Episode 143:
Learn to Self-Publish an eBook
Tim Lewis: In this episode, I finally catch up with Jen Cole who has both managed to lose her voice and had a scheduling mishap so that she managed to miss her Christmas slot but now we have Jen in the New Year. It is obviously a continuation from our two episodes where we had a starter book writing project and finish her plan off. I can’t tell whether to find out where she is progress wise for her 30th of April deadline for the book. Now, over to the interview.
Tim Lewis: Hi, Jen, welcome to the show again.
Jen Cole: Thank you, Tim. I’m so excited to be back with you.
Tim Lewis: It’s been rather a long time since you’ve been on the show and you were supposed to be on at Christmas time. Then you lost your voice last week so this week, hopefully, we can talk about how you’re getting on with your book writing project.
Jen Cole: Yeah, I’m really excited to get to talk about this, my voice is on its way back so at least I’m audible today, which is really nice. I’m excited to talk about this with you and I’m excited to see where we can go and what kind of new ideas I can get to go forward with it.
Tim Lewis: The first question is going to be, obviously, where are you up to in terms of actually writing the first draft of your book?
Jen Cole: I am a few sections in, so the last time I talked to you, I had broken my book down into a few well, many sections. What I’m doing is just taking a section, writing as much as I can about it in a sitting and I have three of those sections done right now. What I keep finding myself doing is thinking of relevant things, putting them into my document and then going back into the section and adding these little pieces that are relevant to the section, making each section longer and so I think that that’s going to help when I start deciding to divide them into chapters because these are not chapters, these are just sections of the book. I have a feeling the chapters are going to be short but the sections are going to be encompassing maybe three or four chapters each.
Tim Lewis: Okay. If you had to hazard a guess of what percentage of the book you need to complete … what percentage of your first draft have you done, in terms of where are you in the book, if you had to give a number from one to 100?
Jen Cole: Sure, I would think that I’m going to say easily I think that I’m about a quarter of the way done, based on what I keep doing.
Tim Lewis: Okay.
Jen Cole: I could be a third of the way done, but I keep adding to it and going back.
Tim Lewis: Yeah. Well, if you’re feeling that going back to it adds value and adds quality, then it’s certainly worth doing. However, I would warn against possibly doing that too much because there is the problem where you just might not get the book finished.
Jen Cole: I know, I worry about that too.
Tim Lewis: If you just keep adding to it, forever.
Jen Cole: I know, when is the stopping point?
Tim Lewis: When did you start, when would you say you started writing the actual book in anger, not dilly dallying here and there.
Jen Cole: Right.
Tim Lewis: When did you actually start the first draft?
Jen Cole: I believe it was very shortly after our last interview when I just really sat down and started writing and writing.
Tim Lewis: Yeah.
Jen Cole: A couple months ago.
Tim Lewis: Okay. Just by doing what’s called a bit of simple math or maths as we say in the UK, so you’ve gotten 25% of the way in and you’ve done 25% in say, two to three months.
Jen Cole: It’s certainly a number, Tim.
Tim Lewis: Yeah, it’s going to be … if you carry on at this rate, it’s going to be somewhere at … let’s say we’re in mid January now so I think it will be sometime in October you’ll finish.
Jen Cole: Well, what I’m thinking is that now that the craziness of the holidays is finally over …
Tim Lewis: Yeah.
Jen Cole: … probably going to have a lot more time to devote seriously to this piece of content. I’m really excited about that. Also, I think with the procrastination that with a deadline I work better under pressure. It’ll come, it’ll be here. It won’t be October.
Tim Lewis: Yeah.
Jen Cole: ‘Cause we’re rushing for that April 30th date if I remember correctly, and I want us to hit that, I really, really want to get it done before that. I feel like I have a lot of experiences coming up in the near future that are going to be inspiring to me, that are going to feed this book. I really am really looking forward to that, too. We will see what happens.
Tim Lewis: Yes. Well, something else I would suggest not to put further pressure on you, that 30th of April deadline was actually getting the book out there.
Jen Cole: Mm-hmm.
Tim Lewis: That is not when you’re going to finish the first draft, clearly, because if that’s when you finish the first draught, then unless you’re very good at staying up overnight working continuously for two years, you’re going to need some time for editing, proof reading, but the things like covers and marketing you can get done in parallel with getting the book done.
Jen Cole: Yeah.
Tim Lewis: But I would normally, I would say, something the 31st of March would be a good time to actually finish the first draft by, to give you time to do all the other things. It’s like with anything, it depends what level of quality in a thing you want. A lot of the book writing process is going through editing, even if it’s just you editing the book.
