Published & Black Podcast
Welcome to the Published + Black Podcast, where the worlds of self-publishing, business, and life converge. I'm Tiffany A Green-Hood, your host, Publisher, Author, Coach, and Design Strategist. Join me each week as we delve into the hidden stories behind self-publishing triumphs and the intricate world of publishing.
Together, we'll illuminate the brilliance of black authors, exploring their captivating narratives and honoring their achievements. Our journey doesn't stop there – we'll delve into the art of crafting impactful author brands that extend beyond books and messages.
Prepare to dive into profound discussions, gain invaluable insights, and unlock the secrets of navigating the ever-evolving landscape of self-publishing, while touching on crucial aspects of both business and life. Whether you're a wordsmith, an entrepreneur, or simply in pursuit of inspiration, the Published + Black Podcast is your empowerment destination. Tune in, learn, and embrace the journey with me, your host, Tiffany. 🎧📚
Published & Black Podcast
Authors, What to Do Before You Publish
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Before publishing your book, set up a pre-order campaign to start making money and building buzz months in advance of your release date. Your voice and story have real monetary value—don't leave that money on the table by waiting until after publication to start earning.
• Pre-order campaigns require only a book cover, landing page, payment link, and release date
• Invest in professional cover design—avoid generic images and amateur photography that signal "unpublished"
• Choose a brandable title that could work for conferences, workshops, or other business extensions
• Register for ISBN (from Bowker) and Library of Congress Control Number before publication
• Create a professional online presence with at least a landing page to sell your pre-orders
• Treat your self-published book as a legitimate business product, not a hobby
• Early purchasers trust you with their money—reward them with special incentives or signed copies
• Use social media strategically, focusing on video content for platforms like TikTok and YouTube
Join my email list at publishwithtiffany.com, check out Publishing Black Magazine, and stay tuned for the Publishing Black Chamber of Commerce.
Stay tuned for Published in Black, the go-to radio show for black authors, creatives and entrepreneurs ready to turn their stories into success. Hosted by publishing expert and brand strategist, tiffany A Greenhood, each show will deliver real talk, powerful strategies and insider knowledge on self-publishing, brand building, wealth creation and making an impact with your voice. Whether you're writing your first book, growing your business or scaling your influence, published in Black will equip you with the tools, inspiration and unapologetic confidence to thrive. Listen now and be informed.
Speaker 2:Hey, hello, hello, hello. It's good to be back. This is black radio. I am your host. Tiffany, a green hood. How is everyone? Today? We're gonna hop right in.
Speaker 2:So today I want to talk about what to do before you publish the book. Before you publish the book, before you publish the book, there's some preparation and certain things that can be done that will affect everything when it comes to marketing your book, when it comes to you pushing the message of your book, all that good stuff. So I want to hop right in and talk about that today. I hope everyone is well. I hope you woke up, on the good side and just really thanking God to be here, because it's so much going on now in 2025 that everybody's not waking up period. So stay woke is not waking up period. So, um, stay woke, spiritually, mentally, physically. Um, be thankful, make sure you are implementing gratitude in your conversations every day, all that stuff. And so you know my focus is don't leave here without publishing a book. Do not leave here without publishing a book one book, two books, three books, whatever and don't just publish it and let it sit. It is produced to make money. So we're going to hop right in. We can give a little homework real quick. Make sure that, if this is your first time or you have listened to me several times, make sure that you are on my email list. Okay, you can join my email list. At publishwithtiffanycom, you can check out the magazine at publishing black magazine and stay tuned for the publishing black chamber of commerce, okay, so, um, publishwithtiffanycom will give you every link that I just said, but you want to click that first link when you go to publishwithtiffanycom and join the email list. Okay, so, let's hop right in.
Speaker 2:So, before you publish your book, what is it that you need to do? The one thing that I try to educate authors on is a pre-order. Make sure you do a pre-order campaign. What is a pre-order campaign? This is do a pre-order campaign. What is a pre-order campaign? This is where you're able to make money before your book is published. Yes, you can do that. People do it all the time. They do it with the movies all the time. In the film industry. It's always done.
