Everything I thought I knew about getting a book published turned out to be wrong. The audiobook goes live today, 10 months after Profit Generating Pipeline landed on the USA Today bestseller list. It was all a heck of a lot more work then I bargained for!

Most of what I thought I knew about publishing came from books about books and, if I’m being honest, Hallmark movies. I thought you shopped your manuscript to the big publishing houses, got a deal, and got a big five-figure advance check just for writing it. None of that turned out to be true.

Here's what Hallmark never told me, If you sign with a big publishing house, you are selling your book to them which means they own the intellectual property. That was an instant dealbreaker.

I went with a hybrid publisher instead. A hybrid publisher is a paid partner who runs your publishing process like a project manager, handling editing, production, and distribution, while you keep ownership of your own work.

The 3rd publishing option, self-publishing, is how the vast majority of books get published (like nearly 90% in 2025). It’s also, by far, the best option if your goal is revenue. My goal was credibility and a lead funnel for my business, so hybrid made sense for me, but - my word - was it expensive.

The money side of this shocked me more than almost anything else about the whole process. I paid a writing coach for 9 months before I ever shipped a manuscript to my publisher. Then I paid the publisher. Then book signings, ad spend, marketing, and eventually the audiobook, all out of my own pocket.

It reminded me just how inaccessible the traditional publishing world remains from a financial perspective on top of knowing that only 30% of traditionally published non-fiction books come from women authors.

Frankly after all of the money and emotional rollercoaster of publishing, I wasn’t ready to jump right into the recording studio. I knew I wanted to record an audio book and I knew y’all were waiting for me, but I needed a small break first.

When I found myself in BAM Studios in Chicago in May, a studio that's worked with people like Will Ferrell, Oprah Winfrey, and Henry Cavill, I was brimming with excitement.

It took a full week in the booth to finish and those were LONG days - my word!

After making my final round of edits last July, I felt like I never wanted to read my own book again. This process taught me editing is NOT a gift I have and that a competent editor (which was hard to find & worth paying for) is critical to the outcome.

Being in studio and reading the book cover to cover felt ….it felt cathartic. Yet another moment of - holy smokes I am really doing the damn thing.

The audiobook goes live today on Spotify and Audible.

I hope you’ll check it out and please consider leaving a review if you like what you hear!