Post 158. The 3 Easiest and 3 Hardest Things About Writing and Self-Publishing a Book. January 13, 2025
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Bridge in Orlando, Florida.
Tip of the Week
If you are considering writing a book, here are the 3 easiest and the 3 hardest things I learned from writing and self-publishing a book:
3 Easiest Things
Coming up with an idea.
I’m usually not the idea-generating person (though I’m getting better at it with practice!), but this book was fun to generate and write.
Dreaming about the book.
This was super easy. Haha. I could imagine it being completed.
Learning about self-publishing on Amazon.
This was surprisingly “easy” in terms of learning the process. But, read below to learn more about the flip side to this.
3 Hardest Things
Writing the book.
Once you have an idea, you have to actually write it! Of course, I used the principles I talk about in the book to write. The only difference for me was not having a deadline or external pressures to produce, which are very real in academia. Sometimes external pressure can be good.
Editing the book.
This was one of the hardest parts, which surprised me. While I am pretty good at editing other people’s work, I’m really not so good at editing my own work! I think it’s because I’m too close to it. It’s too easy not to “see” things. I did use tools and others to help, and I write about this in my introduction. ALSO, this phase took MUCH, MUCH longer than I anticipated (and is ongoing).
Actually self-publishing on Amazon.
While setting up and understanding Amazon’s process was relatively “easy”, dealing with files and formatting was not so fun for me. In a way, this was tied to the editing bit of this process.
The main take-away? While I’m pleased at how the book turned out, it’s not exactly, absolutely perfect in every way — things readers may not even care about or notice! But, IN THE END, these “imperfections” are keeping me humble. And that is good.
I hope that any aspiring book writers/self-publishers out there are encouraged to write and publish their work.
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