How I (Self) Published My First Book
“The world just gave you control over the means of production. Not to master them is a sin.”
I am now a published author.
You can find my new eBook, Nonverbal Communication for Success in Business, here on Amazon.
No, this isn’t yet my masterpiece. But it is a solid step along my path. I imagine this is like watching a friend who has been taking guitar lessons finally string together a choppy version of the intro to Sweet Child of Mine — painful to the outside observer while bringing deep joy to the one who has been practicing every day for six months.
While I planned to spend my weekend perched in my study, smoking from my pipe and reviewing offers for Hollywood movie rights, I thought I would first take a few minutes to share how this effort came to be.
Background on My eBook:
When I started my blog, I knew one topic I wanted to explore was body language and nonverbal communication. Learning more about this form of communication has been instrumental in my life, and I thought it was worth sharing.
As I began putting together a series of tips, I received some inspiration from Paul Millerd’s post, There Are No Gatekeepers.
“There are no gatekeepers anymore. You can just do things. But we pretend like this is not true. Lots of people have said that they want to write a book. You can write a book in Microsoft Word, format it on Reedsy, and then print and ship it on Amazon for less than $5. This is incredible.”
It is true. We have incredible tools at our fingertips and never learn or are reluctant to use them.
This has been especially eye-opening for me as I’ve watched ChatGPT and other AI tools emerge with the potential to revolutionize how we work, yet many if not most people are reluctant to try them. In some ways, it seems like this is the same phenomenon with the internet generally. Most of us are just dallying around the edges of what power it can give us that has never existed before.
As I wrote my posts on nonverbal communication, I realized I was putting together a more significant volume of information than most blog-style posts. It was coming together at a length more fitting for a little booklet, and I got the idea that I could make this my first attempt at self-publishing to teach myself the ropes.
It turns out it’s very simple, made easy by various resources that are cheap and accessible. Here is an abbreviated version of my process:
Write the content. This took a bit of time and involved writing out six different blog posts to cover the material I wanted to include. All told, my eBook is 41 pages.
Hire an editor on Fiverr for $80. It took two revision processes to turn the blog content into a more digestible e-book format and clean up some of the writing.
Hire an eBook cover designer on Fiverr. I did this twice and wasn’t satisfied with the first design, which only cost $25. The second design was more to my liking and cost $30.
Hire an eBook formatter for $40 on Fiverr. This person put the book in the proper Kindle format. It only took one revision to fix some of the spacing and add an extra picture to my About the Author Section.
Upload the eBook to Amazon. This took about 20 minutes to fill out the forms, include keywords, set a price, etc. Then they take up to 72 hours to review it before putting it in the Kindle Direct Publishing System. After submitting the eBook on Saturday, I received an email Monday night that it had been accepted.
I want this to be a free resource — my gift to the world. But during my research, it also dawned on me that by uploading it to Amazon, it would reach more people.
Alas, it has a $2.99 price tag, but this weekend only, I have enabled a promotion to download it for free.
Kindle has exclusive rights to it for 90 days, after which I will publish it on my website and let folks download it in exchange for an email address.
If you do join the dozens of people around the world who have already downloaded it, be sure to write a review about how it changed your life (and therefore the lives of your children and their children as well).
Now, I don’t want to let this milestone go to my head (too much), but I did read a good piece of advice in Matthew Dicks’ Someday is Today.
In his chapter titled “Party Often”, he says:
“Makers of things deserve credit, but they deserve credit for each step along the path. Not only do they deserve credit, but they need it, too. They need to honor themselves and their efforts. Creation is often a lonely, unrecognized piece of business. We toil away in solitude as we make our things, advance our dreams, and blunder our way into the darkness. When we finally take a meaningful, well-earned step forward, we must pause for drink and dance. We must make merry. This is the fuel that will fire our furnace and keep us moving forward.”
So I do plan to take a moment to celebrate. There is a neighborhood block party tonight that can double as my launch party. It will be quite pleasant to see hundreds of people unknowingly celebrating my effort.
PS,
If you’re wondering how Nappy fits into all of this, here is my About the Author page:
