thought nonfiction gave one a chance to explore the world, the other world, the world that one didn’t know fully.

I enjoy doing the research of nonfiction; that gives me some pleasure, being a detective again.

One of underestimated tasks in nonfiction writing is to impose narrative shape on an unwieldy mass of material.

“Great brands and great businesses have to be great storytellers, too. We have to tell stories – emotive, compelling stories – and even more so because we’re nonfiction.”

Like most writers, I find the Web is a wonderful distraction. Who doesn’t need that last minute research before writing?

Every successful piece of nonfiction should leave the reader with one provocative thought that he or she didn’t have before. Not two thoughts, or five – just one. So decide what single point you want to leave in the reader’s mind.

In fiction, you learn about pacing and how to build tension – which is something you want in a really good nonfiction feature article as well.

Nonfiction, to me, feels like an argument, whereas a novel is like a series of questions.

Remember, whatever type of nonfiction you are writing, as William Saroyan so aptly said:

“All writers are discontented with their work as it’s being made. That’s because they’re aware of a potential and believe they’re not reaching it. But the reader is not aware of the potential, so it makes no difference to him.”

Want help writing your nonfiction book?

We specialize in Business books, health and wellness, educational guides, and hybrid memoirs.

According to Indeed, there are twenty-five types of nonfiction writing.

Here is how they define and categorize the kind of books we work on:

Business

Business books often serve as guides about management and entrepreneurship. The authors of this genre have experience in the market or industry and share their tips, expertise or methods with readers.

Health and wellness

Health and wellness books cover topics such as stress management, sleeping habits or diet. They can address physical, mental or spiritual health. They can also offer methods or plans to change or improve health. Authors of health and wellness nonfiction are often doctors and researchers with technical knowledge, or they can be healers and health coaches.

Educational Guides

Educational guides give college and high school students advice about various topics. Others target an older audience. Educational guides can describe different types of education or educate readers about various topics.

Hybrid Memoirs

Memoirs tell a story about the author’s life. Memoirs focus on an event, such as childhood or an experience in a specific industry. Autobiographies describe the writer’s experience on their entire life’s journey. While anyone can write a memoir, autobiographies are typically the works of famous people, allowing them to share their opinions and journeys with their followers. Hybrid memoirs are a combination of the author’s story and the lessons they have learned from their experiences.

To apply to work with us click here

Have favorite famous author quotes on writing? Please share it with us

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Top 30 PR Quotes

 Why You Need to Use Stories in Your NonFiction Book 

Why You Need Stories In Your NonFiction Book

Why You Need Stories in Your NonFiction Book

Why You Need Stories In Your Nonfiction BookOur brains are wired for stories. They can create an emotional connection and are easier to remember than text or facts.

Your nonfiction book will be much richer if you include stories in it. You may have a compelling methodology, philosophy or message; the reader will benefit more and remember it longer if you include stories. A rich, textured, multisensory experience with a beginning, middle and an end, is much more enjoyable and memorable than straight theory.

I don’t remember a lot of what I learned in history class, but the stories my teacher shared with us about a historical figure, have stuck with me long beyond any textbook learning. The same will be true for stories you include in your book.

It’s important to carefully select the story or stories you include in your book; choose a story that your ideal reader will identify with, as well as one that showcases your best client work and results.

[clickToTweet tweet=”She Who Tells Stories Rules The World – Why You Need Stories in Your Nonfiction Book” quote=”She Who Tells Stories Rules the World – Native American Proverb”]

Here is how a story can enhance your book:

Demonstrates how the rubber meets the road; your book outlines a message, concept or theory that you are telling the reader about it. Showing is more compelling than telling! Your story shows the reader your concept in a real-life situation, making it easier for them to relate to it.

Allows readers to see themselves in your story; a well-chosen story is relatable to the reader as it helps them walk in the shoes of your client/hero and see themselves working with you.

Provides social proof. Your story shows how you helped a client go from problem to solution easily and quickly, providing proof that serves as a testimonial. It shows that you have done it successfully for the client in your story, and your reader will now know you’re capable of doing it for them.

Demonstrates to the reader you can help them go from where they are, to where they want to be, as evidenced by your well-selected case study. A well-written story will be so real that the reader can taste the result. They will see you as the one who can help them get the same result for themselves.

A well-chosen story is relatable. It confirms for the reader that you understand them and their problem. It shows that you know the solution, and have helped others working with you, overcome their challenges and obstacles.

Remember, as the native American proverb says, ‘She who tells the best stories rules the world.’

This first appeared on She Owns It

Related Content: Choosing the Best Self-Publishing Book Company for Your Needs

How to Become an Author When You Hate to Write – Part 2

become author hate to write - use an interview to create your book contentStaring down the blank page with the thought of having to start writing your book is enough to keep most people from simply getting started. Even published, successful writers will speak about the challenge of writing. Continuing on from part 1 of how to become an author when you hate to write, I wanted to speak more about our favorite way of creating books; via an interview.

