Publishing. I’ve learned a lot.
I self-published my first book, self-produced my second book (audio only), and secured a big traditional publishing deal for my third.
As I sit here reflecting on one year since the third, Big Impact Without Burnout, launched into the world, as an instant best seller no less, I acknowledge that I have learned an awful lot over the past decade about book publishing.
Interestingly, I also now have eight, yes eight, clients paying me to support them in writing their books, securing their book deals and/or architecting the most powerful marketing strategy to achieve best seller status. Considering my day job is ‘ensuring ambitious souls find their inner integrity for business impact’ as an energy coach/therapist/healer, it’s endlessly fascinating how life works and the opportunities that float your way when you remain open! As Daniel Priestley would say, we are each indeed sitting on our unique ‘mountain of value’. And so my book journey is another mountain I’m now atop.
If you’re an author embarking on your publishing journey, here are some of my key learnings, focusing on the shiny publishing deal with Penguin Random House and Watkins, my most recent book experience.
The Author Dream
As a child I was obsessed with books, writing, literature, magazines, words, words, words. I had a clickety clackety carbon ribboned typewriter and taught myself to master those keys with my eyes closed, fast and fluent, as a thirteen-year-old romanticisng my creative prowess as a modern Jane Austen. By my mid-teens I was convinced I would run a publishing empire of some sort after my planned writing career had somehow exploded into the world. I never, ever wavered in my dream of wanting to become a best-selling, prestigiously published author. I had self-belief and the dream was golden.
At 18 I gap-year-ed between A-levels and university and started working for a cool Soho based magazine company guzzling up the glamorous work culture. Hungry to write, I was disappointed when the editor reductively kept me in my swim lane of Admin Assistant Only. But thanks to her, so began to flow my entrepreneurial juices.
The First Entrepreneurial Chapter
The magazine’s revenue model included a healthy tranche of advertisers booking ‘advertorials’ – long form adverts cloaked in editorial-esque full or double page spreads. The head of this division, a spritely blonde exec oozing gumption and charisma, Jo Barnes – are you still out there?? – agreed to work with my ‘company’ and employ the freelance copywriting services of a writer called ‘Cherry Pearce’, my pseudonym. And so began my astoundingly lucrative freelance writing career and my first Limited British company. This was 1992 and cheques were paid out to Cherry Pearce, my mum ;-), and in the pounds rolled in their thousands! The advertisers loved this new writer and the editor never knew the faceless talent was in fact ‘green’ me as she’d erroneously labelled me.
My confidence grew as fast as my glossy portfolio and I knew a book would follow at some point. 3 decades later wasn’t exactly the plan but hey, life flows how it flows and I got there eventually!
The First Book
In 2017 I found an agent, Kizzy Thomson of KT Literary Agency, and faithfully and tirelessly Kizzy tried to secure a publishing deal for my first book. Rejection after rejection ensued. The knocks hit hard and eventually I dusted down my bruised ego and reluctantly, albeit curiously, decided to self-publish. Enter Flourish: Redefine Success and create more Time, Energy, Impact and Joy in 2019. Whilst even the likes of Karren Brady described this book as “A transformational guide for ambitious women buffeted by the whirlwind of modern life.” I felt frustrated I’d had to pay to publish (NB I feel different now – more to follow in a subsequent article on my views on the optimal commercial routes for authors today.)
By 2020 I was experimenting with tech platforms, sophisticated hardware and slick marketing funnels, so I self-produced an audio book: How to Stop the Struggle and Get Anything You Want. Easy, quick, offered as a free ‘Learn Now!’ data-capture hook on my website.
Going for Gold
By 2022 I was ready to go again for the mainstream publishing deal. By this point I had been working for several years with large organisations like Google, Amazon and Snap taking my Flourish principles into ambitious teams, female cohorts, C-suite execs as well as running my private Impact practice alongside my media day job.
I had by now certified in my life-long passions across various healing modalities spanning hypnotherapy, nutritional medicine, NLP, timeline therapy, psychology and had graduated up the ranks of rigorous coaching certifications in life coaching, executive coaching, relationship coaching and so on, scaling up to the esteemed International Coaching Federation ACC accreditation. So, I was brilliantly certified, accoladed to the hilt, rich in case studies and awards galore, superbly networked after a decade working leading business agendas in the world’s largest comms conglomerates, and ripe for a mainstream deal.
This time Kizzy had no problems garnering interest and we had responses from Bloomsbury, JK Rowling’s publisher after her 27 rejections, amongst others. Bravo Kizzy. I went with Watkins. The world’s oldest ‘esoteric publisher’ reputed for its specialty in publishing spiritual texts having published manuscripts from Carl Jung, Eckhart Tolle and the modern day inner-world trauma expert Teal Swan. To know signing with Watkins would mean also becoming a Penguin Random House author was a thrilling moment for sure, a childhood dream come true.
My 10 Biggest Publishing Lessons
So, fellow aspiring authors, one year since launch, 3 years since signing that life-changing deal, here’s what I’ve learned – remember this applies to non-fiction as my zone of experience:-
- By the time your book is published it may feel out of sync with your real-time body of work/knowledge. Traditional publishing has a loooooong lead time. By the time Big Impact Without Burnout was published my first strategy in the book would have been way more deeply infused with the emotional and transpersonal principles of the Human Energy Field as by then I had further trained and certified at the Morter Institute in Bio-Energetics. If you want to publish quickly, select a publisher who can meet your timelines, or for ultimate control, self-publish. Recently, I secured a deal for an EU parliamentary minister responsible for climate control whose book requires rapid publication to remain relevant before technological, political and economic changes skew the book’s usefulness.
