How I Published 6 Books in 5 Weeks

I just experienced one of the most productive periods of my creative life, writing and publishing 6 books in 5 weeks. Here's the list:

Childlike Simplicity: Published June 13, 2016

A Little Drop of Kindness: Published June 21, 2016

The Latchet of His Shoe: Published June 27, 2016

A Single Ray of Sunlight: Published July 4, 2016

A Grateful Goodnight: July 9, 2016

The Vows We've Made: July 18, 2016

And here's how I did it:

Practice

I've been publishing books for a long time and have over twenty available for sale on various web sites. Over the years I've developed systems and processes for creating quality content quickly. In the beginning, it took a lot of trial and error to get my books just the way I wanted. I went through more than a dozen iterations of my first book, each of them flawed in some way. Now I can usually get it right on my first try and always on the second.

Process

The advice "write what you know" is still valid. I chose topics that I knew a lot about and the words just poured out of me. I started by making a list of things I wanted to write about, and I wrote every chance I got -- on the train, at lunch, morning and night. I don't do this full time, so I had to squeeze it in where I could. I work 40 hours a week and commute over 2 hours a day. I still spent time with family and took care of my needs. This wasn't a sprint; I just wrote at a steady pace and the minutes added up. Rather than waiting until I was at home sitting at my computer, I just wrote on my iPhone.

Planning

Honestly, I had no plan. I didn't even know it was possible to publish so many books in such a short time. The ideas just kept coming to me and I was passionate about what I was doing, so it didn't feel like work. It was play. Every book was a unique experiment. I tried something different and learned something new from each of them.

Preparation

I just went through a difficult job change, and two months ago my wife was in the hospital with heart problems. The combination produced an awakening experience that caused me to reflect on what is really important in life. (Fortunately she's doing okay.)

Priorities

When I first began commuting, I listened to audio books or music in my car. But for the past two months I've been driving in silence, sometimes thinking about my writing but sometimes thinking about absolutely nothing. I am convinced that making silence a priority increased my creative capacity.

Perseverance

I've been reading books about creativity for the past 6 months. In the process, I worked through a lot of the things that have been holding me back: fear of criticism, procrastination, perfectionism. Without those barriers in the way, I was free to write from an authentic and courageous place. I let go of the need to change the world and just focused on making something meaningful.

Unprecedented Opportunity

Many stories I've heard of successful authors such as Elizabeth Gilbert (author of "Eat, Pray, Love") or Jack Canfield (who started the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series), involve years of struggle and rejection before a publisher finally says yes. There was a time when this was the only option for aspiring writers.

However, the world is changing. Now any author can write a book and make it available in the world's most popular book store. Getting people to notice the book is a different question -- that is an area where traditional publishers excel, due to their resources and expertise. But many authors, even those who have previously published through traditional channels, are embracing the unprecedented opportunity that self-publishing presents.

One advantage to self-publishing is that you get to keep the rights to your content. In the traditional publishing world, books with declining sales are discontinued and authors cannot print them because they no longer own the rights. If you want continuous availability for your published works, self-publishing may be the preferred option.

A hybrid publisher may be a good approach for some authors. These publishers attempt to combine the best of the traditional and self-publishing channels. They may provide some editing and marketing services while still allowing you to keep the rights to your own book.

The bottom line is that today's publishing world is an ocean of opportunity. It's no longer necessary to wade through a hundred rejections before finally being accepted by a publisher. The only acceptance that is needed now is you deciding to share your talents.

Why I Write

Writing is something I've done off and on throughout my life. I've written poetry and stories since childhood, but recently my relationship with writing has changed. I've been making it a priority to write more often, and as a result I'm discovering new benefits.

Writing makes me feel alive. It helps me make sense of the world, and my own thoughts and emotions. It gives me a platform. It gives me a voice. Sometimes I don't really know what I'm thinking or feeling until I write it down. When life gets busy, I still make time to write. It keeps me grounded, and it keeps me sane.

I write while I'm on the train, I write at lunch, I write in the morning and at night. When I'm not writing, a part of my mind is still busy thinking about what I'm going to write next. I love to pour out my emotions onto the page, refining my thoughts during later revisions if necessary.

