Episode 112: How to Publish a Journal

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

[00:00:10] Do you love journals? Have you ever thought about publishing your own journal? In today's episode of The Written Compass

[00:00:17] I'm gonna break down some really simple ways that you can think about and make some decisions around how to publish a journal.

[00:00:25] I'm so excited you're here. Let's get started.

[00:00:28] If you're anything like me and my writer friends that I work with all the time,

[00:00:34] then you probably have a journal or lots of journals that you have used or are currently using.

[00:00:41] Now you can go back into previous episodes of The Written Compass and see how I don't like to use the J-word a lot.

[00:00:47] I prefer the word day book and

[00:00:50] I've got a book, Thinking Out Loud on paper, that I co-wrote with

[00:00:53] multiple teacher friends where you can go and read about that. Journal just doesn't quite capture it for me.

[00:00:58] However, journals are very, very popular. In today's episode of The Written Compass

[00:01:04] I'm going to talk about how to publish a journal because there's lots of information out there,

[00:01:10] probably a lot of misinformation and our clients are really getting excited and starting to put journals out there.

[00:01:18] We've talked before about kind of an interactive guide.

[00:01:21] I'm going to touch base on that a little bit as well today.

[00:01:24] The main thing is I want to talk about why journals are so popular,

[00:01:29] why they kind of seem like an easy book and publishing asset for you,

[00:01:34] and why there's a little bit more that you need to know.

[00:01:36] I'm going to guide you in thinking about how you can create, write and publish a journal.

[00:01:43] The main thing is that journals are popular. They're not going anywhere.

[00:01:47] They've been around forever. The idea of blank pages between two bound covers and

[00:01:53] just an open space for you to write is something that every writer that I know has

[00:01:59] and something that a lot of people find very beneficial. They're often really cool looking.

[00:02:05] You've got all kinds of styles from moleskins, grid paper, graph paper,

[00:02:11] dot journals, bullet journals, like it runs the gamut, right?

[00:02:15] And they have become even more popular in the self-publishing world because of

[00:02:21] cool tools like Canva that have been allowing people to get more creative.

[00:02:27] If you're not an artist or an illustrator or a graphic designer,

[00:02:31] you can use these tools like Canva to create cool designs and actually download them in the

[00:02:37] same files that are needed to publish on Amazon. Now, because they have become so popular,

[00:02:44] they're considered low content books for the most part.

[00:02:47] I'm going to talk a little bit more about what that means here in a little bit.

[00:02:51] But it's also because it's becoming more popular, there's lots more in that market.

[00:02:56] So I want to guide you today in really how you can publish a journal that actually is

[00:03:01] something people want to buy and use and can become a part of what you offer and share with

[00:03:08] people in the world. So the way I like to start when my clients want to consider publishing

[00:03:15] a journal or an interactive guide of some sort, meaning there's some of their words

[00:03:19] and then there's blank pages for the user to write is we really want to start with

[00:03:25] the user experience and your intentions for the journal. And I'm going to keep it really simple.

[00:03:31] I feel like and have noticed and have supported our clients in kind of two

[00:03:35] different user experiences. One is a guided experience, and I'll talk about the levels

[00:03:41] of that in a minute. And then one is a more open experience and I'll talk about what that means

[00:03:46] as well. So let's talk about a guided user experience. So many of the people who consider

[00:03:53] creating a journal, it's coming from a place of, hey, these are things that I have used with

[00:04:00] my students in the classroom, with my patients in a therapy setting or clients in a therapy

[00:04:06] setting, with my coaching clients, with my customers, with myself. Right? So there's a

[00:04:14] process that you maybe have experienced over and over kind of key prompts and questions that you

[00:04:20] often ask. And that can be a really powerful way to create a journal by using those exact

[00:04:28] same questions. So to decide if this is maybe the type of journal that you want to create,

[00:04:33] a guided journal, you can kind of ask yourself what are the things that I'm always saying to

[00:04:37] the people that I work with or interact with? What are those key lessons or prompts or ideas

[00:04:44] that I use for myself on a daily basis that have really been beneficial on your personal

[00:04:49] growth or self-help journey? And how might you incorporate those and offer them to the user?

[00:04:57] So one simple way to do this is to simply on each page or divide it up on a single page

[00:05:05] is those prompts, are those questions. Right? You can incorporate those, create some blank

[00:05:10] space and I'll talk about the importance and things to consider with blank space here in a bit.

[00:05:15] But that's one way to create your guided process in a journal. And I was just talking

[00:05:21] with a client about this, how she has already some PDFs that she's created, resources she's

[00:05:28] created that she gives to all of her clients around the concept of decision making. And they're

[00:05:33] the same kind of questions and prompts and guided exercises. And so we talked about how

[00:05:39] we can turn that into a journal that reaches way more people if we take it from that simple

[00:05:45] PDF that people would download and maybe use digitally or print and then turn it into a

[00:05:50] pretty something they can hold in their hands, flip the pages, that sort of thing.

