Thanks for joining this webinar from aweber and
featuring a guest from self-publishing school he’s Going to be talking all about how to write and
publish publish a book in 90 days just a note we Have actually pre-recorded this presentation and
we’re hanging out in the chat answering questions So if you have any questions at all please feel
free to ask anything whenever you think of it And we’ll answer it straight away I am so so so
happy to have you all here uh Our Guest today Is Matt Emery he’s a publishing strategist at
self-publishing school and he has had over 10 000 conversations with aspiring authors about how
to best write produce publish and launch Books Today he’s going to talk about how you can write
your first book and the difference between selling A few hundred books to being able to actually
quit your job and work for yourself full-time So thank you so much for joining us Matt I’m
really excited and I actually have a question For you to kick things off I know that you have
written a book yourself so what made you want To write a book in the first place yeah so
writing has been my longest standing dream Um I think I was maybe 14 or 15 when
I first said that I wanted to do that Uh when I was like punching a clock at the grocery
store bagging groceries like I don’t think I ever Want to to work a real job um I I was over it
when I was 15. so uh why don’t you kick us off With uh how we can write our own books and I will
certainly be taking notes myself the place that I Wanted to lead people with my book was was to
Christ uh to church you know and my church is This building with stained glass windows and a
cross on top um but more than anything I think All of us in some way like want to lead people
to the thing that that they really need and maybe For you that’s something totally different it
took 15 years for me to write this book I was 14 when I started writing a book and I was
29 when this one was published you know and I realized that what I’ve been lacking for 15
years is I never had any expert I never had any Coaching or mentorship around writing a book
I was just literally guessing I was trying to Reinvent the wheel so I never had a process I
never had mentorship and I was pretty much the Only person in my world that I knew that wanted
to write a book so I was just figuring it out Add one single conversation with the guy who
would become my mentor on October 1st and he Asked me like maybe five questions that I’d never
thought to answer that gave me more clarity that Allowed me to move forward on my book just like
with a knowledge of exactly what I was creating And literally from that moment every time I spent
a half hour on the book I was getting a half hour Closer or so it fell and that’s why I was able to
get a book done in it was actually like 81 days So what I want to try to do in realizing that the
same things that plagued me for 15 years seemed to Plague the average aspiring author you know after
10 000 conversations over the last three years uh We’re very alike and so by addressing some of the
things that I struggled with by addressing some Of the things that the average aspiring author
struggles with I’m going to give you the road
Map to publishing and launching and marketing a
successful book in the next 90 days I’m going to Move pretty quick and so please like stick around
to the end if I move too fast don’t worry you will Have access to replays and slides and notes and
people to answer your questions and sort of a Next step and so can I ask you a question really
quickly Matt before you move on of course um I Think that a lot of people from our audience
uh maybe have thought about writing a book and Um I’m sure they’re really excited to hear about
how to do it faster with the tips that you have Um but do you have any tips before we get kicked
off on what if you haven’t decided what you want To write about what if you don’t know what you
should write about specifically how do you get Started thinking about that yeah absolutely I
think there’s a couple of different ways that You can kind of approach that this is not an
uncommon feeling it’s uh it’s either hey I know Exactly what I want to write I got my idea and
if if there’s some of you in this group awesome Congratulations there’s also people that will
think man I have too many ideas I’ve got no idea Which one to start with and you know that’s that’s
what’s holding me up is I don’t know where to Start with my so many ideas and then there’s some
people that are like I don’t really have any idea Um so maybe identify In This Moment which group
you’re in if you’re the person that either has Too many ideas or or no idea consider what are
the broken record conversations that you have All the time and maybe it’s things that uh
that are fairly introductory to your area of Expertise like the things that you’re coaching
on that you seem like man I would love to go Deep and I’d love to get you know on this expert
level with a lot of the people that I’m helping But we spend the majority of our time talking
about the really basic stuff uh if you can take That basic stuff and put it into a book and really
like encapsulate your your area of expertise then Next time you’re going to have that broken record
conversation you could just say hey you know what I wrote a book on this subject um I think a lot
of people write Memoirs a lot of people write Self-help Books A lot of people combine those
two into like a self-help Memoir it’s almost like When I look back on all of the things that I’ve
gone through in my life that have taught me so Much that I wouldn’t undo because they’ve made
me who I am but I could have gone through that Experience a lot more gracefully I like to
call this the Good Valley it’s like you know You went through the valley but when you really
reflect on it it was a good thing for you how Can we turn back to those people that are
going to have some of the same experiences That we have in the future and just help them
get through it a little bit more painlessly Um maybe you write about your business expertise
maybe you read about the book that you would Have would have wanted to read 10 years ago
