Are you “sitting on” a book draft? That's how Jeremy Haselwood described his situation: in 2013, he started writing a life transformation book out of his own personal and professional journey. He "sat on it" until 2022. In November 2022, he connected with me to talk about partnering on the design (cover, interior and ebook) and in March 2023 he finally released his book...10 years after he typed the first words!
Jeremy is a digital marketing consultant and trainer. Designing his book reminded me how much I love working with marketing professionals on their books! Jeremy has some unique book marketing ideas, in particular the idea of releasing a limited edition version of the book in the first week, to boost early sales.
Learn how Jeremy went from #bookdraft to #bookdone with Finding Your Edge: How to Unlock Your Talent & Purpose in this case study. And read to the end for a chance to win Jeremy's book!
Finding Your Edge is for people experiencing a life transition and looking for deeper meaning and direction. "EDGE" in the title stands for Jeremy's transformative EDGE framework:
Eliminate Distractions
Discover Yourself
Generate Goals
Enact Discipline
Jeremy self-published and released the book in four formats: Hardcover, Paperback, E-book, and Audiobook.
Jeremy's Book Done Timeline
🐣 Idea hatched: circa 2013
✍️ Writing started: circa 2013
📩 First contact with Julie: November 2022
(while book was being edited and proofread)
🎨 Files ready for design and layout: January 2023
✔️ Book done (released): March 2023
Files received from Jeremy
When he was ready to work with me, Jeremy sent me his professionally-edited and proofread manuscript as one file, in both Word and PDF formats. Images and graphics were embedded in the Word file to show placement, but were also provided in a separate folder in the highest quality available. Learn more about my process here.
Jeremy's Book Done Take-Aways
Here are my questions for Jeremy about self publishing and reaching book done.
You self-published and printed on demand. Which POD printer did you use, and why?
Amazon KDP. I've used it before, after researching other options. Amazon is a tremendous marketplace, and its platform is pretty straightforward. I like that they also published my audiobook on Apple. As a marketer, I like the convenience within Amazon to use their ad platform and generate more awareness and sales of my book.
What was the biggest surprise during your book project?
For my first book, I did everything myself. For this book, the most pleasant surprises were working with a professional editor (Valerie) and professional book designer (Julie), who could see my vision and bring it to life. It helped get more out of my book than I would have been able to do myself. It's hard to trust others with a book that feels so personal, but they made it so easy.
Which part of your book project took longer than you expected, and why?
The writing of the book: it took me almost 10 years to complete. Everything else (editing, proofreading, design, and printing) followed pretty closely to the timelines I was given. The writing took so long because the book is so personal. I wanted to live more and write about more experiences, but I also wanted it to be perfect. I eventually realized that my book would never be perfect, and that I might be sitting on my book until I was in my 90s. I got to a point where I said everything I wanted to say for the time being. If there's more to communicate, eventually I can update this version or create a whole new book.
My tip for other authors is to make space for imperfection and give grace to yourself through the process. Self-talk can be so negative through this process because we are usually our toughest critics. I've received some great feedback about content in my book that I personally thought was "just OK".
Which part of your book project was the most fun or rewarding?
Music has played a big part in my life (read my book to learn more!) and so I chose to make a playlist/soundtrack for my book comprised of songs that either influenced pieces of my book or coincided with the content of my book. I had fun putting the playlist together and marketing it along with my book. I put out a "soundtrack" to my book a week ahead of its release to gain even more awareness of its release.
Because I released my book through KDP and could control the print on demand publishing, I created a limited edition hardcover that was only available for the first week of sales. The limited edition included song lyrics on each chapter opening page and a "Limited Edition" mark on the cover. This created urgency for my book's release and helped me land on the best seller charts in the first week. Julie designed the book in such a way that the limited edition material in the interior could be added or removed without having to reformat the whole book, which saved on additional typesetting costs.
When you write another book, what will you do the same way? What will you do differently?
I had a pretty good process in place and would likely follow the same process for my next book. I would work with an editor and designer again. I recorded the audiobook myself (using my Mac, a Neuman TLM mic, and Logic Pro) and I would do that again. Since I'm a marketer, I enjoyed all the marketing elements that helped to push the book.
I created a documentary-style video to coincide with the book. I don't regret doing it. However, I may not do that for the next release, but rather just put together more social media content to save on expenses.
What is your best advice for marketing a book?
Marketing is the fun part for me. Be creative, test out different ideas. If you are self-publishing, there are so many things you can do to market your book. My book debuted at #2 on Amazon under the Personal Transformation category!
Think about what you really want to communicate about your book, even if you break it down by chapters or quotes. Then communicate these pieces out to your audience in the form of short videos or graphics. Also, test out online ads, which allow you to target the specific audience that you want to read your book.
To market my book, I used the following marketing channels:
Social media organic content on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and a little on TikTok
Digital ads on LinkedIn and Amazon
Press release through EIN
Email and text messages to my friends, family, and mailing list
Playlists on Spotify and Apple Music.
Files delivered to Jeremy
Above I showed you the file formats that Jeremy sent to me.
These are the formats that I delivered to him:
Print files: PDFs for the various covers - hardback limited edition, hardback regular edition, paperback. PDFs for the interior - limited edition and regular edition. InDesign (editable) files for the covers.
Ebook files: cover jpeg and epub file (plus some additional file formats)
Audiobook files: jpeg of the cover formatted as a square for audiobook
Jeremy was referred to me by his editor, Valerie Valentine. Thank you, Valerie!
Jeremy's Book Done Technical Details
Your printer needs these kinds of details to give you a quote for printing a similar book. If you are using a print on demand printer like Amazon KDP or IngramSpark, you can enter your book details on their website to know your printing cost per book.
Page count: 186
Dimensions (page size): 6 x 9 inches
Binding: Paperback
Interior details
Ink colors: Black ink only
Interior paper: Cream
Bleed: No
Cover details
Ink colors: Full color
Laminate: Matte
If you have a book you've been working (or sitting) on, but have lots of questions or don't even know which questions you should be asking, a good next step might be to book a consultation call.
If you know what you need, go ahead and fill out this book project questionnaire (journal projects have their own questionnaire).
Or just send me a message with any question you have about book design or formatting, through my contact form. The only way to reach #bookdone is to get started. ✔️