Episode 111: Building a Business Around Your Book

[00:00:02] What you want, when you want it, where you want it. This is the MESH.

[00:00:10] Can you really build a business around your book and your book writing? Absolutely.

[00:00:15] In today's episode of The Written Compass, I'm going to offer three models that are really accessible

[00:00:20] and hopefully are a really simple way for you to start to think about how you can build a business,

[00:00:25] how you can make money and grow your impact through your books.

[00:00:29] I'm so excited you're here. Let's jump right in.

[00:00:33] Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Written Compass.

[00:00:37] I'm super excited you're here today.

[00:00:40] We're going to be talking about something that I love chatting about, which is business

[00:00:44] and making money in particular, really growing your impact and your income.

[00:00:49] And I wanted to focus on the idea of building a business around and with your book

[00:00:56] because a lot of the people who come to us, yes, the book is the impetus,

[00:01:02] but there is so much more that they desire.

[00:01:06] They have beautiful and amazing and deeply connected and impactful visions for themselves

[00:01:13] and their lives.

[00:01:14] And so I wanted to talk and kind of support you if this is something that you resonate with

[00:01:19] on how would you build a business with your book?

[00:01:22] Why does that get to be a part of the journey?

[00:01:26] How do we use that, so to speak, to help us grow that vision and actually make it come to life?

[00:01:35] So one of the things that I think is really powerful when we start to honor the words

[00:01:44] that are showing up, honor the words you've already written,

[00:01:47] and actually put them out in a book is I kind of see it supporting you

[00:01:52] and helping you build a business in sort of three main ways.

[00:01:56] And I'm going to talk about and kind of break those down a little bit.

[00:01:59] One is that it could be the focus.

[00:02:02] So your writing, your books, yes, multiple books might be the focus of your business.

[00:02:09] That is the sole purpose is that you want to grow your following

[00:02:14] and you want to grow your readers.

[00:02:16] So your goal in building the business is going to be all around the books,

[00:02:21] promoting the books, sharing the books, doing book events, doing readings, sales, sales, sales of the books.

[00:02:30] It's almost like the book is you, is your brand.

[00:02:33] It is the core product and that is the sole focus.

[00:02:38] So feel into how that resonates with you, if it resonates with you.

[00:02:44] So as you think of kind of the image of your book, you holding your book, right?

[00:02:50] You reading from your book, you're being in the presence of others

[00:02:54] and talking about your process as a writer, your journey as a published author, future books.

[00:03:01] Does that really feel like what you want the focus to be?

[00:03:06] Then you're going to be building your business all around the writing, all around the books.

[00:03:12] And I'm going to talk in a little bit about how does it mean that there's other ways to also promote your writing as well.

[00:03:19] But the main thing is going to be the book or the books that you want to put out in the world.

[00:03:25] So your conversations, your connections, your marketing is going to be all about that journey,

[00:03:31] those processes, sharing updates, sharing yourself writing, what that experience is like

[00:03:39] so that you can draw people in in that way and then promote the book in those powerful ways to get more people to buy the book.

[00:03:48] And it doesn't mean you're not doing other things like speaking, workshops, all that kind of stuff.

[00:03:53] But again, all of it seems is a focused direction strictly around the books that you are publishing.

[00:04:03] So that's one way to build a business around your book.

[00:04:06] The other is to kind of have it as a parallel, meaning it is something that is deeply connected to the other ways that you want to show up in the world.

[00:04:18] For instance, a lot of the people we work with are coaches.

[00:04:22] And so their books are an explanation or a written version, a capturing of the process that they use with their clients to work through.

[00:04:33] So we have one client who she's getting ready to publish her kind of core elements of how she supports people and really connecting with themselves and learning about the way they work,

[00:04:44] the way their bodies work in order to kind of self coach through any kind of whether it be a physical issue, a stress issue, you know, kind of mental health issue.

[00:04:54] She has this beautiful journal and guide and book that is a parallel, a mirror to the way that she works with people in her coaching programs.

[00:05:05] Right?

[00:05:06] So if your book is something that you want to be an extension of or work in parallel with your other offerings, then that is the way you want to build your business around your books.

[00:05:20] It is an introduction to you.

[00:05:23] It can be a way that people get to know, like and trust you and then ultimately come over here in this kind of parallel world and work with you.

[00:05:32] Right?

[00:05:33] So with the focus model and the parallel model, typically that means your book is about the ways that you're going to be supporting people.

[00:05:44] So you're going to be talking about that a good bit.

[00:05:48] Parallel is the way that I do the work that I do with my people because my writing is about writing.

