Job Title:
Author & Publisher
One Sentence To Describe Work Role:
Creating the concept for the book, writing a manuscript and bringing the book to market.
Number Of Years Dedicated To This Field Of Work or Lifestyle:
2
Category Of Work:
Self employed
Country:
Bulgaria
Industry:
Publishing
Type:
Working For Yourself
Key Skills For The Job:
A creative mind and a continued drive to manage multiple elements at once.
Skills and knowledge of the English language is vital. I worked with a professional editor once the book was completed in a first draft form.
Communication skills are key, especially when working with contractors (illustrator, editor, print and eBook formatting professionals) and people within the businesses you hope to work with, to sell your book.
Project management skills such as time management, prioritising workload, quality control, managing financial resources, are also very key in writing a book and bringing it to market.
Vital Key Skill:
Self drive to succeed. Because my role encompasses so many duties, many of which intertwine, its important to have a high level of self drive.
Having a great idea for a book is a great start, but to persist through all the stages, seeing your book for sale, you need to be driven, work hard to continue through any hurdles, make sacefices if needed (working weekend/ nights, saving money from luxuries to invest in the book production), take initiative to get the info you need from the third parties you choose to work with throughout your work.
Your Personal Experience Of Entering This Role:
I am an indie author, I published via CreateSpace for the printed book and via Amazon KDP directly for the Kindle version.
The concept of the book came about through my experience of work. Changing career at 30, taking that leap and learning lots along the way. Since I changed career, I know the difference of doing a job just for a paycheck compared with doing a job you are passionate about. I want more people to like, even LOVE the work they do; this is why I launched my charitable initiative Our World Of Work ( yes! this very website) with the aim of offering free career advice on a global scale.
Beyond this, having spoken to a number of people I realised people wanted to hear about my journey. I was also able to help guide others with their own career change goal. So I chose to put ‘pen to paper’ or should that in modern times be ‘fingers to keys’ (keyboard keys) to write a book to divulge the building blocks by which I was able to take that leap, and the key areas of success involved in reaching my goal.
Tips For Undertaking This Work:
Just get writing!
There are many professional entities out there that can help with many of the duties in bringing your book to market. This will either be at cost up front, or as part of commission based on sales. Maybe you will also hire a professional illustrator or editor, but there are many more services beyond this that you can tap into from professionals online (i.e. in the ‘gig economy’ such as online freelance websites) or offline professionals.
Without the written book it is impossible (and pointless) wasting resources on additional support. Write the book, have something solid to base further resources and commitment to.
Writer’s block is real! Take time to allow yourself to write at a reasonable pace. Also when your head is deep in the book it can be harder to spot errors. Take a break from the book content for a while before looking over it again with a ‘fresh pair of eyes’ as a means to help with better quality assurance of the finished book.
Whether you are building a website to promote your book, designing a cover, thinking about price strategy, defining meta data, or any task!… be sure to look at what your competitors are doing, look for standard industry practices but also try and research common pitfalls within these areas. This could save you time in avoiding some of the pitfalls, help the final product and your strategies to be of a higher standard and to guides you in the right direction of where best to allocate resources.
Future Progression Or Developments:
I will update the book with version 2 in the future. This will be based on customer feedback of the first edition. As a self published author, I have the skills to produce more books should I wish, i could also work with others, to help with their publishing goals.
This book took about 2 and a half years from start to finished. Working ‘here and there’ at the start, writing the book around my daughters naps or working late into the night. So I cannot really give advice to a younger me so to speak, as it was not that long of a process ….I have not aged that much.
For any author looking to write their first book, I would just say be serious with your expectations when you consider effort Vs. outcome. When something is important to you and you are committed to your cause, there are many ways you can be resourceful to make things happen for you. You need to put in significant effort, sacrifice and planning to make it happen.
What Are The ‘Tools Of The Trade’ Used Daily:
Software for writing the book, such as Open Office, Google Docs, etc. Dictionary, to check your spellings. Online resources have been of great use to me, for example, when looking up spellings, formatting or grammatical issues. Resources such as articles written for writers, online authors online question boards, blogs about how to write a book, etc.
A Typical Day’s Duties:
Writing The book
While writing the book, a typical day would involve sitting down to write more of my book. I would review where I had left the work from my last day in the office and then begin to write additional content.
