The Lazy Genius Podcast - #166 - Book Launching 101

Episode Date: July 13, 2020

There is something so fun about getting a behind-the-scenes look at something like publishing. We all read books, but y’all the whole industry is something else. There’s so much happening, and it���s all really interesting! Well, some of it is. Today, I want to share with you five things I learned about launching a book that I didn’t know before. Stuff Mentioned Preorder The Lazy Genius Way and get the entire Lazy Genius Library for free just for preordering. Details here! If you missed the episode A Peek Inside The Lazy Genius Way, you can listen to it here. My thoughts on goals and goal-setting: Quit Setting Stupid Goals, How I Handle Screwing Up My Goals, A Goals Pep Talk, and The Lazy Genius Sets Goals. If you’re interested in being part of a community, check out Hope*Writers. They open their doors to new members three times a year. Download a transcript of this episode.   This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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If you like what you find around here, I'd love to invite you to pre-order The Lazy Genius Way, which releases on August 11th. And as a thank you and as a way to tide you over until the book itself arrives, I'm giving you the entire Lazy Genius Digital Library for free. That's four A to Z actionable guides on decluttering, meal planning, staying sane through the holidays, which you'll be really glad to have once September rolls around, and cleaning the house. If you'd like more details, head to the lazy genius collective.com slash book. The lazy genius way is a book of 13 principles that are like a Swiss army knife

for crafting a life that matters to you. It's the perfect combination of efficiency and soul, and I hope you check it out. The lazy genius way. Embrace what matters, ditch what doesn't, and get stuff done. Hey everybody, you're listening to The Lazy Genius Podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi, and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is episode 166, book launching 101. There is something so fun about getting a behind-the-scenes look at something like publishing.

We all read books, but y'all, the whole industry is something else. There's so much happening, and it's all really interesting. Well, I mean, some of it is. I will share only the interesting parts. But today I want to share with you five things I learned about launching a book that I didn't know before and that will be interesting to you if one of the following three things are true. One, you like me and the idea of my book, the lazy genius way and want some scoop about how it's gone down. Number two, you have curiosity about publishing and launching because you hope to do that someday yourself. Number three, you know that life lessons learned from one area always affect the other areas and are curious about how book lessons apply to other things. So hopefully this will be interesting to all of you. So let's jump in with our five things. And they will get progressively shorter as we go through the list for sure. The first couple are a little longer. So just a heads up there. Okay. Number one, you don't have to turn in a perfect book. I talked about the process of writing a book

in a previous episode, which I'll put in the show notes, but the editing was not what I expected. I thought that when my first major manuscript deadline, when it rolled around, that my editor would expect a pretty fully formed book that I turned in, maybe not perfect, but kind of close, which is definitely my default brand and vibe is not perfect but kind of clothes, which is not great, guys. I'm trying to release that idea of like, yeah, I don't need to be perfect, but I'll come as close as I can. It's just, it's so stupid to live that way. So we need to calm down with that. But that does not need to happen in turning in your book and editing either. So here's, let me explain the chronology of editing.

I turned in my manuscript in May of 2019. It was a really big day. It was very exciting. And what's funny is, you know, you know, when you write a blog post or an Instagram caption or like even thinking back to writing an essay in college or something, you think, let me just read through this real quick one more time. I'm like sending an email, sending an important email. You know, let me just read through it one more time. Well, the inclination to do that is still there. but when what you wrote is an actual book, you can't just read through it one more time. It's a book. It's too long for that. It's also really hard to edit and work on something that's one singular piece, but so big. It's weird. It's like, it's really hard. It's really hard to do.

So when I turned in my first manuscript, I thought it was in really good shape. I really did. And to a point, it was. It was, I guess. But here's what an editor can do better than I can. An editor can somehow read the book, the actual, like big actual book and still keep up with what it feels like as a whole. That's her job to see the whole thing as one while still reading it in pieces or reading it over a larger amount of time because that's what a book requires. requires. So when my editor, her name is Susan, when Susan read my book, she saw so many things from a structural standpoint that I just didn't see. The content was there, but the way it was put together was definitely pretty raw. So if you're curious, my edits were basically this. I needed to have the same structure in each chapter, which the chapters did not have before when I turned it in

the first time. Some chapters started with a story, some ended with a story, some had really practical step-by-step ideas, and then others had none. And basically, I had to go back and create a chapter structure that could work for every single chapter, no matter what that chapter's principle was. And that was really hard because some of the principles are so tangible and helpful and actionable and concrete and then others are not. They are more soulful and an abstract. Now, you need both. That's what I love about this book and this lazy genius way, is that we equally embrace efficiency and being soulful. We see that lists are great, but so is rest. You need both. You can't really live life well without both. But the book needed to hold both in the same way, in the same shaped hands.

