Writing on My Terms: Eight Lessons I’ve Learned from Self Publishing
November is National Novel Writing Month. Created in 1999, it challenged authors to write 50,000 words of a novel by the end of 30 days. That’s about 200 double spaced pages. The goal of the challenge was for writers to end the month with a hefty “down payment” on a complete draft of a book. More than 20 years later, over a half a million people around the country (and maybe even the world) participate in this challenge as an effort to build community and move closer to a piece of fiction they are creating. In the spirit of this month, I am excited to share a post about self publishing.
There’s so much to explore. For our purposes, I’m focusing on sharing lessons I’ve learned from my own journey. Like my previous post, “Seven BIG Lessons from Seven Years of ‘CEOing,’” what I share here may or may not be included in a post I’d write outlining the basics of self publishing. But, again, I think that’s why this message is so important: it includes what’s often excluded— words of wisdom that are as important as writing about the fundamentals. With this in mind, I introduce eight lessons from my experience with self publishing.
Lesson 1: Identify a real need
One of the most valuable lessons I share with any writer is the importance of understanding where your future book will fit into the market. Often, we think that it’s enough to write a book that solves someone’s problem: “Are you tired of X,Y, Z? Well, I have the solution.” Part of the drive behind offering your answer to the issue is benevolence, right? “I know the struggle. I’ve lived it, and I want to make life easier for you.” Part of the reason is pride. “I now see myself as an expert, and I want you to see me that way, too.” And part of the reason is money. “Pay me for what I’m sharing. My experiences are worth something and should be monetized.” All of those reasons are valid, AND they do not guarantee that your book will be needed or even wanted.
Here’s why. What if the market is saturated with stories like yours? What if your approach has been shared a trillion times? What are you adding that is fresh and new and cutting edge? How is your story going to add to the ones that have already been told? How is it going to be different? Are you challenging someone else’s methods? Are you picking up where everyone else has stopped? Do you have a secret sauce? Are you exploring an old problem in new ways? What are truly bringing to the table? Once you are clear about that, your writing has to support your claim.
No one likes to hear that their idea is not special. Imagine Daymond John from Shark Tank when, in his book The Power of Broke, he says, “You will never create anything new.” As difficult as that is to accept, it’s probably true. Everything is just an improvement on or evolution of what came before it. For example, referring back to John’s book, he argues this: “Twitter is just an updated version of a note tied to a pigeon’s leg. Facebook is nothing more than an endless chain letter, or another way to look at it, scribbles on a bathroom wall. Instagram is the scrapbook you used to keep and share with your friends. All there is, all there will ever be is a new form of delivery, a way to market, and a new way to figure it out.” The advancement is what’s noteworthy. That’s the kind of thinking you want to explore when writing your book— the advancement of, the improvement on, or the deviation from concepts that have come before. Those things are just as important as— if not more— than writing the “first.”
But what if you are the very first to write on ABC? On the one hand, you may become an overnight sensation and bestselling author. Bravo! On the other, you may face some challenges. One challenge of producing the very first anything is that the concept hasn’t been tested, so you have no idea if it will be “hot or not.” Another challenge is that people often resist change. They may read your new argument as a threat to the world they know, love and hate. And as the saying goes, “the devil we know if often better than the angel we don’t know.” A third challenge is that creating the market for something new is a lot of work. All of these obstacles can be overcome. But is that how you want to spend your time? Maybe.
My goal isn’t to stop you from trailblazing. It’s to help you understand that doing so isn’t limited to making the “first discovery” or to writing about something that hasn’t been written about before. Sometimes, the real need is for a writer to extend the conversation, move it in another direction or challenge it. The key to understanding what move you should make is understanding your audience. What do they need to know? Do they feel included and represented in the current discussions, or do they feel isolated and ignored? Doing your research will help you understand where you should be situating yourself in the market for the audience you are trying to speak to. And there should always be a specific audience in mind.