[00:05:55] So the other thing to consider with a guided type of journal is do you want your questions,

[00:06:02] your prompts, your process that you want to walk the user through? Do you want them to

[00:06:06] repeat or do you want to cover kind of all of the questions? So a client who's getting

[00:06:12] ready to hit publish on her kind of interactive journal, it is a trademark process.

[00:06:17] She actually just got the trademark approved for it. And she is when we were coming up with

[00:06:25] what she wanted to include, there was so much content in this trademark process. I don't want

[00:06:32] to say it because I don't want to spoil it and we'll share it later when it comes out

[00:06:36] because it's not quite published yet. But there's so much in her process. This is

[00:06:40] what she walks her clients through. This is how she coaches. This is what she does for herself

[00:06:46] to keep herself grounded and aligned with her goals and purposes in life. And it was a ton.

[00:06:54] We realized once we got going like, wow, this would be a little bit overwhelming for the user

[00:06:59] to include all of those things. Right. And that could be something eventually we wind up doing is

[00:07:06] putting together. We basically realized she had multiple journals. And so she's just starting

[00:07:11] with a morning and evening part of her practice that she walks people through. And then later

[00:07:17] we'll move and create a guided journal around another part of the process and so on and so

[00:07:23] forth. So she's going to have four or five, six of these journals ultimately out in the world.

[00:07:28] And then we will create a kind of one that rules them all, a combined one for users who

[00:07:34] want that. Right. So we like the idea of kind of creating this pathway of multiple

[00:07:40] guided journals and then eventually creating one that had everything included. But that's

[00:07:44] what you want to ask yourself is, is it valuable? What is more valuable to the user for them to

[00:07:50] repeat this process, ask themselves these similar questions? You know,

[00:07:54] is it every day? Is it every week? How many weeks? And so on and so forth.

[00:08:00] And this is something that we really break down and work with our clients and talk

[00:08:04] them through and coach them through what's going to be best because oftentimes we want to

[00:08:08] include everything and save the world with the things that we're creating and publishing.

[00:08:13] And really for a user, they just need a bite, right? They just need a bite,

[00:08:17] a bite size portion, a bite size idea to hang onto and kind of get under their belt,

[00:08:22] get used to doing over and over. And the other thing that's about this that needs to be

[00:08:27] considered about this is what is the ultimate goal for you? If it's for them to come and

[00:08:31] work with you, then you kind of want to leave a little bit left open or a little teaser

[00:08:36] so that then they go, oh, this really moved the needle for me. I want to go see how to,

[00:08:40] you know, what else this person offers and how I might be able to get

[00:08:43] direct support with this and keep going. So asking yourself of the processes of the key

[00:08:50] prompts, of the questions, do they need to be repeated or do I want to, you know, repeat

[00:08:55] for a week, let's say, and then switch to another, a different set of prompts,

[00:09:01] for a week. Let's say if we're doing a month journal or 12 weeks of a journal,

[00:09:06] those are fun things that you get to play with and think about.

[00:09:10] The other thing with a guided journal is do you want it to be more they respond to prompts

[00:09:16] or do you want it to be reflective? So you kind of offer an idea and then they reflect

[00:09:21] and kind of have their own interpretation. And there can be a both and to all of these things.

[00:09:25] I do want to say that it's not a either or. All of these fun things can be combined and

[00:09:31] that's what's really cool about these and actually shifts them from being low content

[00:09:35] journals, just basically blank pages with maybe some pretty designs or pretty quotes in there,

[00:09:40] to actually being considered books on Amazon KDP.

[00:09:46] So think, do you want them to reflect? We have a client who's another client who's

[00:09:51] getting ready to publish and she has a reflective prompt every so many days that she asks people

[00:09:57] to do so they can start to notice the patterns that are showing up as they're walking through

[00:10:01] the guided questions and prompts she's offering them.

[00:10:04] Another thing to think about with the guided aspects is do you want your clients to track

[00:10:09] anything? So reflection can help with that. And are there any actual things you want them to

[00:10:14] track, like their moods or their feelings? Is there a checklist of some sort? That's the fun

[00:10:20] thing about kind of breaking out of the box of traditional prose, paragraphs, chapters,

[00:10:25] etc. and creating some kind of interactive guide or journal is that we can have boxes,

[00:10:30] we can have doodle pages, we can have all sorts of things for the user to have a

[00:10:36] unique experience and tracking something can be a part of that. They can decide what they want

[00:10:41] to track. You can inspire them to and walk them through how to do that. Or you could have

[00:10:47] specific things, a lot of health journals, wellness journals will have something like this.

[00:10:52] So with the guided journal, I do want to say as you're thinking through what you want to

[00:10:57] do here, I think if you my experience has been if you want them to have some kind of

[00:11:04] guided process, some kind of steps and questions and prompts and whatnot that you're

[00:11:09] walking them through your approach, you want I highly recommend that you create some kind of

[00:11:14] opening, some kind of introduction, some kind of letter to the user to walk them through that

[00:11:19] process that prepares them for what they are about to experience. Okay. And the reason is

[00:11:26] this one, it lets them know that there's a real person that created this, that there is an

[00:11:30] author here to they get to know you a little bit better and why you created this three,

[00:11:36] it's going to prepare them, inspire them, get them ready for what is to come and help them

[00:11:41] understand it without you being there. Right. And so this is a tricky piece and needs some support

[00:11:47] around how to get that wording right and not go into too much detail, right. But just enough

[00:11:52] that they're going to be successful in using the journal. And this is also a great way to

[00:11:58] leave the reader wanting more, the user wanting more with like, Hey, if you want

[00:12:01] support around this head to this place, we can have a call to action in that opening as well.