or that thing that was so lacking from your Childhood or your upbringing and maybe you
can put some of these lessons so that the Person who may also feel like they’re lacking
those things has a resource the very resource
That you longed for in in the past yeah those
are some great ideas uh also for any aweber Customers out there who are sending emails
uh just look back through all of the emails That you’ve sent which one was your favorite to
write and uh take that as your jumping off point Um it could be you know because you inserted
personal aspects or because you happen to Just be a nerd about that particular topic or
something and that’s a really good place to start To identify you know in your head what would be
the thing that you want to write a big story about So I’m I’m Matt Emery I’m from Brighton Michigan
I’ve been writing since I was like eight years Old at that point it was like you know letters
to Grandma where I was just trying to use all Of my new vocab words but uh started the
book in 2005 published that book in 2020 Uh and kind of figured out a recipe wrote a second
book in July um and I just published the third and A fourth uh earlier in September of this year uh
and then also launched a podcast called authority Figures uh my first book I’ll introduce this in
a second it’s about a year that I lived in a van And I traveled to the country and searching for
what was missing in my life and and that’s where I crashed into Jesus uh in that year I spent a ton
of time backpacking and I think writing a book is Analogous to a backpacking trips it’s it’s often
going deep into the back country to a place within Ourselves that we rarely explore and we’re gonna
go we’re gonna go deep you know writing a book is Definitely not all sunshine and rainbows you know
it is tiring it is hard I think like 81 of people In uh in the world have this dream to write a book
and only one percent of them actually do it’s it’s Not obvious what to do it’s not obvious which
way to go sometimes you feel like and what am I Doing out here who am I to think that I could do
this you know I’m just going to use my pages for One final bonfire and get a little bit of warmth
uh before I before I call it quits and head out But stick with it even when you feel throughout
this process like man this is this is tough I Don’t think I’m cut out for this stick with it
so I’m going to give you a process and a couple Of tips to stick with it over the next 40 minutes
or so I’d love for you to have a pen uh some paper Some intentionality uh and just say this time is
devoted to making progress on my book and uh maybe Close out of some of those other tabs or put your
phone away and just say this is what I’m going to Do with this time um and if you engage with this
time and you’re intentional about this time I I Dare say you’re going to build some momentum that
really excites you about this book that you’re Going to write so let’s lean into that um and
I think you can trust your Trail Guide out here So over the last 17 years I’ve I’ve fallen into
all the pits but I have eventually learned the Process on how to write a kiss and after over
10 000 conversations uh with aspiring authors I kind of know what you might go through and of
course having these are three of my books where The rubber meets the road was the first one
the detourist is the one that published the Beginning of this month and the Kaleidoscope is
uh the tool that I use to build my email list to
Build my following it’s kind of the free giveaway
the lead magnet also known as the reader magnet uh So we’ll talk about that and how that is a really
vital tool to to really growing the business and Not just selling books but anybody that buys your
book becomes sort of a member of your community So in the next bit of time we’re going to talk
about the three myths that authors believe that Stop them from being published we’re going to talk
about the book skeleton method this is how to plan Write and publish a book to bestseller in 90 days
and we’re going to talk about the single most Important step for long-term success with your
book with your business that’ll help you create The lifestyle that you envision for yourself um
so that’s gonna we’re gonna talk about the book Launch at that point and at the very end I’ll
give you information on how you can personally Work with self-publishing school if you just
want to have a coach a mentor someone to hold You accountable to make sure you stay on the right
track then we’re absolutely here for that as well So delving into these myths myth number one is
doubt I doubt that and we finished that sentence In a lot of different ways myth number two is my
book has to be perfect in order to be valuable Just a very pervasive sense of perfectionism
so we’ll address that and then we’ll talk about What a lot of people say is well writing a book
takes years and I don’t want to do something that Takes years I really want to live this lifestyle I
want to have this thing within the next few months Uh and so we’ll address the lack of a process So diving right in myth number one I doubt that
have you ever heard of the expression uh doubt Has killed more dreams than failure ever has well
fear and uncertainty and doubt show up throughout This whole creative book process and so maybe
it starts out with you know I doubt that I have Anything valuable to share because I’m not an
expert I don’t have a degree a certification An accreditation something like really special
this certificate on the wall that says that you Know what you have to share is valuable this
is just classic imposter syndrome and the more Successful that people are oddly enough the
greater imposter syndrome seems to sneak in Uh people that don’t seem to have a whole lot of
value to share are like charging along just you Know thinking that they they’ve got the world
on their shoulders so essentially what imposter Syndrome becomes is now you do something and it’s
easy for you and because it’s easy for you now you Discount the value of that thing while there are
still people that are at the beginning of Learning This skill or learning this thing or navigating
