Janica Smith, on the Secrets of Successful Self-Publishing

Join me in an engaging conversation with Janica Smith, a seasoned publishing consultant who has helped over 150 authors bring their books to life. From her early days as a Traveling Vineyard wine consultant to becoming a self-made virtual assistant and later a publishing advisor, Janica shares her journey and the valuable lessons she's learned along the way. Discover practical tips on how to pitch yourself, focus on your strengths, and free yourself from tasks outside your expertise. We also delve into the importance of showing up, staying open to opportunities, and paying it forward. Plus, get a taste of the Texas Hill Country wine culture and learn about crafting the perfect porch sipper cocktail. Whether you're an aspiring author or a seasoned writer, this episode is packed with insights and inspiration to help you on your publishing journey.

To connect with Janica or learn more about her Publishing services: https://www.janicasmith.com/ 

Wineries & Opportunities discussed in this episode:

https://calaiswinery.com/
https://www.frenchconnectionhye.com/
https://www.daviswines.com/
https://www.ewomennetwork.com/ 

00:00 Introduction to Janica Smith

01:03 Reconnecting After Years

03:17 The Journey to Becoming a Virtual Assistant

08:28 The Leap to Full-Time Entrepreneurship

10:48 Navigating the Publishing World

16:23 Challenges and Successes in Publishing

23:07 The Importance of Professional Publishing

28:40 Supporting Authors and Entrepreneurs

30:09 How Publishing Works for Entrepreneurs

32:02 Building Relationships for Book Endorsements

34:03 The Importance of Book Design

37:07 Navigating Print on Demand

40:43 The Role of Marketing in Book Publishing

42:38 Overcoming Self-Doubt as an Author

43:37 The Value of Unique Perspectives

46:09 The Legacy of Helping Authors

47:42 Wine and Personal Stories

53:09 Exploring Texas Hill Country

Wine Camp is laughter, adventure, girlfriend connection—shared over some very good wine and cocktails.

We're heading to Temecula, CA, July 15–18, 2027, for brand-new experiences centered around women, community, connection, and a whole lot of fun.

Registration is limited to the first 40 women. Learn more and save your spot at https://winecamp.info.

Want support growing your business? Book a free Discovery Call with Penny: https://tidycal.com/pennyforyourshots/call 

Wine Camp 2027 - Join the list or save your spot:
https://www.pennyforyourshots.com/winecamp

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Transcript

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Janica Smith

[00:00:00] ​Intro

[00:00:00] Penny Fitzgerald: Janica Smith keeps her eyes open for opportunities, and when they present themselves, she says yes. Janica was a wine consultant back in the old days of Traveling Vineyard, and we had the opportunity to connect at one of our past conventions. We've stayed in contact through social media, but haven't had an opportunity to meet in person, or really even chat until very recently.

[00:01:01] By staying open to possibilities, Janica found a career as a publishing consultant, helping over 150 authors publish their works, and bringing value to countless others. Janica shares tips on how to pitch yourself, a useful skill in any industry, and we chat about the benefits of showing up, not only for others, but for yourself as well.

[00:01:20] How focusing on your strengths and outsourcing tasks that aren't in your wheelhouse frees yourself up to be a better creator and business owner. And how good it feels to pay it forward. Since Texas Hill Country is practically in Janica's backyard, we also chat a bit about Wine Camp. Don't be fooled. We drink more than wine and also talk about yummy cocktails with strawberry lemonade.

[00:01:41] I've included links to the resources mentioned in today's show notes. Here is Janica Smith. 

[00:01:49] Hi, . 

[00:01:51] How are you? I'm good. I'm good. Good. It's good to see you, . Yeah. Good to see you too. Oh my gosh. It's been a long, long time since I've seen your face . 

[00:02:04] Janica Smith: I know, 

[00:02:05] I know. You don't look different though. I think we've aged very nicely. 

[00:02:10] Penny Fitzgerald: We have done well for ourselves, except for I'm, I'm a little bit sturdier than I used to be.

[00:02:16] Janica Smith: Well, there's that. You know, I've, uh, I've seen enough people as they get to the Elderly end of their life shrink down to nothing. So I need to be at a good starting point. 

[00:02:31] That's right. That's a good way to look at it. Yeah. 

[00:02:35] Penny Fitzgerald: One of my mom's good friends. Um, she said to me, oh, it's good that you've gained some weight because, you know, you're going to need that someday.

[00:02:45] Janica Smith: Okay. Thank you so much.

[00:02:52] Penny Fitzgerald: I feel better. 

[00:02:55] Oh, 

[00:02:56] well, wisdom of our elders. 

[00:02:59] Janica Smith: I know. I know. 

[00:03:02] Penny Fitzgerald: um, tell me, tell our listeners a little bit about what you've been doing. Cause we used to do our traveling vineyard business together years ago. Um, but what are you doing? Yeah. First generation traveling vineyard people.

[00:03:15] Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:03:17] Janica Smith: I, um, actually the Traveling Vineyard is responsible for the business that I have, because I don't know if you remember, but there was a Reader's Digest article about the 50 best ways to make money from home, and Traveling Vineyard was listed as As one of those.

[00:03:37] So I went and searched down a copy of the Reader's Digest because I was going to add it to my materials to, you know, pass around to let people know what a great deal that was. And the very 1st most popular way to make money from home was Virtual Assistant. And I had never even heard of that term. And as I was reading it, I was currently working.

[00:04:04] I was working in the corporate world. I was an executive assistant to 2 vice president level women, and they were actually, they had both had the opportunity to well, they were. Their husbands got jobs in other towns and they were valuable enough to the organization that they were able to negotiate working remotely.

[00:04:29] Well, that was at a time when people didn't really do that. And, uh, I was responsible for figuring out all the infrastructure to. make that work, which included buying them a fax machine for their house. 

[00:04:43] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my gosh. 