Lesson 2: Build a business around the book
So you’ve written your book. Now what? Build a business around it. It’s one thing to write a book solely for your children or as a way to archive your own personal history. It’s an entirely different thing to write for the public. Regarding the latter, the book becomes a product for a market. That requires a whole set of activities and procedures to be created around it. These include the following: marketing, distribution, sales, creating revenue streams, understanding its value proposition, identifying your customers/audience/readers, understanding the kind of relationships your future customers expect to have with you, knowing how much it will cost to create the book…and identifying who are your key partners.
While you do not need to have all of this figured out before you start writing, it’s in your best interest to loosely work through some of this as part of your pre-production process. Doing so better positions you for success. For example, one benefit of thinking in advance about the business side of your book is that it can help you with marketing. With some advanced thought and preparation, your marketing strategy can include the very earliest stages of your writing so that your followers become invested in the process from the beginning. When you get closer to finishing, you may begin to take pre-orders. By the time you’ve completed the book, you’ve whet people’s appetites so much that the purchases will pour in because you’ve created a healthy amount of buzz.
Part of building your business around your book means considering other products you’ll create alongside your book: mugs and t-shirts with quotes from your memoir or novel on them; branded pens and pencils; journals; workbooks; keynote talks and classes. Imagine the book as Thanksgiving dinner and all the by-products as spinoff meals.
Lesson 3: Get a writing coach
During my first year of graduate school, I met a young German woman named Susie. I noticed that she was moving through her programs faster than other students. I asked her her secret, and she told me that she visited the Writing Center faithfully, every week. I wanted to be like Susie. So whenever I had a writing assignment, I did what she did: went to the Writing Center. And when it was time to write my master’s thesis, I kept going, all the way until I completed my PhD dissertation. I believed so much in regular visits to the Writing Center that I trained to be an instructor and taught there for most of my graduate school experience. Being on both sides, I learned the magic of why it was so important.
For one, it helped me to build a consistent writing practice. Knowing that I had a writing appointment each week meant that I was more likely to bring a new piece of writing to each session so that our time together would be more productive. Equally important, I didn’t want to seem like a slacker, and so peer pressure also helped me to write.
For two, writers often know what they want to argue, but they struggle to put the words on page. I can’t tell you how many times I’d ask a student, “So what is the main point you’re looking to make in this paper?” They’d tell me. And then I’d ask, “Can you show me where you make this argument on paper?” It was always something to watch them flip through the pages just to discover that not even once had they explicitly stated their “real” point. I learned this trick from an instructor who used it on me. It was so effective that I worked hard to never let that be my story again.
For three, going to the Writing Center helped with writer’s block. I used to tell the people I worked with this: “If you can write ‘the’ on the page, I can get you through the rest.” In other words, if they were willing to just write something, anything, by the end of their session, they’d walk away with something meaningful.
My days of going to the Writing Center at my university are over— graduation broke us up. But I bring all that same energy to my journey through self publishing— especially with my most recent book, “A Pot to Piss In.” Each week, until the first draft was done, I met with Sarah, my writing coach. (She prefers to be called a “writing partner.”) And now, I meet with her monthly, as I work through the edits. I know for sure that, because of these meetings, my project will be completed one million years sooner than it would’ve been had I not made that choice.
When I share this, people are often shocked because I coach writing. “Why would you need a writing partner if you have a PhD in literature, taught at the Writing Center, and assist others with penning their own stories?” I explain it to them: Doctors don’t perform surgery on themselves; they visit other doctors. The same should be true for writers. Experts need the support and assistance of other experts. In fact, we deserve to have that partnership with a peer. I know that working with me takes a lot of pressure off my clients. I encourage them to show up vulnerable and messy and authentic to their journey. I want that same experience. I don’t want to have to be “on” when I am working through my thoughts and ideas. I want to explore, struggle and get it wrong— without penalty— as I find my way through the argument I am writing. I want to bring my whole, real, unpolished self to the process so that I can give my audience something genuine. And to do this well, I need a set of eyes, other than mine, on my writing. Those eyes (along with that other mind) have to be doing a different kind of work— the work of a coach, not author. I invite you to give yourself a similar experience.
Lesson 4: Edit at LEAST 5-7 times
I know, learning this shocked me too. When I completed the first draft of A Pot to Piss In, I was ready to do some light edits: comma here, rewrite there, tighten these paragraphs, omit those lines. But by the time I was done, I knew that it still wasn’t ready. In that first draft, for each chapter, I had accomplished getting all of my ideas down. The concept of the book had become clear through that draft.
