As a book coach, this is a huge moment for me.
It’s a proud moment because Megan Dougherty has gotten to the point where her manuscript is complete.
So I’m going to take a moment to celebrate that and I’m going to encourage Megan and any new author to do that, to take time to celebrate the huge accomplishment that that is. And then we’re going to get back to work, because there’s more to do.
Once the, what I call the meat of the book is done, there are a lot of little details and those are things that are important, but also optional. Things like the dedication, acknowledgments, about the author page, and testimonials.
We’re going to talk about all of those things as well as touch on the publishing process that includes designing your cover, going through the editing process, and laying out the book, formatting the book for readers so that it’s inviting and welcoming for them to come into.
There’s lots to cover and lots to learn about not only that, but even the marketing and launching of the book.
Listen to the episode below or continue to read the blog post!
You’ll learn about:
- The front matter essentials
- Why you should front-load testimonials
- Acknowledgements and dedications
- Crafting your table of contents, author bio, and more
- The book editing process
- Launching and promoting your book
- Success metrics for your book launch
- Embracing a long-term book strategy
Don’t forget to grab a copy of our free workbook — your unique story can make a ripple.
Watch the Episode:
Celebrating the Completion of a Book and the Journey Ahead
Amy: “So Megan, the meat of the book is done.”
Megan: “I’ve written a book. It’s a good book. It’s done.”
Amy: “Let’s celebrate. That’s huge. It really is a huge accomplishment. How does it feel?”
Megan: “I think if I had fully understood or grasped the scope right at the beginning when we were making this plan to do this work, I might have hesitated a little bit more. But I’m really glad to have done it, and I’m really, really proud.
I don’t say I’m proud of my work very often, but I’m quite proud of having put this together and having this out there. It feels like a really big accomplishment. And it’s done. I’ve got a manuscript. I’ve got something people can read. I’ve sent it to people. People are reading it. It’s really cool.”
Amy: “Oh, wow. I always say at the beginning of the process that it is a leap of faith. You kind of know what you’re getting into, but you don’t actually, because you’ve never done it before, sort of like taking a new job or starting a new business.
You have an idea and you have a vision but the actual process of doing it, you’ve never done before. So there’s going to be some unknowns in there. But right now is a moment to celebrate because it is a giant accomplishment.
Take a moment and celebrate and in your life, take a celebration. So often we forget or we just gloss over it like, yay, this is done. And then you move on to the next thing. So I would encourage you and other authors when your manuscript is done to do something nice for yourself.”
Megan: “You’re going to laugh at me. So it was Friday when I finished it. It’s a Monday or Tuesday when we’re recording this right now. So I finished it and I went downstairs at the end of my work day. It’s done. I’d written my last main section—it was my introduction, actually.
Then I went down and I told my spouse, I’m done, I’ve written a book. And they’re like, that’s amazing. Are you going to take a break now? And I said, absolutely. I’m not going to start working on it again until Monday.
I guess I also have this sense, and maybe this is a personal failing of mine: Okay, great. I’ve got a manuscript. And now I feel like, okay, now the work begins. Because I’ve got a manuscript, but I don’t have a book that people can buy yet, there’s a lot in there and there’s the whole getting people to buy it thing, which is also kind of now looming large.
It was nice to be in the process of writing because I was making this progress and I was creating a great work, but now it does feel like the real work starts. And I don’t know if that’s a common feeling.”
Amy: “I think you have a little more self-awareness than most. I think people don’t always feel like that. I do want you to really celebrate and revel in the fact that you have tremendous amount of work done. And of course, there’s always more to do. There are the smaller details, and then bigger details to take care of.
So do you want me to kind of run through some of those?”
Book Descriptions and Testimonials
Megan: “I love details. Bring on the details. I’m just laughing a little bit because I probably think like this, because I’m always telling people, forever telling people about their podcast—you can make the best podcast in the world but it absolutely doesn’t matter unless you’re actually using it the way you need to be using it. I feel like that about my book.”
