What's REALLY Working in Publishing RIGHT NOW!

Thinking of publishing a book in 2025 but feeling overwhelmed by all the options, advice, and outdated strategies? In this power-packed episode of The Tarryn Reeves Show, I pull back the curtain and reveal what’s REALLY working in book publishing right now — and what’s absolutely not.

Whether you're a first-time author or a seasoned entrepreneur looking to leverage your story for more visibility, credibility, and leads — this episode is your no-fluff, all-strategy guide.

We’ll dive into:
 ✅ The best ways to publish a book in 2025 (traditional, self, hybrid — what’s worth it?)
 ✅ How to choose a profitable and aligned book idea
 ✅ What to avoid if you want your book to actually build your brand
✅ The smartest marketing strategies that get real results
✅ How top entrepreneurs are using books as lead magnets, launch tools, and authority assets

This isn’t just a guide — it’s your 2025 publishing playbook.
 If you’ve got a book idea on your heart, tune in and take notes.

🎧 Let’s turn your story into a legacy-building business move.

Connect with Tarryn:

• Website
• Instagram
• YouTube

Transcript

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Welcome to the Tarryn Reeves Show, the podcast for elite entrepreneurs, visionary leaders, and high impact CEOs who are ready to grow their brand, amplify their message, and build a legacy. I'm your host, Tarryn Reeves, multiple international bestselling author, publishing strategist and founder of Automatic Authority Publishing and Press House. Each week we dive into powerful conversations with trailblazing entrepreneurs and change makers who are using storytelling. To scale their business and impact. So grab your favorite drink, settle in, and get ready for a dose of inspiration, strategy, and the truth behind what it really takes to turn your wisdom into wealth. Welcome back, lovely Humans to the Tarryn Reeves Show. Today's episode is for every entrepreneur, change maker and thought leader who said thought, Hmm, I want to write a book, but I have no idea where to start. Or maybe you've already started and now you're knee deep in Google tabs. Wondering what the heck an ISBN is or why you need what feels like five rounds of editing. Now, trust me, I've been there and I've guided hundreds of authors through it. So today I'm walking you through the complete, no fluff 2025 friendly guide to publishing your book. What's changed? What works, what to watch out for, and how to do it in a way that actually grows your business and builds your legacy. Grab a cup of whatever your favorite is because we're diving right in. So let's start here. Why publish a book in 2025? Look, we are living in a world of ten second videos. AI generated everything and content overload. So why write a book? Here's the truth. Books cut through noise in a way that reels and curses just can't. A book builds trust. It positions you as an expert. It creates depth, connection, and authority like nothing else. People read your book and go, oh wow, she or he gets me. I need to work with them. It's not just about the story, it's about the strategy behind the story. And in 2025, a book is your business card, your sales funnel, your media magnet, and your legacy all in one. Now, not all book ideas are created equal. So before you start typing up an 80,000 words over a bottle of red wine, we need to talk about the idea because this is where so many authors go wrong. They write what they want to say, not what their audience needs to hear. Here's a better way to approach it. You want to ask yourself three crucial questions. The first question is, what transformation am I offering? Think, think of it like what's the journey your reader goes on from where they are to where they want to be. The second question, how does this book connect to your business? Does it lead into your offer, your program, your product? And the third is. There a demand for this topic. A quick trick you can do is to hop on Amazon, search your niche, and look at what's selling. This isn't selling out. This is smart marketing. You want your book to be both meaningful and marketable. The next big question that you're going to run into is how should you publish, okay? Because this can feel really overwhelming. So let's talk about the three main publishing options currently available in 2025. So this part trips people up because it can feel like a maze, but I'm going to simplify it as best I can. You've got option one, traditional publishing, option two, self-publishing, and option three is your hybrid publishing. So let's talk about traditional publishing. Think long timelines. One and a half to two years minimum to get your book from through the publication process and into market, you'll likely need an agent to write a proposal and pitch the traditional publishing houses. And these traditional publishers take creative control. And most of the royalties, in fact, the most I've ever seen an author get from a traditional publishing house, and this is my experience, is 