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Get Your Book Published, a conversation with book coach Andrea Glass
36 Plays4 months ago
Everyone has a book in them. For some people it is a novel, but for an increasing number of professionals it is a non-fiction book.
It is not just independent professional consultants, increasing numbers of in-house professionals are trying to write a book.
Whilst the idea may sound very appealing, the reality is far from easy. The list of challenges that must be addressed before the presses start rolling is extensive.
Andrea Glass is a Book Coach who aims to support first time non fiction authors to overcome those challenges.
In this interesting episode of Rest and Recreation you will hear Andrea explain to host Michael Millward the processes that have helped her support over 200 first time authors to get books published.
In an episode full of useful hints and tips Andrea explains her C.O.D.E. model that helps authors stay focused.
Rest and Recreation is made on Zencastr.
Zencastr is the all-in-one podcasting platform, on which you can create your podcast in one place and then distribute it to the major platforms. It really does make creating content so easy.
If you would like to try podcasting using Zencastr visit zencastr.com/pricing and use our offer code ABECEDER.
Gifts From Andrea Glass
If you would like to discuss the book that you have inside you with Andrea, please visit her website to book a free 15 minute conversation.
My Fabulous First Book: A Workbook helps first-time nonfiction authors get prepared to write a fabulous first book. It includes content as well as journal style fill-in-the-blank pages.
Travel to California
Andrea is based in San Diego. If you would like to visit California a good place to plan your travel is The Ultimate Travel Club, It’s where you will get trade prices on flights, hotels, and package holidays.
Use offer code ABEC79 to receive a discount on your membership fee.
You can find out more about both Michael Millward, and Andrea Glass at Abeceder.co.uk .
Being a Guest
If you would like to be a guest on Rest and Recreation, please contact us using the link at Abeceder.co.uk.
We recommend that potential guests take one of the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.
Matchmaker.fm
Thank you to the team at Matchmaker.fm introducing me to Joanna. Matchmaker.fm is where matches of great hosts and great guests are made. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.
Three the network
Three has the UK’s Fastest 5G Network with Unlimited Data, so listening on Three means you can wave goodbye to buffering.
Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.
If you have liked this episode of Rest and Recreation, please give it a like and download it so that you can listen any time anywhere.
To make sure you do not miss future editions please subscribe.
Remember, the aim of all the podcasts produced by Abeceder is not to tell you what to think, but we do hope to make you think!
Thank you to you for listening.
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Transcript
00:00:05
Speaker
Made on Zencaster.
Introduction by Michael Millward
00:00:06
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Rest and Recreation, the Work-Life Balance podcast from Abisida. I'm your host, Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abisida. As the jingle at the start of this podcast says, Rest and Recreation is Made on Zencaster. Zancaster is the all-in-one podcasting platform on which you can make your podcast in one place and then distribute it to the major platforms like Spotify, Amazon, Apple, and YouTube Music. It really does make making content so easy. If you would like to try podcasting using Zancaster, visit zancaster.com forward slash pricing and use my offer code ABACEDA. All the details are in the description.
00:00:58
Speaker
Now that I have told you how wonderful Zencaster is for making podcasts, we should make one. One that will be well worth listening to, liking, downloading and subscribing to. As with every episode of Rest and Recreation, we won't be telling you what to think, but we are hoping to make you think.
Introducing Andrea Glass
00:01:19
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to- Today's Rest and Recreation guest is Andrea Glass, Andrea works with first-time non-fiction authors to help them realize their dream of being a published author.
00:01:33
Speaker
Andrea is based in Oceanside, which is in San Diego County, California, USA. It's ah just by the name. I think it sounds very Californian. Unfortunately, I haven't visited yet, but if I ever do get to Oceanside, I will be sure to arrange my travel at the Ultimate Travel Club, because the Ultimate Travel Club gives me access to trade prices on flights and hotels, package deals, and all sorts of other travel essentials. there is a link and a membership discount code in the description. Now let's find out what's happening in Oceanside today. Hello Andrea. Hi Michael. Thank you very much for joining me today, I really appreciate it. What is Oceanside like? Oceanside is a mid-sized town, oh I'd probably say 100,000 or so, in the north part of
00:02:27
Speaker
San Diego County right next to Camp Pendleton, which has been a marine base for many, many years. So we have the best of both worlds, rural and city, all in one. And the seaside as well. Yes, I'd say I'm about two miles from the beach. It sounds fantastic.
