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Jyotsna Ramachandran: Daily Writing Habits to Finish Your Book · The Daily Writer

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Writer.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Each weekday, we bring you a short lesson that helps you live out the four practices of a great writer: creativity, consistency, courage, and connection.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Here on the weekend edition, we take a deeper dive into those topics through conversations with writers, as well as teaching that helps us apply what we're learning.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: For more, you can visit us at dailywriterlife.com.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you do any research on the amount of people who start a book but never finish it, it honestly gets a little bit depressing.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: I have seen stats range from 80% to 97%, meaning 80% of people who start writing a book never finish it all the way up to 97%.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway you slice it, the vast majority of people who start writing a book don't actually finish it, much less publish it.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I have found myself in this place as well.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've ever done this, don't feel bad because it's very, very easy to do.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's so easy to start writing a book, but you get off track, you get burned out, you get discouraged, and then you never actually finish it.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my guest today is here to help us fix this eternal problem that writers deal with.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Jodsa Narama Chandran is a best-selling author, book publisher, TEDx speaker, and an international author success coach who helps coaches, trainers, speakers, and experts build a profitable author funnel with the help of their book.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: She is also the founder of Happy Self-Publishing, which is a great name, by the way.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And Happy Self-Publishing helps overwhelmed yet purpose-driven authors experience a transformative journey of self-discovery through the process of publishing their book and amplifying their message.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: While Jotzna isn't working, this mom of two kids also loves to dance, run, plan her next solo trip, and she's also a passionate advocate for educational rights.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in this conversation, Jotsna gives a lot of great tips about how to actually get your book done.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: So if you haven't written a book or even thought about starting one, these are going to definitely help you get moving.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't ordinarily take a lot of notes while I'm doing a podcast interview because I like to listen and really tune into the guests.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: But this was an exception because as she was talking, like every sentence was pure gold.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm typing as fast as I can and taking a lot of notes.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I think you're going to do the same thing as well.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're probably, honestly, you're going to have to listen to this conversation twice or download the MP3 and transcribe it or something because so much of what she says in this conversation is just really, really fantastic stuff.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: So here's my conversation with Jotsna Ramachandran.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Jotsna, welcome to the Daily Writer Podcast.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: I am so thrilled that we've been able to connect after some scheduling craziness on my end.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks again for your patience, and it's really great to have you here.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm super excited to be here again.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that I love about what you're doing is simply the title of what you do, Happy Self-Publishing.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: I saw that whenever we connected a couple of months ago, and I thought that is the perfect name for what we do as writers because this brings joy into our lives.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: It brings joy into our readers' lives, hopefully.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: If we've done our best to create books and other content, that's good.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: So take a minute if you can and walk us through your own journey of how did you get into writing and self-publishing?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: So this goes back um, I think um uh to 200 um four, maybe uh, sorry, 14.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: So that's when my daughter was just born.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I was running a different business back then.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: I was into staff recruitment, I was having this little agency where I was recruiting uh uh uh people for the HR departments of different companies.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh after after becoming a mom, everything began to uh began to change in my life, and I realized that I wanted a lifestyle that is more flexible, where I can work from home completely at my own pace and at my own flexible time and all of that.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: So that's when I thought, why not start an online business where I don't have to answer any phone calls from candidates or my uh recruiters and all of that?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: So uh while I was looking for different online options of running a business, I just stumbled upon uh self-publishing as a concept.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: I never wrote a book myself till then.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: I've never considered myself to be a writer as well.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: But I thought as a business idea, it sounded good.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I just took a bunch of online courses to quickly learn how this self-publishing thing works.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then I started publishing books written by other authors.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I would hire writers who are good at writing, I would give them a hot topic that's in trend right now.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: They would do their bit of research, put a book together and give the manuscript to me.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I would have designers and formatters to put it together and help me publish it on Amazon.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: So that's how I started the business.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: In six months, I published 50 different titles under pen names, and those books were giving me a good amount of royalty in the back end.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: So that was my first experience with self-publishing.