Your Six-Figure Book Journey

Write the book.

A truly excellent text shows your audience who you are, why you’re awesome, and why they need you.

Grow the business.

Wherever your revenue is now, a high-quality book can double that number within three years of publication — without doubling your expenses.

Be the hero.

Everyone’s got a problem. When your book gives them a solution they didn’t know existed, you become their hero.

Interested in taking the hero's journey? Book a call with me.

Every business is unique — even within the same industry! And every hero has their own unique hero’s journey. Which means that every business author comes to their book differently, and no two heroic books are the same.

So why should writing a book be a one-size-fits-all proposition? That would be like saying every vocalist should sing exactly the same way (boring!), or a federal government should only be run by rich white men over 50 (don’t get me started…), or every Hogwarts student should be in Gryffindor (y’all know Harry, Ron and Hermione represented the OTHER three Houses, right?).

Gif of Hermione, Harry Potter and Ron, laughing

This is why you don’t want a self-publishing school or an author incubator — being one of hundreds of authors all doing the same thing makes you feel like a lemming.

It’s also why you don’t want a ghostwriter — giving creative control over to someone who writes every book exactly the same way completely defeats the purpose of writing a book that will make YOU stand out.

What you really want is to work with someone you can partner with as equals, someone who will devote as much heart and soul to making your book amazing as you will, someone whose strengths balance your weaknesses and whose expertise makes your expertise more powerful. Someone whose systems and processes support you without confining you or stifling your individuality. Someone who knows what to do for you, what to do with you and what to guide you in doing yourself. And let’s be real here, someone who isn’t working with a thousand authors a year and actually has time to focus on YOUR book!

Spoiler: that’s me. Everything I just described is how I mentor my authors on their heroic book journeys.

GIF of Seth Meyers saying Spoiler Alert!

I’ll be honest: I’m not like most of the other book “gurus” out there. I haven’t worked with hundreds of authors. I don’t have a multi-million dollar company. And I’m not a New York Times bestselling author (yet). But I’ve been around the self-publishing industry since 2014, and I know what it takes to write a book that gets results.

What kind of results?

  • Becoming a Wall Street Journal bestseller (translation: selling over ten thousand books in the first month following publication), like Josh Turner’s book Connect
  • Selling out their authors’ training program and attracting dozens of new client leads, like Justin Pierce and Londin Winters’ book Awakening Through Love
  • Getting its author picked up by a New York publishing house for his next book, like Noah Rasheta’s book Secular Buddhism
  • Getting regional and national media attention that helped its author grow her business from six figures to seven, like Jolie Dawn’s book Empowered, Sexy and Free
  • Positioning its authors as THE authoritative voice on an important yet confusing topic, like Kim Butler and Jack Burns’s book Busting The Life Insurance Lies
  • Sharing a little-known message with an audience who didn’t know they needed it, like Dixie Tenny’s book How To Find Your Dream Dog

Those are all authors I’ve worked with, and their results are typical! What happens with your book will depend on what your goals and strategy are, but when you work with me, I promise you’ll write a book that makes a difference, makes you happy, and makes your business money.

How can I promise that?

First, I care. About you, about your book, and about your success. That’s why I work with so few authors at a time, why I spend as much effort helping you rewrite as helping you write, and why the quality of your book is my highest priority.

Second, I use a proprietary writing coaching system that focuses on both the quality and the ROI of your book. I developed this system to be structured and easy to follow while leaving plenty of room for your individual needs, to make your writing good rather than just there, and to make sure your book is marketable and profitable before you even start writing it.

Third, I don’t just help you write a Word document and then leave you to figure out the rest yourself. My mentorship packages take you all the way through the editing, design, and publishing of your book, with multiple options for your first year of book marketing and a guaranteed introduction to Morgan James Publishing, a New York publishing house known for providing high-level distribution services to business owners and entrepreneurs. So when we’re done, you won’t just have a finished draft, you’ll have a published book that’s already started your business down new paths to revenue.

And finally, I make the journey as important than the destination. I believe the way to write a successful book is not to rush through to the finish line, but to run the entire race consciously and deliberately, making every step count. That’s why, where most book gurus teach writing a book in a few weeks at most, working with me takes 11 months from start to finish. Work with me, and you’ll know nothing has been rushed through, glossed over, cut for time, or conveniently forgotten — which means the book you hold in your hands when we’re done is exactly the book you want representing your business for the next 5-10 years.

