Get free training to help you Write, Publish & Launch your inspirational book at IBW University
Services
Inspirational Book Writers offers 4 distinct services to help you plan, then write, publish and launch your inspirational non-fiction book.
Can’t decide? Schedule a chat and we can help you determine which program is best for you. | The Book Map Game Plan SessionMap out your entire book in 90 minutes, saving yourself potentially years of false starts. $995 AUD$375/m x 3 months Find out more | The Online Book Writing IntensiveA virtual retreat to write your inspirational, best-selling book in a week From $1495 AUD$550/m x 3 months Find out more | Publish + | The Audiobook ProgramAt home or in studio, record your audiobook and go live on Audible and 50+ retailers $2995 AUD$1100/m for 3 months Find out more |
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Inspirational Book Writers do?
IBW helps coaches, speakers, experts, and entrepreneurs to write, publish and launch an inspirational, best-selling, non-fiction book that will help you accelerate your personal and business evolution.
Founded in 2014 by 7-time best-selling author and coach Dave Thompson, we have gone on to publish over 200 titles, including more than 180 Amazon Best Sellers and several International Best-Sellers.
Inspirational Book Writers (IBW) is an independent, Modern Hybrid Publisher.
This means we bring together the best of traditional publishing, and the best of self-publishing. Traditional publishing is great because you get a high quality product, but it’s tough to get a publishing deal unless you already have a big following (like 50k subscribers +). Traditional publishers do it this way, because you are a profit centre for them – unless they can make profit off you and your book sales, they are not interested. On top of that, traditional publishers will take the majority of your royalties. You might end up with $2 from the sale of a $20 book.
Plus, it can take 18-36 months to complete the process, and your writing often get heavily edited, altering your natural voice. For the majority of coaches, experts, speakers and entrepreneurs who value freedom and independence, the traditional publishing model doesn’t make sense because it means giving up too much control (if you can get a deal at all).
On the other side of the industry, self publishing can be great because it is fast to market – you can get a book live in weeks, not years. You keep 100% of the royalties, and you get 100% of the creative control, and you retain 100% ownership of the copyright. However, it can be difficult if you don’t have an established team of experts to guide you through the complex publishing process.
Finding quality editors, formatters and cover design team can be a bit hit or miss as well, and can take your time, your energy and your focus to project manage the book production process. Our internal company checklist has 180 tasks that need to be completed for every book. Some steps are more complex than others, but if you did it yourself, you would have to find out what the steps are, then learn how to take each step! The backend details of publishing a book often stop a lot of people in their tracks, meaning some great books with great messages never see the light of day.
Does IBW work with just anyone?
No, we don’t just work with anyone.
We invest huge amounts of heart and soul and passion into each of the client’s books that we work with. Accordingly, we have to make sure that we are a great fit to work together.
Our best clients tend to have:
- Known deep down they need to write a book for a while now
- A passionate desire to get their great ideas out of their head and into a book
- Really care about their clients and get outstanding results for them
- Are committed to trusting the process and taking action to make the book happen
- Have realistic expectations about what is possible with their book
- Want to accelerate their personal and business evolution through the book
When you schedule a chat with us about your book idea, we are looking to see if we are a great fit on the above criteria. We have a solution for a very specific type of person, and we want you to win, so if we can’t help you, we will tell you, and do our best to point you in the right direction.
Can you really write a book in a week?
We get this question a lot – and YES – you absolutely can write your book in a week. Most people struggle to get their book done for 2 reasons – firstly, they don’t have a clear plan, and end up wasting time on things that don’t matter. And secondly, their day-to-day life is so busy, they are constantly fighting to create distraction free time to execute on the book.
That’s why we created the IBW Online Book Writing Accelerator. It is amazing what can happen to your productivity and creativity when you dedicate your time and focus, in a completely supported environment that has been custom built for book writing success.
Several of our clients have written 2 books in a week, and one client is attempting 5 books in a week at an upcoming retreat.
One of the best pieces of feedback that we regularly receive, is clients who get to the end of the event, and comment about how EASY the book just flowed out of them. Sure, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, but our process takes out a huge percentage of the pain points of writing a book.
Can you publish in foreign languages?
No, not at this stage, sorry about that.
Do you do fiction and/or children’s books?
If your book is a business parable, or written for older children and is educational in nature, we may be able to help you, depending on the specifics of your project. Click here to schedule a chat.
Is IBW self-publishing?
No. We are a Modern Hybrid Publisher.
What this means, is that we take the best advantages of traditional publishing and self-publishing – and combine them to offer you the best of both worlds.
Self-publishing is great because it is fast to market, you retain 100% of the royalties, and you have full creative control. However, self-publishing has a bad name for producing low quality, tacky products.
Traditional publishing is great because of the high quality, premium product it produces. However, it is known for being almost impossible to get a book deal, being very slow (18 months +++), sencoring your content and taking all the profits.
