27. A look back at publishing the Limitless journal
*I swear in this episode
Now that all versions of The Limitless Money Mindset Journal are out – the ebook, paperback, and hardcover – I feel like it is finally time to take a look back at publishing the Limitless Journal!
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Transcription
Now that all versions of The Limitless Money Mindset Journal are out – the ebook, paperback, and hardcover – I feel like it is finally time to take a look back at publishing the Limitless Journal!
But first, if you don’t have a copy yet, or want to order another one – use the link https://amzn.to/3EGkua6. The link in the show notes!
This journey started back in December 2020, when I had my first nearly 10k month. It showed me what was possible when I got my mindset and energy around money aligned with my goals.
I knew I couldn’t keep this to myself.
In January 2021, when I decided to share the journaling prompts I was using in my business to release resistance to money and cultivate a supportive relationship with it, there were a few questions.
Could other people see the results I was seeing? And plainly, really, would it work for other people?
The journal was first shared with the beta testers as a black and white pdf with less than 50 prompts. With their feedback and my continued journey, it grew into a beautiful color pdf and launched March 2021.
Then over the next year, it would continue to grow into the 111 prompts that you know today.
There were questions over that year, of when a physical copy would happen. I didn’t have plans for it at the time. But as more people asked, the question grew.
What would a physical copy look like?
At first, I imagined a spiral bound notebook with the prompts in it. You know, kind of like my own notebooks. So I did some thinking of how I could make that happen. And reaching out to various printers to find the right one seemed like a lot of work.
Why couldn’t it be easier?
One day, it clicked! It could be! My mom runs a publishing company and has been publishing through Amazon and other places for some time.
I asked for her help and she was more than happy to lend it to me! She sent me the link to get started making the Limitless Money Mindset Journal available through Amazon where it could be an ebook, paperback, and hardcover.
Now, my personal feelings about Amazon aside, they do make this rather easy and accessible to people.
So the ebook went live on March 29th – the exact anniversary of the pdf.
The paperback took longer, due to some things we’ll go over in a minute, and went live on April 7th.
And the hardcover, took even longer because I had to wait longer for the proof print. So, when the proof came in, I submitted it for approval and it went live on April 17th!
It has been a journey! And here are some things I learned about publishing through Amazon that I wanted to share with you!
1. The ebook is very different from a print copy.
For an ebook, all I had to do was use Amazon’s KDP software to change the file type. Although, the difficult part of that was that the software kept closing on me when I would try to load the pdf of the journal.
So like, I’d get into the software, and it would be like “alright I need your file.” And I’d, you know, open up my files and click it and – well, click the two files because the pdf is more pages than Canva allows for. So it’s in two parts. In order to pull it all together, it freaked out and the software would close.
So that was difficult.
For the print copy, the file was the easier part. I didn’t have to go through the KDP software to do it. They just wanted the pdf, which was great! Cool, easy, done. I had to made sure that it was to the dimensions needed. So as you’re going through, you can kind of pick what size you want. And I did a 7×10, and that was pretty easy. Cool. I can make the dimensions, I can change it over in Canva and it’ll adjust everything.
I did however have to create a cover (front, back, and spine). You don’t need that for an ebook, you just need like a cover page. The easy part about creating the cover is they have a webpage where you can get the measurements.
Now, I created my cover on my own. They do also have a software built into the system where you can create a cover. However, I use fonts and things – I can easily create it in Canva, I just need to move it over, right? So thankfully they had this webpage where you can get the measurements. And it took a minute to get everything aligned within those measurements and guidelines, but it wasn’t TOO bad.
The more difficult thing was that you have to pick between bleed and no bleed. Now this mainly has to do with the images and the margins. I don’t fully understand it but I understand that much. So the first copy I ordered used the bleed option. You have to pick the settings on the uploading page. And so the first copy I ordered used the bleed option. That’s what the proof came in. And it looked great. It printed great. I was happy with it. And this is before it goes to review.
So when I submitted it for review after the proof came in, the KDP people came back and were like “Nah.” That was like a week later, it took them like, 7 days to get back to me. So I adjusted the pages and tried again. Because what they sent back was just a little thing that says like, “hey, you need to double-check these pages and make sure your images are all good.” So I was like, okay cool I’ll just adjust it. And then five days later, they were like “Nah.” Again.
And, so I went to my mom and I’m like, this thing is happening and they keep rejecting it, and under my mom’s guidance, she suggested that I switch over to the no bleed option. So I did that. And then you preview it again. What it could look like before it goes to print. And the images were now not quite centered within the dotted region. So I had to go back to Canva again, edit the entire journal in two different files because again, there are just too many pages for Canva to have in one file. Then upload it again, checked it, and submit it for review. It was a lot of tedious steps there, but it didn’t really take that long. It was maybe like, 40 minutes or something.
