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You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hi there, and welcome to the sweet life. When you were in business podcast, this is episode number 188 in everything we’re talking about on today’s show can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one 88,
because we’re giving you a ton of resources. Like we usually love to do here on this podcast. If you, and I don’t know each other yet, my name’s April beach. I help entrepreneurs grow and scale their business online and develop their internationally leading suite of signature offers. One of the things that you get here on the show, our business strategies you can take to the bank.
So every one of our experts is vetted and I myself have been coaching entrepreneurs to grow and scale their business for over 24 years, we are so glad that you are here. And today on the show, I’m really passionate about this topic and our guests. I’ve become a really good friend with already in a quick period of time, virtually. And I’m super excited to introduce you to her.
Now, let me give you a little bit of background story. You might not know this, but one of the ways that I grew one of my first companies was by self publishing a book, and it was really powerful. You guys, as a matter of fact, this book sold copies everywhere and still to this day, that company, the secondary business consulting firm that I own it’s called baby planner,
inc leads the industry in business consulting for companies that market to new unexpecting families. And the reason why I still have that reach and notoriety in that space is because they started out by self publishing a book on my expertise in that niche, niche, whatever you want to call it, right? But here is the deal. Here’s the truth. I made a ton of mistakes and some of the mistakes that I made ended up costing me a lot of money and ended up costing me a lot of time.
And if I knew more about what I was doing, instead of just doing it and winging it, then I think that my results could have been a lot better or at least a lot less painful. And so today on the show, Alexa, big Wharf is here and she’s going to walk you through the power of self publishing a book you’re going to be blown away when you hear some of the most well known influencers that we all like love and follow and really admire in that they have chosen to go.
The self publishing route. Alexa is a USA today, bestselling author speaker, and publishing partner. She coaches others and offers publishing solutions to those who want to grow their business and share their story through writing a book. She’s the founder of write, publish, sell Kat biggie, press purple butterfly, press Chrysalis, press, and the women in publishing summit,
which I’m so excited to be able to speak at her summit coming up here in spring of 2021. And so let’s go ahead and dive into today’s episode. You are going to know the quick start steps to publish your book. The difference between self publishing versus going through a traditional publisher and actually getting a literary agent. So we’re hashing out all of this for you today on the show.
And you’re also going to know how and why you can use a book to increase your known well known expertise in your space. So a lot of great things coming your way. This is a great show for those of you guys who are new in business, and you’re just trying to start your platform. And it’s especially an incredibly good episode for you to listen to.
If you have been in business, you have a platform, but you’re what we call like the best known secret. We need to get your voice and your expertise established even more in your space. So let’s go ahead and dive in all of the show notes again, can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one 88. And if you haven’t yet be sure to join our new online community business networking app.
It’s totally private. If you haven’t heard we’ve ditched Facebook groups, we’re super excited about it. You can join us by visiting Sweetlife community.com, where you’re going to get all your podcast insights and bonuses in there. All right, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show.<inaudible> All right. You guys welcome back to another sweet life entrepreneur business and podcast episode.
And I’m here with my new friend, Alexa, big war, and we met on Instagram. I was really happy. You know, I’ll be really honest. I don’t meet a lot of people on Instagram, but I totally just want to hang out with and have coffee all the time. But Alexa was one of them. And since then we’ve had a chance to connect deeper and I’ve learned more about what she does and frankly,
you guys really need to know what she does. So Alexa, just introduce yourself here. Welcome to the sweet life podcast. I’m so glad that you have given us a chance to hear all about your expertise. Well, thank you so much for having me and I feel the same way. I mean, I found you, we started connecting whatever, and then of course I do what I always do.
I obsessively like Googled everything, started listening to your podcast and was like, Oh my gosh, she’s saying all the things I need to hear right now. So that’s fantastic. I’m a writer, an author, an author coach, a publisher and a mom, which is a very important part of my story because I didn’t set down this path. I never thought about running my own business or ever even being an entrepreneur.
