Category: Book Updates

Great news! Book cover designs for Your Business Growth Playbook are in!

My designer and I have done the research, mood boards, and multiple rounds of concepts and boiled it all down to 3 Finalist CONCEPTS and I’d love your input!

These aren’t final cover designs, they are more broadly different design styles.

Vote on Your Favorite Book Cover

My goal is for this bestseller, back catalog book to attract my ideal reader from across the bookstore, in a small format carousel of book suggestions online, on their friend’s bookshelf, on the Kindle screen of the passenger next to them in the airport lounge, or from the next table over at the cafe in the hands of a savvy looking business owner with a delicious cup of coffee in their other hand…

So… without further ado… please rate these 3 cover concepts !

Are you an audiobook listener or podcast lover?

I have great news for you! If you’d like an audio overview of Your Business Growth Playbook, that is now available online to listen to or download.

Personally, I identify as a long form “dual path” reader, but I’ve been hearing form folks just how much more they consume in audio formats.

So… I plugged the book manuscript into NotebookLM, gave it some light prompting, and… it created an episode of The Deep Dive! with the co-hosts talking about the book, the highlights, the stories, and the bigger takeaways. It was a pretty smooth process and the result is actually enjoyable to hear.

Take a listen, and let me know what you think!

Listen to the Audio Overview…

Book cover designs are almost complete and ready for your review. Edits are back from my editor and integrated back into the manuscript. And… I’m ready to start getting some early reviews to feature in the book – and for a select few to put on the actual cover!

If you’re open to helping me out with that… I’d super appreciate a short review or quote about how much you loved Your Business Growth Playbook !

You can literally just click reply and let me know what you thought.

Some ideas on what to say:

• What you found helpful about the book
• What you’ve been able to implement from the book
• Why you recommend the book to other business owners
• How the book has helped you in your business
• Where you’ll be able to improve your business because of the book
• What makes it a five star book to you!

Your quote might just end up in the book or on the cover! Either way, I super appreciate you taking a moment to share!

I got the book manuscript back from my editor late Friday and there are too many edits for Google Docs to merge in for review… There are 1,758 edits/comments!

• Lots of these are easy edits to just click “accept” on: things like smart/curly quotes, apostrophes, dashes, and commas.
• Many are word choice or sentence structure related which just need a quick look, but are all great.
• Some require some careful thought.
• And others are bigger/structural are require deep thought and some rework…

I’ll admit… it’s quite overwhelming.

That being said, I’m so thankful to have a deeply experienced, professional editor on the team with the book’s best interests in mind.

And… now I have a lot of work to do.

Wish me luck!

It sounded like you were going to try using some of the tactics in my book, Your Business Growth Playbook.

Did you? If not, why not?

If so, would you mind sharing how it went?

If you’re stuck on anything, I’d love to help if I can.

This is an important part of me making sure that my book is as effective as I believe it is! If I missed something in helping you to get value from the manuscript, or I didn’t inspire you to take action, then I can do better. And I’d love your help in making my book as effective as possible.

Reply on back and let me know what you implemented or where you got stuck!

How do I know if my book is “working”? According to Rob Fitzpatrick, author of Write Useful Books, I want to assure that my manuscript is Desirable, Engaging, and Effective.

Once I know that what I wrote is desirable, engaging, and effective, I can move on from the Beta Reader phase and into the final editing and publishing step of this journey.

Read My Full Book Here…

So how am I doing on these? Let’s look at each one…

Desirable: I’m hearing from clients, prospects, and beta readers that the promise is desirable. You even helped me dial in a promise based title of Your Business Growth Playbook: Breakthrough Strategies to Scale Your Business for Business Owners Who’ve Outgrown Hustle ! Thank you!

Engaging: Early beta readers like you are sharing great feedback from the intro through the first 5 chapters. The real core content – the actual playbook strategies – is in the next 3 chapters, and I’m not sure if the size of the chapters is scaring folks off, or it’s just a time thing, but that seems to be where I begin to get less reads and feedback. I’d love your specific feedback on the three core chapters about “Increasing the …” . So I’d consider this step “in process” for now.

