Behind-The-Scenes: I’m Publishing My Next Book This Month
I pull back the curtain on the process
The last time I published a book was in August 2021. Yep, it’s been more than a year. But many things have happened since then, and I have had to rewrite most of my latest book.
All that to say, my fifth book is coming out this month and I couldn’t be more than happy to share about it and give you a behind-the-scenes look at the process.
It was posted like this that helped me get off the couch initially and publish my first book. A self-published author shared about his second book coming out, and he walked us through the process.
At the end of the article, I said to myself, “I could do that.”
Not because I’m overly proud but because he shared easy steps to follow and get started. He pointed to his other resources, which were helpful too.
Today, I want to share with you my process and the things I have been learning as I prepare to launch my next book.
What is My Book About?
This book is a bible study devotional on The Gospel of Matthew. It is my third devotional, the fifth book I will publish on Amazon. It is a 28-day devotional that helps people grow closer to God.
Walking the Journey of this Book
I started writing this book in April 2020. Yep, over two years ago. I thought I would have it done by the beginning of this year. After all, I finished the first draft in March 2021.
Why did it take so long?
Well, we had a baby. Then when life started to level out, we had some loss in our family, got Covid, and my day job changed, which messed with my margin to work on books.
At the beginning of this year, I started working on the book again. As I was doing personal edits, I realized I had some significant rewrites to do.
These rewrites took me a few months this year, but I felt good about how they turned out. So, I sent it off to my editor.
We are hitting the home stretch.
In the last two months, I have been working with my editor and cover designer (who I have worked with on both devotionals) to get this book together.
During this time, I have been so encouraged and excited to share my book, but I wanted to ensure that I had everything written before we got close to sharing the book.
The time is now. The book will publish this month.
A Few Lessons from Writing and Publishing this Book
As always, there are lessons to be learned from any experience. With this new book, I have found a few places of improvement for the future, and I thought I would share them with you today.
Create a timeline for deadlines.
This time around, I set deadlines for my book, but I didn’t put much of a plan as to how I was going to hit those goals.
If I had created clearer timelines, it would have helped me when things in life crept into writing time.
Include accountability team members.
I consider my editor and cover designer team members. However, I realize I need a few people to keep me accountable.
Not in an aggressive way, but primarily for checking in with me while I work on my book.
Start creating buzz sooner.
With all of my books, I started growing a launch team around one month before I published. This has worked okay in the past.
However, this time around, having that early buzz would have helped through the hard work in the final legs.
Spend one focused day a month working on the book.
Something that will help with future books is to take one day off of my day job a month to focus on my books.
Eight hours to work on the book would help me take giant leaps toward getting it done.
Network with other authors in my niche.
This feels like a lot of work for me most of the time. I am pretty extroverted, but I struggle with networking.
However, I feel like this has helped with books in the past, and I have connected with some great people and could have done this better this time.
Do you want to learn more about the book launch?
I have been part of a dozen book launches over the last few years. In each one, I have learned something valuable in the process.
Some of the books were right in my lane and niche. Others were a bit outside of it, but I learned helpful tools to book launches.
Do you want to join my book launch team?
I want to invite you to join my book launch team.
In joining my book launch team, you will be added to a special email list that will only be used for this book launch and future books. Here is what you expect with my book launch:
Emails: You will receive one email the week before launch. Daily emails during the first week of the book launch. And then weekly emails for three weeks after the book has been published. After that, I will send periodic updates on the text and updates on future books.
Free Copy of Book: In the email the week before launch, you will receive a free PDF copy of the book so you can read it ahead of the launch.
Download/order a copy of the book on Amazon. (Optional) You don’t have to do this, though it is helpful when leaving reviews on Amazon.
Leave a review on Amazon. One of the most critical parts of the book launch is reviews. Once the launch happens, it is helpful to leave a review. This is why I ask you to download/order a copy of the book so you will be a verified customer.
Share the book during launch week. Preferably every day during launch week, I would like you to share the book on social media, your blog, or anywhere else you share content.
A free book. I will also send you a copy of my free book, Breakthrough Prayer. I don’t sell this one at all, but I want to share with you what that can also look like.
You will have my email from this book launch. If you have a book you are working on or one already out there, feel free to share it with me, and I would love to help you however I can.
These are the basic things that you would do during launch week. I am not selling courses to go with the book, upgrade items, or anything like that.
Disclaimer: I want you to understand something before you join.
Before you join, I want to make something clear. This book is a Christian devotional book. It talks about God, faith in Jesus, prayer, and church.
One of the greatest lessons I have learned in being part of book launches is how important it is for people to believe in the book they will help promote.
If this doesn’t fit your beliefs, I understand if you don’t want to join, and I suggest that maybe you don’t join the team this time around.
I will have future books on other topics that I will share, and those might be a better fit for you. I wouldn’t want you to feel obligated to share something you aren’t comfortable sharing.
Join the Book Launch Team Today!
Now, that you have had a chance to look through everything, I would love to invite you again to join my book launch team and help me share this book with the world.
J.R. Heimbigner is a #1 Bestselling Author on Amazon who loves helping people grow in their faith and help writers become authors. You can connect with him on Medium, his website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Substack!
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