115 - An Authors Job is Never Complete!

Intro:
Hey Guys! Nicole Gabriel here! I’m the host of the Let’s Get Your Book Published podcast. I’m also the author multiple books, a Book Designer, and a Publishing Coach as well as an intuitive Business Coach.

I’ve been in the book business for awhile now and I’ve helped many clients get their book published over the years. On this podcast I share personal stories, client stories, and the truths about the publishing industry….

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Here we are in 2022 and were are nearly through January, but I have yet to do a podcast. So, let me first say “Happy New Year” and second, I apologize for not keeping regular with my podcasting. I have had a tremendous number of interruptions, but I have remained steadfast in my conviction to share the truth about the publishing industry, to help my authors get their books published, and to continue to produce high-quality end products for my clients.

Today’s episode - An Author’s Job is Never Complete - Putting in the Time and Doing the Work!

As I’m sure you can relate, I have been moving through a transformative time in my life. I believe humanity is working through various levels of self-discovery, personal, and collective transformation.

Myself, I’ve been doing a ton of behind-the-scenes work that I will announce shortly. It’s often that, as an author, we are moved from places of exposure into a quiet (and sometimes lonely) relationship with a computer screen. It’s sort of this dance between needing time to think to compose thoughts and approach and hiding out then putting yourself in strange places for exposure. Some of us authors (myself included) would rather be found than be exposed. Yet, we want our words to be heard or we wouldn’t have made them so public.

The job to become an author is a tireless, and oftentimes unrewarded, effort. You have to let others go have fun and play and live life while you sit back and do the time and put in the work. It can feel like you’ve just put yourself in a time out or confinement and the world is passing you by as you sit down to punch out thoughts and emotions on the keyboard.

Back in 2017 I was putting the finishing touches on my 4th book Lets Get Your Book Published. I had written a book a year for 4 years in a row and after all the editing and marketing, website building, sales, and distribution efforts to set up the infrastructure to support them…many years zoomed by. Back in 2013 I was completing my first book and it’s been a whirlwind ever since. I have people ask me about the things that have gone in my life over this period of time and the only way I could preserve what was happening and find peace was to write. There was just so much happening it was as if I had to write to put a stake in it all to try and ground it. I lost track of time during this period. I could barely function in life and I know, on several occasions, it was the books that saved me. They became a reason for being and a personal relationship with god in a soon-to-be series of therapy sessions about to be publicly broadcast to the world upon printing them.

I began writing this podcast over Thanksgiving weekend. But, I locked myself in my office for a few months now and while others were out traveling and visiting with family and friends this holiday season, there I was doing to the work! I had another project to complete my portfolio as an author that I had to complete. I’m going to tell you more about this in the next podcast, as I’m still awaiting approvals before I can announce it. But, it’s been 4 years in the making. I can’t even begin to understand the complexities life through at me while I was trying to accomplish these goals, but I persevered through.

I’ve been told by some that I’m a thinker. You know, I’m surrounded by words, wisdom, knowledge, and book creation by brilliant souls all day long. I adore what I do for a living, but it can also be a bit challenging at times. Knowledge gives one a leg up on what happens in the mainstream. But, not everyone is an information guru. In fact, many like to live blindly and find a thinker to be no fun.

A writer tends to be someone that chooses to transform society through the written word. They’ve put in the time and have done the research. Often times these people are called conspiracy theorists. Knowledge can be scary to those unwilling to seek answers. Asking the “why” or “how” is scary to those that can’t think by themselves but rather wish to be led. The irony is we need the uninformed to be readers of our books. Oftentimes its not considered truth by the nay-sayer until it is written and they can pull it up as reference material. There is an infinite circular irony to living as an author… you are often misunderstood until you put in the time. You are an outcast until you can present a well-documented theory, story, experience, or research. Have you ever had a disagreement with someone that required you to pull up something written to prove its value? It’s truth? It’s relevancy? In a conversation you’d just have an opinion, but with well-researched and documented reference materials or thoughts bound between two boards - you are now an expert! I don’t know, but sometimes I think it would be funny to meet a complete stranger and start a conversation and pull out one of my books as reference material to drive a point home…if they didn’t know it was me I might open their eyes better than speaking the words myself.

As an author you are one of the called. You know that there is no place else that feels more right than channeling what comes through you and onto the pages! There is a kind of divine appointment when this happens to us authors. And, for me, there is another book wanting to birth itself. It’s been hanging out there for awhile. But, there has been far too much interruption from noisy people with poor intention in my life for a few years now. I don’t mean this in a harsh way but, when people lack purpose and direction they are just kinda noise. The world is full of opinionated souls that have no intention on having a well-informed discussion. They make flipped comments and move on without remorse. Their thoughts are merely in the moment. Their research is some graph or chart presented on some TV show that was meant to engage a watcher and manipulate thoughts anyhow. There is a biased propaganda and you will become victim to anything you don’t put the time into researching on your own. If you are being presented with information and you take it for truth at it’s face value I say shame on you! You must always challenge truth and know it in your gut!

For the author, I think only a focused, self-guided person, or divinely appointed soul can remove the noise and become laser-focused on the end goal of a completed book. The book is just the tool, foundation, or platform for the subsequent manifest action.

