From Author to Authority Series - Publishers and Editing Packages

Publishing options - how do you know which is best for you? This week I share what I decided was best for me and offer some points to ponder for when you get to this phase.  Then, I talk about what happens after you send off your first draft for the first official edit. Hint: not much happens on your end. Tip: take the time to breathe and rest.

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Transcript

Juli Wenger: 0:00

You are on this earth for a purpose, you want to live a life that matters. So let's get through the fear and the overwhelm and all the crap that gets in the way of you living the life of yours. This is the becoming ourselves podcast where we are fired up about you getting clear on who you are, what you're called to, and how to get there. Because the world is waiting for you to show up and own your power. I'm your host, Juli Wenger, a coach, a speaker at Jesus lover, and Enneagram, two, and a tree shaker, let's dive into what's keeping you stuck. Because on the other side, is a life that's fired up. This week, on from author to authority, we're talking about publishers, and formal editing. And I don't know about you, but I never expected the words, sorry, I'm late, I was just on the phone with my publisher to come out of my mouth. And there's something that feels kind of pretentious about that. There's something that was like, Ooh, fancy pants, you know. And yet, this is such an important piece of the process, because there are lots of self editing options, and self publishing options and ways to do a book that is very cheap and cost effective. And the question that you need to weigh is what does this require for me to make sure that it lands and has impact, and that it's not chock full of little errors that distract people, and that ultimately, this book has the impact that it's supposed to have. Because if you're called to write a book, there is an impact that that book is supposed to have. The book is a seed, the book is something that gets planted the book is something that can grow into something bigger than you can even imagine. So we need to give this some airtime, picking publishers, formal editing, let's talk about the process. Let's talk about the personal growth. And let's talk about how God shows up and provides through this process. So process, picking a publisher, here's what I've been learning about the publishing world is there's a few options, okay, and we're gonna boil them down to three basic ones. And there's kind of everything in between. There are straight up self publishing, where you do everything yourself, okay, that is an option. There is the traditional publisher route, where you send your book out to publishing companies, and you hope somebody picks it up. And you hope that they'll put it through their editing process, and maybe they'll like, pay you in advance on it. I mean, that'd be cool. And that they'll help you launch it and market it. And then you get a percentage from the book. And there's that route. And then there's something in the middle. That's called the hybrid publisher. And the hybrid publisher, which is where I landed is really interesting, because there is a credibility number one that comes from having a publisher on your book period, there is a certainty around, is this going to be done? Well, who do I need to have on my team to make sure that I do this? Well, and there is freedom once you get through the process of getting the book Ready, and to publishing day to launch day? That after that, it's all yours? The proceeds are yours. The control is yours, all of the intellectual property and copyrights remain yours. There's just a, there's a simplicity to it. And, interestingly, to what I've been learning is that with a lot of the traditional publishers, well, I have this idea that they would really be supportive in terms of marketing it and pushing it, that's always the case. There is a lot of we expect you to market it yourself. And do you have an audience that's big enough. And I'm not going to speak too much to that because I'm not in that space, and the hybrid space being where I landed, here's what was really cool about that is that there is formal editing. There was some coaching on the process there was as part of my package because it's paid for service you pay upfront, and then that's it. There is some PR there is some launch support. They're going to do a virtual launch party and network marketing out to their people. So their audience will have my book land in front of them, which is important because my audience is only so big and for this book to have the kind of impact that I want it to have, we need to get beyond just my people. So it was important to me in actually picking a publisher was a couple of things. Number one, do I trust them? Because there's a lot of publishing scams out there. There's a lot of hybrid publishers that are not good. There's a lot of them that don't understand what they're doing. So did I have someone that I trusted, and where my publisher came into play, it was actually that we've talked about this before my author friend that was doing this challenge back in September, he had published his book through the publisher that I'm using, and it was that publisher that had put on this boot camp for authors. And we got to the end of the boot camp, they said, Hey, here's our packages, here's your