[00:00:00] Have you ever stopped and asked yourself what it's like to be an author? What are the phases that you go through on your journey? What are the milestones that you reach and how does that change or impact you as you're progressing in your author journey and heading towards your goal and what you see as being successful?
[00:00:20] At JuxtaBook, we've identified five distinct phases of the author journey. Now the tricky thing about these five phases on your journey is that they feel linear, but they overlap and they can stop and they can start again.
[00:00:37] They can reset based on what you learn in each phase about yourself, about your book, and about where you're going.
[00:00:47] So today I'm gonna go over these five phases and go into each of them, and I want you to decide what phase or phases are you in as an author on your journey.
[00:00:58] I'm Zach Kristensen, [00:01:00] and this is Beyond the book presented by Juxta book.
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[00:01:12] So these five phases are book development, book publishing.
[00:01:16] Author, branding, launch and marketing and beyond the book.
[00:01:21] So beginning with book development, it's essentially about laying the foundation for your book. This is where you're doing the writing, you're getting the ideas in your head onto paper. You're writing rewriting, you're gathering feedback from alpha or beta readers, and you're editing. Think of it as you're preparing a meal, you're gathering all the ingredients, you're testing the flavors, and you're making sure everything is just right before you're ready to serve it up to your guests or in this case, your readers.
[00:01:52] Next is book publishing. This is where you have a finished manuscript and you're ready to get it out there, turning [00:02:00] it into something tangible that readers can hold in their hands or download to their devices. This is where you're gonna choose to go a traditional publishing route, a self-publishing route, or maybe a hybrid publishing route, depending on where you wanna go, it's where you're figuring out what your title is, what the cover looks like, what the design and layout looks like. This can be a really fun phase, but also with a lot of crucial decisions to be made.
[00:02:27] The next phase, author branding Think less about logos and business cards and what your website will look like. Author branding is more about how you want your readers to see you and remember you. It's your personality, your authentic self, and those parts that you want to put out there into your everyday interactions, whether that's online or at different author events.
[00:02:54] It's also how you connect with your community. It's your voice where you're sharing the ups and [00:03:00] downs of, of being an author or talking about the process of how you developed your book. And really in a sense, your author brand is how you're engaging with your audience.
[00:03:12] The fourth step is launch and marketing. This is probably one of the most definitive steps because you will have a launch day. Now, whether or not you decide to do a big launch or a soft launch, and then you ramp it up slowly as you learn where your audience is hanging out and what messaging is gonna work for them.
[00:03:30] Whatever that is, the launch is a significant event. It signals that you've come through the other phases as an author and you're ready to put something out into the world. It's about creating that buzz and connecting with your audience even further and offering them what you've put so much work into to solve their current challenges or problems that they're facing.
[00:03:55] And then the final phase is beyond the book. This is [00:04:00] looking past just your book and looking into your expertise that you've developed. How can you expand on your work? Can you offer workshops, consulting, coaching? Can you get in front of a room and speak, or get on webinars or webcasts? This phase is really about growing and extending your influence beyond the pages of your book.
[00:04:22] Now what's interesting, as I mentioned earlier, is that these phases aren't linear. They all kind of overlap and happen at different times. Probably the phases that will most likely overlap the most at any certain time is your book development, your author branding, and your book publishing. There comes a time in every author's journey where they're kind of working on those all at the same time.
[00:04:47] Whatever phase you're in as an author, recognizing where you are can help you understand what's next and what's going to happen after you're finished with this phase.
[00:04:59] [00:05:00] Because being an author is tough. You're gonna hit a lot of challenges. You may feel overwhelmed, and these phases will help give you a structure and to know to take it one step at a time.
[00:05:10] So your action insight today is to figure out what phase or phases you are in as an author.
[00:05:17] Thanks for listening.
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[00:05:24] to further discuss what phase you are in as an author.
[00:05:27] Visit juxta book.com to set up your author coaching session today.
[00:05:34] 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.
[00:05:50] Your book is just one chapter in your author journey. Think beyond the book as you craft your path. Thank you for your questions and thank you for [00:06:00] listening.