And sometimes, literally life gives you lemon and you can choose to make lemonade or you can choose to fall to pieces. And without going into all the background, in a nutshell, we lost an infant daughter. She was one of a set of identical Twins and she passed away at two days old. And that took me to blogging. I mean, as you can imagine,
going through anything like that, like I just started, I had, I’m a passive aggressive person and I didn’t necessarily want to share all my feelings face to face with people, but I had a lot of feelings that I wanted to be sharing. So I started blogging and writing about grief and loss and writing about twin to twin transfusion syndrome, which is what they had writing about life in the NICU,
because her twin was a one pound 10 ounce, one who spent a long time in the NICU. So lots of content for blogging and eventually decided I wanted to write a book for grieving mothers. So that’s how my publishing journey started. I figured it all out on myself. I did the things I needed to do fell in love with the process, started writing about parenting.
And I go authored a book called lose the Cape realities for busy, modern moms and strategies to survive. We should’ve gone with a shorter subtitle, but it was at that point really about the second book where people were like, what are you doing? How are you doing this? I want to write a book, tell me what to do. And so a business again,
I love that story. I’m sorry that it started out with so much pain and heartbreak. And I mean, you’re right though. I mean, those are some of the things that we just are so compelled to do. I think some of the best, most powerful companies are started with a deep rooted emotional story like that. And I agree now, writing is such a healing tool.
It can really be an excellent tool for helping people come through trauma, come through grief, come through just anything they’re going through. So that’s actually another Avenue that we really do is work with people on writing to heal because it was such a massive part of my process. Yeah. So give everybody kind of an overview on your company. So write, publish,
sell, and you have the women in publishing summit. So let’s go ahead and lay the foundation and then we’ll dive into what you’re going to train us on today. Great. So I started write, publish, sell as an opportunity to charge people for all the questions they were asking. Right. I started doing the things that were really hard for people to figure out,
like lay out an ebook conversion and how to find all the things that you need to write a book and all of that stuff. And through the process, I created a publishing imprint and created a publishing house. And then another one, and then another one, that’s a whole different story. But you know, I wanted to be a bigger part of the process than just helping someone lay out their book and help them load it to Amazon.
But actually what I found was that where I really enjoy working is not in the, I mean the publishing side. I’m glad I have that experience, but I liken the whole process of helping people figure out what the book is that they should write and why. And then kind of project managing it is really the best thing to get it through from there to publish.
And we work with authors who are self published, who are traditionally published and who are hybrid published as well, which is kind of a cross between the two. I love this process of helping people find the resources and figure out what to do and how to do it. And that’s how the women and publishing some, it was born because I really much like pod-casters,
I think we love showcasing resources and tools and people and putting them in front of the audience of people who need them. So we took that route to create this big basically like week of encouragement and support and educational resources and really a shout out to the women who are writing books, selling books, editing books, creating covers and layouts for books, the whole gamut,
because we just don’t get enough credit out there. It’s so exciting. That’s so exciting. That’s what, so we can just lay it out there, even though it’s going to be months after this particular show airs, but that’s going to be spring 2021, right. Is so women in publishing summit. Okay, great. We’ll make sure that you guys get information about that that’s coming up.
So this is actually a really good place to start. So let’s kind of start out with some basics here. What is the difference between self publishing and going to traditional route of having a publisher? And I understand that obviously it’s not, everybody can just go get a publisher there’s you have to have a certain audience and a platform. And so that’s really difficult,
but many people are self publishing. So talk to us About the difference. So it’s interesting because in the past, And in this time that I’ve been involved, Like we’ve seen self publishing explode. It started at about 2000. Well, it started a long time before that, but it didn’t really begin to be mainstream until about 2009, 10, 11,
12, with the addition of e-readers and Kindles. I mean, it’s hard to imagine what life was like, but it’s own. They’ve only been in our world for about 10 years and it made such a big difference. There are definite reasons why certain people would want to choose their traditional route other than the self publishing route. But for entrepreneurs, the self publishing route offers a really,
really great way forward because you have full control, you do it on your timeline, you make the decisions. So just to back up quickly, when you seek a traditional publishing arrangement, basically there are people who require that you go through an agent or through solicited manuscripts. And then there are a lot of smaller and midsized publisher that allow you to just go ahead and submit your idea for nonfiction,
which is where I would assume most entrepreneurs be. You have to draft a really detailed proposal. They want to know what other books are out there like it, how yours is different, what you can do with it. And I’ll, and it’s a great process for learning and understanding your book. But it’s a very, very timely process. Even if you’re not working through an agent,
even if you’re going directly to a publisher. And then when the book gets to the, or you don’t have to write the full book before you go traditional publishing, actually you just have to create that summary to send to them. And they decide yes or no. The advantages obviously of publishing is that you don’t have to figure out all the pieces of the puzzle.
