#19: 3 Steps to Overcome Your Biggest Barriers and Make Your Mark as an Author

In this episode of the Author's Edge, we're diving into the critical steps for authors to overcome self-doubt and peer approval barriers. Learn how to move forward with confidence by understanding the publishing process and creating a successful book proposal. You'll get actionable steps for pitching your book. Gain insights, clarity, and the support you need to get your work published and make your dreams a reality.

📚 Resources Mentioned:

How to Get a Book Deal: https://www.lanelit.com/book-deal

00:00 Embrace Your Unique Voice

01:12 Overcoming Self-Doubt

03:24 Breaking Free from Peer Approval

05:50 Your Perspective Matters

07:10 Debunking Publishing Myths

08:31 Understanding Nonfiction Book Deals

08:54 Crafting a Winning Book Proposal

09:53 Essential Elements of a Book Proposal

11:52 Overcoming Barriers to Publishing

12:22 Taking Action: Your First Steps

 You just have to be you and know that there are people out there who need you. They're looking for you. They're looking for the answers you provide. And if you don't step forward, out of the shadows, someone else is going to step into the light.

Welcome back to The Author's Edge. I'm your host, Allison Lane, and I am here to tell you: you are a big effing deal! Raise your hand if you know that in your heart. Yes, you are, but you're afraid for people to see your hand up, because you’re thinking, “What will they say? Will they think I'm full of myself? Will they think I am arrogant or prideful? Or will they secretly envy me?”

You have to know that no one's thinking of you that much. Today, we're going to talk about your motivation and getting over yourself.

You just have to be you and know that there are people out there who need you. They're looking for you. They're looking for the answers you provide. And if you don't step forward, out of the shadows, someone else is going to step into the light. You catch my drift? You can't always stay in the shadows because no one is going to pull you out. This is not Dirty Dancing where someone says, “Oh, come on, Allison, you can't be in the corner.”

If that's your choice, you can stay in the corner, enjoy the darkness, but you do have to step forward. I know you have confidence in your message, in your expertise, in your insight, but there are three things getting in your way of moving forward—taking that step to write your book, go on that podcast, write that article, or speak at that conference.

The first thing getting in your way is this: you have to get over yourself.

You are your own boundary, so you must get over yourself because you're standing in your own way. If you've reclined and thought, “I'll wait it out,” and then suddenly you don't know how to get up—or you've been conditioned to wait for someone to help you up—well, if that's true, I'm here. I'm helping you up. Get up. Let’s go. You've reclined for long enough. 

We are conditioned to wait for an invitation. And perhaps that's just because of the way school works. You are invited to the next grade up. You have to pass someone else's test in order to get to the next level. So we're always looking for external approval and a check mark. But here’s the truth: you are your own check mark, because you're a grown-up. So, number one, you need to get out of your own way.

Number two: you are accustomed to looking for peer approval before moving forward, like there's somehow a gate of people who are like, "Okay, she's passed the test. Let's let her through." Or maybe you're an academic, a researcher, a physician, a professor. I don't know your life. You’re mentoring someone, you’re out there doing your thing, surrounded by people who are also doing your thing. It's pretty easy to get used to looking for a thumbs up from everyone else—especially if you're writing academic papers, because those have to be peer-reviewed.

Your dissertation has to be peer-reviewed and really peer-approved. If you're conducting medical research, that is peer-reviewed and tested. I don't know the words, but you know the words. But that's not true with a book. It's not true with an article, because I already assume you have the street cred enough to be sharing your wisdom.

Nobody's auditing me for having this podcast. You're listening to me. You're not frisking me for my papers, right? You're not comparing my point of view to someone else's before you take in what I have to say. And if you are, awesome. I love to go against the grain because I do have a different perspective. 

Take me as an example. That's why I have a podcast. If I believed that my point of view was the same as everyone else’s, I would not have been motivated to start this podcast. But I do have something to say, and it is different. So I wasn’t looking for approval from anyone. And if someone out there is like, "Allison's not my cup of tea," freaking awesome. Make a choice. 

I have, I don’t know, over a hundred podcasts that I listen to regularly. Sometimes I’m in the mood for mindset work, sometimes for money management. I can’t get enough of The Financial Feminist, and always, always The Manuscript Academy.

You are a barrier—your belief that other people have to unlock the door for you to move forward, submit an article, or pitch an article to a media outlet. Your perspective does not have to be peer-reviewed because you are already credible. You don’t have to cite a bunch of other experts in your article, either. You know what? That’s a dissertation. 

At some point, you outgrow primary research. Applying primary research to the everyday world, the cultural phenomenon, and incorporating your own perspective—that’s what makes good content.

So, number one, you’re getting in your own way. Number two, your belief that your perspective has to be audited by others, or that you have to be one of many voices. No, you don’t. Let’s set that aside. 

The third thing that gets in people's way from moving forward—being a speaker, writing the book they know they should have written five or ten years ago, or even yesterday—is just not knowing the process. People think it’s like the movies: you have to know someone or be invited to a party. Like on Sex and the City or that movie about all the different colors of gray (which was too spicy for me). I had to look away.

But that’s not how publishing works. Your lack of awareness of the process is not a suitable reason for not moving forward. I reject that as a reason. You’re not allowed to have that because I am a personal, one-woman PSA for How to Get Published 101.

There are others who want to open the curtains and be like, "This is how it works." Let me break it down, and I’ll put a guide in the show notes with the actual steps.

It’s literally a step-by-step process on how to get published, and it is much simpler than you think. If you're writing nonfiction, do not write your whole book before you try to get published. Nonfiction book deals are sold on spec. That means you need a book proposal, not a manuscript. Nobody wants you to write even half of your manuscript. They won’t accept it because it’s irrelevant. The book proposal is a business plan for the book.

Almost none of the content in the proposal is the actual content in the book. Only one out of the eight sections of a book proposal is actual content from the book. The rest is the marketing plan, the audience, the competitors.

In publishing, I don’t think of other books as competitors. They are other books that your audience reads, and they have room in their heart for one more. It’s not really like you’re going head-to-head. It’s not like you're saying, "Hellman’s or Duke’s mayo?" where you only have room in your heart for one. This is different. 

The book proposal is that third step. Not knowing what’s in a book proposal? I’m here to tell you. There are eight sections to the book proposal, and I’m going to give you my outline in the show notes. Here they are real quick:

1. Overview (one page, like a book description).
2. Author bio (needs to be a marketing bio—don’t have one? I have a template).
3. Audience profiles.
4. Marketing plan.
5. Competitive titles (comps).
6. Table of contents (sometimes called an annotated table of contents).
7. Chapter summaries (about half to three-quarters of a page each).
8. Two sample chapters.

Ta-da! Now you know what you need to pitch your book. If you’re writing fiction or memoir, you do need to write the entire book.

So let’s all agree: you’re going to get over these three barriers to moving forward.

1. You’re going to get out of your own way.
2. You’re going to stop looking for group participation. You don’t need everyone’s approval.
3. Now, you have access to information. 

It’s time for an action step. Today, I want you to write down—on a 3x5 card or the back of a dry cleaning receipt—what you’re going to do. What are you moving toward? What’s your next step? 

Then, snap a picture. Send it to me. Post it on social and tag me. When you put it out into the world, you’re saying something, and the universe hears you.

I can’t wait to see, hear, and shout out what you’re doing because what you have is important, and time’s a-wasting.