Purpose-Driven Authors with Jyotsna Ramachandran

On this episode of Monetize the Mic, Jess got the chance to speak with one of our favorite clients at Interview Connections, Jyotsna Ramachandran about purpose-driven authors!

Jyotsna is a bestselling author, book publisher, TEDx speaker, and an international Author Success Coach who helps coaches, trainers, speakers, and experts to build a super-profitable author funnel with the help of their book.

She founded Author Success Academy to help aspiring authors finally finish their book, get it professionally published, market it into a bestseller, and use that position to grow their business. So far, Jyotsna has helped over 400 authors from 35 different countries through her global publishing agency, Happy Self Publishing. 

Jyotsna is both an agency client and a coaching client of Interview Connections. Jess and Margy truly love, admire, and respect how much of an implementer Jyotsna is. She is always ready to take action that she needs to take to scale her business. Jyotsna is the first to admit that she doesn’t take advice from just anyone, but after seeing Jess and Margy grow Interview Connections to where it is now, she knew that she could trust their advice.

One of the things that Jess and Margy helped Jyotsna with was her company’s vision statement. Like many other entrepreneurs, Jyotsna didn’t have a vision statement initially. However, now her vision statement for Happy Self Publishing is:

To elevate the consciousness of humanity one book at a time and be the leading book publishing agency for purpose-driven authors.

At Interview Connections, Jess also aims to help purpose-driven entrepreneurs. Our clients are driven to have an impact on the world and achieve their purpose. Both what Jess and Margy do and what Jyotsna does are very similar. Interview Connections gets people on podcasts and amplifies their message. Jyotsna helps people get their books published so she can amplify their message as well.

A common objection that happens to service providers like Interview Connections and Jyotsna is, “That sounds amazing, but I have all these other things to focus on.” So then all the books, the podcasts, etc never get high enough on the priority list. “I'll let you know how things are going next month, I'll circle back to this next quarter.” Jess wants to know, what is going on there? Why does message amplifying services so frequently get low priority?

In the past, Jyotsna used to work with all kinds of writers, and a lot of them were passionate about writing. They would just write every day because they were truly writers. That is a totally different category than who she works with now. Now, Jyotsna and her team primarily work with service-based entrepreneurs. 

These are busy people, and writing is not at the top of their priority list. They are busy with the day-to-day activities of their business. The book that they have been wanting to write is always getting pushed to the back burner.

Jyotsna recommends that entrepreneurs differentiate between the important things and the urgent things. We need to take out time for the important things. These are investments that may not give results in the next 30 days but they will give results in the next year, two years, ten years, etc. 

A book is an evergreen marketing tool. 

If you invest in Facebook ads, you might get some leads right away but then it’s gone. A book is a marketing tool that you can keep using for the rest of your life! Once you’re an author, you will always be looked upon as an author. 

Why do so many entrepreneurs focus on short-term investments instead of looking ahead at the long-term benefits of something like a book?

Jyotsna explains that many people aren’t able to focus on important tasks. What she tells entrepreneurs is, “If you're naturally good at writing and you want to do it, you will create time to do it. If you’re not able to do that, it doesn't mean that you can never become an author, you can just ask for help!”

Even if you’re not struggling but you just want to get better, it’s always good to hire a coach, Jyotsna tells us. Her team is built with author success coaches. These coaches will hold you accountable, hop on calls with you every week, and give entrepreneurs clarity on what their book topic should be that week. They help with things like identifying your target client and your target reader. They go over how to pick an angle so your book will stick out, how to make a book outline, remove roadblocks, review your work, and help you stick to your writing plan so you can finish your manuscript in 3 months!

Still, some entrepreneurs do not have the time. They have the intention, but they still have so many other things to manage. In that case, Jyotsna would recommend going with an angel writer. An angel writer will interview you on your subject and do the writing for you. They ask you questions based on your book’s outline, and you, as the expert in your subject, can speak at length about your topic. The angel writer would then take what you’ve said and write it. These are the two options that Jyotsna would give to an entrepreneur who wants to leverage their expertise as a published author!

Jess wants to know how angel writing is different from ghostwriting?

Jyotsna asks us to imagine it this way: you have a fantastic story, and a Hollywood producer wants to turn your story into a movie. Would you take the risk of writing, directing, casting, acting? You would not do all of that right? Your job is to provide the story which is the crux of the movie. All the other things are handled by other professionals. It’s still your story, but other professionals are doing what they’re good at. 

Jyotsna also reminds us that if an entrepreneur happens to be a great writer, they should absolutely try writing the book themselves. However, if you’re not able to get the results you’re looking for, you should hire an angel writer.

Typically, a ghostwriter client gives a topic and vanishes. A ghostwriter is expected to do all the research and put together a draft without any collaboration. An angel writer does not put their thoughts and ideas into the book. They ask you the right questions to extract information from your head into writing. They ensure that your voice and tonality is maintained. An angel writer is excellent at asking questions and excellent at writing without losing the voice of the author. They pay close attention to the way the author speaks and will ask for writing references, so they know what kind of voice the author uses.

Jess points out that people might not know how many successful authors work with a team!  So many top-level, very well-known experts, use a team to write their content. Jyotsna has an incredible team. She mentors and trains her team to deliver an excellent quality of service to her clients.

She admits that she made all the mistakes of working with freelancers. Jyotsna soon realized that her team is the biggest strength in her company. She invests a lot of time in picking the right team members and training them. 

Jyotsna does not look at her business as a publishing agency. They specialize in business and self-help books because these are the genres that entrepreneurs are interested in writing. She helps entrepreneurs grow their businesses and amplify their message as authors! Not only does Jyotsna’s team offer these services, but they coach their clients on how to use that book to grow their business.

Jess wants to know, how does Jyotsna help her clients become bestsellers?

Jyotsna predominantly works with first-time authors. She explains that if you’re a first-time author and you’re using a book to grow your business, the Amazon best-selling chart is where you should be focusing. Becoming an Amazon bestseller will help you gain credibility with your audience. Her team understands the Amazon algorithm very well, and getting you on that chart will help you create visibility, traction, and momentum. 

Her team is able to monitor what category your book is in, and make sure it’s in the right category. Jyotsna makes sure that her client’s books reach the #1 position. Even if it’s only #1 for a few days, you can always call yourself a bestselling author. This has a huge impact on the minds of someone visiting your website. If you’re on a stage as a speaker and you are introduced as a bestselling author, it gives a completely different impact. 

You can connect with Jyotsna at her website happyselfpublishing.com/apply or you can join her free bootcamp at happyselfpublishing.com/tribe!