Amy: “That’s actually true because you’ve written it to be useful for other people. So how do you get it in the people’s hands? So we’ll talk a little bit about that in a second.
So you’ve got the meat of the manuscript done. You’ve got the majority, I would say, 98% of the content done. Now there’s some other little details and you may have some of these already, Megan, you’ve got to now describe the book to other people to get them to buy it.
So back of the book cover content, that’ll also go on Amazon and in your marketing and all that kind of stuff. So how do you say in a short amount of space what the book is about?”
Megan: “Oh, I’ve got the best thing for this in the whole world. I’ve got a quotation that I can use that is the best quotation anyone has ever gotten for the back of a book. It’s from my mother. And she said, sure is a book about podcasting. So I think my work here is done.”
Amy: “Okay, that’s what we call a praise or maybe a description.”
Megan: “I understand. I take your point. I know there has to be selling content and I think this is where a lot of the stuff I didn’t want to put into my introduction is going to end up going in the description and the: who am I and why you should trust me?
For me, that seems to make more sense getting someone to buy the thing than it does once they’ve already committed to it. So I feel that’s where a lot of that is going to go. Here’s the value here, all the great outcomes you’re going to get from it—in really sexy language so that people would like to purchase it.”
Amy: “I’ve got some resources for people. It’s in your course content, I’ve got a couple of blog posts about it: how do you describe this huge book that’s full of value in three paragraphs?
Well, there’s a process. It can be difficult, but just like anything, there’s a process and how to go about it. Of course, you want to put some of your personality into it as you’ve done throughout the book and make it, make it interesting for your readers.
There’s testimonials, those praises. So the people that are reading your book right now, they can write some very valuable testimonials and praises for why you should read the book, what you’re going to get out of it and what it did for them.”
Megan: “I worked on that a lot today, asking people to start doing that. I’ve been quite surprised at how willing people are, for the most part, to take a look either at the whole PDF of the current manuscript or some selected chapters.
Most people are quite willing to help out and do that. It’s really nice.”
Amy: “That’s lovely. I think sometimes people are reluctant to ask, but people love to help. And it’s kind of exciting. Not everybody they know has written a book, it’s actually kind of rare. So they can be involved in you becoming an author, which is pretty exciting.”
The Front Matter Essentials
Amy: “What you want to do, just like with different parts of your book, where you you’re drawing people in with the introduction, for instance, things like that—you want to let the reader know that this book is for them specifically.
So you want to at least imply who they are. I see you and you know your clients and your ideal readers very well. So there’s an element of that: this book is for you if you’re this type of person, and it’s going to give you this kind of content. It’s going to give you this. It’s going to solve your problems.
You want them to know that this is going to alleviate their pain, solve their problem, answer some burning questions that they have. So for you specifically, Megan, I would say, emphasize what is unique about your book in the podcasting world, because it stands out.
Your approach stands out against anything that any other podcasting book that they’re going to see on the shelf or on Amazon. So that is what’s going to sell your book. That unique approach for your specific audience. So that probably sums it up the best.
No matter if it’s a novel, or what kind of book it is, that’s what you want to do. You want to say, you really don’t want to walk off and not buy this book. You want to pick it up now and buy it.”
Megan: “Take it home. Have a cup of coffee with it. Buy copies for all your friends, please.
I know I’ve seen some of this in the materials you sent me, but let’s run through it now so I can have a firm list moving forward.
So in a podcast, I’d call this the top of the show, the stuff that goes at the very beginning; your basic intro, your voiceover, your music, you’re welcome. There’s a bunch of stuff at the beginning of a book that I have often consulted to find a publication date, but never otherwise paid any attention to.
So what is all that stuff?”
Amy: “It’s exactly the same where it’s called the front matter or the back matter. So there’s things that go in the beginning and the end.
At the beginning is a copyright page; I’ll provide that for you. Testimonials or what we call praises sometimes at the beginning of the book.”
