I've written a book and you can too!

Ever wanted to write a business book? In this episode, Justine spills the beans on the realities of authorship, from the publishing industry’s intricacies to the strategic use of a book as a marketing powerhouse.

Learn what it takes to go from idea to published author as Justine delves into the meticulous process of transforming a mere outline into a manuscript—discussing the end-to-end process including the costs plus consistency vs procrastination, the writing process and balancing book duties with running a business.

We'll uncover the critical importance of pre-sales, the hustle of marketing, and the weighty financial considerations that come with getting a book into the eager hands of readers.

Join us as we navigate the publishing roller coaster and how to create a book with the potential to empower business owners across the globe to reach financial success.

Want to grab a copy of my new book? Jump on the waitlist NOW!

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

You're listening to the Secrets of Successful Business podcast, your go-to source for business tips, tricks and proven strategies that will help you create a streamlined and profitable business. We chat to the best minds in business about their journey. It's my business and I'll do it my way, how they started, rather than going harder to get more focus on growing more with what you have, what they learned along the way. How long are you going to give this?

Speaker 2 0:29

What compromises are you going to make Just because you can do it?

Speaker 1 0:32

doesn't mean that you should do it. It's really important to remember that it's a long game and, of course, we'll ask them for their secret source for creating a successful business. If you're not feeling you're not doing it right, you should be struggling at times. That is part of the journey. Join us as we take a sneak peek behind the curtain. Talk solutions for those business pain points, working smarter, not harder, mindset and the challenges of fitting it all in with the demands of today's busy life style. If you're a business owner, side hustler or just starting your business journey, this podcast is for you. Now here's your host, business coach and content creator, justine McLean from Fawcay Creative.

Speaker 2 1:13

Hello and thanks for joining me on the podcast today. In case we haven't met, I'm Justine, a small business owner on a mission to uncover and share the secrets of creating and running a profitable, sustainable and successful business. I've been in business for over 20 years now and I get to use all that I've learned along the way to help other women in business reduce the overwhelm, gain visibility around their numbers, charge what they're worth and make more money. It's about designing a life you love that fits into your definition of success. So if I can help you create the profitable business you deserve, please reach out Now without further ado.

Speaker 2 1:51

Let's dive into today's episode. Hello and welcome to a brand new episode of the podcast and a big shout out to all of our international listeners, because I got some stats overnight that shows me that there are a lot of you in some pretty fabulously fascinating countries, a lot of which I have never been to and one day hope to visit. So thank you for tuning in from wherever you are in the world, it's amazing to have you here Now. If you have been following me on social media or following this podcast for a while, or if you get my newsletter, you'll know that I have just written a book. It is off with the publisher and they're doing their thing right now. 75,000 words, 20 days of writing, 10 days of edits all in the space of two months and it is going to publish in early June 2024. The book is called Become a Business Money Magnet Simple Ways to Manage your Money and Supercharge your Profits and it's something that I am really proud of.

Speaker 2 3:03

It's definitely not the book that I thought I would write when I was dreaming of writing a book when I was 17 or 18. That was surely some fantasy fiction novel that was set in a magical place with fantastic characters, but nevertheless, it is the book that was in me and the book that it turned out. I had to write and when Push came to shove, it was pretty easy for me to get it down on paper. So what's it all about? Well, just as the title says, it covers things like money mindset those essential financial foundations, the good money habits to the practical things that you need in business, like pricing for profit, learning how to tell the stories of your business number so that you're always in control, how to put on that consultant's hat and to grow your business to achieve the success that you want that success that is definitely on your terms. And in the book I share those simple habits that will help you manage your money and teach you exactly how to supercharge your profits. And the thing that I love about the book and I've had half a dozen readers now look at the book and the thing that they all love about the book is that you know, finance is not generally a sexy topic. There aren't too many of us who will be reaching out to pick up a finance book, but in every case the readers have said just how much they love the book, how easy it is to get through, it's very digestible, and what makes it really relatable for them are the case studies that are taken from real life situations and client experiences that I've had throughout my 30 years in business, and in addition to that there are tools and actionable step by step guides that will definitely help you improve your financial literacy and your business in the process. And my readers like the fact that they could see themselves in some of those case studies, but that in each of the case studies, especially where they could see themselves, I kind of went that one step further, shared those step by step processes that we used to go from where we were in the business to the outcomes, the amazing outcomes that we managed to achieve, and so all of the readers felt that was something that they could do and do really easily. So I'm super proud of the way it's turned out and I can't wait for it to publish now, and I hope everybody loves it as much as I do.