To make it a book, one worth reading at least, it had to go through the process, meaning, it had to go through more drafts. For starters, I needed to make sure my timeline was on point. That meant a timeline draft. I needed to make sure my characters were introduced and developed properly. Ok, that meant a character draft. Had I written scenes or provided almost two hundred pages of narration? Definitely two hundred pages of narration. Well, damn, that’s a scene draft. And, to have a somewhat solid piece, I needed a complete story arc. Did I have one? If not, my book would flatline, for sure. After all of that, I could consider editing for commas and periods, but not before.
This is the bare minimum of edits. Some steps in the process are shorter than others, but all are necessary. Plan for them.
Lesson 5: And then edit some more
Once you are done with all of these edits— most of which will happen in partnership with your writing coach—you will need a copy editor. In general, a copy editor will make sure that grammar, punctuation and spelling are correct. They will make sure your drafts follow style guidelines, and— depending on who you get and what you need— they will fact check. Usually, copy editors are part of the final writing process. They step in when you are completely done with the other drafts. Bringing them on too soon puts you at risk of wasting precious time (and money) on editing lines and paragraphs that may be cut in the final draft. “Ain’t nobody got time for that.”
One question you may be asking yourself is this: Why do I have to edit commas and periods on my own if someone is coming in to do that work for me? Good question. After all, wouldn’t the work be redundant? Here is one very simple answer. Consider this analogy: I know a woman who owns a cleaning company. She often jokes about how her clients tidy up their homes before she comes in to clean them. I’m one of her clients who does that. I do it for three reasons: out of respect for myself, out of respect for her, and for to get a cleaning experience that is beyond me. By making things tidy to the best of my ability with the time I have, I know she will take it further with the time she has. The outcome? A higher quality finish. The same holds true for writing.
Lesson 6: Use Scrivener…or something like it
Writing is a messy process. Writing full-length books is beyond messy. I use Scrivener to make big projects more manageable. According to Wikipedia, “Scrivener is a word-processing program and outliner designed for authors. Scrivener provides a management system for documents, notes and metadata. This allows the user to organize notes, concepts research, and whole documents for easy access and reference.” With Scrivener, I effortlessly rearrange sections. I can attach pictures to the synopsis. I can write notes alongside chapters. I love how I can write in chunks and then reorganize and merge together pieces to make chapters, for instance. In other words, I don’t have to know what I want to write from beginning to end. I can start in the middle, developing ideas here and there, stringing them together or discarding as I get to and understand the bigger picture.
Scrivener allows me to write in a way that fits with my brain. I have ADHD. My mind is often all over the place, and when I am starting a new project, so is my writing. I write the ideas as they come to me and, in the past, I’d write on whatever’s available: scattered sticky notes, notebook book paper and legal pads. Before Scrivener, I’d rarely attach pictures with my thoughts. But now, because of Scrivener, my writing is more organized, visual and kinesthetic. It has made writing A Pot to Piss In so much easier. In fact, it’s made the process so accessible that as thoughts come to me for the sequel, I have a place to tuck them away so that they are not competing with my current project.
Scrivener may not be your thing. And that’s ok. The takeaway isn’t for you to choose the software that works for me, it’s for you to research what will work for you so that you can both streamline and enrich your process.
Lesson 7: Get a publisher
Admittedly, I know very little about publishing a book on Amazon. What I do know is my experience with Little Creek Press. And what I can tell you is this: I love working with a small publishing house that I can build a personal relationship with. For over six years, I’ve been working with Kristin Mitchell, the owner of Little Creek Press and Kristin Mitchell Design. Collaborating with her means that I get to produce a very high quality product without sacrificing control over my work. Both are important to me.
So what does Kristin do? Well, she does several things. For one, she has copy editors on her team. If we need an illustrator, she has access to that talent pool, as well. As a graphic designer, she handles the layout of my book so that it looks clean and professional and is consistent with my brand. She designs the cover, makes sure I have an ISBN number, ensures that books are ordered and delivered, and has been a partner from beginning to end for all three of my pieces. She’s not a one-stop-shop, as my writing coach is outside of her wheelhouse, but between her two companies, she’s the closest thing to one.