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: But soon I felt that it's time for me to share my own journey of quitting my job and starting a business, and that inspired me to write my book, Job Escape Plan.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: But after I wrote my book myself, Kent, that feeling, you know, that satisfaction, that fulfillment of readers benefiting and writing back and appreciating that felt amazing.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I slowly uh started to uh focus on helping other authors, you know, genuine authors who had a story or a message to share.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: I really wanted to help them to publish their book.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I moved away from these ghost-written books, which I was not too proud of because I had no idea about the topics.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: I just was picking topics that I liked and I was publishing them.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: So they were not really my ideas or um my expertise in those books.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: So instead of focusing on that, I shifted my focus to help uh authors who are aspiring to publish, but they don't know how to go about it.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: Luckily, I had this team in place.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: I had cover designers, editors, formatters, all of those resources were available.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I just put them all together and I started happy self-publishing five years ago.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Something that, well, there's a lot of things that stand out in what you just talked about.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that I think is a really important lesson is that you determined that you wanted to learn self-publishing and you took a bunch of courses and you just decided that you were gonna do it, and within a short time you you became an expert in this.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Can you talk about your mindset in being able to do that?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because something that I encounter a lot with writers that I talk to is there there is kind of this mindset that writing a book takes this extraordinarily long time, that it's gonna take years for me to write this book and to build a business and so forth.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't think that's necessarily true.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, can you talk about your mindset as you went through these courses quickly?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: You built the business, you just got it done really fast.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, thanks for noticing that, Kent.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: Because when I was before I started this publishing business, I was in a search mode.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: I was looking all over the place, trying out different businesses, none of them were really giving the results I wanted.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's when one of my mentors uh casually stated this thing.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: He said, if you chase two rabbits, you will catch none.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: So at that point of time, I was running four different small little businesses.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but because my attention was scattered all over the place, none of them were giving me results.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: And the self-publishing was just one of the businesses and the newest one that I started back then.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: So once he gave me this advice, I realized I need to focus on one thing and ensure that that one thing fits into the dream lifestyle that I want to build.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: So when I was evaluating the different businesses I had, one was into staff recruitment, one was into web designing, another was into homemade chocolates and all of that.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: So when I actually uh weighed the pros and cons of all the different ideas that I was trying to uh kind of you know trying my hands on, I realized that self-publishing is the one that really resonated with me because of the flexibility it gave me, the passive income it could generate, and all of that.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: So once I made that decision that this is going to be the next big thing for me, I shut down everything else I was doing and I only focused on this uh for about a year without getting distracted.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that really helped me to speed up the whole process, quickly learn and implement and see the results.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: See, this is really, really fascinating because what you just described is exactly how I decided to do ghostwriting.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: So there's two parts of my business.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: I do ghostwriting for business clients, but then I also do this podcast, The Daily Writer.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: I run a membership community for writers, and I spend a lot of time because I love serving writers, just like you do.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: But that was how I got into ghostwriting is I didn't necessarily want to do ghostwriting.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: It was that I wanted a business that I could do from anywhere.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: It had to involve writing on some level.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it had to put me in touch with successful people, it had to potentially pay well.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I that's really fascinating because you had a very similar thought process where you had the criteria that you wanted to have in a business, and you picked a business that fit your lifestyle rather than just saying, Oh, here's a business, let me let me work my life around my business.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: That is a really key difference, isn't it?
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: I see a lot of people who are chasing uh some kind of success, but when they reach that reach that place, they realize that their lifestyle is not aligned to what they thought they would want to achieve.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so I think it's important to first ensure that uh whatever we do fits into the lifestyle we want to create and then pursue that rather than just running after the business that makes the most money or gives you the maximum amount of fame or something, and then looking back and realizing that the journey was not worth it.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a lot of people listening to this episode right now who they're doing something in a day job, or maybe even they're they're they have their own business, but they don't really like it.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: What would you say to people who are they're kind of stuck in something, but they don't know if they have what it takes to build their own thing or to to strike out on their own at some point?
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Any encouragement or um anything that you might say to those people who they don't know if they can do this, but you're right here telling us that you can do it.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think it all depends on um how strongly you want uh to create your uh you know dream life or dream business or whatever that is.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Some people are absolutely fine in their job and there is nothing wrong with it.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: But I have a serious problem with people who have a job or a business and they keep complaining that they are in the wrong place.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: Because I feel uh it's not worth complaining and um being unhappy about something and continuing that, because I feel life is very short and nowadays life is so unpredictable, right?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not really uh worth spending 30 years of your life doing something that you hate so that you can retire peacefully, because I think that's totally not worth it.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: So if I think um Monday morning uh gives you some kind of jitters, I think that's a great signal that you are not doing the right thing.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe with your life, you have other skills that you're not really making use of.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because I feel if our uh skill and uh passion uh is aligned, I think we'll be in a happier place.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: And today there are so many different options to um explore, unlike the past, where there were just these traditional options available, right?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I think, and thanks to the internet, so many things are possible.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's just uh all it takes is the determination that uh you want to make a difference.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you want to do something differently and follow people who are already there doing it.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: And there are so many people who set such great examples.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: For me, I had such great mentors.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them I could work with, some of them I would just read their book and draw some inspiration.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: But when somebody else has done it, I'm sure we can figure it out.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that really helped me.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Can you talk about some of the mentors that were really helpful to you?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe people that you connected with personally, or people whose books you read, courses you took, anything that was especially helpful to you in your journey?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, so many of them.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: So initially, when I was a newbie into self-publishing, uh, a person called Stefan James, he used to be in Canada.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: So he was this uh uh leader when it comes to Kindle publishing back then.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: Now, of course, he has a lot of other uh businesses like Amazon physical products and all of that, but he was the first person who introduced me to Kindle publishing and helped me earn my first dollar.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm ever grateful to Stephen James for doing that.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then later I also learned a lot about online businesses from people like Chris Ducker and Pat Flynn, John Lee Doomis, all these people who are doing such amazing things in the online um uh you know uh business uh field.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: And each of them is so unique in what they're doing, but I think all of them share common values of serving their audience, solving the pain point of their audience, providing a lot of value through content and having something to sell in the back end like a course or a community or a done for you service.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: So, right now, what I'm doing is the done for you service path, where I offer a lot of value in in using my YouTube videos and podcasts and all that.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: And once I grow my followers, um I kind of um see who's ready to take the next step, and I offer my done for you services.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let's dive into some specifics about about book stuff because uh this is why we're here after all.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I just love your mindset and the way that you think and this assertiveness that you have about just deciding what you want and going after it.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's a really critical part of all this.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: The rest of it is just kind of details, really, isn't it?
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can figure out the people can figure out the mechanics of self-publishing, and there's all kinds of mechanics that go with it.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: But if you don't have the mindset or the drive to do this, you're not gonna be successful.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: So everything is figure outable, I guess, as they say.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's let's dive into a few questions here because um I I want to want to pick your brain about a few of these things.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um we have some people listening who are first-time authors or that they want to be a first-time author, but they don't know what topic they'd like to choose for their first book.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they have 15 things.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: How can an author who is figuring out whether they want to write a book, how can they decide what that first book should be about as far as their topic?
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this is such a great question, Kent.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think it all depends on uh what is the purpose for writing the book?
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: If the book is a fiction novel based on this great idea you have, that's a different ball game altogether.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: But I uh primarily work with uh clients who are experts in their own field.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, they could be coaches or consultants or entrepreneurs, and now they want to take their expertise and package it into a book.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: Those are the uh kind of people that uh I have been working with.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: And these guys are great at whatever they do because they have so much of knowledge, they have 10, 20 years of experience, and they and they can write about so many things and they wonder, you know, what should be my uh topic all about?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: So here is what I tell them to do.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: First step is to just brain dump all the topic ideas that come to your mind.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Do not filter them, just go ahead and write down everything that comes to your mind.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: It could be uh questions that uh it could be the answers to some of the questions like these uh what is it that you love talking about all day?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: What kind of uh problems do people come and ask you uh for a solution?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we don't know we are good at it, but constantly somebody else will come and ask you questions around that topic.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that is a good indication that maybe people would want to have a book from you on that topic.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Or it could just be the stuff that you like to constantly research about, you like to watch videos about those topics.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, based on these questions, I'm sure a person can make a list of at least a few potential topic ideas.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the ideal first step.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: The next step is to check if these topics can be made a bit unique, because for any given topic out there, there are already hundreds of books, if not thousands of books, right?
