This month we asked nonfiction authors to answer this question: For authors who’ve already been published, what would you do differently next time? Here’s what they had to say:
Heidi Dening
I would have spent a bit more time on the storytelling components of my chapters. Since publishing my book it has been such a pleasant surprise to hear how intrigued my readers are with the various adversities that I have overcome, and it has made me realise that I should have made more of an effort in describing these situations. I should have asked for extra guidance in ensuring these stories were written in the best way possible.
Heidi Dening is an inspiring keynote speaker, author of a best-selling book called ‘Her Middle Name Is Courage – How Self-Leadership Transforms Pressure into Performance, Chaos into Clarity, and Rage into Resilience’ and she is currently on a crusade to make sure organisations and their people are resilient enough to come out of these stressful, uncertain and changeable times.
Steve Glaveski
I’m the author of two Wiley books, Employee to Entrepreneur, and the forthcoming Time Rich. What I’m doing differently for my forthcoming book, when it comes to marketing, is expanding my audience by honing in on secondary markets. As I wrote in the following blog posts, if you write a book on business leadership, you can expand your audience by writing for and appearing on podcasts in adjacent categories such as sports leadership, military leadership and so on. 10X Your Reach with Secondary Markets.
I will also lean heavily on warm introductions to editors and podcasters where possible, and will prioritise a virtual book tour where I can get in front of thousands of people per commitment.
Dee Scown
I have been truly blessed with the process I have gone through with Global Publishing so the changes I would make are more about my belief systems and limits and about other mindset issues that arose during the process.
1. Believe in yourself, that you can do this
2. Belief that others will want to “hear” what you have to say
3. Come to terms with the required language level early (my belief was it needed to be highly intellectual in language and grammar – but bringing it back to conversational has worked better)
4. Realizing that people want shorter reads these days
Sue Williams
I would make sure that I had a clear outline and structure, including titles for each section and chapter. I would work out the total word count and word count for each section and chapter and only start writing once I was clear on my structure. Sue Williams, Editor of 3 books on the topic of self-belief for women and award-winning poetry book “I Am Unique”. www.sue-williams.com
Gael Gilliland
Next time I will be launching my book properly, complete with great fanfare, adulation and applause. Never again will I publish a book into obscurity and spend the following 4 years trying to get it off the ground without a proper welcoming party. Publishing a book warrants a book shower, an opportunity for the people who love me to share my creation far and wide.
Gael Gilliland is the founder of The Legacy Recorder, a writer/author/business consultant, and millennial mother of three future creatives, who in the present day give her daily inspiration and a few grey hairs. https://gaelgilliland.com/
Michelle Hannah
My name is Dr. Michelle R. Hannah, relationship coach, author, and public speaker. I have published 3 books and one workbook. I have learned quite a bit from self publishing. I realized that having a well thought put marketing plan is essential to the success of your book. Also the people or organizations that you have referenced in your book can be an important part of marketing your book after all they are featured in your book. If you are a speaker, attaching yourself to events that relate to your topic is a great idea because not only will you sale books but you can pick up other speaking engagements-they could purchase your books for the entire conference/workshop. I would also utilize social media to sale books, set up webinars that are based on the topics in my book therefore selling more books. Lastly, I would send request for readers to review my book through Amazon. Michelle Hannah.
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