life and it’s definitely not easy for them Um while there’s people that know what
they’re doing saying all of this stuff Is so obvious it’s kind of like I doubt that
anyone will care because it’s obvious or I’m Just a normal person I’m not a celebrity or
uh my situation is not unique there’s always A I doubt my abilities like I’m not a
writer I have never done this before So if if doubt has ever shown up for you when
you’re trying to do something new or special
By all means own that throw that in the chat
always good to just say yeah you know that’s me Um but we’re going to address that in in a way
that I think we’ll be alleviating of some of The pressure that doubt creates so Zig Ziglar
said writing my book was the most profitable Thing that I ever did and that would have
been true even if I never sold one copy So I’ve thought of a lot about this quote like
why would somebody say this why is this true if You never sold a single copy how could it
be profitable well one real way that I’ve Experienced this is the moment that I finished
my book and I’ve published it I felt different It was almost like there was this wall around
my potential and when I published the book that Wall came crumbling down and it was like well if
I can do this what else am I capable of and then I move forward in my life with this new sense of
confidence and certainty and like I don’t know What I can do but my my potential is out of sight
and I’m Gonna Keep charging ahead it’s it’s such A transformative process to write a book that
even as you’re writing it sure like you want to Sell copies you want this to change your life but
maybe as you’re writing it you just think look who I’m becoming in this process because this person
that I’m becoming in this process uh is so capable That’s how I interpret the quote um it’s so
common to to also just to underestimate the Value of our experience sometimes this happens
where we say I learned the most interesting Thing today we tell that to to someone close
to us and then that person thinks or maybe They say really you just learned that today like
I’ve literally been telling you that for years This phenomenon occurs because I think people
learn best in two ways number one people learn From others who are relatable and the other
way is people learn through familiarity So maybe some of you have said yeah I really want
to write a book on such and such topic you know Of which I have an expertise but there’s already
five books there’s already ten books 100 books Written on that subject well people learn from
others who are relatable and so there are those That have never heard what you want to teach in
a way that they can really connect with and so The fact that you’re writing the book and you’re
writing it in your way with your language there’s Going to be people that have an affinity to
the particular way that you want to say it Uh also even if they’ve heard it five times before
people learn through familiarity and as soon as They’re ready your book can be there uh to teach
them because you cannot say the right thing to the Wrong person and you cannot say the wrong thing to
the right person and we all have different right People so we have to we we should feel compelled
to teach what we have to teach knowing that uh Someone will be able to learn it from us where
they couldn’t learn it elsewhere that’s from the Go Giver so actually your reason not to write
the book is the exact reason that you need to So that’s doubt that’s flipping doubt on its
head number two my book has to be perfect any any Perfectionists out there maybe that there’s this
this stuff that when you create content or when
You write things you’re like constantly looking
it over and redoing it if you’re a perfectionist Throat perfectionism or perfectionist in the
chat I think you’re gonna love this section if so So this false belief shows up in a variety of
ways too our subconscious blurts out things Like it’s not good enough I can do better time
to start over that’s why in this comic you have The brain that says there done my heart says yay
doesn’t it feel good to just let go of something Instead of trying to make it perfect brains
like skirt you’re right it isn’t good enough And you see he’s scratched out everything that
he’s done so far and is prepared to start over Um typical for a perfectionist to to do that or to
read other authors and to play a comparison game I Read other authors and they’re so much better than
me I don’t know what I’m doing I would never put My name on this piece of crap I’m terrible I stink
I’m the worst this book is only 60 pages so that Doesn’t count as a book I can’t publish something
like that which is false a lot of great books are 60 Pages even less I’m just going to embarrass
myself so your book doesn’t have to be perfect In order to be valuable in fact I really love
John Maxwell who’s written like over 80 books he Was at our conference a couple of years ago we do
a conference called author Advantage live he said I called my editor as I was writing my eighth book
I said I think I’m figuring out this writing thing And the reason this this this
struck me as so beautiful is You know Imagine John like on his seventh book
like man I’m not sure I’m getting it exactly Perfectly right but I know that some somebody’s
gonna get something out of this book that this Is valuable content sure yeah I could probably
articulate it a little bit more clearly but you Know I don’t I don’t need to chase Perfection
I’m just gonna publish this dang thing and he Did that seven times and finally on the eighth
book he’s like I think I’m figuring it out So I love being like John not being hyper critical
of ourselves and Learn by doing if we are going to Apply any sort of perfectionism to this process
we can apply a perfect rationale and the perfect Rationale is there’s a certain amount of time and
effort that’ll get you a certain quality and then Above that time and effort above that quality it’s
not really reasonable or rational to put any more Time into the book because you can get to an 8 out
of 10 in a matter of a few months and then you can Spend the next year or more chasing incremental
