After self-publishing 4 books, here’s my advice

In 6 weeks time I will publish my fourth non-fiction book (co-authored with my colleague Stefan Jordev), Instacart for CMOs.

I like to include commentary from other people in the industry in my books, to make sure the ideas are well-rounded. In reaching out to colleagues for their input I often hear something like this:

Oooh — I have a book idea too. How did you publish your books? Can I pick your brain about it?

This kind of comment is like an iron-clad guarantee that I can write something that people will care about. And I have limited brain-picking time on my calendar these days. So if you’re reading this because I sent you the link to this post instead of scheduling a meeting, I’m sorry, and thank you.

In this post I will share everything I would tell you if we spoke 1:1 about writing a nonfiction book.

1. Know your ‘why’
2. I choose to self-publish
3. Collaborating with others
4. More resources

Me and a previous co-author, Mark Power

1. Know your “why”

First of all, you need to be very clear on why you’re considering writing a book at all. Publishing a book is very challenging, and you’ll lose momentum unless you have a strong “why”.

I’ll share why I write as an example. I am the founder of Bobsled Marketing, an agency which operates in the incredibly fast-moving space of ecommerce marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart and Instacart. I write and produce content (a column for Forbes retail, host the Ecommerce Braintrust podcast, and occasionally write for other outlets like RetailWire) for 2 reasons:

1. To clarify my point-of-view on a particular topic. One example is the emergence of livestreaming in ecommerce — a topic I was interested in but had no real understanding of. So I did some research, spoke with some people, and published an article for Forbes and an interview with a beauty influencer on my podcast. James Clear says, “If you really want to learn a topic, teach it.” Now I have a clear POV on that topic because I had to “teach” my audience about it.
2. For business development. Being a thought leader in your industry is a very powerful marketing mechanism. Our clients want to know that their marketplace agency is on the cutting edge, and the content that I publish helps to attract prospective clients and build trust with them.

Those are not the only two reasons why you should write a book. You might choose to do it for any number of other reasons. I think the important thing is that you identify your reason(s) for writing and make sure they are very compelling to you.

2. I self-publish

I have self-published all my books and have zero regrets about it. I would recommend this path to most people who ask me for advice. Here’s why:

1. “Choose yourself.” — James Altucher. For the first time in history, publishing a book is incredibly easy with practically zero barrier to entry. Why wait around, hoping a publisher will pick up the phone and call you? Sure, there is some element of scarcity here which some authors use as a marker of credibility. But if credibility is what you’re seeking, I’d suggest you have bigger issues to solve first. Don’t wait for someone else to choose you, choose yourself.
2. The half-life of content. Unfortunately for me, the topics that I wrote about don’t age well. If I were writing about a relatively evergreen topic like leadership or parenting, this might not be a consideration. My latest book about Instacart will likely be out-of-date in less than 12 months. Ouch! Traditional publishers might take 2 years to publish even the first edition of that book, at which point the content will be severely out of date. With Instacart for CMOs, the first draft was ready less than 3 months before I pitched my co-author on it (including holding 10+ interviews!) and we will publish in less than 2 months’ time.
3. Control. I control the content and the timeline and virtually all elements of what’s inside the book. I also control the PR and marketing — which is hard work, frankly. From what I’ve heard, publishers still rely mostly on the Authors to do the heavy lifting here anyway.
4. Financials. I don’t know any non-fiction authors who count a publisher’s advance as a significant income stream. And yes, I need to pay for things like cover design, editing, and typesetting out of pocket. But I can negotiate on those things and get the best person for the job. Over the course of a couple of years, I’d expect to recoup the investment make on each book but not make any meaningful profits from them. At least in my corner of the internet, you don’t write books to get rich. A publisher however, needs to make a profit on your book. So your motivations are often misaligned — creating all kinds of issues with content, distribution, and marketing choices.

3. Collaborating with others

Here’s a not-so-secret secret: I co-wrote my last two books with colleagues. You can see their names right there on the cover. With Amazon for CMOs, Mark Power is the co-founder of an agency which in many ways is a competitor of mine. But the net benefit to each of us from the book was far greater than the potential downsides. Mark had unique insight into areas I knew nothing about and vice versa. If either of us had written the book solo, it would have been less than half as good.

Stefan Jordev is the co-author of my latest book about Instacart, and he is the Director of Marketplace Strategy and insights at my company Bobsled Marketing. Likewise, Stefan has a totally different background to me and could articulate the advertising and data side of the book far more adequately. We also divided & conquered on the actual process: Stefan held all the interviews with the dozen or so contributors to the book, categorizing the key insights into the themes that form the 12 chapters of the book. Then I managed the process from outline to first draft.

‘None of us is as smart as all of us.’

― Kenneth H. Blanchard.

For both of these books, we also sought contributions from dozens of other people. In our case, it was Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and other retail industry execs who have a point of view on the topics of Amazon and Instacart. While Mark, Stefan and myself all have credibility in the space, it’s way more compelling to also hear from peers. Michael Hyatt, an author in the leadership space, does this very effectively in his books too. He’ll discuss a concept, and then add a quote or story from one of his clients to bring the concept to life and provide a proof-point.

Finally, my strong recommendation is to pay professionals to help get your project over the line. If you have even a modest budget, you can outsource a great deal of tasks like structural editing, copy editing, book cover design, typesetting, PR, etc. (See the resources section for tips). You can even have someone ghostwrite the book for you — interviewing you and adapting your insights for the page.

4. More resources

If you’re still with me, I will share some further reading and resources with you. If you have a question, the best place to reach me is on LinkedIn.

1. The Published Author podcast. Insightful interviews with authors and a great resource to get started. I was recently a guest on this show so you can find my episode too.
2. How to write this book by Laura Gale. I have worked with Laura on three of my books, and recently picked this book up again to refresh myself on the process. It’s a great checklist of things to do and consider.
3. Top Book Marketing strategies for Amazon. While we don’t work with authors or publishers at Bobsled, I decided to share my thoughts on the ideal marketing plan for authors in this blog post.

Are you still on board? Great. Get started now before you start doubting yourself again.