Marketing With A Book For Health Authorities

Janan Sarwar is a publisher, editor, and speaker with over a decade of experience in the publishing industry. She serves as the Deputy Editor of Health Authority Books and is the Publisher of Global Bookshelves International. Through her work, she is dedicated to elevating diverse voices and helping individuals share meaningful, impactful stories. Her background in editing, storytelling, and leadership informs her approach to collaborating with authors and bringing their ideas to life.

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I’m Samantha Perkins and this is Why You Write That?!?!?  This podcast is for anyone who wonders what authors were thinking when they shared that really detailed secret or their most embarrassing moment.  For writers, future writers, readers, and those who love words Join me as I interview authors and writers to uncover the truth behind why they share all the of those cringey details and what it feels like to air it all! So press play and get ready to hear the story behind the words

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Hello and welcome. Thank you so much for agreeing to come on today. I'm very excited to have this conversation with you. I'm really excited when I have a guest who is as interesting as you are, and I've been able to like deep dive into the things that you've been doing, and now I'm just pumped to share it with our listeners. But before we get started, let me go ahead and read your bio and introduce you to our listeners. So Shannon is a published editor, a publisher, editor, and speaker with over a decade of experience in the publishing industry. She serves as the deputy editor of the Health Authority Books and is the publisher of Global Bookshelves International. Through her work, she is dedicated to elevating diverse voices and helping individuals share meaningful, impactful stories. Her background in editing the storyteller and leadership informs her approach to collaborating with authors and bringing their ideas to life. So welcome. Thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

I'm so excited to chat with you today.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Yeah, same. I always let people know how I know of you. And I had the luxury of getting to listen to you speak at a recent event held by the Women's Business Center. And your topic was so interesting because it's something that I've worked in for a while. And it was how to use your book to raise your authority on a topic or to show people who you are in your business and what it is that you do and how you can use a book to do that. So do you want to talk to us just a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Yeah, absolutely. That was an amazing opportunity to be with the Women's Business Center and talk to entrepreneurs. I I anyone can elevate themselves, I believe, with sitting down and putting their knowledge and experience and expertise in a story. Stories can tell, stories can sell, stories can influence you to make change. And I think a lot of people are change makers out there. And there are people that are itching to be able to maybe they are a businesswoman or someone that has something that they've done for years. If you can explain it in a book and be published and have your book out there, I find it and the way I've said it in my talk when we first connected, it's you can utilize a book as a business card in a way too. So instead of handing out a business card, which is very me, me, me, I'm Janon, and this is what I do, and this is my information. You can flip the script, and a book can be written in such a way for entrepreneurs, anyway. So it is more about the reader. And it's about how the me, the person, the author is writing, how they can solve maybe the pain points or the problems of the person reading it. So that's one angle I think books can be used as a marketing tool. But I also think I love to read and I love books in general, and stories are just very powerful.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

I feel the exact same. And I do know for me personally that becoming a published author, just those two little words, does kind of elevate, it does help me market in a way that I wasn't able to do before, I guess is what I have to say. I always talk about, I was I had the topic that I wrote about for my memoir, I'd been talking about for a long time. I was blogging about it and talking about it well before I ever wrote my book. And I had like reached out to people about doing a speaking engagement and I was denied these opportunities over and over again. And once I became a published author, I started noticing that when I would apply to things, people would then somehow miraculously, I was then qualified, I guess, to come and speak at an event, or they just saw me as a more of an established person or more of an expert because I wrote a book about it. And so it is something that I think that people definitely don't utilize or you know see as being an opportunity for something like that.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

Absolutely. I mean, if you sat down long enough to write down and publish something, that's something that so many people say, oh, you should write a book about that. And the people that actually do, you do being a published author, the way you described it, it puts you in a unique echelon of people. So yes, that qualification suddenly comes that now that you're a published author and that prestige, I guess, that comes with it. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Um, so how did you get to this place? I guess I'm interested in how your work because you're a pharmacist. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

And so yeah, like how do these things go together? How do they all connect? Okay, so in a nutshell, I am a pharmacist that is allergic to working in a physical pharmacy setting. I should write a book about that. But in general, I went to pharmacy school because I had an actual drug allergy. Like I took a medication that put me in the hospital. I was in intensive care unit for I think two weeks, uh, very severe allergy to a medication when I was studying in undergrad. And that led to me being inspired to become a pharmacist, get to pharmacy school, realize that I truly am allergic, not just by taking the medication, but by being around working in pharmacy settings that have a lot of that process a lot of medication. So that eliminated the majority of job choices that you have as a pharmacist being around medications. The other path a lot of pharmacists take is that they go on and they go and work in hospital settings. I was in the ICU for those two weeks. I developed some sort of PTSD to hospitals at the time. I've gotten over it. But so I realized I really didn't want to work as a pharmacist in the traditional way. So my non-traditional way that led me to where we are with books is I did a fellowship in educational technology, fancy way of saying I helped a university, the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, take their curriculum and elevate their textbooks by in the coursework by converting it into digital media. That work led to a job at the American Pharmacist Association in their publishing division to take the books and other things that they produced for student pharmacists and have multimedia and everything attached to that. My desire and love of reading books and being a part of the publishing team, I learned everything. I started off as just the person that would acquire, like kind of an acquiring acquisitions editor. And over an eight-year period working at that association, I became the publisher of the, it's a nonprofit, the American Pharmacists Association, publishing textbooks that are nonfiction for mostly pharmacists that are written for pharmacy students or pharmacy technicians or other pharmacists. Loved that, did it for all of those years. And then that was around the pandemic time, 2020, 2021, that I transitioned into my writing. So you do ghostwriting. I've been doing kind of medical writing, ghostwriting for continuing medical education companies. So that was my transition before to earn an income before I became an entrepreneur. And it's a slow income as an entrepreneur, entrepreneur, but yeah, I own Global Bookshelves International, which is a small independent publishing imprint where I do focus on children's books. I'm not the editor of those. I have no expertise, but I contract and work with experts. And on the other hand, I also now work as the deputy editor for a health imprint called Health Authority Books by another indie publisher based out in California called Indie Books International. And that brings that connects everything together because I'm now I'm working with physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists as well, helping them get their books published. So that's the long story.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

It's such an interesting story, but I love how this all circled back around to books because I think that they're such a powerful tool. And I was just watching your TED talk about just how important books are. There's a book for that. And I'm kind of that person who will always be like, so much so that I think my friends roll their eyes because I'm like, oh my gosh, I was just reading about this, and so so-and-so says, and people are like, oh, here she goes again with another book recommendation. But I personally just find so much value in reading and learning, and both from like a how-to book or a business book, but also someone's personal story and also fiction. You know, I mean, there's just so much power. And I know that with your own publishing company, one of the things that you're doing is to try to reflect voices back. And I recorded another podcast episode about this. And you actually, I think, talked about the study that I was trying to articulate in the last podcast episode. It was something about how there's more characters that are vegetables and animals than there are representation of people of color or from different backgrounds other than white children. And I remember when I first heard that statistic, I was actually on the like the PTA for my kids' school and one of the principals had mentioned it. And I was like, what? And then I came home and started looking through my kids' bookshelves. And I was like, oh my gosh, like, how did this happen? This wasn't intentional. I wasn't paying attention, but now that I am, I'm seeing it so clearly. And so I love that what you're doing now is helping publish these books that are written to reflect a more accurate version of what our world looks like.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Absolutely. No, that's it's so unintentional. I don't think anyone's intentionally avoiding, but the publishing industry is changing. I will say there are more books. I recently went to a talk by Linda Sue Park. She visited Louisville, where we're both based, and she was talking, she's Korean American, and she wrote a book, and an all a teacher from a school came up to her and said, Thank you. I'm so glad that you published this. I'm gonna give this book. There's a Korean girl in my school, and I can't wait to give her this book. And she said, I'm glad, please give it to her, but please give it to all the other kids too. It's not written just for that Korean girl, it's written for everyone because yeah, this beautiful concept that books can be considered windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors. And we need all of those. So a book as a window helps us see another world, which is what a book about a Korean girl, which neither of us are Korean, it would be really helpful to learn and appreciate that as if we're looking through a window. And then likewise, for the Korean girl that does read that book, it's a mirror for them. And there is such benefit in having the diversity for everyone. It helps us all.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