[00:04:45] Janica Smith: So that gives you an idea of where we were technology wise and, um, and figuring all that out.

[00:04:51] But I was their, their executive assistant working at about a 200 mile distance from where they were. And we would meet up occasionally when they would come to the office for meetings and such, but I was remote and I read about this and it was like, People have businesses doing what I'm doing as an employee.

[00:05:11] You mean this is something I could do? And so I started kind of investigating it and thinking about it. And that was shortly before I, um, I went to, went to the convention, wine camp. And, um, there. I went out to lunch with Nancy Cassano. 

[00:05:36] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. 

[00:05:37] Janica Smith: And Nancy was at a fairly high level in the company and had a big team and a lot of people.

[00:05:42] And I started picking her brain about. what it would look like for her to hire a virtual assistant to help manage some of those administrative things, take that off of her plate so that she could do more direct interaction with her team and be more of a coach and less of an administrator. And she got really excited about the idea.

[00:06:07] And we had a speaker, um, one of the things that she offered was an opportunity to sign up with her company to do individual coaching. It was at a special price for the convention, and I thought, well, I'll give it a try. Signed up, and the coach that I ended up being assigned to was, um, was a woman who had had experience in Mary Kay, so she kind of knew that, but she had left that, and she was doing public speaking and was interested in writing a book.

[00:06:40] Oh. And so she was, she ended up being one of my first clients. So my, my coach that I paid for ended up being one of my first virtual assistant clients, and shortly after that, I turned in my notice and started my business as a virtual assistant. 

[00:06:56] Penny Fitzgerald: That's fantastic. 

[00:06:57] Janica Smith: All due to the traveling vineyard. And sometimes you just never know how those little bits and pieces, you know, and that's one of the things that I find so interesting as I get older, is that I'm constantly being presented with things that I know exactly how to solve because of something I was involved in 25, 30 years ago, but it gave me just a little piece that helps me to solve that puzzle.

[00:07:25] And so that's 1 of the things that I think, um, anyone can take from whatever their work experience has been their work life, volunteering experience. because it all gives you little bits and pieces of things that form the the trivia of knowledge that you have that enables you to address all kinds of things that you probably couldn't have done when 

[00:07:52] you were 30.

[00:07:53] Penny Fitzgerald: Right. Right. Well, and I just think so many of us, women, especially just go, you put your head down and you do what you have to do and you don't really, you know, look for new opportunities because you're busy solving problems for everybody else. Right. Right. Yeah. So your story, you were open to receiving new and seeing new opportunities.

[00:08:17] And you said, yes, when they popped in, when they popped up for you. 

[00:08:21] Yeah, that's 

[00:08:23] exciting. 

[00:08:23] Janica Smith: And, 

[00:08:24] and, and that's been the case since I started my virtual assistant business. When I started, I was, I was at that stage of my business where I would basically take on any role that anyone could had a need for and would pay me, you know, it was, I had, I had, uh, cut the cord from my full time income and just stepped out into this unknown.

[00:08:51] And I remember I had a goal of replacing 50 percent of my full time income within six months. That was sort of the breathing room I'd given myself, but that seemed like a 

[00:09:04] Penny Fitzgerald: Scary. 

[00:09:05] Janica Smith: That was a stretch and it was scary. 

[00:09:08] And, um, so I, I kind of went out there and started doing things, but I found that the experience that I had in having been in sales and direct marketing and all of those skills that I had from that.

[00:09:25] And the fact that I had been working in my corporate world, I worked for the Texas Beef Council. And so we did a lot of conferences and conventions and provided speakers. And one of the women that I supported was, A PhD registered dietitian, and so she was a very in demand speaker for talking about the health benefits of incorporating lean meats into your diet and and all of that.

[00:09:54] So she did a lot of public speaking. And so I had been. Her support. So it was easy for me to reach out to public speakers that were looking for assistance and go. Well, I know exactly what you need because I've been doing this. I know how to work with meeting planners. I know how to manage your bookings and how to do the follow up.

[00:10:15] And I had all those tools in my tool kit. So that helped me to land my 1st couple of gigs and from there. They started referring me to other people that they knew, and I hit my goal in the first three months. 

[00:10:33] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my 

[00:10:34] gosh! Congratulations!

[00:10:35] Janica Smith: And 

[00:10:36] within six months, I had come pretty close to filling my full time role.

[00:10:42] Job with a lot more flexibility and a lot more opportunities. And it was within that 1st year or so, so supporting a lot of speakers. Well, most speakers. Either have a book, or they are working on a book, because that's sort of part of you setting up your. Credentials as an expert in your field, because it's so easy to publish books.

[00:11:11] Now that you're competing against other people that have books. So, I was working with with authors that were speakers and had the opportunity to sit in on a call kind of like this, except back then it was called blog talk radio. And, um, It was an interview with someone who was talking about being a virtual assistant for authors.

[00:11:38] was like, Oh, that's kind of what I do. And so I listened to that and she talked about a training program that she had taken and I investigated it and the training was being offered again the very next week. And at that point, the training was, um, was a live class. It was like a full week long and it was five hours a day.

[00:12:06] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, wow. Was it in person? On a phone. Oh, 

[00:12:09] in a phone. 

[00:12:10] Janica Smith: No, it was remote. It was on phone. Okay. Um, and I think that the fee for it was around 500, which felt like a fortune to me. 

[00:12:20] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm hmm. Mm hmm. 

[00:12:22] Janica Smith: But I looked at my calendar and I didn't have anything scheduled for the next week. And I thought, well, it came with a certification.

[00:12:32] And I thought, well, that'll give me another bit of, you know, credibility and approaching new clients. So I took that course. And I found out later that it was the 2nd cohort of that course that this woman that I had heard in an interview had been in the very 1st cohort and I was in the 2nd and the woman who taught it was, um, she coordinated a group that was, um, part of the e women network, which is, um, a big women's networking thing.

