Book Publishing Q+A

While it would be fair to call us book obsessed on the podcast lately, in our defense we decided it was time to turn to other topics. But then we got a series of juicy listener questions on publishing a first book and we couldn’t help ourselves.

In this episode, Jonathan and I tackle:

The two main reasons to write a book for your expertise or authority business.

The pros and cons of self-publishing vs. seeking out a traditional publisher.

Positioning and pricing your self-published book—and whether to sell it on your website and/or amazon.

How to find and vet the right editor(s) for your situation.

The role of e-books vs. physical books and why you probably want both.

Quotables

“The two main reasons to write a book for business: there’s the 300 page business card and there’s the revenue stream… it really helps going into it to know which one you’re writing.”—JS

“You might make different strategic and tactical decisions depending on whether you want direct or indirect revenue from your book.”—RM

“If you want to reach a broader audience, then it does make sense to go through a more traditional publishing channel or at least something closer to that.”—JS

“The irony (with traditional publishers) is when you want them, when you need them, they usually don’t want you—because they want you to have enough name recognition that you’re helping to drive the sales of the book.”—RM

“When I published Hourly Billing Is Nuts, since it was so much about pricing, I was like, I want to price this right. And I don’t want it to be next to a whole bunch of direct competitors that are cheaper. It’d be like putting myself on Upwork.”—JS

“I wanted really good editors because all of my (client) book experiences up to now have been with really top-notch people at big publishing houses and I wanted somebody as good as that for my book.”—RM

“I think everybody should write a book—the experience is fabulous. It’s so good to have to think that hard about something and have a project that’s that big.”—JS

“How hard is it to create a physical book on Amazon? It is so freaking easy if you’re already doing the e-book on amazon.”—RM