Working With An Editor
Once a first draft was produced, I worked with a professional editor to ensure the book met a certain standard of quality. I passed the book to the editor, she would review it and leave comments, propose changes, correct any spelling and grammatical errors.
It would be my job to review her editing, provide feedback with regard to the changes I preferred and give direction to ensure the style of writing matched what I wanted for the book. This was a back-and-forth situation, as we worked on making updates through the various ‘edit passes’, until the book was in its finished state.
The way you write has a certain style. There will be decisions you will need to make so that the editor can do their job in a way to match your own style, and to keep the editing preferences consistent throughout the book. to give an example, you may be aware that certain words are slept differently from English, used in England, when compared with English used in the USA. Also, some punctuation marks have a differing preferred choice of usage, depending on where country the target audience is based.
Working With An Illustrator
When the book was about 70% completed, I hired an illustrator to create art for the book. This art included creating a cover, 3 icon images per chapter, a chapter image per chapter, and 9 icon images for use on the Action Plans.
I produced a brief for the artwork I wanted to commission. This needed to effectively communicate my vision/goal in terms of needs, including colour, style and who my target audience would be.
I did market research to see what the competition was like. What words and colours had been used the most for the category of book I was producing. I made a list of the book artwork that I liked and did not like. This helped the illustrator get a better feel for the kind of thing I was looking for.
i was very honored to be able to work with my illustrator, Jo. She knew what questions to ask me, to gain the most useful info to help with her work.
I gave feedback on the artwork from sketch stage to fully finished, on every illustration. Feedback I gave included submitting ideas for icon images, requesting different tone of colour, asking for a tweak to a given image, etc.
Other Business
As the editing and artwork production processes came to an end, my attention was able to be focused on publication and marketing. I produced the website for the book, dealt with two companies (setting up accounts, providing proof, approving proof, selecting sales routes, providing book meta-data, etc), created social media accounts for the book, among other things.
Is Travelling A Regularly Part Of This Work:
No
Weekly Working Hours:
At the start of writing the book I would grab time when I could around being a full time mum. Making use of nap-time, working nights and weekends.
Later I could dedicate more time to it, this was again working on a flexible basis around my other responsibilities.
Type Of Hours Arrangement:
Flexible based on own needs.
The Best Thing About The Work You Do:
For me I am truly passionate about helping more people to like, even love, the work they do. When people tell me that my book has inspired them, I feel so happy they were able to benefit from the insights and practical Action Plans I have shared.
Your Least Favorite Thing About The Work You Do:
I think the least favorite thing is writers block! Also, when you end up working full time on producing a book, you need to take time to ‘step away from it’ because you cannot see where improvements can be made. This is not fun, when you do not have time to ‘step back’, as you need to get back to your editor with an update.
Any Duties You Hadn’t Anticipated Prior To Undertaking The Work:
For me I think I anticipated the duties well, before I started out. I have a background in business, all the combined elements (production, marketing, finances, strategy, quality control, etc) were as I expected.
The Top Perks Of The Work:
To live a life of contentment and value in one’s own work has the potential to radiate out to all around us. Creating happiness not just for ourselves, but providing a communal view in helping others, which can really change lives throughout generations. This is why, for me, I will always be happy to hear of my work helping more people around the world to enjoy the work they do.
Other Work In The Same Sector:
Editor, advertising copywriter, marketing communications writer.
Additional Info You Wish To Share:
At the age of 30 my goal was to teach myself computer programming, changing my field of work completely from event coordinator of business training events. A move, made out of wanting more from life as opposed to not being completely happy with my job at the time.
I discovered many awesome things along my journey to change career. Uncovering the key elements to career change success, unlocking the power of resources at my disposal, delved into the multi-layers of motivation and celebrated many little wins along the way.
Today I enjoy my work as a computer programmer, I am also committed to helping more people uncover work roles they will like, even LOVE! This is why I created Our World Of Work (yes…this very site/ online community!). In addition, I have produced my book (A Personal Look At Changing Career) to share a personal account of my own journey. The book provides readers with their own powerful Action Plans to help them on their own career change journey.
Where People Can Visit For More Details On Your Work
For the book website please click here. i am also on Twitter and Facebook @APLACC.
Additional Our World Of Work Entries That May Be Of Interest:
PROPOSED BY THE OWOW TEAM:
