How to Write Your First Book With Jessica Verrill
If you've been thinking about writing your first book, but quickly lose motivation because you have no idea where to start or what to do next, then this episode is for you.
I'm chatting with Jessica Verrill all about how writing a book will not only help you grow your business, but how to get it published, launched, and into the hands of readers who need to hear your story.
Jessica Verrill is the founder of House of Indigo Publishing, an energetic alchemist and coach. She is passionate about creating a massive impact in the world through elevating the visibility of soulful entrepreneurs and practitioners. She lives in Maine with her husband and daughter where she practices conscious parenting and homeschooling.
Jessica's links:
Episode Transcript:
[00:00:00] Lindsay: Jessica. Thank you so much for being on the Booker gym clients podcast. I'm so excited to have you on. Thank you so much
[00:00:46] Jessica: for having me here, Lindsay, and for all the listeners who are tuning in really excited.
[00:00:52] Lindsay: Well, this topic is always a big back burner topic for me.
[00:00:56] And we've had some amazing conversations with fellow entrepreneurs who love to talk about how to get your book published, how to even start what to do, like the nitty gritty parts of it. But I think it's nice to also talk about the part with that. No one really. Speaks aloud. Oh yes. I want to write a book and you get all excited.
[00:01:18] You buy the course how to do it. And then you're like, okay, I'll do it when I'm ready. And then you walk away. I think that I, and probably many other people who are listening are in that same boat. I think it's important to get your words out there. So I'm really excited to have Jessica with us today because we're just going to have a conversation about that entire journey of yes, I think I should, I could write a book.
[00:01:43] What should I write about? And then all the way until it's out on a shelf, how do we even get there? So, Jessica, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself?
[00:01:52] Jessica: Yes. Thank you. So I'm Jessica Pharell. I am the founder of how of indigo publishing. I'm also a USA today, bestselling author and multiple time Amazon best-selling author.
[00:02:04] And I love to support these purpose driven entrepreneurs and really getting their message out to a larger audience. I've noticed. How much of a bigger impact it can create and the healing journey that we go on as we're going through the process of writing and becoming publish.
[00:02:29] Lindsay: Well, I think that is something that everyone has wanted to do in this space is help other people, right.
[00:02:36] That's why coaches are so amazing. That's why everyone is so amazing who is listening to this because you would just, you have a big heart and you want to help everyone. Right? And you just want to see transformations in everyone. You want you believe in people, you want to give them next steps and you're doing it online.
[00:02:53] And. Maybe it's hard to make the connection of how a book can help you do that too. Could you make that connection for us?
[00:03:02] Jessica: Yeah, absolutely. So a book is, has the unique ability to be able to connect in with potential clients, potential, you know people who may not even end up being your clients, but. It has the ability to reach a larger audience, then maybe able to invest with you, whether it's time or money or energy, if they're not able to.
[00:03:33] And it allows them to get a glimpse of who you are, what you're doing, your story. It really builds that know like, and trust factor that we so often hear or talk about. And. It allows these readers to kind of lean into who you are as a person and a coach, even
[00:03:54] Lindsay: more. Well, if you think about it, when you, when you read a book, I, you feel so connected with the author because their holdings, I have to hold the physical book in my hands.
[00:04:03] That's how I like to read. And you feel really connected to that person and you know, the author and when you see them online, it's like such a. It's a real moment because you're seeing them on a story and you're like, I have their book in my hand and you just feel like, you know, them on a much deeper level than, you know, reading a blog post or reading an Instagram post.
[00:04:26] So I'm convinced on that part. So if we want to write a book and what happens if we are the most boring person in the world, speaking of the president of that club, how are we supposed to decide. People aren't going to want to read this. Who's going to run. Who's going to want to read a book about a simple online coach living in a small town, not doing anything exciting.
[00:04:53] Jessica: I am sure you're not that boring. There are a lot of stories that so many people including myself would, would want to hear and. You know, that's something that comes up for a lot of people is, is who would want to read this? Or who, who am I to even talk about these things? Or who am I to even write a book?