Jen Cole: Right.
Tim Lewis: You don’t want to be, “It’s the 20th of April. I’ve finally finished.”, it’s like Oh…. To be fair, I did exactly the same thing with my social media networking book, which you are of course, one of the featured people in, where it sat on my hard drive for about nine months and then I basically had to force myself to finish it with a deadline with six weeks. Was it six weeks? No, it was more than that, but yeah, it sounds like you may need that “you got to get it done by the end of March” thing.
Jen Cole: Yeah. I think that would be helpful. So, now, hey that’s two and a half months away …
Tim Lewis: Yeah.
Jen Cole: … get to writing.
Tim Lewis: Part of it is, as you say, it’s like holidays are not necessarily the best time to do things especially when you have other things going on in your life and everybody has got other things going on in their lives.
Jen Cole: Oh, indeed.
Tim Lewis: They may not put on social media necessarily but we all know that there are other things that go on a lot of the time in people’s lives. But, that’s just part of life, you just go getting with it.
Jen Cole: Right.
Tim Lewis: Yes. There may need to be a rocket somewhere, it may need to push you forward to get the book done.
Jen Cole: I think the word that you’re referring to or looking for would be what my sons, Julian, Stefan and Paul, a Jentervention.
Tim Lewis: Yes. Yes. The project needs to get slightly back on track again but you have made progress and any kind of progress is good. A lot of it’s just keeping going in the right direction.
Jen Cole: Sometimes I find myself just overthinking what I’m trying to say so what I do, I just take a break and come back because sometimes it’s just not coming out right or in the same voice or you know, you got to be in the right place to be able to write the right way.
Tim Lewis: It’s such a personal thing, writing.
Jen Cole: Yeah, it is.
Tim Lewis: I was talking to Ben, shoot that was a while ago, that episode. He was saying he found a particular time in the morning, I think it was, where it worked for him and we may act on things like I’ve been playing TV episodes on my iPad and periodically watching it and then writing and then watching a bit and writing it. But that couldn’t work for somebody like Ben because it’s just a different way of working. It’s finding out what works for you and just stick with that. Keeping doing that enough. If that’s you hiding in the broom club at lunch time with your laptop writing something or in one of the local brewing houses.
Jen Cole: That would be more like it.
Tim Lewis: Yeah. As long as nobody comes and distracts you, that’s the other … but again, it’s like that’s a whole introvert extrovert thing. I actually work better in places where I do have people potentially distracting me.
Jen Cole: Me too.
Tim Lewis: I always like to think that I can work from home consistently on my own but most of the time I’ve been fairly terrible at that. In that more extrovert environment, I think you need somewhere where you have the … you need the right level of distraction so that you’ve got that energy of other people around but you actually have got some time to do something.
Jen Cole: It’s really interesting that you say that because the topic of my book is about community, we’ve talked about this. I feel like I do a better job writing this book when I am out in the community and I talk about this with my blog posts, too. I do a better job writing when I’m out or around people, I’m actually feeling what I’m writing about when I’m writing it. The writing comes off way better when I do that, I’ve tried to write at home in silence and I just can’t do that. I have to be out and around people, saying hi to people and then I sound more like myself when I write. I have discovered that, it’s been a fun thing to discover this year.
Tim Lewis: Yeah, and it’s interesting actually the lessons that you learn about yourself when writing books. It’s kind of … I’m getting a little bit philosophical here but you do learn a lot about yourself when you try and write a book.
Jen Cole: Yeah.
Tim Lewis: The fact that I first wrote a time travel book, I don’t know what that suggested about me, there will be an element of you personally in your book. It’s actually important that you get that right. Anyway, enough of my philosophical ramblings. We’ve talked about the deadline and the fact that you need to kind of a bit of incentivization to speed up a bit. At the end of the day, if you have to move the deadline, you have to move the deadline. It’s an artificial one, but on the other hand, I think you need that deadline to get it done.
Jen Cole: I need the deadline.
Tim Lewis: Yeah.
Jen Cole: Absolutely. Yeah.
Tim Lewis: Given that you work in marketing basically all the time, what thought have you given to marketing your book?