I can change my mood just by writing. When I write about sad things, it makes me sad. When I write about happy things, it makes me happy. Writing, for me, is a gateway to empathy. I ask myself what it might feel like to experience this or that situation, then I write about it and find out.

Writing is simple, though some might try to tell you otherwise. To call myself a writer, I simply need a writing instrument and a writing surface. Such things are easily obtained in the developed world -- even sticks and dirt will do for a start. You are probably reading this on a computer that is capable of word processing, or a phone that is essentially a pocket-sized writing machine. You have all the tools you need. Sure, you could sign up for classes, join a writing group, or find a mentor. But none of these will do any good if you don't make time to write. As long as you are writing, your skills will improve.

I am grateful for the time I've invested learning and refining my writing abilities. I'm grateful to those who took the time to teach me.

And I can't wait to see where writing will take me next.

Self-publishing School Part 8: Marketing

Marketing is essential to success in the self-publishing world. It isn't just something you want to start thinking about after the book is done - it's something that should be considered all along the way, from naming your book to designing and writing it. Who is your target market? How will you tell them about your book? How will you convince them to buy?

A catchy and unique title is essential to success, yet in a saturated market it can be difficult to find just the right one. I usually run through thirty or forty different ideas before finally selecting a title that I feel will appeal to the audience I'm trying to reach. Keep in mind that a subtitle can be a very effective tools for communicating the message of your book, even if the title you wanted is already taken.

Long before your book is complete, you'll want to start thinking about the description. Good back cover text can also be helpful, but it an increasingly electronic world a good Amazon description is essential to success.

Writing marketing text is different than writing your book. It requires different skills, and a different mindset. Look at the Amazon descriptions of your favorite books, preferably ones that have a lot of positive reviews and are selling well. What is the author doing right? How does he or she describe the content of the book being sold?

Here are are few tips I've learned about descriptive text:

1. Make it long. Amazon allows up to 4000 characters. This gives readers who want to know more a chance to get their questions answered before clicking the "buy now" button. It also provides more opportunities to appear in search results.
2. Make it compelling. Boring, flat, cliche writing won't serve you here, any more then it will serve the story you've written.
3. Make it count. Choose your words wisely and put the most important ones at the top.

It can also help to provide "Look inside" content for readers to view. CreateSpace and Lulu both provide this content to Amazon automatically.

If you are writing your first book, congratulations! Now start working on your second. Multi-book authors, especially authors that write books in a series, will have a much easier time building a platform than single-book authors. When you are a multi-book author, consider making strategic use of free books (such as giving away the first book in a three-part series) and content to get readers interested in your other books. There are sites that will allow you to advertise your free books at no cost to you. You can also consider running free promotions for a week or two at a time, and you could include your book in Kindle Unlimited, which makes it free to members. Never underestimate the power of free.

Another absolutely essential marketing consideration is reviews. In my experience, these can be harder to obtain than book sales -- but they are far more valuable. You may get a small royalty for a sale, but several good reviews can help you create a steady stream of income. Offer a free copy of your book to Facebook friends in exchange for a review. When you start building an audience, ask loyal fans to become preview readers and give them early access to your book in exchange for a review the day it is released.

There are other techniques, such as Facebook and Google ads, YouTube videos, etc. that can also help you sell books. Much of your efforts will be trial and error at first, but as you learn the price sensitivity of your audience and experiment with different marketing approaches you'll eventually find a mix that works for you.

It's important to remember in all of this the reasons you wanted to become a writer in the first place. Was is just for the money? Or is there something more? You don't have to be at the top of the New York Times best seller list to call yourself a writer. You just have to be in the game, and thanks to the emerging self-publishing market, it's easier than ever to make your work available to a worldwide audience.

If you've already self-published a book, leave a comment below and let me know the title. If you're in the middle of working on one, come back when it's finished and tell me about it. If you haven't self-published a book but would like to, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Start writing today!

Self-publishing School Part 7: Cover Art

Oh, cover art, how I love and loathe thee. One moment I'm tearing out my hair because of image resolutions, bleed areas, design elements, fonts and spines and measurements and ISBNs and your endless cornucopia of technical considerations. The next I'm weeping like a child because of your undeniable utility and the success it brings.

