Lessons I learned from publishing my first book

By the time you become a self-published author, you will have spent valuable time writing your book and will have invested money to get it properly edited and into print or digital formats. Yet, the last leg of the journey is just as important and the reason to publish in the first place: to connect with readers. Just as a business owner creates a marketing plan and budgets for it, authorpreneurs need to do the same. 

It’s liberating to understand that publishing and selling your book is an extension of the creative process. It’s also an important part of building your platform, and the best way to launch your new career as an author.

But here’s the catch: most self-publishers DO NOT make much money selling  their books! So why bother going through the time and effort of writing and publishing a book that doesn’t give you direct returns?

Don’t get me wrong. You’ll make money selling your books, but that’s not where the real profit comes from. Instead, the best strategies are to use your book to market your services and other products. That’s what most successful entrepreneurial authors plan to do. They don’t go out and start flogging their book, but instead, they focus on how to leverage their book to benefit the bottom line.

Here's what a well-crafted book can bring to your business:

• Your book can lead to media exposure that raises your profile and attracts new opportunities.
  
  

• Your book can turbo-charge the way you market your business by giving you a fresh approach and a new tool.
  
  
• Your book can help you land high-profile speaking gigs and keynotes.
  
  
• Your book can open up new revenue streams that you had never considered.
  
  
• If you are a coach, your book can help you connect with new clients whose businesses also affect others and change lives. 

• You can use your book as your calling card though email, one-on-one sales calls, or other outreach to prospective customers.
  
  
• Your book can bring new, exciting professional relationships, clarity to your mission, and synergistic boosts to your business.
  
  
• You will be seen as a thought leader as your book elevates you above others who have no book.
  
  
• You will meet people whose lives are changed by your book.
  
  
• Your self-perception and confidence will blossom and grow.

Self-publishing is a labor of love—not a get-rich-quick scheme. Your passion and desire to effect change in your readers, to inspire them to take action, or to share something awesome with others—these are fuel for writers who want to engage in a public dialogue through self-publishing that benefits all of us.

Think of self-publishing as an investment in yourself and in your business. For entrepreneurs, having a book is a “no-brainer business card”. A book makes you and your business more visible, and published authors can increase their value by bundling books with their other products and services.

If you doubt that your book can influence your readers and change lives, I’ll leave you with this review of my first book, Living into Art, Journeys Through Collage, written by an art teacher and blogger:

"Living Into Art is one of my bibles on the melding of art and spirit. Beyond mere art technique, this book delves into the realm of how expressive art can be transformational. As an expressive art teacher myself, I have not seen a more eloquent book on how a cut-magazine collage can powerfully express things we do not yet know about ourselves.

Lindsay Whiting's writing is as rich as the imagery. She shares the working styles of various artists in an intimate and engaging way that inspires me to delve deeper into my own creativity. 

The quality of the artwork in this book is beyond stunning and it opened my eyes to the finest levels of mastery and diversity that magazine collage can reach. Yet the technique itself is not difficult. It involves cutting out magazine imagery "without thinking" and gluing it down in a spontaneous way. This I know is a powerful way to express oneself as imagery can touch the soul more deeply than words. This book opens a door to a magical way to live and breathe into art!"

........Could your book be next? Let's Talk!