If that sounds like the kind of book journey you’d like to take, I’d love to be your mentor! Book your free Six-Figure Book Strategy Session here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I work with you? I can find a dozen other self-publishing companies and book coaches on Google. What makes you the best?

Two things.

First, I know a lot of those people and companies — either personally or by reputation. I’ve worked with a few of them, and I’ve worked for several more. I know what they value, how they work, how they define success for their clients, and so on. And I will tell you right now that as good and valuable as many of their services can be for some business authors, they do not serve everyone. There’s a pretty big hole that they don’t serve, in fact — and a big reason I’m here is to help the people who don’t fit well with them. That’s why my packages are slow and thoughtful rather than fast and frenetic, why they focus on business growth rather than Amazon sales, why they serve a handful of authors at a time instead of hundreds, and why they help you write your own book rather than writing it for you (just to name a few differences).

And second, it’s a sad truth that a lot of companies and coaches out there simply don’t prioritize the quality of the books they help authors like you create. Instead, they prioritize how many authors they can drive through their systems, how famous their founders can get, or how high their annual revenue can rise. And I will tell you straight up: none of those things matter to me. Yes, this business affords me a lifestyle I love, but I couldn’t care less about hitting 1000 clients or $20 million in revenue, because to me those things mean sacrificing my ability to personally help biz owners like you write truly excellent books. My ONLY priority is making sure your book is fucking awesome. Everything else serves that goal. And not everyone else in this industry can say that.

For real though, if one of those other companies or coaches feels great to you, then go work with them! But if not, know that with me you won’t get a watered-down copy-and-paste version of any of them, or a flashy guru who cares more about your credit card number than your final text. You’ll get, as Monty Python famously put it, something completely different.

Do you ONLY work on business books? What about my epic YA fantasy series, or my travelogue about the 8 years I spent backpacking in Asia?

Yep, sorry — I ONLY work on business books. I love to read epic fantasy series and exotic travelogues for fun, but my sweet spot is working with business owners.

What does a typical book mentorship package include, and how much does it cost?

Every book mentorship package takes you from the first idea and strategy all the way through a finished, published book. Here’s what that looks like:

  • 3 training calls with me per month (weekly for the first three weeks; the fourth week is reserved for deep work on your own)
  • 3 half-day virtual strategy retreats (one each for writing, rewriting, and marketing)
  • Access to me via a private Slack channel 
  • Direct feedback/editing from me at 4 different points in the writing process (completed outline, completed first draft, completed rewrite, final review)
  • Peer feedback from 6-12 people in your audience and/or industry
  • A copy and proof pass from an editor who isn’t me (and thus will see the text through fresh eyes)
  • Cover and interior layout done for you
  • Guidance in writing your title, subtitle, book description, marketing pages and author bio 
  • Guidance in creating your book’s bonus material, opt-in and upsell products
  • Intro to Morgan James Publishing and work alongside their publishing team to publish and distribute your book if they pick it up; full done-for-you self-publishing package if they don’t
  • 1:1 marketing strategy consultation for your book’s first year of publication

The investment for this package is $25,000. Payment can be made in full up front, or via a $5,000 deposit up front and the remainder in installments over the next 12 months.

What additional options or features can be included in a book mentorship package, and how much do those cost?

  • Longer weekly calls with me (up to 3 hours)
  • Done-with-you book marketing, featuring direct guidance on choosing and implementing the right marketing tactics for your book
  • Done-for-you book marketing, where an experienced book marketing expert implements those tactics for you
  • Done-for-you audiobook creation, including narration, production, and publication
  • Companion workbook to go with your book 
  • Online course to go with your book
  • Done-for-you book description, marketing pages and author bio
  • Done-for-you bonus material, opt-in and upsell products
  • Done-for-you professional PR and media campaign
  • In-person strategy and writing retreats with me in Atlanta (lodging and food included)

So you get to choose your own adventure! Depending on what you add on, the investment can range up to $75,000. Payment can be made in full up front, or via a $10,000 deposit up front and the remainder in installments over the next 12 months.

