A Survival Guide to Publishing Your First Book

Hey honeys and hustlers,

Today, I’m bringing you some words from Steve Pratt, the writer behind the Creativity Business newsletter. Six months ago, he released his book, Earn It: Unconventional Strategies for Brave Marketers. I ran into Steve at Podcast Movement Evolutions in Chicago, and he wrote an incredible article on video podcasting following that event. Today, I’m sharing his article on his learnings from publishing a book. I really enjoyed it, and I think you will as well.

ICYMI: Steve joined me in his first-ever Substack Live on Thursday! Here’s the replay of our conversation.

This is a truncated version of his article. You can find the full original article here.

Six Months of Insights

1. Wonderful and unexpected things happen when you publish a book. Publishing a book is a timely event that puts you top of mind for many people. As a result, consulting opportunities show up. Speaking opportunities show up. Invitations to events show up. It’s weird and almost magical. I’ve had so many surreal experiences in the last six months that would have never happened without the book.

2. It’s hard to sell books. You really have to “earn it” when it comes to a book sale! This is obvious, but unlike a podcast, YouTube video, or Instagram post, you have to get people to BUY a book. It’s not enough to convince them to give it a try. It’s not free. It’s not $1. It’s a real commitment, financially and time-wise. I’m so grateful to all of you who have bought a copy—thank you!

3. Manage expectations and measure differently. Similar to podcasts, success for most books is not defined by reach or volume. To me, so far, book success should be measured in the impact your book has on readers. The impact comes from the amount of time people spend with your stories and ideas, not necessarily the volume of people who read the book.

If you’re used to millions of downloads or views, you need to really calibrate your expectations for book sales.

There are better ways to make money than publishing a book, but there might be no better way to create an impact on others with your ideas.

My insight has been to focus on making sure the people the book is written for (brave marketers and content creators) know that Earn It exists, and to try to gauge the impact the book has on the ones that actually read it.

4. Be aware of The Job of your book. Earn It is not designed to be a NYT best-seller. Lots of best-sellers promise quick results, shortcuts, hacks, or core ideas that are easy to comprehend. The message of Earn It is that there aren’t any shortcuts and that you have to do hard creative work to get results. This is a less attractive proposition than becoming a millionaire in a weekend :-) Would I change the message of the book to sell more copies? Absolutely not. This is the book I wanted to write because I know that what’s in the book is true and it works.

5. There are no shortcuts. A book will not sell itself just because it exists. You need to market the book, and that requires a lot of effort over an extended period of time. And over that extended period of time, you have to be consistent with your quality and messaging. Patience is required. I am regularly reminded of a section in the book when Michael Bungay Stanier talks about marketing The Coaching Habit for two years… before it took off and became a million-copy seller.

6. Book success is about more than just the book. Most book businesses are an ecosystem. I think it’s smart to think about success as the aggregate of everything that comes out of having a book. There are two different ecosystems to consider.

The first is a revenue ecosystem. The book itself generates revenue, but it also leads to all sorts of other revenue that would not exist without the book, including speaking, consulting, coaching, and courses.

The second ecosystem is content. When you build a multi-platform content ecosystem, the impact of the ideas in the book reach a lot more people, and each element in the ecosystems serves as marketing for the book or your other revenue streams. Whether it’s a newsletter, a podcast, a YouTube channel, or social posts and videos, looking at the overall numbers in your ecosystem shows a more accurate picture of the impact your ideas are having on others.

The backbone of both the revenue and content ecosystems is the book itself. None of the other elements would exist without the book existing first.

7. You become whatever you write about. I wrote the book to wrap up a chapter of my life and career by sharing all the best strategies and ideas I’ve learned from working with all sorts of amazing brands at Pacific Content, as well as from a lot of time in podcasting, television, radio, and digital media. Before the book, most people thought of me as the “podcasting with brands guy.”

Post-book, it’s been very noticeable that a decent chunk of people think of me as “the attention and differentiation strategy guy” and “the author./speaker.”