You, somebody else is going to do it all for you, depending on the size of the publishing house, you may or may not get an advance. It surprises people to know that there are still people getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in advances, but those are usually like the Oprahs of the world and that Renee Brown’s a, you know, a hundreds of thousands to millions for somebody and in our sphere,
if you have a good book that the niche that they’re really wanting to fill and the ability to sell the book is a big, big factor. You may, you make it between a 10 and $50,000 advance. So for some people that’s a huge incentive, but for most entrepreneurs, self publishing professionally in a way that doesn’t look like you’ve just thrown it up on Kindle by yourself,
where you have a great cover design, you have great perfectly formatted interior design. You have a perfect cover. You’re following the industry standards. That’s a fantastic route because you can do it on your own time. You can choose what your cover looks like and work with the professionals to make it just right. You know, you generally have the audience already in place that you know is going to be interested in the book.
So definite pros and cons to both sides, but for a lot of entrepreneurs, I bet most of you are familiar with Pat Flynn. He’s self published his books. Um, there are a lot of entrepreneurs. If you were to start looking through Russell Brunson, the key is they’ve worked with professionals so that nobody can tell that their book is self published.
They created a publishing imprint, so that it doesn’t say published by Pat Flynn. It says published by whatever the name of the company is that he or the imprint that he created. So I assume the next question is How did you know? Yes. What is a publishing imprint? Yes. So this is awesome. So they publishers do it too. If you pay close attention to books,
sometimes you’ll see, I’ll make up a random name. Like I think Tarcher is an imprint of penguin, which is an imprint of random house, which is it’s like smaller delineations for the self publishing world. What the imprint means is that you’re creating a name associated to the books that are published. So when you go to Amazon or you go to books,
a million, or you go to wherever, it says published by Kat biggie press or purple butterfly press or Chrysalis press it. Doesn’t say published by Alexa, big Wharf. And you can create an LLC behind that. If you want to you, or it can be a DBA under your own business, some people will make it their company name. So you could have the Sweetlife publishing house or the Sweetlife press Sweetlife books.
People can copyright and trademark things obviously, but generally you can make it to be whatever you want it to be and associate it with your books. Just it’s another step to make you look just a little bit more professional, have a little logo, you know, all those kinds of things. Formation. I think when you dropped names like Pat Flynn and Russell Bronson,
and the fact that they self publish, I, a lot of people are like, wow, I really want to write a book, but I want to be taken seriously. And so when you drop names like you did, you know, some people didn’t know they self published because of that exact reason. And we do actually have our own, we have Sweetlife press.
So, so I have, I have written two books and self published, two books, and it was Sweetlife press in which we did that. And that’s exactly what we did. And so I do understand that process. One of the things that was really interesting as you were talking, I was remembering colleagues and friends and guests that I’ve had on the show.
And I still remember interviewing Denise Duffield Thomas and she was on the show, got a couple years ago and she had just released, I think it was chill preneur. And I remember one of the things we were talking about on that show was that they came back with her and they’re like, this is the cover of your book. And she’s like, why mrs.
Not what bit, you know? And she didn’t have a say, I mean, that’s the cover that the publisher chose for her book. And I still remember being in that interview and thinking, gosh, you know, I didn’t realize it would be that strict and they chose her cover and that was it. And she’s like, whatever I’m going with it.
I know it’s a great book, you know, but this is a cover. They chosen it. Isn’t what I had chosen. And so that’s a great example. And then also I still remember back. So I had a literary agent back in 2009 that approached me to write a book. I had little babies. I think my youngest was like two and a half years old.
