Writing a book can be a stressful experience. It’s a long process that can take months to years to finish your manuscript alone. Writing about your personal experiences and being vulnerable to an audience can bring about unexpected feelings. This is why you need three important people in your life to help you through the process: a Strategist, Therapist, and Cheerleader.
One person can fill multiple roles or different people can fill different roles for you. You won’t need all three of these simultaneously all the time, but you will need each of these at some point. These people don’t necessarily need to be professionals that you pay, they can be friends or family that are in your corner while you’re writing your book.
The Strategist
This is the most important of the three people you will need. The Strategist is the person who looks at everything from a 30,000-foot view. This can be a project manager, a writing coach or a publishing coach. You need to have someone that can look at the bigger picture from start to finish and help you stick to a timeline for publishing your book. While you’re writing your book, they will strategize what the plan is after you finish writing.
They will also be the one who will keep you on track throughout your writing and publishing timelines. They will help oversee your progress and make sure that you are sticking to the subject you’re writing about. Your Strategist will help make sure you don’t get overwhelmed with the number of tasks that need to be completed in the future.
While you need to be thinking about the wider scope of the publishing process from day one, it can be overwhelming to think about all the tasks that need to be accomplished. This is where your Strategist will lay out a concrete plan for you to follow. Whether that plan is on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis is up to you and how you best operate. A good Strategist will work with you and what you feel most comfortable with so that you don’t get overwhelmed and driven to the point where you feel it’s impossible to publish your book.
Your Strategist will help create a marketing plan from day one and will ensure that your book gets off the ground and into the hands of your audience. They will help you figure out where your audience is and the best way to reach them. How will your book fit into your business? How can you leverage your book to elevate your business? Your Strategist will work with you to come up with a book launch and post-publication plan. The last thing you want is to publish your book and have boxes of them stored in your house being paperweights because you had no distribution strategy.
The Cheerleader
Your Cheerleader doesn’t need to be someone who is an actual Cheerleader but someone who will encourage you while you’re writing your book. They will be the one who will be lifting you up while you are down. Writing a book is challenging and your Cheerleader who will help you get through the low points in writing. Low points meaning, you might feel bogged down by writing every day or week or feel like you aren’t making any progress because you skipped a writing session.
You may doubt and question yourself during the process, why am I writing this book? Who will even read my book? They will be the person who reminds you that you have a purpose in writing this book. As much as they cheer you on and support you while your writing they will also be there to help pick you back up when you’ve fallen down.
When you are bogged down with figuring out aspects of your book, they will help provide that positive encouragement that makes you feel like you can take on the world. That positive energy boost will help you make it through the lowest lows and elevate the highest highs. Your Cheerleader shouldn’t just be there when the going gets tough but also when you hit those high moments to boost your positivity and productivity further.
This person can be filled by your spouse or partner (if you have one) or a close friend, and in many cases they can be filled by different people. If you have a spouse or partner that may not be as supportive or encouraging as you need them to be, that’s okay. This role can be filled by many different people. A writing group that you go to for example, or maybe your best friend who has also written a book. Your Cheerleader is the person who can provide that support for you and encourage you to keep going.
The Therapist
By Therapist this can mean an actual therapist, a friend, life coach, or business coach who will help you through the process emotionally. Writing about your personal experiences can bring about unexpected emotions that take an emotional toll on you. You may be writing about something from your past or something that’s traumatic and once it’s on paper it will start to feel like pandora’s box. When you’re writing about personal experiences that are near and dear to your heart, it can feel like you’re reliving those experiences all over again. Having someone that you can vent to or confide in will help you through these experiences when you’re writing.
In dire times, your Therapist will be the one who will pull you off the metaphorical ledge and help you get back on track. The stress of publishing your book may get to you and overwhelm you to the point of feeling like you can’t write or finish your book. Your Therapist is the one who will talk you through those moments and help get you back on your feet.
Going beyond writing, there is the large task of planning the rest of your book. What the cover design will look like, making sure that you have the right editor, creating and executing your marketing strategy are huge stressors. They will be your point of contact that listens to you vent and talk about the struggles that you are facing during these steps. Your Therapist needs to be someone who is an active listener, encourages you, and gives you advice when needed about what you need to focus on next and the goals you have in front of you.
When You Need Each Person
As mentioned earlier, you don’t need to have all three at the same time. Depending on how you work and process things, you may not need a Strategist until the first draft manuscript has been written. You may not need a Therapist until you reach a certain part of your book where you dive into past experiences of trauma. You may not need a Cheerleader until you are in the marketing side of things. When you need each person depends on you and how you are able to process these experiences.
However, it is important to have these three people at some point during the publishing process. Asking a friend or a group in advance saying that you may need a Cheerleader or Therapist in the future will ensure that they are prepared and you are prepared for when you need them. This way when the time comes and you need one, two, or all three of these people, you won’t have to scramble around trying to figure out who can fill what role for you.
It can be hard to anticipate where you may struggle or where you may need someone’s shoulder to lean on, especially if you’ve never gone through the process of writing and publishing a book before. When you’ll need each person is entirely dependent on you but having someone there through the lows and highs will make the publishing process easier on you.
At Publish Your Purpose (PYP) we know the emotional toll that writing a book can take on an author. PYP fills all three of these rolls whenever an author needs them. We commit ourselves to helping you in any way that you need in order to get your book published and your story told. To learn more about PYP click here.
