Working With an Indie Publisher

I genuinely believe that there's a book in most people (I’ve only ever met 1 person to prove this theory wrong!). I’m not talking about a vague idea or a half-formed ambition, but a book with a real argument, story, or a body of expertise that has taken years to build and deserves more than a LinkedIn post to contain it. Many of those books never get written for a couple of reasons - time runs out, fear creeps in, or the value of doing it never quite outweighs the effort of starting.

I've been working as a publisher and writing partner for long enough to know that the people who eventually pick up the phone all say a version of the same thing: I should have done this sooner.

So, let me tell you what it's actually like, because I think the process is considerably less frightening than most people imagine, and the part that catches people off guard isn't the writing at all.

What Stops People

Time is the reason most people give, and get that. Writing a book takes time, and if you're running a business, leading a team or managing a diary that already has no slack in it, adding something this significant feels impossible. Fear tends to sit just underneath that, though, because time is a practical problem and fear is a personal one, and it's easier to cite the first than admit to the second.

The fear usually takes one of a few forms. Fear that the idea isn't good enough, that the words won't come out the way they sound in your head, being judged, or misunderstood, or of committing to something so visible and permanent. Underneath all of it, sometimes, a fear that you're not really the authority you've built your reputation on being, and that a book will somehow expose that. Good old Imposter Syndrome.

None of those fears are unreasonable. They're also not reasons not to write the book. Let’s ask, if not you, then who?

What the Process Is Actually Like

Working with an indie publisher is a collaboration, and the best way I can describe my role is that I'm both your advocate and your accountability person throughout the entire process.

What that means in practice is that you remain completely in control of your book, voice, argument and your story, because it has to be yours, and any reader worth having will know the difference. What I bring is an understanding of what needs to happen, in what order, and why, so that you're never left staring at a blank page wondering what comes next.

Every author I've worked with has said the same thing once we're underway: that it's both easier and harder than they expected, which sounds contradictory until you understand what they mean. The writing itself, the actual process of getting the book out, is easier than they feared, because having someone who knows the structure, asks the right questions and keeps the momentum going removes most of the friction they'd imagined. What surprises them is everything that comes after.

The Part Nobody Warns You About

It’s not top of the list when they're thinking about writing a book: finishing the manuscript is the beginning, not the end.

Once the writing is done, the real work of publishing begins, and it's considerable. There are decisions to be made about positioning, design, distribution, timing and how the book connects to everything else you're building. There's a launch to plan and an audience to reach and a long tail of activity that determines whether the book does what you actually wanted it to do, or whether it sits in a box in your spare room.

None of that is insurmountable, but it does require someone who understands it, and ideally someone who's been through it before and can tell you what matters and what doesn't.

The authors I work with get someone who understands the whole picture and who is invested in the outcome as much as they are, because that's what a our partnership actually means.

So If You've Been Thinking About It

The book you keep meaning to write isn't going to write itself, and the right moment to start isn't coming. What usually shifts things is a decision that the book matters enough to make it happen regardless.

If you're at that point, or anywhere close to it, the conversation is a good place to start.