[00:13:05] And they were having their convention 3 weeks after that in Dallas. which is only 200 miles from me. And I, it's where my in laws lived. So I thought, well, and she said, and she was going to have, um, not just a booth at the convention, but she had a whole room where she was inviting authors to come and talk to her as a book coach and then introduce other people that were involved in publishing that she was vetting.

[00:13:33] And she invited anyone that had taken her course to come and join her. And I was the only one that showed up. 

[00:13:41] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my goodness. 

[00:13:43] Janica Smith: So 

[00:13:43] that really, that really taught me the value of showing up. 

[00:13:47] Penny Fitzgerald: Right. 

[00:13:48] Janica Smith: Because I was the only one there gave me an opportunity to really get to know her. We formed a close friendship and she became a true mentor to me.

[00:13:59] And, um, I sort of became one of her. Preferred people to refer people that were doing. She was doing book coaching with and then she passed them off to me to manage the publishing process. So that's sort of how it all started. And it really was. It really was a series of events. That I took a leap of faith, stretched a little bit beyond what was comfortable, both financially and personally, and, um, showed up.

[00:14:35] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yes. And she must have been so appreciative too, because you being the only one, you showed support of her. 

[00:14:45] Janica Smith: Yes. 

[00:14:48] And, and we, you know, like I said, we became very good friends and for a long time after that, whenever she had someone that was considering taking the course and it later became a virtual on demand course.

[00:15:00] And whenever there was someone that was trying to figure out if it was for them, she'd send them to talk to me. and tell them what a difference it had made in my business and where I was. And so I was her closer, but, uh, it was, it was a great partnership. And then, um, several years later, she, she had breast cancer and she knew that she was not going to be.

[00:15:25] around too much longer, and she approached me to buy the course and keep it going. And, um, I joined with a partner, someone who had had become part of my team and she had taken the course and knew Jan too. So she and I, um, Formed a partnership and took on that training for us and managed it for, I think, another three years or so, and, um, and then recently sold it to someone else.

[00:15:51] It was time for me to pass that off, um, because I needed to be free to do other bigger things. So, but it, but it was a, it was a good opportunity for me to feel like I was sort of keeping that legacy going and really pay back. the investment that she had made in me. And, um, you know, so it was, it was a good way to sort of tie all that up.

[00:16:16] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. And you paid it forward. So others are benefiting as well. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So what are the bigger, better things that you're working on? 

[00:16:27] Janica Smith: Well, I've got, uh, quite a few books in progress. I'm, uh, sort of, sort of Elevated from being a virtual assistant to authors to I, I call myself now. I'm a publishing consultant.

[00:16:42] Someone told me that what I do is like ghost publishing. Like, you have a ghost writer that takes your ideas and turns it into a polished piece of writing. Well, that's They can sort of hand it off to me and I'll do all the hard work of publishing it, but I do it by setting up a publishing imprint and the publishing name and all of the accounts that all belong to the author.

[00:17:08] I don't have a publishing company myself. I help the authors actually set up their own publishing company so that they truly have total ownership of their book and control. And, uh, it means that they have full control of the intellectual property that goes into their book. There's a lot of people don't understand that when you, when you publish a book with a traditional publisher, that you basically sign away your intellectual property rights to the book, and it's very difficult to get them back.

[00:17:45] So, if you want to do something else with that material, you have to get permission from your publisher. To repackage it or to quote yourself from your own book and another book. So, um, you know, and then with. We saw this a few years ago when, um, when audio books started coming about, um, that publishers owned the rights to your book, which meant that even if, if they weren't going to produce an audio book, you didn't have the rights to produce an audio book yourself because they held the rights to it.

[00:18:24] Those licensing rights. So there's a whole, a whole legal piece that happens when you publish traditionally that you give up a lot of, um, a lot of your control and a lot of ownership and I, you know, you hear all kinds of horror stories, but I actually had someone who had the experience of a publisher buying, they're doing a contract for their book and they got a small advance, um, And the author went with that because they thought that they would get more support with helping to market the book and distribution and all of this.

[00:19:01] Well, the publishing company that bought it, bought it because they had another similar book that was already in the pipeline with a more well known author was basically, we've heard the term lately, the catch and kill. It was a catch and kill of her book. They paid her rights to her book with no intention of ever publishing it.

[00:19:21] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh no. And then she was dead in the water. She had no, ability to finish her book 

[00:19:27] or 

[00:19:28] Janica Smith: her book. That book was never published. She had to then rewrite it using similar ideas, but had to be very careful not to impinge on that, uh, on those property rights that she had given up in signing the book deal. 

[00:19:43] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, 

[00:19:44] no.

[00:19:44] I can just imagine you come up with this idea and you're excited about it and you're writing and you're, you're flow, you're in flow. 

[00:19:53] Janica Smith: You 

[00:19:53] put all the work into developing it into a book. I mean, to me, I've never written a book. I'm in awe of authors that do that. So, you know, to go through all of that and then have it cut off at the knees would just be tragic.

[00:20:09] Penny Fitzgerald: Exactly. And, and, you know, to be, to have to re to pivot and to restructure your entire thought process into something using those 

[00:20:19] Janica Smith: different enough that you could still 

[00:20:22] do 

[00:20:22] it. 

[00:20:22] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. And you'd be so I'd be pissed off the whole time. I mean, how can you write from that place? 

[00:20:28] Janica Smith: Exactly. Exactly. And so that's, that's an extreme, an extreme version, but I have another client who, um, we published, we published her first book.

