Outsourcing Your Book Made Easy

Outsourcing your book creation to reliable, expert freelancers is the key to getting it done the right way without all the pressure and sacrifice.

When you want to be a thought leader who is highly respected, admired, and quoted, you need to get great content published. When you’ve created a persona in your field that is influential and you motivate people, the top item on your bucket list reads: Write a Book!

As an entrepreneur, you already understand the impact you will create by publishing an expert book in your field. Countless articles have extolled the virtues of becoming a published author.

Sheer desire and willpower to produce a great book will not magically make it happen, however.

Once you begin researching the process of writing a book on your own, it can quickly become a daunting and overwhelming task.

Here’s a shortlist of the tasks you’ll need done:

Self-Publishing Checklist

1. Compelling outline that captures the book’s story arc and purpose
2. Chapter titles and primary content
3. Recordings of your stories and content
4. Transcriptions of your voice recordings
5. Editing on first drafts – necessary for a high-quality book!
   1. Developmental Editing
   2. Copy Editing
   3. Proofreading
6. Book formatting, including fonts, graphics, and photos
7. Compelling cover design – high priority item for a book’s success!
8. Publishing and marketing online in all formats
   1. Kindle and other digital formats, paperback format
   2. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Apple, and aggregators like Draft2Digital and Smashwords for minor sites
   3. Book description — as important as the cover design!
   4. SEO and online sales optimization
   5. Author biography that positions you as a thought leader
9. Cultivating partner and distribution channels: offline and online
10. Planning and executing an expert launch campaign schedule
11. Effectively promoting the book on all of YOUR social media channels

Now take a deep breath. That list looks intimidating at first glance. There’s a straightforward solution to accomplish every item on the checklist quickly, efficiently, and with high levels of expertise.

You hire experienced, quality freelancers.

Sounds simple. Finding freelancers is very easy to do; the internet is full of freelancers.

It’s hiring QUALITY ones that will be the challenge.

It is better to first get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats, and then figure out where to drive.

– Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t

Start Outsourcing Your Book

Here is an excellent place for that first step:  https://freeup.net/how-it-works-clients.

Sites like FreeUp make it much less paralyzing to get started on such an important project. A separate freelancer can potentially handle each item on the self-publishing checklist, and some freelancers are experts in multiple tasks. These specialists focus on their piece of the work, which frees you up to think about the big picture. It relieves enormous pressure, and you simply steer the bus.

Recruiting and managing a team of freelancers does have its own set of challenges, but those aren’t all based on a lack of expertise. You’re bringing in talent, but you have to keep all of those parts aligned. Your first organizational hurdle will be creating that A list for each item or segment of the list, then adding backup freelancers for each assignment. Vetting many candidates by gathering testimonials and examples of their work will be worth every minute you invest.

Here’s more advice from someone who has a lot of experience building remote teams – FreeUp partner Alex Charfen, Cofounder and CEO of CHARFEN:

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Download the audio file here.

Hiring quality freelancers can be time-consuming because you want to find the right fit every time. Embrace that reality. Rushing through this process and choosing the first one that sounds good is likely to backfire. I recommend you have conversations with at least five freelancers in each area of expertise before you make a hire.

Treat this stage of your book writing adventure as the most important. It is. Don’t be afraid to ask many questions and do a test project if necessary.

In her article, 6 Must-Ask Interview Questions For Freelancers, Retha Groenewald outlines a fantastic process of using open-ended questions that benefit both parties.

Her description of the benefits of asking the right questions:

• The potential for problems and misunderstandings that may occur during the project are minimized or removed.
• Possible obstacles are identified in the beginning.
• The business owner and freelancer start the project with a clear understanding of the expected outcome.

Once you hire quality freelancers in each discipline needed, I highly advise you to have regular conference calls using a service like Zoom so that the freelancers in each stage of the process understand the higher purpose and overall goals of the book. Without this coordination, the proverbial “left hand not talking to the right hand” syndrome is sure to surface, and usually when you are at a critical juncture.

Just as crucial as knowing who to hire is knowing who NOT to hire. In his article, 7 Early Warning Signs That Scream ‘Don’t Hire This Freelancer,’ McLean Mills gives some great advice that can quickly help you avoid wasting time paring down to your A list of quality help.

Be picky. Take your time. Ask lots of questions. Require examples of their work. Ask for references and testimonials. And finally, go with your gut instinct.

In Closing

After utilizing the questions outlined in these articles and following my checklist, you will be in an excellent position to create the book of your dreams.

As another resource for hiring quality freelancers, I am giving a free copy of Outsource Your Book to the readers of FreeUp.

I applaud you for beginning the process to write your book! It will be one of the most worthwhile and challenging endeavors you will accomplish in your lifetime. Create your book plan now and hire quality freelancers to get it done seamlessly and professionally.

This post was contributed by Alinka Rutkowska, Founder and CEO of Leaders Press, where she has launched all of its titles to bestseller status, and founder of LibraryBub, connecting independent authors with 10,000 librarians.

Alinka is also a USA Today and Wall Street Journal best-selling author, and a top 100 Amazon best-selling author in business and money. More than 100,000 copies of her books have sold, and Entrepreneur magazine has showcased her book writing process. A sought after lecturer, Alinka has been voted “Top 5 Speaker” and named most creative book marketer at the Bestseller Summit Online. ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox Business, Writer’s Digest, Alliance of Independence Authors, International Book Publishers’ Association, and many more media outlets have featured Alinka’s outstanding resources and advice.