Speaker 2:You want to do a pre? You can do a pre-order, even if you're launching a brand or you're launching a course or you're launching an event. You can do that. Ok, so, but today we're talking about books. So you want to make sure that you set up a preorder campaign. You only need your book cover, a landing page and a pay link and your release date. You definitely have to have a release date in place, realistic release date. Okay, don't say you're going to release next week and you know there's no way possible. You can get that done, okay. So, but just to give you a little comfort, you can plan a pre-order campaign for your book up to 12 months, up to a year. Yes, you could do six months, you could do three months, 90 days, however you want to do. But the thing is to take advantage of that time that you can market that book as much as possible and get those pre-orders in. People will pay for your book prior to you releasing it. That means they're paying up front for your book. The book is not out yet, the physical copy is not ready yet, but they will pay. That means that people trust you when they do that. Okay. So you want to keep up your end of the deal and make sure that it is right and ready when it does release.
Speaker 2:Okay, so for a pre-order, all you need is your cover design, a dope cover design. Don't come out here with these generic covers, with these flower pots. Yes, I see it. I'm sick of seeing books like that. You think if you're doing something about increasing money, that you got to put a flower pot on the front. Stop doing that. Can't stand a flower pot, um covers looking a hot mess. Don't do that. Don't do that. Then you be mad when your book don't get chose for certain stuff because you put a wet cover on there. Stop doing that. Okay, and if you're going to be on the cover of your book and there's nothing wrong with that you want to go and get professional photos. Professional photos, okay, um, that's a biggie.
Speaker 2:So, but you need your cover, your release date, decide on a release date. Okay, your cover and your title must be in line. It must be aligned with the information that you have inside your book. So if it's about your life story, you still need an overall message. What is the message? What is the takeaway that you want me to have after I read your book?
Speaker 2:Okay, so, and another thing I want to say stop putting your whole life on the back of the book. We don't care. We don't care about that. Stop putting your whole life on the back of the book. We don't care. We don't care about that. Stop putting your whole life on the back of the book. I have had to go back and forth with authors about that for years. They want to put their whole entire life. We don't care about all the wars you got and this, and that there's a place for that. Okay, that can go on your website. That information can go on your website. We ain't doing that much reading on the back of your book. We really just want to see what the book is about. So you need a brief, juicy synopsis. Whether it's fiction, nonfiction, self-help, whatever it is, we need a synopsis to tell us whether or not we need to purchase this book or not, because, keep in mind, your book is not for everybody. Okay, so cover design I have to stay focused because I will get off on something else. Cover design, landing page, release date Okay, and that is what you need to start promoting your book for pre-order.
Speaker 2:Okay, you definitely want to be on social media, across social media, if you, if you are not a social media person and you have the audience, that's not social media great. Just pre-sell the book. You still need a link for them to pay you. I mean, if they're gonna give you cash, that's you know, I guess. But you don't need a full website either.
Speaker 2:Let me say that there are platforms out here like Canva you can create a landing page on. You do need to Canva pro account. You can create a landing page and a pay link for your book, so your pay link would have to be connected to a pay hip, a gumroad stand store beacons, something like that. Um, you can use paypal. I don't promote paypal. We don't do paypal no more. Paypal do not support the business owner. But, um, you definitely need to pay link.
Speaker 2:If you already have a website, then you in business I. You can even have a landing page or page dedicated to the book on your website, depending on what kind of website you have. If you already have a website that is your name dot com and it's all about you, that would be the perfect website to place your book on preorder. Ok, just so you understand. But I don't want you to panic. If you don't have a website, you can definitely create a landing page on other platforms like um, canva or Stan store. Um, I love Stan store, that's what I have, and so it would allow me to place. Now, stan store is made for digital products. However, you can use one of those links to place a physical product on there. Okay, um, and you will put it for um, whatever is the price. So let me go over the price. When you price your book for pre-order, you're going to do your book.
Speaker 2:Let's say your book is not scheduled to release in January. Okay, that's the official release date. But you want to do pre-orders and you want to start. Let's say you want to start in August. Okay, perfect example. Say you want to start in August. Okay, perfect example. You will start your pre-order in August.
Speaker 2:But there must be some kind of incentive that they're getting, because you have to look at your pre-order purchases, as these are the people that want first dibs. You know what I'm saying. They're kind of like your VIP people. They trust you, they won't hate, they willing to give you their money for your book that's not finished yet. So that's a big trust. They trust in you, okay, so you want to give them some kind of incentive.
Speaker 2:So, whatever it is, it could be um, they get a signed copy. You want to put them some extra in there, like a book mark or, um, thank you card. You know, maybe get some cute little boxes for all the people that pre-order, or cute little bag or something. You just want to be extra and make them feel special because they purchased your book before the official date. That says a lot, you know. So you want to keep that in mind when it comes to pre-orders.
Speaker 2:But all you need is a cover design, cover design um, all you need is a cover design, cover design, release date and landing page and pay link period. That's it. That is not a lot, okay. So for all y'all to sit around and always tell me I don't know, I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do, listen, you have no excuses. I come on here, I give you the links, I give you the resources and all that that you can at least get started with okay, and we're gonna get started with Okay, and we're going to get started with our first song. I'll be right back.
Speaker 3:Cause you take me higher, higher. There is nowhere I wouldn't go. It's true, lord, take me higher and higher. Give me more of your glory, yes, more of your spirit. God, I just need more of you, cause I wanna be lost in your presence. Yes, I wanna be wrapped in your love. Take me higher, higher To my glory. Blessed by your story, I'm amazed at your love Healing up for me Higher, higher. Just a little. Hide me the rest of you. Show me the truth. It's what I can boast of you, yes yes, so we want to.
Speaker 2:We don't want to leave out pre-orders, okay, and so also, yes, you can. Let me just say this leave out pre-orders, okay. And so also, yes, you can. Let me just say this you can pre-order your journals. You can do a pre-order campaign for your workbooks. You can do a pre-order campaign for your business launch.
Speaker 2:If you launching a new business or a new sector in your business, right so, you already have a business, but you, you adding a new recipe or a new um addition. That's a part of your business, but just a different. You know we have legs to our business, right so, um, you can do a pre-order for anything, okay, but do not leave money on the table when it comes to this book. You want to get all the money, okay. I'm always talking about how to get to the money. Yeah, you get to the money before the book is released. You just, you just need to do it, plan it. If you don't know how to do it, call me, you can, I can, you can pay me to do it, set it up, okay, but you want to have it and you cannot put it on pre-order and then just expect the sales to come in.
Speaker 2:We got to get rid of that type of thinking. You have to promote the and you cannot put it on pre-order and then just expect the sales to come in. We got to get rid of that type of thinking. You have to promote the book. You should be going live. And of course, I'm talking about social media, because that's what everybody is. They own social media period. I'm in the radio station but I'm still logged in to TikTok or Facebook or something, because that's where people are. So I'm going to promote my replay to this episode and all my other ones on social media. That's what people are, period. So, whether you like it or not, you're leaving money on the table if you are not tuned in with it. Okay, so cover design Okay so cover design. We say a cover design.
Speaker 2:Landing page release date and cover design, landing page, release date and something else, but I'm sure I said it earlier. Okay, so, moving right along, so things that you need to do before your book is published. You want to do a pre-order campaign. We talked about that. You want to make sure your cover design is on point. You want to make sure your title is on point. If your title I say this all the time if your title cannot be a conference workshop, if it cannot be a conference workshop membership, something that you can use that same title for, if you can't take that title and place it on top of an event or something else, that's not your right title. And I'm speaking from you know, if you're writing about your life, if you're writing about um, if you're writing a self-help, you know seven steps to do X, y, z or something like that. That could be slightly different, but if you title it right, it's a phrase, it's a power, it could be one.