Yeah, absolutely. And I think people forget that like even when I'm reading, let's say, a memoir about something that I have no interest in, you know, it really does ref it it helps broaden my what you said, empathy and appreciation and just connectedness to something that I really hadn't considered or thought of before. And so it's not just about, I think people, well, first of all, I I love there's the person I know that she she always like makes a joke. She says that the publishing industry is mostly white men named Steve, the publishers. And while we know that that's not true and it is getting a little bit better, it is just we need a lot of other voices, both in diverse humans, but also diverse experiences and so many different things. And so I'm so glad that it is taking a turn and that you're a part of that shift because I think it's absolutely needed.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Yeah, thank you. It's it's a joy. And to it's important to be able to spread these messages, like you're saying.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

So tell me about you, just kind of co-authored a book about this using it as marketing to be able to use your book as marketing. What was that process like?

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Yeah, so that book you're talking about is called Marketing with a Book for Healthcare Authorities. It's in the line of Marketing with a Book for by Indie Books International. So this is the book that I co-authored, as you just shared with Henry DeVries and Devin DeVries. They are the owners of Indie Books International. So it's really great that my first book that's out there is something I was very conscious, just as a side note, I didn't ever want to self-publish personally something like this. I have published my own thing in different manners, and I have nothing against self-publishing at all. But I think something that has authority like this that I'm about to share, I think it is important that it's done in a process by a publishing company that has all the individuals that knows the subject and helps edit and do the process in a and give it due diligence. But this book is about essentially just saying for healthcare authorities, but when I said it's marketing with the book for, for any authority, if you are an expert in that field, how can you leverage a book? And so it discusses actual entrepreneurs that we know that are healthcare authors that have utilized books and now they are speakers. And the book itself helped leverage that, as you alluded to. Other people have used their book as a way that people learned more about their process, and then that book helped them convert more clients, whether that was for one-on-one coaching or working with them in different ways, because that book did that thing where it told enough of the story that convinced the reader, wow, I really want to work with this person. I understand how they think now. I understand that they're serious because they sat down and wrote a whole book about this. And all that said, it's it was a really great process to write this book because we did have a framework. This book has other components, as I mentioned. So maybe I think the one of the best-selling books in the series is marketing a book for agency, for agency owners. And we took the template of how the book was written and then reapplied it to actual examples in healthcare. And so I was able to pull experiences that I had not prior to knowing my co-authors, Henry and Devin. They were able to bring stories that they had helped publish to life too. So it was a great collaborative process. It was interesting to go through the editing process as well because we had Devin was our lead author, and she kind of helped assign what we needed to do. And whenever I thought, oh, hey, I can contribute towards this or I have an idea, she was really open to that as well. So I think being able to be collaborative, open-minded, and be open to what the final product product is going to be. It was a lot a lengthy process as book writing is, and a lot of people are surprised. I thought it was actually lengthy considering that I thought, wow, we have a lot of this already put together. It's just about putting our examples in. But it's a it publishing takes time. So it was it was fun. And this just came out last year.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