8. Digital > traditional media. Podcasts and email newsletters are terrific for generating awareness. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to all the podcasts and newsletters that did interviews and spread the word about the book. It has, and continues to be, so much more effective and targeted than traditional media coverage, and I have a hunch that the digital properties drove more book sales than traditional media coverage precisely because they were laser-focused on exactly the right audiences for the subject matter of the book.

9. The book industry is comparatively (and refreshingly) slow. Again, relative to other media formats, books are a long process. They take a LONG time to write. There are multiple editing processes. There is book design and layout. There’s printing. There’s distribution to all the bookstores.

The other area that is unusual about books is that it’s slow to get a full view of how the book is doing, because there are so many retailers, there are physical books, digital books, and audiobooks.

And you know what? It’s wonderful! In a world where algorithms try to force you to publish every single day and creator burnout happens all the time, a book is a truly special creative project to undertake.

I recently read Cal Newport’s Slow Productivity advocates doing fewer things, doing them at a reasonable pace, and focusing on quality. (P.S. These are also key themes in Earn It!) You get to embrace every aspect of slow productivity with a book, and it is a generous gift to give yourself the time for a project where singular focus on a high-quality product over an extended period of time is the entire point.

10. Each stage of the book publishing process is its own creative project. The book is about how to earn attention with creative bravery, so I knew that the book itself and all the marketing would have to employ all the strategies inside the book.

So I decided to treat each element of the process like a separate creative project, and it was so much fun. Working on the design of the book with Peter Cocking at Page Two was a creative joy. Recording the audiobook with my brilliant friends, Pedro Mendes and Gaetan Harris, and ending up with a unique and unconventional product still fills me with pride. Organizing launch events was stressful, but it paid off with two truly memorable nights full of friends and colleagues that I will never forget. And working on keynote talks that embody the ideas and spirit of the book is scary, has a steep learning curve, and is deeply engaging.

Perhaps the most fun I had was deciding to make a stupid mockumentary videos about marketing the book with Steve Scarrow and Perry Pannu, BC Bob, Jody Vance, George Stroumboulopoulos, Jordan Kawchuk, and (above) my son. Making the marketing a fun, enjoyable creative project all its own was a real joy and it made it SO MUCH easier to talk about the book with an unusual format for book marketing like this.

11. Launch events are overwhelming. I wasn’t sure whether to have a book launch event, but I’m so glad that I decided to do one in Vancouver and one in Toronto. The rooms were filled with all sorts of important people in my life. If you’re writing a book and not sure whether to do it or not… do it! Everyone will be there to support you in your big creative journey. It’s a surreal and overwhelming experience. (It’s a bit like a wedding. It’s a total whirlwind. It’s over before you know it. And there is no way you can have meaningful time with everyone that you want to, but everyone understands.)

12. Talk to other authors about their experiences. Ask them for suggestions and what they’ve learned. I talked to all sorts of authors before, during, and after launch, each of whom was extremely kind and generous with their time and insights. (Thank you to Dan Heath, Michael Bungay Stanier, Ann Handley, Jay Acunzo, Liane Davey, Ron Tite, April Dunford, Stephen Shedletzky, Gill Deacon, Larry Gaudet, Rob Volpe… and my dad!)

13. Don’t plan to return to ‘normal’ soon after launch. Clear a lot of your schedule post-publish date (for months!) so that you can say “YES!” and accommodate the unexpected opportunities that arrive on your doorstep.

14. Your book publisher matters A LOT. Be picky about who you work with as your publisher. I have been so incredibly fortunate to work with the talented and experienced team at Page Two, and I’ve always had a palpable sense that everyone on the team has been cheering for the success of Earn It. I’ve heard a lot of stories about publishers that disappear two weeks after launch, but I continue to talk semi-regularly with the sales, marketing, and promotion teams at Page Two and they continue to generate new ideas and opportunities to showcase the book. (I’m pretty sure this is quite rare in publishing!) Their goal is to work with authors who have big ideas that can change the conversation—if that’s you, I highly recommend Page Two.

15. I’m still not aggressive enough in asking people to buy the book or the audiobook! (P.S. if you’d like to learn how to earn loads of attention, a successful content strategy that delivers business results, and loads of actionable ideas and strategies for idea generation, differentiation, and audience growth… I have a book recommendation for you!)