[00:20:42] She's, um, she's a retired uh, National Park Ranger, and she was, she was a female ranger in the early 70s, and there weren't very many of them, so she has a very, very different experience than your average, uh, park ranger, but she wrote a book about, um, how her travels as a, as a child with her family, who had all kinds of misadventures in an old broken down tow trailer they took every year, but it was those experiences that led her to become a park ranger and have this life in the national parks. And we wrote that we did that 1st book together. And then she wrote. a second book. And in thinking about it, she looked at some different things. And once you're sort of in the publishing realm, you start getting, you know, reach outs from all kinds of publishing people that make it sound like they've got the very best possible deal for your next book.

[00:21:42] And this was a well known company that does sort of a turnkey package. And, um, and told her that they could get her all this distribution and marketing support, which when I looked at it is the exact same distribution and marketing support. She gets when we do the system that I use and she did that and it's all under that company's publishing name and there's a glitch and it's not available to bookstores and she can't get them to fix it.

[00:22:16] And she's dead in the water. Fortunately, she, I mean, she spent the money to do that. But fortunately, their contract has a clause that she can take back the rights. So, we're now in the process of taking the rights back and republishing it under her already existing publishing company would have been so easy to do her 2nd book, but she thought that this would be an easy thing to do.

[00:22:41] It was like a turnkey package and, but it also meant that she had very little control over things and it was sort of done the way they do it and found out that what they said they would do was not exactly what got delivered. And there were lots of nickel and dime. You can do this for just another 300 and for another 400, you could, you know, so it just sort of added on and on.

[00:23:07] So, There's horror stories out there in the publishing world, and that's a big part of, um, where I come from in working with my clients. Like I said, I, I'm in awe of authors. I think that anybody who's gone to the trouble to put themselves out there and write a book. I just, I remember being a kid growing up and going to the library and there was a time that we got to have an author that came to the library that summer and did a little talk.

[00:23:40] I thought that person was a rock star. That was just like, 

[00:23:43] Penny Fitzgerald: Well, they are. 

[00:23:44] Janica Smith: Yeah. And so the idea that there are people out there that are very intelligent people. Oh, my gosh. Some of my clients just blow me away with the things that they know, but they don't know much about publishing because it's a pretty closed community and there are all kinds of little.

[00:24:04] Publishing conventions about the way books are done that you would never know if you weren't in it. And, um, so it's really, really easy for authors that don't understand the publishing world to get taken advantage of because. Companies come in and they're spewing all this jargon at you and they tell you how easy it'll be if you just write them a check 

[00:24:32] And, so a big part of my mission in this is to support authors in a way that they're really. in control and have the best possible presentation of their ideas in the book that they end up with, that they don't end up with something that looks homemade. Um, you know, because you're most, most of my authors, not all, I've, I've got some authors that have done fiction.

[00:24:59] I've got some novels and I've done some children's books, but the vast majority of my clients are writing some sort of nonfiction book that's usually in support. of their existing business. It's a way to increase their credibility, to sort of check that box under their credentials of having, you know, this is the person who wrote the book on blah, blah, blah.

[00:25:23] It's sort of, you know, there's, that's a real thing. And, um, but if that's your purpose for writing the book and what you end up with is something that looks like a do it yourself project. It not only doesn't accomplish that goal, it may actually set you back and make you look less professional. So that's a big part of what I do is try to protect my clients and make sure that they're getting what they really need.

[00:25:54] Sometimes it's like, we're not going to design the cover that pushes all your buttons and makes you happy because you're not the audience. We need to, we need to find the cover that appeals to your reader and not necessarily to you. If we're lucky, those will mesh together and be the same thing once we get there.

[00:26:13] But so often people start off with, you know, well, my favorite color's purple, so my book cover needs to be purple, but it has nothing to do with my corporate branding, but I like purple, you know, so. Part of what I do is help to leave the decision up to them ultimately, but give them all the tools to understand why that might not be the best direction to go.

[00:26:38] And, you know, there's, like I said, there's all these little conventions about books that you don't really know about, but as a reader, you kind of notice if they're. Not right. You may not be able to put your finger on what it is, but the book just isn't as easy to read. And sometimes it's as simple as the spacing between the lines that there needs to be a little bit more breathing room.

[00:27:02] You can actually go with a smaller font. If you have more space between the lines and things like this is one of my favorite things to learn, you know, the margins on the outside of we're talking a physical book. Now, the margins on the outside of book there. Sometimes you'll see a book, particularly a self published book that has really thin margins on the outside.

[00:27:25] And they're what it is. They're trying to decrease the page count in their book, because it costs every page that's in the book increases your print cost. So they try to. You know, squeeze it in and get, you know, fewer pages, but the margins are a little bit narrow and there's a standard publishing margin.

[00:27:43] If you look at, pick up some traditionally published books, it's pretty uniform. It's usually about 5 8ths of an inch. That's how much it takes for you to hold your thumbs on the margins, covering up the text. It's like, duh. Yeah. You know, it's like when you pick up a book that doesn't have that. It's just, it's not comfortable and you may not know what it is, but if you take that, but if you take that book to, um, your local bookseller, you're trying to get them to carry your book in their store, or you go to the library and you try to get the librarian to buy it, they pick up on those things immediately and know exactly what it is.

[00:28:27] And they'll say, well, this is great, except it doesn't fit our standards. You know, our, our shelves fit 6 by 9 books and your book is a 8 by 10. We can't show that we can't carry it. 

[00:28:38] So, 

[00:28:39] Penny Fitzgerald: wow. You know, I can imagine that a creative, a writer, an entrepreneur, they, we all have our own strengths and those are the things that we should focus on, you know, building our business and our writing or being creative.

[00:28:55] But then, you know, you can't be an expert at all the things. And even if you learn those things, how long is it going to take you? Versus having an expert like you come in and say, okay, here's what, you know, I'll just take this part off of your hands so you can create and keep going. 

[00:29:13] Janica Smith: Right. You need to be focused on the things that you're going to do when the book is available on Amazon, how you're going to market it.