Having a publisher adds credibility to me as a writer. From my experience, people are skeptical about taking authors seriously when they self publish and are not connected to publishing companies. At the same time, writers want their autonomy. Not to mention, it’s now common practice for new writers who are associated with those bigger publishers to be responsible for a large part of the marketing around their books. This is a deal breaker for many writers, as they often expect bigger publishing companies to handle all of the marketing and promotions. Taking these three factors into consideration, a good compromise is to align oneself with a reputable publisher that is small enough to be okay with their writers maintaining a lot of control but respected enough for people to trust the final product.
Lesson 8: Write consistently
The bottom line is this: writer’s write. Take your identity as a writer and your project seriously enough to carve out time for it regularly. Toni Morrison had two boys she raised as a single mother, and so she got up before the sun to write. I tend to write in the afternoons and late evenings, when the kids are at school. Part of my full-time job as an entrepreneur is to write, and so, I incorporate it into my regular work schedule. Whatever time works best for you, own it, and stick with it.
To help you do this, create a writing ritual. My coach taught me this. For me, that ritual includes burning brown sugar incense sticks. As soon as the scent hits the air, my body and mind know what time it is, and they start shifting over to writing mode. I keep those incense burning until I am done with my daily session. Afterwards, I go for a walk, to work out some of the tension in my body and to counteract the effects of sitting for so long. Your ritual will be your own. Consider creating one to help you not only build the discipline of getting your butt in a seat but also because it can help you remain in the seat and decompress after a session—creating a healthy boundary between writing and the rest of your roles— and inspire you to do it all over again.
Sometimes, writing can feel isolating and create a sense of detachment from the world. For some people, that makes the work anxiety producing and may even trigger trauma. Consider forming a writing group. Now, in order for this to work, your group will need to establish clear rules and boundaries. For example, in graduate school, the writing group that I started along with a few friends used a technique called Pomodoro. The method goes like this: Choose how long your group will write (25-30 minutes, for example), and set a timer for that period. When that period ends, take a 2-3 minute break. And repeat the process until you’ve completed four rounds of writing. Reward yourself with a longer break, maybe 15 minutes, and then start all over again. Pomodoro was particularly useful for us because opportunities for conversation and social interaction were clearly defined. We knew when we’d take bathroom breaks or make an important phone call, and so our writing time was protected while being in the context of community.
Finally, writing can challenge you emotionally and mentally. In addition to having a publisher, coach, editor and writing peers surrounding you, consider the possibility of meeting with a therapist as you write. They can help you with any triggers and blocks. This isn’t just for personal writing, like memoir or autobiography, it can be fiction as well. As women and people of color, writing can be about liberation and changing the narrative for so many of us. To do so, often we have to revisit our oppressors and abusers and experience them all over again. We have to face violence again through the recounting of a story. In offering a vision for a new world, we may have to burn the old one down and some of those we love with it. We may need to talk to a professional as relive these moments. Recognizing these possibilities and preparing for them can better position you (and me) to maintain a consistent and rich writing practice.
Self publishing is challenging. But when done right, it is also very rewarding. It’s a way to maintain freedom over your work and financial independence. To be fair, it also comes with a lot of upfront cost that you may not be aware of: printing, marketing, graphic design work, coaching, etc. Again, that’s the business side of the book. If you do your homework, build a strong enough network, and market in advance, even this hurdle can be cleared. You’ll get to the other side and realize that all your hard work was well worth it.
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About the Blogger
Dr. Sagashus Levingston is an author, entrepreneur and PhD holder. She has two fur babies, Maya and Gracie, six children (three boys and three girls), and they all (including her partner) live in Madison, WI. She loves all things business, is committed to reminding moms of their power, and is dedicated to playing her part in closing the wealth gap for people of color and women. She believes that mothering is a practice, like yoga, and she fights daily to manage her chocolate intake. The struggle is real, y’all…and sometimes it’s beautiful.
Contact info: sagashus@infamousmothers.com