Why You Should Front-Load Testimonials
Amy: “Publishing has changed a little bit with online books because you can do that peek inside on Amazon and you just see the first few pages of the book. So we want you to see the testimonials at the beginning of the book so you’ll buy the book.
We used to put acknowledgments at the beginning of the book. We don’t do that anymore. Because it’s important to you and the people who have been part of your book and your life and however, in whatever way that you want to acknowledge them that that’s in there, but it’s not as useful to your reader.
It’s not going to tell them much about the book and that kind of thing. So we put acknowledgments at the end now.”
Megan: “I never would have thought: praise at the front.”
Amy: “For the most part, those go at the beginning, because it’s a going to help people say, yes, I should make that decision. Say they’ve already looked at the cover, they’re at least half convinced they should buy it. They’ve read the description.
Now they want to see, okay, what’s this really look like inside? So they’re probably going to get some praises. And they’ll get maybe all or part of the introduction. So that’s why those things are up front.”
How Much Praise Should You Aim For?
Amy: “So much of this is subjective. It’s really up to you.
Because if you have 10 pages of testimonials, you’re going to want to put them in the book, I would discourage you from doing that. I would say two to three pages max and you want really strong ones. You want your strongest, most convincing ones and ones from people who are well-known.
Again, with the foreword, the reason you have a foreword by someone who’s well-known in your industry or by your readers is it gives you credibility. It’s saying, oh, this person is attaching their name to the author’s work.
That’s a way to convince your readers too, that this book is for them and they should read it.”
Megan: “I actually received the forward from; and I’m really happy to have a foreword from this person, he’s one of my best friends in podcasting—Tom Fox, the Compliance Evangelist.
What he included in the foreword is very much a breakdown of everything that’s in it. It’s quite a factual summary of here’s what’s coming and here’s why it’s cool. Is that, what we’re looking for?”
Amy: “Yeah, exactly. Beautiful. Because again, it’s basically marketing. It’s saying, this book is cool for these reasons by somebody other than you, who is a respected voice in your industry.”
Megan: “So I’ve spent all of that time agonizing over how much to write about myself in the introduction. You did not tell me that we’re going to be like six pages of other people talking first.
I don’t know if that would have made it better or worse.”
Amy: “You sort of get that publicity from other people and it gives it more credibility if you’re not just talking about how great your book is, but other people are too.”
Megan: “Okay, cool. I can work with that.”
Amy: “As a reader, I want to read that. I want to say, oh, okay, I bought a book one time because it had a foreword or it had a testimonial from the Dalai Lama and I thought, okay, I’m buying this book—and it was terrible. But that alone convinced me to buy the book.
The content was just very academic. I wouldn’t say it’s terrible. It was difficult to read because it was very dry.”
Megan: “That’s totally fair. I did not see that coming. It never occurred to me that the testimonials or advanced praise would go right at the beginning of the book.”
Amy: “And again, if you don’t want it there, you can move it somewhere else, but that’s generally how we do that.”
Navigating Testimonials, Acknowledgements, and Dedications
Amy: “Sometimes you’ll see on books, particularly books by someone who’s up and coming in their industry, you’ll see testimonials on the back cover or even on the front cover. I mean, if it’s from someone super famous, very well known, or a big name in your industry, it’s worth putting a really small blurb on the front, just so it has their name on the cover.
So there are all different ways you can go about it, but that’s generally how we do things now—grab readers’ attention and loyalty by putting those praises at the beginning. Very standard practice now.
Then acknowledgements, like I said, go in the back now. Acknowledgements and dedication and even testimonials are all optional. Not every book needs them. Not every author desires them to be in the book. And so those are all absolutely optional things that you can do or not as to your preference.”
Megan: “Just thinking about it now, I think I will, because I mean if I’m going to be going to all the trouble of getting this advanced praise, putting it in there seems sensible to me. I like that and I can definitely throw it in.
Dedication and acknowledgments, I’m not so sure. You’ve been a main driving force of this book and we’ve got a whole podcast about how awesome you are at doing that. So I don’t know if the repetition is necessarily required.
I think I might keep that trimmed down, but we’ll see. Because I’ve definitely, I’ve got the foreword, we’ll do the copyright type thing and I think a little advanced praise.
I feel like dedications make sense for like famous people. I’m always interested to read Stephen King’s dedication or Barbara Kingsolver‘s dedication.”
Amy: “It’s totally up to you. And like I said, it’s totally optional.”
Megan: “Yeah, I don’t think I don’t know if that makes a big impact on the reader.”
Amy: “It’s like the acknowledgements really, where it may be important to you. It may be important to some other person or people, but you can also dedicate it to your readers if you want to.
So that’s the case where it would be impactful for them to see that if they just want to get to the meat of the thing, then it’s just another thing they got to flip through.”
Megan: “I’ll play with that a little, maybe run a couple of ideas to the focus group.”
Amy: “And in personal development books, that’s often a thing that people will do—a dedication either to a mentor, someone who got them started in the business or in the personal development practice or.
It can also be to their readers where they’re saying, I used to stand where you’re standing right now. Thank you for your bravery. Going forward with reading this book…, but it’s a different kind of audience. So you get to decide you’re the boss of your book.”
Crafting Your Table of Contents, Author Bio, and More
Megan: “Are there any other front matter decisions I need to make?”
Amy: “I mean, you’ll have a table of contents, that’s something that’s generated automatically after the layout is done.
In the back, so we talked about acknowledgments already. The other one really is about the author. And that’s where we generally have a bio of the author and a photo. Again, photo is optional.
I would encourage you to include an author bio because this is great for things, not just for your reader to know, but if bookstores are gonna carry your book, they want to know that, they want to have some information. Just gives people more information on why they should buy the book.”
Megan: “Hadn’t even thought about that, but perfectly sensible. It does belong in there somewhere.”
Amy: “And again, it’s like a podcast intro. You’ve got to give some information about who the heck is this person that you’re interviewing or if it’s a guest on your podcast or even the host, you want to give them a little peek behind the curtains of why should I listen to this person? Who is this person?”
Megan: “Okay. We’ll grudgingly do that. That makes sense.”
The Book Cover
Amy: “Just like your podcast graphics, it’s important. When you have a business, it’s very tied in with your brand.
If your book is tied closely to your business, you definitely want to have it reflect your brand, your personality, what kind of value that it’s going to provide to your readers—just give that kind of look and feel that you know is going to resonate with your readers.
That’s always a fun part. Just one of those really fun, creative parts. I’m sure people get excited about their podcast graphics, too.”
Megan: “Yeah, everyone loves getting the art.”
The Editing Proper
Amy: “What’s different about a book is with a podcast, you’ve got editing, and you’ve got all that kind of stuff you do with the book, too. But you’ve got editing, and we usually do two rounds of editing so that it’s really thorough.
The first one is more about just looking at the content. Does it flow well? Do things need to be rearranged? Is it clear? Are there pieces missing? Any questions about it and that kind of thing. So there are people who are really great at consistency that are that kind of editor.
Then it goes back to you as the author to review and see if somebody’s reworded something and it no longer sounds like you, that’s where you as the author get to say, okay, I get that it needs to be reworded. It was maybe a little awkward the way I said it, but I want to reword it a different way. And then you get to do that.
Because while we editors try to be very careful about not changing your voice, sometimes we just get it wrong or don’t do it in a way that you would do it. So that’s why it’s important for the author to go through and make sure all those things are good.
Then it goes through another round of editing, which is proofreading and that’s the really fine detail, I call it the final polish. So all the grammar, punctuation, all that stuff that really takes a detail eye to catch—that’s your proofreader and they’re wonderful.”
Megan: I know, I married mine.”
