writing a book Archives | Jane Tabachnick & Co

Should You Self Publish Your Book

Authors often wonder should you self publish your book or seek out a traditional publisher. There are pros and cons to both avenues of publishing, so it’s important to understand them before making such an important decision.

You may think you need the know-how of a publishing house behind you or want the prestige that comes along with a big name publisher, but you’re a savvy woman and with the accessibility of self- publishing you need to consider it seriously as an option.

My top 5 answers to the question: Should you self-publish your book

1. Speed to market
When you self-publish your book, you eliminate the time you would have had to spend to find a book agent and then pitch a publisher. Instead, you can use the time to write, publish and promote your book. As a self-published author, you also can typically move through the publishing process faster, than a publishing house does.

In a few months, you can write and publish your book, whereas the search for an agent and publisher can take as long as two years, not including the writing and packaging of your book, which would be additional.

2. Total artistic control
While working with a publishing house, you get the benefit of their valuable insights and know-how, your book is your baby and having total creative decision making over it ensures that you will come out with a book that totally reflects you, your brand and your personality.

Should an opportunity arise around your book, whether it’s interest from a foreign market, or Hollywood has come calling, you get to decide if it’s right for you without having to consult with anyone.

3. you keep 100% of the profits
By publishing it on your own there is no one you need to share profits except the book store or online book retailer.

Most authors don’t make a lot of money from the sale of books, so being able to keep all of your share of the profit is beneficial. Additionally, when you work with a traditional publisher they give you an advance. That means that once you make book sales, you have to pay back the advance or draw out of the retail book sales. Once you finish paying back your advance, you have to share the remaining profits with the publisher, which means less in your pocket.

4. Book promotion and marketing
One of the big frustrations I hear from those who work with a traditional publisher, is that they don’t do much in the way of book promotion and marketing, until you become successful. Even with a publishing deal, as a first or second time author, you’ll have to do your own book marketing and promotion. You might as well self-publish and do your own marketing and promotion and know that you’re reaping all the benefits of those efforts, instead of having to share the rewards with your publishing company, who left you do the heavy lifting.

5. Equal access to distribution channels
Today, as a smart self-published author, you can get the same distribution and same visibility as traditionally published authors. You no longer need a publisher to get you into every bookstore, library, and online retailer. You can also maintain control of distribution, as well as the ability to offer discount pricing as needed.

The advantages to self-publishing are many, though there is a learning curve. Self-publishing doesn’t mean you have to do it all yourself, there are programs, coaches, and companies to help you publish your book like a pro. Done right, it can be hard to tell a self-published book from a traditionally published one.

This post first appeared on She Owns It

How to Build a List of Book Buyers Before You Even Publish

Why You Need Stories In Your NonFiction Book

Our 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

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How to Profit From Your Book – The $7,000 Message

Ever get a $7000 message? My client did, and this is just one example of how to profit from your book.

I was at a training with my client Mai. The same workshop where I ate fire! Mai, called me over and was clearly so excited she couldn’t contain herself.

I couldn’t wait to see what the excitement was about.

“Look at this message I just got from a prospect. It’s all because of the book. Oh my gosh! Thank you” Jane.

Note: Mai worked with me to write and publish her book The Divorced Mom’s Guide to Dating. We got the book written and published [to bestseller status] in about 90 days.

The message, which you can see in the image to the left, was from a reader, who was so excited and ready to sign up for coaching with Mai after reading her book that she emailed her and then sent her this message on Facebook to make sure Mai saw it as soon as possible.

**How Mai’s book created a ready to buy $7000 coaching client**

People buy from those that they know, like and trust. People can get a sense of you and your work from your book, if it’s written and set up correctly. What we did in Mai’s case was:

Tell her story, so readers connected with her instantly
Share client stories – so readers could relate to ‘people just like them’, who were in ‘situations just like them’ and who got ‘the outcomes they are seeking’
Give people a taste of her methodology/coaching program in the book
Include worksheets so that readers could start to do the work/ begin to experience results from Mai’s work
Included a beautiful invite to Mai’s bi-annual live event.

Have you ever tried to learn something from a book or program on your own?

What was the outcome?

As is often the case, people find that they are only able to get so far via a book or self-paced coaching or learning program, and then realize they need additional, more personalize support to reach their goals. That was the case with Mai’s reader. She’d gone as far as she could on her own, and she already saw Mai as the answer to a problem she was desperate to solve. So she signed up for a $7000 coaching program with Mai.

Imagine getting a text like this! If you are like me, and selling is not something you like to do….having clients lined up excited to sign up with you is pretty attractive. As a salesperson friend of mine joked, when I showed them the message Mai received, the only thing left to ask is ‘Visa or Mastercard?’

Ready to package your expertise and method into a book, and attract ready to buy readers? Let’s talk.

5 Ways You Should Be Using Your Nonfiction Book to Make Money

How a Business Coach Landed Clients With His Book

4 Ways Writing a Book Can Grow Your Business

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Feel the Fear… Write the Book Anyway

Feel the fear do the ________ anyway!

As many of you know, in my world the fill-in-the-blank would be Feel the fear write the book anyway, but really this is a metaphor for anything in life.

Whether books are on your short list, yours is in works or way out in the distant future or not at all, there’s a lesson in this for everyone.

We all have things that we fear doing. Some of you may not want to fess up publicly. Your choice.

I know I always fear public speaking until I get going on stage and then I usually start enjoying it. I’m actively seeking to do more public speaking. You may think, why the heck would she do that?