Andrea's Journey to Book Coaching
00:02:46
Speaker
Please could we start our conversation today with a little bit of an introduction about who Andrea Glass is and what what led to you being a first time author, coach? Well, I'm a frustrated writer from the time I was five years old. I used to write little bits here and there. I put together little books. And as I grew up, I was told you'll never make a living as a writer.
00:03:13
Speaker
In those days, a woman had to be a secretary, a teacher, or a salesperson, or a wife and mother. So I became a teacher, and it didn't sit well with me. So I just went from job to job to job, but I was always writing. When I started writing and getting paid for it, little articles and magazines here and there, I realized that I will and I would make a living as a writer. I started off as a ghostwriter because a few books I tried to sell didn't sell. And I found I loved ghostwriting. And then I added copy editing. And then I finally squeezed in the time to write my own first book called Your Fabulous First Book, how to write with clarity, confidence, and connection. So when I wrote that book, I taught myself everything you need to know about self-publishing because I felt that was the right path for me. And after I did that,
00:04:13
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And I was very successful with it. I became a best-selling author. I said, I have got to teach other people. I have got to help other people. And at that time, book coaching, which is what I call myself a book coach, was very new. And now there are book coaches in every corner of the world. There are also author coaches and writing coaches, but I prefer the term book coach. Because my sole goal is to help someone get that book on Amazon or Ingram Sparks or to a traditional publisher, wherever they want it. But if they have a dream inside of themselves and can't seem to find a way to make it happen, I know I can. And I've had great success with everyone I've worked with. In terms of ghost writing and copy editing and book coaching, I've helped over 200 authors since 2000 when I went in business. That's a lot of authors. Wow. We have something in common though, you know, Andrea?
00:05:11
Speaker
I can remember being told that now Michael, you can hardly structure a sentence type of thing. And then that moment when somebody says, will you write something for us? We'll pay you for it based on the things that I had already published myself. The first thing that came to mind was being told at school, you'll never be a writer type of thing. And then wasn't a huge amount. But it meant that somebody thought I was a writer. They were prepared to pay me to write for them. And it was like, yes, my day is made. All that sort of stuff. I know what you mean. It's unfortunate that teachers and parents have hindered so many creative minds with what they thought was best for them until that child or that adult broke out of that restriction and saw other people doing it and said, well,
00:06:05
Speaker
gosh, there's a lot of books out there, they can write it, why can't I? And with self-publishing, it's so much easier to take that chance because if you write and publish a book and it doesn't do well, you only have yourself to look at and you could improve upon it. Maybe it wasn't a good book or maybe you didn't know how to sell or market it, but it was all in your own hands and you didn't have to look at someone else to say, ah you could do this or you can't do this. Everyone can be a writer. And here's the thing, Michael, if they want to write a book, but they have some limitations, like they're afraid they're not a good enough author or they they don't know how to market it, they can get help. That's why I'm a book
Role of a Book Coach
00:06:49
Speaker
coach. I can help anyone get past whatever the stumbling blocks are, especially if they're words in their head that say, I'm not good enough. I can't do this. No one will ever read my book.
00:07:02
Speaker
That's what a book coach does. It helps the author get to the other end of whatever is holding them back. That's true. I suppose if you want to be a writer, the best, easiest way, the most important thing to do is to write. Doesn't matter whether it's good or it's bad. You are writing and you then need to make sure that you find people who will tell you whether it's good or bad and what you need to do in order to improve. And that would be where, again, a book coach comes in.