Amy: “You know all about that editing process. It’s just a different mind to just keep that level of detail and consistency. I really admire that. I used to do content editing quite a bit, but the proofreading is not my thing.”
Megan: “I’m dreading the email I know is going to be coming saying, oh, did you know there’s a typo on page 174? I know because it happens, but I hate it.”
Amy: “I know, and it’s a human process, even with the help of AI. AI is not great at grammar, honestly. It’s really not great at grammar. Human language is so nuanced that it’s really difficult for machines to do it and for people to do it.
So we do the absolute best we can. And sometimes there’s a typo on page 174. I hate it. You can imagine. I do not like that.”
Megan: “It’s probably going to happen. I do have an amazing proofreader though. I’d like to give a shout out to my wonderful spouse—used to do this professionally and is helping me out with this part of the book, which is really nice.”
Amy: “That’s wonderful. Keeping it all in the family there.
And then there’s layout and that’s a fun creative process too. So the layout process should also reflect the cover and similar fonts, so it has a similar feel, look and feel to the outside and the inside—give the reader a consistent experience. And then, it’s ready for publication.”
Launching and Promoting Your Book
Megan: “My list is growing. It’s a good list. So let’s fast forward to the point in time where I have all of this done. It’s proofread. It’s edited. It’s formatted. It’s got a gorgeous cover. Now I’ve got to sell the thing.
So what’s the order in which I should be thinking about doing the work? So I know there’s the book finishing that needs to happen now, but there’s also starting to market it and I feel like that maybe I should have started months ago.”
Amy: “Well, I think you did. I mean, you’ve talked about being in the process and that kind of thing. You got a lot of engagement on that. You got a lot of people talking about it and engaging with you about that. So that was really the start of your marketing.
Even as terrifying as it is sometimes to jump in and say, yeah, I’m actually doing this. It can create a lot of energy and a lot of interest. So you’ve done that. And then while you’re creating, while you’re putting all that stuff together through the editing process, through the book cover design and all that kind of stuff, you can be talking more and more about it.
Then you’ve seen on Facebook and all the social media where people do a cover reveal. Or they say, hey, out of these two or three, what do you like? And really, the purpose of that is not always to actually just find what people like the best, because you’ve probably already made the decision anyway, but to create the conversation.
Sometimes it is hard to decide between this one and that one and what font do you like better and that kind of thing. But it gets a conversation going and gets people excited and interested in talking about it outside of social media, in real life with other podcasters or people who want to podcast.
So yeah, you can do a buildup. I usually say about three months, 90 days before you launch to really start that launch process, about getting excitement and that kind of thing.
You can also start being a guest on other people’s podcasts.”
Megan: “I do have a team member researching shows for that.”
Amy: “So you’ve got a lot of options there. Probably a lot of contacts in that space, but you can do people who are speakers or want to be speakers can start getting on stage and creating that buzz.
Even collecting email lists for people who want to be notified of the book when it releases and things like that. So there are a lot of different things.
I’ll just say that marketing is not my first zone of genius, but there are so many different ways to market your book and to get the word out. If you’ve got email lists, you’ve got landing pages for wait lists or whatever that you want to let people know that the book is out there and coming.”
Setting Success Metrics for Your Book Launch
Megan: “So the idea that I’ve got in my mind is to have a launch day. I think I will be doing pre-orders and pre-sales in advance because I run a conference in the fall and I want to boost attendance of that among people who are going to be interested in the content, which is fantastic.
So anyone who pre-orders the book, I wanted to give a free ticket to that conference too. But I also want to get a bunch of sales and geared up for the launch day, which I picked to be September 10th, 2024.
And so, whether the sales are coming out of all on that day and you’ve got a whole campaign dedicated to that one launch day, or you’re doing it like I am doing it more in advance and more staggered, what is the goal there?
Is it reasonable to think, man, I hope hundreds of people buy this, thousands? Is there a standard at all? Can you add some context to this? Or even how to create my own benchmarks, if it is really subjective?”