[00:29:19] You're going to be, while I'm working on, the book production piece and getting it set to upload those files to Amazon and get it starting to crank out. You need to be focused on building your audience and getting it ready to launch. 

[00:29:36] Penny Fitzgerald: Contacting me to be on 

[00:29:38] the podcast. 

[00:29:39] Janica Smith: Exactly. Exactly. In fact, I have someone I need to refer to you because she was just asking today about, I'm looking for some, some good mid range.

[00:29:50] podcasts that have audiences that I'm not really connected to that are interested in how women can make midlife pivots. And I was going, Oh, gotcha. 

[00:30:02] Penny Fitzgerald: We have a connection. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:30:06] So nice. 

[00:30:07] Yeah. Well, okay. So backing up a little bit. Well, how does, how does publishing work? So like from an entrepreneur's standpoint, from someone who I probably will look at writing a book someday, hopefully, 

[00:30:22] Janica Smith: I'm sure you've got a couple in you.

[00:30:23] Penny Fitzgerald: I got a couple I think so. I've been taking lots of notes, but how does, um, how does what you do support a writer or creative? What, what is it? What is the piece that you do or what are the pieces that you cover so that your writers, your clients can kind of focus on their fortes? 

[00:30:44] Janica Smith: Well, I sometimes am involved when an author is beginning to write their book.

[00:30:50] Sometimes we can talk a little bit about positioning their book and doing a little bit of advice about how to structure their book, things that they may want to do to help research, um, sort of their competition out there. It's one of those things that, um. I always like to involve the author in doing that because I can, I could go off and do it.

[00:31:15] I could come back with all the information about 10 books that are in your area that you're competing with. But if you don't do that as an author, you miss the opportunities because what you really need to do is build relationships with those authors. 

[00:31:31] Penny Fitzgerald: Exactly. Collaborations

[00:31:33] Janica Smith: Exactly. It is very much Exactly. It's very much, um, a case of, uh, there's not too many books out there on your topic.

[00:31:43] In fact, if you go out there and you research and there are no books about your topic, that's a huge red flag. It means there's no demand for what you're thinking about writing. If there's nothing like it, because there's a million books on Amazon, and if there's nothing in your topic. Bye! Could be a flag unless you are already bringing a completely well developed audience that's waiting for your book.

[00:32:12] That's not a good thing. So you're always going to be competing with other books. And as a 1st time author, you're going to be competing with some people that have established audiences and But if you can start to find those people, start to follow them on their blogs, comment on their stuff, you know, be part of their community, then when you get to the point that you're looking for people to read your book and give you an endorsement blurb.

[00:32:42] You've already established some relationship with that person, so you're not, you're not just contacting them from a completely cold place. You can contact them and share with them the things that you've learned from following them, and how that's impacted you, and that because they are someone who's impacted your thinking in this topic, you'd very much like for them to, um, Consider reading your book and giving you a blurb to use, which is actually an easier thing than most people think because it's, um, it's a beneficial thing for authors to write blurbs for other people's books, because again, it's that cross pollination of audiences that you're looking for.

[00:33:27] I frequently have. Looked up people that have written blurbs for books that I enjoyed because I feel, feel like, you know, if this is someone who was connected to this book, maybe I'll like what they're doing. So, 

[00:33:39] Penny Fitzgerald: exactly, 

[00:33:40] Janica Smith: but all of that can start at the beginning phase of figuring out who you're what your competitive analysis is.

[00:33:49] So I can sort of work with an author and give them the tools and point them in the right direction to do that and help answer questions. But I don't typically. Do all that research for them. 

[00:34:00] Yeah. 

[00:34:01] Sort of coach them through it a bit. That's good. Um, but most of my, most of my clients come to me at the stage that they finished their manuscript and they are oftentimes they've been working with a book coach or they, um, they finished their manuscript and the first thing that they do is go get someone to design a cover.

[00:34:24] which is, which is sort of like, 

[00:34:26] Penny Fitzgerald: that's the vanity 

[00:34:26] piece. Right? 

[00:34:28] Janica Smith: I've got a cover, you know, start putting it in your, your signature line on your emails and all of that, which is very important, but they think that's what they, they think that's creating a book out of this word document they have. It's like, Oh, there's so many more steps.

[00:34:45] So a lot of times, um, those book designers, um, are people that I get a lot of referrals from book designers because I refer a lot of people to book designers that haven't already done that. So I've got some close relationships there. So I get a lot of referrals from people that have either sought out a book designer or maybe they've found an editor and that person says, well, I can do this piece.

[00:35:11] But there's, you know, these other 25 steps you need to take care of, and you need to call Janicka. So, a lot of times I'm doing that. So I frequently come in at the point that the manuscript is complete, and we're ready to move into editing, and I help to coordinate the editing process, help you find the right editor, because you want someone who has edited books in your genre.

[00:35:37] You don't want someone who's a science fiction. Editor to be doing your how to book. So you need someone who's in your area and I've got a number of editors that I've worked with. So I sort of helped pick the right editor for the genre, the level of editing you need and your budget. and help to coordinate all of that.

[00:36:00] And then we also work with book designers who do your cover and do all the interior. People don't give a lot of thought sometimes to the interior, but it's a huge part. And the process that I like to use is to do to design your, your front cover to start with, because that sort of sets your aesthetic of what you're doing, and then a good book designer will take elements from your cover and carry it to the inside of the book.

[00:36:28] Maybe they'll use some of the same fonts that they used in the titling and the topography on your cover, and that may move in and be. what your chapter heads look like, or, um, you know, I've, I have one, I have one designer that really likes to take a, a graphic element from the cover and carry it through to the chapter page so that it, it all kind of looks like it's related instead of these two disparate pieces that you're pushing together.

[00:36:59] So we go through that. And so I work with the people that do the pieces that it takes to create the files to then publish. And then I use, um, for almost all of my clients, uh, there are a few exceptions, but as a general rule, I'm a big advocate of using print on demand. Um, it means that you don't have to invest in these big print runs.