Good cover art is absolutely essential to marketing, and it is also the biggest struggle I've faced as a self-publisher. Lack of knowledge and impatience were my greatest enemies in the beginning, but after a lot of trial and error I've finally developed a system that works.

There are four main approaches you can take when creating cover art:

1. Hire someone to do it for you
2. Buy a pre-made cover and customize it
3. Use a cover-building tool
4. Create a cover from scratch

Hiring works well if you have the funds (or expect to profit from your work). My early books were all given away for free, so I couldn't justify the $100 - $300 cost for a custom print cover design. (E-books are a little cheaper, because only the front cover is needed.) The best part about this solution, which I have used a few times, is that you get to customize and make revisions as needed until the cover is exactly to your liking. If you work with an experienced cover designer, the results are incomparable.

There are several sites that feature pre-made cover templates. These tend to be cheaper than a completely custom design, because the options for customization are limited and fonts and colors are generally pre-selected. You do still get a unique cover for your book (someone else can't buy the same design after you've made your purchase), and the cost can be closer to $50 or $75. I've used sites that provide tools that allow me to do my own template editing, and I've also used sites that allowed me to select my cover and provide title and author information, then they e-mailed the final cover to me later. Generally, cover templates are for front covers only (spine and back cover additions cost extra, if they are available at all).

Both Lulu and CreateSpace provide cover building tools. The CreateSpace tool can give you a very professional look, but you will most likely want to provide your own stock photograph for the templates that require it (the free options provided aren't very exciting or unique). The Lulu tool presents several decidedly unglamorous choices, but it does allow you to use an image-only template, giving you the opportunity to create front and back cover files separately and drop them onto the template for a custom look without the complexities of creating a cover from scratch. Both sites will not print spine text unless your book is a certain minimum length (80 pages for Lulu, 100 for CreateSpace).

Creating a cover from scratch gives you complete control over the process, which can be good or bad depending on your graphic design skills. Calculating the appropriate cover pixel size can be challenging (templates are provided by Lulu and CreateSpace, but CreateSpace doesn't provide them for all trim sizes). Getting the spine text, bleed area and live graphic elements in all the right places can also be challenging. I use SketchBook Pro to create my covers, because it allows me to specify my canvas size. It doesn't provide a PDF exporter (both Lulu and CreateSpace want full-size covers in PDF format), but there are converters available on the Internet if you need them. Photoshop is an even better option, if you have the software and the skill to use it. Lulu requires you to place your ISBN bar code on the back cover, but CreateSpace will place it there automatically for you (be sure to leave some space for it on the bottom right corner).

The effort involved in creating a great cover is worth the sacrifice required, but I sincerely hope your experience with cover art is better than mine has been.

Self-publishing School Part 6: Interior Design

Once the final text for your manuscript is complete, it's time to complete the interior design. This includes activities such as font selection, pagination, choosing a consistent look and feel for chapters, headings, sections, illustrations, front and back material, etc.

My very first book project was a nightmare because I attempted to format before the final text was complete. The end result was that I had to change the pagination at least a dozen times. Now I pour over the text endlessly prior to this stage so that formatting only needs to be done once.

I kept my interior designs very simple in the beginning, and rather boring. Most of my books used Times New Roman (the default font for Microsoft Word, and a clear indicator of amateur status) and featured very few visual elements. I was just happy when I created a book with a logical and consistent layout. But as my experience grew, my desire to create better looking interiors grew with it. I still have a lot to learn, but my most recent books have a much more professional appearance.

A good way to get a sense for book design is to pick up a few favorite books that match your genre (print books are best, since not all e-books feature quality designs) and look at them in a new way. What font is used? How much space exists between each line of text? Is it justified, or is there a ragged right edge? What do the chapter headings look like? Where are the page numbers? If a section break is used (usually a hard return), what happens if the next section begins at the top of a new page? Does the author's name and/or book title appear somewhere on the pages themselves? What about front and back material? How many blank pages are there at the end? How many title pages? Where is the forward, dedication, introduction, table of contents, etc.? How are references, notes and bibliographical information documented? How are page numbers handled in the front material? How are chapter headings handled? Does text for a new chapter always start on the right page? What is the font size?

