You might want to read my previous post, “Writing, Actually Writing, a Manuscript. And Then Getting Some Help.” To find all the posts in this series, take a look.

At the end of my last post, I had a not half-bad draft manuscript around a concept that I really cared about. I felt excitement at having this product of so much devoted thinking and time (and a long and windy career), and also proud that I’d actually written something.

It was time to decide what to do with this thing I had written. By this point, I’d ruled out the idea of casting it into a digital dumpster.

I had two choices as I saw it. Self-publish using all the tools and resources used for Leader Coach or attempt to sell it to a major publisher. There were likely options in between these two poles, but this is how I saw the choice at the time (and perhaps still). I thought about this for months, which for me is a very long time to think about something. I listened to podcasts and read articles about this comparison. Here was my pro and con list, which I’ll show below as my judgments of the good and less good of each option:

So I looked at that whole list. I realized that my personality type makes it really easy for me to overvalue autonomy, control, and speed and devalue quality and subject matter expertise. Trying to sell a book could take years. Even if I sell the book, it will take years after that to get it to market. With me, almost everything feels time-sensitive. It’s often easy for me to see what I lose by waiting, and I rarely build in an assumption about what I gain from delay.

One thing I knew is that it was unlikely that I’d be able to sell the book. So all I was deciding was whether or not to try. A reason that lent itself to trying, which would lead to delay, is that I wasn’t viewing this book as a lead generation vehicle for my day job. My day job of executive coaching and facilitating through conscious leadership requires me to sell to be successful. But a book about selling wasn’t really relevant to my coaching and facilitation clients. They weren’t looking to me for that. As such, a two-year delay wasn’t going to affect me one way or another in my work. If I were relying on a book as a sales device itself, I might have weighed that more heavily in my consideration. 

In the end, in truth, it came down to vanity. At the time I decided to try to sell this manuscript to a publisher, I had no idea just how hard it would be to self-publish our co-authored book Leader Coach. I did know that I really cared about getting the external approval of a top-tier publisher about the quality and value of my book. I had no idea if I could sell it or would sell it, but I decided for vanity’s sake primarily that I would try to sell it. It’s ironic in this vein that self-publishing is called “vanity publishing” when the real feather in one’s cap in my view comes from winning the partnership of a publisher. My second motivation for this decision was quality. Yes, I could hire people who were side hustling from the publishing industry to work with me, but I read a ton, and I know the quality of the bulk of what I read. The fiction and nonfiction titles I choose from publishers have genuine merit, and inside the covers I find an extraordinary level of excellence in writing, storytelling, and argument.

So I made the call. But my call was tempered. 

I decided to spend exactly one month trying to sell my manuscript. If I failed, I had the backup plan of self-publishing. And if you’ve read (or preordered) my book Never Ask for the Sale, you know that passionate ambivalence required me to give this a great shot but have a backup plan that would prevent me from getting too obsessed with any specific outcome of the process.

Next up: Getting an Agent: Contacts and Query Letters, Oh My!

Any thoughts, feelings, or blurts? Share them here.

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More Never Ask for the Sale Happenings

I have been having some impactful conversations about selling on the HeySue Podcast. In “Hands-on Selling with Kevin Brown,” I talked with the CEO of Friction Labs about aligning his passion for climbing with his brand of climbing chalk, that he guarantees with a no-questions-asked refund. Authentic from-the-heart selling.

Book launch events are coming up in Colorado and Chicago (so far!) and I’d love for you to join me IRL. Keep an eye on heysue.com/events for details and registration.

‍Are you game to join the Never Ask Launch Team? Find out how you can score a sweet sticker and gobs of gratitude by buying some copies of the book and sharing the love. Click over to the Launch Team options to plug in.