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really important for an author to uh check if they can make this really unique.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: So for that, they can just do a couple of things.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Go through each of those topics and see if you can really narrow it down for one particular target reader.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, for example, if I'm writing a book on productivity, I need to ask: can I write a productivity book for a CEO or should I be writing a productivity book for a new mom?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because both the audiences are totally different.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: So, based on my expertise and whom I want to serve, uh, ideally, which should be related to my business, I can probably narrow down the topic by choosing a smaller niche.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: The other way to make it really unique is to see if you've already done something in your life that has given you results and try to just backtrack and create a step-by-step process that actually gives a result.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because I see a lot of experts, they know so much about it, but they just keep sharing their story without creating a structure.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: But if anything can be put into a structure, like a five-step process or a uh three-pillar method or something like that, it looks really tangible and that can instantly make the book look unique because this is a trademark, unique solution that you're providing, which no other book has covered, because this is based on the author's real life experience, uh maybe on their own or the experience that they've had by working with clients.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I think the second step is to just see if the topics can be made unique, either by choosing a smaller target audience or by creating your unique step-by-step solution.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: And the third uh and the final step to finalize the topic is like an internal litmus test that you can do.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, firstly, I see a lot of people write books based on what is the hottest trend.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like nowadays, everybody's talking about Clubhouse.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: So if I'm a social media expert, I also write a book on Clubhouse.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: So that's one mistake I see a lot of authors make.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: So the third step is to see if this book topic connects with you personally.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: So either the book topic should be super relevant to your business that you're doing, or it should be something that you have personally done, like a mess that you had in your life, which has now become your message.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: Something of that sort, because that internal test is super important.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because once the book is out there, for the next five years, you will be interviewed on that topic.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: So it really has to be something that you're passionate about.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I think by just going through these steps, one can really come up with a few topics and then narrow them down and narrow them down and finally arrive at one.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you've given me about a whole podcast worth of info in about four minutes.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: That is that is amazing.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like that is such a clear, focused, and simple way to narrow down your book topic.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's wonderful.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for sharing that.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I know there are gonna be a lot of people listening who are gonna have to rewind the podcast to back about three minutes and go through that again because that is brilliant.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's really great.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: So let's let's assume that somebody has narrowed down a book topic.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: What are some habits that they would need to have in place to actually get a first draft of this book done?
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: So this podcast is called the Daily Writer.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: We talk a lot about habits and mindset and productivity.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Are there some specific habits that you would recommend to help them get this book finished?
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think uh without some success habits that can be implemented on a daily basis, it's next to impossible to finish a book.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: As you also mentioned, Kent, there are some people who write a book for years, and there are some authors who can just finish it in two months.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: So the only factor that differentiates these two people are the daily habits.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I have tried these myself when I was writing my book, and I've also made sure that my clients have uh have been using these habits, and all the successful ones have been following some of these on a daily basis.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I think I can probably tell you four or five daily habits.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, the first one is to uh have a writing ritual.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: So on a daily basis, it's important that authors decide a particular time to write every day.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: And the best part is all you need to do is dedicate probably two or three months of your life doing this, because some people get scared.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god, I can't spend one hour every day.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm not asking you to do it forever, just for the next two to three months.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: If you're able to block this time on your calendar and at the same time, sit at a sit at the same place, which could be your home office or wherever you want to sit and write, and uh make sure there is no Wi-Fi, no uh internet to distract you, and just make this your writing time.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: There will be days when you will want to write, there will be days when you don't have the inspiration, but just be the be at your writing desk every day and just think about your book or write something.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: So that's I think the first thing to just carve out that daily writing time.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, the second thing that I suggest people is something called um an author pledge.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: So this is like a set of statements that you can read out, which could be your own affirmation statements, like things like I'm a super successful author, words flow magically from uh my mind to my computer, you know, things like that.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Which really inspires you.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm going to serve my readers and take their life to the next level.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: Things that will really charge you up, you know.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: So those kind of uh affirmation statements can be uh written down.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's the author pledge that I ask my clients to read every single day, but just before they're writing our starts, so that they are in the right mindset.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: And the third thing that I make them do is to also write a self-contract.