And my oldest was only six. And he was so, so excited. It was such a great opportunity. And this agent was like, great, but the deadlines, I couldn’t meet the deadlines. There’s that too. And it was it. And it was exactly what you were saying. I was like, this could be a great opportunity, but I am in this business owner,
mom, life survival mode right now with these children. And there’s no way in hell. I’m getting you all of this by Friday. I mean, this is completely impossible for me. So I didn’t continue with that contract. I defaulted out of that contract. Um, and so as you’re, as you’re talking, I’m remembering kind of some of these things and saying,
okay, I get it. I get it. And just for our listeners, you know, it’s so interesting to again here, because you know, we’re always worried about our personal brand and what the perception is. And we’re going to dive here in a minute to the benefits of writing your own book, which is establishing you as an expert. So you don’t want to look like a cheapo because you’re publishing your own book,
right? You don’t want like, well, I couldn’t get a publisher, so I’m just going to put this out there and hope that people buy it. That’s not what we’re doing. That’s not what we’re talking about. So I love everything that you said. So my next question for you is when you self publish, where are your options to sell your book?
Okay. So you book anywhere these days. So it’s funny, the stigma behind, you know, the self publishing, like I remember years ago when I first was like, I’m going to self publish my book. Like the impression that a lot of my friends had was the first thing that came out of my girlfriend’s mouth was, Oh my gosh, please tell me it’s not going to be one of those horribly written books as 99 cents on Amazon.
But it’s growing beyond that. Like the industry around in the published books has grown so immensely that that’s really just the stigmatism that we carry, but that the rest of the world is moving beyond right now. So now I forgot what you asked me, but Oh, basically like where can you sell it so you can sell it on Amazon. But if I want my local bookstore to carry my book,
I can just Approach them just like a regular, why would any other retailer to sell my product and be like, here, here you go. You absolutely can. And in fact, that’s how most people, indie self published books are now showing up in Barnes and noble and target and all these places. It comes down to just like anything else, your ability to market yourself,
to know your target audience and how you approach them. So bookstores and libraries want to make money. If you know that your book is a good fit for the traffic, they get to their store. And even better, if you can bring something to the table, like I worked with one nonfiction author who approached the bookstore and she said, you know,
this is my book. I’d love to sell it here. But even better than that, it’s a natural book for a, she teaches a course from her book, right? So she was like, I’d also like to bring in my book club, my organization and these people in my workshop, basically, we’ll meet here once a month. And now it’s like,
wow, you’re bringing clients as well with a great love. That totally makes sense. But you have to have it positioned so that they can buy it. And that’s the thing that you can’t put it on Amazon and then go to a bookstore and say, will you please stop by book in your store? It doesn’t work that way. So those are the fine things that you have to learn about.
And those where the expert inside trading secrets When we work with you, I’d never would have even thought About that. Of course. Okay. So let’s talk about the benefits of writing a book. So what we’re talking about here, this isn’t a free book. This isn’t a freebie that you give away as a lead magnet. This is a book with your intellectual property,
your area of expertise, your methodology, your systems, your ideas, your direction, or, you know, precision about how to accomplish something. And it’s not this freebie that we’re talking about. So let’s dive into really, like you said, one of your areas of specialty and expertise is helping people figure out what the heck to write about how do you really guide people through making that decision in order so that it’s going to align with their business area of expertise,
or do you kind of have people that just start out as writers and the might not have a business yet? All of the above. It’s funny. It’s a wild world right now, as entrepreneurs, as writers as all of us, like the doors are wide open for us to create our own path, basically. So I have worked with authors who have come to me,
who have said, I’ll use my friend, Shelley, as an example, she was child has a food allergy. They also have a large family. And she has written a book about how to eat healthy on a budget. So dinner for a dollar is her thing. She wrote her book first and then she wanted to launch a business. So we had to,
you know, create the right path for that to happen. She came to me with her book already written. I helped her do the publishing and then launching and all of that kind of stuff. But then I’ve had other people who have come to me, you may be familiar with sparkle, hustle, grow Julie Ball, the founder of that subscription box for female entrepreneurs.
Like, I mean, No, I’m kidding. It’s created a wonderful product that people love, but now she’s growing her business beyond that. What can she do beyond subscription boxes? So she started a course, a boot camp for people who wanted to create subscription boxes and then a mastermind. So with her, when we were thinking about the right book for her,
it was how do I get something for that group of people who maybe aren’t ready for the course yet are still in that idea of, should I even create a subscription box and definitely aren’t ready for her mastermind yet so that she doesn’t have people joining her program, who aren’t ready for it, wind up asking a lot of questions because they’re very, very new and don’t know these things.