Amy: “I think it is very subjective depending on your audience and on your actual network.
The way we’ve helped people be really successful in terms of getting a lot of buzz and getting lots and lots of sales on a launch day is to create a launch team.
So that’s people in your industry, people in your type of business, or maybe it’s power partners, people like book coaches, other people in podcasting, but also other people who might work with a similar cut type of client.
I know you’ve got a lot of those kinds of power partner relationships. So it’s really great to get them involved to say, hey, we’ve got something that can help your audience. Would you like to help us get the word out?
So they can send emails, you can do a little launch campaign with them to get pre-sales in your case, or to have people buy on the launch day or both. And you give them graphics to post on social media, to help get the buzz, because now they’re talking to their entire audience and their networks.
It can become really exponential and that’s exactly what you want.
In marketing, people have got to see it several times to start paying attention and saying, oh yeah, that sounds familiar. Oh yeah, that Megan Dougherty. Her book sounds interesting. I think I’ll go check it out.
So it’s really nice to be able to have this beautiful network of people who are helping you get the word out and be excited with you and for you to help launch the book.”
Megan: “I’d rather just write another one.
Obviously you’re exactly correct and shaking the network tree and asking the people who do care about you and are invested in your success to help is the way to go. But I do find it anxiety provoking to make that kind of request to people. I find it challenging.
If you’re watching this soon after this episode, it is going to be released in that pre-launch window that I’ve decided to use as a strategy. So you’re getting to witness everything that you’re hearing now should be happening around you on the internet. So it’s kind of an interesting way that this is being constructed.”
Overcoming Self-Doubt and Managing Expectations
Amy: “You have a lot more experience in marketing than I do. So is it different doing it for yourself, for your book, for your company than it is for others?
Megan: “Oh yeah. Other people’s stuff is so easy. That’s the way it goes.
Doing your own always feels much more challenging. And I think it’s not one of my strong points is asking for things that are going to help me personally or professionally.
Even though, again, as I’ve started to find in asking people to be advanced readers, people are very willing and happy to be asked for the most part. So it’s a good opportunity to work outside of my comfort zone. Let’s call it that.”
Amy: “It’s like what I talk about in my book, Unleash Your Impact. It’s one of those barriers that can keep people from making a bigger splash.
I experienced it too. If you can put yourself in the shoes of a client that you would say, hey, now you need to go do this and this and this, it’s the same checklist for you.”
Megan: “That’s an interesting point, and maybe this is me just starting to make excuses for myself in advance, but sitting down and looking at, the possibly far-fetched possibility of exceeding beyond my wildest dreams.
Let’s say that this goes to the top of the charts. It becomes the absolute must-read book about podcasting for the whole world. My business can’t handle that. I don’t have the infrastructure to deal with that crushingly overwhelming success.
I don’t know if I am telling myself that to give myself excuses to not send maybe as many emails as I should every day, or because there is actually a hard limit to the number of new clients we could take on or the number of people we could serve in our membership community.
There’s a finite amount of service we can provide based on this book. What’s your reaction to that?”
Amy: “Yes and yes. Of course, you can justify that approach by dialing it back, because, oh, I can’t handle it. But when you look underneath it, there’s something else there—that’s classic. Your failure or fear of success.”
We think of fear of failure, that makes sense. It makes sense to us, you don’t want to be embarrassed by your movie being a flop or whatever, but it’s also equally terrifying to think of it being so successful that you’ll be completely overwhelmed.
So that’s one of those things I call a fear dragon. It’s a barrier that pops up to keep you in your comfort zone.”
Megan: “I guess so. I mean, I have been part of overwhelmingly successful launches in the past, and it was awful. It was a truly and genuinely miserable experience that I never want to go through again.
So I guess finding that balance is a bit of a challenge.”