[00:05:17] And really it's like, we need to come to the back to the facts. You know, we forget what we know and we forget who we are and how far we've come. And so really looking back at like, you know, What have I learned and experienced the past three years, five years, 10 years. That going back to that, that me 10 years ago.
[00:05:41] I didn't know, didn't understand and appreciate, and really looking at pulling out those, those beautiful nuggets of wisdom that are in there. You know, intertwined with all the, these stories and they're there. We just, you know, we think that they get like, Puttered away are hidden underneath the laundry piles that we have to do, but really we all, I really believe we all have a story of impact that will help someone else on their journey.
[00:06:15] Lindsay: I imagine it's something that. Find very boring about yourself, that other people find very interesting. Like if you mentioned your, just your lifestyle and you think that, well, everyone has that lifestyle and they don't. And. We get, we get really bored with ourselves cause we're with ourselves all the time.
[00:06:35] So we don't wake up and think, gosh, my life is so interesting. I can't wait to do the same thing I did yesterday. You know, that's that's me. But we do have important stories to share. And I like how you said, just think about yourself five to 10 years ago. What have you learned in that time? So how can we make this into something that can actually, if I decided to start writing my book today, how can I be sure that I'm on the right track?
[00:07:02] Where the person who reads this book could be a potential client? Like how do you tie that in? So you are helping your.
[00:07:10] Jessica: That's a great question. And I think one of the most important things is that there does need to be that know like, and trust factor. You know, if you think about any really wonderful book that you've read and you've, you've felt connected to the author, there is.
[00:07:27] Weaving like personal story is you're getting to know a sense of who they are. So just by feeling comfortable enough to show up and share who you are, some of your personal stories, what makes you tick, what experiences you've gone through, you're already in the right direction. If you take that and really.
[00:07:49] Inter weave some lessons, some aspects of, you know, say you're a coach, some aspects of lessons that you've learned out of this and maybe some action steps. You know, if you want to go that route of what the reader can take away, how they can start to implement this in their life and begin to create, create change then you really have a recipe for a lot of.
[00:08:16] A lot of success within the reader.
[00:08:19] Lindsay: How does one know I'm sh I'm sure you don't ever really know that your book is going to be something you can write on. Like, let's say I decided I'm gonna write a book about how moms can start their coaching business and okay. That sounds like a great idea in theory.
[00:08:36] And then. You know, 60 pages and I'm like, okay, I don't have any more ideas to put in here. How do we keep going? How do we like hit the play button if we run into some sort of blocker, if we think, okay, I think I've said all that. There is to be said, how can I make this into an actual length of a book?
[00:08:54] Or maybe you're running out of things to say, how do you get past.
[00:08:59] Jessica: Yeah. So I think there's a couple of things that you can do. You know, there's a lot of, a lot of people who support others in doing this. So of course that's always one option. And if you're wanting and continuing to do it yourself, I always encourage people to start with an outline of, you know, these are going to be like the, the major things I'm going to talk about.
[00:09:24] And then you can start to fill in like, okay, this is going to be, you know, a certain chapter. These are some key points that I want to make sure that I hit upon. And then you start bringing in different stories. And usually when you have it written out like that, it sparks a lot of things like, oh yeah, there's a story.
[00:09:45] That I could speak about this experience or this transformation that a client had, things like that. There's almost always more that we can write. It's just that we're getting into our heads and we're thinking like, oh, nobody wants to read about that. And nobody cares about that. So sometimes, you know, stepping away from it, coming back with fresh eyes with a fresh perspective can really be helpful.
[00:10:13] Having someone else look at it can be really helpful. And then. You know, again, taking yourself back to the five years ago, 10 years ago. Well, where was I and what are some of the other things that I haven't talked about that needs to be addressed? And then the final thing I would say about that is it doesn't need to be like a 70,000 word manuscript.
[00:10:38] I've had a lot more people who have been, you know, wanting to write maybe a 10 to 15,000 word book. And that feels really great for them in their audience. And it's just enough of a bite that it can be really easily digested. The work can be implemented. And then, you know, the, the, the reader's getting really great results and would be more likely to want to become a client.