00:07:35
Speaker
Well, they can also take writing classes. I was in a 10-year writing class at my local junior college. Once a week for three hours, people read what they wrote and people critiqued it, and we all just got better and better. There are plenty of places you can have writing find writing groups online or offline. There's plenty of books. There's online courses. As a matter of fact, I just started teaching a course yesterday. It's going to be a six-week course on how to write and publish your book. And I have 15 people who have wanted to write a book and just couldn't seem to figure out how to get started. And it was so exhilarating to know that this has been a long time coming. I've been wanting to teach online for a while because I've been teaching for the University of California for 20 years, but I'm teaching for them. I wanted to do this on my own. So when I can work with people either individually or through a group group program like this, I can show them
00:08:33
Speaker
that there are many ways to improve their writing, to get through the the the roadblocks. Like I said, you can read books, you can take courses, you can take classes, you can join a reading critique group and have other people read your writing. It's important though to find a kind group. You don't want people who who offer criticism rather than critique. good pointnt Writing doesn't have to be a solo journey anymore. You don't have to imagine this writer sitting alone in the garage never showing anyone their work and then trying to pitch it to agents or publishers. It's not like that anymore. There are many, many ways to get your reading read. You can join online groups where you can post short articles and get feedback on that. You know, obviously you can join a class, you can ah hire a book coach, you can find a collaborator, you can find accountability partners.
00:09:30
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many ways. One of my my missions in life is to show people that writing doesn't have to be a solo journey. I can totally get
Writing for Credibility in Business
00:09:38
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that. What type of authors are you working with? um I prefer to work in the nonfiction area with people who see that a book can help them in many ways. Most of the time, it's business professionals who are service based, who have an area of expertise. or take, for example, a financial consultant. There are many financial consultants out there, and how do you set yourself apart? If you were looking to find one and the financial consultant you found was an author, you would think that that person was an expert. They would stand out as being more credible. And so a book can provide increased credibility and visibility and profitability to a service-based professional
00:10:29
Speaker
who only works one on one with people. Imagine the area of expertise that you share with a few hundred people can start reaching a few thousand people with a book. Yes. And then also once they have a book in their hand, they can get on podcasts like this. I was on a summit last week. I've been on several summits. um You just start to see the world opening up in a different way. So those are the people I like to work with who see how a book can enhance their business and in some way or another. Yes. But then I also work with individuals who just have a story to tell. And I call it a memoir with a message. I made a term because if you were nobody special, you didn't have a following, and you wrote a memoir, who would you expect to read it? But if the memoir had a message like a gentleman I worked with last year, whose wife had four miscarriages,
00:11:27
Speaker
And then finally they had a successful child. He was able to reach out to men in that area who had similar problems when he was out marketing the book. He also had an experience being an emig immigrant and he reached out to people who came from the country that he came from. He reached out to people in that country. So he had different messages throughout his book that were able to have him find an audience for his memoir. So I have worked with several people who want to write a story about some unusual circumstances that occurred in their life that they feel their book could help other people who may have been through or are going through similar circumstances.
00:12:16
Speaker
Very interesting. I think this point that if you are a knowledge provider, a business service based knowledge provider and having a book gives you credibility. The other side of that is that having a book enables someone to connect with you before they've met you and to understand you. And I think very often when you are looking for, for example, a financial advisor, an accountant, a lawyer, solicitor, architect. It's a dark art. You have no way really of selecting from one over the other. But once people have demonstrated their knowledge by articles, podcasts, books, you start to see and understand that individual and you you can make a more informed decision about whether they are the right person for you to work with or not. It's definitely a good point, Michael. and
00:13:15
Speaker
The way to do that successfully is within their book to focus on the target audience they want to attract. Because when you write a non-fiction book, it's really best to have a specific audience in mind. You want to write to that person. You want to offer them perhaps solutions to a problem they have, which is why a lot of people buy a non-fiction book. So you have to figure out a way inside the book to make a connection to the reader, which is why I called my first book your fabulous first book how to write with clarity, confidence and connection. Yes. How do you connect with the reader in the book? Then how do you connect with the reader in the marketplace? So connecting with the reader in the book, making them feel like you're talking just to them will definitely make your book more successful for the market you want to reach. Yes. It's almost like you want
00:14:13
Speaker
as many people as possible to buy the book, but when they buy it, you want them as the author to feel that the book was written for them and that you as the author understand the situation that they are in now or are going to face in the future. That's so true. And it gives a trajectory for the book because you start the book off with the problem and you exacerbate it so that the person really feels like, wow, you know, they understand I have this problem. And then you move the book through to the solution at the end. And it's it's pretty much a ah typical pattern that would be the outline or the chapter outline or the table of contents for a book, moving the reader from where they are when they get the book to what you hope will be a successful conclusion. Because if a reader finishes the book and they say, wow, I can do this now, you know, I have a solution to the problem.