Speaker 2 5:33

When I first got my book contract back in gosh I think it was October last year I had a number of people reaching out to me and sort of saying well, how did I go about it? What was the process like? So I thought it would be worthwhile sharing that in this episode for anyone who might be interested in writing their own business book. First of all, to get a business book published, it's not that easy. There are lots of ways that you can go about it. Sure, you can self publish. I worked in the publishing industry many years ago and I know exactly what would have been involved in self publishing, so it's not something that I was particularly keen to do by myself, and so I really wanted to use a publisher.

Speaker 2 6:15

Now, the reality is that, particularly here in Australia, there are not too many mainstream publishers that they want to publish business books, but they are prepared to take a chance on an unknown or first time author. That's me, and also someone who doesn't have a massive social media following, because if you don't have that, how can you sell it? Okay, fair enough. That's probably also me, but I believe that there is some. You know that the quality in the book, the quality in the writing, the subject matter is hopefully going to speak to people and that once we get it out there, we'll kind of share that by word of mouth. Nevertheless, I understand where the publishers are coming from.

Speaker 2 6:56

So a lot of publishers are not really interested in working with authors on business books. They tend to go to big influencers who have got big followers and in some cases they will publish their books for no cost to the author. In fact, what they'll do is they'll give them an upfront royalty payment, or what's known as an advance, and so that allows the author to have some time to sit and write and not have to worry about running their business or finding other ways to get paid. But that is extremely rare. By far the most popular way to go about putting together a business book and to getting a publisher to say yes to your idea is really understanding from the outset that to publish your book it will probably cost you money. How much it will cost you is going to depend on the publisher, but essentially what you're doing is you are sharing the risk. You're putting some skin in the game to cover things like the editorial costs, getting the cover done, the printing of the book and the distribution, because, while all of these things sit in the publisher's area of expertise, what you're doing is you're just giving them some funds to go ahead and help them do that.

Speaker 2 8:13

So for me, there was definitely a cost to this book. I have essentially paid for an independent editor, along with the publisher, because I really wanted to make sure that this book hit Do. I think that I am going to make all of that money back? Probably not in book sales that is the reality. But what I'm hoping to do is to really promote the products and services that I offer and entice people to come into my programs and to work with me on a one-to-one basis or in my workshops to help them take that next step in their financial literacy journey.

Speaker 2 8:52

So when you are considering writing a business book, that is really the first thing. You need to know that in Australia in particular, it is going to cost you money. Whether you self publish or whether you go with the publisher, there will be some skin in the game financially on your behalf, so you have to be prepared for that cost. The next thing that you need to do is you need to really sit down and think about what your book is going to be about, what you are going to write about, what's the point? Who is your audience? Because you need to complete a publishing proposal and your publishing proposal is going to ask you all of those things and then some it's going to ask why you, why this book and why now, what is the outline of the book?

Speaker 2 9:38

So can you write out all of the chapters that will be in the book and really do a deep dive into what each of those chapters will be about? Who is going to help you promote your book? How are you going to market your book? How are you going to sell it? And in addition to that, it's going to want you to set out comparison titles so that the publisher doesn't really have to do that homework. You've done that homework, that market research to see who's written a book that might be a little bit like yours, so that they can do a sense, check on how it stacks up, how it stands up to the other title, but also they can look at that other title and see how that title is gone, because if that title has been a flop and your book is on the same you know subject, then most likely they won't take your book, because they'll just assume that your book will probably be a flop too. So there's lots of things that go into that publishing proposal, so you really need to be prepared for that, to sit down and put a comprehensive proposal together where you put everything in or your ideas, you lay it all out there on the table, and then, on top of that, you need to write at least one sample chapter.

Speaker 2 10:48

Some publishers will want two sample chapters. In my case, I only wrote the one. Why? Because they want to see if you can write what your tone is like, whether it is engaging, whether the work can be easily read, whether or not they're going to have to do a lot of work on their end in terms of the editorial before they can go ahead and publish. So the proposal is the first thing.

Speaker 2 11:13

Now, in my case, I sent my proposal out to three publishers. I was rejected by the first publisher because I didn't have a big enough social media following. They absolutely loved the idea. They told me, though, that business books were really hard to sell and not selling well in Australia at the time, and that in the previous 12 months, they'd only had one book that had done really well, and that was because the business owner, the business writer, had a big social media following. So unless I fit into that basket, I was out. They wished me good luck. They were very happy. They said that they hoped that I could prove them wrong because they felt that this was the book that was really needed in the market for all of those small business owners who were struggling with the finance. I got accepted then by the next two publishers who read my proposal, which was fantastic, and I spoke to both of them on a Zoom call and I really then just went with my gut.

