Book Launch Lessons from a First-Timer
After much waiting the book, Trust Your Next Step, has finally launched and is on the 
bookshelves. It has been a whirlwind month and I finally feel I have a moment to breathe. The support and encouragement from my friends and community has been overwhelming – I truly feel the love and it was unexpected.
For much of the last 17 years I have built and run my business largely online. Marketing the book has been different in a few ways and I’d like to share a few tidbits with you.
- Amazon is a different beast. As an author they have been incredibly easy to work with and helpful as I learn the ropes. However, unlike online sales through my website, I don’t know how many books I’ve sold until the publisher sends my royalty check in October!
- Making friends with book buyers at local bookstores is fun. An exercise in who do I know that can introduce me to who I want to know.
- Big differences in being a “local” author and self-publishing vs working with a publisher. Definitely are advantages and disadvantages to both. I choose to play with the big boys and not be a local author. So far that has not always worked in my favor at local bookstores.
- I now know a lot more about negotiating with publishers and will do some things differently next time. Who knows a literary agent?
- There is a world of ‘authors’, and there are folks who write books to grow their business and use their books as business cards. Not all of these books are well written, yet the purpose and the intention of the book is clear, it’s to support an overall structure and scalability of a business. Which am I and how do I show up has been a question I’m asking myself.
A month has passed and I’ve already done several things I will do differently next time. I won’t call them mistakes, just lessons I’ve learned about myself, what I want, and how I choose to show up and serve others in the world.
Introspection
As I write this I feel incredibly introspective as I mull where I stand and how I serve others. How big am I playing? Am I being true to myself? Could I, should I, have been more vulnerable in the book? How far am I going to push myself on this next book? Yes, I have started the next book – which takes chapter five, “The Stuff You’ve Got to Work With”, to a much deeper level.
I did my first book reading at a church. Which awes me. A few short years ago I not only didn’t go to church, but I had a hard time believing in God and struggled with organized religion. I had such a charge around all of it – of course I should have known all that “charge” was there for a reason. Exploring my truths about religion vs spirituality has been a big part of my journey the last six years. I now see that where I squirm the most is where the most reward is. Perhaps where I am supposed to be…
With that said, where are you squirming the most? Where are you staying within the boundaries set by others? Where are you not seeing the opportunity that most certainly surrounds you? Why are you not trusting yourself?