00:15:13
Speaker
They will tell more people about the book. Word of mouth is the best way to sell anything and they become your raving fan. So if you write more books or if you hold a course or anything else you do, they will be on your side. So it's so important to deliver a satisfying conclusion and a non-fiction book. Yes. You're taking people on a journey from We're in this together. I understand your situation. I've been there before. Let's go on this journey and you're building towards the conclusion so that people can see the way forward. That's the the author is solving the problem for the reader. But what sort of problems do authors face when they come to say, yes, I'm going to write a book.
00:16:02
Speaker
I know why I'm writing the book. I know who who the audience will be for the book, but now now my own problems start. What sort of challenges do you see new first-time authors having to address before they can get to that finished book?
Overcoming Writing Challenges with CODEE
00:16:19
Speaker
I'm glad you asked me that, Michael, because while I was writing my first book, I coined the term CODEE, and it stands for challenges, obstacles, distractions, and excuses. And I find that any reason that an author has not moved forward with their book comes under one of those. Now, I break the codes down even further into external codes and internal codes. So external codes would be ah the challenges, distractions as they find, yeah you know, therere they're doing some research and they get lost going down the black hole of the internet, or they have people interrupting them.
00:17:03
Speaker
or they can't stop looking at the email or their phone. Now, the internal codes would be thoughts like, I'm not a good enough writer. Nobody's going to read my book. I don't know how to sell books. um There's too many books written on this topic. I don't know how to start. This is all overwhelming. I don't think I can afford this. So all the internal thoughts are more subtle. And sometimes when a writer comes to me and they don't really know exactly why they haven't moved forward, mostly they can refer to the external codes. But we have to talk a bit, and I have to play psychologist, so to speak, to understand and to you know and to unravel those inner codes. And my way of working is to discuss them upfront.
00:17:53
Speaker
and say, let's figure out how we're going to handle these codes so we can move forward with writing the book without them coming up during the process. Or if they do come up, we know how we're going to handle them. See, this is about preparation. And my book is all about preparation. My book is not a book teaching you how to write a book. It's teaching how to prepare to write a book so that you have everything handled up front so you can move forward and write the right book the right way for the right people. And the only way you can do that is to handle your codes up front. And a few other things I suggest like so scheduling time to write, finding the ideal location to write, perhaps getting an accountability partner that you can check in with each other, and also plotting your publishing timeline, which means when do you want to finish the book?