Writing and Editing a Business Book

Speaker 2 12:13

My decision to go with the rural publishing company is something that I'm really happy I made, because I now live in regional New South Wales. While I'm definitely not rural, I'm not in a remote location. I'm in a region, which means that when you're out of the city you just don't tend to have the same resources and opportunities as business owners who are living and working in a major city in this country. So the rural publishing company really promotes and helps authors who are living in those regions not just published business books but also sorts of books, so both fiction and nonfiction titles. They've been amazing to work with really on the ball. They came up with a beautiful cover design. In my opinion, that absolutely hit my brief, because that's the other thing you have to do. You have to give them ideas about things like your cover, and they are in the process of doing their thing right now and they're going to promote, particularly in the region. So they're going, their outreach is going to be very much around regional publications and regional centres and bookstores, so that my book will have an opportunity to go into places that a lot of mainstream publishers won't even consider. In addition to that, they actually have access to all of the big publishers as well, so Amazon and Booktopia and all of the big bookstores and bookchains. So there are opportunities that are going to be everywhere for this book and I'm really thrilled with that decision.

Speaker 2 13:50

So once the contract was signed and delivered back to the publisher, it was then about the writing process, and while I got that signed and sent off back in October, I'll be honest, I procrastinated for a very long time about getting started on this book. Obviously, I had written the first chapter. I had sat down and put together a really comprehensive chapter outline and made notes of everything that I wanted to say in the book before I had, and I included that in my publishing proposal. But I now had to sit down and relook at that and decide whether or not that was going to hit the mark and then how I was going to write, what my writing process would be. And the interesting thing, the interesting stat that I kind of got at the time was that 97% of writers who actually sign book contracts never complete their manuscript. And that's according to someone called Synergy Whisperer. The publishers that I'd spoken to said it was more like 80% of people who sign contracts here in Australia never complete the manuscript.

Speaker 2 15:02

But it's such an interesting stat and, honestly, when you get started, it kind of makes sense. Why? Because first of all, as I said, you have to decide on what your process is. You can talk to a lot of different writers and they'll have a very different process, but you have to work out what your process is and then, once you know what that process is, you have to be disciplined about getting started and just stick at it. And that's not easy because some days you'll turn up to write and there are no words. Getting 500 words down on paper can take hours and can be excruciatingly frustrating, whereas there are other days when you can sit down to write and 3000 words just flow out of you and, given that I knew my target was 75,000 words, that was kind of a big, daunting task that was ahead of me.

Speaker 2 15:53

So I did a lot of procrastinating this side of Christmas. I did sit down and go through the table of contents and work out what it was that I wanted to say and I really kind of got that very honed as we led into Christmas of 2023. But then Christmas came, our kids came to visit, we had some weeks off and all the while in the back of my mind, I knew I had to write this book. I knew I had to get started and so I made this decision that once we got through the new year, in that first week of January, I would go back and I would kind of really hit it and I would be this dedicated, fabulous writer and I would sit down every day and I would do it. And that's certainly how it started.

Speaker 2 16:38

There were some days that I just could not work at all. I would sit down and write and I might as well have been just throwing spaghetti at the wall For all the work that I had done putting the outline together for the book. I just could not find the words to put down on paper or to put the words that I had in my head on paper in a way that would make sense to someone who wasn't necessarily a money person, because in the back of my mind I knew that I was writing my book for the me 30 years ago when I started my business, who definitely didn't do numbers. But then I also wanted to have a book that built on that, so that if you did have some understanding of numbers you could actually then take your business to the next level, grow it, scale it so that you were going to make money. I've even got a section in there on how to sell your business if you're at that stage. But sometimes that was just plain difficult to sit down and do.

Speaker 2 17:39

My process was that I'd get up in the morning, do my exercise, because if I don't exercise in the morning I don't really do it. So I would do that and then I would just sit at my desk and I would write. I did that before I checked emails, before I let any of the other stuff come in. I wouldn't even look at social media because I just knew that would be a distraction for me and I told myself that I had to sit for two hours and write. And sometimes when that two hours was up, I was praising God that it was done and happy for the 500 words that I'd managed to get out. And other times I'd get to that two hours and I would be on such a flow that I would write for three or four or sometimes even five hours solidly and just get it done until my brain no longer worked.

Speaker 2 18:27

The thing about writing that book and I did that in 20 days, with an occasional day of here and there, and I just wrote. I didn't sort of go back and sense, check and edit so much. I did sort of read and make, reread what I'd written in some cases and make sure it flowed. But I think the thing about doing that and doing that in such an intense way and not giving myself that longer period of time to write so in other words not getting started before Christmas, which is really what I should have done is that I had put myself under a lot of time pressure and even the time off that I had over Christmas in the back of my mind, that pressure was building and building because I knew I had a deadline. I knew I had to get the manuscript to the publisher by the end of February.