Improvement so get to that point where you’re Satisfied enough uh and know that a completed
book is better than a few perfect chapters You know if you publish a good book this I really
want you to hear this if you publish a good book You’re going to be miles ahead of the people
that are chasing perfect because those people That are chasing perfect are never going to get
any skin in the game they’re going to have two Perfect chapters in their in their Microsoft Word
save to their computer and that’s it so you don’t Need to write a perfectly airtight book plus not
all your book is going to be for everyone there’s Going to be certain parts that people fixate on
and learn from so take the pressure off yourself
As much as possible and a couple of tips in order
to do that is right where you know think of it as Practice don’t edit while you write when you’re
when you’re putting together the rough draft Your prerogative you’re one directive while you’re
writing and we’re going to talk about this process Here in a second is right there comes a time where
editing becomes part of the process but editing And writing are not happening simultaneously uh
they’re completely different phases of the process So make writing a daily Rock and when you’re
writing you’re just writing maybe you protect 30 Minutes a day I don’t know if any of you have ever
read the book Atomic habits but he talks about you Know just go to the gym for five minutes you’re
struggling to wash the dishes just wash one dish Just work just write for five minutes a day maybe
10 maybe 30. but get to that point where it’s sort Of habituated and that time is protected and you
can Infuse it into an already really busy life Know that someday you’re going to hire an
editor and so the book does not need to be Perfect and just immerse yourself into one
book at a time so follow those tips uh and Then this one don’t squat with your Spurs
on that’s just a little bit of Texas wisdom So myth number two you are blocking your book with
unrealistic expectations if you’re ever saying my Book has to be perfect in order to be valuable
so inspect what you expect out of yourself Uh and we’re going to talk about the process so
that you can take some of that pressure maybe That you’re putting on yourself and you’re going
to put it on something that is tried and true So if writing a book takes years you know I’ve
heard people say that people also say yeah I Don’t have time I don’t know where to start I have
too many ideas I have so much content but I don’t Know how to put it together into one cohesive
book you know I’ll just hire a ghost writer I Have writer’s block and so I wager that if you’ve
ever said any of these things that’s not what’s True what’s true is that you just haven’t had a
process and so success is structural not personal And we do we do not rise to the level of our goals
we fall to the level of our systems so we really Need to have a good system and a couple additional
tips we probably all at some point heard the Expression proper preparation prevents poor
performance I I guess that you probably didn’t Wake up this morning and say you know what all all
that I need to do today to to have a good day is Just to not perform poorly I’m sure that on some
level you are aware of your potential and you’re Kind of chasing it you know you know exactly
what you want you have a sense of what you’re Capable of and you need purposeful preparation
in order to prosper your potential because a lot Of authors exhaust themselves but really writers
exhaust themselves because they don’t they’re not Doing the right things and they’re thinking that
man this is so hard I’m working up such a sweat I’m exhausted at the end of my days I’m putting
so much effort and I’m grinding I’m hustling I think we all I’m at this point right now like
all right we get to a point in our life where In order to get what we want that additional
thing like that additional Freedom uh that that
More time for ourselves we don’t want to put in
more effort it can’t always come down to putting In more effort to get more right there has to be a
point where you say what is the really smart thing That I can do right now so this inspired action
so that everything else in the rest of my life is Easier well on one hand writing a book is really
that thing it’s that thing that’ll make everything Else you do for the rest of your life easier but
on a more micro scale having the proper process is The thing to just make writing a book easy and
really attainable so again write one book at a Time and know that if you have a proper outline
you could write your book in weeks and I think You could speak your book in a matter of hours I’m
not articulate or enough of an external processor To be able to speak my book but if if you are then
this is a really good way to knock something out In a weekend like what Hayden Crabtree he had just
graduated from uh Commercial Real Estate College I think it was some program within the college
for real estate and he wrote his book in a week Since writing his book you know it was sort
of a response to this man I have so many of My friends and people who know me coming up and
asking the same doggone questions and I’m tired Of answering them so I’m gonna just write this
book in this week this will be an extra product And something that I can make some passive income
on but anytime people ask that same question I’ll Just say oh go read my book well then people read
his book and he did a really good job of leading People to his website into some of his extra
resources in his book so we ended up building A pretty decent email list from this book and
it seemed like people after the book were still Reaching out to him by email with more questions
so he’s like well I don’t want to answer these Questions this is just a different level of broken
record so I’m going to put together a course so we Developed a course charged a thousand dollars for
the course after people went through the course They seem to still have questions for him and so
he created a mastermind it was like four thousand Dollars to join The Mastermind for a year uh and
when the Mastermind got together it was people That were really serious about commercial real
