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Turn-Key Publishing

Step 1: Brand

Who is the target client?
What is your back-of-the-room potential?
What is your book’s unique brand?
Which shelf will your book be on in your local bookstore?

Building the backbone is where the fun begins. We work with each speaker in great depth to search out the real “backbone” of their concept. This process includes extensive discussions about branding, flow, and marketing strategies. Goals of this first stage are a well-branded, serializable book title, and the beginnings of a Table of Contents that flows and captures the imagination of the reader.

Step 2: Table of Contents

How should your book be organized?
Do you want your book to be serious or fun?
How do you pull your brand into each part of your book?
Should your book be simple or chock-full of information?

The process really ignites when we talk about the skeleton of the book. The core of your book is your brand; your title. We work together to determine what voice your book should have, what reading level, and what sense of humor. Again, this will come out of YOUR VOICE. If your speeches are humorous, or if you step out on stage with polka-dot pants, we have to build that into the Table of Contents, and into the skeleton of the book. A well-crafted Table of Contents will keep your readers coming back to your book again and again.

Step 3: Content Development

Do you have a keynote written out?
Do you have workshops that you give?
Do you write blog entries or articles?
Do you give & record teleconferences with your clients?

The fleshing-out period should only start after the spine has been well constructed. The content development phase is hard work, but if the Table of Contents and Brand are stable, the content is a piece of cake. Imagine stepping on stage with great notes. You could still give your keynote, but you have to generate the words to support your content. You have to fill the gaps in with stories and examples (of which you have plenty). We work in a collaborative process, in a number of ways. If you have dozens of transcribed speeches, we can start there. If you are a prolific writer, we can start with your articles or blog entries. If you hate sitting in front of your computer, we can do interviews by phone. We lift up your strengths, and we support you where you need a coach. And, most importantly, by this point, the process starts to be incredibly fun.

Step 4: Copy & Content Editing

Are you good at looking at your work with a fresh perspective?
Do you ever work with a good editor?
Do you need the p’s and q’s to all be in place?
Do you appreciate honest constructive criticism?

After we build the flesh and muscle of your book, having created a manuscript that works with your message and your brand, the hard work isn’t over! We go through an intensive and extensive content editing process, with the author’s involvement and feedback. Here’s where the manuscript starts to look refined and beautiful. We do a cursory layout in Microsoft Word so that you can see your book really start “looking like a book.” This is a very exciting stage for most of our clients. And, once the content editing is complete, we run the book through a sieve, looking for all typos, and polishing the book for publication.

Step 5: Award-Winning Design

What is your favorite book cover?
Do you judge books by their covers?
When you open a great book, what do you see?
Are there books on your shelf with horrible design?

Books we have designed have won major independent book awards across the country. We pride ourselves in custom design from start to finish. Check out some of our sample covers and some internal pages HERE. We work with our authors to design a cover that pops, from spine to front to back… And the interior layout of a book is like the undergarment. When was the last time you walked out of the house with an Italian suit on, or a cocktail dress… and cheap underwear with holes in it! That’s the value of layout. Sometimes it gets looked at, but it’s part of the package that people see “without really seeing.” Spend a couple of hours with your bookshelf and at your local bookstore, and you will realize that you, too, are a book design “snob,” but you might have known it!

Step 6: Typesetting.

What books on your shelf are pleasing to page through?
What is your favorite font?
Do you want your book to be “business” or do you prefer “elegant”?
Who is your target reader?

Although we no longer sit at a desk with steel letters in trays, our fingers soaked with ink, we still go through the process of typesetting. Depending on your project, this might be a very elaborate process. If you have artwork in your book, it would mean balancing colors. For all books, it means building an appropriate gutter into the middle of the book, and determining the bleed for each page. Typesetting is the last stage in the process of editing the manuscript, and is also called layout design. Making sure that everything looks fantastic before it goes to the printer.