Congratulations. And I think that that's something that you can definitely be proud of and hopefully are using it as a tool for your work as well. And I think that it brings me to a point about I think authors forget that if you're working with a publisher, and honestly, even if you are um self-publishing, like I would never encourage anyone to not self-publish without hiring and working with a really good editor, if not too, if not two good editors, a developmental editor to help you get your book organized, and then a copy editor and someone who can and so it is funny because I I think that writing is such a lonely process. But when you're writing professionally, you are collaborating. And so even when you're working with an editor, because I provide a lot of editing services, and I know that like I know what I'm starting to really frustrate the author, you know. And I and I and I'll even say it in my comments. I'm like, oh my gosh, don't kill me here. But I, you know, like this one piece, even though we've already worked on it, it's still not quite working, you know. And and so, you know, it can be, first of all, that length lengthens the project, but also it is more of a collaborative work, even if, you know, on your project, obviously you worked with two other authors, but also when you're just a solo author, you are collaborating, hopefully, if you're doing it right with someone who is helping you and shape it into something, you know, better. You always want it to get better. And even though you want it to be better, though, sometimes that is very frustrating when you're like, I just want to be done with this piece, or like, you know, I thought I was just gonna fill in this here and there, and now I suddenly have to rewrite this whole section. You know, it is um frustrating, but is part of the process, you know.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Absolutely. So, I mean, I have this unique angle in that this was my first time being the author on certain, you know, many parts of it. And after working with, I mean, I've I believe in the course of my life now, I've worked with over 200 authors. And I I've heard that the frustrating part is having to reread so many times. Like you feel like you're so close to it. And I totally understand that because you know, someone else changes something, right? An editor, or and now in my case, maybe another author or a copy editor, even changing a line and you're going back to it and you either miss it completely, right? If because you're so close, you might miss complete mistakes that you've made too. So yeah, absolutely believe it is a it's a team sport. Publishing is a team sport, no matter how you look at it.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

Yeah, you're absolutely right. And if you're going the traditional route, you are gonna have to adhere to the standards of your publisher. And that's a good thing, but it also means I I tell people like, you really want to know that you align with the publisher to begin with, you know, so that you don't, you're not midway through a project and you realize, like, oh, I don't even, you know, this person doesn't even, we don't have the same values, we don't have the same goals, I guess, for the project. And so it is important to do your research because I think a lot of times authors are just so excited to get picked up by anyone that they forget that they'll say yes to something when they don't maybe it's not the perfect fit. Yes, absolutely. Um, so what's it like working with all these authors? Because authors are some of my favorite people. I always say, like, you know, if you know, you know, like they are such amazing people who oftentimes aren't just working on the book, but they're also working a full-time job or managing their family or trying to get this thing that they love so much into the world. So, what's it like from your view to see them going through this process and to get to know them?

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Yeah, it it is a very intimate personal process, right? Writing is hard. And I love the premise of your podcast of like, how do people get to the point to being able to share their secrets or tell all? And I'm intrigued to listen to even more episodes that you've put out, but I do feel like I live it when I work with an author from start to finish. Often it's people who have these brilliant ideas, and it is being able to facilitate connecting them to the right people. As you said, maybe it is there are times that I'm not the perfect person to support in that first stage, but I connect them to the right person, and it is a beautiful process to see someone go from idea to published book. It is such a journey. There are ups and downs, and I try to warn people as much as I can. I think that's helped a lot of my more recent authors that I've worked all the way through to just say, because there it is, it can be overwhelming to be someone that you're you think the hard part is writing. Yeah. But the publishingslash promoting, yeah. Once even in promoting, it never ends. And that's a true journey that people face in a different way. They they're just like, oh, I just got through, I ran the marathon, and it's like, get ready for another one. We've got to start promoting before we even publish. We have to keep promoting. Um, and there's ups and downs. So I would say I really enjoy it. I it's I'm so passionate about helping people share their story, share their voice. I think it's really important, but it's important to be realistic and admit that it is a very, very, it can be very emotional process.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

I guess from a ghostwriting perspective too. How about for you? What was what's one of do you have a story or or anything you could share as well?

