Leading to Change - Lessons I learned about self-publishing
In a few short days, I’ll be self-publishing my first book, Leading to Change. In this edition of my newsletter, I’ll share with you some of the lessons I’ve learned about writing a book and self-publishing.
Three years after I began writing my first book, I’m finally ready to publish. I’ve learned SO many lessons about writing and self-publishing a book and about myself through this process. Today, I’ll share some of the lessons I’ve learned along my journey.
Editing your own book
The first lesson I learned was that writing the book was not the hard part of the journey; in fact, writing was the easiest part for me. I had most of the writing done within about six months. Editing, as it turned out, was the most challenging part for me. As I wrote in my newsletter about the challenges of editing your own book, I wanted to do my own editing. However, each time I sat down to edit my book, I ended up doing substantial rewrites, which required more editing, which led to more rewrites.
While I feel the process of rewriting made the book better, I also know I would never have “finished” the book if I had continued along that path. So I sent the manuscript to an editor, which helped a lot but was expensive. And, despite being professionally edited, I still needed to go through and do some very light proofreading.
Lessons I learned:
It’s OK to pay for services to help get your book ready to publish.
I learned to rely on the Read Aloud feature in Word. This helped me catch many issues that would have slipped by me otherwise.
Formatting your paperback (and hardcover)
Getting your book set up to be read on a kindle is a breeze. Just keep your formatting super basic and upload your Word file. Done.
However, getting your formatting set up for your printed books is not as easy. There are all kinds of things that I didn’t expect to run into. Perhaps the most annoying one was the spacing in the center of the book. My first few proofs had the text going so close to the center of the spine you had to really bend the book open to read it easily. And then, I finally added a bit of space, which threw off the page count, which impacted the cover.
Also, I went through every single page numerous times to make sure the top of the pages all lined up. What a pain. And, since I didn’t use page breaks very often at all, adjusting the spacing to ensure the top of the pages lined up meant I had to check every subsequent page.
Eventually, I got the paperback version finalized… but then I got a brilliant and stupid idea. “I want to create a hardcover edition too!” What a mistake. Hardcover manuscripts need some very specific settings, which are also applicable to paperbacks too! Had I started by formatting for a hardcover, I would have saved myself a ton of work.
One last item to mention; Word has a 2-page view I tried to use to ensure the top of my pages lined up. This is kind of tricky to explain. The 2-page view shows pages 1 and 2 side by side. However, this is not how a book will actually print! In a book, page 1 will be the first page, with nothing to the left of it. When you turn the first page, the second and third pages will be side by side. Therefore, Word’s 2-page layout was ineffective for viewing how the printed book would appear.
The last step in uploading your hard copy manuscript is to convert your Word file to a PDF. If you don’t upload a PDF to Amazon’s KDP service, KDP will reflow your text, skewing page numbers and generally mess things up.
Lessons I learned:
To check the formatting on your Kindle version, use the View -> Web Layout feature in Word.
Use page breaks at the start of new chapters to eliminate having to review the entire book for spacing issues when changes are made.
Surprisingly, Apple’s PDF Previewer was smart enough to show page 1 by itself and grouped pages 2 and 3, then 4 and 5. So with Apple Preview, you can peruse the PDF exactly like a printed copy of your book.
Had I known what I was doing, I would have started off formatting for the hardcover version, as specific gutters have to be set up. Then, presumably, I could have used the same file for the paperback and hardcover. Now I have three different files to manage (Kindle, paperback, and hardcover).
Selecting the size of your book
I’ve gotten used to reading on my Kindle, where I can adjust the text size on the fly. When I have to read a physical book, I sometimes get annoyed by the small fonts.
So, I wanted to produce my book with a large font size, like size 14. And, while I knew a 6X9 inch book was considered standard for my genre (non-fiction), I decided I wanted to create a larger book to ensure my font size was easily visible to people.
As a result, I converted my paperback manuscript from 6X9 to an 8x10 layout, which was a reasonable amount of work. Unfortunately, it also meant I had to revamp the cover, designed initially as a 6X9.
When I received my 8X10 proof, I immediately knew I had made the wrong decision. It felt like I had a college textbook in my hands, and the experience of reading, handling, and transporting my book didn’t feel right.
I then had to switch back to a 6X9 layout, which meant reformatting the manuscript and going back to the cover designer and letting them know I had changed my mind.
Lessons I learned:
You can still use size 14 fonts in a 6X9 book. Yes, it makes the page count longer (which increases the book's production cost), but a longer page count gives a book a heftier, more substantial feeling in your hands.
Make sure you know what size book you want to produce and do not change your mind mid-process.
Marketing
Creating the marketing plan for Leading to Change has been a slow roll. A bit of advice I read in numerous places was that to sell a book, you need to have an audience ahead of time. And I don’t have that. So I did start this newsletter, but truthfully, I’ve always been pretty intermittent about publishing content regularly.