So her book, when we talk about the entryway to your big business funnel, it’s the perfect funnel because it’s a book about how to start a subscription box, what things you need to know, what her process was, what she went through. She uses a lot of examples from other box owners. And then at the end of it naturally, you’re like,
okay, if you’re ready to rock and roll, here’s your next step? Right? So she’s selling a book and she’s potentially growing her next level audience, hugely Perfect ideal audience. And it certainly can separate you and make you an expert in your space. I love that. That’s a perfect analogy as well, especially with the product funnel in that example.
So for people who are listening right now, they’re like, okay, I want to get started. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. And I know you guys are listening out there and you’ve been thinking about doing this for a long time, because like 90% of the entrepreneurs and business owners I talk about have said, Oh, I really want to write a book.
I’ve been thinking about writing a book. So what are the steps to actually get started in this process for somebody who’s like, this is it, you know, 2020 is my year that I’m no longer going to drag my feet in this, but where on earth do I start? Okay. So to me, the starting places, always first and foremost,
identifying your goal of why you’re writing the book, what you’re trying to get to. And if you can identify that right away, like is it book sales because if selling books and getting on a best sellers list and getting interviewed on Oprah is your goal, then it’s a totally different path. If it’s to grow your funnel entryway into your business, if it’s to give a low cost.
So maybe you have a high end coaching program that lots of people can’t join, but they still want to know your knowledge then is it a solution for that level? Or is it, are you a newer business owner? And you’re really trying to establish your credibility to be known as the person on the street to come to talk to about these topics, to gain speaking engagements,
to be a step ahead of other people, applying for different opportunities, et cetera. So it can be a combination, but those are the general, like three different areas until you get to superstar status. And then it’s because people are telling you, you need to write a book, but for those of us who are not superstars yet, it’s generally one of those three areas.
So really having a clear understanding of that. Yeah. Let me just recap those so that people are really clear. So understanding obviously your why, so is it PR and you really want to be seen on Oprah, whatever that is. And so really making sure that media attention, I know that, and I do talk to a lot of business owners that are interested in that,
and that is obviously a really difficult path. And there are a lot of things that, that need to happen in order for that to happen, especially from an audience building standpoint, then as you certainly number one, number two, a product funnel. So as a product funneling into your other programs is a natural lead in and number three is just establishing your voice and growing your list as far as initially,
did I recap those correctly? Yes. And there are lots of in-betweens and you know, it’s funny because sometimes people will start thinking that they want to do one of those three things. And in the process they realize they have a personal story that they really want to share, and they can’t move beyond that until they write their personal story. It’s interesting.
Like once they get the idea started of, okay, I’m going to write a book, then they veer off in a different direction. You know, I’ve worked with authors who started have almost completely finished one book, and then they were like, I can’t move forward with that until I’ve addressed this issue. And then they wrote a book about how they overcame breast cancer and how other people can do that too.
And then came back to their business, this book. So, so cool. And not a surprise, not a surprise, you know, entrepreneurs we always want to create in creating is so healing. And I think for a lot of business owners, okay. So first figuring out step number one, figuring out what the purpose of what you’re doing is what’s next.
So for me, the next step is sitting down and figuring out the purpose of the book itself. Like, what is the reader going to get from it? Are you teaching them something? Are you sharing knowledge? You know, what are you doing? Are you doing it? How to book, are you doing a self help book? Are you doing a memoir figuring out that and creating an outline.
And this outline is a, sometimes a scary word for people, but it’s really just a, okay, I know I want to get the reader from a to Z and these are the things that have to happen between them and you jot them down in a list and that will help keep you on track and motivated to keep writing that book. So that’s step two.
Then step three is taking some time to either figure out all the steps in the process of publishing or determining. I just want to hire somebody to do all the steps of the publishing for me. And then you figure out who you want to work with basically, or you start researching how to do it yourself. Right? Name simultaneously. You’re writing your book.