00:18:50
Speaker
Whether it happens that way or not is not important, but you have to set these timelines for yourself or you'll just kind of wander around forever. So let's say you choose six months. So then you can pace yourself. You know how many chapters you can write each week. You know how much time you can put into it. So I talk a lot about preparation as a coach and I get people set up. Then whether they need me throughout is different. Sometimes I check in once a week. I can be their accountability partner. They can get a friend or another author to do it for free, or they can pay me. And obviously, I will also read some of their pages and give them feedback as we go. But Michael, every situation is different. Everyone I work with, I basically need to fill in the blanks and what area they feel they're lacking. And I will fill in that area, whether it's being there for them as a coach, whether it's reading their pages,
00:19:48
Speaker
whether it's just listening to them go through their codes. I am very flexible on how I work with each person and it's an up to each individual what they need. And most of the time they know what they need, but if they're not if they don't, then we talk about it and we figure it out together. Yeah, I suspect that a lot of first-time authors probably don't realize what it is that they're going to need in order to complete the writing and publication of a book. Listening to you, I'm thinking the idea of an author sort of sitting in a room by themselves creating a non-fiction masterpiece
00:20:28
Speaker
is great, but actually the production of a book is a team effort. You know, I run Workplace Learning Centre, a learning resources training course web shop, and we often get sent books that have been written by someone one who is a specialist in that particular area, which they want us to include. And I can almost identify these books before I've seen the name of the publisher because very often they haven't had somebody proofread what they've written. They haven't had somebody design the layout properly or professionally. There are all sorts of little things that haven't happened because
00:21:14
Speaker
The idea seems to be, how quickly can I do this? How cheaply can I do this? I just want to get it out there rather than producing something which people are going to want to want to read and want to tell other people to read as well. It's unfortunate that with artificial intelligence, a lot of people are churning out not so great books, and Amazon has not established any sort of way to distinguish what's a good book and what's not a good book. They only ask that when you do submit a book that you have used artificial intelligence that you tell them what percentage of the book was written by that. But there's no way that Amazon can check unless they're going to run checkers through every single book.
Standards in Self-Publishing
00:22:04
Speaker
Yeah, and one of the great things about self-publishing is that it makes publishing so much more widely available, which is fantastic. But at the same time, the independent publisher also needs to think like a big established publisher and aim for the same type of quality of design, production, editing that you would expect from a big publisher. Oh, if you write a crappy book or have it badly formatted, it's going to show up in the Amazon reviews. Trust me. I got a couple of one or two star ratings. They want reviews. People can just pop in a rating with no review attached to it.
00:22:50
Speaker
There are main people out there. And if they do buy the book and they feel it's not up to standard, they'll give a one or two star review. So you don't want to put crap out there, especially if you want to build credibility. And if maybe you want to build a career as an author, you have to be, like you said, just as if you were sending your book to a top publishing house. Those of us who are in the industry, I'm, I belong to four writing groups in San Diego County. We aim for professionalism. We have meetings once a month, and we have speakers. And you know we want to hold up this standard of self-publishing. It's now called indie publishing. That's the exact term for it. And there are all kinds of ah groups that work towards building that standard so that you could get your book in a bookstore. and You could get to do talks in libraries or
00:23:45
Speaker
any kind of establishment. You can become a speaker with a self-published book. You can get into libraries. so We don't want to you know have people think indie publishing or self-publishers is crap. It's a standard that those of us who are serious about the industry aspire to and encourage others to as well. You mentioned that you've had some success with the guy who was writing a book about his experiences of a fertility journey and also the sixth successes that you've had with people who have written business based books as well. I know that as a coach and a ghost writer and all these sorts of things, your work is secret. You don't publicize who you really work with because you don't take away from the the actual author of the book. But
00:24:34
Speaker
Can you tell us something about the favorite book that you've you've been involved with?