[00:05:55] That's what I publish about.

[00:05:57] So my books and my publishing and the way that I work with people are very much paralleled.

[00:06:06] I may have lots of different offerings.

[00:06:09] I may have lots of different ways that I work with people, but my book works alongside of or in conjunction with that.

[00:06:18] So that parallel model is another way to kind of build the business around your book.

[00:06:24] The other way is that the book is just one of many things that you want to do.

[00:06:30] And so I have a little bit of this in my business model as well.

[00:06:34] And these are for people who was just talking with a lovely woman the other day, who she has a copywriting service that she supports businesses in really building their funnels, creating strong messaging.

[00:06:48] And she has a mix of done for you DIY, the gamut of services.

[00:06:54] And when and she's felt this tug to write and publish on her own, but she doesn't want to write about copywriting.

[00:07:01] She doesn't want to write about her business.

[00:07:03] She actually was interested in writing about some elements of her experience as a mother.

[00:07:09] And so the book is not going to be the focus of her business.

[00:07:14] It's going to be yet another layer, another branch on the tree.

[00:07:18] And I actually have that as well.

[00:07:19] I very much resonate with kind of a tree as a visual big blooming tree with nice long trunk.

[00:07:26] And I love the visual I often when I'm meditating and quiet, I think of the roots connecting to so many other trees and roots just going out into the world and just being in connection.

[00:07:37] And when I think of all the different elements and things that I want to do, helping people publish and write their stories or share their messages in a book.

[00:07:48] That's one branch and it's got lots of different smaller branches off of that limbs off of that.

[00:07:56] And then another is my books and those two are branches that are close to each other connected to each other because I write about writing.

[00:08:03] There's also products that I love and just fun little things.

[00:08:07] Sometimes they're about like writing, like we have little stickers.

[00:08:11] Yeah, I wrote that things like that coffee mugs that I want people to use when they're writing.

[00:08:17] And then sometimes it's just fun quirky stuff like I have this cool sticker.

[00:08:22] This is just this image of this like kind of hippie dipping, wanting having a glass of wine and reading a book.

[00:08:27] So kind of similar, but not maybe, you know, like not what I do or how I work with people is just fun stuff.

[00:08:34] And then there's retreats and then I have this vision of investments and rental property and things like that.

[00:08:41] And to me they're all connected in my values and things that I find important in life,

[00:08:47] but they show up as a part of my tree empire in all different ways.

[00:08:52] So another way to build a business around your book is that it's this one additional avenue, a way of connecting with people.

[00:09:01] And it's really interesting.

[00:09:03] We see over and over the opportunities that show up when you put a book out there because of the credibility,

[00:09:09] the authority that it offers you.

[00:09:11] It really is an opportunity to connect with people in a lot of different interesting ways.

[00:09:16] Some you can predict and some that you can't really even fathom because it just happens in such interesting ways.

[00:09:23] So I'm not going to get too further into the weeds, but those are kind of the three core ways that we support our clients,

[00:09:30] especially our legacy authors in building a business around their book.

[00:09:34] The book and the writing of the books is the focus is one.

[00:09:39] The parallel model, which is like it is a part of and contributes and connects to your other offerings.

[00:09:46] And then the third is that it's one of many things in your empire that you are building.

[00:09:53] So I'm curious which one of these you've experienced, which one you feel like resonates with you the most,

[00:09:58] which one do you maybe want to hear more about as always leave a comment, leave a review,

[00:10:03] send me a message over at Instagram on the Shayna underscore V.

[00:10:08] And I want to hear what you're thinking about how are you building a business around your book and certainly want to hear how we can support you.

[00:10:16] As always, thank you so much for joining us and I look forward to seeing you next time.

[00:10:22] Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Written Compass.

[00:10:26] If you are enjoying this content, do me a favor and go and review the podcast.

[00:10:31] This allows me to share and get these messages out to the people who really need them,

[00:10:36] who we want to read their books in the future.

[00:10:39] You can also go and share your thoughts and tag me at Shayna Hartman underscore on Instagram.

[00:10:45] Again, this is just a way for us to get connected and share the writing love.

[00:10:50] And if you know that you are ready to write your book,

[00:10:54] that message that's been burning inside of you for a long time,

[00:10:57] then I want to talk to you my team and I want to talk to you.

[00:11:00] Head on over to ShaynaHartman.com and click work with us.

[00:11:04] From there, you'll see an application to explore and see if writing your book is your next best step.

[00:11:36] Discover other network shows and give us feedback on what you just heard.