And I’ve even been reluctant about doing basic things like posting on LinkedIn. In part, my reluctance to self-promote is because I’m nervous about how my book will be received. And aside from LinkedIn, I don’t use a lot of other social media platforms.
I might run some Amazon ads, which leads to the next unexpected lesson I learned about self-publishing.
Lessons I learned:
If you can, set up your digital presence well ahead of your publication date.
By all accounts, having a mailing list is the most important way to keep in direct contact with your audience.
The cost of self-publishing
So far, I have spent about $2,000 to get my book ready to be published. I’ll do a detailed breakdown in another newsletter soon. That being said, I expect to make about $1.50 per copy of my book sold, which means I would need to sell about 1,300 copies to break even.
All of my research leads me to believe that most self-published authors are lucky to sell 500+ copies.
Fortunately, I’m not interested in turning a profit on this book. For me, it was a journey and a bit of an experiment. I have considered this my hobby for the last few years, and if you think about it, $2,000 for a hobby that occupies you for a few years and helps you grow is a pretty reasonable price to pay.
Wrapping things up
With the publication date coming up next week, I’m excited to finish this phase of my writing journey. I’m going to put together a couple more blog posts about my book-writing and self-publishing adventure in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
Leading to Change - The challenges of editing your own book
Stuck in an unproductive self-editing cycle, I realized that if I were going to self-publish Leading to Change I would need to get some help. But finding an editor turned out to be harder than I thought…
This article contains an associate link to a book I purchased and read on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
“I can edit my manuscript myself, sure, no problem!” I thought. And then I got stuck in an awful cycle. Sitting down to edit, I would end up doing extensive rewrites. Then I would edit the rewrites, only to start rewriting some more, which required more editing.
Five months into attempting to self-edit my manuscript, I was getting nowhere, and my book was no closer to being “done.”
When I was self-editing, I started reading Let's Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should (Fourth Edition) (Let's Get Publishing Book 1) by David Gaughran. The book convinced me I needed to hire a professional editor to escape the rut I was stuck in. Even though hiring an editor was going to be expensive, I knew it was a cost that would, in the end, pay off.
David Gaughran suggested a site called Reedsy. Reedsy allows self-publishers like me to find many resources, like cover designers, editors, marketing folks, etc.
I researched a few editors, submitted samples of my manuscript, and waited to hear back.
For those of you who have been following my self-publishing journey, you’ll know I have struggled a lot with deciding to publish. I fear that the book won’t be well-liked or will be perceived as “bad.” Having poured so much of my heart and soul into something that others will provide feedback on makes me feel very vulnerable.
And… what happened next certainly didn’t alleviate my fears about how to book will be received.
Two of the three editors I sent the manuscript to didn’t want to work with me. One said it was too unclear what the book was, and without more clarity, there would be no audience. Now, why someone would turn down editing my book because they didn’t think it would sell struck me as a bit strange. Why would an editor care how my book sells? They’re getting paid to edit. Anyways, the first editor I sent my manuscript to bowed out.
The second person I sent my manuscript to was nicer and gave me some helpful feedback. He suggested I make the chapter titles a little better, which was great advice since chapter titles had been a bit of an afterthought. He gave me a price way out of my budget, stating that much work was needed to get my book ready to publish.
I couldn’t believe what these two editors seemed to think of my book.
On the rollercoaster-like emotional ride writing my book has taken me on, this was a low point.
And then, the third editor I had reached out to got back to me.
“Your book concept and synopsis are intriguing, and your sample was also immediately engaging. You can certainly write!”
And with a few kind words, an excellent, collaborative relationship began.
The copy editing is now officially complete, and as I peruse the new version of my book, I am stunned at how well it reads. The result was worth every penny of the $1,100 it cost to have an editor help me out.
A huge thank you to Influunt Publishing. I look forward to working with them when I write my next book!
So with the book edited and the cover design in progress, I’m getting ready to pick a publishing date—more about that next time.
Please reach out if you have any thoughts or feedback to share. You can contact me by clicking here.
Leading to Change - Getting a cover designed
We’ve all heard the adage, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” right? However, a book’s cover is the first thing we see, the one thing that makes us decide to read the book’s description. So we do judge books by their cover.
That’s why it was so important to me to get a fantastic cover designed for Leading to Change. In this article, I share several covers I’ve had designed and ask for your feedback on which I should pick!
This article contains an associate link to a book I purchased and read on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Here in Los Angeles, I volunteer quite a bit. Volunteering is such a great way to meet people and contribute to a vibrant community.
One of the volunteer groups I am a member of is the Los Angeles Yacht Amateur Radio Club. And it was at a monthly Radio Club meeting that I made a new friend, David Calloway. I liked David right away. He was outgoing, articulate, friendly, and welcoming. David was also working on writing a book, just like I was!
