Last year I finished wirint Code Black and published it on LeanPub. It wasn’t an easy challenge, although I enjoy wiriting I’ve never written a technical book before and had never really self published anything.

This week I wanted to share some of the lessons learned since writing the book which I took into my current project Donuts and Dragons.

Lesson 1 – You’re going to sell a lot fewer copies than you think you are! I had plans of the book becoming a runaway best seller, and to be honest I’ve genuinely been overwhelmed by the positive feedback I’ve recieved (even some suggestions I should enter it into competitions). However, I’m still working as a Dev Manager and have no plans of retiring and living off the royalties just yet.

Lesson 2 – Scheduling a “writing day” doesn’t work. Firstly, it’s too much to expect yourself to write for 8 hours straight. Second, if something cancels that day then you’ve lost a lot of potential words. The best way to write is to a schedule. When writing D&D I set myself a goal of about 500 words every week day. The book doesn’t appear overnight, it appears incrementally and inevitably.

Lesson 3 – Plan what you’re going to write. Maybe this comes down to personal style? Or maybe it’s because both of my books are trying to teach rather than just entertain but I would have got completely lost if I hadn’t had my trusty outline. Procrastination occurs most often when you don’t know what you’re going to write, having a plan – even a high level one makes it easier to hit that word goal.

Lesson 4 – Be proud of what you’ve done. When I first released Code Black I found myself belittling it. When someone said “Adam’s written a book” I’d say something like “Yeah, but it’s only a self publish.” or “Yeah, but it’s not sold many copies.” Don’t put yourself down, you wrote a book. That’s amazing, it’s something millions of people want to do but few ever actually succeed. Don’t you dare undermine what you’ve done.

Lesson 5 – You’ll want to write another one. Writing a book is a lot like doing a marathon. At the time you’ll swear blind that you never want to do it again. Then your mind starts ticking and you starting having those ideas and before you know it you’ll be developing characters and outlines again. Why not!? You’re an author now!

Oh, and something a lot of people ask me what has been my proudest moment since publishing it? That one easy – when Gene Kim bought a copy!

There’s a certain irony that the characters in my book read The Phoenix Project, I do hope he smiled at that.

Have you written a book? Tech or otherwise – please share it with me, I love to read what other people have done!