This is the first in a ten-ish blog post series on getting my book published with a major publisher. I’m told people like hearing the backstories of authors getting their work picked up by a publisher. I don’t totally get this, but I did rely on a lot of personal stories in my own rapid-learning journey as I set out to get my book published. And apparently people love unboxing and “haul” videos on TikTok, so I guess there’s an audience for everything.
You can visit this post to see an outline of all the posts on this topic. That page will be updated as I add each new post.
Let’s go!
Step one for me was arriving at an idea for a book. I had wanted to “write a book” for quite some time. I dabbled in a startup that was designed to help people write books and get them to market faster. My Google Drive was filled with random ideas and outlines on titles that emanated mostly from my work as an executive coach or a co-founder of a venture capital fund. One weekend I even put up a bunch of poster boards on the wall and filled them with color-coded post-its to get closer to outlining an idea.
I looked back on all those efforts every year or two, and the only thing that had changed was that I was not writing a book. Inasmuch as I thought I wanted to write a book, it became for years quite clear that I was unconsciously committed to never writing a book. For a while I did what I tell my clients to do. I just started admitting that and noticing all the ways I was fulfilling my commitment.
Then, three years ago, my friend and collaborator Kaley Klemp and I were a few reps into our coaching certification program for leaders in business. Things were going great. We were selling out every cohort, and one of Kaley’s clients – the CEO of a tech company – asked us to do that certification program inside her company. As we were planning that very thing, the same CEO, who had done the public version of the program, said “you should put this in a book.” So on our way to launch that program at that company, Kaley and I outlined the book Leader Coach: Scaling Conscious Leadership at Work.
Let me tell you something. Let me tell you a few things. Self-publishing a book is extremely difficult. Even with hiring superb resources to edit, copyedit, proofread, design, and audiobook produce this book, getting it into the world is undoubtedly one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. The workload is enormous. The room for error nearly infinite. Yes, you get to market faster. Yes, you earn more per copy sold. Yes, you have complete control over pricing and access to sales data. Yes, you can use the IP any way you want to. And still, extremely hard.
To do it well also was pricey. In order to give you a sense of what might lie behind a project like Leader Coach, I want to be transparent about the financial outlay:
But the book came to market. And it’s good. It is a fantastic resource to Kaley’s and my clients who want to pragmatically launch and scale conscious leadership at their companies. It’s a phenomenal resource for anyone who has never met Kaley or me.
Super.
Still, after that, I was left with a persistent interest in writing a book on my own with a top publisher. And after breaking the ice with Leader Coach, somehow the unconscious commitment to never write a book had faded.
I was more ready, more open, more enthusiastic, and still incredibly unclear about what, if anything, wanted to be written by me.
Next post: Landing the Idea for a New Book.
Any thoughts, feelings, or blurts? Share them here.