This time, KDP got back to me within 3 days. And it was available!
SUCCESS! Finally! the paperback was available!
When it came time to submit the hardcover, it was easier. Because I had already gone through everything with the paperback, so I just used the same PDF file for the hardcover. Now, the dimensions for the cover were slightly different but I had already taken care of that when I did the paperback cover. So easy peasy, submitted it, and it was approved approximately a week later.
2. Hitting publish isn’t the end.
Even after going “live” there is still stuff happening. Live is the term that KDP uses to let you know that your book is approved and available for purchase. Basically, it’s like it’s on the bookshelf.
Even after the paperback was approved, there was something that said it would take some time to be listed in stock. Which I took to mean that it would no longer say “usually ships within 5 days” on the righthand side where it says “add to cart” and everything. I didn’t know if that was exactly true at the time and I’m still not sure if that’s exactly what it refers to because I haven’t seen outright “yes, this is what it refers to” but it did take about two weeks for the paperback to be listed “in stock.”
Currently, the hardcover is listed as “usually ships within 2 – 3 weeks.”
Which brings us to our third lesson –
3. Hardcovers take longer to print than paperbacks.
I don’t know why this is. But it held true whether I was ordering the proofs or author copies. And author copies, you just pay for the printing cost.
When I ordered the proofs – I ordered the paperback and hardcover on the same day. However, it took about 3 weeks for the hardcover to arrive. Whereas the paperback proof arrived within the week.
After publishing, the paperback wa
s listed as “usually ships within 5 days” as opposed to the “2-3 weeks” for the hardcover. So you can see there’s a bit of a difference there.
On top of that, I’ve ordered the hardcover author copy and it isn’t projected to arrive until sometime around May 12th.
So again, at the time that I’m recording this, I had ordered it earlier. But it is April 25th at the time that I am recording this, and I had already ordered that some time ago. So like, about 3 weeks.
4. And speaking of author copies, while they are at printing cost, they do still have shipping costs.
Admittedly, I have Amazon Prime. Am I happy about supporting and using this corporate hell hole? No. But even with all of their money, the free prime shipping does not apply to author copies. So while it was still cheaper to buy author copies of my book, it wasn’t that much cheaper.
And let me get into the details of this with you.
I placed two orders for paperback author copies. One order had two books in it, the other was a single book. It was a better price to buy the two at once because of shipping and taxes.
The paperback is listed at $14.99, and I paid $16.94 for the two author copies, then $10.07 for the single author copy.
However, all three copies that I ordered arrived together. And I’m not sure I was refunded the extra shipping that I paid.
So whatever.
I also ordered the hardcover author copy. The hardcover is listed at $27.99 and I paid $20.09. So I saved a bit more with the hardcover author copy than I did with the paperback, but that’s just because of the listed price.
So you can see, while it was cheaper, it just wasn’t the same as I had been expecting. So I wanted to highlight that for everybody who is thinking about doing this just so that everybody understands that like, yeah taxes apply, I kind of figured that, but there was shipping costs attached to it that I was like, “What? That doesn’t make sense.”
So it’s just something to account for. That’s all. Had I known, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. But because I didn’t know it threw me off and I was like “Wait, what?”
So again, author copies, which are just the ones you purchase at printing cost, you do pay taxes and shipping on those. So while you do save a little bit of money depending on the listed price for your book, it wasn’t, for me, that much money that I saved.
The final lesson I want to leave you with from this experience is –
5. Be open to possibilities.
This is one of my mottos – but I think the journal is a clear example of this. At the beginning of this podcast episode, I shared how I wasn’t sure how I was going to print the journal.
I had been thinking about going to printers – but there was an easier solution! Had I not been open to possibilities, I wouldn’t have seen it.
And in part, because it probably took me a little bit of time to be open to the possibilities, it took a little bit for there to actually be a paperback version.
But because I did open myself to possibilities, we now have a published / printed version of the journal!
And I am so happy that I have it!
Do you have a copy of the Limitless Money Mindset Journal yet? Tag me @shelbymelissa on Instagram so I can see all the places you take your journal to!
And if you don’t have a copy, get it at https://amzn.to/3EGkua6!
Take a picture of your receipt and tag me! Tell me that you’ve ordered it! Tell me how you’re liking it! I am in my own DMs on Instagram. So when you message me, you get ME! And I want to see the journal – I want to see YOUR journals! I want to hear your experiences with it. I want to share in this experience with you.
So tag me, message me, and I’d love to hear and see how the Limitless Money Mindset Journal is going for you!
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