15%, one 5% of her sale of their book. But. Traditional publishing does give you prestige. It does give you bookstore access and a big platform if you get picked. Okay. Option two, your self-publishing process. This gives you full control. It's a faster process and obviously better royalties. You are the boss, but you're also the project manager and you will need to invest money in editing cover design, layout. Otherwise, it shows a poor quality book is going to damage your brand, not enhance it. So don't skimp on the things that are absolutely necessary to create a quality book. Then your third option is your hybrid publishing. Like my company, it's a done-for-you model where you get the pros without giving up control. You pay for services essentially, but you keep your rights and your royalties. So like I said, this is what we do inside Automatic Authority Publishing and Press House here. And it's perfect for entrepreneurs who want a powerful brand asset without the overwhelm. So in 2025, the hybrid path is booming because it blends freedom with professionalism. So now we understand how to get our idea and also the publishing pathways available to you. Let's talk mistakes so you don't make them. Basically, I've seen behind the curtain of this industry and I've also had to rescue numerous authors who've been burned by shady publishing companies that delivered pretty much nothing. Nothing worth putting your name on. So let's talk red flags. There's kind of five main red flags that I want you to be aware of. It's writing without knowing who it's for or what it leads to. Choosing a publisher who gives you a cheap PDF and calls it a day, DIYing everything to save money, it actually costs you in authority. Launching without a plan. That's a huge one and covers that scream. I made this in Canada at midnight. You've worked too hard. Come too far to let your message fall flat. Your book deserves to look and feel as powerful as the message inside it, so don't fall into those traps. Let's talk the publishing process step by step so that you can see what the full journey looks like from blank page to publish book. Step one is clarifying your message, not just what you are saying, but why you are saying it and who you're saying it for. You. Then move on to step two, which is the outline, and writing the first draft, and this can take anywhere from 28 days to six months or more. There's no one size fits all, but get it down messy first. I tell my clients to call it the first ad draft because what that allows is for us to park the perfectionism and the overwhelm and the self-critic and to just get it down, let it be messy. Okay? It's a draft. Step three is your editing. And yes, this needs to be done more than once and in my opinion, by different people. So as you've got the best chance to get errors caught, so start with structure, then line edits, and then polish. Please don't skip this. You can do your first edit and then hand it off to a structural editor, followed by a copy editor, followed by a proofreader. Okay. And I'm talking about actual editing professionals, people who have qualifications in editing, because just because your friend majored in English doesn't make them a copy editor. Okay? Step four is cover an interior design. So this is your book's First impression, please go pro here. Always. It's like the shock front. You don't want your toddler painting your top shock front. You want that first impression to look really good. Once you are working on your cover on interior design, you can look at ISBNs distribution and printing. So we typically publish wide, meaning your book is available on Amazon, Ingram, spark and Tival page for Global Reach. You need to be able to put your book on. Well, you don't have to, but I recommend putting your book on at least these three platforms to allow independent bookstores to order your book. Okay? Then step six is your launch. So more on listener sec, but here's the truth. A great launch can literally 10 times your impact, sales and visibility. So publishing is a project, it's a marketing asset, so treat it like one. Okay. This isn't a vanity, fun to do kind of thing. This is serious stuff. So let's talk marketing your book and building your empire. So this is the part people often ignore, but this really is where the magic is. Here's what's working in 2025. Think book funnels, reels and book talk, podcasts and media, email marketing and repurposing your book. So book funnels. Your book really should need to a freebie or a bonus. You want to be able to capture those emails, build trust, and sell your offer. If you want to check out a really good example of how this is done, I've really gone through this in detail in my own book, automatic Authority, which is available on Amazon or my website. Feel free to go grab that and use it as an example. Reels and book top. Yeah, people are buying books from Instagram and TikTok, so lean into that short form storytelling and have fun with it. See what works. TikTok, look at Creator Insights in the search