Introduction: Framing the Journey
My book, Build Your Table is part memoir, part strategic career guide for those navigating professional life from the outside, especially women, immigrants, and professionals of colour. It is the career guide I wish I had at the start of my career written from a perspective that is more relatable than many of the “mainstream” books on the subject. While I wrote previously about the writing journey, the publishing journey was a whole other matter, and arguably the more complex. The main reason for such being, while sitting down to write a book might be hard it is all in your control. The publishing journey on the other hand has so many dependencies… many more than I had anticipated.
Making the Decision: Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing
One of the early decisions to be made is whether to self-publish or attempt to go down the route of traditional publishing. While I could compare the two choices, the reality is that traditional publishing has many gatekeepers, so it is truly an attempt. I was fortunate in that London Book Fair, one of the largest in the world happened in my backyard, where once a year numerous representatives of the industry gather at a large exhibition centre in West London for a week. Accordingly, an incomparable opportunity to get a crash course in everything book and publishing related.
Therefore, I dedicated a week of my life to attending every relevant session I could. Trying to speak to a variety of people there and learning as much as I could on the two paths.
Self-publishing Considerations
- You get to make all the decisions. In other words, you must make all the decisions.
- You are responsible for the project management the whole project. And it is a project, from editing to cover design, layout, obtaining ISBNs (i.e. book reference numbers), writing up back covers, summary descriptions, the mechanics of getting it published/printed and more. There are many considerations. All the elements multiple exponentially the more formats or variations you add (e-book vs different physical book formats, different platforms, etc). This means you get to control and influence all these decisions but there are a vast number of them.
- You need to manage the business aspects also, what do you price at? How/where do you promote your book? To name a few.
Traditional Publishing Considerations
The main consideration and benefit are that you have support with all the technical and business aspects. You may need to give inputs, you will need to contribute to marketing and other activities, but the publisher will take responsibility for the overall project and provide guidance and support.
However, there are also a few negatives, the main one being you could dedicate years to the process and not end up with a publisher.
- First, you need to find an agent, this alone can take months or years. Then, the agent pitches you to publishers, again another process that could take months or years. Finally, when you secure a deal with a publisher it can take another couple of years to bring the book to market. Accordingly, you could easily dedicate a couple of years to such with no guarantee of any return.
- Secondly you lose control. The publishers will be making the decision clearly you have input, but you are no longer in control.
- Thirdly even though you are using traditional publisher, you are you still must invest in marketing and branding in building a community and an audience. Additionally, some of the information I have heard and read suggest that if your primary audience is a diverse one many of the traditional publishers may not be great at reaching your audience.
Making the choice
- Time: So, for me, the choice was clear. I did not want to spend the next 2/3 years or more trying to get the book to market. It was a story that was relevant now.
- Background: Secondly, with a business and accounting background and having led teams with project managers I was comfortable with the project management and commercial aspects.
- Control & Intellectual Property: Next, I did not want to lose control around any aspects of the book and related intellectual property.
- Positioning and Narrative: Also, I wanted to control the narrative, how it was positioned. Speaking predominantly to people that may consider themselves “other” in at least some spaces I did not want to risk losing the authenticity of my voice.
- Finances: Finally, no one really gets rich from a book (unless you are already famous or have that one in a million-breakthrough book). The percentage you get from traditional publishers is quite small. I heard numbers like 8% or 15% and similar. Hence, I figured I just wanted to bet on myself. Surely there was no better risk worth taking.
Publishing Potholes: The Unexpected Hurdles
In doing my research, I thought I knew what to expect. In fact, I was still under the misguided impression that the hard part was going to be authoring a book. This was not the case writing the book was within my control everything else not so much now I have done my homework. I knew I needed a copy editor, a proofreader, a cover designer, someone to do the interior book layout and more. However, what I did not anticipate was that nothing got done the first time round and the back-and-forth gets complex as the next stage in the process is waiting to do their piece.
If I give you a simple example you finish writing you get your book to the copy editor once their suggestions and agreed and implemented, you then send it to the interior layout person. However, the reality is that in laying it out little things are found, or changes are made or simply errors could be made on the laying out process. Hence, you have got to proof and validate after that stage and of course things get missed.
One of the most challenging phases was the cover design. This I had completely underestimated and is an incredibly important phase as it is the first thing people see. Especially in the case of my book that was based on a metaphor I wanted to play on the metaphor of building but not look like I was a building a house. Hence, the concept was a bit more nuanced, especially for someone not going the traditional route with a large corporation of designers at hand.
Accordingly, this took many multiple designers and ultimately I had to pay for it multiple items as even when you finally land on a design you are happy with, you still need to create versions for different platforms and formats e-book versus hardcover, one company versus another to reach different markets. (And yes, some standardisation in file formats here would be lovely…)
The process took longer than planned. I used all my contingency time in my project plan but ultimately, I met my final timelines.
Personal Triumphs: Milestones and Wins
Now while they were clearly challenges, I do not want to ignore the fact that there were also tons of wins and learning, beyond my imagination.
- Finishing the manuscript
- seeing the laid-out version.
- Getting the book in my hands for the first time
- My first sale
All incredibly special moments
Not to mention this journey was like doing another master’s degree. From social media to web design, marketing, and PR to the intricacies of publishing itself. While I compare it to degree, I am not sure many courses or degrees could have offered such variety and depth of learning in a relatively brief time.
Lessons in Resilience: So, what did I learn?
- Firstly, if you want to do something, just do it. Whatever happens, the regret of not trying is greater than the fear of failure.
- Secondly, there is no better way to learn than just doing. Yes, you might need some basic preparation and background knowledge, but ultimately there is no better teacher than experience.
- Thirdly tell your stories there really are not enough diverse stories out there in the world. Tell yours. Technology changes mean that the barriers of the past no longer exist or at least are significantly reduced. We can all put our stories out there into the world without having to wait for the gatekeepers to approve them.
Check out our new Career Sistas YouTube channel with a recording of Beverly being interviewed about the book, if you are interested in finding out more https://youtu.be/8-a7q3dJ_bQ
Also, check out Beverly’s website on Career Empowerment | Beverly Vanterpool | Build Your Table | Beverly Vanterpool
