Book Release! And 12 lessons from the other side of self-publishing
Purchase on Amazon
My second book—and my first self-published book—is published and for sale! The print and digital versions of How to Begin Writing Your Life Stories: Putting Memories on the Page are available for readers on Amazon. Libraries and booksellers can find it on Ingram. I will eventually also have the e-book for sale on my website. It’s a compact, lively, eighty-page guide for life story writers and aspiring life story writers, including people whose loved ones are encouraging them to get their stories on the page. Six comprehensive writing prompts at the end of the book lay the groundwork for beginning to write.
One of my goals is to take this book to writing groups and book clubs who might enjoy a friendly introduction to life story writing, either in person or virtually. If you have such a group or club, shoot me an email and we’ll talk.
This month is the one-year anniversary of the book’s inception. I wrote pieces of its content long before that, for my life story writing students, but it was in September 2023 that my collaborator Dorka Hegedus and I decided to turn the one book I’d been writing into two books: this beginner’s guide, followed by a more extensive book on life story and memoir writing that we’ll publish next summer. We made the decision to create two books, and to start with a small one, because as we began to learn about self-publishing we realized how much we had to learn. We wanted our first self-published project to be a manageable one.
Dorka and I share many values and talents (cooking soup, scouting bakeries, making time for coffee), but turning one book into two and practicing on a smaller one first was without question our best joint decision to date. We learned a gazillion things in the process, all of which are helping us make the longer, more involved book with confidence. If you’re curious about self-publishing or knee-deep in doing it yourself, keep reading for some tips and lessons learned.
1. Consider starting small. While anxiety, more than wisdom, impelled us to make a smaller book first, the benefits of starting small continue to reveal themselves, including in the following ways:
A small book is satisfying to hold. I went on a writing retreat near Santa Cruz shortly after Dorka and I decided to make a small book. I stayed in a dreamy pool house with a kitchenette, a desk, and a short bookshelf above the bed where I found Night Running: A Book of Essays about Breaking Through, published by my retreat host. Its 5 x 0.5 x 7.4-inch trim size was so comfortable, so welcoming in my hands, that I sent Dorka a copy. She agreed that holding it felt like a gift. Readers are already saying the same about our little book.
A small book costs less to produce and print, and you can pass that savings along to your reader. I’m thrilled to have an economical book in my offerings.
A small book can help build a series, a bundle, or a brand. My life story writing guide is the first in what will be a series of books and products for life story and memoir writers. Once the second book is published, I will be able to bundle the two books and sell them together. And both books will help me build a brand.
A small book builds energy and confidence. It takes the quickest writer an eternity to get a book to publication. In traditional publishing, a two-year turnaround is standard, and that clock often doesn’t start ticking until the writing is complete. Our eighty-page guide took half that time, and while it was in production I levied the energy from that pending accomplishment to finish the manuscript for my next book.
A small book teaches you about your own rate of production. Sure, you can borrow someone else’s production schedule—there are plenty of templates and checklists available online—but there will always be certain elements of book creation that only happen at your own pace. Dorka and I learned our pace and now have a realistic basis for making the schedule for our next book’s production.
A small book could be a lead magnet. If you’ve done any research about author or entrepreneurial branding, you’ve probably encountered the advice to develop a lead magnet: a product you offer at no cost to attract potential customers or clients and to build your audience. E-books make great lead magnets. I’m not using mine that way, but I could. (I’m working on my own lead magnets.)
2. Research your comps. Authors looking to work with agents and traditional publishers need to include in their book proposals a list of book comps (already published books that are in competition with or similar to their book). Self-published authors don’t need to impress agents and publishers, but they should still do book comps—for themselves. The process unearths invaluable information about your audience and the market for your book that will help inform publishing decisions down the line. Book comps may also influence your writing. Doing my book comps helped me title and price my small life story writing guide competitively, and it’s also influencing the writing, cover design, and title of our next book. Jane Friedman’s blog has an excellent article about how to use Chat GPT for book comps HERE. For mine, I used the software Publisher Rocket.
3. While you’re at it, write a book proposal too. In traditional publishing, book proposals sell books and book ideas to agents and publishers. A major benefit of self-publishing is that you don’t need to sell your book idea to anyone but readers. But writing a book proposal is an incredible focusing exercise, and like doing book comps, it reveals useful information about your audience, the marketplace, and your own vision. Writing a solid proposal will take at least a day or two of work. Your book is worth that investment of time. Once it's written the proposal will contain lots of content to use in marketing later on, not to mention its utility as the basis of your overall marketing strategy. Email me if you’d like a copy of my book proposal template.
4. If it’s your first book, have a separate revenue stream to fund its publication. Maybe your revenue stream is your retirement account, maybe it’s from a day job, or maybe it’s a side hustle in the gig economy. Whatever it is, you’ll need the funds to hire professionals to help with editing and design. With some shoe-leather marketing, sales from your first book will help pay for your next one.