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: So this is basically like uh a statement that you write and sign and read it every day, which talks about uh it goes something like this I, whatever is your name, am the author of this book, whatever is the tentative whatever date you choose to finish, and I get my book published by dash date.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then you also mention how is this book going to help others?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a mission statement.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: I help my target reader, whoever that is, to achieve dash using my dash, whatever is your method or system or solution that you're providing in your book.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's a very powerful statement to read just before one starts to write their book.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the third habit.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: The fourth one, which is uh really very uh important because it gives you uh daily accountability, is a writing track sheet.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this can be a simple Google spreadsheet, or it can be a physical dashboard on your um wall.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the purpose of this track sheet is to uh track your daily progress.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: So mention the date for how many minutes have you written that day, and how many words were you able to write, and probably some comments such as today I focused on chapter two of my book or whatever.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: So that way on a daily basis, you know what is the total word count that you were able to accomplish.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it'll also give you an idea.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like, for example, tentatively, if the book needs to be uh having some 30,000 words, then you know how much of it is left and how much have you completed.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: So that's also a good way to keep track.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: And the fifth and the most powerful one is to have um public accountability.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so what I uh this I don't know if it's a habit or it's a nice tactic.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: I tell my clients to first design their book's cover and post it on social media.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: Let the world know that you're writing a book and it's going to be published in the next couple of months, because then uh you can't go back on your words.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's super uh inspiring for people, others, because they're going to hold you accountable.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: And also it becomes more real for the author when they actually see their book cover in front of them.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: And when they can physically see something, it feels real.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that really, really helps.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: And to just add one more layer, if you can just have an accountability partner who's also probably writing their book, that is fantastic because on a daily basis you can uh check on each other's uh progress.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I think these are some of the things that um can just make sure that your writing is on track and it and you actually finish your manuscript on time.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is fantastic.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't normally take notes during a podcast conversation, but in this case, I decided to because you're like spilling out all this amazing stuff.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is really great.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is really, really great.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now I do have a question.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: With your okay, with your clients with your self-contract, is this something that you create and send to them, or is it just kind of a statement that they create um on their own?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like do you send them a certificate of some kind, which might be kind of fun, or it's just like a statement they can print out and post somewhere?
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I have this template uh where I have uh places where they can fill in the blanks and I ask them to actually sign it and send send me a selfie with that.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I post it on my community wall and everybody cheers them.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a nice way to uh celebrate that somebody has written their self-contract.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: That is such a cool idea.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love that.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm totally gonna rip that idea off from my sure.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: Please go ahead.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I I really, really love that.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's fantastic.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: So one thing that we sometimes find is that writers get partway through their book and then they lose steam, they lose excitement, even despite all these things that they may have in place, like an author pledge, uh contract, tracking sheet, public accountability.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: What happens when they just lose steam?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you if you're tempted to not finish your book, how can you keep going and make sure that you finish it?
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this happens all the time because there are so many more people who are halfway through the book than the number of people who actually complete the book, right?
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that happens all the time.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I think uh the main reason why that happens is because writing a book is not something that's urgent.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: People know it's important, it can change their life, but it's not really urgent.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like nothing major is going to happen.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: Your life is not going to collapse just because you've not finished the book.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's why it continues to stay on somebody's uh bucket list.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: So what I encourage people to do is to have a community to support you.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: So it can be your community, it can be any community that people can uh find uh similar like-minded people who are going through that same journey.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because when you're a part of a community, you have you can pick one person as your accountability partner, and when you see others making progress, it really helps you.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: So this is one way of uh you know staying on track.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you want to take it to the next level, I highly I highly recommend that people work with an author coach.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: This is something I'd never had in my company until a few months ago.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: We would just wait for people to finish their manuscript and then we would start working with them.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: But I realized there are more people with half-written manuscripts than the number of people who finish and come to us.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: So we introduced this new um concept called uh a book coach.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: The concept has been there.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: People who are the top players in any industry always work with coaches.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, like if you want to just play in your uh school team, you don't need a coach.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: But if you want to compete in the Olympics, you need a coach, right?