Yeah. Okay. So let’s kind of talk about that for a minute. So for business owners that, you know, have a ton of things on their plate, how do you recommend people get the greatest productivity or focus? I know everybody’s different as far as writing, do you say, Hey, take a whole week and go on a retreat and rent a cabin in the woods and write your book,
or do you say, Hey, spend one day a week or three hours, or how do you usually actually recommend for people that are trying to balance all the things that, that they’re trying to balance and get their book? Really? I think the first thing to do is take an audit of what you’ve already created. And we do this through what I call my Quickstart program,
my QuickBook program, I’m actually working on the name of the system itself, but it’s, um, how to get what you already have available to you and start from there because the reality is most of us who are growing businesses have some level of team with us, right? So if you take that initial outline and you’re like, these are the things that I want to cover a next natural step is to pass it off to your VA and say,
go find everything that I’ve already created on this topic. Podcasts I’ve been on webinars, I’ve run all of that stuff and create that vault of information first. And then you can pick and pull things from that. It’ll also make it, if you work with a collaborative writer or someone who’s helping you get the book written that that’s an easy thing to hand off to somebody else.
But, you know, I think to be very honest, like this is where the overwhelmed just gets to them. Cause they’re like, Oh my gosh. Now I have to actually write a book and panic and breathing, you know, all of that, like, you’d be surprised how many people stop right there. They decide they’re going to write a book.
They know what the book is and then the brakes come on because it’s that next step that’s so overwhelming. But there are lots of ways to make it less overwhelming by starting with what you already have. You know, it’s so interesting as you’re going through this, this is our step by step process. Very similarly that we work with businesses to develop their signature programs and offers the outline,
assessing your assets. It’s the same exact process. And it’s true. You know, once they figure out what assets they already have that are going to accomplish a certain stage of that outline in this book, people just realize when they’re like, Oh my gosh, I have to actually go to work and do this. And you know, we have a lot of guys that listen to this show,
but working from home, which many people are and having the distractions, I think there is something super overwhelming about the ability to have an find uninterrupted time. And if, if like, if you’re like me, I have to get on a roll first. So for me to write, I actually have to be in the mood to write, I mean,
whether it’s music or working out first or lighting the dang candle or whatever it is, I have to be inspired to write. And I’ve ran into those problems before. And it’s actually even this way sometimes with recording this podcast where it’s like, if I’m not in the mood to create it, I’m just not creating it. So maybe if, you know,
if our listeners, if you guys are listening and you’ve been in this spot where you’re like, Oh my gosh, I have all this done. I want to keep writing my book. Maybe you’re like me and you’re super emotionally charged and you have to find the right environment or the right pre-activity to get your brain flowing. Because if somebody is like, okay,
well you have to sit down and write from 11 to one. You know what I’m not doing from 11 One writing and this just the way I personally am. Yeah. I completely agree with that. And that’s, that’s why I liked the idea of just sitting down and saying, well, one, you can always hire an accountability partner or a coach to like force you into one hour,
which is all it takes me is one hour to get somebody book out of them and sit down for one hour, go through all the steps that we just talked about and the preparation for it and have this skeleton, because it’s amazing the psychological difference that it makes. Once you have a list of topics just to start with, and then beyond that, you just start feeling.
It’s like, Oh yeah. I remember when I was interviewed on April beaches show, we talked about this, fill that in, in chapter six for that’s what I want to talk about, or you know, that type of thing, or you pick up your phone and you blocked somebody or however you communicate with your team. And you’re just like, here’s the brainstorm I have.
I know I want to include this information, this information, this information, go write it down on a list, go start, you know, filling in the gaps. It takes that overwhelm of sitting down and thinking, Oh my gosh, I have to spend these three hours just, you know, creating the best thing that ever happened. I’m sure.
You know what it’s like when you hire someone to write copy for you, whether it’s your newsletter or your sales page or anything like that, when you start from something that’s already existing, it’s so much easier to craft it and to recreate it, make it sound like you pull out the pieces you want than it is to start from scratch. Well, and that’s the power of working with somebody like you to do it.
So yes, if I had somebody like you to sit down with the deer, like, okay, April for the next hour, I’m going to pull, extract everything out of your brain. Then I would be there with bells on. And that’s exactly. I mean, that’s, that’s a difference. So those of our listeners that are really serious about doing this,
if you’ve been dragging your feet, It’s probably time to get somebody to guide you through this process. Like Alexa, When does the design come in? Is that usually something that takes really a while? Or do you write all the content first and then drop it into a design? How has that process fit into this? So our process and there’s, there’s lots of freelancers.