Holy cow, that's a lot of money! Can I really expect to make that much back from my book--and profit on top of it?

In a word, yes! A business book is a business investment. Which means that if you do it right, you can expect a return. And writing a heroic book makes the return just as heroic.  As long as you’re not trying to make your investment back just from selling the book (especially on Amazon), and you’re not trying to make the entire investment back within the first 3-6 months of publication, you can absolutely expect to leverage a business book to make back what you invest in working with me, and then some. In fact, if you have the right business strategy in place and you’re willing to employ that strategy patiently over several years, you can make back ten, twenty, even fifty times what you invest in my services. If you take a the short-term view, my rates are high, but if you take the long view they’d be cheap at twice the price.

Do you offer money-back guarantees for your packages?

There is an agreement that goes with all of my packages that says, in essence, that if you hold up your end, I’ll hold up mine. If you do the work and put in the effort to complete your book, I will work just as hard to support you and make sure you’re happy with your results. So in that sense, there is a satisfaction guarantee.

That being said, the nature of my services is such that you’ll be paying for my time, expertise and support more than anything else (not to mention the time, expertise, and effort of other contractors). So all fees paid for my packages, programs and consulting services are non-refundable.

Do you do all of the book work yourself?

Not all of it! Trust me, you do NOT want me designing your book cover. 😉 And by the time we’ve both spent several months looking at your text, we’ll be too close to it to miss obvious typos — hence the second editor I mentioned. The point is, my strengths lie in helping you write an amazing final draft. But just having a final draft doesn’t help you make money.

So I’ve partnered with some of the most qualified, most experienced, and most fun book professionals I know to make sure that you get the editing, design, publishing and marketing guidance you need to not only WRITE your book, but also publish and monetize it. These awesome people work with us throughout the process, both during and after you write your drafts, so that by the time the book text is ready to go, everything else about your book is ready, too.

What happens on the weekly training calls? How long are they? Where do they take place?

The weekly calls are for training and mentorship, so their first priority will be to teach you how to do that week’s book creation task–for example, how to craft your outline or how to rewrite based on peer feedback. We will also spend time reviewing writing assignments such as your outline or the next chapter of your draft.

At higher levels of mentorship, weekly calls will also include dedicated coworking time. You can use this time as dedicated space to write, additional review and discussion time with me, and/or time to ask me questions and pick my brain about the process.

There are three call lengths you can choose from in your mentorship package:

  • 45 minutes (30min teaching or review, 15min Q&A)
  • 90 minutes (30min teaching or review, 15min Q&A, 45min coworking)
  • 3 hours (30min teaching or review, 30min Q&A, 2 hours coworking)

All calls take place via Zoom, and are recorded for your future reference.

Why does it take 11 months to write and publish a book with you? Other programs do everything in 90 days or less!

There are two answers to this question: a short one and a longer one.

The short answer is, as they used to say in Texas, the only way to drive cattle fast is slowly.

The longer answer is that the biggest problem I see with every single book creation and self-publishing program on the market today is they’re all trying to go too damn fast. Here’s why that’s a problem:

  • Writing a great book requires deep thought, and you can’t think deeply in a hurry.
  • Writing a great book also requires outlining, organizing, rewriting, revising, editing, and polishing…all of which take time, and none of which work well when you’re rushed. (Most programs reduce outlining to a couple hours, editing to a couple weeks, and don’t talk about rewriting or revising at all!)
  • A great book is not a short-term project, it’s a long-term one — not just in how long it takes to write, but in how long you’ll use it to grow your business after it’s published. A few months more or less now could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars more or less over the next ten years.
  • Perhaps most importantly, putting speed first puts quality second. The faster you try to go, the more mistakes you’re likely to make and the more corners you’ll be tempted to cut…and the crappier the final book will be.

Now to be clear, all of my packages have a schedule, and believe me, that schedule is plenty aggressive. You won’t have time to worry about how long things are taking, because you’ll be too busy working on the aspects of a heroic book that shorter programs don’t cover. And there’s plenty of urgency around sticking to that schedule and staying on task.

But if just getting the book done in the time it takes to rewatch all 14 episodes of Firefly (too soon?) is your goal, we won’t work well together.

What do your package schedules look like?

