This week I'm reporting LIVE from the dizzying tail-end of the book-writing process. Check out the "Why" and the "How" in the archive.

Today, a few of the questions that have come in from your fellow Lightbulbers...

Why did you decide to self-publish vs. use a traditional publisher?

At first, it seemed like the simpler and faster option. And the option more in line with the scope of my ”Why?”.

As I learned more, I realized the decision had actually been made for me (and for any other first-time author)...

It’s nearly impossible to get a traditional publisher’s attention if you don’t bring a massive audience with you. Like tens of thousands of followers/subscribers. I simply don’t have that.

Even if I did, I’ve spoken to authors who still spend over a year shopping their book and sample chapters to a publisher that will take them on.

And even then, you introduce struggles over creative control, among other things.

Of course, the tradeoff is you get access to their production, marketing, and distribution infrastructure.

But as I said, the decision was essentially made for me.

Resource: My friend and consulting coach Melisa Liberman put out a great podcast episode about her own book-writing experience. I listened to it roughly a year before I started down the path -- it provided a great mental frame about the self- vs. traditional publishing fork and introduced the hybrid option she took.

What did your writing process look like?

Once my book midwife, Fen, and I reviewed my outline, they had me come up with a writing plan to support the ambitious goal of a first draft in 5 weeks.

Yes, sounded nuts to me, but also seemed more palatable than embarking on a multi-month writing journey.

Fen guided me through the breakdown.

• My target length was ~30,000 words (typical of crisp business books these days).
• If I blocked out 5 days/wk for 5 weeks, that was ~1,200 words per session.
• The average Lightbulb is ~300-400 words and takes me 30-45 mins w/ editing.
• So I blocked 90 mins on my calendar, 5x/week, for book-writing sessions.

Now, I didn’t stick to the writing plan. Some days I went longer, some days I skipped.

I also got a welcome surge of client work in Nov & Dec (typically my slow time), so I slipped off schedule, but ultimately I got to a finish line where I’d ticked off all the outline sections and sent it off for a developmental edit in February.

(More on an unwelcome detour through writer's block tomorrow.)

How was writing the book intertwined with writing your daily newsletter?

Everything above was separate from the Lightbulb, so yes, it made for a lot of writing each week, even if the subject matter had some overlap.

Probably most importantly, though, my daily writing had already front-loaded my thinking for most of the book’s chapters.

~90% of the book is net-new writing, but I had already wrangled with the core concepts intellectually, established a vocabulary, built frameworks, deployed them publicly, and leveraged them in client work. That accelerated the writing process immeasurably.

💡

-Wes

P.S. Tomorrow I'll wrap this series up with my surprises through the process including my thoughts on AI & my nasty trip through writer's block.