options with us. And if you don't want to continue with us, and you want to go and shop around and search cool. And here are the options with us. So I had a level of trust from having interacted with them already. And I had a level of trust, because there was someone who I knew who had leveraged them in their process that trusted them, and that had a good experience with them and could vouch for them. And that meant the world to me, because I am very relationally driven. I did a little bit of searching, a little bit of Googling, a little bit of price, comparing and checking all things looked honestly pretty similar across the board. So I felt like I had my answer. And the only thing that was left to do for me was to really pray about it and to ask God Is this where you want me to be. And part of what was beautiful about the publishing company that I was working with, and we've talked about this a little on other episodes, is that they are faith based, they are Christian, they are Jesus followers. So for me to have editors, because that was part of the package that have the same faith foundation as me to be able to watch for flags to be able to watch for potential theological issues to be able to watch for, how are we quoting, Bible verses, all of that was really fundamentally important. So if you're looking at how do I pick a publisher? What kind of content are you putting out? And whose lens do you need to have on that book? What kind of alignment in terms of values or background or worldview do you need to have in play, to catch little things that you might miss? So that was a piece. And for me, picking a publisher versus going self published also came down to me, number one, ain't nobody got time to learn the whole process and try to do it right on their own. I am a busy human. I have a lot of moving pieces or a lot of things going on. I like it that way, as I'm learning with a formal ADHD diagnosis, which we'll get into probably in episodes in the fall. That's, that's pretty normal. It's how my brain is wired. So what is my highest and best use of my time? Not getting into the weeds on this little detail stuff that I don't understand. And I'm not super talented at it's not my God given talent to be a book editor. It's just not content. Sure. The weeds? No. So I do recognize that and say, Where do I need to backstop my own weak spots, my own potential failure spots, so that we move this forward. And number two, accountability, because it's really easy to get pulled off into I'll do that next week land, especially for someone who is very driven by do I have deadlines that other people are expecting me to fulfill? That may not work for how you're wired, but recognizing and understanding having the self awareness of, here's how I function? What do I need to do to set myself up for success? What do I need to do to hack the process for myself? What do I need to do? And who do I need to surround myself with this is more environments and accountability? Right, what is it and who is it that I need in play and in my corner and on my team to make sure this is successful? And the reality was, I wasn't going to do this on my own. And I like experts, okay? It's why I loved real estate because I got to be an expert, surrounded by other experts in different spaces of the process. It's why I believe in coaching and therapy and counseling, and doctors and natural health and all of those spaces and have people in all of those spaces because I believe in experts. So why my bookshelf is chock full All of content by experts in multiple different fields, there is a value to that. There's a value in being able to leverage other people's experience and expertise, for your own benefit. And for the benefit of your audience. The process around editing was really interesting. Because I'd gone through the self edit, I'd gone through having my assistant look at it, I'd gone through the pre reads, and the feedback and the tweaks on that, and then I had to send it out. And when I sent it out to my publishing company, this was the first time in this process that things were out of my hands, I had a month of waiting, just waiting. And it was a month of breathing room, it was a month of recovery. In the last episode we talked about after you get the first draft out needing time just to recover, needing time to fill yourself back up, because there's so much energy out in this process that was sending it off to the editor to there was another phase of that, of having given so much time and so much energy to this process. And it happened to be over Christmas, which was perfect, that I could just say, Okay, I'm out. I'm gonna give myself a few weeks just to breathe. And if anything comes to me in terms of the book launch, and what that might look like, cool, we'll write it down. But I'm just taking a break. I'm just going to let them handle it, I'm going to leave it with them. And then circle back to it when it comes back to me after Christmas. That in and of itself, taking the time to rest. That was the big personal growth piece. There was a recovering overachiever in me that wanted to keep doing things, but it was this force, you can't. So are you going to fill up the time with other things and stuff are you actually going to rest so that you are ready when that next push comes so that you are ready and energized and focused and grounded when it lands back on your desk. And I had to choose to breathe, I