The 11 months of our work together are divided into three major phases: the first draft phase, the revision and editing phase, and the design, publishing and marketing phase. Each of these phases runs for three months, giving us approx. 90 days to achieve the major objective of that phase. So for example, in the first draft phase, we will go through the strategizing, brainstorming, outlining, and writing to get you a completed first draft within those three months.

Now let’s do some quick math: three phases of three months each is nine months, not 11. So what’s up with the other two months?

Those two months are what I like to call intermission months, where you as the author get to take a break from writing or rewriting, clear your head, check back in with your business, and re-energize for the next phase of the process. The first intermission month comes between phases 1 and 2, the second between phases 2 and 3, and both of them give you a break from weekly training calls and head-down writing work.

But don’t worry, you’re not paying me for two months of doing nothing! Each of these intermission months includes vital parts of the book creation experience — they just don’t happen to be writing-related! The first intermission month is all about getting valuable feedback on your book from the most important people in your orbit — colleagues, peers, mentors, clients, and audience members. This powerful feedback will kickstart the rewriting and revising phase of the project. The second intermission month is dedicated to working with an external editor to put a final polish on your text — which gets it ready for interior design and the technical side of publication.

So to put all of this together, the 11 months alternate between three months of focused work and one month of active recovery, so your heroic book journey is both challenging and energizing.

How much time will I have to put in? What if I'm really busy?

Writing a heroic book is the equivalent of getting a part-time job or taking on an active side hustle. Between weekly calls and office hours with me, and individual work on your own, you’ll likely put in 5-10 hours a week. During heavy writing times, you may put in more; during lighter, more feedback-oriented times, you may put in less. And every author works at a different pace, so the exact number of hours you need will depend partially on you.

It is possible to write a great book if you’re really busy. You’ll still be running your business while we work together, after all. But if your business and/or life are leaving you no bandwidth for additional projects (or for things like sleep, relaxation, hobbies, and family time), I’d encourage you to fix that issue before starting a book project.

What happens if I don't finish my book within a package's timeframe?

Well…if that happens, one or both of us haven’t done our jobs. If I’ve dropped the ball somewhere, I’ll make it up to you and make sure we get your book finished (even if we need extra time). If you find yourself struggling, I’ll help you stay on track. If an emergency comes up, of course I’ll be flexible. But full disclosure: if you fall off the face of the earth or stop completing assignments, I will terminate your consulting package. My packages and services are for people who want to pull their weight and do their homework. If that’s not you, I’d suggest looking elsewhere for book help.

Why won't you just write the book for me? Didn't you used to do ghostwriting?

I did used to ghostwrite, but I don’t anymore. (I got majorly burned out on it.) So if that’s what you’re looking for, I’m not your guy — in fact, I’m here specifically for the business authors who DON’T want to use a ghostwriter, who want to stay hands-on and work with a great partner rather than dropping the whole task on someone else’s desk.

If a ghostwriter is really what you’re looking for, though, I’d recommend three excellent business ghosts I know: Joshua Lisec (entrepreneurswordsmith.com), Michelle Stampe (blackhillsfreelance.com), and Derek Lewis (dereklewis.com). All three are talented, hardworking, experienced, and trustworthy. Drop my name, and they’ll give you a crisp high-five.

Can I dictate or "speak my book" when I work with you?

I gotta be honest…I used to hate this idea. “Speaking your book” has traditionally been pitched as a “let’s make the writing process stupid easy” hack, a way to write a book without actually doing any work. Most companies and experts who teach this technique WAY oversimplify it. They say that all you need to do is talk for a few hours into a voice recorder, get that recording transcribed, and publish that transcript as your book. And in the words of Han Solo, “that’s not how the Force works!”

Speaking your book doesn’t actually create a finished draft. It creates a long, conversational mess of words that needs a LOT of editing to turn it into a readable first draft — and that’s before any of the peer feedback and rewriting and editing that will turn it into a final draft. So while speaking may save some time and effort on the front end, it creates a hell of a lot more work on the back end. So for a long time, I was 110% against this idea of “speaking your book.”

But here’s the thing. Some authors need to speak their books rather than write them due to accessibility issues. Others are really good at speaking and want to speak rather than write. And some simply feel like writing 50,000 words isn’t workable for them, that they know themselves well enough to know that if they have to sit down and write, they just won’t do it. I’ve learned there’s a lot of potential value in speaking your book if you feel like that’s the best way for you to work.