Keep in mind that you are not limited to the fonts already on your computer. You can purchase fonts from a variety of web sites. There's also a big difference between print design and e-book design. I usually release in both formats, starting with print book design. Because e-books generally use flowable text and can be displayed on screens of various size, it can be challenging to get it just right. I recommend downloading Amazon's Kindle viewing tools and looking at the text on various device simulators.

If you don't want to spend time learning about interior book design, you can hire someone to do this work for you. But it's not cheap, and if your goal is to make a profit then you will want to carefully weigh every investment. Creating a book is a lot like building a house. Every feature comes at a cost, but too many cost-cutting measures can lead to future regret.

Self-publishing School Part 5: Editing

Editing is an extremely vague term that could describe a variety of activities:

• Proofreading
• Rewriting
• Properly formatting reference/bibliography data (non-fiction)
• Fact checking (fiction and non-fiction)
• Stylistic improvements
• Story development

Editing needs can vary greatly depending on the type of book you are writing, the intended audience, your publishing channel, your skills and experience as an author, and your goals. If you've spent any time in the publishing/writing industry, you've probably heard that you can't edit your own work. Most authors who make the attempt do struggle with it, because you can get so close to your manuscript that it's difficult to catch the errors in it. Your brain tends to see what it expects to see rather than what is actually there, and fresh eyes are extremely helpful.

However, I edit all of my own work. This is possible because:

• My books are usually fairly short
• I have a system involving multiple passes of editing (including reading the text backwards one sentence at a time)
• I can't afford an editor
• I'm borderline OCD
• Unlike many self-published authors, I know how to use spell check. This is not an insult or a boast; it's a fact. Self-published works often contain spelling errors that could easily be caught.

In the traditional publishing world, editors are part of the package. Self-published writers, however, need to find their own editors. Proofreading is the most common form of editing, and if your work is well-developed then proofreading is all you should need. A good proofreader shouldn't charge more than a few hundred dollars for an average-length novel, and there are web sites where you can get bids and compare editors before selecting one.

More involved forms of editing, such as content and development, could cost you thousands. If you are feeling insecure about your work but aren't ready to raid your piggy bank, consider sharing the text with friends and family, or join a local writing group. Ask for honest feedback and keep an open mind. As you get close to publication, you can also invite beta or preview readers to provide input.

Self-Publishing School Part 4: The First Draft

I love the process of writing a first draft, but it works best when I approach it with the right mindset. You see, I'm a bit of a perfectionist. Anything worth doing is worth doing right, I tell myself, but for much of my adult life that attitude kept me from writing at all. It's pretty much impossible to develop perfectly formed content in your mind and then spew it forth in flowing and beautiful sentences onto the blank page, but that didn't stop me from making the attempt. It would probably have been better if I had failed every single time, but I didn't. Sometimes I really would produce something worthy and beautiful, but eventually the pressure would cause me to seize up. The end result was that I never finished anything.

A few years ago I developed a new mindset, and that's when I started publishing books.

I decided that instead of trying to save the world with my writing, I would just write whatever came to me. I'd make an effort to organize my thoughts, and I'd begin with a topic in mind, but the quantity of my writing took precedence over the quality. All of the grammar and spelling errors, jarring direction changes and general sloppiness of my ideas could be massaged in later phases. In the beginning, in draft mode, I just had one job: get words out of my head and onto the page.

Letting go of the need to perpetually proffer perfect prose freed me from the creative prison I'd unknowingly built for myself. I realize now that my teachers had been trying to encourage me all along to start with slop and fix it later, but I never quite believed them. After all, these were the same people who wanted me to show my work for a math problem I could solve in my head in a fraction of a second. I also realized that creating the first draft is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the writing process. Like brainstorming, it requires suspension of judgment. Ideas can be evaluated later; for now, we're just trying to get them out of our heads.

The first draft can actually be the most enjoyable part of creating, if you allow it to be. Even if you are thinking in the back of your mind "this is absolutely no good," stepping back for a day or two after the draft is completed may change your perspective. You might find that you've produced something of value, something worthy of taking to the next level. Or you might not, and then you are free to move on. Either way, you've grown as a writer and you've learned something. There's absolutely no way to lose in this process: you succeed, or you learn. Those are the only two options. Either of them will get you closer to being the writer you want to be.