Speaker 2:Your title of your book can be one word. Think about all the people that you know, celebrities or popular, your favorite pastor, whoever that wrote a book and it was one word. One word can be powerful. You don't want to have something long and drawn out because you're trying to say everything in the title. Stop doing that. What you're doing is you're overdoing it, you're doing too much, and too much will just wipe you out and nobody wants to really hear about it. Because you're doing too much. Okay, more is less is more. Just keep that in mind. Less is more. So one word can be totally powerful. Three words can be good. Just don't. And then, if you want to say anything else, you can put that in your subtitle, okay. So, um, your pre-order campaign a dope cover design, a dope title.
Speaker 2:You want to purchase your ISBN. You only purchase your ISBN from myidentifierscom, which is balkercom B-O-W-K-E-R. And then you want to register for your LCCN number, which is your Library of Congress number for your book. It goes on your copyright page Okay, what that does is that registers your book for the Library of Congress, which means it makes it available to the libraries and schools and all that stuff. Okay, that's very important.
Speaker 2:So, when you go to because that's what I teach, your regular publisher will not even tell you this, but I teach go to the libraries and get your books in these libraries. Okay, some of them act funny, but you have a right to have your book inside the library. Each library has their own process and what to do and all of that the requirements. So you want to, um, just walk in and ask them how do? And all of that the requirements. So you want to just walk in and ask them how do I get my book inside the library? And they'll either give you a paper or something or tell you, or whatever the case is, but don't let them tell you that your book cannot be in the library. And when you have your LCC in. This is why I say this is very important when you have that already, that means that you are already in their system period.
Speaker 2:Most libraries order their books from IngramSparkcom. That is one of the largest publishing companies. Global Distribution Hubs is one of the largest distribution companies when it comes to publishing Okay companies when it comes to publishing Okay, and they service very well on a large scale, self-published authors Okay. Don't let any library tell you that you cannot get your book in there. Don't let them tell you that they and I'm telling y'all this because I've experienced it, my clients have experienced it Don't let them tell you that they don't usually place self-published books. That's they lying. Okay, they be acting funny, but they can't when you have all your credentials. See, that's the thing about being official when you have your credentials in order when it comes to your book and this.
Speaker 2:This is another reason why I'm heavy on cover design, cause when you come in there with that flower pot book, they ain't thinking about you. You know what I'm saying. But when you have a professionally professional cover design and it's crisp and ready, they can't deny you. You come in there. Your book should look like you already a New York Times bestseller. Since y'all want that title so bad, then you should be doing everything in your power to look like what that looks like. What does a New York Times bestseller books cover look like? What does it look like? You don't have flower pots. They don't put flower pots on their covers. I'm just saying I hope I'm stepping on somebody's toes today because I'm sick of seeing it. I'm sick of seeing the cell phone photos on your covers. That's not going to get you to what you think. This book is going to bring you Millions, baby. It's not going to bring you millions with them. Flower pots on them covers and them blurry pictures and cell phone pictures and stuff.
Speaker 2:Come on, it's time to wake up and grow up and stand up when it comes to this. Self-publishing is a business, okay, so you need to treat it as one. Okay, it's not grandma business, it's your business. And think about this this is not 1985. This is 2025. We have no excuses to look to part when we show up with our book for speaking engagements or whatever it is we got going on. We need to show up, like we already, where we say we want to be okay.
Speaker 2:So y'all know, I'm uh, I can't. It's certain things I just can't leave out, all right. So, um, your cover design, your pre-order campaign, your isbn and lccn okay. Another thing that I want to say that's important is to have you a website If you can't afford I can't even say you can't afford, because websites are minimal costs nowadays. Wix is what? About $20 a month, you know? Um, canva has amazing. I use their landing pages all the time for my own stuff. Um, shopify Shopify is now $39 a month. It's so worth it because you get to add in products. I love Shopify. I have three of them Okay.
Speaker 2:So, um, you want to have your website. If you can't do a whole full website right now, you can do a landing page, something that says who you are and what you do, a professional headshot on there. If you don't have money to do a photo shoot, guess what Do you? Some AI headshots period, I have them. I use them all the time, okay. So it's so many ways we can show up. We can show up and get exactly what is for us Okay, and we want to show up looking like where they breaking their neck to connect with you. Otherwise, when you're trying to connect with you, you got a flower pot on your cover. I'm just saying and we're going to go to break.