Embracing a Long-Term Book Strategy
Amy: “So, another question that I see, people think they have to do a big launch all at once. And it doesn’t actually have to be that way.
I mean, yes, you want to launch it. You want to say, yes, the thing’s out there, celebrate. But a book is for the long term. Your book is not something that has to be out at a certain time, and it’s only going to really have a shelf life of six months.
That kind of book, you absolutely want to make it the biggest splash and launch it as quickly as possible.
Most of our books are not like that. They’re going to be around for a long time and they’re going to be a useful tool in your business for a long time. So you want to spread that success out over time. You don’t want to have it all at the same time.
Maybe you don’t want to do the just absolutely biggest global launch that you could do, but have a strategy that is long-term.”
Megan: “I can feel my heart rate lowering as you’re saying this.”
Amy: “I can feel your heart rate lowering right now.
Because you’ve actually been there. You’ve actually experienced that where I would have to say probably 99% of us have not been part of an overwhelmingly successful single launch.
It doesn’t have to all happen on one day.”
Megan: “And I want the feeling of seeing a lot of people buy in advance. That’s going to feel really good to have the other people are excited about it, or at least they want the bonus, which is also really cool.
I do want people to buy it right away and then have that kind of energy and that excitement. But exactly as you say, I do want this to be working for the business for years. And really amazingly would be if this is a tool that helps me get three or four new clients a month into the future. That’s amazing.
That’s a nice, sustainable, comfortable rate of growth that we can accommodate, that we can do a really good job with.
Because I know one of the outcomes of over succeeding, let’s call it, is service quality drops. You can’t just do that much work and it still be good. And I don’t want to put my team in that position, let alone, not just about me. I don’t want to put anyone there.”
Amy: “I know I did this where I bought a book and I worked through it thinking I was going to DIY it. I was going to do everything myself.
It was a how to, very much like your book where it’s tons of value, everything I needed in there. And I couldn’t and didn’t want to do it all myself. So a year, maybe it was nine months later after I bought the book, that’s when I started working with the company, the person who wrote the book. So it wasn’t immediate.
This just happened with my book, Unleash Your Impact. Somebody heard me on a podcast, bought the book immediately, and then made an appointment with me. So that’s really fun. You want that to happen, but it’s not everybody’s going to act on it right away.
So you’ll also have that sort of longer term thing. So at some point you might get busier than you want to be, but hopefully not in a way that’s crushing to your business to say, okay, we’re going to have to wait two or three months to start your podcast.”
Megan: “That’s a good happy medium. I think I can work with that. I guess fear of success would be exactly what it is, but I like to think it’s possibly a somewhat reasoned one.”
Amy: “Yeah, there is the real possibility of that happening—and you never know.”
Megan: “Hopefully, I’ll fail. I’m kidding. I don’t want to put that in the universe.”
Embracing Book Launch and Self-Promotion as a New Author
Amy: “I think you do want to start turning your mind to marketing more and more. And as you always do, do your service to your clients, but there’s also try to relax into that celebration phase. Because it is a little scary putting your stuff out there to the world and just let yourself enjoy it as much as you can.
Other people will be telling you how awesome the book is and really mean it, be very sincere about it because it is. And just try to receive that as an author.
It can be, that can be a little overwhelming, receiving praise and that kind of stuff can be a little overwhelming because you’re used to just doing your job.”
Megan: “And doing the thing that you do well, do a good job and shut up about it. This is how I like to live.”
Amy: “Yes, but now you’ve decided to open your mouth and find your voice, write the book. And so, yeah, it can be a little uncomfortable.
It can be excruciatingly uncomfortable because you’re used to being behind the scenes and now you’re saying I’m willing to be a little more visible and provide this book to the world.
So now, you get to own that.”
Megan: “I remember when I was in high school, I went to an arts high school and I was in the literary arts program. There were five different arts, the performing arts and the non-performing arts. We hung out, we kept to our sides, basically.