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: So those kind of people, uh the top entrepreneurs, the best-selling authors have always had coaches, but others never thought that they deserved to have a coach.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: So we have this uh coaching service, which is pretty affordable.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: But I felt that the number of people finishing their books is much higher because now they know that next week on Tuesday, I have a call with my coach.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: And last week I promised to complete these tasks, and if I don't, it's not going to be nice.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, because of that external pressure, a lot of people actually end up um uh finishing their book faster.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: And the final uh strategy that I would like to share uh this should not be used as the first option.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: The first option is to just follow the daily habits and finish the book.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: But if you try it and still a lot of people are not able to do it for various reasons.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: It could be because of the excessive workload or having the difficulty to balance your home stuff and your work stuff because now everybody's still working from home, or it could just be because the person is not a gifted writer.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody does not have to be um great at writing.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: However, I feel that an author need not necessarily be a great writer.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Writers are a different breed of people, they just love writing and it gives them a lot of um satisfaction.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: But an author is somebody who just has that urge to share their message.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: If they are good at writing, then great, they can do it themselves.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, they can go for this final option of working with angel writers or, as you call them, ghost writers.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: So there is a subtle difference, Kent.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: We can talk about that in a second.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: But I feel it's there is no shame uh or that one doesn't have to feel bad in hiring somebody who is the expert in writing to take their message and uh retain their voice and still help them put the book together.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that can be considered as a very good option to finally finish the book and publish it.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: It is, it is, and I do want to come back to that concept about angels for a second.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: I I've never heard anybody say that, and I'm really intrigued by that.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I think there there is in the in the book and in the entrepreneur world, there is still a little bit of a stigma sometimes attached to ghostwriting.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like people don't want to admit that they had help, or they kind of whisper it to people, but they don't want to say it publicly.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that even people like you and I who can write our own books, we need help getting that book into its final form.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's why editors exist.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's why exactly, you know, copy editors, developmental editors.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we have help getting this book into the best shape it can be.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's no single person who can take a book from A to Z and do it completely by themselves.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to have help, whether that's substantial help, maybe putting the thoughts into written form and having somebody else edit it, or whether it's you write the book and you're a great writer, you still got to have help editing it.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like it's not like you could do this whole thing on your own.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody needs help.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what's the comparison I give?
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: If somebody has a great story and you have a Hollywood producer willing to produce that story into a feature film, will the writer of the story imagine that, oh my god, now let me go and learn screenwriting, let me go and learn direction.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: Will they try and cast the you know people for the movie?
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: They won't try and do everything themselves, right?
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: They would just contribute uh to the story of the whole movie and just make sure that everybody else does what they are good at and the final output should be a blockbuster movie.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's the aim for everybody.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: However, when the same thing comes to the book, the author is the person who has the uh who's going to contribute their story, message, or knowledge.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: And if they can also write, it's fantastic.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: But if they can't, um, then they need to have the support of ghostwriters or um, and of course, they need to also work with copy editors, uh proofreaders, interior designers, cover designers.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: I see so many authors going to Canva and trying to design their own cover.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I tell them, see, you can do that for a Facebook post.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: But don't do that for your cover because that's yeah, it's that it's like your legacy, right?
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: Why would you want to save some dollars there and try and do it on your own?
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's really important to assemble this team of experts to support your book so that the final uh product uh can reach a lot more people and can benefit a lot more people.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: So talk for a second about this concept of angels versus ghosts in the writing world.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is uh I've never heard this before, and I'm really interested about what you have to say about this.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I actually had to coin this term mainly because of the stigma attached around ghostwriting.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I have tried both.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe what you're actually doing is angel writing, in my opinion, but you know, we can uh actually discuss that.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: So when I started out with self-publishing, as I told you, I would just pick a topic which I had no clue about, like uh terrace gardening or something like that, right?