Speaker 2 19:10

So I kind of painted myself into a bit of a corner and in doing that it meant that because I was so focused on writing, a lot of the other things that I was doing in my business had to take a bit of a pause. So I still delivered all of my coaching sessions. I still delivered all of the speaking sessions and workshops that I'd been paid to do. I still turned up for my group, business Money Magnet, and we had great chats and conversations. But the selling in my business had to take a bit of a stop, a bit of a pause. There is absolutely no question about that.

Publishing a Business Book

Speaker 2 19:46

So I worked really hard over, you know, as I said, 20 days in total until I got to the end of the very last chapter, and then I needed to start the editing process. And so for me, the editing process literally started with me throwing each chapter into Grammarly and getting Grammarly to pick up spelling mistakes and punctuation and do a sense, check on things that you know maybe didn't make a lot of sense. So doing that and then doing rewrites as I read through every word took me another 10 days. Of course, in amongst all of that I was doing things like working with the publisher on the cover, thinking about how I could reference the book in the workshops that I was going to deliver, the sorts of ways I could tie everything that I was doing, you know now, even in the early part of this year, into, you know, the ultimate kind of sale of the book, and so I was thinking about all of that and doing all of that at the time. And then Kate Toon suggested that I get some readers on board to read the book. I had some family members who were reading the book and that was amazing because they're business people and they gave me some great thoughts around the book. But the readers that I got involved were people who were my ideal audience, my target audience, the people who I want to ultimately sell the book to, and those readers were fantastic because they all came back with different ideas and thoughts and I think I implemented just about every single one of them into the book.

Speaker 2 21:27

In addition to that, once I'd sort of done my editing process and taken in the readers thoughts, I had actually employed an independent editor, so separate to the publishing company, who is a seasoned author herself, but she's also she happens to be the editor, the managing editor of fightercomau. Her name is Sarah Megginson Shout out to Sarah, who has been amazing. And Sarah has done an independent edit of the book and looked at it from a sense check. Sarah is a finance person, so she understands she is super passionate about being an advocate for increasing financial literacy. So we're both on the same page, we both have the same mission, and so Sarah, had you know, was also able to make some great comments and suggestions, all of which have been taken into the book. So I delivered, finally, this completed manuscript to the publisher. It ended up being nine days late, nine days past the deadline, but my publisher, sarah and Topey, they were very forgiving and happy for me to do that, and so now it's sitting with the publisher. The process is that the publisher will read through and send it to their editor, who will come back to me with initial comments and thoughts after reading the book, things that they may want me to change or may think that we need to get rid of or move around, and so on and once that process is done, both the book and the cover will sit in essentially temporary digital files, and that enables the publisher to then put the book out for presale with places like Amazon and Booktopia.

Speaker 2 23:13

And the presale period is really important. Now there are some experts that say that should be anywhere between three to six months. For some people that will be a bit, you know, a little long. I think we're going for about the two to one a half month presale, probably around the two month, and in that presale period anybody who pre-orders the book via Amazon or any of the other publishers sorry, the other bookstores that are carrying the book, so it could be your local Dimmix, you know all of that counts in terms of the book kind of getting on a must have in your store. You know sort of list, I guess, is the best way to put it A very clunky way to put it, but still so because a lot of bookstores I mean you can imagine there are thousands of books that get published around the world every single week and so a lot of bookstores can't afford to carry all of that stock. They don't know what to take and so naturally they're going to take things that do well in presale and that people are the most interested in. So it's super important to be able to sell in presale. So if you are interested, I am going to put a link to a wait list in the show notes here so you can get on a list and I'll let you know when presale is live. And I would be very grateful, if you are interested in the book, that you go and buy it in presale so that it gets on that list of the must have books in your bookstore. So now the book is in the hands of the publisher and we're waiting for that to be finalised and go into these folders to sit in presale.

Speaker 2 24:50

It's kind of like the fun part. It's the PR planning, marketing planning, selling part. What is it that we're going to do to really promote the book? And I've got a few different events that I have got coming up over the coming months and in June, when the book is published, I'm going to have a few different events, day long events that are educational events, and we'll also have a book launch for the book at around that time. So there'll be lots happening in terms of the PR. We're looking for little gimmicky things that we can make that are going to help sell the book and get people interested. So I think things like t-shirts and stickers and bookmarks are things that have been suggested to me, so we need to work all of that out. But it's definitely the fun part. It's about me now increasing my visibility, trying to get myself on other people's podcasts, write blogs so that I can start to sell the book, and I am hiring a PR consultant to help me through April and May to give myself and to give the book the best shot of selling. So that is the process. That is the process from the beginning to almost the end, because I'm still waiting for it to appear on the shelves in a bookstore for writing any sort of book, really, but particularly for writing a business book.

