
How I Wrote and Self-Published a Book: Step by Step - bennesvig
http://bennesvig.com/2012/01/01/how-i-wrote-a-book-step-by-step/
======
kn0thing
Here's the tutorial I wrote after publishing xkcd: volume 0. Best of luck to
all of you self-publishers!

[http://breadpig.com/2010/02/17/53000-profit-in-3-months-
from...](http://breadpig.com/2010/02/17/53000-profit-in-3-months-from-books-
reasons-to-self-publish-or-start-your-own-niche-publishing-company-reasons-
not-to/)

[http://breadpig.com/2010/02/19/step-by-step-guide-on-how-
to-...](http://breadpig.com/2010/02/19/step-by-step-guide-on-how-to-publish-a-
book-lessons-learned-from-xkcd-volume-0/)

------
jmtame
if this type of thing interests you, i also wrote in detail how i did mine
here: [http://www.startupsopensourced.com/2011/05/01/startups-
open-...](http://www.startupsopensourced.com/2011/05/01/startups-open-
sourced-1-week-later-10000-in-revenue/)

~~~
jordanmessina
After months of seeing this as the #1 recommended book by Amazon based on my
previous purchases, I finally gave in and got Startups Open Sourced. It was
the best book I read in 2011. I give you a lot of credit for putting together
one of the best startup resources out there to date. Thanks for the hard work,
Jared!

~~~
jmtame
i really loved talking to the founders and working on this project, but
hearing comments like this really makes me glad i did it. thanks for your
support!

------
peterarmstrong
Ben, I see you started with Google Docs and switched to Scrivener. Did you
ever consider writing in Markdown? (That's what we use for Leanpub
manuscripts, and we produce PDF, EPUB and MOBI.) Obviously your book is done;
I'm just interested in your feedback on writing tools. (Basically, I'm doing
customer development, trying to figure out if you could go back in time and
use Leanpub, would you still use Scrivener, etc?)

~~~
bennesvig
Hadn't heard of Markdown until now. I can always be convinced to try something
new, but Scrivener was incredibly simple. I can edit and submit an updated
version to the Kindle store in 5 minutes (video of that here:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puv9zCwrex4> ).

My formatting isn't anything incredible, so if Leanpub could put together a
quality conversion I'd consider checking them out.

~~~
peterarmstrong
If you email your manuscript to peter@leanpub.com I'll have this done for you
so that you can compare. Ideally if you can save it as HTML we can convert it
to Markdown automatically. However, if this is a hassle, then send me whatever
format you have.

The nice thing is that since you're publishing an in-progress book your
approach lines up exactly with what we encourage authors to do. When you
publish new versions your readers get free updates automatically, etc. We
produce files that can be put in the Kindle store, iBookstore, etc and we also
sell the PDF, EPUB and MOBI on Leanpub, paying a 90% - 50 cent royalty.

Email me if you want any more info...

------
dmerfield
"Everyone has a book in them, and in most cases that is where it should stay."

Christopher Hitchens on self-publishing

~~~
bennesvig
Sturgeon's law probably applies to any book published, whether by traditional
or self-published means.

------
kadavy
After publishing a book through a publisher ("Design for Hackers"), I've had
some other smaller ideas rattling around that I've considered self-publishing.
Scrivener looks like a useful tool.

I'm pretty sure I would hire an editor, though. Unless you're a trained
writer, it can be difficult to keep grammar and sentence structure correct.

~~~
bennesvig
Agreed. No matter what happens in the publishing industry, editors will always
have a place.

I'm halfway through Design for Hackers. The Kindle version is really
impressive on the iPad. Whoever did the formatting did a great job.

~~~
kadavy
Hey, thanks for picking up Design for Hackers! I was pleasantly surprised by
the Kindle version myself.

------
spodek
Last week I self-published my first book.

My visit to North Korea last year amazed me at how much we base our
impressions of North Korea on pre-conceived notions. I already blogged daily
(<http://joshuaspodek.com>), but the experience affected me so much I started
posting twice daily, one post on North Korea
(<http://joshuaspodek.com/category/northkorea>).

Then Kim Jong Il died and tons of articles came out on North Korea, many or
most had the same pre-conceived notions or assigned credit to the leaders that
I thought were properties of the system, making understanding or achieving
change difficult.

Reading all those articles, I felt compelled to put my perspective out there.
My posts on HN got high karma. I assembled a number of my posts, polished them
(they needed more polish than I thought), and posted them on Amazon and
Smashwords for download to electronic devices
([http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006PMDXTM?ie=UTF8&tag=...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006PMDXTM?ie=UTF8&tag=joshspod-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B006PMDXTM)).

The first time was laborious and time-consuming. Now that I've done it, I know
how to do it easier and I plan to do it many times.

I'm going to start marketing soon. The big news days when Kim Jong Il died
motivated me so I missed them as days to sell books, but I hope the book
changes some people's views of North Korea and helps motivate people toward
effective change.

------
davidw
$89 for some guy on oDesk? Wow, I knew we needed to raise prices at
LiberWriter, but... ouch. For someone technical - you know HTML and grok
various XML formats - learning how to do it yourself isn't _that_ big a deal.
I have always likened it to changing a tire on a car - it's not that hard, but
if you're short on time and patience, you'll probably be happier to pay
someone to do it if possible.

~~~
k33n
You're advertising an ability to make an ebook beautiful through formatting
and styling, yet this is your Website: <http://liberwriter.com/>

I'd work on that if I were you.

~~~
davidw
It looks good to me - simple, direct and easy to navigate.

Our customers are looking for quality formatting at good prices, not lots of
rounded corners and other gewgaws. By and large, they have zero overlap with
the HN crowd and could care less about the latest trendy design fads.

Also, remember that Kindle formatting is very very plain.