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: And just because a lot of people are reading those kinds of books, I would hire a writer who's also not an expert in that subject.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: But what they would do is just go and research, by research, I don't mean some PhD level research, but they would just do Google search, read a bunch of articles, and put a book together, which is fine for like a 99 cents ebook.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: However, when an author wants to put their life's work, when they want to actually use a book to position themselves as an expert in their industry, they don't want somebody to do some um secondary research and put together a book.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: They want somebody who can actually take their own message but just write it in a nice way.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: So here is the difference.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: So an angel writer is not expected to be an expert, they're not expected to go and do the research on behalf of the author.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: All that the angel writer needs to do is to interview the author, probably and ask them the right questions and extract all the good information from the author's head and make them talk about all of that.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: So they do multiple sessions with the author and basically just interview them using the book's outline as a guide as a guideline guideline, and then um just record all of this conversation and listen to it, make sure that the voice of the author is retained and write the book for the author.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where uh the angel writer actually just assists the author in writing, but still makes sure that the book belongs to the author.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's still the author's baby, but the angel writer uh just makes sure that they can put it together in a nice way.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love that concept.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: That is that is one of the best concepts I've heard in a long time.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that's original with you, but it's that is absolutely brilliant, and I love that imagery.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for sharing that.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's and you've articulated really well what a ghostwriter does.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what I do with my clients is I I have used the metaphor sometimes of I'm kind of like a midwife, you know, I'm there to help deliver your baby to the world, clean up your baby, present your baby to the world.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I like the metaphor of an angel a lot better.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, feel free to use it because now the word is becoming quite popular.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I see a lot of other companies also have um this angel writing service.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I think that's what you've also been doing, Kent.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, and when people have a problem with the word ghostwriting, you can offer this as an alternative.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I love that.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: My goodness, Josa, you've given me uh immense amount of value.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, not just me, but our listeners.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: This has been really, really fun.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I would love for you to chat for a moment, if you can, about your upcoming boot camp and also your free Facebook group.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: I know you've got some cool things going on.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: So share with our listeners all about that and how they can connect with you uh regarding some upcoming things that you have.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, Kent.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: So when I was writing my book, uh author communities were immensely helpful in uh helping me uh have that support system to put my book together.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I felt this is something that was missing uh in what I was doing.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: So recently I started something called Happy Authors Tribe.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's a free Facebook group.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and we only take in people who are really committed about their uh upcoming book and who are here to just uh receive and give and learn from one another.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the Facebook group.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you can just go to happyselfpublishing.com forward slash tribe, and you can uh have access to Happy Authors Tribe.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now, inside this community, I'm uh coming up with a bootcamp, which is going to be a five-day bootcamp because I felt uh it's really important to help authors uh have the right foundation to get started with their book.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: So in the in these five days, I walk them through the process of helping them choose the book's topic, helping them understand the different publishing options in front of them, um, helping them create the book's outline and have all those things ready so that it's just like um you know, helping the rocket to take off.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the intention of the five day boot camp.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: And it would be wonderful for some of the listeners who are now ready to take the next step to join the boot camp.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: So they can go to happyself publishing.com/slash tribe to uh to absolutely experience that goodness.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for being up on the Daily Writer Podcast.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: This has been an absolute blast, and I really, really appreciate all the great information that you shared.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: This has been awesome.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Kent.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's actually an honor and privilege for me to be interviewed by an experienced writer like you.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this has been a blast, and uh again, I appreciate your time so much, and this is going to be of immense value to listeners.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks again.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Jotsna.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: It is honestly really tough to nail down just one takeaway from this conversation.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: But here's my favorite thing, I think, of all the things that she said, and that is writing affirmations as an author.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: For example, you might write out, I'm a successful author, I am creative, I can do this, I can change people's lives with my writing, or many other possible affirmations.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just doing that constant self-talk can be a huge difference maker in your life.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna start doing this with my ghostwriting clients because this is such a powerful thing, just helping them to get through the process of putting this book together.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: And just by the way, even when I'm ghostwriting a book for someone, they're still very involved in the process.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: They're uh usually doing some editing, giving lots of feedback, and so forth.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: So even if you're having help with having your book written by somebody else, like a ghostwriter, for example, you still need to do these.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and if you're writing the book yourself, you definitely need to do these kinds of things because we've all got to have that affirmation and that constant encouragement in our minds to keep us going each and every day.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you can connect with Jotsna on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, as well as her site, happyselfpublishing.com.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: She also has a really cool free Facebook group, the Happy Author Tribe.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, you can find links to all those in the show notes.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for listening to today's episode.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you've been listening to this podcast for any length of time, you know that one of the four practices of a great writer is creativity, which we've been talking about here on this episode.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to stay creative, you've got to have great input.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that is where writing prompts come in.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: A writing prompt is a sentence or two that helps you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: They're also a fantastic creative tool for journaling, stress relief, storytelling, and so much more.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: Every single day for the next year, you can get an email from me with a writing prompt.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is a wonderful tool for your writing, for your leadership, for your business, for coaching, teaching, masterminds, and so much more.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you check it out and you can find more info at dailywriterlife.comslash writing prompts.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much, and I'll see you tomorrow.