IBW brings together the best of both worlds to offer you a high-quality, premium product, delivered to market fast, while you maintain full creative control, full ownership and copyright, and you keep 100% of the royalties.
We think this is the way publishing should be.
Who is the publisher?
The Publisher is Inspirational Book Writers. This is the official imprint for all Inspirational Book Writer’s books.
How do the royalties work?
Keep in mind that this means you will receive 100% of whatever Amazon (or the other printing platforms) sends you.
Practically speaking, what that means is for ebooks listed between $3.99-11.99AUD, Amazon will give you 70% of the RRP. On a physical book, after printing and listing costs, Amazon will send you approx. 50% of the RRP.
Pricing Strategy is an module that we take all our clients through, so rest assured we help you navigate this space, because each platform can have it’s own peculiar rules.
Why doesn’t IBW take royalties?
Most of our clients are using their book to create new opportunities and do more business. When one client does $100k launch, and the next client signs up 2 years worth of speaking gigs at $15,000 per gig, it would just be too difficult to determine our fee if we worked off percentages. That’s why we do fee-for-service, and then all the profits from the book are yours to enjoy.
Can you get my book into bookstores?
When we upload your books, they get listed in ISBN databases around the world that can be accessed by bookshops. So if, for example, someone went into a bookstore with your ISBN, the bookstore would be able to order it in for them. In addition, you will find about 6-8 weeks after publishing that your book has been listed on the online stores of many major physical book retailers. For example, my book, Inspirational Book Writing, is listed on the Dymocks online store.
I know there is a certain allure to having your book on the shelf in a chain bookstore, but to get to that point honestly takes a lot of effort, and the royalties are super small (like $2 on a $20 book). If you do really want to go down that route, we can point you in the right direction, but it is not one we advise.
One avenue where our clients have had a lot of success, is getting their books into local, independent (and chain retailers for that matter) book stores. For one, the royalties are usually much better (more like 40% compared to 10% if that with chain retailers) and independent local book stores are usually VERY happy to support local authors. Often they will operate on a consignment basis, meaning they stock your book, and if it sells, they send you the cheque, and if it doesn’t, they return your books. If you are looking to create the micro-celebrity factor in the local area that you service, this can be a great strategy.
Most of our authors have set up this arrangement by literally walking into the store, saying they are a local author, and speaking with the owner.
Can I order personal author copies of my book? How does that work?
We like this approach, because all our clients have different requirements for having physical books. Some hardly ever order physical copies, preferring to direct customers to the online listings, and have Amazon completely handle the order and then post you the cheque at the end of the month. While other clients run big seminar-type events, and are printing 500+++ books at a time, getting them shipped directly to the venue where they are speaking or running an event.
For your average sized book, you can expect $6-9AUD/copy including shipping. Regular shipping takes 1-2 weeks, though many of our clients have received their books in as little as 4 days from time of order placement. If you are in a rush, there is an express shipping option (which does cost a bit more) but will guarantee you receive your books in less than a week.
How many pages/words should my book be?
We think 20-30k is a great size book, because it is easily consumed by a reader on an interstate flight (1-3 hours). People are becoming increasingly busy in these modern times, and it’s really only the deeply passionate readers that are reading 600 page books. One of the greatest compliments our clients regularly receive, is from people who write to them and say they read the client’s book from start to finish in one sitting. This is a great outcome, because it means the book was engaging, and the reader really consumed the message.
The main guiding principle is something I say to every client just starting out – say what needs to be said to get your message across, not more, and not less.
Who will I be working with?
For the magic touch, the powerful insights, and the best-seller marketing strategy, Dave will facilitate these through online group and 1:1 sessions (depending on the program you are in).
For the day-to-day progress check-ins and anything related to publishing, you will be connecting with our Publishing Manager, Davina Davidson.
How many books do I need to sell to make my money back?
The BIG ROI from a book, comes from the opportunities that open up afterwards – speaking gigs, contracts, new business, new opportunities, program sales, new prospects – these can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. We regularly have clients who do 100k or more and many who notice the lifetime value of the credibility that comes from a book.
How can I monetize my book?
How do I use my book to build authority and credibility?
Our clients often report that their book is like the golden handshake that gets them rubbing shoulders with celebrities and industry leaders.
What successes have your books had?
We are super proud of the books we have published so far. To check them out, click here.
About 90% of clients become Amazon Best Sellers in multiple categories, and recently we have had several clients become International Best Sellers, going #1 in multiple categories in multiple markets.
Some of biggest successes are Em Campbell-Pretty’s book Tribal Unity, which is renowned as a leading text in the SAFe Agile space with over 7,000 copies sold and huge amounts of business down off the back of the book.
Dane Tomas did a 1000 copies on opening weekend for Clear Your Shit, and then sold out his practitioner training 6 months in advance to the tune of $100k in additional business.
Heidi Dening used her book to massively uplevel her speaking profile, gain international speaking invitations and rub shoulders with celebrities.
You can read more of our Author Success Stories here.