Self-publishing School Part 3: Generating Book Ideas

The ideas you generate for your books will vary according to several factors. What do you want to accomplish with your writing? Who do you want to reach? Why do you want to reach them? What do you want to say to them?

While some authors may perform market research and look for gaps in the marketplace that they can fill, every book idea comes to me in a different way.

Here are some techniques I use to generate ideas:

• Exercise. It gives you time to think and endorphins can elevate your mood, making you more creative.
• Silence. Turn off the car radio, go to lunch by yourself and spend time just thinking.
• Meditation. By actively focusing on your breath and observing your thoughts without judgment, you can put yourself in a mental state that is conducive to new ideas.
• Drawing. Or painting, sculpture, etc. Sometimes one art form can inspire another.
• Variety. Get out of your usual routine by eating at a restaurant you've never visited before, or going on vacation. Even taking a different route to work can stimulate new thinking patterns.
• Know Yourself. What is the best time of day for you to get ideas? Evenings, mornings? Afternoons? If you notice that your brain is particularly active during a specific part of the day, make an effort to free up your time for thinking and creating during that time period.
• Listening. Overhearing a partial conversation in a coffee shop may give you a great idea for your next book.
• Dreaming. Write down your dreams, even the crazy ones, and do it first thing in the morning before you forget them. You may find some amazing creative ideas buried in your subconscious mind.
• Shower. It's a good idea in general, AND you might get a great idea for a new book while bathing. I've been known to cut my showers short on several occasions because an idea occurred to me and I had to write it down right away.
• Get Curious. Ask yourself, "If I were to write a book, what would I write about?" Then get more specific: "If I were to write a book about robotic dogs from another planet taking over Earth, would I want it to be a stand alone volume or part of a series?"

Get in the habit of writing down ideas as soon as they come to you. They are slippery, and if you don't capture them the moment they arrive you could easily lose them. There are more ideas where that one came from, of course, but each of them deserves to be cherished. Except for the bad ones. It's okay to let those go.

Self-publishing School Part 2: e-books

Publishing e-books for Kindle and other formats is a great way to develop readership and earn extra income. While there are some technical complexities, it's not as hard as you might think. Here are a few different options for publishing e-books.

CreateSpace

When I upload a print book to CreateSpace, I'm given the option to export my book to the Kindle store. This converts it to the correct format and includes cover art. If the book is mine (as opposed to a public domain work), I can also choose to enroll in KDP Select, which makes my book available to Kindle Unlimited subscribers. This is both a great marketing and a great revenue-generating tool. I can also earn 70% commission on every sale. Occasionally, though, the conversion from CreateSpace doesn't work exactly the way I want, which is why I like having other options.

Lulu.com

Lulu was on of the first publish on demand companies, and it has a sizable market share. Lulu allows you to create a Microsoft Word document and upload it. The site then converts it to epub format, and can upload it to the Kindle Store and other sites such as Kobo and Barnes & Noble. It's important to properly mark chapter headings so Lulu can generate the table of contents.

Jutoh

Jutoh is an affordable software program that allows you to import a Microsoft Word or Open Office document. The difference between Jutoh and the previous two options is that Jutoh gives you more control over the appearance of your book. While CreateSpace and Lulu do a pretty good job with most standard formats, Jutoh allows you to have greater control over picture size and placement, among other things.

I've had good success with all three of these options, and it's nice to have several tools in my e-book toolbox so that I can use the right one for each project. For my last project, a combination of all three approaches was quite effective.

The world of e-book publishing is developing rapidly, and the opportunities for aspiring writers are limitless.

Self-publishing School Part 1: Print Books

When I first started self-publishing, I created an account on Lulu.com and downloaded their Microsoft Word templates. It took time to understand how the templates worked and how to format them. The first challenge was understanding that odd pages are always on the right and even pages are always on the left. It seems like such a simple concept, but I wasted a lot of money purchasing books with pagination errors and throwing them away. There were other difficulties as well. Here are just a few of them:

Cover Art

Cover art is a pain. Lulu.com and CreateSpace both provide cover art tools that can help you customize your own cover using their generic versions as a base. CreateSpace even provides some basic stock photos that you can use. If you're just printing something for your own benefit, go ahead and use their default covers (CreateSpace offers better options than Lulu), but if you are looking to write a best seller or boost your income through book sales, I highly recommend a professionally designed cover. Expect to pay $150-200 for a front cover, spine and back cover.

