Anatomy of a Successful Book Launch

My definition of success

First, a few numbers

#1 Best Seller in 6 categories including small business, marketing and sales
215 people signed up for my launch team
10 book endorsements from known renowned marketers
22 podcasts and guest features in the last few months
2 articles in business magazines (including cover of Forbes Founder)
80 wonderful reviews
40 people attended my private book-launch-team-only training
101 books sold in 5 days
90 people registered for my launch party
68,144 LinkedIn post views in the past year with 5000 comments/reactions

More important than numbers

I love these numbers! But the best part? When someone says things like:

"The most helpful book I have read in a long time"

"This book completely shifted my mindset from selling to serving, allowing me to show up authentically instead of feeling forced."

"I rolled up my sleeves, leaned in, and let Sophie lead me down a path I didn’t even know existed—one that transformed how I approach client attraction."

"Your book has been a bright candle in the dark that has helped me regain my own equilibrium."

Knowing that I have impacted lives, changed minds about marketing, inspired entrepreneurs to approach marketing differently... THAT is my biggest reward.

But it didn't happen overnight

The Writing

I started writing my book, very slowly, in mid 2023, and it dragged on for a while. Then, 20,000 words in, I realized I was writing the wrong book. The world didn't need another LinkedIn How-to, even if my approach is different. It became clear that what I do differently is marketing, and even how to think of and approach the way we build our business.

So I started again, in early 2024 and by the spring I was really itching to have the book out in entrepreneurs' hands, so in April I put on the turbo, cleared my calendar, retreated from the world and finished my manuscript in early July.

A big part of my process was sharing the key ideas in the book in my LinkedIn posts, this newsletter and my emails. The responses and comments helped me fine-tune the ideas as well as how I explained them. And, very importantly, it helped me gather a community of interested readers who joined my book launch team.

My lessons from this:

Be very clear about your ultimate goal for the book, the WHY of it.
Create an outline, a very, very detailed outline, so you can organize your ideas and you're moving bullets around, not entirely written paragraphs and chapters.
Having a framework for the thinking I wanted to share was key and I developed the Magnet Model thanks to Simon Bowen's Models Method.
Follow instructional design principles to organize how to convey your thoughts. I worked with Rebecca Cuevas and with a few coaching sessions, I gained extraordinary clarity on the best way for my readers to absorb what I wanted to say.
Share your ideas publicly.
Create a landing page early on for people to sign up for your launch team.

Adding my own drawings

This would never have occurred to me if I hadn't come across Ingrid LiLL and taken her course on simple drawing. You don't have to be an artist to illustrate your work!

The Beta Readers

It was nerve racking to share my first manuscript but I did send it to 15 people I have full trust in. Thankfully I got feedback from "only" 11 of them because seriously, incorporating the feedback was a TON of work! I had allocated 2 weeks in my planning for this. Boy was I wrong!! It took me 2&1/2 months! And I enjoyed it thoroughly!

Thank you so much Rebecca Cuevas, Judith Pratt-Jefferies, Hazel Hyslop (MSc, Bsc Hons (psych), Lauren Fleshler, Deborah Smith Cook, Juan Sibrian, Danielle Weil, Susan Gilbert, Andy Turner, eve weinberg, Avital Spivak

My lessons from this:

Ask 8 people so you get 6 reviewers
Use Scrivener instead of Google Docs or Word (I almost got carpal tunnel from all the scrolling)
Give yourself a lot of time to gain some distance from what you wrote
Develop the muscle of deciding what feedback to incorporate vs. not
A note: it's interesting to me that I got absolutely NO contradicting advice or recommendations (which, with so many beta readers, could have been expected!)

The Editing

Oh my, there are so many different types of editing! I'm not going to even touch on this but will only share that finding a good editor is key and you want someone who is detailed enough to catch the small things (like the thousands of commas that needed to be added and the other thousands that had to be taken out...) but who also does developmental editing so they can also help you fix the flow and consistency. My magical editor was Mary Bernstein. Working with her was a delight and I'll do it again for my next book (wait, did I just say "my next book???)

The (Self)Publishing

Self publishing is a bit of a misnomer. Granted it means you're not going through a publishing house but there's nothing "self" about it: you need a team of professionals to get it done right!

I was nervous about all the nuances and details you need to know about to get a book actually out in the world so I got myself a guide: Ruth Schwartz and thank goodness because she did A LOT behind the scenes that I know made a big difference (including keeping me calm). She masterfully coordinated all the moving pieces to get the book online and in print. No small feat!

I worked with Adam Renvoize for my book cover and I love what he created. Also kudos for his patience with me throughout the process that I told him would take a couple of weeks and ended up going for months!

The Launch Marketing

For this, my guide was 🥐 Robbie Samuels, MSW 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ . I followed his process to the letter and that's what got me a book launch team of 215 wonderful people supporting me over the last few months. Robbie's process was also what got me all the Best seller badges and helped me corral the reviews to get them from my readers onto Amazon across many countries.

And Robbie's the host for my Book Launch Party that's tomorrow! I hope you'll join us, along with the other 90 folks already signed up! Register HERE.

My lessons from Editing, Publishing & Launch Marketing

Surround yourself with the right experts!

The words "It takes a village" really came to life for me throughout this process.

A (sort of) unexpected side effect

It's a known fact that writing a book is going to give you credibility and confidence. But actually experiencing this is really different than just knowing about it! That's hard to write about. All I can say is that my comfort level speaking about what I do and the ideas in my book has grown exponentially. I feel it now in all my interactions!