In the following months, I looked forward to exchanging stories with him at our monthly meeting. “How’s the writing going?” I would ask. “How do you plan to publish your book?” I prodded. Always patient, David answered every question I ever asked him about his self-publishing journey.
And then one day at our meeting, David shared with me the cover of his new book.
I WAS BLOWN AWAY!
The book cover was one of the best I had ever seen; you can see it below.
I asked David who designed his cover. He was kind enough to provide me with contact information for his cover designer, Susan, who turned out to be a neighbor!
Susan and I talked via phone.
“Tell me a bit about what you’re hoping for?” Susan asked.
“Well, it’s a book about change, uncertainty, ambiguity, volatility, complexity… so I’m looking for something that encapsulates all that. Also, since I’ll be publishing on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Platform (KDP), I want to make sure the cover has a lot of contrast because I want it to look good on a black and white e-ink screen.”
I provided Susan with examples of other books that shared a similar theme and relayed some things I knew about how the human mind perceives uncertainty. Things like slants, triangles, etc.
A few days later, she sent me some sample covers.
Honestly, none of the designs struck me right away. A common problem I have is wanting something to be “the same.” I was looking for a design like David’s. But, of course, my book is nothing like David’s. Leading to Change has a very different message and needs a cover that resonates with a different crowd. So, I decided not to reply to Susan immediately, instead testing the various covers on my Kindle to see how they looked. Then, I slept on it.
Overnight, the designs began to resonate with me… I have a favorite, but before I share which one, I like best, I wanted to ask for your feedback. Do any stand out to you?
Getting back to David Calloway’s book, If Someday Comes: A Slave’s Story of Freedom, it’s excellent. I liked it so much that I bought the Kindle version and two paperback copies. At a recent neighborhood community meeting here in LA, David performed a book reading and autographed copies for folks. I mailed a copy to my mom and kept one for myself.
That’s how the cover design process began, by networking at a volunteer event, by meeting people who are on a similar journey, or who share a common interest.
But the story of my book’s cover isn’t done yet. You can chime in and let me know which design you liked best and provide suggestions. Please reach out by visiting my Contact page. I look forward to hearing from you.
Oh, and one last thing! I plan to start a newsletter about change and leadership called Perspectives. Please sign up for my mailing list, by visiting my newsletter page.
Announcing Leading to Change
I’m getting ready to launch my first book: Leading to Change: Lessons for helping people navigate times of complexity, ambiguity, uncertainty, and change. In this article, I share my long journey to publication.
This article contains an associate link to a book I purchased and read on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
We were on a road trip from our home in Los Angeles to pick up our new kitten in Sacramento. Along the way, we stopped at the Tamarack Lodge in Mammoth Lakes for a couple of nights. The lodge was very isolated, and I remembered all of those books I used to read about a plague that ended the world. In such stories, one person always had been in the snowy mountains only to discover civilization had disappeared upon returning to the nearest city. That was the foreboding sense of the future developing in my mind as we watched events unfold on the news from our wintery cabin in the middle of nowhere. COVID-19 was about to change everything.
Upon returning to Los Angeles with our new kitten, Adi, we received a work-from-home order. The order meant I no longer had to wake up at 5:00 am and catch a bus to my office. So, every morning, during the time I would have spent commuting, I wrote instead.
What started as a reflection of my career grew longer, and eventually, I recognized a theme flowing throughout my writings that reflected my current situation: change.
“Maybe the lessons I’ve learned about change can help people,” I thought. “I’m going to self-publish this as a book.”
So, that’s how Leading to Change started. It’s been a long journey… most of the writing was done by early 2021. I sat on the manuscript, unsure if I should publish or not. I had poured my heart and soul into writing this book. “What if no one buys it?” I thought. “What if it gets bad reviews….” I ruminated. “What if it’s too personal?”
Through talking with my partner, David, I decided I did want to proceed with publication. So I bought a book on self-publishing, Let's Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should (Fourth Edition) (Let's Get Publishing Book 1) by David Gaughran.
Let’s Get Digital told me everything I needed to do to publish and sell copies of Leading to Change. Some of these things were easy; they just required paying someone; an editor, a cover designer, etc.
Gaughran also says you will need a social media following, including a Facebook page, a mailing list, a website, and a Twitter account. He proposes you need to build an audience before publication to see any long-term success.
I’m aiming for a publication date of early April 2023, though I have heard some advice from various self-publishing podcasts that non-fiction books don’t do very well leading up to and throughout the summer. So I may wait until September. We’ll see.
So that’s where I am right now; building my brand. I’ve got some content written for my newsletter. The newsletter is called Perspectives. If you sign up for my mailing list, you can be the first to get valuable information about leadership and change and updates on Leading to Change.
Please sign up for Perspectives
I’m preparing to launch Prespectives, my weekly newsletter about all things change and leadership! You can sign up by clicking here.