Effective: Well, I know that all these strategies work because it’s literally my playbook of strategies I’ve used with clients for over 25 years. But do you, the reader, know that? Have you tried what I’ve written? Did it help you? Did it work for you? I’d really love some feedback on what you have been able to implement and how that went for you.

Thank you for helping me to gauge how desirable, engaging, and effective my manuscript it. I’m eager to finish dialing this in and ship a bestseller!

Thank you so much to our early beta readers who provided such great feedback on the Introduction and the first five chapters. I’ve made those edits and the latest manuscript is now online for YOU!

That means I’m ready for your honest feedback on the 3 Core Chapters of the book. This is the meat. This is the actual playbook of strategies. This is truly Your Business Growth Playbook! The intro and earlier chapters were all in service of these 3 chapters!

Do you have some time today to dive in and provide feedback?

Access The Entire Book Here

The three chapters in need of your help are the three that start with “Increasing the…” which you’ll see in the sidebar table of contents.

Thank you in advance! I know reading and leaving feedback takes time. But you’re a reader, you’ve asked to help, and these strategies can help you in your business, too!

What kind of beta reader are you? Maximum mess, some mess, or pretty close to finished product?

I should have asked this earlier on as I’ve learned that some folks like to get their hands dirty with an earlier draft and provide feedback while things are rough, while others want to read a book shortly before it’s published and more of a finished product.

Either way, Your Business Growth Playbook, is now already getting some great beta reader feedback (and by “great”, I mean super helpful).

If you don’t yet have early access to the entire book like my other wonderful beta readers and would like to… reply on back and let me know what kind of beta reader you are! Are you a “Maximum Mess”, “Some Mess”, or “Pretty Close to Finished Product” beta reader?

Three exciting updates for you today. First, my book is officially titled!

Thank you for your feedback and votes. The overwhelmingly strong winner was “Your Business Growth Playbook” !

That title was the most liked and had the most top two and top three votes and the least fourth and fifth place votes meaning it was both strongly popular and not strongly unpopular!

Second, on the admin side: ISBN numbers have been assigned; US Copyright Office application is started; Library of Congress registration is started; professional line editor has been hired; book cover designers are actively applying. LOTS of “not the writing part of book publishing” is happening.

Lastly, and most exciting for you, I’ll have the the first full book preview draft available for you this week. This is my final version before you get to provide real feedback before it goes off to the professional editor.

If you’re open to reading my book in the next week, and providing some super simple online feedback (like clicking sections to say “I love this!” or “this is useful” or “this is confusing” and so on), please reply on back and let me know and I’ll get you your personal link to access the book in full!

Thank YOU! The “finish line” (if there is one, hah!) feels closer than ever!

I’m ready for you to tell me what book title you like most!

Every fiber of me wants to “MVP” my book and “just ship it” – as we do in Silicon Valley. But books aren’t software. And this isn’t about a once and done book “launch” to put in their rearview.

Intentionally creating a best selling book that continues to sell over the long term takes careful strategy, research, and continuous early feedback.

And a big piece of the long term success comes down to the right book title; assuring that potential book buyers “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is a real hurdle!

What my team and I have boiled it down to is that a great title has a clear Benefit, makes a Promise, is Succinct, has a Keyword in it, is Emotional, and most of all is Available.

So many great book titles that I love that check all the boxes simply aren’t available. Either there is already a book with the title, it’s a registered trademark, or a product / course / channel exists with the name. Which means it’s a no go.

After far too much time, keyword research, competitive analysis, category research, brainstorming sessions, whiteboards lunches, and literally hundreds of decent name ideas… I’m ready for you to help me decide!

Are you ready to help me pick my book title?

This won’t take but 2 minutes of your time to vote.

Vote for your Favorite Title!

Thank you in advance for your feedback!

And, as a reminder, my book is specifically for founders who’ve launched their business, are generating consistent revenue, and have a flow of customers. If what got you to where you are now isn’t working and you’re feeling stuck, this playbook may be for you. If you are still thinking about starting a business or don’t know how to get customers for your business, this book isn’t for you. Inside, you’ll discover the three levers in your business that you can pull on to grow gross revenue – and profit. These are tried and true techniques that have helped entrepreneurs with businesses like yours to get unstuck and rediscover the passion and excitement that comes from real business growth.