There’s lots of companies that help with this part of it. But what we do is we get the final edited version from the author when there’s no more changes. Obviously we do a proofread after that. So there may be small changes, but when the content is written, it’s been edited, it is done. Then we have a team of designers and we pick the right designer for the right project and we send it to them.
They do their designing skills because here’s the thing. I’m just going to be brutally honest here, because I can’t say this out loud to people, to their faces, but it breaks my heart when I go to a conference or an event and somebody’s speaking and I’m like, I have to get their book. And I go to the book table and I pick up their book and it’s not formatted properly.
And it looks a mess. And as a publisher, like I’m very in tune with what the industry standards are. So it annoys me probably more than the average person. I’ll, I’ll admit to that, but I can’t buy their book cause I can’t read it because that will drive me. So we have people who know, book, industry standards who know formatting,
who know how to do these different things. We send it to them. They do a couple of mockup chapters. We get back to the author, we say, does this look like what you were envisioning? Kind of like the same idea of designing a cover or graphics or anything like that. We come to an agreement and then we flow the entire book and then they get this beautiful lead designed and laid out book that then we can upload anywhere.
They want to publish their book. Fantastic. And it looks like the brand that they need to represent. And I think that that’s the concern that a lot of people have about self publishing is just really not knowing how to approach this and not knowing how to do this correctly in a way that is going to position them as a brand leader or as an expert or whatever their goal is for that book.
And I it’s the same thing. I mean, it’s like you, you love somebody and then you reach out and you go to their website and it’s not working or things are clicking, right. Or their logo sucks or, you know, whatever it is, it’s all part of the package. Right. And yet I think that another piece that people think is that it’s going to cost like thousands and thousands of dollars because you do see these programs that are like a $25,000 investment.
And I’m here to tell you that you can find people who will do it very professionally and very well, and you don’t have to mortgage your house to pay for the services. And it still looks really, really branded like you would want it to be. And that’s one of the things that we consider, like, are there fonts that you love? Is there a certain layout or things that you use in your things as business owners?
The branding is a huge part of what the cover and the interior looks like a hundred percent having an all uniform with that style guide across, well, this has been so helpful. I appreciate all of your information because you have given our listeners so many steps and so many different things to consider and there’s actions they can take at this point in time, or at least that they know that they can come back and tap into this episode again,
in the future when they are in fact, ready to go down this road, how can people get started? You have a quick start guide for our listeners. I want to make sure that everybody is getting their hands on also so that they can be in connection with you regarding your women in publishing summit and all of your services. Yeah, sure. So if you head over to write,
publish, sell.com, and if you go forward slash Quickstart, That’ll be kind of the freebie download on a recap on some of the things that we covered today, plus some additional resources on, on where to dig deeper, to find out more on those types of things. And then we also have write, publish, sell.com for jumpstart, which is our one hour workshop to help you outline your book.
So if you’re ready to go at that point in time, it’s a very small investment for that one hour to get that done. Wow. That sounds so awesome. That sounds incredible. I think everybody should join the workshop. I mean, one hour and, and see what you have after that and really getting inspired. I think that’s, that’s super great.
Thank you so much for being on the show. I can’t wait to continue to connect with you offline, personally. I know that our companies are going to be connecting again in a lot of ways in 2021. And so I’m excited about that and where can everybody find you on Instagram or LinkedIn and really what’s the best social platform for people to connect with you?
We’re pretty active on, on Instagram with write, publish, sell, and with the women in publishing summit. And I also have my personal account there. Alexa, big Wharf. I’m Alexa, big work on Instagram and then pretty much write, publish, sell anywhere you want to go. You’ll find us awesome. Thank you so much for your time.
I appreciate you. This has been amazing. Thank you. You’re welcome. Thanks.<inaudible> All right, guys. Thanks so much for listening to this week’s podcast. Again, this is the sweet entrepreneurial podcast and all the show notes and resources we talk about as well as our business development programs and how you can find Alexa and get started with publishing can be found by visiting us online@sweetlifeco.com
and get the insider scoop on everything podcast and all of the amazing business bonuses that we give you by joining us in our business community. You can do so right now, by cruising over to sweet life, community.com and create your business profile to network with other companies actually get traction. You might even find some awesome clients in there and get direct business support from me.
Thanks so much for tuning in. I’ll talk to you next week.