Behind the scenes of co-authoring a book

'How to Build a World Class Substack' launches this week!!

How to Build a World Class Substack by Russell Nohelty and me Claire Venus launches on 16th July 2024 over on kickstarter. Follow us there to make sure you’re in line for the early bird bonuses!!

If this post is too long for your email, you can read it here Creatively Conscious by Claire Venus

“I was thrilled when I heard Russell Nohelty and Claire Venus teamed up to bring us a book on Substack. This platform changes really quickly, but they know it well and can bring you the basics. Definitely a book for your TBR list.”

Sarah Fay, Substack Writers at Work

On writing a WHOLE book..

I thought it would be fun to take you behind the scenes of the process of writing my latest book.

Once everything is sewn up, I’ll publish my budget and income reconciliation to the membership so you can see how it’s impacted my time. energy and business.

My 4 Motivations and Reasons for co-authoring this book with Russell…

1. It seemed a fun project

Gosh we have to have fun don’t we.

Life is short, work can be a lot, we have to find ways to be joyful and get excited about our purpose here. I love Substack - I have a lot to say on it as a platform and a fair few stories to tell on my journey so I knew I’d not be stuck for words.

2. I really like working with Russell

“I quickly learnt being Claire was exhausting” Russell Nohelty

We have complimentary skillsets and I trust him. I learn from him and he learns from me. It’s mutually beneficial and he has NEVER and would never take my work and pass it off as his own or steal my titles or ideas.¹ He’s his own unique kind of creative genius and a very stable tone of voice.

Are you new to Russell’s work? He’s over here;

https://substack.com/@russellnohelty/

When we met. he was somewhere in the region of having 20k subs here… it’s more than double that a year later. His work is excellent, he runs incredibly successful businesses and writes about topics I want to read. He also reads a lot here and shares a range of other people’s work from a very pure place.

He’s ‘successful’ in the traditional sense (of course) but also in a way I am; he leads with acts of service and from what I can tell his career is built on that foundation as mine is.

3. I am writing 10 books in 10 years on the way to a book deal with a traditional publisher

It’s a bold move to say you’re going to write a book a year for 10 years but with a back ground in project management I figured it would be an interesting challenge.

If you’re new to my world. here’s how it’s going with my one book a year challenge…

• 2021 - Creativity Island for Mums - The Journal with Josie Brookes and Danielle Slade

• 2022 - Our Beautiful Reality - The Journal

• 2023 - Your Self Seeded Business - Journal and Planner

• 2023 - The Substack Collective - a journal companion

• 2024 - How to Build a World Class Substack with Russell Nohelty

Read more on my website here.

I have not approached any traditional publishers yet because I’m four years in to improving my craft. My current plan is to approach them in year 7 when I’ve self published 7 books and I have a book proposal for the one I want to work with a publisher on.

I’m also open to them approaching me having heard many stories of this happening from my colleagues including Natalie Lue and Gabrielle Treanor - magic happens every day guys and actually maybe this is the way it needs to be… I’m not forcing it or driving it right now. I also have no snobbery around how I publish the books; my goals are immersed in joyful process right now.

4. I am curious about the Kickstarter funding model and as a platform

I have supported a fair few crowd funders in my time for artists and creative companies. With Kickstarter and Russell’s knowledge of the platform², I am super curious about how it all works and if I might be able to use it for other things.

I ran a crowd funding campaign for a schools project this year and I found it REALLY hard to get people to back it. I’ve dusted myself off, delivered and amazing project and I’m READY to go again.

You can read more about that arts activism project here.

And how did it all go…

• Early March - Russell Nohelty reached out - “Hey want to write a book with me?”.

• Spring Book co-authoring head scratching soul searching, battling with my demons…

• Late Spring/ Early summer - cover, mock ups, edits, proofs, formatting.

• June - Kickstarter set up

• July - Kickstarter marketing for ‘follows’

• 16 July - end of August - Kickstarter LIVE - Write the next part with us?

Russell and I met once to talk it all over in Spring and then he sent me the manuscript via microsoft word online. It was already 60k words. Russell is a word wizard so I wasn’t surprised.

I asked ai to read it to me… Russell’s tone is different to mine; he adds humour, his is clear and direct without being bossy. There is less room for creatively “exploring.” or testing…

I needed a lot of headspace to think how the co-authoring part would work.

How we would use “we” instead of I and what I could add to his brilliant insight. It felt like an almost finished book already?

How could I better align our tone of voice? What should I add that was of value from my own journey and perspective?

Eventually, ³I decided on adding four chapters and adding notes that started with the words; ‘with sparkle’ so I could write in my voice and I could leave his voice as it was. I think it works super well.

We ended up with over 70k words of our journey on Substack AND a map of navigation for newbies.

Seasoned writers/ creatives can use the book to focus in on building a Substack they are immensely proud of!! This book demystifies Substack and how it works and gives you the foundations, ideas and tools to make yours “world class”.

Sneak peak of our contents page…

Contents Page anyone?

✨

And then…

We then met to talk about marketing the book and we were chatting about the ‘old’ paradigm of publishing and the newer one of self publishing - within a FLASH, the The Sparkle Summit - Substack x Publishing was born!

I told you, I just can’t help birthing a creative project!

The summit celebrates the book AND the authors publishing here on Substack. I can’t wait to share MORE.

See you on the 16th August? Follow along here if you want to come; it’s free.

I’d LOVE to know if you have any questions on thoughts on the book writing process, kickstarter as a funding model or about our book?

Meet you in the comments!?

Claire

PS - Here’s the link again to follow on book on Kickstarter and make sure you don’t miss out on the early bird perks!! We launch in LESS THAN two days!! We are not planning on SELLING this book after the kickstarter so this is your ONLY way to get it. ⁴

1. I am getting more and more messages about this now. I expect this in my Substack education space - I allow others who are teaching on Substack to join the membership, read my posts etc - it might not always be the case but for now it’s fine. I HATE it when people lift copy or explainers from my work - hate it! I wish I had more energy to call them out on it but I don’t… so I pour my energy back in to being of service because that’s where ALL the joy lives!!! We always have to be mindful of our echo chambers online. For more on this read this brilliant piece by Kat River ✨

2. Russell wrote this book all about How to Get your Book Selling on Kickstarter. It’s EXCELLENT. If you are finding yourself frustrated or moaning about traditional publishing models give it a whirl and get yourself into the LIGHT!

3. You guys know I’ve been dealing with some incredibly difficult things in my personal life and I didn’t want to let Russell down but my brain simply wasn’t working for a while. He was patient and understanding and although I slid our deadline we are still delivering within the timeline we wanted. When you work for yourself you can take the time you need and you should because pushing through means you push other things in and down and eventually they’ll find a way to the surface.

4. Anything can happen life is magic - if you know a publisher who wants to publish it or an agent who wants to take it on, send them our way? ✨ ⭐️ ✨ 📖✨ ⭐️✨