[00:11:05] So, you know, it doesn't need to be. Huge long manuscript. It's kind of like anything goes really.
[00:11:16] Lindsay: I like the, the aspect of breaking it out and having some sort of guideline for chapters and topics, breaking it out into bullets. What you want to cover? I think that gives people like me some direction. What to say in these parts that you're not feeling like you're so all over the place they're running out of things to say, what is a writing process that you favor or maybe recommend do you recommend writing a little bit every day?
[00:11:41] Or what's your favorite approach to
[00:11:43] Jessica: this? Yeah, so, you know, Everyone is so unique. And so it's really about finding what's going to work best for yourself and what you're going to be able to commit to. You know, so if I tell you you're a mom of three homeschooling and running a business and doing all the things.
[00:12:08] If I tell you, no, you absolutely need to carve out three hours a day to write. It's going to be overwhelming. Right. You're going to be like, ah, yeah, that's not happening. I'm going to put that off until 2040, you know? And, but if it's like, if you have 90 minutes on a Saturday morning where your kids are just kind of like playing and lounging and you can not have sneak away and right then that's perfect.
[00:12:37] If it feels like some people like. Take about 15 minutes a day and write for me that doesn't work. Like it doesn't, I need a longer period of time. But if it's too long, I get kind of dried up within it. So it's really about kind of playing around and seeing what works best for you. And if you're like, if you sit down for that 90 minutes and after 45.
[00:13:03] You're coming to a blank and nothing is coming up. It's okay to walk away and come back the next day or come back later. And sometimes that's, that's the, the best way that we can approach it. So it really is figuring out what's going to work best for you as long as there is some consistency to it.
[00:13:23] And you are maintaining that and not continuing to put it on.
[00:13:27] Lindsay: I love that 15 minutes a day or 90 minutes on a Saturday morning is completely different than spending three hours a day. Cause where the heck would I find that? Right? Yeah, so we all have to make our own schedules and no one has the life that we have important to note that as you're doing anything in your business and, or trying something new is make it work for you.
[00:13:49] So what's your favorite way to. Do you like to, this is a weird question, but do you like to type out your book or do you like to write it out on, in a notebook or what's your favorite way to get your thoughts out?
[00:14:00] Jessica: I love that. So I have a gazillion notebooks that I write a lot of notes in. However, when I'm writing.
[00:14:09] I prefer to type, I can type much faster than I can write and my hands. So grandpa, so I, you know, I'm definitely a word processor
[00:14:20] Lindsay: gal for that, for sure. I, I can see that. I love writing whenever I rate new sales copy, I have to grab a notebook. And write every word out and then I'll type it out. And then I always think, gosh, I'm really doubling my workload here, but it's just how I can get my words out.
[00:14:37] And there again, everyone has their own approach to it. And I think we have to always keep that in the, in the forefront. No way is right or wrong. It's whatever works for you. And like Jessica said, just stay consistent with it. So what did we do after our book is done, then what do we do? Do we just hold it?
[00:14:57] And hopefully somebody will, you know, publish it or do we announce it on social media and we self publish on Amazon? Like what's, what's your favorite?
[00:15:09] Jessica: so there are, there's really three main ways of getting your book out into the world. And I'll just give you like a brief overview because again, you know, it is with that message, like, we are so unique.
[00:15:24] And what works for us. Isn't going to work for somebody else. And what works for one project might not be the best fit for something else. And it's really about getting clear on what feels good to us and honoring that, that I think is absolutely the most important thing. So, you know, of course we have like our traditional publisher publishers where you may think of like random house or he house and those.
[00:15:50] So the process, if you wanted to do something like that, which is a lot of people think of when they, when they think of publishing is you would need to have your book time, you would need to write a book proposal find a literary agent, and then the literary agent goes and works on your behalf to try to get a book country.
[00:16:10] So that can be a really lengthy project. It can take even, you know, if you get a contract, which I forget the exact statistics, but. Like somewhere, like 2% of people actually get a book contract. Then you know, it can be 18 months to two years before your book is published and you are essentially signing away any of your rights.