Jen Cole: Well, you know I’ve watched other people and what they’ve done and I’ve gathered some information. I’m trying to think about what level I’m entering into this. This is going to be obviously the first one I ever write, probably not going to be the only one though. So, I watched what Ben has been doing. I watched what Andrew and Pete were doing, I’ve watched what you did with your book and then so many other people that are in our industry when they write their book and it seems that they start marketing it months before. Ben did a crowdfunding thing and Joel Comm sent his books to people before it was actually released so that they could read it and then review it. I see a lot of people do that. There are a lot of different strategies to go at marketing the book. Man, I haven’t even … I think I have the name. I think I’m committing to the name. I didn’t tell you that, but I think that I’m committing to the original name that I called it, that is on the document. I think that I might be ready-
Jen Cole: It’s on the document I think, at the top. I think you’re still shared on it.
Tim Lewis: I’m going to pound that in, I’m going have to bring up the document. Can’t you remember the name of your own book?
Jen Cole: Oh, I know it, I’m on the document, I just I don’t know if I’m ready to announce it yet.
Tim Lewis: Oh, okay.
Jen Cole: I probably should, so I can commit to it. But, maybe that’s for the next episode of this podcast, to officially commit.
Tim Lewis: A big name reveal.
Jen Cole: A big name reveal, absolutely. I think I have it.
Tim Lewis: Well, this is one of the things that I know some people do, they do cover reveals.
Jen Cole: Yes, yeah, that would be fun.
Tim Lewis: You can basically have a party about anything, if you wanted.
Jen Cole: Oh, that sounds like it’s right up my alley.
Tim Lewis: We could have a party reveal in San Diego.
Jen Cole: Oh my gosh, how fun would that be, right before the first draft deadline? That would be so much fun. Oh my gosh, now my brain’s going.
Tim Lewis: Anyway, most things in life are I wouldn’t say are necessarily are being hugely successful, but I know a lot of things not to do and I’ve seen people do things that are very successful.
Jen Cole: Yeah.
Tim Lewis: One thing to consider is both what your aims are for the book in terms of are you trying to get people, particular people to find out about the book and hear about it so they’ll book you in for speaking gigs?
Jen Cole: Absolutely.
Tim Lewis: And or are you trying to get Amazon chart success. Now, actually, Amazon chart success for a non-fiction book is easier than a fiction one because there was just so many Amazon charts.
Jen Cole: Yeah.
Tim Lewis: Actually, when you come down to it you find the sales of most books by people like you and me are not terribly high.
Jen Cole: Right.
Tim Lewis: The way to get most Amazon … the way that Amazon works in terms of … and it’s all about the books basically, there are people who chart in the paperback books, but that’s a lot harder because there are less categories, but for eBooks, it’s all about the first 30 days of the book. You want consistent building sales over about a week, ’cause apparently the way that the Amazon algorithm works in terms of how it charts books is if it sees a sudden spike, then it’s a bit suspicious about that. If you had one day with 500 sales of your book and then two the next day, then that looks suspicious. But, if you have 20 sales and then the next day you have 100 sales and then you have 500 sales, then that book will chart very highly in the Amazon chart.
Jen Cole: Cool.
Tim Lewis: You need to be, and this was something I wish I’d done with the social media networking book because I had 20 people who were interviewed in it.
Jen Cole: Yeah.
Tim Lewis: Well, I got in touch with everybody, it was a bit of an afterthought and I did it too late and I would’ve set up more of an email list or people who were contacts of the people who were in the book and set that all up so it would’ve been the Jen Cole list and I would’ve got you to get people to sign up to that list who were interested in the book because you were in it.
Jen Cole: Oh, cool.
Tim Lewis: Then a Julie Riley list …
Jen Cole: Yeah.
Tim Lewis: … and so on. Because even though people like you, some people did it later, they did a Twitter post weeks later or some people would … some people I knew did message email lists but most people don’t. I would suggest that email is still the most because you’re in control of when the message goes out. On social media, you can post something on Facebook but people might not see, I’m still getting seen posts on Facebook from New Year’s Eve and it’s the 4th and it just isn’t that timeliness on social. Social media is good for …
Jen Cole: Yeah.
Tim Lewis: … consistent sales over time. I still get consistent sales, one or two a week for Social Media Networking, which is all from social media. But I would’ve preferred to have had a big surge at the beginning to get it into some Amazon charts so it would get exposure that way.
Jen Cole: Yes. Yes.
Tim Lewis: The second thing about marketing, which I need to work on in my book, is getting people to review it. Now, that reviewing part is not for that first month, it’s for later on. ‘Cause there’s an awful lot of … it’s social proof in seeing those five stars next to your thing with 500 views or whatever. There’s also the fact that the there are email books services and it’s not so true with non-fiction but certainly true of fiction where you can basically pay $100 and put your book as a discounted book but they only accept books with a certain number of reviews, 15 or 20.
