The Publishing Process For Business Authors

 

Business authors face unique publishing challenges. What works for fiction authors will not work for you, and old school publishing is typically way too slow and clunky — not to mention the part where you give up control of your intellectual property.

For a book to help build your business & establish your thought leadership, you need extreme clarity of purpose & goals, clear and measurable success metrics, and a strategy that works for your strengths & weaknesses. The publishing process can be planned and executed to work for a business author but that is not default approach publishers take.

If you are a first time business author, take a look at the publishing process below and ask yourself a few questions. Do I know why this is important? Do I have an expert to help me with this? Do I know how to properly budget time and money for this?

You need to approach your book like you do your business.

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FROM MANUSCRIPT TO PUB DATE

Most business authors I work with aren’t aware of the multitude of things involved in producing a high-quality book they can be proud of. Did you know there are 5 types of editors, each with a different specialty? Or that creating a print & ebook typically requires working with multiple designers and a long list of different file types?

Publishing typically requires a unique mix of the following tasks:

  • Concept development

  • Developmental edit

  • Evaluation edit

  • Content edit

  • Line edit

  • Copy edit

  • Proofread

  • Cover design Interior print design

  • E-book layout design

  • File delivery

  • Tracking post-publishing revisions/errors

LAUNCHING AND SALES

A book launch requires dozens of interlocking parts to work in perfect harmony for weeks on end. The magic is knowing what’s worth your time & why. I see way too many people wait until they finish the book to start planning their launch — only to run out of time and wish they had planned ahead.

Here are some things to consider:

  • Brand strategy and positioning

  • Web assets (design and production) 

  • Digital marketing strategy

  • ARC reviews

  • Endorsements and testimonial outreach

  • Distribution plan

PROMOTION

Most authors I work with writing a book is not only an important personal milestone but they have specific business goals they want to achieve, like launching a speaking career, establishing thought leadership, positioning their brand, raising hourly rates and much more.

For some, the book might even be a catalyst for brand position or refresh. It becomes on most important assets for growing their business. If this is what you want your book to do, then you need to create an integrated promotion strategy early, consider how you might do:

  • PR strategy

  • Influencer outreach

  • Book tour

  • Speaker packet

  • TEDx outreach

  • Social media strategy

  • Media plan and training

Navigating the publishing process to save time, money and headache

Business authors often reach out to me in the middle of their publishing process because something extremely important was lost in the shuffle. A very common issue is that people often don’t know that their publishers don’t do things like marketing and promotion. At least not in the way they’d expect. They find themselves scrambling to figure out how to do it with the resources they have or fail to do the right things at this milestone. This mismatch in expectations causes the author to lose an opportunity to leverage their book to achieve their business goals.

Another common mistake authors make is not considering spending time on their brand positioning before finishing their manuscript, causing them to write and rewrite their books several times. This almost always lead to a messy and chaotic naming process but worst of all, a lot of wasted time and money on marketing asset production.

There are a lot more but you get the idea. If you are working on your first business book and need some help, don’t hesitate to reach out.