- The process of actually writing the book is a strategic one. It cannot be a haphazard brain dump of your knowledge. View it like creating a business plan. Start with the end in mind. Do not free flow and hope the words will tie themselves together logically. Plan the book structure, agree it with your editor and ‘fill it in’ after the meta plan is finalized. I had to split one big chapter into multiple other chapters towards the end of the writing process and this was hard work. The hours of post-it note sessions all over the floor are very, very valuable. Over-index your time allocation on this phase.
- Your editor will become your best friend. Make sure you click well. Do face to face drinks/lunch once signed and embrace and build rapport.
- Whatever your publisher tells you about publicity, unless you are Mel Robbins or Steven Bartlett, you are responsible for book sales. You need a platform, you need events, you need a schedule, you need budget. I hired a team, I rejigged the team, we moulded focus as we went, it was relentless and vast. We covered everything from social media to nationwide libraries to local print to national radio and press to podcasts to launching my own show to partner collaborations. It was epic. And it was ALL led by me. The publisher will create a press release and circulate it with all their other books but you are one of many, many authors and really it’s up to you. This is the business area I’m helping my author clients with the most now. It was gruelling, but my system worked and we created huge global impact with no paid digital marketing activity at all and for that I’m both proud and grateful!
- The Launch. Your publisher will suggest a venue but really again I suggest you steer this yourself. Watkins secured a deal with me to launch at Daunts, London’s most prestigious bookstore. Whilst this was an incredible honour, it was on the proviso that it was an exclusive launch so I wasn’t allowed to host any more events as the book launched. This was very frustrating and disappointing for me especially as I was signed to Soho House to run all their internal team workshops for culture and how to sustain ‘big impact without burnout’ and they wanted me to run further events across their houses for the public too but I was prohibited. Still, the Daunts evening it was a memorable moment and I’m grateful for the intimate magic with family and friends.
- The Tour. I was invited to SXSW by Shelly Zallis and her incredible team at The FQ on the very week of the book launch and so decided to seize the opportunity and create a book tour that spanned both the UK and the US. Once that decision was made, more US opportunities drifted in – hello Barry Frey and xx, and suddenly I had a tour spanning Austin, LA, NYC and San Fran. I was then also invited to India by the esteemed India and Shaili and suddenly Mumbai was added to the mix too. Plus, I had event bookings across Europe like the Bauer media leadership offsite in Poland. So, I was on a global tour. Amazing! For each event booking I would also contact all the major local bookstores from Waterstones to Barnes & Nobles to say I’m coming to town would you like to do a book signing? This again was epic amounts of work but I worked rigorously to design a tour that maximized my time in every city. And oh my it was worth it. Those events were some of the highlights of my life.
- Customer interactions are where the magic of your work is felt. This is when the book’s thrust visibly touches readers’ hearts and having real life conversations with them about your own journey, knowledge and guidance as well as their dreams and fears, is priceless both for seeing your own positive value and learning what readers/shoppers both respond to and need. I love every single customer I had the privilege of talking to. Your stories are in my heart forever.
- Bookshop managers are busy people, not necessarily commercially focused, and in-store events can be both a hassle and a joy. I have learned that some managers are excited by the opportunity to host events, others are allergic to the effort it takes, whilst some others are nonchalant and expect you to bring the crowd in exchange for them providing the space. Get clear on expectations on both sides as you ring round or visit. AI was very helpful in guiding me towards which stores to contact where, when and how. I had some fun joint in-store book events with other authors expert in a similar ilk, some accidents where I turned up to sign but the store had sold out and failed to replenish stock in time (DUBLIN!!), some promises of vast crowds with no attendees but the show went on anyhow, some impromptu freestyling where my daughter joined me with a microphone too in response to a younger crowd vibrant with questions, and so on! Organising the tour was HARD work. Prepare for a lot of graft here to bring this to life. I am happy to share my system to get you on your way.
- No doesn’t have to mean no. There are always ways and means. A major central London Waterstones was on my hitlist. I struggled to get traction with the store manager to take any stock of my book. I tried repeatedly calling and visiting but failed to get a positive response. Opportunistically, I took matters into my own hands and ‘gifted’ the store a free copy which I strategically placed in their ‘Best Selling Non-Fiction’ display prominently at the shop entrance. I called a few weeks later to find they ‘kept selling out’ of my book and wanted to do both an event and a window display! Boom! The book had sold, triggered the system to auto re-order and we were off. So, persistence and boldness works!
- Your pre-sales window is prime time. I sold thousands of copies of my book before it was even officially out. How? Every keynote, workshop, event I was booked for came with a fee and a requirement to order books for the audience. So, even if the events were 12 months away the booking condition was to order bulk books. There are also brilliant guides I sourced and gleaned on the optimal pre-sales marketing techniques. My favourite tips came from Lewis Howes, Bruce Daisley and James Clear.
- Ensure your book sales pages sell exquisitely well and are consistent on your own website, Amazon, Goodreads, publisher site, etc. Write excellent sales copy about both the book and you as an author. Take time to refine this messaging.
- Enjoy the process and get ready for surprises along the way. I made new friends, won the Speaker of the Year award, met numerous celebrities, visited new cities, stood on numerous stages, was interviewed on an endless stream of podcasts, ended up launching my own show thanks to the wonderful Yahoo team, and life and my work evolved in the most unexpectedly wonderful ways. I know for sure that there is no going back for me now. This past year has utterly changed my life. What does that prove? That when you throw your heart and soul into work you are passionate about, as W. H. Murray wrote in The Scottish Himalayan Expedition (1951), “the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.” Amen!
For any support on your publishing journey I’d be delighted to share more.
Bianca x
