Writing is usually a pretty lonely undertaking. Writing a book is also usually a long term project. But my recent experience has been the complete opposite. A few of us, all people professionals from the Consultants group of the Thames Valley CIPD branch, collaborated to write and publish a book.
The idea was to “publish a book in a day”. Each contributor would write a chapter, and then on ‘the day’ we would pull it all together and publish on Amazon. Then Covid-19 came, and lock-down descended, and the chances of a dozen people being able to meet up on the day seemed most unlikely. But no-one wanted to give up, so an alternative plan was hatched – Zoom! Our facilitators, Michelle Bailey and Marc Reid set up regular virtual meetings so that we could compare notes and get guidance and support from the group. .
Jo Hutchinson, a publishing professional with many years experience helped us decide the book title, create chapter headings, and gave guidance on including references to give our work weight and credibility. She was also valuable in providing support and feedback – and in true virtual fashion, she joined us from her base in Almería, Spain. Michelle and Marc organised our Zoom meetings and helped to keep us all on track – no small task for procrastinators with a ‘last minute’ tendency like me. And they kept us going whilst also writing their own chapters!
Finally THE book day arrived last week. It was a long Zoom day, but we all did final feedback and edits on our chapters, and checked all the layouts worked within the template. Whilst Marc put it all together as one manuscript, the rest of us designed the cover, wrote the blurb for the back cover, chose our keywords and agreed the wording for the Amazon page describing the book. We were ready to publish!
Marc took us through the Amazon KDP process for publishing our book and the eBook version was uploaded, followed by the paperback version, which took quite a while to load. At last we could celebrate, congratulate each other, and proudly wear our “I am a published author” badges.
Find out more about the chapters of the book on my Good Work Good Business page, or go straight to Amazon to see, and maybe buy, it yourself. Apart from enjoying the useful content, you will be doing a good deed, as all proceeds are going to the charity The Trussell Trust, aiming to end hunger and poverty in the UK.
The Amazon publishing process was really straightforward so if you feel you have a book in you then go for it! Or if that feels too daunting, gather some like minded people around you and do it together. I’d love to hear your thoughts on self publishing and your ideas for your own book, so please comment about your plans.