How to Become an Author When You Hate to Write – Speak Your Book!

The fact is that many people are more comfortable speaking than they are writing. So speaking about their business is easier and less intimidating. It’s something they have probably done hundreds of times, compared to writing about their business.

[clickToTweet tweet=”“You can fix anything but a blank page.” – Nora Roberts. How to ‘write’ a book easily” quote=”“You can fix anything but a blank page.” – Nora Roberts”]

The key to creating a good book from an interview, like any other book, is to have a strategy and a plan.With an interview book you also need to design your questions. The easiest way to think about what would make for a good question, is to start with the end in mind. What story are you trying to tell? And then ask a question, whose answer will help tell that story.

You may have heard me speak about using interviews to create books, and all types of content. The simplicity of speaking into a tape recorder, dictation software, or your phone and recording the conversation doesn’t require a learning curve. You can then have the audio transcribed into text. Now you have the raw content for your book. Easy peasy!

We have the content edited to remove ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’. In the editing and review process, you can also add any content that may have left out in the initial interview. Next we create an intro and a summary for the book; this can be outsourced so as to really keep the process 100% writing free on your part. Now your content is ready to be published.

Our authors tell us that they enjoy the process. In addition to being more comfortable than writing, speaking is an activity most people really enjoy – especially if it involves talking about themselves.

I sometimes interview myself to create content or chapters for my own books. If the thought of doing that sounds downright silly, you are not alone. You can enlist the help of someone else to fill the role of interviewer for your book. Due to the ease of recording over a phone or conference line, your interviewer doesn’t have to live near you, they can be anywhere in the world.

As an example, the One Problem One Solution [OPOS] book is a great strategy for an interview style nonfiction book. The OPOS is a book that focuses on your clients’ biggest problem, and how you provide the solution. I don’t mean in marketing speak or a salesy way, but by designing your interview questions to tell your reader about your solution in a story format. Think of it like turning your business’s frequently asked questions [F.A.Q] into an interview and conversation with examples and case studies.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Key to creating a book from an interview is to have a strategy and a plan. #author ” quote=”The key to creating a good book from an interview, like any other book, is to have a strategy and a plan.”]

You could certainly take the interview format and have an editor turn it into straight text, if you prefer.

If being a published author is still on your bucket list, or you are ready to be an author again and create your next book, but you hate to write, consider using the interview process to get your content created. Speaking your book leaves you much more free to do it, rather than over-thinking your book the way that many of us do when are staring at a blank page. You will probably have fun and enjoy the process. And, you’ll get your book done much more quickly. Not only is that a feeling of accomplishment, you can also check it off your to do list!

To find out about working with us to create your book go here

How to Become an Author When You Hate to Write

author hate to writeIt would seem to be an oxymoron that you can become an author if you hate to write, however it is in fact possible. You can do so in the 4 ways I outline below  without requiring a ghostwriter to create your content.

Maybe a book is on your bucket list, and is one of the things that just seems to be getting put off and off… Maybe the thought of writing a book is overwhelming… and maybe you aren’t even sure how to get started.

Remember, the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, but your path to being an author doesn’t have to start with a blank page!

[clickToTweet tweet=”The road to publishing a book doesn’t have to start with a blank page” quote=”The road to publishing a book doesn’t have to start with a blank page”]

This simple idea about book creation may put your mind at ease, and make it easier to get into action and get your book started, and completed before the end of the year. There are ways to ‘write’ a book that you may not have considered, and may be less overwhelming or intimidating than starting with a blank page to write your business book.

Here are the top four types of books that will allow you to become an author even if you hate to write

1. Compilation of blog posts or articles can be bundled together to create a book. By turning your content into a book, and publishing it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and other online retailers, you are able to extend your reach and get in front of new audiences.

2. Radio or podcast interviews can create great content for your book. The audio file can be transcribed into text to form the basis for your book. Once published, the radio/podcast hosts will be helpful in promoting the book as they are mentioned i
n it.

How To Become an Author If You Hate to Write

 3. Speeches or presentations you have given can be turned into books. A speech is often developed on paper first, so already have your text draft you can use to create your book. If you have a recording of your presentation you can also have it transcribed and turned into text.

This J.K. Rowling Book is the transcript of a speech she gave at Harvard University in 2008. It is 81 pages long.

 

4. Curate other people’s content around a theme. The content can be articles or blog posts that other people have written. It’s easier to go with content that’s already written, than to invite people to write new content and then hope that they comply with your deadlines. This book is not only easy to put together, but has a built in marketing team as the contributors will gladly promote a book they are featured in.

Once you have collected your content, you will need to have it edited for typos and grammatical errors. You can leave an interview in its Q and A style. You just need to add an introduction and a summary to the content and you now have a book!

For eBooks, you don’t need to be too concerned about the length. Amazon has categories for shorter books, as does Barnes and Noble and Kobo. For print books, there are length requirements but they are a lot shorter than you would think at 24 pages [that is 24 individual sides or 12 leafs]

With our short attention spans today, a concise book that is easy to read, and on point with no fluff is often more appealing than a big fat book. It can also help you become a published author more easily, so you can begin to reap the benefits this year, next year and beyond!