estate and they all kind of had the same problem Man how do we how do we determine you know
with math which properties we should invest in So Hayden developed a software and it became
this thing where of course he was still doing The commercial real estate and doing really well
with that but this book and the opportunities that This book created for him uh led to about about
a million dollars in in Revenue in the last two Years since he wrote his book um he’s been on
podcasts with Robert Kiyosaki and Grant Cardone And it’s just created so many opportunities and
the initial motivation was I need to free up more Time because I’m tired of being a broken record
you know and then you just follow you build the Leverage and then you just kind of follow the
momentum so writing a book doesn’t have to take Years with the right process you can write a
great book in 90 days or less or more uh but I think we want it to be less so your reason
not to write the book is the exact reason you
Must you’re blocking your book with unrealistic
expectations if you’re applying perfectionism To it and with the right process you can write a
great book in 90 days so that begs the question What Matt is the right process because I go to
the internet and I Google all sorts of things I’ve Seen so many different processes and everybody
says something different the important thing About a the right process it’s not a hodgepodge
Patchwork thing that you accumulate for yourself From 40 different blog posts on the internet uh I
think there’s multiple processes that would really Work this is the process that worked for me and
it’s very linear uh and it’s it’s proven you know In the last three years I’ve applied it four
times for four books so I think where we’re at I’m gonna I’m gonna articulate this with a
story kind of an analogy like three months Ago I met this guy uh at a conference and he
was talking about how he wanted to write a book And I was telling him how about the book skeleton
method and he stopped me and he said uh Matt a Couple of years ago I was dirt biking in Colorado
and I’m like 30 miles away from the nearest road And the nearest Trail like way in the back country
and my buddy and I pulled over and we’re having Lunch and I noticed this thing sticking out of
the ground it looked like a giant black mushroom And he was so fascinated by this thing that
he starts inspecting it and he’s knocking on It and it’s hard it almost looks fossilized uh
and he realizes he’s encountered a dinosaur bone And at the same moment he looks around in
the clearing and he realizes the rest of the Skeleton is there as well so my friend Scott
finds this dinosaur skeleton out in the wild This is the feeling that I think a lot of
us have about our book ideas we know that We’re looking at something that’s really valuable
this is something special it’s the beginning of a Great idea except most of it is still underground
before we can really realize it in its full glory And Splendor we need to apply the book skeleton
method so if you were a paleontologist and you had Found this dinosaur skeleton what you’re going
to do is you’re going to excavate you’re going To pull out all the bones you’re going to know
everything that you want to put into this book And then you’re going to categorize them and say
okay there’s a tail there’s a rib there’s a foot There’s a leg there’s a hip there’s a skull you
know and then you you put these things together It’s like what is really foundational okay what
is the through line like the spine of this book And what’s going to really give it this book its
bite and then you put together this skeleton and I Can look at the skeleton same as you and say okay
there’s no flesh and blood on this skeleton yet There’s no words that have been written for this
book yet but we can all tell what this book is We can see that that’s a Tyrannosaurus Rex you can
know your book prior to ever writing a single word Which addresses the the biggest frustration that
I had for 15 years is I only knew my book nine Months into it uh maybe even longer than that
once I had written 50 000 words and put a Blood Sweat and Tears into this thing and only then
did I realize that this is a misshapen malformed
Book that has no potential and now I’m going
to start over I’m going to do the same thing Over the next 11 months so this process will
ensure that when you do go to add flesh and Blood that is to write the book that every moment
you’re making progress on the book that you want To write that’s going to convey the message
that you want to write that you want to share So for starters uh this is the the excavation
now this is also called Mind mapping it’s Also called brainstorming it’s also called
clustering the fact that it has so many names Shows that it’s not a revolutionary idea maybe
you’ve done this in in different things in the Past what it is is an effective idea and it
doesn’t have to be revolutionary it just works so You create a mind map by writing your book Topic
in the middle of the page and then around that Book topic you just write everything that you can
possibly think of that applies to that subject so The different stories different examples Lessons
Learned books ideas you know to Kelsey’s Point Earlier maybe you you go through and you realize
and these are the 15 emails that I’ve written that I like the most and there’s there’s wisdom in
each one of these so let me break these 15 down Um and you start identifying some of the
principles that you know that are are that Connect all of these things uh and so what you
end up with is uh is something like this is a A center topic and then maybe 40 or 50 things
that apply to that centered filter now this is My mind map from my first book where the
rubber meets the road at that point the Book was going to be called The Arc of giving
up and so what I did is I said what are all The things that when you give these things
up life just seems to immediately improve Things like expectations perfectionism attachment
to outcomes fear uncertainty and doubt rigidity in My identity worry wandering thoughts the need to
