Episode 12: Sharing Your Story in a Book with Annie Franceschi
Today on the show Jodi interviews Annie Franceschi, author of Permission to Try (2018). Here are some highlights:
Jodi and Annie talked about how Annie came to write a book. Annie called herself the cliche young girl who always wanted to write a book. She was just unsure what the book would be about. Four years into her branding business, Annie felt the urge to write. She knew people would be expecting a branding book (that will be book #2!) but she felt like she needed to start with her story first. Annie knew she didn’t want a strict memoir and made it her mission to figure out how to make her story valuable to others.
Annie said that the beta reader feedback was her favorite part of the process because it helped with perspective. Annie wanted her book to do two things: exists and help someone. Feedback from beta readers validated that it did.
Annie noted that the actual writing was her least favorite part of the book writing and publishing process. As a strategic person she had a robust outline. She spent two days at a business retreat where she outlined and story-boarded the book, and then had the thought, “Oh crap. Now I have to write this.” She found herself procrastinating from the actual writing even though she knew what she wanted to say. (Annie employed speaking the text and found that that helped.)
Annie shared a few pieces of advice for other author-entrepreneurs.
Commit to the book publicly. This accountability matters because it’s harder to break a promise you’ve made to others. That’s powerful.
Choose to believe in the book. This is especially important, Annie notes, for those who don’t like to self-promote.
Don’t just have a launch team, but make it easy for them to support you. With what she calls “a small-ish audience and a successful business,” Annie and her launch team of about 60 people made her launch a success: ~10K impressions, 450 sales in the first three weeks, 45 reviews, and #1 Amazon best-seller status in four categories. She asked people to commit to one activity per week over four weeks leading up to the book launch, and she provided the launch team with a toolkit of images and copy. Most importantly, Annie says, she thanked them throughout the process as well as in a post-launch recap.
Annie shared that one of the best results of having published a book is that it’s shifted how people see her. A book is a tactile way to build the know, like, trust factor, which is so important to author-entrepreneurs.
Annie shared that she’s on a business book hiatus as she prepares for maternity leave. She’s reading The Joy of Cookies by Cookie Monster (a baby shower gift) as well as some baby-prep books. Annie is taking the hiatus in stride, though, as she plans to start book #2 in 2020 and doesn’t want to read anything in the genre she’ll be writing.
Listen here or on your favorite podcast player, and let me know what you think!