[00:37:26] that you have to print 2000 books and then find a place to store them. And as one author said, they sit in your garage and every time you walk past, they mock you. 

[00:37:37] Penny Fitzgerald: I can feel it. 

[00:37:40] Janica Smith: We don't want to do that. We don't want to do that. So, uh, but the big thing, that the print on demand companies, I use two and I use them simultaneously.

[00:37:48] I use KDP, which is a print on demand, That's owned by Amazon. And the nice thing about that is it gives you direct distribution into Amazon worldwide. So when you upload your book, it will then be available to ship the next day from anywhere in the world through Amazon. And then the other company that I use is IngramSpark, and they're part of the Ingram Content Group.

[00:38:20] Who also has the biggest distribution to the retail booksellers in the U. S. and they also have international distribution as well. But the big thing is that they're the big kahuna for wholesaling books to retailers in the U. S. And so, when you do those 2 together, you solve distribution and that was the biggest innovation that made self publishing truly accessible.

[00:38:50] Because before that, you could self publish, but the only way to do that was to do a big print run, have the books in your garage, and then figure out how you were going to get them available for sale on Amazon, because that's where everybody buys books. Now, um, you know, we do it, we do it through Ingram.

[00:39:08] So it's available places other than Amazon, because there are people that don't like to do business with Amazon. So we want to have that as a, as another channel, but people that I work with, when I look at their statistics, probably 80 to 90 percent of all their sales are through Amazon. 

[00:39:27] Penny Fitzgerald: I believe it.

[00:39:28] Janica Smith: So, you know, that's, that's what we focus on is getting you that distribution. And then we also do the stuff where we convert it to an eBook. So it's available for Kindle and people are reading eBooks on tablets and phones and computers, so they don't have to have a Kindle reader anymore, but it's all all of the technology is built around that Kindle reader.

[00:39:52] And so there's some specific things that you kind of need to know about that. It's not going to be as pretty as your book, because it's not fixed. There are lots of things that things that makes it. Really appealing to the ebook reader is that they can change the font. They can make it bigger. So I can read without having to wear my reading glasses at night.

[00:40:14] So, you know, those are those are good things, but it makes it so that it's different. So the that's part of what I can help to do is help you understand. What things are not mistakes that are just the nature of the beast and what things might actually be mistakes that we can correct and fix. So I do all of that and get you all the way to the point where you are listed on Amazon and all the other online retailers.

[00:40:41] And you're ready to launch. 

[00:40:42] Wow. 

[00:40:43] I sometimes, I sometimes will be involved in at least planning some of the marketing. I've, I've done it so I can do some brainstorming, but there are lots of people out there that can assist with marketing. A lot of peoplealready have a marketing plan within their business.

[00:41:01] And the book is another layer to that. I always say that, you know, the, the investment to, to produce your book, to publish your book is a marketing expense. And if you look at it as a marketing expense, it seems so much more reasonable than if it's just an expense to publish a book. It's one of the only marketing expenses you have that can actually recoup some of itself through sales.

[00:41:29] So that's a good thing, but the most important thing is how it fits in to Other ways that you're monetizing your business so that the book is a piece, but it's very seldom a true profit center. It's a revenue generator, but it's not really a profit center. And that's true. Even for the big writers. I, I like to use Chicken Soup for the Soul is a great example.

[00:41:58] Penny Fitzgerald: You know, we've all, they've probably, they've probably done 150 different Chicken Soups for the Soul

[00:42:06] 

[00:42:06] Janica Smith: started off self published, which I think is an interesting thing to know, but Jack Canfield does not make the bulk of his money off of sales of Chicken Soup for the Soul books. He makes his money as a speaker, and a coach, and a trainer, because he's the author of Chicken Soup for the Soul 

[00:42:26] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes.

[00:42:27] And look at all the collaborations because of all the different iterations. 

[00:42:32] Janica Smith: Exactly. Exactly. So yeah, he doesn't even write them. He just compiles them. 

[00:42:37] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Well, and for any new authors out there, you know, when we were talking about the beginnings of, you know, looking for those people who might be competitors or you feel like they're competitors, but really they are potential partners and potential friends, relationships to build.

[00:42:55] When You know, when you're thinking about writing or doing anything, starting your business, coaching or writing or whatever creative piece you're doing, that self doubt comes in and people think, some people think, Oh my gosh, but this has already been done. And look at all these other people who have done this already.

[00:43:13] And look at all the success they've had and all these different books on Amazon. but no one does it quite like you. You have your own special spin on everything. You know, you are you, you know, the more you lean into who you are and what makes you unique and your own niche, then that's where you, you find the right fit for yourself.

[00:43:37] Janica Smith: Yeah. One of my favorite stories Into that whole idea of competition and, you know, it's already been done. Why do we need another book on this topic? It was a guy that I knew that was, he had been, he was 1 of the lead singers in a band back in the. I'm going to date myself the early seventies. He was on, he was on soul train and he talked about how he was at that point in his songwriting that he was really concerned about, you know, what am I doing?

[00:44:10] And, um, he, he was talking with one of his producers and the producer said, let's look at the hit songs for the last 10 years. And let's count the number of love songs. He said, you think there's room for another love song? Yeah. Yeah. So there's always room for a slightly different take, and it may not even be that much of a different take on things, but it's just someone who connected with you in some way that they heard it for the first time.

[00:44:45] So, you may be saying something that's been said by many, many different people, but they connected with you. So you're the messenger for them. And, you know, I really. I really believe that sometimes you do all of that work because there was one person that needed to hear what you said, and you may never know what that true impact is.