Speaker 2 26:14

As I said, there are costs involved to write a book and to publish a book, a business book, and they start at around about $6,000 and they can go all the way up to $15,000, $20,000, $25,000. I've seen some of them. Fortunately for me, mine is at the lower end, which I'm very grateful for. And obviously then in terms of costs, because that is really important when you make a decision to do something like this for your business, I see my book as being that basic entry level to working with me. It's going to be that $27 tangible thing that you can hold in your hand and then make a decision about whether it's worth taking the next step in that journey of working with me. So it's definitely going to be a great tool for marketing and to kind of get my name out. There are a bit more in the business money space, which is really important to me. As I said, will I recoup the cost? Probably not through book sales, but certainly my aim is to recoup it through other sales.

Speaker 2 27:20

So, apart from the cost of actually working with a publisher, any additional costs you might have are things like your time, because the time that you're going to spend writing a book means that you're not really doing anything else in your business. So unless you've got a team that can sort of run with your business and deliver all the stuff, there's obviously that time cost which is really important to consider. In addition to that, you're going to have things like PR and marketing costs. If you employ specific people to help with things like socials or run events, you're going to have those sorts of costs as well. There is definitely a cost involved in doing a launch event. So there's that to consider.

Speaker 2 28:00

If I've had a few people ask me if I'm going to create an audiobook at this stage, the answer to that is no. Why? Because it costs $5,000 for an audiobook and I don't know if it's worth it. I know a very prominent author who has got an audiobook for their bestselling business book and I think at last count they hadn't even sold a hundred copies of the audiobook. So there is no way that they have made money on those sales. So it's worth considering. But there's some of the basic costs that are involved. Obviously, you can employ your own readers. You can employ your own editor. I did contras with my readers so my readers got to come into my business money magnet program, you know, for the reading in a book, which has been great having some extra people in the program as well.

Speaker 2 28:55

But, they're the basic costs that go into selling or producing and selling a book, writing, producing and selling a book. So now, as I said, it's time for the fun part. It's sitting down, working out the marketing and PR campaign that is in the lead up to the book publication in June the official publication and to work out what to do in that pre-sale window, that eight or nine weeks that we're going to have in pre-sale to make sure that the book gets into all of the fabulous places so that it's sitting there on the shelves prominently and that people will be interested in buying it. So I hope I have answered all of those questions that I've been asked over the last couple of months about what it's like to make a business book, what the process is and how I found writing the book. At the end of it I enjoyed it. I'm really pleased with myself that I got to the end of it, proud of that personal accomplishment, because it's something that I always wanted to do for myself. So I'm very grateful that I've had that opportunity to do that.

Speaker 2 30:05

But I'm not going to lie, it is not an easy task and it definitely takes a lot of discipline and a lot of positive mindset when you are going through the process, because there will be times when you'll be thinking what on earth am I doing? Who will want to read something that I have put together? It's probably a load of nonsense, and I'm here to tell you that that is where the rubber hits the road, and for me that was the toughest part by far. It wasn't necessarily getting the words onto paper. It was kind of overcoming that mindset and then thinking, gosh, what will I do if this doesn't sell at all? This is a lot of work and a lot of expense, and what if it doesn't sell? But I think for me, having these independent readers look at my book and give me such beautiful feedback on it and say how valuable they found the read, I think that has given me the confidence to know that this is a needed book in the market and I hope it really hits the mark.

Speaker 2 31:09

So thank you for listening. Hope I've answered your questions. If I haven't, send me an email admin at flossyflossicomau or shoot me a DM over at Flossy Files on Instagram. More than happy to answer any questions that you've got about writing a book, and I would absolutely love it if you either bought my book in pre-sale or if you registered for the waitlist so I can tell you when the pre-sale starts, and I'm also going to put in the show notes links to any events that we have got coming up that are around the book. So thank you so much for listening. Until next time, keep on living your definition of success.

Speaker 1 31:56

Thanks for listening to the Secrets of Successful Business podcast. For more information on all things business, head to flossycomau and make sure you hit subscribe on the show so you don't miss another new episode. If you're enjoying the show, please give it a quick rating or review, share it on your socials or with friends who might enjoy it. Catch you next time.