5. Make friends and find mentors. There’s no one way to self-publish, and it gets real overwhelming real quick if you don’t have a trusted guide. I had several. Teri Bayus, a self-published author and media professional who lives in my area, offered a one-off workshop through our local community college on “community publishing.” That’s Teri’s genius term for self-publishing because “it takes a village.” I had no idea how right she was on that point at the time, but I soon learned for myself.
The editor, consultant, and self-published author Linda Ruggeri is also part of my self-publishing community. In particular, Linda offered advice for how to collaborate with a book partner.
Early last spring I was foundering around, unable to make decisions about basic elements of publishing like purchasing ISBN numbers and copyright registration, when what in my inbox should appear but an alert for Carla King’s Book Publishing Master Course. It was a big investment, but especially because I want to keep growing in self-publishing, it was money well spent.
Finally, my agent Esmond Harmsworth, who represents my first book, Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table, has been an unexpected help along my self-publishing journey. His advice and encouragement have bolstered my confidence and resolve to persist down this path. People who love books understand that self-publishing opens doors that would otherwise remain closed for certain authors and certain books. Pay attention to potential allies in the traditional publishing world.
Dorka also found friends and mentors, both IRL and online, who helped her understand who she is as a designer and formatter. She also made financial investments in her education.
(Authors who aren’t interested in a fully DIY self-publishing experience can hire an author’s assistant or book shepherd to project-manage and complete some of publishing’s more tedious tasks.)
6. If you aren’t a design professional, hire a good one, especially for your cover. The adage Don’t judge a book by its cover is a wonderful metaphor but an unwise business motto for an author. Readers do judge books by their covers, and you’ve worked too hard on your writing to turn potential readers off with a clip-art cover. Yes, AI is making it possible for novices to access and create compelling images, but a book professional brings knowledge of industry trends and best practices to the table, as well as experience navigating the specifications and quirks of KDP and IngramSpark, the most popular print-on-demand platforms. Dorka made dozens of small adjustments to our cover to get it just right. Certain software can make interior formatting a bit more straightforward and accessible to novices, but again, a design professional has specialized eyes.
From Dorka’s perspective: “I think the problem with so many book covers is that cover design becomes a ‘business thing’: someone (either the author or a paid designer) spends a few hours creating something that’s just good enough, maybe with AI or carelessly because they’re trying to do it quickly. It’s better to hire someone who’s willing to charge a flat fee for several drafts. It takes time to do it right, to represent who an author is and what they’re trying to say with their book.”
7. Corrections at the end of production inevitably introduce mistakes. I didn’t count how many times Dorka and I labeled the manuscript file of this first book “final” and believed it to be true—many, many, many times. Removing a comma, indenting a paragraph, applying italics, resizing a photo—the very smallest adjustments to the book’s interior can potentially, for unforeseen reasons, introduce new mistakes. Prepare for this. You will need to read through your book so many times it will make you sick. Nausea is a symptom of doing it correctly. And there will still be mistakes. This is not a problem specific to self-publishing. While we were in production with our book, I read a novel so successful it was written up in The New York Times, and I encountered a terrible mistake near the end (a paragraph that repeated information from an earlier paragraph, but with different phrasing—likely a vestige from an earlier draft). I’m certain the author and his editors all suffered nausea during this book’s production, and it still got past them. Buy some ginger chews and then read and re-read your work. And then read it again.
8. Hire a proofreader to do two passes, once when you’re done and then again when you’re really done. I’ve never read or received this advice, but it’s something I intend to do for every book I self-publish going forward. For the logic behind this decision, read my previous point.
9. KDP is a convenient print-on-demand platform, and IngramSpark makes beautiful books. KDP is the arm of Amazon that enables authors to self-publish. A KDP book may only be sold on Amazon (though you may order your own author copies from KDP and sell those to readers yourself). IngramSpark is the print-on-demand platform that gets your book listed with Ingram, which is where libraries and booksellers purchase books. While I’m grateful to KDP for its easy-to-follow production process, its printing speed, and the visibility Amazon offers books and authors, the physical books from Ingram are of higher quality: heavier paper, clearer images, better color saturation.
10. No matter how professionally you’ve made it, be prepared for some people to not take your self-published book seriously. The day after How to Begin Writing Your Life Stories came available on Amazon, I attended a party and ran into a member of my target audience: a Boomer whose kids and grandkids would love to have some of his written stories. When I told this man, who I know well, about my newly self-published book, his response was, “When are you going to write a real book?” I asked him what he meant by a real book. “One that could end up on The New York Times Best Sellers list,” he said. Yeah, well, see my next point.
11. Do it anyway. If you have a book on your heart that for whatever reason isn’t destined for traditional publication (read this post for some possible reasons), write it. Self-publish it. I’m here on the other side to tell you that (1) my little book will not be on The New York Times Best Sellers list, (2) it feels fantastic to have it in the world anyway, and (3) it contains no erroneously repeated paragraphs.
12. Your book will still need your support once it’s published. This is as true for traditionally published books as it is for self-published ones. Most books, however they’re published, don’t sell themselves. That’s an author’s job.