[00:12:07] So if you're going for a guided experience, these are some of the things that I want you to consider

[00:12:13] as you are creating your journal. If you're going for a more open experience, right,

[00:12:18] you can still have questions, but things like the order or following a specific process

[00:12:26] become less important because you're really offering a lot more open space for the user

[00:12:32] to create their own experience. Right. Things might not repeat. Maybe you have a question or prompt

[00:12:39] or an idea every couple of pages. Right. So maybe there's more blank space. This is

[00:12:49] more of a simple approach and it is for the user to kind of decide what their experience is.

[00:12:55] So again, you may or may not need something like that introduction,

[00:12:59] but you still could use an introduction even if you have this open concept. And so the whole goal

[00:13:06] here with the open concept is that you're probably going to want to focus more on the look of the

[00:13:11] piece, making sure it's user friendly, thinking about, um, you can do variations in the pages.

[00:13:18] If you want some line pages, some blank pages, you can think about design a little bit more

[00:13:24] carefully and intentionally, or you can keep it really, really, really simple. Just know that

[00:13:30] the less words that are happening, you're going to, the more likely you are heading yourself to

[00:13:36] what the print on demand spaces call a low content book. This is important to recognize

[00:13:44] because depending on the platform that you use, you may or may not have an ISBN with this.

[00:13:50] And again, that ISBN is the number, the barcode that gets put on the back of things.

[00:13:54] And that's just important. I'm not going to go into too much detail here about that,

[00:13:58] but that's important again, depending on your intention for this journal, for this, um,

[00:14:05] experience that you want the user to have. Right. And so if you're kind of just looking

[00:14:09] to put a bunch of journals out there, hope for the best, hope people use them, then you

[00:14:14] might want to go with this open concept, not worry about an ISBN, all that kind of stuff,

[00:14:18] but just know that's going to prevent you from maybe having it in say a local bookstore or

[00:14:24] something like that. So again, it's not a matter of right or wrong. It's as we've talked a lot

[00:14:28] on the written compass, it's about that alignment piece and what's going to feel best for you.

[00:14:32] And here's the thing I want to kind of leave you with around the how to publish a journal

[00:14:39] idea is many of the people that I talk to because they're business owners, entrepreneurs,

[00:14:45] they've created content over and over and over again. They've guided people through various

[00:14:50] things, teachers, therapists, counselors, thought leaders, et cetera. They already have content

[00:14:58] available for a journal. Literally one of the journals that I was speaking of earlier,

[00:15:03] she has these questions, she has had these questions written out, uses them all the time.

[00:15:08] And so we simply took them, tweaked them a little bit knowing that, you know, she's not

[00:15:12] asking these in a coaching conversation. This is happening in a journal where she is not going

[00:15:16] to be physically present with the person. So we just had to tweak the language a little bit,

[00:15:22] and then boom, a journal was birthed, right? So if you work with people, if you walk people

[00:15:27] or even yourself have walked yourself through a process that is unique to you, then you probably

[00:15:32] have enough content, enough ideas for a guided or open style journal. And that's really fun

[00:15:39] because that can be a really simple way to one, get published, to add kind of that A for author

[00:15:46] in your bio, to have sort of some side income coming in, to be able to have things that you

[00:15:53] can share with people. You can gift these, you can pass them out in fun places and events

[00:15:58] and almost like a new business card, so to speak. So there's lots of different fun things,

[00:16:04] and it's kind of a nice way to get published without nearly as many words, right? As, you know,

[00:16:11] contributing to a chapter in a book or writing your own book. And I wanted to make sure you

[00:16:16] knew that we are supporting people right now and we have our schedule open to talk to you.

[00:16:21] If a journal or something else you are considering in your writing life, we want to

[00:16:25] talk to you. So head to shanahartman.com slash schedule to get on my team schedule,

[00:16:31] see what is showing up for you, see what kind of support you need. And if we think we can help you,

[00:16:37] then we will talk you through what that gets to look like and your next best steps. Thanks so

[00:16:41] much for joining me and I'll see you next time. Thank you so much for listening to this episode

[00:16:48] of The Written Compass. If you are enjoying this content, do me a favor and go and review

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[00:17:05] and tag me at shanahartman underscore on Instagram. Again, this is just a way for us

[00:17:10] to get connected and share the writing love. And if you know that you are ready to write

[00:17:16] your book, that message that's been burning inside of you for a long time, then I want

[00:17:22] to talk to you, my team and I want to talk to you. Head on over to shanahartman.com and

[00:17:27] click work with us. From there, you'll see an application to explore and see if writing

[00:17:33] your book is your next best step. You've been listening to The Mesh, an online media network

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