bar. There. You'll find what people are really looking for, what's trending, and you can jump on these and really expand your reach and have a little bit of fun. Podcast and media. You wanna use your book to land interviews, press features, speaking gigs, books, open up doors to opportunities that you probably haven't even dreamt of yet. Email marketing. Your book should be the start of a relationship, not a one off transaction, which is why I say in the beginning, you want your book funnel because you want to be able to capture people's email addresses because they may not be ready to buy whatever it is you are teaching in your book now, but they may be ready to buy further down the line. And when you have really done a good job of sharing what you know and positioning yourself as the authority in your book. And then you have their email address. Well, your book's already done the job of warming them up and letting them trust you. Those emails just further the relationship. And then I mentioned repurposing your book, you, you can use AI for repurposing your book. Please don't use it to write your whole book. I really feel like there is a place for it to help you get through writer's block, but not for writing whole book. You really need that book to contain your soul, your knowledge, and your trademark. Uh. Voice and a chat. GPT just cannot do that yet. So you wanna repurpose your book into a talk, a course, a challenge, a retreat, you name it. This thing is your content marketer for like literally the rest of your business days. It's not just a book, it's a content machine. So let's talk about what's new in 2025. Let's zoom out for a second because publishing isn't static, nothing is, and 2025 really has brought some shift. And here's what I'm seeing. There's the AI assisted writing, which I just mentioned, and it is growing. But like I said, the best books still have your voice and lived wisdom. So use AI sparingly, or to help you overcome writer's V or to do research. Not just spit out a book, slap a cover on it from Canberra and go, Woohoo, I'm a published author. It's not gonna work like that. I'm also seeing that authenticity is the new authority people really want. Real stories. They don't want polished perfection. They want to know who you really are behind the scenes of your business. That's what makes them want to buy. Your name matters more than your title. Personal brand is everything. So with me personally, as an example, I run Automatic Authority Publishing Press House. It has its own socials, it has its own website, it has all the things, but I also have my own brand, Taryn Reeves, where I'm doing this podcast, where I do my speaking gigs, where I have my own books, where I have my own funnels built into my own website. Site my own social media. And what I find is that my personal brand gets so much more traction on pretty much every single platform, even though it's pretty much the same content, just with different branding. Um, my personal brand is everything. My name matters more than the title of my business, and I use my personal brand to drive traffic to the business. And the final most important shift I'm seeing is that keyword research is key. Smart authors are using data to rank high and to sell more. Publishing isn't harder now, it is just smarter. And the best part is that you don't need a huge audience. You just need the right strategy. Okay, so if you want the final thoughts from someone who's helped hundreds of authors and you've been sitting on a book idea, wondering if now's the time. Let me say this clearly. Yes, now is the time, but. Do it with intention, do it with strategy, and do it with support. And if you want help, that's literally why I created The Entrepreneur Academy or any other one of my offerings. We walk you step by step through the writing, publishing, and launch process without that overwhelm. And if you're more of a just do it for me kind of person. Our high touch publishing services might be your vibe. Either way, don't sit on your story for another year. It will never be the perfect right time, it never is. And your book could change someone's life. And it'll change yours too. It'll change your business. So thanks for hanging out with me to discuss everything that's happening so far in 2025 with the publishing world. And I hope it sparks some clarity, momentum, and maybe even a little kick up the ERs to get this done. So if you love this episode, please share it with someone else. Share the love, comment all of the things. Until next time, write it, speak it. The it. Thanks for tuning into the Taryn Reeve Show. If today's episode litter firing you, share it with someone who needs to hear it and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a story that could transform your business. If you're ready to write the book that positions you as the go-to authority in your industry, visit automatic authority.com to find out how we can help you make it happen. Until next time, keep owning your story, leading with impact and building a legacy.