Do you remember? About 1 year ago I told you about “Relaunch Homepage” project. Well, just so it does not become boring, I, like you all know, also launched the “Book” project. As I have learned from my experiences, this time there was a work breakdown structure, a detailed schedule and clearly defined responsibilities.

Buch: Blühende Workshops und Trainings mit Erfolgsgarantie

I actually had finished the concept some time ago, but as it just so happens, the time had still to come. In January 2015 the time had finally come: I started to write as part of a break and really dug in. It just poured from of the pen, ie the laptop keys were glowing hot and in 2.5 weeks a first draft was finished. This was based on my mind map concept and the texts that my dear colleague Nicole had extracted from my slides. I hope that one day she will forgive me that virtually no stone remained unturned. I de facto tipped over entire / large parts of my own concept. But that’s how it is: writing is a process in which the relationships become more clearly while formulating and sometimes they come out different from what had been originally intended. It was important that I started working on it every day at the same time and deactivated mobile phones and e-mails and concentrated only on writing.

This was followed by feedback loops, with a total of 15 test readers, who all provided me with valuable feedback and many excellent suggestions, as well as many words of encouragement on the completed work. Thank you!!! And at the same time “Whew!”, because incorporating the feedback was far more difficult than the first draft had been. If you only change one part, it entails an entire slew of changes!

By mid April the text was finally in so far ready that it could be sent to the layout specialist. What a wise decision it was, that I did not even try doing it myself, but to outsource it. Ekke Wolf is the good man’s name and he also took care of the  coordination with the printers (including initial leg such as gathering offers, etc), which would have cost us a lot of empty kilometres.

The cover was designed by Jana Jovic, a creative mind who had created the perfect  image of the sunflower I had wanted.

Buchpräsentation

Perhaps you’re wondering at this point why I published the book in a costly self-publishing operation? And perhaps that this somehow sounds like the book is not good enough to thrill a publisher :-)? The answer is quite simple: I absolutely wanted the book to be ready in July 2015 for the 10th BusinessMind anniversary what does not coincide with the schedules of publishers. With them you have to expect a lead time of about 1.5 years.

Incidentally, a marketing plan had to be developed, and also the landing page (= a dedicated website, which is optimised for the advertising medium and its target audience. A particular offer is at the centre of it, which will be presented without distraction) including sales tool. And there was – just like with the website relaunch – also a lot to learn (even things that I did not necessarily wanted to learn :-)) This was made possible only through my homepage consultant Harald Sturm and his programmer Birgit Glesius, and of course the incredible commitment of my team Nicole and Emina, who carried out countless test runs. My American Business Coach Margit Macchia was also actively involved: She not only contributed feedback on the book, but also the landing page and marketing. Her suggestions were great, but did not always contribute to my enthusiasm, because a lot of texts had to be changed and a lot of things had to be remodelled. But, I think it paid off! And I don’t even want to think about the pricing any more! How many times did we run the numbers, set a price and rejected it again.

But finally, there it was, the big moment of the book delivery: I had ordered 1,000 copies. Trust me, that is optically quite a bunch! What a moment, finally holding the printed work in your hands. It feels quite different from the pages that the printer spits out.

Buch: Blühende Workshops und Trainings mit Erfolgsgarantie

 

Buch: Blühende Workshops und Trainings mit Erfolgsgarantie

 

In passing, we also planned and organised the book presentation in the frame of the 10 years BusinessMind celebration, of which we have already informed you. My test readers, clients and the seminar participants, who had already attended a number of BusinessMind Trainings, were invited. I’m still happy about this beautiful celebration and that € 600 in donations for charity could be collected, which will be transferred at the end of the year – with 10% of the net proceeds. A big thank you again to everyone who have made this possible !!!

The English version of the book will be translated soon and will be available at latest in spring 2016.

In the next Mind Food you will find tips, especially for those who want to write a book and publish it themselves.

Kind regards, Birgit