So that took a long time to figure out. The other big thing that came from edits was realizing that how you write a book is a lot different than how you write a blog post or a podcast episode. Most of my work online is written to a group of people. You know, a lot of you guys and y'all and such, but a book is written to one person. I didn't know that was kind of the norm. So when I found that out, I realized I had to essentially like go back and write the entire book to one person. I also had to assume and assumed this incorrectly, the first manuscript, I had to assume that the reader didn't know me, which I just, I super did not do the first time around. I made a lot of assumptions that someone like you who listens to the show a lot and follows me on

Instagram, you'd be the one reading, not a stranger. My book, my first pass, it was too familiar. I made jokes and told stories and wrote in such a way that someone who isn't familiar with me would be a little left out. And that's not great. So it's not, it's not that I had to write the entire book again, but like, kind of. It wasn't a, it wasn't a section thing. Like, fix that paragraph and shape up this sentence and whatever. There were massive structural changes on every single page, which made the book so much better. But it took a lot of editing to get it that way. So number one, you don't have to turn in a perfect book. editing is essential in making it a great book. More eyes, more expertise, and collaboration, those things create something better than you'd make on your own, almost always. It's a ton of

work, but you don't have to be perfect by yourself. Number two, you don't have to say yes to the first book cover they give you. So covers are like a big deal, you know? So covers are like a big deal, You know? So when that process started, I was so excited. Different publishers probably work different ways, but I put together a Pinterest board of book covers. I really loved. And then I sent that to the design team. When they sent me some ideas, and they sent me maybe eight or ten, I didn't love any of them. I really didn't. There was one that could like maybe work, but I didn't love it at all. Well, fortunately, Emily P. Freeman, who is an established, successful author, and also my best friend, was like, hey, listen, you don't have to go with what they offered. You can ask for more options. And I'm so glad she said that. It's always a gift to have people in your corner who have kind of done what you're doing. It doesn't have to be book writing. Ask for help. Let people in. And you'll get ideas and counsel that you wouldn't have got. otherwise. So I asked for a second pass. Now I didn't know how to put into words what I didn't like about the designs that they offered, but more importantly, how to communicate what I did like,

what I actually wanted. Again, ask friends who have experience and things that you don't. My friend Michael is a freelance graphic designer and he worked in the same office that I did when I was writing my book. So he looked through my Pinterest board and through the covers, and he gave me language, like design language that would make sense to the team and helped me figure out words to describe what I like and what I wanted. He looked at all the inspirational book covers, and he could also see what they had in common, which I didn't see at all. I just liked them. I just liked them all. But he could tell why. It's kind of like when Anne Bogle, on what should I read next, listens to three books that a reader loves, and can see how those

books are connected. She can see the through line, which makes her really good at hosting that podcast. That's what Michael did. Michael could see the through line, and it was so helpful. So I sent those words back to the designer. And a week or so later, she came back with two new cover designs. RBC Training Ground has discovered potential in over 20,000 Canadian athletes and counting. Your story could be next. If you've got the drive, they'll help you find your path to the Olympics. Let's see what you've got.

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everyday life, whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dacker Keltner, host of the Science of Happiness podcast. Join me for cities of awe. A special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life. You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. Now, some of you, some of you who have been around a while and who were like really excited about the book from the very, very beginning, you have seen both versions. You have seen versions of both covers. You might notice that the current book cover wasn't always the one on Amazon and all the other places. Well, the two original cover pitches after that, you know, second round,

were the beginning versions of both the cover that some of you saw for a few weeks and then that disappeared and the cover that there is now. I can't exactly tell you why we had to change. It's a little too top secret to share here. But covering a book is quite a process. And I'm just so glad I asked for another pass for a second look. Sometimes we don't have to accept what people offer. It's okay to use our voices and say, no, I don't think that's right. Can we talk through what we can do on another round? And because I did that for the book covers, I love my book cover.

I loved both. I loved the first one and I love the one that there is now. But I love them. I love them. They make so much sense with the book and with me and with the brand and with you. And if I hadn't asked for a second pass, who knows. knows what we would have had. So that's how book covers went. All right, number three, nothing happens chronologically. In publishing, everything is out of order. We did cover art before the book

was even close to done. We did the tagline of the book before I had broken the book, before I had figured out what it was going to be. I talk about that in the last episode about writing the book, not the one like right before this, but a few episodes ago. Again, it'll be in the show notes. But like, I hadn't figured out what the book was going to be yet. We had to write the back cover copy, you know, like when you flip the book over and the little blurb or whatever. We had to write that before I knew what the book was going to be. Isn't that crazy? There are just so many things happening at once and in no normal order. Being a person who likes linear thinking, and I'm very much into chronology, it was really challenging. It still is. It's a pretty chaotic process because of all the

moving parts, no one's really in charge of all of them. There's not a single person in charge of this whole thing. Not even me. Not even me. I have to answer to people. They have to answer to people. Then some of those people answer to other people that answer to me. It's all so weird. It's just one, like, giant team without a captain. And so you have to trust each other and do your job well and hope that they are doing their jobs well. But since all of our jobs are happening kind of separately and on different timelines, nothing happens in order. But it's the way it is. It's also a way I never knew existed.

