Council Post: 10 Crucial People To Make Your Next Book A Success

CEO at Leaders Press, a USA Today best-selling press, where we turn book ideas into best-sellers. Go to Leaders Press to get started!

If you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering how to write your book. Turns out, “how” is the wrong question. The most successful entrepreneurs have abandoned asking how they can get this done and have replaced it with: Who can do this for me? The originator of this concept, Dean Jackson, has also inspired the recent release of Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy.

Asking how creates a problem; asking who solves the problem. When you ask yourself how to write, publish and launch your next book, you’re creating a full-time project for yourself on top of what you’re already doing. When you ask who can write, publish and launch the book for you, all you need to do is identify the right “whos” to do it for you. You could even have a “who” (for example, your COO or your assistant) to identify the “whos” for you.

Allow me to be your “who” who identifies the 10 “whos” that are essential to your next book’s success:

1. Your Strategist

The first question the strategist will ask is how your book fits into the market and how it stands out. In other words, your strategist will come up with your unique sales proposition. Before you even write a single word, you need to know what your competing titles are and how you will be different. You also need to give the reader a good reason to pick your book as opposed to the ones next to it on the bookshelf. That’s the job of your book strategist. Every new project you take on should start with a book strategy session.

2. Your Interviewer

It’s one thing to stare at a blank sheet of paper and try to write. It’s quite another to be asked the right questions by a skilled interviewer who will challenge you to explain your concept in the clearest way and answer all the questions your reader might have. This keeps you focused and on track. It also provides accountability when you have weekly meetings dedicated to the creation of your book. When working with some publishing companies, this might be the only area where your input is fundamental. Once your interviews have been recorded and transcribed, you might be able to let go completely and let your “whos” do the rest.

3. Your Ghostwriter

You are the originator of your ideas and the book needs to be in your voice. That’s where your ghostwriter comes in. Based on the transcripts of your interviews, your ghostwriter makes sure your book sounds like you. When first seeing the first chapter, you might be delighted or you might want it to be more formal, less formal, funnier or more serious, or you may have other feedback. Your ghostwriter will make your book sound exactly the way you want it to sound.

4. Your Editor

A professionally ghostwritten book doesn’t need extensive editing because it’s already written by a professional. Whereas books written by nonprofessional writers might need extensive editing. My company and other in-house editors prefer to work with books that have been ghostwritten. If you’ve already written your book and you just started looking for the “whos” to do the rest now, make sure you have a top-notch editor who will turn your work into perfection.

5. Your Proofreader

Right after editing, your proofreader comes in. They will make sure all your i’s are dotted and all your t’s are crossed.

6. Your Designer

Regardless of the old proverb, people will judge your book by its cover, which is why you need a professional book designer. As an example, when we design books for our authors, we send them the covers of the best-selling books in their genre and ask them to select a couple for the designer to use as inspiration. That’s one way a great cover can come to life, but you don’t need to get into the “how” when you have a great “who.”

7. Your Publisher

You can go traditional, you can self-publish or you can go hybrid. Traditional publishing is an option but can be a long process and is recommended for professional writers. Self-publishing can create a problem if you don’t want to answer an endless string of “how” questions to get it done. Hybrid publishing, offered by companies like mine, will select the other nine “whos” for you, and those steps will be taken care of automatically.

8. Your Distributor

There are two main ways to publish books: online and via traditional channels. Anyone can publish a book online via Kindle Direct Publishing. Traditional publishers have access to traditional distribution channels, which get your book into bookstores all over the world. Now, some hybrid publishers also have access to traditional distribution channels, which means you can get your book into bookstores.

9. Your Marketer

Many publishers do no marketing and will only take you on board if you already have an established platform. That’s why you want to make sure that you have marketing built into your launch plan. When your publisher, distributor and marketer work together, you will have the best possible book release.

10. Your Foreign Rights Agent

Many authors forget that once they’ve written and published their book, they can sell licensing rights to publishers around the world to get their book translated and published in foreign countries. You want a foreign rights agent as one of your “whos” to impact more people around the world.

So, now you have it. Pick the right 10 “whos” to make your next book a smashing success or pick the one (a publisher) who will take care of all of these 10 “whos” for you.

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