While I fully intended to stick with this project long enough to produce an award-winning book, the arrival of the first awards has been a massively relieving and validating experience after 8 years of writing, researching, editing, more writing and editing, formatting, more research, and finally publishing... only to find that now I have to learn book-marketing! Still, now that it's finally here, it sure feels great to read "award-winning author Ernest Ellender, PhD"!!!
There are two extremes of how anyone can self-publish: First, nowadays you can get ChatGTP to crank out a book in about one hour, and then you can create an Amazon bookstore account in about 15 minutes, and then self-publish! In one day, you can become a self-published author.
I took the other extreme approach, which was to apply all of my perfectionism, OCD traits, and professionalism to the entire process of writing my book... which took 8 years instead of one day! The first few years were spent doing a lot of experimentation and research (regarding the book's curriculum) while collaborating with my clients. Next came a few years of writing the first draft, which ended up being over 500 pages... only to eventually find an awesome editor, Susanne Schotanus, who informed me that I would need to cut that in half if I planned on people actually buying it.
Editing took almost two years, but a full year of it was wasted on an editor and a proofreader who both did more damage than good! Once I found the developmental editor I needed in Susanne, we were able to thoroughly edit the book admirably (arranging chapters in proper order, trimming excess, adding clarifications, etc.). Next, I worked closely with line-editor & proofreader Rowan Eiler, and together we polished the hell out that book!
My goal throughout this entire process was to produce an independently-published book that would be indistinguishable from the big publishing houses' productions. I demanded of myself (and the editors) professional quality at each point.
The downside of this unrelenting-standards approach was that this book took 2-3 years longer to finish than necessary, and I definitely spent a LOT (well over $15K total) on professional services and equipment to get it done. I'm being open with readers here in case any of you are interested in writing your own award-winning book. I can easily list the big-ticket items:
Editor #1 = $4.4K.
Editor #2 = $2K.
Editor #3 (Susanne) = $3.9K.
Editor #4 (Rowan) = $3.2K.
Book cover project = $500
Software for copyrights, graphics, ISBN's, & research = $700
Editorial (professional) book reviews (mandatory, btw) = $850 (range from $100-450 each)
Applications for book awards contests = $1K (individual contests range from $50-250)
Professional book formatter = $600
Audio-visual equipment to create audiobook = $2K
Miscellaneous charges include many thousands of dollars spent on coffee shops, travel, other books (research), numerous one-time payments on websites, etc.
I now understand why the vast majority–well over 90%–of books never profit a penny over the costs of creating and marketing them. Imagine that... less than one-in-ten books profit! Luckily, Susanne explained this well to me so that I would not be crushed by the slow sales in the beginning. Her industry knowledge also helped me understand that I would need to put comparable sweat, tears, and blood into the marketing and sharing of my book as I did the writing of it for the book to become financially profitable.
While this project has always primarily been a personal creation that I hoped would contribute to the well-being of my fellow human beings, I also realize that if the book is not financially successful, then that means that it is not benefiting the masses because they simply do not know about it! With this recognition, I started doing the things that makes books sell better, like earning book awards. So these first book awards were primarily for the purposes of having more people buy it so that it will help more people heal from their childhood traumas.
What I was not expecting was the deeply satisfying feeling of pride and satisfaction when the competitions sent their emails notifying me of winning the Firebird and Literary Titan contests (for my category of self-help or psychology books) and receiving honorable mention for the Global Book Awards contest. It was simply validating to know that I was on the right path by shooting for professional quality at each point, even though it cost me much financially, psychologically, and time-wise.
"This Is How We Heal from Painful Childhoods: A Practical Guide for Healing Past Intergenerational Stress and Trauma" was worth the personal investments that I poured into it because I am confident that its 20 rules curriculum will help thousands of families recover from traumatic dysfunction and thrive together instead. Now that it is award-winning, I will next focus on making it "best-selling" so that it benefits more and more families!
Resources:
Susanne Schotanus (developmental editor) - Click here...
Rowan Eiler (line-editor & proofreader) - Click here... (if you want to hire Rowan, you can also do so outside of fiverr.com and save more $$$)
Literary Titan Author Interview (Ernest Ellender, PhD) - Click here...
Literary Titan Book Review (of This Is How We Heal...) - Click here...
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