8 Years Of WBR, How To Beat The January Blues, And 6 Questions To Decide The Best Publishing Route For Your Business Book

A message from our founder...

This is a very popular time of year for company founders to be seeking investment and for investors to be releasing the last of their budgets for the fiscal year to invest in exciting new ventures and opportunities. Looking at how AI has disrupted the worlds of both content and publishing over the last 12 months, I wonder what this means for the sector in 2024. Will we be seeing more tech products designed to cut content creation time? And will that thinking make its way into the world of book production as business book authors continue to seek time-, cost- and energy-effective ways of sharing what they know? - Georgia Kirke

This month at WBR

This January marks 8 years since WBR was born! Since then, we’ve published well over 100 books and worked with even more entrepreneurs to create incredible content and build their personal brands. In fact, since January 2022, 100% of books we’ve launched have become an Amazon #1 Best Seller. Read more about the chance encounter that led to WBR here.

Our Values

WBR has 5 values at its core: Reliability, Brilliance, Ease, Positivity, and Quality.?

We show up with professionalism and punctuality, we harness our unique abilities to deliver content that shines, we focus on streamlining activities, we approach challenges with a positive attitude, and we treat our client’s content as if it was our own.

To ensure we’re constantly embodying these values day in, day out, we talk about them weekly. These values are a part of the everyday language used at WBR, and every month we have a chance to ‘shout out’ team members who have displayed one or more of these values.

What are your company values? How can you ensure they’re more than just words on a page, and that your team lives and breathes them everyday?

Beating the January blues

There’s a bit of a misleading narrative that the third Monday of January (this year the 15th) is the most depressing day of the year, earning it the title ‘Blue Monday’. Since its conception in 2005, the term ‘Blue Monday’ has been revealed to have been a marketing scheme created by travel company Sky Travel as a bid to encourage holidays in their least profitable month!

However, it is widely agreed that January is the most depressing month of the year. So if you’re feeling the January blues this year, know that you’re not alone! Small amounts of progress are better than no progress at all. There’s a great article here about 8 simple habits you can adopt to make January a little brighter.

Choosing your publishing route

Self-publishing, traditional publishing, or hybrid/professional publishing - which is right for you and your business book?

Here are 6 questions you can ask yourself if you're struggling to decide:

1. What are your publishing goals?

2. How much control do you want over the publishing process?

3. What is your budget for publishing and marketing your book?

4. What distribution channels are important for you?

5. How much editorial support do you need?

6. Are you interested in retaining the rights for your book?

For more on this, including the need-to-know when it comes to all the legal bits and the pros and cons of each model, check out our full blog here.

ChatGPT and tea bags

Did you know that tea bags were invented completely unintentionally?

In 1908, Thomas Sullivan, a tea merchant in New York, wanted to attract new customers. He came up with a genius idea: he'd send out free samples of his tea leaves.

But how to package them?

Thomas decided to package the free samples in small silken bags.

To his surprise, he received a flood of letters congratulating him on his genius idea. Whilst Thomas had presumed people would use his samples as intended - removing the tea leaves from the silken bag and making a cup of tea the traditional way - people had simply put the bags in hot water and let the tea infuse.

Smelling an opportunity brewing, Thomas refined the bag's design and thus the tea bag we recognise today was born.

Over a Century later, OpenAI found themselves in a similar position when they released a blog post announcing an experimental chatbot, GPT3.5.

The meteoric success of this experimental chatbot could not have been predicted. Within two months, the service had over 100 million monthly users. And over a year later, OpenAI is now valued at $29 billion.?

The scientists were shocked. There hadn't been any major breakthroughs and no new technology was used. The only obvious difference that defined their sudden success was that, this time, their work and ideas had been made accessible to the public.?

The lesson? Sometimes, it can be hard to see the full potential in something until you share your idea with others.

Which of your ideas, services, or innovations might have a similar hidden potential? How could you share them with the world and make them a commercial asset?

Read our full blog by Assistant Editor Chris Acheson to find out more, or book a free clarity call to see how we can help.

Click here to access a free 5-step audit of your book, blog or podcast idea, Understand the business case and receive a written plan.