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Superconductors is coming out July 2018 and I wanted share with you the two-year process that led to this book being published. I’ll walk you through the development and writing process of the book up until launch, highlighting the key points along the way.  This is my first solo book, and first time working with the publishing industry, so this is just one example of how the process might work for you if you want to publish a book.

Timeline:

1. In his podcast interview, JG Francouer suggests I have enough material for a book from the Art of Adventure podcast. August, 2016
2. In September, 2016 I talked with Guy Vincent, founder of Publishizer, who suggested I run a book crowdfunding campaign on the Publishizer platform.
3. Lee Constantine of Publishizer helps me create the Conductors campaign (the title was later changed to Superconductors) and book proposal.
4. I used 99 designs to get a professional cover design to help make the project gain traction.
5. In October, 2016 I ran the campaign and received 255 preorders for the book. Publishizer had set a target of 250 preorders – which they believed would increase the interest from publishers, and it did, even before the campaign was halfway over. I had more than 100 preorders by the end of the first day, which created lots of momentum for the campaign.
6. To get the 255 preorders I relied on personal connections to buy 1-5 copies of the book and business to order the book in bulk as a sponsor, in exchange for rewards packages.
7. After the campaign, the book was pitched to over 50 publishers, and 18 expressed interest in publishing the book. Publishizer acted like a book agent (they took a larger % fee from the crowdfunding than other platforms).  I would recommend any author to get an agent if they are going with the traditional publishing route – you want as much insider help as you can get, to keep things straightforward.
8. After talking with several publishers, I decided to go with a traditional publisher, Kogan Page, to add credibility to the project and get the book into book stores around the world. The title of the book was changed to Superconductors: Revolutionize Your Career and Make Big Things Happen.
9. In February, 2017, I signed a contract to deliver the book by the end of 2017.  I requested a small advance, as I would be purchasing copies of the book to send to the supporters of the Publishizer campaign.
10. I was assigned an editor, and we set out a writing schedule for the book – to deliver two chapters a month, starting in April 2017.
11. This is where things got messy for me – I outlined all the chapters and was writing each chapter a bit at a time.  By the time the first chapter was due, I had written 25% or so of each chapter.
12. From June, 2017 forward, I was “behind schedule” for sending in complete first drafts.  I kept holding onto the chapters to make them better.  And basically even after many rounds of edits, I know they could be better still.
13. I was probably writing about 20 hours/week until August 2017, then up to 40 hours/week until the final chapter was submitted (three months late) in February.
14. Kogan page redesigned the cover of the book to fit more in line with their style, but also using the bold colors of the original cover design.
15. To do additional research for Superconductors, I booked key guests onto the podcast, such as Travis Sheridan, Jeff Shapiro, and Jon Levy
16. Each chapter went through 3 rounds of back and forth edits with the main editor and then was proofed by multiple line editors after submission.
17. There ended up being more than 400 references for the book – podcast interviews, books, journal articles, and other publications. One time consuming part of the writing was making sure these idea were properly cited instead of just told as a truth because I knew them.  Sometimes this meant going back to try to figure out where I had learned something years before.
18. After the book was submitted, edited, and the proof was returned to me, I started asking people who had been featured in the book if they would like to read and provide an endorsement of the book.
19. There is a 3 month window around the release of the book for promotion – writing about it, going on podcasts, speaking, etc.