[00:45:16] If you're lucky. Somewhere down the line, you get a piece of feedback that says you made a difference for me. Exactly. But, but I know from my own experience that I don't tell all those people that made differences for me, but there have been a lot of people that have impacted the way I've thought about something and the way I view the world and you never know what it is.

[00:45:42] So if you, so if you have this burning desire to put it out there. It's something that's driving you. It's some purpose and you may not ever know what it is, but what if it was the one thing that someone needed to hear and you don't get out there and say it? 

[00:46:02] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, and really when you look at it like that, it's like an, it's an obligation to lift someone else 

[00:46:07] up.

[00:46:08] Janica Smith: It is. And you know, that's, that's part of what I, part of what I really love about what I do, because like I said, I haven't written a book. I don't know that I ever will write a book, but I've helped to publish over 150 books. So I've helped to put it out there in a way that the author couldn't have done without my help.

[00:46:31] So my legacy is not that I wrote a book, but that I helped to put. All these different authors voices out into the world. 

[00:46:41] Penny Fitzgerald: I love it. And that also helped them go farther. Like by you taking that piece off their plate, they could focus then on the next thing. 

[00:46:53] Janica Smith: Exactly. 

[00:46:55] Exactly. 

[00:46:56] Penny Fitzgerald: That's fantastic. 

[00:46:58] Yeah. 

[00:46:59] Janica Smith: So, 

[00:46:59] you know, you just never know what little bits and pieces you're gathering along the way.

[00:47:06] That's right. And what kinds of trials and tribulations you go through, because you learn the lesson. That's exactly what you need to share 10 years down the road. 

[00:47:19] Penny Fitzgerald: Right. Right. The timing's not our business, but you'll get the message out. 

[00:47:24] Janica Smith: No. You just keep, just keep putting one foot in front of the other and trust that it all comes together in ways that you may not know, but if you're lucky, you do.

[00:47:35] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, and keep your eyes open like you did in the beginning keep your eyes open for the opportunity and then say yes when you See it. Yeah. Okay. Can I switch gears on you a little bit? Yes. Yes So back in the day we shared some wine a little bit What's your favorite or what's your favorite cocktail?

[00:47:55] What do you what? What do you go to? 

[00:47:58] Janica Smith: Well, 

[00:47:58] I'm You know, I, I used to say that I was a red wine drinker. I have always loved the big reds, the cabernets and the Zinfandel's and, uh, we, in fact, I just got back from a trip by my husband and I went with my adult daughter, whose kids are now old enough to stay at home by themselves and her husband.

[00:48:22] And we went. To, uh, Sonoma County and spent five days in Sonoma County. Got to visit Guy Davis Family Vineyard. Oh, nice. , which was so much fun and, um, drank some great wines and I really enjoy white wines now, especially living in Texas. We are definitely into white wine season. . It's nice to have something that I can have a nice chill on and, uh, I tend to, I enjoy.

[00:48:51] I enjoy wine with food, but I also enjoy those porch sippers that you can just sip on their own and enjoy it by itself. 

[00:49:01] Penny Fitzgerald: Porch pounder is okay too. 

[00:49:04] Janica Smith: Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And um, And I enjoy, I enjoy a good gin and tonic. In fact, um, I have a Bunko group that I have played Bunko with for, I think we last, the last time we counted it up, it's been a little over 35 years that we've been playing together.

[00:49:24] playing bunco, basically the same group in the neighborhood. We started when our kids were little because it was a way to get out of the house once a month and we've gone through raising our kids and getting our kids off to college and married and grandkids and a couple of them have lost husbands and they're in the widow stage but we've hung together and we're, uh, we do once a year we go off somewhere.

[00:49:53] outside of Austin. So we're all going on our weekend trip this coming weekend and it's a BYOB. So I'm trying to figure out what am I going to bring to, what's going to be my go to for the weekend. And one of my favorites this time of year is really simple. Um, I like to get, uh, some strawberry lemonade from the grocery store, just in the refrigerator section.

[00:50:19] There's a great strawberry or raspberry lemonade. And a little bit of vodka thrown in. I'm being fancy. Maybe a little coconut rum. So, you know, those can, those can go down real nice. How we're sitting on the back porch watching the wildlife in the country. So that's kind of what I'm thinking. I'm going to.

[00:50:41] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, sounds delicious on a hot summer day. with girlfriends. Yeah, that's fantastic. You're making me thirsty. It's almost happy hour. So yeah, I think that's good. 

[00:50:50] Janica Smith: I 

[00:50:51] know. I know. And then I have my, my stupid big cup that I, 

[00:50:55] oh, I know I'm drinking. This is just 

[00:50:57] water going. 

[00:50:58] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. Our Stanley cups filled with water hydrate first.

[00:51:02] Yes. 

[00:51:03] Janica Smith: Yes. That's right. That was, that was my go to when we were in Sonoma was I had to make sure that I, I drank a big cup of water in between. Each vineyard so that I could be, yes, that's good. Ready to go to the next one. 

[00:51:16] Penny Fitzgerald: It's 

[00:51:16] good. It's good to stay hydrated. Yeah. . Yeah. Yeah. Well, and you're joining us for Wine Camp this fall, so it fun.

[00:51:24] I am. 

[00:51:25] I'm so excited.

[00:51:26] Janica Smith: I'm so excited to get to see old friends and you know, it's, meet some new ones. It's funny because you know, there's something about friends that you make over wine. that you can go for years and not see them and you're back together and don't skip a beat. 

[00:51:46] Penny Fitzgerald: It's like no time has passed.

[00:51:50] I 

[00:51:52] I know. So I'm really looking forward to it. And I'm so excited that you're putting something together to bring people together to enjoy good wine and, and enjoy the Texas Hill Country. It's a beautiful time of 

[00:52:05] Janica Smith: year. Nice. 

[00:52:07] Penny Fitzgerald: September 19th through the 21st. So hopefully that'll be a little bit cooler.

