These Four Qualities are Essential in Book Publishing

Last week on Writer Talks Live, I had the pleasure of speaking to client and author, entrepreneur, and coach Al Hardy about the process of publishing his book, Jack of All Trades, Master of One. We had a pretty powerful conversation– head over to watch the replay on Instagram @ajadjackson!

During our conversation, Al asked me what I thought were the ingredients for publishing a successful book, and together we came up with the Four Ps of Self-Publishing (I told you, it was a good conversation!). The factors we talked about include:

Purpose: If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I’m all about being clear on your publishing purpose so that can inform the decisions you make. Whether your purpose is just to publish something that’s been burning inside of you, regardless of the outcome, or to create a source of passive income, or anywhere in-between, you need to be crystal clear on what that purpose is. 

Passion: If you don’t care about your project, and you’re just doing it to check a box, trust me, it shows. It also will be hard for you to keep moving forward with your book when you inevitably face writer’s block, or your timeline doesn’t go as planned, or some of the myriad of other challenges threaten to derail your progress. Ultimately, really wanting to write a book is a primary key to its success. 

Platform: You need some type of way for people to find out about your book. Now, don’t mistake this as me saying that you need to go out and become an influencer with millions of followers. People have found success through many avenues, including just mastering online ads. You don’t have to have the largest audience and there are many ways to go about finding one, you just have to know where your people are and how to speak their language to get them to take interest. 

Patience: Finally, going from blank page to published is a process. Some authors say it’s like running a marathon, and I believe this is 100 percent true. You will experience times when you feel excited about your book, moments of self-doubt, writer’s block, publishing snags, etc. I don’t say this to scare you off; instead, I’m telling you as motivation to stay the course, keep pushing forward and you will ultimately end up where you want to be.