So I’ll tell you what: if you want to speak your book when you work with me, you can…as long as you turn the transcriptions into readable draft content yourself. I’m not going to do it for you. But as long as you complete your draft assignments on schedule, you can write or speak, whichever works better for you. So the choice is yours. Sound good?

How many authors do you work with at a time? Do you have a group mentorship option?

One of the core values of this business is making sure every author gets WAY more personal attention and direct guidance than they can get anywhere else. So I only work with 6-8 authors at at time, to make sure that each one not only gets everything they need from me, but feels like I’m here to help them more than to run 1000 authors through my system or build an eight-figure company.

Right now I only work with authors 1:1, but I am planning on building out group mentorship packages in the future (once I figure out how to do that while maintaining high levels of personal attention). If you really like the group package idea, feel free to sign up here to be the first people I tell when those packages are ready!

Why do you partner with Morgan James Publishing? Can you guarantee they'll publish my book?

In January 2020, I began a partnership with Morgan James Publishing, a New York house that works with a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners. MJP is somewhat unconventional among publishing houses, in that they offer authors a larger royalty share, allow authors to retain ownership of their intellectual property, and involves the author in all decisions around publishing and distribution. And this is exactly why I partner with them and only them* — alone of the NYC publishing houses, Morgan James cares more about their author success than their bottom line. If seeing your book in bookstores, getting international distribution, or trying to hit a major bestseller list (New York Times or Wall Street Journal, not Amazon) is on your book bucket list, or if you simply want the credibility of a New York publishing house behind your book, having MJP behind you is a great option.

MJP receives between 3,000-7,000 book submissions every year, and they only publish about 200-300 of those. My partnership with them means I get to bypass their submission processes and directly introduce you and your book to their publishing team. That gives you a huge head start, and makes their picking up your book a lot more likely! But nothing is guaranteed. For one thing, there are some topics and styles MJP won’t touch — anything sexual or full of strong language just doesn’t work for them, for instance. And for another, as good as your book will be, they may just not feel it’s a fit for them. If that happens, my team and I will make sure your book is fully and completely self-published through Amazon and/or Ingram Spark, so you’ll still have a professionally published book no matter what.

*Note: while I actively partner with Morgan James, I am not a literary agent, nor do I have connections with or access to other traditional publishing houses. Working with me does not include any focus on traditional publishing other than the potential of working with MJP.

When should I work with you? How do I know it's the right time? And what if I've already started writing my book?

It’s up to you to decide when you’re ready to start writing your book, but I’ll give you a hint: you’ll know it’s the right time when you really WANT to do it right now, and when your business (1) has some great strategic uses for a book, (2) gives you enough bandwidth to write without sacrificing the quality of production or services, and (3) is making enough profit to support investing in high-quality help with a book project without endangering operating costs or your living expenses.

And if you’ve already started writing, you can still work with me! Whatever work you’ve done so far will get factored into how we start our work together during the first draft phase of our project. If you already have a complete first draft, we can certainly talk about starting with peer feedback or the rewriting and revising phase.

Why do I have to fill out an application form and get on a call before working with you? Can't I just hit "buy" already?

I love your enthusiasm! But I gotta be honest: working with me isn’t for everyone. Making sure we’re a good fit is absolutely paramount — if we don’t do that first, one or both of us will start feeling like their shoes are too tight, so to speak. And I’d rather know that up front than discover it a few weeks or months into a non-refundable consulting package. The application process helps us get to a hell yes or a hell no right off the bat.

Plus, my services aren’t for tire-kickers, lookie-loos, half-assers, start-but-never-finishers, or people who aren’t damn serious about writing an awesome business book. They’re for big damn heroes. If you’re one of those (or you at least want to be one!), an application and a preliminary strategy call won’t be a problem for you — and if you’re not, they’re an invite to self-select out and work with someone else.

Okay, I'm ready. How do we get started?

Great! The first step is to book your free Six-Figure Book Journey Strategy Session with me. You can do that right here. I’m so excited to talk with you!

Interested in taking the hero's journey? Book a call with me.