Jen Cole: Oh, wow.
Tim Lewis: Once you get those reviews, because there’s all these people willing to push books but they want it to feel like it’s not just some Joe Schmoe has shoved a book out there.
Jen Cole: Right.
Tim Lewis: I know I need to go around chasing people for reviews of this book. It’s not just people who’ve bought in on Amazon, if you bought any kind, in fact, if you bought over $50 on Amazon, then you can review even if you haven’t bought it on Amazon.
Jen Cole: Oh, boy.
Tim Lewis: Yeah. It’s an awful lot of rabble rousing at the end of the day.
Jen Cole: Sounds like it.
Tim Lewis: That’s just something else to consider. You will notice though, and I noticed, I think I got that speaking gig at Cambridge Social Media day from actually having a book. The fact that I gave the book to the woman who was running the event and the Market Ed Live event, helped me to get that speaking event. I think just having the book will help you in general but that is where more the quality of the book will come in so, it might be worth considering paying for proofreading and editing services or finding somebody who can do it for you in exchange for marketing services or something like that.
Jen Cole: Oh, yeah, that’s cool.
Tim Lewis: That’s why, yeah, having a look at trying to get your book finished very early is a good idea.
Jen Cole: Sounds like it.
Tim Lewis: Gives you a way to start thinking about those services ’cause a lot of editors and our people are booked up way in advance. It’s just something to consider.
Jen Cole: Yeah. Yeah.
Tim Lewis: I think cover design you can probably wait a little bit to do that. There are loads of cover services out there that are going … this is maybe something you could consider doing yourself, I generally would suggest trying to buy a cover.
Jen Cole: Yeah.
Tim Lewis: Or getting one commissioned and there is a whole range of different price points for getting covers done. I wouldn’t necessarily suggest something like Fiverr because my experience, people there tend to have ripped off copyright material from elsewhere.
Jen Cole: Yeah. Don’t want to do that.
Tim Lewis: Yeah. Well, that’s the problem. You can get pre-designed book covers, which is what I did with my book. I’m trying to think anything else, it’s always lots of other little intricate things, I’ve listened to that episode I did with Holly Chessman, actually, where she had actually done all of the book but she’d forgotten about … she didn’t know the last bit about how to actually do the self-publishing. ‘Cause I’m sure there’s extra things that I’ve forgotten in there that we can talk about in your next interview.
Jen Cole: Oh, I’m sure there is. There’s going to be a lot and I think it’s going to get really exciting going forward.
Tim Lewis: Writing a book is a project.
Jen Cole: Yeah.
Tim Lewis: It’s not … actually most stages of the book writing process and the book publishing process are not that complicated. But, on the other hand, and I know this from personal experience, those bits that you neglect tend to come back and haunt you.
Jen Cole: Yeah. Yeah. That was good knowledge.
Tim Lewis: Then you regret that you didn’t get a particular, you didn’t edit a particular bit that well or your cover wasn’t very good or you went for a cheap cover, or …
Tim Lewis: But then again, it is your first project and it’s not like certainly from the paperback books there’s not a lot you can do about the copies you produce but for the eBooks, you can change the new copies that go out and for the paperbacks you can also change new copies going out, so there’s nothing that’s unfixable but it’s better to get it right in the first place if you can.
Jen Cole: For sure. Yeah. It’s good for time, too.
Tim Lewis: I think that’s done for now, so the lesson we’ve learned is yeah, you’re a little bit behind but you’re somebody who responds to deadlines anyway.
Jen Cole: For sure.
Tim Lewis: I suppose that’s the lesson of it. Jen makes a late charge will have to be the next episode title. I think I’ll get around to the current schedule, assuming you don’t lose your voice or the scheduling being screwed up again, I think we’ll probably talk again mid-February.
Jen Cole: Yeah, I think that’s great.
Tim Lewis: I expect you to be 75% done by then.
Jen Cole: I think we can do it, we can make it happen.
Tim Lewis: Yeah.
Jen Cole: It’s going to be awesome.
Tim Lewis: I’ll talk to you again then.
Jen Cole: Sounds good to me.
If you liked this show then you’ll probably like Jen’s previous shows: Jen Commits to Publish and Jen Finishes Her Plan . You might also like Holly Discovers the Final Steps, Great Content with Andrew and Pete (Christmas Special) and What’s Working Now with Facebook Ads with Azriel Ratz