Success Stories of Authors
00:24:39
Speaker
Well, what makes a favorite book for me is an author who's really committed, who shows up, who does what he or she says they're going to do. So the the gentleman I was referring to, he was from Ireland. He found me online and it turned out we lived a mile away from each other. And he was a businessman. So he understood sales. He was in sales. So he had a good background of understanding sales. And he had these experiences with his wife and the miscarriages, and he was flatlined twice. He was an immigrant who came to Ireland, then went back, then came back. So he appealed to a lot of different markets. And he had a ton of publicity in Ireland. Because he was in sales, he wasn't afraid to market it. And
00:25:30
Speaker
you would see his name popping up everywhere. He even got to speak at one of the prestige independent bookstores in San Diego. So he contacted a lot of people in Ireland. He got on Ireland radio or podcasts and and articles. He connected with other people and the topics. The book was, you know, topical, like I said, a a memo with a message. He focused, he found the groups of people who would relate. to the different challenges that he went through. So that was a great success story. But the greatest success for me is just working with authors who are responsive. and Someone I'm working with right now is another businessman who is retired. But in his business, he saw a lot of problems with the companies he worked at. And he found a solution, sort of his own trademarked solution. So he wanted to write a book to this particular industry
00:26:24
Speaker
but he felt like he wanted to novelize it. And that's something I've never done. And I haven't totally been blown away by some of these books. You call them allegories, I guess, which tell true information, but in a novel format. So he had never written a book before, but he has turned up every week for our meetings. He sends me the material on time. He he listens to my suggestions. He's just one of those model clients who knows what he wants, he sees where he's going, and he does what it takes to get there. And so whether the book is a success or not, for me, the success is working with people who want to get to the end result. Now, once they publish, I really don't have a hand in it anymore. I can give them suggestions as to marketing, but as you well know,
00:27:18
Speaker
It's a real crapshoot, pardon my French, but you can't predict if a book is going to sell well, even if you market the heck out of it. you know you It's an extremely competitive world out there and you have to find small niches. you know This client of mine will have to find small niches to start breaking into. Maybe I suggest Lunch and Learn. You go into a company, You give a talk about the topic and then you sell books and they pay you a flat fee for speaking in the books. So you you have to find ways that are specific to the book. So as much as I help my authors turn out an excellent book, beyond that, it's pretty much up to them to take it to the next level. And I haven't followed all of my authors because it would be a bit much. I keep them on a mailing list, but I don't know exactly how many books each one has sold or how successful they've been.
00:28:14
Speaker
From my end, the success is getting them published and having them a book that they're proud of. That at the end of the day is the most important thing, but a book that you can be proud of. But, you know, Andrea, in just a short space of time, you have shared an awful lot of knowledge. I really do appreciate it. Thank you very much for being such a great guest on Rest in Recreation. Thank you. Oh, you're welcome. Can I share a few presents for the audience? Yes, please. Yes. Well, um I wrote your fabulous first book, and then I thought I wanted to write a workbook to accompany it.
Resources for Aspiring Authors
00:28:50
Speaker
So I often give my workbook away as a gift, and I think it's a valuable tool for first-time authors to fill in the blanks, to answer the questions, to get very clear upfront about where they're going and why they haven't gotten there before, and to clarify all of that.
00:29:09
Speaker
and so I offer it on my website, which is Andrea Susan Glass dot com. And then it's forward slash giveaway. And you just pop in your name and email and then you'll get a PDF. And if you want to print it out, it'll be more helpful that way. And you can then fill in the blanks. You can work your way through getting ready to write that book. The other gift I have is I offer a 15 minute what I call the book chat. and you can sign up at talktoandrea.com. That's great. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Oh, you're welcome, Michael. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you very much.
00:29:52
Speaker
I'm Michael Millward, Managing Director of Abocida. In this episode of Rest and Recreation, I have been having a conversation with Andrea Glass, a first time nonfiction author coach. You can find out more information about both of us at abocida.co.uk. There is a link in the description. I must remember to thank the team at matchmaker dot.fm for introducing me to Andrea Glass. If you are a podcaster looking for interesting guests, or if like Andrea you have something very interesting to say, matchmaker dot.fm is where matches of great hosts and great guests are made.
UK's Fastest 5G Network Promo
00:30:30
Speaker
There is a link to matchmaker.fm and an offer code in the description. If a connection has been buffering whilst you're listening, you may like to know that 3 has the UK's fastest 5G network with unlimited data. So listening on 3 means that you can wave goodbye to buffering. There is a link in the description that will take you to more information about business and personal telecom solutions from three and the special offers available when you quote my referral code. That's a description just like the books that Andrea has helped to create is well worth reading.
00:31:05
Speaker
If you have liked this episode of Rest and Recreation, please give it a like and download it so that you can listen anytime, anywhere. To make sure that you don't miss out on future episodes, please subscribe. Remember, the aim of all the podcasts produced by our procedure is not to tell you what to think, but we do hope to make you think. All that remains for me to say is until the next episode of Rest and Recreation, thank you for listening and goodbye.