How to Publish Your Own Book

We are currently in process of writing our fifth book: Listen Up! Hearing God at Work.

In this post I give you a sneak behind-the-scenes look at how we put together our new book to launch September 1.

ANYONE can write a book and it is cheaper than you thought. It is also a GREAT way to grow your business, influence or legacy. Imagine 100 years from now, your children's children's children getting to read what you wrote! 

Quick win - if you are looking to write a book you either do it yourself or have someone help you.

A) Do it yourself - best resource: Book Published by Chandler Bolt. I paid extra for a coach and to do the marketing course that is detailed in this book. The book is by far the best resource to get you started.

B) Have someone do it with/for you - best resource: Andy Jenkins. I have personally worked with Andy for a year and he and Beth have a superpower of understanding what you are trying to say and formulating it in a cohesive way to help others. They can either coach you to do the same or literally build out the book and marketing plan/platform for you. 

1. Self-Publish or Traditional Publish?

We went with self-publishing route again in order to retain 100% rights to the book and any derivative of it (future workbook, future series...). It's also a fun experiment to learn from previous books we have self-published and keep improving on the process. Other major reasons for self-publishing are margin and marketing. With a traditional publisher you do get an up-front payment which is book commissions paid in advance. The amount depends on their expectation of overall book sales ie. your existing platform and reach (in other words, YOU are still the primary marketing machine - there's no shortcuts). A traditional publisher will then pay you around 10-20% royalty on sales. Self-publishing is 8-10x this. So you have to weigh up number of books sold compared to $/sale and make your own choice which route you will go. We chose to invest in the marketing training in Self Publishing School. I need to sell an additional 500 books to pay for this (should be easy from what I've already learnt). I do recommend Self Publishing School if you are serious about the investment of time and money. If you are serious about this contact me for a $250 discount.

2. What has it cost us to self-publish?

Here's the breakdown so far:

- Write the book. Cost: HOURS and HOURS of evenings and weekends! Actually, it's a LIFETIME of learning that we are now encapsulating into a series of lessons so that others gain learn in a few weeks what has taken us decades!!! And the cost of the book??? Should be 1,000 times more than what end user gets to pay!

- Edit the book. Cost: FREE to self edit and get your spouse / friend (daughter who is doing a masters in creative writing) to proof read

- Edit the book again. Cost: $320 through Fiverr.com. Make sure you choose someone with an English literature qualification and lot's of great reviews.

- Edit the book AGAIN. Cost: FREE self edit. Every time you read your copy you will spot necessary edits. One of the best ways to find edits is to record it as an audio book. That way you have to read it slowly so you NOTICE how many little errors there are.

- Design a cover. Cost: $150 - 500 to ??? We used ChatGPT image generator for some initial creative exploration then attempted to engage with a Fiverr.com graphic designer. That exercise cost $110 and failed to generate what we had in mind so we switched back to a mainstream graphic designer we connected with through a Heaven in Business event. Don't skimp on this as it is the first thing people look at and an average cover communicates 'home-made' - only read this if you like your cousins home-made pumpkin pie. 

- Format the interior. Cost: $500 to ??? We have built relationship with a local graphic designer that we are happy with. Check out Fiverr.com also for this. Again, don't skimp on quality - make it easy for people to read.

- Format e-book. Cost: $150-200. Check with the same person who formats your book whether they can also do the ebook conversion. Otherwise check fiverr.com or other professional services - Ingram Spark.

- Record audiobook. Cost: FREE! For the last book I setup my bedroom as a make-shift sound studio. This looked like closing the curtains, sitting 'under' the duvet and surrounding myself with pillows - all to dampen the sound. I then used my Rode lavalier microphone (thanks Andrew Montesi) that plugs into my iphone 7 Plus and used Voice Record Pro app( free - thanks Cliff Ravenscraft). 

Upgraded/simplified version 2024: I now have an office with sound dampening curtains. I will simply use my iphone 15 with Voice Record Pro app and surround my desktop with cushions to dampen the sound. I will then edit it on Audacity to remove background noise and amplify if necesary = "free" hours reading and editing. OR:

- Format audiobook. Cost: $500-1,000 sound engineer. I used Ryan Opfer of Recorded Word for this.

3. Next steps

We are finishing up the book and collecting endorsements and our foreword from Julian Adams this month. Then we will put together a launch team (marketing/reviewing/spreading the word) then LAUNCH September 1.

In addition to this we are developing a 30 day guide to hearing God which will give a 10 minute explanation and exercise each day. This will achieve three purposes:

1. Teach, train, activate people to hear God daily

2. Build momentum and platform to launch the book itself at the end of the program

3. Generate revenue that will pay for the publishing of the book!

This will be the first time doing this process which has come about through conversations with copywriter/marketing extroardinaire and friend Ray Edwards and also Andy Jenkins who has been working with Heaven in Business to refine our overall strategic plan.

4. What am I learning?

There is so much more to a book than writing! It is all about marketing, marketing, marketing. A good marketing effort with a bad product will still sell. But a great product with bad marketing won't sell! So if I have a proven product that delivers great value why would I not reach as high and as far as my budget allows to market this the best of my ability (and beyond)?

This pushes up against some insecurities and fears but hey, that's what growth is all about! 

This book-round I asked the question, who would be the BEST to write a foreword to punch the book beyond my current circle of influence? The answer intimidated me... PERFECT! What's the worst that could happen? Nothing less than what I have right now! So I reached out... and he said "No I don't have time to write a foreword but I'd be honored to write an endorsement." Wow, that's a win!!! (And not only that but it led to communication resulting in that person being confirmed as a keynote speaker for our February 2025 Heaven in Business conference in Atlanta.... Who?.... John Bevere).

What other questions do you have about writing or marketing a book? Email us [email protected]

NEXT STEP:

Grab a FREE BOOK that will give you the process of turning a dream into an action step and deal with challenges along the way (you pay shipping). Link HERE