The manuscript for my first self-published book, *Freein’ Pancho,* sat in a drawer unread for many years. Early on I’d sent it to a literary agent, waited with anticipation, received a kind letter of rejection.
So there it sat until I mentioned the manuscript to Jenny, a fellow writer in storyteller Jay O’Callahan’s writing group. Jenny asked to read it. Loved it. Said, “You should definitely publish it!”
Long story short: I self-published *Freein’ Pancho* on CreateSpace. Solid 5-star reviews on Amazon. Sold a few. But never topped double digits.
Turns out from experience of writer friends, and from what I’ve gleaned on the net, this is not atypical.
My second self-published book, *The Gospel of Ashes,* was also urged into publication by fellow writers in Jay’s writing group. Carmichael, a principal character, popped out of my head and into a weekly writing exercise. The writing group loved him. “More Carmichael,” they said. I struggled each week to figure out who this hard-bitten character was and how he was going to save the world. And each week, “More Carmichael!,” the group said.
I self-published *Gospel* on CreateSpace and, again, 5-star reviews but—once again, double-digit sales.
My third self-published venture was a technical programming book co-authored with Jesse Gumm. Puny sales on Amazon, but gratifying three-digit sales as a PDF on Leanpub. Still selling. Nice to see my 50-percent share of 80-percent royalties trickling in.
## Maker, manager, marketer
Ok, more than enough war stories.
Orna Ross, founder of the Alliance for Independent Authors, puts the bottom-line lesson learned quite well:
You must wear three different hats as an indie author: Maker, Manager and Marketer.”[^ross]
Take home: good writing isn’t enough. If you care about book sales, you must:
- Think about marketing the minute you conceptualize a book
- Keep writing and publishing to find a welcoming niche market
- Refine your workflow to attain peak efficiency
- Your computer and the web are your best friends
Maker, manager, marketer—let’s translate that into requirements for our indie-publishing hardware/software system:
## Maker
As makers we:
- Capture and refine ideas
- Research content and markets
- Craft a publishing plan
- Compose the first draft
- Copy edit the first draft
- Revise the first draft
- Write and edit front matter
- Collate back matter
This suggests that we need:
- A browser to search the web
- A comfortable and efficient text editor
- Tools to save and access notes and data
But as indie publishers we have much more on our plate:
- Design or supervise design of book interior
- Design or supervise design of book cover
- Secure and manage illustrations and images
- Secure copyright permissions
- Typeset interior pages or farm it out
- Proofread typeset pages
- Correct typos, misspellings, and grammar glitches
- Generate cover and interior PDF files
So, we need:
- Design and typesetting tools
- A PDF page viewer
## Manager
We need tools to manage:
- Projects
- Contacts
- Events
- Memberships
- Income and expense transactions
- Book inventory
- Assets such as IBSNs, domain names, and hardware info
- Print-on-demand vendors
## Marketer
As book marketers we:
- Research market opportunities and demographics
- Develop marketing strategies
- Set book prices and compute royalties
- Design and publish marketing collateral
- Conduct publicity and advertising campaigns
- Manage book distribution
- Sell books at book events and through consignments to booksellers
This suggests that we need:
- A spreadsheet program
- A calculator
- A credit card processing tool
## Whew!
Seems overwhelming—powerful evidence why we need well-integrated and efficient software tools and as much process automation as possible to streamline our workflow.
That’s what the Empire Builder newsletter is about. Best-of-breed open source software tools. How to install and use them. How to integrate them into a powerful indie book publishing production system.
The secret sauce:
- Compose copy, style for publishing, and typeset with a plain vanilla text editor
- Use the same tools to design, typeset, and publish marketing collateral
- Automate workflow with open source programs that come free with the operating system
The goal: become masters of your computer rather than contented prisoner of hardware and software proprietary black boxes.
Baby-step by baby-step
Imagine:
Beautiful books, selling well, with your name on the cover.
A playful 15 minutes a day, well focused, will release your computer superpowers faster than you ever imagined.
[^ross]: Self-publishing in 2021, https://selfpublishingadvice.org/self-publishing-in-2021/