Today, Holly Worton and I talk about what it takes to publish a book, both the practical action that needs to be taken, as well as the inner work so we can step out of our comfort zone and actually take that action. We discuss Holly’s upcoming book, and the steps she’s taken to ensure that she gets the book out into the world in a much bigger way than she has with her previous eight books. 
What You’ll Learn

• What it takes to write a book (both practical action and inner work)
• The full process Holly used to write her upcoming book, from concept to publication
• How things have changed in independent publishing over the past couple of years
• Dos and Don’ts of book cover design, including tips that can make or break your book
• A super easy (and affordable) way to crowdsource your book cover design
• How to print a paperback without ending up with a garage full of books
• How to deal with the inevitable mindset stuff that comes up along the way
• Why we need to keep doing the mindset work throughout the project

Other Resources

• Our previous episode on connecting with nature https://www.jocasey.com/nature/
• Forest bathing Meetup group https://www.meetup.com/Forest-Bathing-and-Nature-Therapy/ 
• PSYCH-K® https://psych-k.com/ 
• Vellum https://vellum.pub/ 
• How To Format Your Ebook And Print Book with Vellum https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2018/02/21/how-to-format-your-ebook-and-print-book-with-vellum/ 
• KDP for publishing ebooks and paperbacks on Amazon https://kdp.amazon.com 
• Draft2Digital for extended book distribution https://www.draft2digital.com/r/Yb6GoY 
• IngramSpark for extended print distribution http://ingramspark.com 
• Bestseller in 30 Days: Launch Your Book to the Top of the Bestsellers List and Unleash the Hidden Power of Amazon, by Michelle Kulp https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01BWBT3FS/ 
• Backwards Book Launch: Reverse Engineer Your Book and Unlock Its Hidden 6-Figure Potential, Go From Being a Broke Author to a Rich Author, by Michelle Kulp https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0793MFVRR/ 
• How to get the book out of your head and onto Amazon podcast episode – https://www.jocasey.com/how-to-get-your-book-out-of-your-head/

99 Designs – for book covers and other graphic design http://99designs.com 

Ah perfectionism – my old friend. How have you been? In this solo episode we’re talking about perfectionism – that gnarly little habit of trying to make everything you do so damn impossibly good that …well, you struggle to put the things ‘out there’ in the world. Perfectionism is something that plagues me – always has and I’ve learned a lot of strategies to work with it over the years. And yet, like all personal growth it’s never ‘one and done’. It’s comes back in a new form, or sometimes you find yourself dealing with the same old pattern but from a different angle. Which can be infuriating in an ‘I thought I was done with this!’ way. I honestly thought for a long time that ‘being a perfectionist’ was something to strive for – in fact, I laughed out loud the first time a therapist told me I was a perfectionist – ridiculous, I thought, I’m not perfect at anything. I learned over the years that perfectionism is most definitely not about thinking you’re perfect – it’s about never believing you’re good enough and therefore nothing you create, produce, do is going to be good enough. But you try to make things good enough – but you never seem to get there. You can find yourself postponing and reworking projects, cancelling plans, telling yourself things like: It’ll be good enough when… (insert impossible to achieve thing) Fun fact: procrastination and perfectionism are bosom buddies! They often work in tandem to keep you out of action. A thing isn’t good enough right, so you just need to spend a bit of time improving it, so you do and then it’s still not quite there, so maybe if you add/change/remove this bit it will be better. It’s easy to get stuck in a loop of perfecting and procrastinating and never doing the thing or putting your creation out into the world. I learned from working with Tanya Geisler that perfectionism/procrastination are just 2 ways the Imposter Complex can show up. Today I’m sharing my own experience with perfectionism and some of the ways I’ve learned to overcome it and stop getting in my own way (a lot of it has involved embracing the fact that my business and my life is allowed to be messy and imperfect and is can still be bloody good!)  

Links mentioned in this episode around perfectionism:

Tanya Geisler’s work on the Imposter Complex (and listen to the episode I recorded with Tanya here) The revamped Meaningful Biz Academy in all it’s shiny, freshly painted glory    

“I think perfectionism is just fear in fancy shoes and a mink coat, pretending to be elegant when actually it’s just terrified. Because underneath that shiny veneer, perfectionism is nothing more that a deep existential angst the says, again and again, ‘I am not good enough and I will never be good enough.”

 

Liz Gilbert, Big Magic