Write Your Book Like a Boss
Class Materials Archive
Hi and welcome! This page contains links to listen to (or download) the audio recordings of the 8 weekly classes and 3 bonus calls of “Write Your Book Like a Boss.”
Here is a link to my coaching calendar to sign up for your one hour of coaching with me. You can use this time to either refine your idea and develop a game plan and timeline before you get started, or as emotional support and question-asking during the class, or as part of a mini editorial review by me with on-the-phone feedback once you’ve gotten some chapters in the can.
I’m always happy to answer questions via email — reach out at kate@msmindbody.com.
Congrats and break a nail! (Just kidding — trying to think of a writerly equivalent of ‘break a leg.’)
Week 1: Introduction and Before You Start Writing
In Week 1, we cover:
- What it means if something crazy happens now that you’ve committed to moving forward with your book
- The biggest rule of book-writing: There is no one right way to write your book! (Really)
- Setting intentions
- The two-page book proposal–how to create it and how to use it
- Determine your audience
Week 2: Before You Start Writing
In Week 2, we cover:
- Research other titles that inspire you
- Read books that get you excited to write
- Get feedback from your audience
- Develop an elevator pitch
- Thoughts on your title
Week 3: Before You Start Writing and Getting Started
In Week 3, we cover:
- How to write your table of contents
- How to get and keep yourself in writing shape
- How to get started with shi*tty first drafts
- How to get started with finding your particular voice
- How to keep going by finding your rhythm
- How to keep going by embracing the tedium (which will be cont’d next week)
Week 4: Keep Going
In Week 4, we cover:
- Finding your rhythm and staying on track
- The secret ingredient to getting better
- Editing your own work
- More on title
- Revising–no one wants to do it, everyone needs to do it! You can’t change a book once it’s published, this is your chance to do it justice
Week 5: Self Vs. Traditional Publishing
In Week 5, we cover:
- More about revisings
- Self publishing vs. traditional publishing — the pros and cons
- Traditional publishing: How and why to get an agent
- Traditional publishing: Writing a book proposal
- Traditional publishing: The financials
- Self publishing: The team you need
- Self publishing: A timeline
- When things get hard–common fears and what to do about them
Week 6: Building Your Platform
In Week 6, we cover:
- Platform–what it is, why you should care, and how to build or grow one, including:
- Blog/website
- Social media
- Newsletter list
- Freebie
- How much time to commit to all this — a good target number is 4 hours/week
- Ways to get more visibility & sales on Amazon, including:
- Your author page
- Reviews
- Categories
- Blog book tours
- Pitching yourself and your book to the press
- Press release
- Tip sheets (see below for a few examples of mine from the Chill Guide)
- Funny national holidays
- Guest blogging
- Speaking events
- Start for free
- Speak anywhere
- Work up to a standard fee, sell books in back of room, meet potential clients–win/win/win!
- Virtual speaking events
- Teleclasses
- Telesummits
- Podcasts
- The golden rule to remember at all times about promoting yourself and your book — if you believe in your book and in your message, then telling people about it isn’t cheesy, it’s service.
Additional resources for this week:
My speaker sheet:
Tip sheets:
Week 7: Platform and Doubt
In Week 7, we cover:
- Blurbs–What they are, why you need them, and how to get them
- How to wrap your brain around calling yourself an “author”
- Asking for reviews
- Using a giveaway to encourage early sales
- Dealing with doubt, with insight on why it happens in the first place
- Dealing with “Who am I to be writing this book?”
Week 8: Case Studies and Building a Business
In Week 8, we cover:
- Case study of Regina Leeds, www.reginaleeds.com, who started with a self-published book and went on to publish 10 more books traditionally, with at least one of them becoming a NY Times bestseller
- Case study of Laura Vanderkam, www.lauravanderkam.com, who started as a freelance writer but who started researching time management and publishing books on that category — she chose a niche and ‘owned’ it — which also enables her to get more, higher profile, I assume higher paying freelance work and also have time to pursue more speculative stuff, such as writing novels
- Case study of Glennon Doyle Melton, www.momastery.com, who started as a blogger, morphed into a speaker, and then published a well-received book.
- Speaking
- Consulting
- Online classes
- Brand ambassadorship
Bonus 1: Book Editor Lara Asher
Lara is the founder of Asher Editorial and a NY Times-bestselling editor, publishing consultant and book doctor. She was also the editor of my first two books, and is a lovely person in general.
I asked her the following questions, and Tawona and Suzanne asked a couple more.
- Your official title was acquisitions editor. Can you explain what that means?
Can you tell us about the process you went through when you were acquiring manuscripts? - How important was it to you that a proposal came in through an agent?
- What was the standard procedure for manuscripts that came in unsolicited directly from authors?
- Can you share the story of the memoir you worked on that went on to become nominated for a National Book Award?
- What about a proposal or a book idea in general made it stand out to you?
- What about a proposal or a book idea pretty much immediately pointed the needle on your internal book meter to “NO”?
- What were some of your pet peeves of authors and prospective authors?
- What author traits did you treasure?
- Other than having proposals sent to you, how did you go about searching for new books to publish? Conferences, online communities, etc?
- What one or two pieces of advice do you have for people who believe they have a book in them, but have yet to publish a book?
Bonus 2: Self-Published Author and Crowdfunding Coach Jessica Tudos
Jessica is an Olympic gymnast and author of “Kika, The Upside Down Girl”–a book that she published on her own with funds she raised in a Kickstarter campaign.
Jessica shares a ton of information on whether crowdfunding is a good choice for you, how to choose your fundraising goal and rewards for donors, and how to market it so that it is successful. She also shares her story of self-publishing and the doors it opened for her. I was completely inspired by this conversation, I think you will be too!
Bonus 3: Book Publicist Sandra Beckwith
In this call, book publicity brainiac Sandy Beckwith gave us both the big picture of what it takes to promote a book, and also boiled it down to the three things that are really most important so you don’t drive yourself crazy.
Sandy’s website is buildbookbuzz.com/gift. You can sign up for her free weekly newsletter, which is fabulous, and you can also visit her shop, which has many affordably priced classes and other resources for authors who want more people to buy their books. 🙂 She also has a Build Book Buzz Facebook group which I am a member of and get a lot of value out of.
Come join us — I hope to see you there!