There are two reasons:

You may have heard me say that my favorite quote is “life begins at the edge of your comfort zone” so I’m trying to push myself to do things that are uncomfortable but that I know are going to help me grow as a person and a professional.
I know that doing public speaking will help me get in front of more people who I can help by providing some of my knowledge and expertise and hopefully inspiring them to take action.

I was at a literary conference recently that my city hosted for the first time. I sat in on a panel of successful fiction writers, most of whom I’d never heard of. I was really struck by what Garth Risk Hallberg, one of the panelists told us, when he said that he worked on his book for six years. During the first four, he didn’t even let anyone know he was working on it – not even his closest friends.

Why? Because he was afraid. Afraid that it would just end up in his top-drawer, unread. Afraid no publishing house would pick him up. Afraid no one would read it. Afraid if they read it, that they wouldn’t like it.

Sound familiar? It did to me- like he was broadcasting the little gremlin voice in my head, as well as a thoughts /fears many of my clients expressed to me at one point in their journey to becoming published authors.
[clickToTweet tweet=”“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” Mark Twain” quote=”“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” Mark Twain “]

So in this case author Hallberg’s fears were unfounded. His book was a big success and each and every one of his fears didn’t come to pass.

Now your outcomes and my outcomes may not be as spectacular, but you won’t have any wins if you don’t take any chances. If you don’t allow yourself to either ignore those fears, or set them aside to do that thing that you’ve been fearing, nothing great can happen. Period.

Sometimes removing fear can be done by improving your skills in the area where you have fears, practicing to build your confidence, hiring a mentor or sometimes moving past the fear means starting by taking tiny baby steps.

How can I support you in moving past a fear to achieve a dream? Please let me know. You can do so by commenting below or by submitting a request on Facebook

Here’s another fear- doing live video. I publicly committed to doing a FB Live every day in May to help me push past that fear!! I’d love your support on it, so stop by and join me, please!

To your success!

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4 Ways That Writing A Book Can Help Grow Your Business

Have you ever thought about writing a book?

Maybe you have, but you dismissed the idea because you don’t think of yourself as a writer.

Or maybe you’ve even gone so far as to walk up to a shelf in a bookstore and clear out space where your book would go, if you ever got around to writing it.

Even if neither scenario applies to you, the bottom line is this…

Writing a book can help grow your business; in fact, it can be the biggest leverage point in that yields the fastest results.

In fact, 63% of business owners who wrote a book reported that it had a “very strong” or “strong” influence on their ability to attract new customers.

How Writing a Book Can Grow Your Business

Let’s look at some of the surprising ways that writing a book can help kick your business growth into high gear.

WRITING A BOOK GIVES YOU INSTANT CREDIBILITY

The first benefit of writing a book that’s related to your business is that it gives you instant credibility – in the same way that an experienced PR person can help you by getting you access to opportunities you might not otherwise have.

How?

• While self-publishing is very common today, that wasn’t always the case. It used to be fairly difficult to get a book published. Potential clients will be impressed when they see that you’re a published author.

• A well-written book about a topic that’s relevant to your target audience demonstrates that you are someone knowledgeable – someone they can trust.

Today’s consumers tend to search for companies and people before they do business with them. When a potential customer sees your book on Amazon when they Google you, they’ll know that you are an authority in your industry.

WRITING A BOOK GETS YOU FREE EXPOSURE

When you’re trying to grow a business, it can be a struggle to get people to notice you – particularly if you’re in a competitive industry. That barrier is greatly reduced when you write a book. It’s standard practice for newspapers, industry publications, and even television shows to review books and interview their authors.
Instead of trying to cajole influencers to talk about you, your book can convince them to approach you – or at least help you open the door when you approach them.
WRITING A BOOK RAISES YOUR ONLINE PROFILE

If you know anything at all about online marketing, you know that regardless of your industry, you’re in competition with many other companies and websites for the attention of your target audience.

How can you stand out from the crowd?

When you’re the author of a book that speaks to the needs and problems of your target audience, it’s like standing on a stage while your competitors are milling around in the theater. Your book puts you in a position to command attention and respect, and will also come up in search results for your topic.

Just as a PR person can make sure that people know your name, a published book can help raise your profile and increase your visibility online.

When you list your book for sale, whether it’s on your own website, on Amazon, or even on social media sites like Facebook, you automatically increase the chances that people in your target audience will notice your online footprint instead of your competitor’s. This can even improve your SEO as various sites and publications link back to your company’s website.
WRITING A BOOK ALLOWS YOU TO CHARGE MORE

The final benefit – and one that business owners love – is that the cache of having written a book allows them to raise their prices.

Why?

Think of it this way. Every commodity that sells, whether it’s a product or a service, is subject to the law of supply and demand. The higher the demand is, the lower the supply tends to be…
And the more you can charge for whatever you’re selling.
The author of an authoritative book is likely to be in demand. As you gain visibility and credibility, the number of people who want to work with you will inevitably increase. And when that happens, you can raise your prices. You might even decide to offer high-end consulting services as a way of capitalizing on your notoriety as an author.

When Should You Start Writing?

If you had the money to hire a PR person, you’d want to do it as soon as possible, right?
The same goes for writing your book. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a writer, you know that you have specialized knowledge just by virtue of being a business owner. Your experience and expertise can be working for you 24 hours a day in a published book.

The average non-fiction book that sells on Amazon is only about 10,000 words long. If you wrote only 500 words a day, you could have a completed first draft in less than a month.
You have the expertise. All you need is to carve out a little bit of time and write it.

And as soon as your book is published, it can start working for you – bringing you the credibility, publicity, and success you deserve.

This post was first published on She Owns It

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How to Become an Author When You Hate to Write

It 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.

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