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[00:00:00] Welcome to Beyond the Book presented by Juxtabook. I'm Zach Kristensen. It's our weekly, Q&A episode. Answering your questions about writing publishing and launching your book. Let's begin.
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[00:00:13] Hi, Zach. If I have a defined audience for a book I'm working on, uh, how would you suggest I clearly understand my audience's problem? Do you have any tools or methods that you would suggest to really understand the problems without me just assuming I know what those problems are? Appreciate your help.
[00:00:37] Hello, Todd, thank you for your question. And I love that you want to go deeper into understanding your audience's challenge and problem, and to test whether or not you really understand the challenge or problem you're trying to solve for, with your book and expertise.
[00:00:52] We recommend to test this by asking those that you believe are currently struggling with the problem that you are trying to [00:01:00] solve. And to do that, you need to know where they hang out. This is typically found in two different places.
[00:01:08] First being within your own network, among your friends, family, and those, you know, at work.
[00:01:14] The second is online through looking at websites, social media and different forums that align with your challenge or problem, or the solutions for that challenge or problem.
[00:01:26] Here are seven different ways that you can do this.
[00:01:29] First surveys and questions,. Create surveys or questions that target your audience and ask them about those pain points and challenges and what they would want in a book that helps them solve it.
[00:01:40] Second is interviews. Conduct one-on-one interviews with your potential readers within your network. These conversations will provide you with valuable insights into their needs and wants of your audience.
[00:01:53] Third is social media listening. So by jumping on social media, you'll be able to follow and understand [00:02:00] and look at the comments that people are making around the problem that you're trying to address or solve. You could also run searches for keywords and hashtags to help you find the information you need more quickly.
[00:02:12] Fourth is competitor research, find current books or content that has already been published that is similar to yours. Read the reviews and comments to identify what the reoccurring themes are and where people have questions and areas that they would want to go deeper into.
[00:02:30] Fifth is beta readers. If you have a draft, even if it's just a few chapters, ask a small group of people that you know, to read it and give you feedback, their insights will be valuable and also help you identify blind spots that you hadn't before considered.
[00:02:45] Six is looking at online analytics, using websites, such as Google trends, google keyword search, answer the public or Uber suggests are great ways to find out what people are typing in [00:03:00] and what they're looking for around your challenge or problem.
[00:03:04] And then seven going, even deeper, looking at keywords and looking at Google keyword planners to identify common search queries that are related to your book subject.
[00:03:15] In addition to all these suggestions, we always recommend to all of our authors that we coach that they get on GoodReads and Amazon book reviews to understand what people are saying about their competitor books. Look at BookBub, subscribed to the BookBub list and find out what books people are promoting around the certain subject that you're looking at. As well as LibraryThing.
[00:03:37] All of these sites offer additional information and insights into your readers and their problems. Including what they wished specific books had more of. Extremely valuable information.
[00:03:50] So thank you for your question, Todd. And remember that understanding your readers challenge. We'll take effort. It's not going to, it might take some time and I love that you want to go deeper.
[00:03:59] As you do [00:04:00] this, you're going to learn more about the problem and you'll be more equipped and aligned to write a better book than you would have previously.
[00:04:07] And you'll also be gathering valuable information that you'll be able to use and marketing your book because that's where the first connection is going to come in at is when you're marketing your book.
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[00:04:22] What are the criteria to know if it's better to publish with a traditional publisher or if it's better to self publish through Amazon self publishing or some other channel?
[00:04:36] Thank you for the question. And it's a big decision and I'm sure many authors I have asked themselves, especially nowadays when the market is flooded with nearly 2 million books each year and there are a lot of appealing things between the two options of traditional or self-publishing. But before I really dive into this.
[00:04:58] First consider [00:05:00] why you're writing a book. Is it for fame for fortune? For impact? Or simply because you want to leave a legacy.
[00:05:10] The why behind this, what guide your, how and have a huge impact on the path that you choose to pursue. So generally speaking, traditional publishing is harder to break into and takes longer for our book to be published and distributed. It's because there's a limit amount in a limited capacity that each publisher is able to do.
[00:05:31] In addition, if they already have a book that's similar to yours, they may like it, but may not consider it because they already have that in their portfolio.
[00:05:40] Self-publishing is faster, but comes with different trade-offs and more responsibility on you as the author, but it can also be a great option. Four different questions we always talk about with our authors center around control, royalties distribution and timing.
[00:05:58] So first is control. [00:06:00] Traditional publishing means giving up quite a bit of the control. When you sell and hand over your manuscript to a traditional publisher they typically take the reins on design distribution and on the IP, they purchase that from you and agreed to pay you either in advance or a royalty or both.
[00:06:20] You'll have input onto the design distribution and the editing that they want to make, but they don't, you will not have full control.
[00:06:28] On the other hand, self publishing means you're in the driver's seat but you also own all the upfront costs. So you'll be paying for the design, getting everything set up for distribution, the conversion, if you're doing an audio book, you'll be paying for that. So there is a lot more upfront costs.
[00:06:45] So really to decide between the two you need to ask yourself, are you okay with someone else driving or do you want to take the wheel.
[00:06:53] Next let's talk about money. Traditional publishers may offer an advance, but your royalties will be generally [00:07:00] between 10 to 15% and that's usually on the gross on the profit, not on the retail price of your book.
[00:07:08] With self publishing you foot, the bill initially that you stand to earn more royalties per book and that usually will still be off of what the net amount is, the profit on the book. If you're distributing it through a retailer, But you'll still make more.
[00:07:24] So weigh your options. Is it about the money or is there more to it?
[00:07:29] Third is distribution. Traditional publishers can get your book on the shelves at brick and mortar stores and have other relationships with a lot of other sales channels than you typically would self publishing, and they handle all of the supply chain.
[00:07:43] However, the majority of books are sold online versus bought at stores. Self-publishing means go doing much of the legwork yourself with the distribution but you'll be able to, depending on your distribution path, have more options or [00:08:00] just as many options as a traditional publisher, but you'll be able to have a lot more control over it. So ask yourself with distribution. Do you have the resources and energy to manage that distribution?
[00:08:13] Last is timing. Traditional publishing is slow. It often takes a year or longer and that may just be when your manuscript's done. If you have a offer from a publisher and you don't have the book fully written yet, it may take two years, just depends on what, how quickly you can get things moving and the distribution cycles and seasonal cycles of the traditional publisher.
[00:08:38] Self publishing can be a really quick setup. You could realistically get a book published digitally or print on demand. Uh, within a few weeks or even a few days. Ask yourself. Are you ready to wait? Or do you run really want to get your book out there as soon as possible?
[00:08:57] In the end, there's not really one right answer [00:09:00] for an author. If an author really does want to get traditionally published, then stick with that, pursue that path and you never know what will come your way.
[00:09:08] We recommend to the authors that we coach that why not try traditional publishing? You never know what kind of offer will come your way and it could really help with fronting the costs of the book production and for your time to finish out the book.
[00:09:21] If the traditional publishing path doesn't work out, you can pursue self publishing. Remember, all of this depends on your goals, what you want, and your resources. But this is your journey. Align it with the path that you want.
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[00:09:41] If you have any questions about a recent episode, I'd love to hear from you. Visit juxtabook.com/beyondthebook and click the appropriate button to leave your question and we will include it in our weekly Q&A episode.
[00:09:57] Your book is just one chapter [00:10:00] in your author journey. Think beyond the book as you craft your path. Thank you for your questions and thank you for listening.