When someone comes into your life and you have a vision or goal to achieve something, and they aren’t aligned in the same way…to achieve an endpoint, then they simply become noise. It can be challenging for an entrepreneur, an author, and someone with a divine appointment on any path of personal achievement or focused self-discovery. If someone can’t appreciate you have a passion and they can’t step aside for you to achieve a goal then they will likely not remain in your day-to-day life. It’s either the un-evolved soul, the noisy neigh-sayer, or the complainer who never intends to stop complaining or form a strong foundational argument (but would truly rather argue) that deplete the energy of a person on a mission with a passion. You see, the author is the one really trying to make a shift, a change, start a movement, annihilate a bad situation, transform a problem, or highlight a mis-truth. The only partnership needed is one that supports the cause!

To become an author you have to want it more than you don’t. You have to allow the interruptions that aren’t getting you to the end goal to dissipate. You have to be firm with certain people because your vision must not be tainted with their noise or negativity. There are so many people around today that are simply filling space. They are floating around aimlessly looking for guidance or leadership or floundering through believing that their limited knowledge on a particular subject matter is as much as they need and they grab little bits of information, form an opinion, and move on. We have a lot of self-proclaimed experts on the planet that truly haven’t done the time. Many are riddled with opinion based on one report or article they read or movie they watched. There are many that take what is on the surface but never dive under for more. But, when you cross over that bridge and jump in then you have stepped into author territory.

Again, to be an author, it requires you do build a premise, and argument, form and opinion…choose a side. You can’t just sorta dance around a topic. You have to fill pages with ideas and thoughts and experiences and research. You have to have thick skin to stand up for your words sometimes.

There are lots of people out there that look at a topic (or a book) and make an off-the-cuff comment about their limited understanding of the topic. Or they might look at a person (an author) and say I just don’t like that person…while they may know nothing about you. At the same time they may like you for no particular reason too. We might all agree this would be far easier…to be liked.

Regardless, every book you write requires you to remove yourself from the world long enough to form your manuscript. Then, after you write and produce your printed book, there is the eBook, the audiobook, and all subsequent marketing materials and campaigns.

If you are doing an eBook its pretty simple as you just hire someone to convert it for you, but should you choose to do the audiobook, then you will have options. The most preferred option is that you record your own audiobook, but this does consume a ton of time! This is almost like writing the book over again!

For an average 250 page book you might end up with nearly 8 hours of recording time. This is the finished product. It may take you far longer to put in the time to do the recording and editing. There are companies out there to help you with this and there are companies that you hire talent with as well. Personally, I think the bonus gift you give to your readers is that you grace them with your presence. It’s a great opportunity to build a relationship with them too. If they are putting in the time to do the work you are agreeing to hold their hand through the entire process. You aren’t asking them to do something you haven’t done yourself. Now, of course, you’ve already put in the time to write the book, but sometimes readers think that’s easy. They think the author can’t relate to them. But, when you share your presence with them personally they will form a deeper bond with your words and material. There are great reasons certain books should have an audiobook and there may be reasons why you might not.

An audiobook is like having one big giant podcast with a ton of information. If you are considering the creation of your audiobook, you might want to take a break after you’ve written the printed version, but there are many advantages to jumping right into this immediately after your book goes to print. Personally, I think when you speak your book you might talk differently than you write and you might find errors. These can be either mis-spellings or just improper use of words. You might catch a few errors or find sentences you’d like to re-word before you get too far along with printing.

Ideally, your book should be written like a conversation. It can sometimes be hard to write this way because there is often no one there but you. But, when you speak your book in audio form you might realize there is a certain way you might like to provide emphasis to certain words or a different order you might present them in. If you still feel motivated after you take your book to print, I suggest you go immediately into the creation of your audiobook. Here’s another thing you might not know about the audiobook…there are services out there that can convert talk to text. So, this might be another quick way to get your book to interested readers. And, of course, this is a great solution for the visually impaired and busy executives on the go. In fact, I have a few clients that work as executives in the Fortune 500 world and they tell me that the audiobooks and LinkedIn learning are a few ways busy executives are getting ahead.

You can get lost in the entire ecosystem your book creates for you and your business. It takes some time, but eventually you reach a point where the infrastructure is together and the veil is lifted and it’s kinda like being re-born. You’re going to feel like you’ve been in a book cocoon, your wings have grown, the summer sun is shining, and you’re now ready to soar in the beauty of the new world you’ve just transformed yourself through.

Eventually, after this birthing process, you will be highly in demand as a valuable content provider. There is nothing comparable to that feeling you get on the other side of this lifetime achievement. You just need to know that those that make it through are those that want this more than any of the noisy distractions they are bombarded with daily. You have to want it so bad that you are willing to expose yourself to criticism, backlash, or opposition. But, honestly, in my opinion, most of this thinking is a made-up fallacy. If you’ve put in the time you will likely always win the argument on your topic. If nothing else, you were get some well-deserved respect for putting in the time. You aren’t for everyone regardless of if you write the book or not. But, today, we need active change-makers with big voices to show up. When you do the time as an author it will give you a solid platform to showcase your message. I promise it’s worth the momentary timeout. There’s a huge difference between someone with a blog, a few opinionated social media posts, and someone willing to stand behind what they’ve produced with a book.

And I will leave you with this heart-felt quote by Ram Dass:

“In order to fully trust our inner voice we must first tune to the frequency of the heart. The more we quiet the mind and free ourselves from clinging to thought forms the better able we are to hear the deeper voice within.”

Go within and find your voice, then do the time are share it with the world!

On that note, I’m hopeful to be back in the saddle with my podcasts. I have far more to share with you that comes from the heart… wishing you peace, love, and light!