[00:16:34] So. If you have a disagreement on how your cover's going to look or how something is going to be worded or taking something out, you've given away your rights to have the ultimate choice in that. However for some people, you know, that's a goal of theirs and they really, they really want that there can be some brand recognition and things like that.
[00:16:58] I can be helpful. So that's one way, of course, there's self-publishing which can be. It can be really awesome for some people, if you're the DIY or they're like, I love a good challenge. I have a lot of time to commit to this and I'm good with figuring it all out then. That can be a really good you know, route for you.
[00:17:21] You still have control over everything. You get to keep all of the proceeds, you know, and, and all of that. But there's definitely a steeper learning curve or there's people like myself which are considered like a hybrid publisher. And so, you know, it's a service that we're offering to help support you through making sure that your book is professionally designed and laid out and edited and all of that.
[00:17:49] And it's the highest quality that we can get. And you're still able to. Keep your voice, your authentic voice, and have a lot of creative control. Like really all of the creative control. You know, I give my clients suggestions and guidance, but ultimately it's their project and their voice and their book.
[00:18:10] And for me, that's one of the most important things is that the. The authenticity and the uncensored aspect of who we are, is able to come out and a way that feels really good for us. So, you know, there are many different options. And like I said, what works for one person is going to be completely different than, than what feels good for somebody else.
[00:18:37] Lindsay: Okay. So the first option, I have a big red X through that. That doesn't sound fun to me sending away everything and waiting years, especially after you put so much, probably way more time into doing it. That doesn't sound fun. The second one. We can all admit we're we're like the best DIY ears and we started our business.
[00:18:58] We can, we can do anything. Right. But let's say we're like, I don't even have time to try to figure this out. I have a book that I wrote it's in Google docs and whatever Jessica is talking about. Sounds really interesting. What does that process look like?
[00:19:12] Jessica: Yeah. So when people are coming to me, they're either coming to me with an idea and they're wanting to, they're wanting support through the writing process or they're coming with, like you said something in Google docs and they're like, okay, let's, let's create this.
[00:19:27] Let's make this a reality. And what we would initially do is set up a, a call where, you know, I ask you. A gazillion questions about what your vision is, what your goals are for the book. What's important to you. If you have any concept of the design and from there, I get a sense of, of. You know how we want to create this project.
[00:19:53] A, the, the, the energy of the book starts to come to life and I know how to best guide us through. And so from that point you know, we would I would connect your book to one of the editors that I work with and start speaking to go through that process. I would bring in a cover designer that felt like it was the most aligned to your project.
[00:20:19] And begin to start working through that process. And then, you know, we, I would, I would take care of all bringing all of the pieces together, bringing you through the process, making sure everything was done doing all of the backend details, like getting a barcode and ESPN and all of the copywriting and, and you know, the interior formatting and just really bringing your book together.
[00:20:45] And getting it out to those, those different venues that are important to you. Which again is so different, you know, for some people they're like, no, I just want my book. I want my book available for, you know, my great grandkids one day and I don't really care who else reads it. And for other people, they're like, I want my book on, you know, the end case at Hudson bookstores and every single airport.
[00:21:14] Anything is really possible. So it's, it's really what each individual schools are.
[00:21:20] Lindsay: If your goal is to have your book out in, you know, Barnes and noble and target, do you help them do that?
[00:21:28] Jessica: I do on a case by case basis. So I take a limited amount of promotional and marketing projects per year. It is so time and energy intensive that I want to make sure that I'm able to commit fully and really.
[00:21:45] Give my clients, the experience that they, that they want. So I am available for a certain amount of projects like that. And for some people that are like, oh no, I got this, I know what I want to do. I know people who own bookstores. I know this, I know that. And I'm good. And for other people, they really want that support.
[00:22:03] So. Yeah. I mean, there's, there's so much, that's possible. It's just really, depending on what your vision is and what you're looking to get out of out of this project,
[00:22:16] Lindsay: let's say your vision is to get your book published and just sell it online as a part of your funnel, your coaching funnel. What does that look like?
[00:22:27] Do you, can you just self publish on Amazon or wherever may missing something?