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Yeah, I mean, I think as a ghostwriter, the work that I'm doing is pretty straightforward in terms of they're kind of prepared for that. And they're the author is a little bit removed from that whole process. You know, like they kind of do get to see at the end this package thing. But I just was talking to someone I'm ghostwriting for, and they were like, oh, yeah, I didn't even think about the promotion. Of this. And I'm like, yeah, you know, it's going to be something that you're going to have to do. And I always say, like, a book can be something forever. So like I think a lot of times authors are like, when their book comes out, they they have a lot of momentum and they are really excited in those first few weeks and they talk about it. And then once that time ends, they're like, oh, well, I missed an opportunity or I didn't promote my book enough. And now it's that timeline is over. And I'm like, no, you know, you that timeline is forever. You know, like you didn't, this wasn't an, you know, an article that was in a magazine that's going to be thrown in the trash or in the recycling. You know, this is a book that someone can purchase. I mean, think about the books that you've read that maybe are 20 years old or 10 years old, or, you know, that you've picked up because someone recommended it. So I do try to encourage people that to focus like less on like this giant, you know, like burst of energy and to go at it at the snail's face. You know, this is it's going to be something that you have to find a way to put into your conversations and market on a regular basis forever.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

I think absolutely. And when I think of the emotions that I've heard, I mean, you just helped me remember and trigger there can be cold feet that show up a lot, especially. I mean, I think this is what also a theme of your podcast, too, of like, what if someone's gonna judge me? Isn't this good enough? Does my voice matter? And you know, it it hearing the same person who's so confident, so excited about their book, and maybe even during the editing process feels so attached to the words, right? It's very vulnerable to have your writing and then someone edit, right? And they might either get defensive or a little concerned about okay, we're changing something that I've put out there, and then that same thought of maybe I shouldn't even publish this, or maybe it's okay, or or even equating, oh, the book sales once the book is out there, it's not as what I thought it was or thought it should be, and then giving up on the promotion because you miss some window. I think these are all again, just being aware that these experiences and emotions can come up. I've learned as someone coaching people through the book process or being a publisher for at least the children's imprint that I have, of just being able to warn people as much as possible before they get to a phase. And everyone's like, I'm not gonna feel like that. That's not gonna happen to me. And, you know, I don't ever say I told you so. I don't, that's not the point at all. But it is, you know, just a reminder of what is the mission? And I think that's where it all starts. What is the person's mission or purpose? And if you can align with that, often it's I just wanna, if I can change one life. That's right. Or if I can publish a book and be a published author. So that's how we can redirect every time. And when you can calm down and catch yourself of why did we come here to begin with? What was my goal? What did I want? Because social media and these people being bestsellers and people saying you can sell millions of books and all these this noise that kind of gets to you and being in that comparison trap can absolutely make you feel like you're failing, quote unquote failing. But there's no such thing as failing. If you've gotten to the point that you're published, you're you're on even the fact that you're working on a publish bo publishing a book and then that you are publishing, that's so many strides above past where a lot of other people are. So it's progress over perfection. Yes, and anchoring.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

Yeah, that's so important. And I I the truth is this is a vulnerable process. It's not whether or not you will feel vulnerable. It will you will. It's 100% guaranteed. You know, even if you write, no matter what the topic is or genre, I think there's vulnerability, you know, because you're you are putting yourself out there in a way that, like you said, a lot of people haven't. It's a hard thing to do. And so when you go down this path, you know, you are really, you know, elevating yourself. And so that is vulnerable for a lot of people and kind of like growing and stretching is vulnerable too. And then on top of that, if anything in your top in your genre or your topic is even remotely personal, you know, that's an extra layer of just struggle that you will face. And I know for me, because a lot of what I write about is very personal. And I've never once like finished something and been like, oh yeah, that piece is perfect. That's just what I wanted. Every time, even all after all of these years, every time I still feel like, oh, that was vulnerable. And, you know, it's not a matter of getting over vulnerability. For me, it's a matter of getting comfortable with it and like knowing that um thicker skin, really growing a little bit of resilience to it because I'm a human and I'm learning and I'm growing. And there are times when I've written something and five minutes later I have a new idea and probably would have written something differently. But at the time, I did the best that I could. And so it's like that.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