Proof Book

When preparing a print book, always be sure to order a physical copy that you can actually hold in your hands. What you don't want to do is finish your book and order 10 copies, only to find that there is a serious error. I recently made my first book with CreateSpace, and they have some great tools for viewing your document as it will actually look in book form. I love these tools, but I still like to hold a book in my hands before releasing it for sale.

Distribution

You can always sell your book using direct links to Lulu.com or CreateSpace. If you want your book to appear on Amazon.com, you'll need to choose one of their standard formats (certain custom sizes and binding types can't be sold via Amazon). Expect to lose a large percentage of your profits in distribution fees, and pay attention to the minimum costs. Many of my books are less than 100 pages long, and on those books I was able to set a reasonable retails sales price and still make a decent profit via both Lulu.com and CreateSpace. But when I printed a 300 page novel, CreateSpace was half the cost of Lulu.

Marketing

It's one thing to create a book, and another thing to sell it. While there are a variety of marketing techniques and tools that will help you, I'll discuss two of them here. The first is the back cover text. Writing great back cover text that invites readers to purchase your book requires a different set of skills than writing the book itself. Read the back covers of popular books in your chosen genre to learn the language/voice to use, and share it with friends to get their input. The second marketing tool that can help you drive sales is the Amazon book description. Again, look at the examples for books in your genre. The best ones tend to make use of HTML formatting and are generally fairly long (Amazon allows up to 4000 characters).

Publishing a print book requires effort, but it's a great way to turn your ideas into a tangible product and share your work with others.

Why Self-publish?

Success in traditional publishing requires tenacity.
Success in self-publishing also requires tenacity.

Success in traditional publishing requires taking risks.
Success in self-publishing also requires taking risks.

Authors who use traditional publishers can make a lot of money.
Authors who self-publish can also make a lot of money.

There are reasons to do one over the other, but it's a very personal choice.

Full disclosure: I've never attempted to publish anything through a traditional publisher. I've only self-published, so I can't provide an objective point of view. But I can tell you what I've heard from other authors who have traveled both roads:

• The margins in traditional publishing are thin. Most authors never earn enough royalties to cover the advance they receive at contract signing. Self-published authors can make reasonable profits on print books, and even better profits on electronic books.
• Traditional publishers require you to give up your rights to print your book. As long as the publisher is making money, they'll keep your book in print. Once sales slow down, it will go out of print and you can't do a thing about it.
• Traditional publishers still rely on author marketing. Just because you have a publisher doesn't mean you can just sit back and collect royalty checks. And if you're going to be doing your own marketing anyway, why not self-publish and keep more of the profits?

One key advantage traditional publishing offers over self-publishing is uncompromising product quality. You'll generally have great cover & interior designers, editors and advisers. But with the right partners you can create a comparable product yourself, and you get to be in control from start to finish.

It's taken me several years to understand the ins and outs of self-publishing, but I've always dreamed of being an entrepreneur and self-publishing has given me that opportunity. Until recently, my focus has been on product creation. Now I'm investing the bulk of my time and effort in marketing.

The opportunities for self-publishers are greater than they've ever been before, and the risks are minimal. The question, "Why self-publish?" is best answered with another question: "Why not?"

The Beginning

About six years ago I published my first book through Lulu.com. It wasn't even my book -- it was written by my daughter and a friend when they were in 6th grade. But it was my first taste of self-publishing.

I liked it.

Maybe a little too much.

My next self-publishing experience was a few years later, when my then 16-year-old daughter brought me a novel she had written over the summer. The formatting, editing and cover art preparation were intense -- mostly because I had no idea what I was doing. But I was starting to make connections, and I had also started doing some writing of my own.

Now, after self-publishing more than a dozen books, I've decided to share what I've learned and encourage everyone who has ever considered writing a book to do it, and to start today. The opportunities are limitless.