be in control and so after putting all of these Things on the page I thought man this is not
50 different things this is like six or seven Different things and they just all have different
ways that they manifest so I took a colored pencil And I connected the things that I thought
were relevant uh color coordinated coordinated Them and then in doing so it was really
easy to to then put together an outline So to give you a really simplistic example but
something that I think you’ll be able to apply To your own book is let’s say that you were
writing a cookbook and so cookbook recipes all You did on this mind map is you wrote down
what are all the foods that I love to eat You know and then you begin looking at these
things and you say okay I see how they subdivide I’ve got breakfast foods lunch dinner dessert
and snacks so I’m going to put five sections of My book together and each section is going to have
like three chapters that’s a total rule of thumb Um it’s it’s not a science like you don’t have
to have a 15 chapter book where there’s five Sections and three chapters per section but a
lot of great books are about five sections or Some like odd number three five seven and they
usually have a couple of sub chapters there
And so once you identify the categories the
different ways that your content fits together You can put this into the skeleton and so now
you’ll see I’m going to start with something That’s that’s fun fundamental that’s foundational
we’re going to start with breakfast so maybe you Break your your book down chronologically uh
maybe you break your book down what is the most Simplistic most basic thing and then slight slowly
get more advanced it’s not something that I can I can give you a rule I can assure you though
that once you have everything that you want to Share as an expert on this subject you’re going
to see exactly how it can break down and you’re Going to know what belongs first and second and
third fourth fifth um if you’re writing say a Lead generating non-fiction book I suspect maybe
a lot of you are let’s say it’s going to be 20 000 words and you know that your 15 chapter 20
000 word book well that’s going to be 1300 words Per chapter so when it comes time to actually
add flesh and blood and you really do want to Write a book and you’re taking it seriously and
you’ve given it some consideration you’ve you’ve Built a schedule and you say okay I’m going to
wake up I’m going to write from six to seven a.m Every day or five to six every day or I’m more
creative between 10 and 11 p.m so I might wake Up a little bit later but I’m going to protect
that 10 and 11 p.m like give a little bit of Thought to when you have the gift of gav and make
that your schedule for when you’re gonna write Set a goal for yourself you know maybe it’s a word
count goal maybe it’s a chapter goal I am partial To chapter goals because I tend to overwrite and
if I have a word count goal then I chase that word Count and I don’t do my best work plus you could
sit down at the beginning of a week and say all Right I got 15 chapters I’m going to write three
chapters this week that’s 3 900 words so my goal Is 3 900 words but more importantly it’s three
chapters and I’ll have this book done in five Weeks you can kind of project that way forecast
that way especially when you don’t edit while you Write every word is a word gained later you’re
gonna you’re gonna edit that’s the next step in The process and if you’re speaking your book you
could even do this faster I’m going to sit down For a half hour and I’m going to speak chapter one
and then later on today I’m gonna do chapter two And I’m gonna do all 15 chapters in the next you
know seven days so if you’re putting pressure on The system not yourself you’ll know because things
are going to be moving fluidly the moment you Start feeling pressure uh and it’s on yourself
and you’re judging yourself and you’re being Really Critical with yourself that’s probably
the point where you’ve bucked the system and now You’re you’re relying on yourself to be successful
but remember success is structural not personal Um John Updike said some of the best books you
have ever read were written one hour at a time And I imagine that you’re not going to
change a whole lot about your life like Go rent a cabin in the woods for two weeks
but you’re probably going to write this book Infused within your normal life and so just be
reassured by John that this is how it’s done
Peter Drucker said only what gets measured
gets managed so this is a screenshot a picture Of my marker board last year October
where I was monitoring my word count Uh and so put something public something
really visible that you’re going to see A couple times a day just to remind you where
you’re at you know in accordance to your goals So if you follow this process it will work this
is Emma Sumner she’s eight years old now she’s 14 or something but uh six years ago she wrote
the fairies of waterfall Island she did four Thousand dollars in Book Sales in three
months she just donated that to charity Because she’s awesome she appeared on some TV
and magazines she did a book signing with 10 000 people there she’s now got 81 ratings
for her book six six years later I’ve sold Thousands of copies the reason I I show Emma
rather than somebody else is an eight-year-old Doesn’t get in their head like a lot of us do and
sometimes we need to be we need to allow ourselves To just be dumb enough to follow a process and
get our overactive brains out of our own way Um so Emma was smart enough to
just follow a process and trust it So after step four once your book is written
you have a manuscript I’m not going to talk A whole lot about book production but I will
say that anybody that schedules the a call to Connect with self-publishing school or works
with self-publishing school is going to have The book production completely done for them so
set you up with an editor get your cover design To get your formatting done make the book look
really professional really capture the essence Of the book in the artwork we’re actually going
to help you publish it we’re going to help you Write a good book description get the right
keywords and categories and do all the SEO Set you up with lead magnets to help you build
the email list build you a website in some cases So book production and really like book business
or book funnel production is something that we Can do for you uh and then that moves you to the
launch so not to be hyperbolic or to be dramatic But the book launch is the single most important
highest leverage activity that if done well Forever change the trajectory of your book and so
when somebody sells 500 books in a month great you Know you might make a couple thousand dollars a
month on your book but if 50 of those 500 people Join your email list uh there’s going to be
amazing opportunity to to connect with you know 250 people a month maybe more maybe a little less
uh in order to have them receive that next thing So your book really should lead people and the
book launch is the way to set it up for Success So that you get a ton of reviews and anytime an
unfamiliar person a stranger encounters your book On Amazon or Goodreads or uh or ingramspark
or Barnes Noble they see these reviews and They think okay this is a book that I can trust
so the book launch is all about building Trust Um and really on the flip side it’s all about
reducing the resistance that will naturally Exist when somebody is making a book buying
decision first thing you need to do is have
Your your external your first impression of
the book reflect the intention attention and The effort that you made on the inside of the
book so you really need to have a good cover Something with complementary
colors something whether you Author name something with easy to read fonts
an appealing image utilizes the rule of thirds So this is this is the theory that we
apply when we build covers for somebody This is my latest book uh I took this screenshot
a couple of days ago but number one new release Already 65 ratings it came out September 1st it is
now as I’m recording this September 12th I think Uh and so the book grabs attention it’s easy
to read it takes three seconds to know what My book is about uh and through the book
launch been able to get quite a few reviews So it doesn’t need to be a work of art though
it could just be straightforward like Chandler’s Book The Proven path from blank page to published
author almost 500 reviews uh you can actually get If you look inside of Chandler’s book you can
actually get his book for free you put in your Email address you put in your contact information
you can download this book for free which is not A mistake it’s just a tool to take your book
and recognize yeah I could make a lot of money Selling books or I can make a whole lot more
money by having people’s contact information And allowing them to raise their hand and say
uh hey I’m interested in this information and If you have anything else for me here’s my contact
information let me know about it so I can buy it That’s really what the book is supposed
to be it’s a billboard to lead people to Exit their trajectory come into your business
look at your menu see everything that you have Available and buy what suits them before carrying
on so that was a little extra less about the book Launch and more about lead magnets um second step
is you build this launch Team third step is you Get ongoing reviews to keep the Amazon algorithm
happy and so a launch team is really just a group Of people that are going to support your book
they’re going to read the book They’re going To leave a review on the book They’re going
to share your book this is like the street Team like this is the people that are gonna
make sure that your book cuts through uh the The abundance of books there’s like 100 million
books online this is how you get your book noticed You incentivize them with a free copy maybe they
get their name in the book maybe they just want To support you because they like you they love
you maybe there’s something else in it for them But I find that people like to support each other
and all you have to do is ask and you’ll build a Lot of connection this way so a couple of ways to
set your book launch up for Success throughout the Process of writing this book you have a lot
of opportunities to get people invested in Your project so getting people invested in your
project might be uh hey guys what are the main Things that that you would want to know about such
and such topic you pull your social media I ask my Social media hey what are the things that when
you give these things up your life immediately
Improves you know 50 people responded and not
only did I get book content but I also had 50 People that were beginning to be engaged in in
my project hey guys I’m looking for uh some some Votes which cover of these three options do you
like the best which of these three subtitles do You like the best anytime someone engages they
interact with this book They’re going to be a Little bit more invested in it and so involve
everyone that you know there’s something in this Launch for everybody don’t scrutinize the list
uh when you do recruit somebody get commitment I Like to do what I call a choice of three uh three
positives this is basically saying um hey here are The three different groups that you can join the
launch in which one makes the most sense for you I hold people accountable then as soon as
they’ve defined the relationship then I Know exactly what to hold them accountable to
and ultimately the goal is to have them write Honest reviews you know help people understand
how this is going to help other people find your Book in the future and how far a review goes
to reduce that resistance to create more buyers And the launch it’s not necessarily something
that happens over the first week or the first Month never stop searching for win wins and maybe
that looks like oh my friend John just started The company I’m going to support his company and
after I’ve supported his company I’m going to say Hey you know what I would really also appreciate
a book A book review so tons of ways to to launch The book and get ongoing reviews and set it up
for success and if you follow these steps you Will have a successful book and this book will