Step 7: Illustration

Have you read any business or self-help books with illustrations in them?
Do you collect children’s books because you like the pictures?
Do you read the Sunday paper for the funny pages?
Do your readers appreciate levity & comedy in your speeches?

Illustrations in just about any kind of book bring BREATH into the story. Whether children’s books or heavy business manuals, we’ve grown accustomed to seeing visuals. And, in this flashy, Internet and television-driven culture we live in, the more visual elements in your book, the better! We have an illustration department, and do line drawings for business books, illustrations for children’s books, and much more. Illustration is part of the whole Skeleton Writing package at Blooming Twig Books. Ask us for more information, or view some illustration samples at the bottom of the webpage HERE.

Step 8: Publishing

What does “publishing” mean to you?
Who will get the first copy of your book, once it comes out?
Is it important to you to be on a “major” press, or do you want to self-publish?
Will being “published” lend more credibility to your work?

“Publishing” is a frightening and fantastic term for the general public, and as an extension, the speaking industry. Whether your goal is to be published by Wiley or Random House, and you are looking for an agent with this manuscript, or whether you are deciding to self-publish your book and sell it in the back of the room to your audience, we know how to point you in the right direction. Blooming Twig Books LLC is a small independent book publisher, and Dr. Kent Gustavson, the founder of the press is an expert in publishing. He will work with you on determining your needs, and will consult with you on the best steps forwards for your book and your project. Publishing is the wonderful final step of the process, where a company takes your book on, and decides to put their logo on the back. Or, you take the book into your own hands, and put your company’s logo on the back of the book. And you can start to tell people… “Hi, I’m Judith, author of…” It’s a wonderful time in a speaker’s life to hold their finished book in their hands, and to give a copy of it to their closest followers, and to their friends and family.

Step 9: Printing

Do you prefer hard-bound books with dust jackets, or paperbacks?
Do you like crazy textures on book covers, or simple and standard?
Do you need 50,000 copies of your book on the first run?
Where are you going to store all of those books?

Book printing is one of the most mysterious, yet simple aspects of the book industry. I mean really, it’s just a bunch of pages, some glue thinly pressed, and some ink, right? But, surely you’ve heard some horror stories about presses that charge WAY too much for printing, or one-off copies that look green instead of yellow. We walk you through the process of printing your books, and whether you decide to print 25 or 25,000 books, we will make sure that you get the best deal, and highest quality books for the trade market or for your back of the room sales. And we also have a distribution house, and have connections with many others, so that you won’t have to worry about storing all of those books in your basement! The printing is the most fun part of the publishing process for most of our clients. When they get the first box of books, hot off the presses, there is a real rush of adrenaline, and a deep pride… After all, once you’ve given that first copy to your mother, or your spouse, or your best friend, everything else is an anti-climax. And, most likely, that happens on the first day, when those boxes of books arrive on the doorstep, shiny and new.

Step 10: Promotion

Where do you envision your books being for sale?
Where can you find your target market, and how can you sell your books to them?
Are you aiming for a traditional book market, or something outside the box?
Do you dream of being a New York Times bestseller?

Once the long process of publishing is complete, most authors are amazed to find that the work is only half done… How do you get your book out into bookstores, onto radio and television programs, into the hands of your ideal readers? We work with our clients on taking all of the steps necessary to ensure that they reach their target audience, from simple to integrated. We work with authors to create a comprehensive media campaign that fits their genre. We include in our services Branded Author Websites, Custom Author Podcasts, Virtual Book Tours, Press Release Campaigns, Author Publicity Campaigns and much more. Call us to inquire about the breadth of our marketing, distribution and fulfillment options. Blooming Twig Books is also distributed by Cardinal Publishers Group in the United States and Canada, and will consider publishing and distributing manuscripts of Skeleton Method clients.

Get Started With Us

To get started with The Skeleton Method, please fill out our brief questionnaire HERE, or get in touch with us HERE.