had to choose to leave it, I did choose to take a break. Here's the other thing that happened that was really interesting, because I want to tie into provision to and this is kind of personal growth. But this was more of a like a faith growth component. When I was signing up with a publisher, there were different levels of packages, just kind of like a base level, minimalist, there was a mid level that had a bit more support. And then there was this top level package that had more marketing support and PR and website landing pages and all of these little bits and pieces. And the expensive one was expensive. The expensive one was like, oh, like where? Where's the money gonna come from? For this? Because I don't have this budgeted because I didn't plan to write this book this year. Like God, hello. You told me to write this book. Okay, you gave me the drop everything and go write my book. Alright, that's where we are. So I need you to be Jehovah Jireh I need you to provide the funds for the book. And in October while I was in boot camp, I had money from an old business show up that I wasn't planning for. I was like, hmm, cool. What should I do with this? And this thought just landed in my brain of publishing account and it was like, okay, okay, Holy Spirit, I hear you. So that money went aside in the publishing account. It was a third of what I needed. And then decision time came on publishing package and I didn't have the rest of it yet. And as I was praying about it, and asking, What do you want me to do? What do you want me to invest in? Where do you want me to put the money like what is this look like? There was a faith jump in feeling pulled to this top tier package to do this book the most just as possible. But having to trust that he was going to show up and provide the rest of the money. And this is the craziest story to me because I signed up and a few weeks later this opportunity comes up literally out of no where someone wants to buy my brand. Someone wants my old sold Yag brand that I thought was I'm worthless, that I almost closed up the Corporation for a few days prior to getting a phone call and couldn't find the paperwork. And I'm like, God, do you want me to go shut this down today? And it just felt like, okay. And the next week I get this phone call, like, Hey, are you open to selling your domains and like, I have domains, I have trademarks, I have, like, you want all of it. And they offered me money for it. And I was like, Cool. That's another third of the book, just here you go. Um, I'm going to get more of these things you just can't make up. The timing is to perfect. The Dry Bones, right, like creating something out of nothing. And going Thank you. Thanks, Lord. Thanks, I'm believing you for the rest of it by Christmas. And the rest of it came through by Christmas. And it wasn't where I planned for it to come from or wasn't where I predicted that it would come from, which is kind of his whole point. He's like, hey, hold my beer, right? Just watch, just watch what I'm going to do. So there was this provision, and this way that he showed up, and said, I asked you to do this. So here's what you need. Here's the clients, here's money. Here's the time, here's the focus here, let me clear out your calendar today, without you needing to do it, because I know you need time to work on editing, or because I know you need time to recover. He was so consistent, and so present. And I'm so grateful for that. So as we wrap up this week, kind of an abrupt stop. But we're going to stop there because there's so much other stuff that we could get into, as we wrap up this week. Think about if you're looking at book writing, if you're looking at publishing, what is it that I am really amazing at and what is it that I need support in? What is it that if I'm being really honest, I kind of suck at? or is not my zone of genius, or is not something I want to give time and energy to? And then ask God for clarity like what do you want me to do in this process myself? What do you want me to learn that I don't already know? What do you want me to work through? That's uncomfortable? What do you need me to be willing and available to do? And what do you want me to hire out? Give me that clarity, so that I can step forward. And I can do it in a way that is honoring to honoring to God and honoring to the audience and honoring to the quality of the book that comes out. Here's where we're going next week. We're going to spend some time on getting the first round of edits back and getting through the rest of the editing process. How many rounds of editing, what does that feel like? What kinds of things did I look for in each phase of the process? What kinds of stories came up? And how does that look getting through this phase of actually finishing the book actually getting ready to go through formatting to go through cover design to go through all of those pieces, titles, etc. So that's where we're going. I hope that you will join me again next week. Until next time, all my love and Virtual hugs, go be amazing. I hope this episode triggered something in you and got you thinking about your next growth curve. Make sure to check out the show notes for more details and links to resources or people that we've mentioned today. And make sure you hit follow or subscribe and if you have a hot minute leave an awesome review. I would be so beyond grateful. Until next time, be to much DARE YOU