Love, Legacy and Preparation

The dark side of what I do as a book coach and publisher is to prepare authors for what happens after they turn the last page of their journey. I have an author in my group who is grappling with mortality. His symptoms are so similar to my father’s that I’m being triggered. My thoughts are not only of my last days with my father, they are also about the fickle hands of time for us all.

The Infamous September 11 attack in 2001 killed over 2,750 people in New York alone. It was a time of introspection for everyone who witnessed or read about the horror of the day. A few days after September 11, I was facilitating a Sunday school small group for nine to twelve-year-olds and I realised some of the ripple effects of this tragedy.

A child asked me if the terrorist attack was a sign that it was the end of the world. Dumbfounded and overwhelmed by the spiritual responsibility of my role, I asked my minister how I should answer these questions. He told me that although we did not know when the end of the world would be, we could live our lives to prepare for the end. The answer was simple. The end comes for us all.

We don’t know what that final chapter will look like for us. In Malaysia, a study revealed that there were 5,230 road accident fatalities in the same year as the American Twin Towers disaster. In 2001, the United States had 416,425 reported deaths. Heart disease and cancer accounted for almost half of those deaths. While medicine may be catching up to what we read in SCI FI novels, as yet, we cannot live forever.

For my father, the end came as multiple organ failure. But I learned something significant about him after his death. He was prepared for this day. As I sat with my mother, she pulled out a folder with his policy information. She knew exactly where to find them. Those sheets of paper could not bring my father back to us, but they pointed us in the direction we should go. They provided access to income for my mother. His preparation was an act of love for her.

As I write this, I am facing the terrible reality that my author has not prepared his book legacy for this season. This gentle and kind man’s book is only half published on Amazon. He chose to DIY and tapped into my guidance when he needed it. A few things, such as his ISBN number and the final cover dimensions, needed to be finalized. Although Amazon provides a free ISBN, it has some distribution limitations and so I obtained the ISBN for him. However, he was hospitalized before we could complete the publishing process. I can not finalise the loading of the book for him, as he has to send me an OTP to log into the account.

His family can and should benefit from the royalties of the books. But…

📙Do they know the login details?

📙Do they know how to manage promotions?

📙Do they know I exist so they can seek help?

I can not invade their space, but I have the nagging prod of urgency to finish the work we started.

If you are an author waiting to publish, I implore you to finish what you started. Don’t leave the earth with unfinished business.

Here are some steps that you should take as an author to prepare your family:

📙In your estate documents, list your KDP login details and the process to access OTPs.

📙Prepare documentation for the account transfer.

📙Death certificate

📙One of the following court-issued letters indicating that you own the rights to the account:

📙Estate Owner

📙Next Executor

📙Next of kin

📙Will

📙Prepare beneficiaries to open their KDP account.

Once your loved ones have everything in place, they will have to contact KDP. The team can help you close, merge, or take ownership of the account.

My father gave us a gift when he prepared for the end for us. It was a small but powerful testimony to his kindness. He could not take away the pain of his loss, but he could take the messiness of wrapping things up.

Last week I shared with my daughter how to run cross-promotions for my book business. There is a video and a document with screenshots outlining the process. Without book promotions, books don’t sell. While this may not be a journey she welcomes, it is a crucial part of my legacy for my family. To know that I loved them enough to face my mortality and prepare for them.

Your story matters. It is your legacy. Now do the work to make sure it endures.