And so in the non-performing arts, which I was on, it was us and the visual kids, we had our own little t-shirts made. Our high school non-performing arts in the back, it just said, don’t look at me.
I’m really feeling those vibes right now. Cause I’m just like, I wasn’t in drama. I wasn’t in dance.”
Amy: “For some of us who are introverts, it can be a lot. So take good care of yourself, pace yourself. Don’t do too much at once, but just in try to enjoy it and really just listen to what it means for other people.
I remember when I wrote The Gratitude Connection, my first book, and I was talking to somebody, I’d just done some kind of talk, I’d given a presentation and it went very well and I was getting all kinds of accolades and it was really nice.
Then later I was talking about it with a group of people and somebody overheard and said, you’re an author? And they looked at me with googly eyes.
That was the first time I’d experienced that. It was really strange to be treated like a celebrity. In other people’s eyes, they’re seeing you in a different light, let them have that. It’s okay.
Let them enjoy that, they got to meet a celebrity author and just own it, just take it on.”
Megan: “Well, I will try to do that.
I will say again, I feel like I’ve written a good book and I have great confidence in that. And a great deal of it is due to the work that we did together over this process.
Amy, it’s been great. You really helped me make something I’m super proud of.”
Amy: “That is so great for me to hear because, you’ve not only done it, but you’ve done it beautifully.
You said just at the beginning, I’m just going to do it. I’m going to power through. I’m going to do everything I need to do. But you’ve also done it in such a way that it truly is not just a useful tool, but one that’s really enjoyable to read. So congratulations.
It’s been terrific working with you. You’ve been an A++ student because you’ve just blown through all your goals. You’ve done everything just superlatively. So it’s been a real joy for me.”
Megan: “Amazing. Thank you so much and thank you everyone who has been watching throughout this process.
It’s been great to—actually it’s been terrifying to share this with you but I’m glad that we’ve done it and I’m glad that you’re here and I hope you go out and write your own book too.”
Amy: “I hope you do too. And I hope you’re as brave as Megan has been sharing the process and really putting it out in the world because it is brave to have the public view your process of becoming an author.
Thanks for just being brave enough to do that. You can launch your book. No problem.”
Megan: “All right. Until next time.”
Final Thoughts
I just want to congratulate Megan on writing her book, and I want to help her celebrate. And I want to celebrate you, the listener, for joining us on this epic journey.
It really is a huge accomplishment to create something that has never existed before. It’s a work of art. It’s a work of science, and just stick-to-itiveness, perseverance. And Megan has done all that and created a work that she’s very proud of and that I’m very proud of as her coach.
So the next step really is launching the book. So I want you to stay tuned on social media to see when her launch is going to happen. And if you’re interested at all in podcasting or writing a book, you might want to actually purchase the book because you can see what’s been created from this whole process.
It’s not often that you get the opportunity to buy something from a podcast that’s actually been created on the podcast. It’s pretty fun to have this whole experience wrapped up and documented so that you as a listener can understand all the different parts of it, not only for Megan, but for yourself and for every other author that goes through this process.
You understand and maybe appreciate even more what it takes to become an author. So thank you so much for being on this journey with me and with Megan. Congratulations again to Megan on her book, Podcasting for Business.
When you’re ready to explore what becoming an author might look like for you, I’d love to talk with you and have a conversation about your book dreams and what it might look like for you to go through a similar process and become an author like Megan has.
Key Quotes
“I don’t say I’m proud of my work very often, but I’m quite proud of having put this together and having this out there. It feels like a really big accomplishment.” – Megan Dougherty
Resources
Unleash Your Inner Author | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook
- Join the UYIA Coaching Program. (Next Session starts soon!)
- Thinking of writing a book? Get your copy of Unleash Your Impact
Megan Dougherty | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
Would you like a copy of the book being written in this podcast series? It is currently available for pre-order – and as a special gift, if you decide to order one, you’ll get a free ticket to the Podcasting for Business Conference! Get the details and order your book right here.
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