[00:22:34] Jessica: Yeah. So if you're just wanting to get it out and have it as part of, you know, your client experience, then Amazon can be the perfect way to do that, you know? And I, I use Amazon for a lot of my clients as well. It's not the only it's not the only printing place that I, that I utilize, but it's one that I utilize a lot.
[00:22:58] Because it's convenient. And for a lot of people, it really fits their needs.
[00:23:04] Lindsay: I see a lot of online entrepreneurs that use that. And I always think that that is a good way to do that. If you are savvy with creating the I can't remember, it's called Amazon KDP. I'm assuming, is that what you. Yes. Okay. We use that for the standard coaching academy textbooks and it's so convenient and I'm like, oh, okay.
[00:23:26] This is how you could do it yourself. I see how I can connect the dots there. Do you like to do any kind of recommend any kind of lunch plans if you're just doing an online book release? Or is that something that you would have to get extra help with?
[00:23:41] Jessica: Yeah. So for some people, you know, they're, they're wanting to hit those Amazon bestselling lists and they're wanting to really go for those things.
[00:23:51] And so if that is part of their goal, then, then yes, I can support them through that. And. You know, it's not, of course it's not like rocket science, but there are a lot of moving back into pieces and a lot of research in figuring out, you know, the timing when to please say it and, and bringing the momentum into the sales to make that happen.
[00:24:17] And. Yes. Either way, if that's part of someone's goals or not, I do offer support through the lunch period.
[00:24:25] Lindsay: Does that make a big difference? To someone's bottom line, if they have like a, a big UC. People launch their books on Amazon and everyone goes and leaves their reviews and all of that, all that jazz.
[00:24:37] Does that make a big difference? Long-term or should just a person? I could see people being afraid to get that going and they just want to get their book out there. What's more important just to get your book out there or to have all of these bits and pieces going and waiting for a bigger audience and all of that stuff.
[00:24:54] What's more important.
[00:24:55] Jessica: Well, I think both in a, again, you know, it's depending on, on what you're wanting to get out of it. I think that if we. Hold off and making sure everything's perfect and we never get anything out there then we're, we're missing a lot of opportunity. And a lot of times, you know, that perfection never happens.
[00:25:17] And so there's that element, but also, you know, really. Utilizing a launch the best way that you can create a lot of momentum, having those, having those reviews with. In all of these sales and these placements, Amazon will actually create more opportunities for people who might be interested in your book to see it.
[00:25:43] So, you know, they'll have like recommendations of it and things like that. So there are a lot of benefits of a really diving in and doing it the right way. That being said, however, if you are just like, I don't know, say you just put a book out and you, you throw it up there and you didn't do anything.
[00:26:03] Then we can always do a relaunch and we can look to create more of those experiences in that moment.
[00:26:11] Lindsay: Oh, interesting. I've never heard of anyone relaunching. I think that is if people are like, oh, okay. Cause I have a book sitting there collecting dust. Maybe I can do something with it. So I think I'm glad you said that.
[00:26:23] Jessica, this was a great conversation. Lots of action steps here to it's not just like, Hey, you should build a book or write a book because you can change the world. It's the actual things that to think about and next steps, which I love. How can everyone find out more about what you did?
[00:26:39] Yeah,
[00:26:39] Jessica: thank you. And that's ultimately, you know, what it is is I, I just really think that we have so much potential to change the energy of the collective and to where we are going by sharing our wisdom and our work. You know, we have the potential to help so many people. Facilitate change and it's so incredibly important.
[00:27:01] So my publishing a website is house of indigo it's at to house-indigo.com. Or I can be emailed at publishing@jessicaverrill.com.
[00:27:17] Lindsay: Wonderful. We're going to put your links in the show notes. Of course. Thank you so much for spending time with us and sharing all of this. Everyone, if you want to go and follow her, we're going to put her Instagram handle.
[00:27:27] If you have questions share that you love the episode. And if you do have a book, either it's collecting dust on your desktop or the back of your mind, I hope this helped bring you forward a little bit. So thank you, Jessica, for doing that.
[00:27:40] Jessica: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me and I hope this helps bring some more work out into the world.
[00:27:48] Thank you.