No, I actually I will let me admit something huge here on your podcast. I've never said it out loud, but it's related to the book you asked me about, Marketing with the Book for Health Authorities. I think I even kind of downplayed it here in the last uh 30 minutes that we were talking. But, you know, it is it's always been a dream to see my name on the cover of a book because I have helped so many others publish. But there is, I even have something holding me back from talking about it all the time and promoting it because I'm like, oh, it's just one of one in their series. I am just one of the three people, but no, it is a big deal and I should talk about it more. So it happens to everyone. I talk to my authors where I'm like, hey, what if I don't see you promoting, or you know, if if you're not excited about your book, how is anyone else going to be? Right? That's that's one of the key important things. And people think, oh, I've already posted about it. No, unless they're your mom, no one is like stalking you to that degree, and maybe you don't even want your mom on social media. That's another story. But we think that we're bothering people by posting and we're oversharing, but the algorithms don't have it set that way. And if someone doesn't want to see your book, they can mute you. You don't have to mute yourself, right? If you're if you really do have, if you go back to the goal is hey, I wrote this because I want people to read it, you do have to keep refreshing and reminding yourself of that. And it's a reminder to myself first.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

Yeah, well, thank you for sharing that that you have those too, because anyone listening to this would be as a first-time author, especially, is probably feeling like a publisher is questioning, you know. And I just, it's just natural for so many of us, especially women, to feel this way. Um, and so I think that we're conditioned to to do that. And we have to really work and wrangle with it too. And I I I still struggle with it as well. I mean, it's easy for me to talk about this on the podcast, but if I saw you like a mom at my kid at my kids' school who said something, I would be like, um, I I write books or you know, question about it for for the very same reason of just like trying to juggle that, like being humble and just all of the messages that I've received that don't talk about yourself, don't stand out, don't take up space. And it's just trying to figure that out, you know, and it's not always easy. Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

Yeah, I literally am telling people promote, and I'm not doing it myself as as much as I should. So, no, this is a great reminder, and it's so real.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

Yeah, I'm gonna definitely promote your book on the podcast, but how else can I promote you? What else do you have going on? And how can you, women or authors, reach you so that they can have your expertise in this subject?

SPEAKER_01 30:14

Yeah, the the easiest way uh is my website is bookjan.com, b-o-o-k Janan, J-A-N-A-N, and there I link to my LinkedIn. I'm the only Janan Sarwar on LinkedIn that I know of. I happen to also be on the Read Z platform I recently joined because there are some fellow editors that told me, hey, you should be doing some of your book coaching there, which has been amazing. So I am a book coach and I do some related to health books, some editing as well. And yeah, I think those are the best ways to connect with me. What I have coming up is I do for health authorities, I have a podcast with my co-authors and co-editors of health authority books where we're interviewing uh healthcare authorities that have published or have not, just anybody that is um someone that's a health author, someone in health that has authority. Okay. Because you can't spell, can't spell author without you can't spell authority without author.

SPEAKER_02 31:24

Yeah, that's right. Um, well, that's awesome. And I'll definitely re encourage, I'm encouraging you now, listeners, to check out the website, especially the TED Talk. If you don't know or haven't, if you were like me and didn't know the statistics around representation, especially in children's books, but really all books, you know, it's definitely something worth learning about and um helping, you know, I think that anybody who loves books can appreciate how we want to diversify our bookshelves and in whatever ways that we can. And so when you're giving your friend a book recommendation, make sure that it includes a lot of different voices so that you can represent more of our world. Um thank you for the work that you do and thank you for coming on the podcast. And I'm just really um happy to have finally gotten to know you and I hope to see you around soon.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

Yes, thank you. Thanks for having me.