[00:52:13] Janica Smith: It's likely to still be hot by most standards, but we do start to have evenings that are just a little bit cooler, like maybe in the 80s. 

[00:52:23] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh wow, 

[00:52:25] but it's up in hill country, right? Isn't it the elevation a little bit? No, 

[00:52:29] Janica Smith: not so much. Not so much. It's going to be hot. So, you know what? We'll take advantage of the pool.

[00:52:34] Penny Fitzgerald: So be sure you pack your swimsuit and we're going to drink right through it. People. This is what we're going to have a plan. 

[00:52:40] Janica Smith: That's right. You know, there's, 

[00:52:42] we do fine. We do fine in the summer. we use air conditioning differently here than other places. I remember when we'd go to conference in Boston and.

[00:52:53] Yeah. It was like the cold rooms were pretty toasty for me, but down here we crank up the AC. So we'll, we'll keep you cool. We'll keep you fine. 

[00:53:06] Okay. 

[00:53:08] Penny Fitzgerald: All right. Well, tell us, can you tell us a little bit about Hill Country? What's, what, what's your, because you've been there numerous times, right? 

[00:53:14] Janica Smith: I have, I have, it's 

[00:53:16] really, where we're staying is probably about 45 minutes from my house.

[00:53:21] So, um, I'm, I'm down in North Austin, but, um, we're going to be out in the Hill Country. And one of the cool things about this part of Texas is It's the junction of a couple of different geographic regions. So you can go within a space of about 20 miles and be in the hill country, which is it's hills.

[00:53:44] It's not mountains and it's not foothills to mountains. It's just rolling hills, but it's beautiful. Lots of, uh, lots of foliage and, you know, just pretty country. And then you go down, there's there's. It's called the Balcones Escarpment. uh, geologically, it's like where two plates came together and there's like a hill country that's elevated and then you come down and it's flat and it goes up to the plains and stretches all the way up to Minnesota.

[00:54:11] So it's that flat plains and you go a little bit further south. and you're into a completely different region. You go a little bit to the east and you're into the Pineywoods. So very different geography right around here, but Austin has some beautiful lakes and rivers. So, um, lots of water, which it helps to make the heat a lot more tolerable.

[00:54:40] So yeah, it's It's a beautiful part of the country and where we are is going to be close to the Blanco River, which with any luck will have some water in it and flowing around then. And, uh, yeah, it'll be, it'll be good. And the Texas Hill Country wines have really come a long way we are at almost the same latitude as Tuscany.

[00:55:05] So Sangiovese grows really well here. And all of those. hot weather grapes. Um, a lot of the vineyards here some of their wine's from this area, but they also pull a lot from the, uh, from the plains up around Lubbock. There's a huge grape growing area in Lubbock, and so a lot of the juice comes from there that they blend with some of the other things.

[00:55:34] But what happened, um, is that 20 years ago is when Texas wine started coming around 

[00:55:42] and 

[00:55:43] there was a lot of, um, ranch land. So a lot of land and people started first started with locals starting to try to grow a few grapes. And before we knew it, there were people that are involved in the wine country in California were buying vineyards here. So we've got a lot of the wine makers here have not started here. They've. We've kind of expanded. In fact, one of my favorite vineyards is from a guy whose last name is Calais. He grew up in the Calais region of France and his wine, his winery is, he's got Calais, which is sort of his top level wine, and he only makes a small amount of that.

[00:56:25] Then he's got a more commercial vineyard. That's called the French Connection. 

[00:56:29] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, fun. 

[00:56:30] Janica Smith: And 

[00:56:30] he's doing very much Bordeaux style French wines here in Texas. So lots of influence coming from all over the world and really developing the Texas wine country.it's almost like we're where California was.

[00:56:47] 25, 30 years ago, you know, so kind of doing some different things, but starting to be influenced by those strong winemaking traditions from all over the world with people coming in that are bringing it to Texas. 

[00:57:03] Penny Fitzgerald: Absolutely fabulous. I can't wait to experience it with. A boatload of fun women. I know, several vans full of 

[00:57:14] Janica Smith: boatloads with wheels on 

[00:57:16] them.

[00:57:16] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes, exactly. Exactly. Janica, this has been so fun.

[00:57:22] I can hardly wait to See 

[00:57:23] Janica Smith: you in person in September and give you a big hug 

[00:57:27] Penny Fitzgerald: for sure, for sure. And I'm grateful for your time today and for sharing all your wisdom. I know it's going to help a lot of my listeners and I know there are several that are probably thinking about what do I do next and publishing a book might be it.

[00:57:43] So yeah, you're a good person to work with. 

[00:57:47] Janica Smith: You know, and like I said, some people do it in support of their business. I'm, I'm just started with a new client that, um, he's 83 years old. Oh, and he's retired. He's a retired divorce attorney. 

[00:58:02] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, 

[00:58:02] my goodness. 

[00:58:03] Janica Smith: And he's written his memoir and it's all the stories of the different cases that he's done and what his life has been like.

[00:58:14] And he basically wrote it. for his friends and family and for his grandkids to know who he was 

[00:58:20] and 

[00:58:21] he was like, you know, I thought I could take it to Kinko's and just, you know, print out a bunch of copies and punch it and put it in a notebook. But then it would be, Grandpa left us this notebook.

[00:58:33] He said, I want Grandpa to leave them a book. Yeah. Yeah. So lots of, lots of different reasons. So whatever, whatever your reason, the process that I do is the same. So. 

[00:58:46] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, wonderful. Thank you so much. 

[00:58:50] Janica Smith: You're welcome. You're welcome. 

[00:58:52] Penny Fitzgerald: Great to see you. 

[00:58:53] Have a great rest of your day.

[00:58:55] Janica Smith: Thanks. 

[00:58:56] Bye. Bye. 

[00:58:59] Wine Camp Info

[01:00:03] Outro