The beauty of getting your book done this year is that you will end this year on a high note, and be poised to start 2017 off with a
bang, as you’ll be a published author and be able to leverage that status and receive all the credibility and benefits that are possible along with it.

Read Part 2- How to become an author when you hate to write 

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Related Post: 10 Ways to Use Interviews

10 Ways to Use Interviews in Your Marketing

10 Ways to Use Interviews in Your MarketingOne of the strategies in your marketing toolkit today should be the interview process. The interview, or a simple question and answer session, can be very effective in facilitating the creation of a variety of valuable customer facing content such as blog posts or profile articles, to content that is strictly for internal company use.

The beauty of the interview process is that you can simply hold a conversation that you record and have transcribed into text. Speech to text software is now built into computers and smart phones, or you can use a transcription service. You now have both text and audio versions of your content. Both versions can be re purposed into additional formats including video and Power Points. You can get additional mileage by extracting short quotes or sound bites to use as social posts and tweets.

What works so well about this format is that most people are comfortable speaking about their business, product or service, than they are writing about it. Most people also prefer being directed and prompted. A blank white page with free range, can be very daunting.

Ask a client to write a testimonial for your business. They’ll wonder what to write about and put it off. Sending them 3 questions to answer about your business is a much easier and more comfortable way for them to respond, taking the guesswork out of it for them.

The beauty of the interview process is that it is a strategically designed set of questions that can help you elicit the story that you would like to tell. Whether you are interviewing a customer a strategic partner or one of your staff, by strategically designing the questions you get to shape the outcome, and can reap the benefits of 3rd party credibility – someone else telling your story and singing your praises.


Download our handy Interview Resource List

interview-b-w-600x397


Here are my Top 10 Interview Types:

1. Customer Input
Many companies do not take advantage of this simple and obvious activity. Your client will be more than happy to tell you what their biggest challenges are and what they would like help with; then when you offer that solution they’re sure to buy.

2. Testimonials
Clients are usually happy to give you a testimonial however many businesses don’t even ask. Create an easy format with questions that prompt the client’s response, and your clients will thank you. They are often uncomfortable not knowing what to write, so when you remove the guesswork it is easy for them to just get it done.

3. Case studies
This is an underutilized form of content for your business. Case studies are so valuable because they show prospects how you solved another company’s problem, which gives prospects the ability to see themselves in your existing client, and basically try your solution on for size. It is also a form of third-party credibility, which carries more weight than a description of that very same service does in your company brochure or website.

4. Product Research
Interview customers to find out what they like about your products, as well as features they would like to see added. Everyone loves to be consulted and offer his or her opinion. Your customers probably use your products more than your own staff does and have probably already thought of things that could be improved or features that will make your product better. Make this an ongoing each aspect of your marketing and product development and research

6. Industry Insight
Interview a partner or vendor about different aspects of your industry. This can create a thought leadership piece and help inform your customers and your prospects about your industry trends, inner workings and the state of affairs.

7. Interview a Recognized Expert or Thought leader
By interviewing a thought leader, you are giving people access to someone they know and respect, as well as getting the benefit of greater exposure due to your expert’s popularity. This also positions you as a top expert and a peer of the thought leader.

8. Interview Staff

A staff interview can create content that introduces your staff and the role that they play in your business. This personalizes your business, provides insight into who a customer or vendor will be working with, and helps deepen engagement with your brand. This helps create greater consumer confidence, as people buy when they feel they ‘know, like and trust’ the company.

9. Interview Yourself
The interview format works very well to generate content more quickly, so why not use it yourself, wearing both the interviewer and subject hats. If you decide to keep your finished piece in an interview format, no one needs to know who the interviewer was, however you can also turn the interview content into a general article.

10. Interview to create a book
This one is possibly my favorite. Use an interview format to create a book. Many professionals, entrepreneurs and the public in general are interested in writing a book, yet it’s a daunting project that often gets put off repeatedly for that very reason. Using a strategically designed set of questions, it’s easy to create the content for your book through an interview. Your book can be published keeping the interview format, as I do with the books that I publish for my clients, or you can turn your answers into prose. Either way, it helps you get your book written much more quickly and efficiently so you can reap the benefits of being a published author.

The interview format is incredibly versatile and can be included in your marketing and content toolkit to help you create the variety of content that are required in today’s marketplace. Using interviews in your marketing can help grow all aspects of your business.  The value of the interview format can be clarity. Simple questions, answered directly. I recently interviewed a colleague who runs a unique marketing service, for a profile in an online magazine. After reading the published interview, one of her prospects commented,

“Now I really understand what you do and the value of your service.”

That is the power of asking the right questions. Ready to put interviews to work for your business?

Note- this article was written using an interview format [I interviewed myself using a speech to text software] then edited the text for the final article.


Download our handy Interview Resource List

 

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