create a ton of opportunity like Nate published His book back in February I think he has twice as
many reviews now it’s like 100 or 270 something uh This guy has over 1500 reviews now Chris
Lippincott published his year his book A Couple of years ago and really like the whole
idea for his book is is showing people the the Potential of mediumship and connecting with
people in the afterlife and what he’s done With the momentum that his book has created
is he’s actually started an academy to help People Channel their their skills their spiritual
skills their spiritual gifts that’s pretty cool And at this point there’s such a variety of books
that are probably out there that one of the main Questions that I get is well Matt will this work
for me you know I’m writing such and such a type Of book you know it’s a children’s book it’s a
non-fiction book it’s a fiction book uh yes these Ideas will work for you another main question
that I get is well can you guys just kind of help Me can you hold me accountable I’d really love
a coach do you do that yes we also do coaching We do we have a bunch of author mentors on our
team and so if any of you are wondering yeah What is self-publishing school how can I be more
involved in this self-publishing school is kind Of like a mix of Indiana Jones Jillian Michaels
and the Butler from Mr Deeds so that perfectly Answers that question right someone to blaze the
trail for you someone to hold you accountable And Coach you and someone to make your life a lot
easier essentially a step-by-step online education
Uh like an author an author program to help you
write publish Market your book coaching with a Ton of different successful authors group coaching
with a variety of authors as well cover designers Editors designers uh community of actually over 3
000 authors that are on the same Journey they make Great people to be on your launch teams they’re
all across the nation they’re all across the globe And so really what I want to do is try to recreate
what shifted for me three years ago and the reason Why uh I went from 15 years of struggling to
write a book to you know having a book in 80 Days is it’s helped so helpful to have an expert
in your corner so we’ve opened up our calendars For really the next two days so that you can speak
with us personally about how you can apply some of These ideas if there is something holding you back
we’ll show you how to overcome it I guarantee that You’re not the first person to feel the way you’re
feeling the call is free it’s just trying to set You up with somebody to build Clarity so that you
know exactly what the next step is going to be Um so if you’re if you’re serious about writing
this book and you want it to be a great book Uh you you hold yourself to a high standard
of Integrity it’s like I’m gonna show up And I’m gonna I’m Gonna Learn I’m
gonna apply some of this coaching And understand that this book is an extension of
your business and so you don’t treat this book Like a hobby and expect it to pay like a business
you treat this this book like a business it’ll pay Like a business as an aspect of your business and
so intend to spend time to spend energy to spend Dollars or whatever your currency is on putting
your book together successfully uh and I guarantee That if done well if done intentionally this would
be something that you’ll look back on and you’ll Think that was the the greatest decision that I
ever made was writing that book because after I Have my book everything became easier so this
is the link that you can use to book your call Www.self Dash publishingschool.com forward slash
apply we’re also going to put this link right In the chat so that you can just copy that paste
that into the search bar and and go book your call There’s a couple of questions like what time is
going to be the best for you you pick your time Zone I encourage you to pick the time nearest to
right now that works for you and we’ll just jump On the momentum from this call into the one-on-one
call it’ll be a phone call and we’ll call you Uh you’ll have a couple of questions that
you’ll answer in there just we can pair you Up with the best person but you’ll see this
video when you’ve successfully booked a call And um yeah I look forward to talking to everybody
Zig Ziglar said if you wait until all the lights Are green before you leave home you’ll never
get started on your trip to the top uh there’s Not necessarily a right time to write your book
and there’s definitely not a wrong time I think No matter how busy you are no matter how crazy
life is if you’re at a point where you say man I something’s got to give I’m ready for life to be
a little easier than over the next few months will Help you integrate writing a book into your life
and they’ll get that thing published we’ll get
That thing launched with you get some marketing
behind it with you and uh then you can Relish In the ease that’s created from this book well
thank you so much Matt uh that was incredibly uh Interesting and informative for me and I’m sure
everybody else here uh again we’re gonna put That we probably put that link into the chat and
we’re gonna have a follow-up email that includes a Video recording of This these slides and a link
to get signed up uh as well if you would like Um and we are going to sign off now but we
will be around in the chat for about five Or ten more minutes to answer any questions
that anybody has about this at all if you are An aweber customer and you want to uh you
know bat around some ideas with everybody Else about the book that you might want to write
uh go ahead and head to our Facebook Community Um and I’ll pop a link to that in here too and
let’s talking to each other about what we might Want to write I think that uh you know if
you are writing emails already there is a Very easy transition to a book and it can help
you like Matt said turn it back into more email Subscribers and more engagement and in the long
run more money and allow you to really uh stand On your own doing this so thank you again so
much for uh your presentation Matt it was very Very uh interesting and informative for me and
uh thanks for joining us today it’s my pleasure
