- Are you writing a book
and working with a writing coach or editors?
If you are, this video is gonna save you time, pain,
and possible heartache, so stick around.
(upbeat music)
Hey there, I'm Julie the Book Broad.
I'm an Amazon overall number one best-selling author,
and the founder of a fabulous company called Book Launchers.
Our superpower is caring more about you and your book
than anybody else as we help you write,
publish, and sell a non-fiction book
that will boost your brand and make you money.
So, if you're writing a non-fiction book
and you're trying to make it go faster,
you might be tempted to speed it up
by splitting the book up into parts
and having different people work on different pieces
at each time.
Doing that, however, can be a huge mistake
and we've seen it happen.
We had a client who could only work on her book
on the weekend and she wanted
to work on it every single weekend.
We explained, for example, that her 80,000 plus word book
would take a few weeks with the editor,
but she was 100% not okay with that.
She insisted we split up the book,
so she could work on it, in between.
So, we had some parts with the editor
and some parts with her.
And she would send some things
she had worked on to a writing coach in between all that.
As we got through the second round of edits,
she became furious because somewhere along the way,
a bunch of the work she'd done, it had vanished
into the air, it was nowhere to be found.
What had, had happened was a bad case
of draft confusion.
It was compounded by the fact
that she hadn't been labeling the manuscripts
with the version numbers or dates or anything.
She just kept saving them as the same file name.
She ended up having to take two weekends
to redo it and stress the whole time
about whether it was as good as the first time
or if she was missing things
and, ultimately, the client blamed us and it was our fault
because we let her push us into not following our process.
So now we're really strict with this.
Waiting a week or two while an editor finishes work
on your full manuscript will save you time
and energy in the long run.
Now draft confusion can happen even
if you're not passing pieces
of a book around like a hot potato trying
to go so fast.
- Hot potato.
- Oh, hot potato, hot potato!
- So, here's what I recommend.
First thing is avoid the temptation
to edit a book in pieces.
The front half of the book
is not independent from the back half.
Reading something in one area may trigger you
or your editor to check and adjust something elsewhere.
If pieces are missing, they can't do this,
and then notes have to be carefully made
to do it next time you work on that piece.
It's just adding work and confusion
to an already challenging process.
You might think working on it as a whole is not efficient,
but the reality is that draft confusion
is far more energy and time-draining
than just a little patience.
The second tip is to update the file name
of every edit of your book
with a new version, number and date.
We usually put initials on it too
just to be clear who touched it last.
You're going to end up with a dozen different versions,
but you'll always know which is the most recent,
and if something gets deleted along the way
that you want back,
you can retrieve it from a previous version.
Writing a book is time-consuming,
so I understand the inclination to work on it
whenever you have a moment,
but a better idea is to spend the time,
when your book is at the editor,
working on your author platform,
connecting with influencers in your space,
building a lead magnet or, heck, relaxing
because there's so much more work to come.
Do you have a draft confusion story?
Share that in the comments below,
and when you comment the day a video is released,
you'll be entered to win some sweet Book Launcher swag
like a hashtag no boring books mug or a no so soft journal.
And if you do it often enough,
you could become one of my YouTube besties
like Studio 38, who always makes me laugh,
and Kevin Maguire who always laughs at my jokes.
Both things get to my heart pretty fast.
IJ King and La Tonea too, oh,
and Drema Drudge, can't forgot you.
So, big, virtual hugs for all
your comments, shares, and support.
If you like this tip, smash that thumbs up button.
Go ahead, it feels so good, try it.
And make sure you subscribe to the channel
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when new videos come.
If you wanna learn about building your author platform,
this playlist right here is perfect for you
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that's right here.
Either way, let's keep this conversation going.
I'm waiting for you on the next video, see you there.