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Dr. Patty Ann, internationally recognized relationship and communication expert, recently added best-selling book author to her list of accomplishments with “Not Tonight Dear, I’ve Got a Business to Run!” Dr. Patty Ann recently shared with us her personal thoughts about taking the leap from publishing items such as information products to writing, designing and publishing a book that rocketed to the Amazon Best-Seller list – and the valuable lessons she learned along the way.

Q: For any author, bringing your first book to life is a very big deal! How did you choose who you would work with as a publisher?

A: It’s funny. Even though I had worked with Vervante for all of my info products, which I absolutely loved, I didn’t know that they also self-published books. I need to like the people that I work with, that’s why I’ve chosen Vervante in the past. And that’s why I was so excited when I found out that Vervante provided self-publishing services for authors as well. They are both extremely professional and great to work with on a personal level. What I love the most is that I can trust that they would never guide me toward anything other than what is in my best interest, even if they will make less money themselves. To have this kind of trust with your publisher is essential – and the reason I chose Vervante.

Q: What was one of the big “light bulb” realizations you had about the publishing process?

A: I didn’t realize that when you self-publish, it is just like starting with a blank piece of paper. This is the good news and the bad news. When you self publish you have total control. If you’re looking for a “done for you” process, self-publishing isn’t the way to go. It was much more work than I anticipated. Luckily, Vervante served as a trusted guide throughout the entire process and helped me over many humps, such as formatting the manuscript, cover design, and more.

Q: What advice would you give to authors who will soon self-publish their own books?

A:  Realize that once you finish writing your manuscript, you’re still far from being done. Self-publishing is an entire new project in itself that takes just as much energy, effort and attention from you in order to succeed. To have a final book that you are really proud of, it is very important that you have detailed, clear direction for how you want the final version of your book to be, or you’ll end up revising a million times. Throughout the process, always be specific and as clear as possible. It’s not magic, you can’t just hand someone your manuscript and then forget about it. You have to do the work.

Q: How can publishing a book change your business?

A:  Overall, a book will act as a hard-working business card, but having that book in and of itself, does nothing for you if you don’t market it. And the marketing of a book is as hard as writing it. But if done correctly, your business will explode.

Q: Let’s get down to some of the nitty-gritty details. Can you share with us important parts of the publishing process that other authors should definitely take notice of?

A: Sure thing. Let’s start with appearance. You have to have a catchy title – then, remember that the subtitle is what tells you what the book is about. The title took me months to figure out. You can’t hurry it and I tweaked it countless times. Also, and this is totally true, people do judge a book by its cover. Vervante’s designers created our cover design and formatting for the interior of the book – with a lot of clear direction from us, of course. The final version of my book is so high quality that many serious industry people are surprised that it is self-published. 

Be sure that your publisher helps you with information for copyrights for your book, registering with the Library of Congress and understanding intellectual property – Vervante helped us with that and really made it easy. They also were invaluable in helping with our Amazon book launch. Their guidance was key in helping us navigate that process successfully and achieve Amazon Best-Seller status.

Q: Any final advice for others starting the publishing process?

A:  When you’re done with your manuscript, don’t think that you’re done with the book. Now is the time to take a breath and prepare to start the next lap as you enter the self-publishing process. You won’t have your book in your hand until it’s formatted, laid out, cover designed and more. The manuscript is only about 75 percent of the process.

Keep your content simple, say what you want to say and try to keep sentences short and sweet. I could still be editing this book, believe me, you can edit it forever. Get your message out as simply as possible and be true to your message, don’t go off on tangents. You need to hold your readers’ attention. Don’t preach. Give facts, give options, don’t point fingers. You can have opinions, but remember that they are your opinions. With “Not Tonight Dear,” people responded well to the fact that I gave suggestions but didn’t go on to declare that this was the way that they had to do things. 

I’m so glad I published this book. I’m so glad that Vervante was there with me every step of the way. And I would absolutely do it again. No one can ever take away from me the Amazon Best-Seller status I have achieved.

You can learn more about Dr. Patty Ann Tublin at drpattyann.com. If you enjoyed this article, and would like to be featured in a future Vervante author interview, please email us at customerservice@vervante.com.