I didn't know it was going to be like that. But I also learned I can do it. it. I can do that. It was really hard, but I can do it. Okay, number four, never stop asking questions. No question is too stupid. No question is too annoying. I kept a lot of things to myself at first because I didn't know what I was supposed to know. I didn't want to step on anyone's toes. I just wasn't sure how any of this worked. And if I didn't ask questions, I would not know. We have to ask questions. Again, not just in book publishing, but any time we don't know what's going on, I want to be the kind of person who isn't afraid to not know what's going on and not afraid for people to know that.

We learn when we ask. We can make things better when we ask. We can help other people when they ask when we ask. It's small but really, really important. I'm really glad that this process has made me better at asking questions because I had a lot. I won't really tell you. They're just all like boring questions. I don't remember any specific questions. But this whole process has been like, wait, so how does this work? What are we doing?

What does that mean? What does this word that everyone is saying mean that I have never heard before? We have to ask questions. And number five. set targets, not goals. This isn't really about publishing specifically, but it's something I learned during this process and has been major in all kinds of areas since I started learning it here. So set targets, not goals.

Okay, there's nothing wrong with goals. I've written a lot about how I see goals and how I'm learning what they mean in my life. but I'm fighting against the tendency to be an all or nothing person. Goals take a major hit with that thinking. If I set a goal and I don't hit that goal, then it's a failure. I'm a failure. I mean, it's not. I'm not, but I feel like it is.

I feel like I am. Being fluid with goals and seeing them as a spectrum rather than pass or fail, it's just something I haven't really figured out yet. Like literally my brain doesn't know what to do with unmet goals. But targets? I can do that. Think about a target in, you know, archery class or whatever. Sure, the bullseye, that is super fun to hit. But if you hit the target, that's still great. So I'm learning to set targets, ranges of numbers that would be great to hit if I can. The outside of the target, like the outside circle is kind of a baseline. If I don't hit that number, I legit did something wrong. And we actually really do need to evaluate for next time. It is,

it is kind of a failure. Like, what do we do? We should have hit that. That's kind of crazy. So the bullseye itself is something really tough to get, but it's not impossible. Book sales are so arbitrary, you guys. They're based on a million different things, many of which are out. of my control. So not hitting the bull's eye, it's not really a big deal. It's understandable, really. So anywhere that my arrow hits on that target between the baseline and the bullseye, it feels good. And I'm good with that. It's helped me process the numbers without putting myself into an emotional tailspin. Targets, not goals. And that. And that, those are the five things. That's a little book launching 101. There are resources so many that can

give you like way more concrete thoughts than that. But those are the things about launching a book that were hugely helpful to learn that I didn't really know before going into it. So if you're in the category of people who want to write a book, I hope this helps a little. I hope that you kind of flag this for later. Obviously this is just my experience, but hearing all kinds of experiences, it can it can inform all kinds of people in all the different contexts and situations. I will put, I'll put a few resources in the show notes of previous episodes. There's one about like choosing, like choosing your, like you're like talking about dreams and, you know, all kinds of stuff like that. So I'll put some of those in there. But I will definitely

put a link to Hope Writers, which is my best resource for writers. If you are a writer, it is fantastic. They don't open enrollment for a couple of months, I don't think. But if you're interested, you can get on their mailing list, you know, to find out when they're offering their membership again. And of course, if you haven't yet and are thinking about it, I would love for you to pre-order my book, The Lazy Genius Way. Embrace what matters, ditch what doesn't, and get stuff done. It releases on August 11th, which is in 29 days. It is so exciting. and as a huge thank you for buying it now, you get the entire Lazy Genius Digital Library for free. The total value of that when I sell the four resources separately is $112 and they're worth every penny. But you get them for free. So jump on it, pronto. The link is in the show notes. And don't forget that if you order the hardback, the e-book or the audiobook, it all counts.

but you have to claim those pre-order bonuses, that that digital library, by going to the lazy genius collective.com slash a book. We don't know if you buy the book until you tell us. So thank you so much. Thank you so much for telling us. Okay, that's it for today. Thank you for listening. I'm so grateful for all of you. And until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra, and I'll see you next week. like you are living just a B or B plus life, it's so dangerous to live that. More dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life, because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it.

You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.