The Journey of Writing a Book
I’ve talked about this journey of writing a book and today I feel that I have completed the journey. Now my words are being sent to a publisher and compacted into PDF format. My book will be available for purchase in about 2 months (end of October).
I have to document the journey
1. I wanted to write a book. Why? I’m a writer who has thrown her whole heart and soul into learning online marketing. I documented a lot of the journey on my blog when one of my blog cheerleaders asked me if I thought of writing a book. He said he’d buy it. So he was my first customer. But I wasn’t quite ready…
2. I had many starts/stops and I gave up.
3. One of those starts involved hiring a ghostwriter to write the book for me. I couldn’t bear to put my name on it. I used a few things from the research the author did but mostly I wasted my money and got my hopes up for nothing.
4. My business partner decided to write the book. He never finished.
5. My friend Jason Alba told me about the success of his LinkedIn book and about his publisher Happy About. This provided motivation. They drive the process, tell me the next steps, provide the formatting, get me an ISBN #, in Amazon and on Amazon Kindle.
6. I started to write the book, starting with the table of contents in December 2008. It morphed a lot along the way. I always want to re-write and edit and compile but having an editor helped keep me on track. I could tell I started to annoy them.
7. I found people who might be interested and started asking for endorsements. I found someone to write the foreword.
8. I approved the cover and chose a title – a long process. The title especially. Since my book is part of a series it needed to have Now What?!? in the title. I didn’t realize that at first and tried to come up with my own. It was almost as difficult as writing the book.
9. Edits, edits edits!! And approvals. This seemed to never ever end.
10. My publisher put all the pieces together, added a table of contents, page numbers, formatting, etc. Today I saw it completed and I thought I might begin to cry. You will see it. It will look so simple. There are so many books in the world. But this is my first one and it’s a bit overwhelming that it’s done. When I actually see one it will probably be anti-climatic (or not). Still, this is a huge milestone. My husband thought I started more projects than I finished and finishing feels great!
What isn’t finished is the marketing part. It is just beginning. I have a new site with its own design coming soon. I had it programmed.
Also, I’m doing a series of videos that are more “how to” that I’m now more excited about than the book. Why? because I envision them as training resources for PR pros, firms, and business owners who want to really learn this. It’s even for PR pros whose customers can’t afford or choose not to hire them to write and distribute their press releases. There will be an affiliate program for both so you can make money by referring people to either resource.
I worried many times that I might actually embarrass myself. To put something in print is so final and I’m a blogger plus I write my mind in 140 characters almost every day on Twitter. Fears go through my mind: people are going to have opinions! They might not like my book. Or worse, they’ll ignore it!
But to me it’s a milestone and a triumph. Something that didn’t come easily and for which I’ve worked hard for. So today in celebration (how did Amazon know?) my new Kindle arrived. So today has become a celebration of books, including mine.
You can check it out here: I Need a Killer Press Release, Now What?!? A Guide to Online PR
8 Responses to “The Journey of Writing a Book”
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September 4th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
[...] Janet wrote a terrific blog post titled The Journey of Writing a Book. [...]
September 4th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
#6- You started writing the table of contents in December 2009? Did I lose a year somewhere?
Maile, thanks for catching the error – I changed it to Dec. 2008.
September 4th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Janet, you’ve done a wonderful job, and welcome to the Now What??? series! You officially have the THIRD book in the series – awesome!
September 4th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Jason, You’re a huge part of why I finished the book and am now doing videos. Thank you so much!
Janet
September 5th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Congratulations Janet! This is a huge accomplishment and one that deserves celebration. Doing the happy dance with you!
September 5th, 2009 at 7:43 am
Hi Janet,
Was there a part to your journey where you submitted proposals to agents or publishers?
Or were you able to hook right up with Jason’s publisher?
Best wishes on the success to your journey sister!
September 5th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Karen, Thank you for dancing!
Dave,
The proposal portion was part of the writing itself. Yes, I got hooked right up with Jason’s publisher. I never doubted that this book was needed because I saw it in my work for the past 4 years. PR pros need SEO. Press releases online are not the same as a regular press release that’s simply put on the Internet. I also saw a need for my clients who wanted a DIY option.
Blog on,
Janet
January 7th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
[...] = ‘compact’; Creating my online PR training DVD has been another journey, like the journey of writing a book, only different. My editor Jason Alba encouraged me to produce a DVD based on the concepts in the [...]