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Hi all -
Thank you, so much, for your interest in the book, The Transparency Sale.
So, here’s update #1:
- The Manuscript: I turned in the first draft of the manuscript on May 25th. After delivering it, I ran to Fedex to print it out...and upon reading through the physical copy, type-o’s jumped out at me from everywhere. So, I read the entire manuscript again, edited as many type-o’s as I could find, and resubmitted on Memorial Day. My publisher told me, “That’s why we have editors and proofreaders”, but I couldn’t handle it. :) While I turned in the manuscript on Memorial Day, the publisher now has the editor focused on it as of yesterday. She just finished up another book of theirs. That’s big, because the process of taking my 50,000 words of nonsense and wrangling it into a final, readable format now accelerates. I’m expecting the first round of edits on Monday.
- The Promo Video / Speaker Reel: When you write a book, there’s so many things that go along with it. One thing is getting a speaker reel / book promo done. It’s basically a short video meant to sell an event planner that the subject is interesting, and that I would be worthy of being on stage at their event. That was completed this week. It’s linked HERE (and down at the bottom of this post) if you want to check it out. The CoCreate Films team was amazing to work with, and a big thanks to Bryan Naas at Lessonly for hosting the filming and providing feedback.
- Cover Design: We settled on the book cover, which will be a popping red with a transparent cover. The other designs were great, but across the board, everyone loved this one the best…including my 5 year old son. The subtitle doesn’t match what’s on this image right now, but it’s close. The subtitle is printed on the book, and the title is printed on a sheer, transparent wrap. It’s super cool & unique. You can find an image of it on the "Home" page of this site, as well as the page called "The Book"
- The Website: A lot of time has been spent honing in the website, which I think looks pretty solid now, but I’d love your opinion on it. www.transparencysale.com
Where my focus is right now:
- Getting endorsements: These are the quotes that go on the back of the book. Such an interesting process to get endorsements on a book that’s yet to be finalized.
- Determining how deep to go with the distribution: As it turns out, books don’t just magically appear everywhere. The publisher (Ideapress) is a master at the mass distribution, but some other distribution points require you to pay them, like airport bookstores. The books that are on the front table at a Hudson’s book at the airport? Those cost the author a ton to have placed there. I’ve decided not to do that...but the book eventually will get into the airports, but likely a soft cover later on. Also, there’s a different process for getting into independent bookstores...they don’t follow the mass distribution model. Also thinking through getting books into the public library system, ebooks, audiobooks, international distribution, etc. It’s crazy.
- Publicity: Over the past two weeks, I was the closing keynote at the Sales Assembly Summit, did a lunch and learn at PowerReviews, and had a podcast interview published with Sales Hacker. Over the next two weeks, I’m being interviewed for 2 other podcasts (Flip My Funnel & The Alignment Podcast), have one that I already did come out (Sales Babble), and will be doing a campaign to event planners to start booking events for when the book comes out.
- Anticipating the editor turnaround: When that happens (expected on Monday), I’ll likely have to go back in to lockdown mode to turn around another draft. Waiting to see the damage.
As of the current plan, the book is still on track for a publication date of October 9th, 2018. A placeholder should be going up on Amazon soon, and pre-sale should start in September.
Thanks, again, for all the support through this process. Much more to come…
TC