~~~
larrys
It probably would make sense to get something from <http://themeforest.net/>
or similar and jazz it up a bit. I don't disagree with what you are saying but
you will most likely do more sales that way. If you end up doing this make
sure to write about it.

Here's an example (not saying to use this one):

[http://themeforest.net/theme_previews/286942-cheerapp-
premiu...](http://themeforest.net/theme_previews/286942-cheerapp-premium-app-
html-template?index=4)

~~~
davidw
I've looked through themeforest in the past - the prices are great if I found
something that would be an improvement, but I never found anything I liked. A
lot of our customers are older and not great with computers, so clarity and
simplicity are things that I place a high emphasis on - and something people
have commented on as well - they appreciate that it's all right there in front
of them in fonts that are easy to read.

Not to say it couldn't be a lot better, but it's something that I feel more
like iterating on at the moment, rather than throwing it away and starting
from something someone else did that I may have trouble changing.

I do appreciate the constructive comment though; a lot of 'design' threads
seem to be a bit on the sniffy side, which is unhelpful: I know I'm not a
professional designer, and don't try and play one on the internet. I'm doing
the best I can given the circumstances, and am not unhappy with the results so
far, in terms of what our customers are telling us.

~~~
larrys
"A lot of our customers are older and not great with computers"

Understand. The hand holding crowd. We have those as well so I know what you
mean.

I think you need to incorporate this statement that you make elsewhere:

"Word manuscript, we make it look good on the Kindle"

in a prominent place under your banner on the homepage such as:

"We make your word manuscript look good on the Kindle!"

or

"Liberwriter makes your word manuscript look good on the Kindle!"

It needs to be right on your home page since it's the easiest way to
understand at a glance and reinforce what you are doing. (See logo design
below).

Also, the stuff on this page:

<http://www.liberwriter.com/kindle_book_cover_images>

Needs to be more prominent visual and mentioned on the home page. I think it's
the key to what you are selling and it represents what every writer really
wants (and is the key to vanity publishing in general like what a diamond ring
means to a woman the physical representation of something).

Lastly, I would work some of the quotes from "testimonials" into the home page
as well. For example this:

"contacting Kindle Support and they finally recommended Liber Writer"

can become this:

"Recommended by Amazon Kindle Support!" (in proximity to your logo at the
top).

In fact, browsing your testimonials I see plenty of things that belong on your
home page (which is good so take advantage of anything you can put there.)

You can use <http://99designs.com> or <http://www.logotournament> to create a
new banner at the top. With the resulting photoshop files you can change and
tweak the tag line when needed. At the very least a new banner incorporating a
tagline would be a very easy change to make.

If you make any of these changes let me know so I can take a look. Good luck.

------
zupatol
Yesterday I was trying to make an ebook out of a comic I made, where there is
one image per page. The designers of epub and mobi apparently didn't think it
useful to be able to put an image in the center of a page, it has to be glued
to the top. That seems so idiotic that I'm still hoping I didn't look well
enough.

I'm also trying to find an easy way to make a book into an android and iphone
app. O'reilly packages some of its books as apps using the aldiko reader, but
I haven't found any explanation about how to do this.

------
g0atbutt
Would you mind explaining why you decided to go with the Kindle Store instead
of just hosting it yourself? Does the Kindle Store restrict you from doing
that? Would you mind sharing some of your stats?

Thanks for sharing your insight!

~~~
bennesvig
The Kindle store is where I made 99% of my book purchases last year, so I
based the decision off my own buying preferences. Also, it's much easier to
publish a book through Amazon than Apple (at least from what I've read).

If you sign up for KDP Select, where people with Amazon Prime and a Kindle can
rent your book for free, then the digital version has to exclusively be on
Kindle for 90 days.

As for stats, the book has only been out a week and a half so the data isn't
that interesting. Plus, I've yet to really make a big marketing push behind
it. In a few months I'll have another post sharing some stats and what I've
learned.

~~~
genieyclo
Are you selling on any other ebook platforms yet; like OverDrive for
libraries, or in B&N's store? Do you sell physical copies through Lulu or
their competitors? What do you use to track analytics if you use multiple
platforms? Did you ever think about formatting with Markdown ever during the
process? Can you expand upon why you chose $3 as the selling price for your
ebook?

I realize these are quite a few questions, but I value your input given your
experience. It's a very interesting world in self-publishing today.

Thanks.

~~~
bennesvig
Selling on other platforms: Not yet. KDP Select prohibits me from selling the
digital version anywhere else. Unsure of whether this was a good decision or
not, but I'm stuck for the next 90 days.

I did consider using Book Baby for distribution. I still might come march.

Physical copies: I'll be submitting the book to CreateSpace once the designer
I'm working with finishes the cover.

Pricing: Pricing is a known unknown for me. $3 is as cheap as I can go while
retaining the 70%. Below $2.99 and it goes down to 35%. Should I price it at
$5? $7? $9.99? I'm not sure. Seth Godin has interesting thoughts on this:
[http://www.thedominoproject.com/2011/12/how-much-should-
an-e...](http://www.thedominoproject.com/2011/12/how-much-should-an-ebook-
cost.html)

------
jayliew
Just to mention another option for prospective authors to publish an e-book
sans the sucky parts: HyperInk.com (YC startup)

------
manojlds
How is this "self-publishing"? Isn't Amazon your publisher?

~~~
Turing_Machine
Publisher and distributor aren't the same thing.

------
brador
Any tips on how to best market a self-published book?

~~~
bennesvig
I can't give advice from experience for at least another month or two, but
I'll post a conversation I've been having with a successful author on book
marketing next week.