Speaker 3:Everything. I don't want it, I don't need it. God, won't you take everything. I don't want it, I don't need it. God, I just want you, I just want you, I Just want you, I Just want you, I just want you, we just want you, we just want you, we just want you, we just want you. Yeah, we just want you, we just want you. So take everything. I don't want it, I don't want it, I don't want it. So take everything. I don't need, I don't need, I just want you, I just want you All right.
Speaker 2:So, yes, we are going to show up. We are not coming with all the old advice that people will be trying to give us. Oh, you know, you gotta wait to get your name out there. Listen, in 2025 we got no excuses. If you show up the way you need to be showing up and you know what you need to do, then you don't have any excuses. People will be breaking their necks to connect with you, to ask you to speak at their conference, to ask you to speak at their workshop, to ask you to. Can you their conference to ask you to speak at their workshop, to ask you to. Can you come to the church and do a workshop? What's your fee? How do I get on a call with you? People ask me that all the time when I especially when I'm somewhere and I'm I speak. You have to realize how powerful your voice is, how powerful your story is. Okay, and your book? Your book don't even have to be about your story. But let's just be honest. Any books that we put out, it's connected to our story. It's connected to us, period, that's it.
Speaker 2:You get to a point to where you you tired of watching, when you're gonna get sick of sitting and watching everybody else launch their stuff and you trying to put together and overthinking and doing this and doing that. Then you got your medical issues and you got all these excuses. When are you going to get to the point to where you just say you know what I'm going all in wherever I'm at? You cannot wait till the money show up. You got to help the money show up. Your book helps the money show up. I ain't about to go there today. Your book helps the money show up, okay. So define your purpose and profit plan. How much money do you want to make with this book? It don't come overnight, but if you set it up the right way and you're consistent with showing up and consistent with promoting yourself and consistent with marketing, guess what? You can get them. Numbers that you want and don't shade on. If your goal is six figures or five figures or four figures, listen, they all numbers that money spend the same way. So don't shade yourself. If you, your goal is five figures and you only made three figures, right, it's okay, all right.
Speaker 2:Books make real money. This is what I need you to know. Books make real money. Your voice makes real money. Ok, I need you to know that for real. Ok, people out here now I have come across people who have written their books and they're like, oh no, I don't want to sell it, I just want to. I just want to bless somebody. Ok, fine, this ain't the club for you. Then we over here, we gonna, we gonna make some money with our books, with our story, with all the crap we've been through. We're gonna make some money with that. Okay, that's what books are for. Okay, and and as long as you title your book right that's why I talk about your title should be brandable we should be able to take that same title and put it on top of something else and it's still pop. That's how you know you got the right title.
Speaker 2:Stop trying to be deep, stop trying to put everything out front and all that. Stop it. It's messing you up, you're wasting time and then guess what? It's keeping you broke. It's keeping you broke, okay. So, um, so um. You want to be presenting.
Speaker 2:If you're on social media, you want to definitely be presenting your social media platforms in the best capacity period. What's popular now is videos, reels, stories. Okay, take talk is a video platform. Don't come on here posting pictures. It's a video platform. Okay, youtube. I just started taking my youtube series. I've been on youtube since I say it's 2011 on my account. Don't judge me. I've been posting consistently the last two, three weeks on on youtube and I am gaining. I'm almost at 200 subscribers. What I'm at? 58 000 views. Just had my first video hit 12,000 views on YouTube. Go follow me on YouTube. All of my social media is black writer space. One word with two s's black writer space. So go follow me on all the platforms, but listen, make social media work for you. Okay, it's there to promote you, your, your book, all that and help you get to the money. I'm here to help you. Ok, join my email list and publish with Tiffany dot com, and you can also check out the replays and publish in black podcast dot com. All right, I'll see y'all next week.
Speaker 1:You have been listening to, published in black with publishing expert and brand strategist, tiffany a green hood. Listen next week for real talk, powerful strategies and much more. Again, we thank you for listening.
