How to Write and Self-Publish a Book for Business Success with Jyotsna Ramachandran

This week on the podcast, I'm interviewing the awesome Jyotsna Ramachandran from Happy Self Publishing, and we are talking all about what a book could do for your business, and how to know if it is the right choice for you. So if you have ever been curious about becoming an author of a book or if you want to know more about exactly what it would involve, then today's podcast episode is definitely for you!   KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST How you can write a book, even if writing is not your superpower Self publishing versus having a publicist and what's better The costs involved in writing and publishing a book   Jyotsna is a bestselling author, book publisher, TEDx speaker, and is an international Author Success Coach who helps, coaches, trainers, speakers, and experts to build a super profitable author funnel with the help of their book. She is on a mission to elevate the consciousness of humanity one book at a time by helping visionary leaders convert their messages into bestselling books in the easiest possible way. So far, Jyotsna has helped over 1000 authors from 35 different countries through her global publishing agency, Happy Self Publishing. While Jyotsna isn’t working, this mom of 2 kids also loves to dance, cycle, plan her next family staycation and is a passionate advocate for educational rights. If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.   LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE Follow Happy Self Publishing on Instagram Take the Author Archetype Quiz Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook   Transcript Teresa: Have you ever dreamed about writing a book, or maybe you fantasized about being an Amazon bestseller? Maybe you wonder what a book could do for you and your business. Well, in this week's podcast, I'm interviewing JR from Happy Self Publishing, and we are going to be talking about how you can become a bestselling author, even if writing isn't your superpower. We get into what it actually takes to write a book, both time and money investment, and is it really better to have a publisher than to self publish the book yourself. We get into all that on this episode and more. Welcome back to another episode of your dream business podcast. How are we doing this week? Have you ever dreamed of writing a book? Now, it's crossed my mind a number of times, but most of the time I go, I'm not good enough to write a book, or I'm not very good at writing, so can't write a book. Now, some of you might know or remember that I was a co author of a book that hit number one in some of the Amazon charts. So I can technically call myself a bestselling author of a book. However, it wasn't my book. It was a co author book where each author had a chapter and writing one chapter felt like a fairly easy thing to do compared to writing an entire book. And. I've had the questions I'm sure loads of you have had. What the hell would I write about? Why would anybody want to listen to me? Is it really going to do that much for my business? What is the process? I wouldn't even know where to start. That's why I am really glad to have JR on the podcast today. JR is the CEO and founder of Happy Self Publishing. She's a best selling author, book publisher, TEDx speaker, international author, success coach. And for the past eight years, she has been helping purpose driven authors share their message. grow their business and reach millions of people by publishing a book. Now, if you're sat here thinking, I don't think this episode's for me, Teresa, I don't want to write a book. I really want to urge you to listen, because like I said, I thought books were not really something that I was going to do. I didn't really understand what it did for your business. I didn't want to self publish because I wanted a publisher, because that sounds like a real credible thing to do. And this conversation really did open my eyes to the whole thing. Not only about what it can do for my business and my credibility, what it can do for the funnel within my business, and also how can I write a book if I don't think I'm a particularly good writer. And that's something that JR and I talk about and how we get over those things. She also shares with us the investment in money and time that you might need to put into it. And I'm kind of glad to say that she didn't say I could write a book in like 30 days or something because I just know there's no way that is something I could do. So she gives us a realistic view of what it looks like to write a book, but also kind of gets me really fired up and excited about the thought of what it could do for my business. So like I said, whether you've ever thought of writing book, whether you dream about it daily, this is a really cool episode to listen to, not only for the book thing, but also her story is really interesting. So definitely, definitely don't skip this one. It's going to be a good one. Now, if you know someone who is thinking about writing a book or is in the process of starting to write one, then you definitely, definitely, definitely want to point them in the direction of this episode, Because like I said, she taught me lots and has given me loads of information to go on in terms of how I would even get started, where you put your time and effort in, how you market it. There was so much good stuff in it. So do please share this with someone who you think it could help. Also. I just want to mention, if you haven't yet subscribed to the podcast, please go ahead and do that. And it will make sure that it tells you every time I do an episode, which is every single Monday. So please go ahead and do that. And thank you so much for spending this time with me. I promise you it's going to be worth every minute. Here is JR. So welcome to the podcast. JR, how are you doing? Jyotsna: I'm doing great, Teresa. Thank you so much for having me on the show. Teresa: My pleasure. And I think this is the first time, I think this is the first time I've ever interviewed someone who is in India. I think. So this is a first. Congratulations. And the thing that you're talking about, is probably a first as well. So this is awesome. I love bringing new things to not only myself, but also to the amazing audience. So let's start by you explain to us what you do and how you got to do the thing that you do. Jyotsna: Yeah, sure. So I run a publishing agency called Happy Self Publishing where we help Passionate entrepreneurs, coaches, trainers, anybody who has a strong, compelling message to share with the world, we help them to package their idea, their story into a best selling book, irrespective of whether they are a great writer or not. So that's what we do at Happy Self Publishing. And it all began after my daughter was born, I wanted to run a business that will let me work from home. And I was looking at different options and this idea of book publishing kept coming back to me in the podcast I was listening to, in the blogs that I was reading. So it kind of was like a divine message. So I learned the whole process of how this whole publishing world, especially in the self publishing side, works. And as a result, it actually inspired me to write my first book called Job Escape Plan. After that book got published, I was a part of an author community in the US and authors over there reached out to me saying, Hey, your book looks pretty professional. Could you help me get the cover design done? Could you refer me to your editor? Could you just project manage this whole thing for me? So I thought, wow, there are so many authors out there who needed that professional support to take them from their book idea to the finished published book. So I just put my team together and I started Happy Self Publishing. That's how it happened. Teresa: That's awesome. I love that. And you know what I love even more is that you said they don't have to be a good writer, which is really fascinating because I would guess the one thing that puts most people off writing a book is the fact that they've got to write it and their own view of whether they're a good writer or not. So we'll come to that. Also, I love the, the message that you were getting over and over and over. Had your previous career or previous kind of experience had anything to do with books, publishing, writing, anything? Jyotsna: Nothing. I don't come from this literary world or editing background. None of that.