- Most of the time we talk about all the things
that you should do to succeed as an author,
but today we're changing it up and we're gonna cover things
that you should stop doing.
So if you want a not to do list, then this video is for you.
(upbeat music)
Hey, there, I'm Julie The Book Broad,
founder of a fabulous self publishing services company
called Book Launchers.
And since we help authors write, edit, publish,
and promote their non-fiction book,
we've seen a lot of things that just don't work for authors.
So let's dive in to this, not to do list.
Number one,
stop letting your ego get in the way of the impact,
you can have.
Almost every great author I've met has a fear of failure,
imposter syndrome, fear of success, and a fear of judgment,
like public speaking.
If you let this be about you and your success,
it's terrifying and tough to make the right decisions.
So stop making this book about you becoming a bestseller
and you making a ton of money and start making this book
for your reader and what they need
to achieve a specific outcome in their life.
When you do that, you can push that ego aside,
(Julie groans)
move over ego.
(Julie groans)
(Julie giggles)
You can push that ego aside enough
to get your book into the world and have an impact.
Number two, speaking of your dear reader.
Let's write that book for them,
not your industry leaders or colleagues.
You're not trying to impress your peers,
you're trying to persuade your reader to take action,
move forward and change things up to create an outcome
for their life or business as such stop using big words.
Check out your Flesch-Kincaid score
and write between the grade six and grade eight level.
Anything higher than grade eight is complex.
So unless you're a doctor writing for a doctors
or an engineer writing for engineers, make it simple.
In case you feel like it makes you look less intelligent,
let me ask you if anyone has ever said to you,
"Man, you made that really complex.
You must be smart."
No, I bet not.
It's actually a sign
that you truly understand your subject matter
when you can explain it in terms anyone can understand.
You're not trying to impress your professor,
you're trying to impact your reader and sell books.
Number three, first drafts are supposed to be bad.
So stop editing yourself and just dump it out onto the page.
Don't read what you've written
when you sit down to write, just write.
Get it done, get that stuff out of your head.
Set up a prompt when you finished writing for the day
so that when you sit down to write tomorrow
or a week from now, you don't have to reread what you wrote,
you just write using those prompts.
Four, stop asking your friends and family their opinion
on your cover, your title or anything else
that's really vital to the success of your book,
unless your friends or family are your ideal reader
or they're book publishing professionals.
There's an art and a science to appealing to the reader
and you need to tap into the reader's opinion
or the advice of experts.
Number five, stop looking for, or even expecting quick wins.
Even if you have the money to buy them,
play the long game
and you'll find the journey more successful and rewarding.
And remember,
Amazon is an algorithm machine looking
for consistent conversions, not quick wins,
so you really don't wanna play a game
to get an Amazon bestseller.
Number six, stop setting goals you can't actually control.
Switch your focus to the things that you can control.
I mean, you can't control being a bestseller,
but you can control how many places you pitch yourself
for podcasts or speaking.
You can control how many people you ask for reviews
and you absolutely can control how many blog posts
and live videos you do to get the word out.
Set those things as your goals
because you can control yourself getting them done
and watch the outcomes happen.
Seven, stop waiting for the timing to be right
for you to write and publish your book.
If you've learned anything from the volatility
of 2020 and 2021,
it's that there are very few certainties out there
and rarely have I ever met an author that says,
"Man, I wished I'd hadn't written that book."
And often do I hear,
"I need my book done in three months
for this big opportunity."
Start writing your book before it's urgent,
books take longer to write, publish
and launch than you think,
especially if you want them to be great.
Plus, I've met too many people who are never ready,
and that's a shame
because their book could have been helping people.
Number eight,
which leads me to the great tips from my YouTube friends,
Mindful Eats, said,
"Authors should realize there are people out there
who desperately need your book."
So you need to get to work and get it done.
I love that.
And number nine comes to us from Caleb,
also known as CTOrtega.
(Julie giggles)
"Authors should stop worrying 10 steps ahead,
enjoy step by step of the process.
Fall in love with the process
more than the desire for results."
I love this piece of advice.
You really don't need to know every step of the journey
before you start writing a book.
You do need to know who you're writing for
and what your goals are, but that gives you a general path.
It doesn't matter how you get an ISBN
or what an aggregator does when you haven't started writing.
Write your book and then figure it all out.
What did we miss?
Let's chat about it in the comments below.
And when you comment, the day of video comes out,
you'll be entered to win some
of our sweet #noboringbooks swag.
Now, you might be wondering what you should do.
Well, this is the latest and greatest from the channel
and sure to give you something wonderful to work on,
or if you've watched that already,
then maybe this video on how to stay up
when book sales are down,
might be the very thing you should watch.
Either way, I'm waiting for you.
Go on over, I'll see you there.
(upbeat music)