How Not to Publish a Book

A few weeks ago, I published my first book, Be Smarter With Creating Products. It’s a non-fiction work that spans sociology, psychology, economics, and product design.

Following advice from colleagues, some of whom have been published, I opted for self-publishing, without a publishing house or contractor. I knew from the outset that this route might not lead to immediate success. My expectations were modest; I thought selling a few hundred copies would be a solid start, providing valuable lessons along the way.

Well, I certainly got the lessons, but not the sales. The numbers have been low, but that didn’t come as much of a surprise given the circumstances.

Aside from geographical constraints and LinkedIn’s limitations (it only promotes posts to a small circle, mainly within the greater Zurich area), I probably made every mistake one can make when self-publishing a book. I skipped a launch phase with an announcement and countdown. I didn’t hire a marketing company for a professional campaign, nor did I invest in ads on LinkedIn, Facebook, or create a TikTok video—at least, not yet.

You have to start somewhere

I initially set the price to $13, based on fees from Apple Books and Amazon, aiming to match my expected earnings. After comparing my book’s price with similar titles, I lowered it to $9.99, which resulted in a slight increase in sales.

What I did get right: I shared the book with peers and colleagues before publishing. This took place in two stages—first with an early draft, and later with an almost complete version. My colleagues gave me a lot of valuable feedback, which helped to refine its content and sharpen the focus on the target audience.

There was also a significant amount of research involved, both for the book’s content and self-publishing in general. I explored others’ experiences, watched numerous videos (though most focused on fiction writing), and utilised reedsy.com, an online platform connecting authors with editors. I also listed my book on Reedsy’s Discovery platform, a space designed for authors seeking reviews, recommendations and ratings from professional and semi-professsional editors. However, Discovery assumes you’re always in a pre-launch phase, meaning my book, though available on Apple Books and Amazon Kindle for weeks, still isn’t visible to the public there, nor has it received any reviews.

Most of my marketing has centred on LinkedIn, Mastodon, X, and Facebook. I’ve posted weekly updates with images of the book cover and links to the stores, and I later shared excerpts to showcase the content. My LinkedIn network, however, doesn’t quite match my target audience—they’re mostly professionals who already know much of what the book discusses. Still, everyone has their own network, and I thought maybe they will recommend the book to their own peers.

Valuable lessons

It’s been just six weeks since the Be Smarter With Creating Products was launched. Here’s what I’ve learned so far, and what I’ll approach differently next time:

These cover the basics. There are always factors beyond your control that influence the success of self-publishing: your geographical location, network reach, available tools, limitation of resources and, of course, timing and luck.

The fact that sales have been low doesn’t reflect the book’s quality—it simply means not enough people in the right audience field have seen it yet. My estimate is that perhaps a few hundred people have come across it, with fewer than 1% of those being part of the target audience. Colleagues have confirmed the book is well-written and covers topics often overlooked in software and hardware production. It delves into the hidden mechanisms that create strong, ongoing relationships between users and the products they love. It also addresses failure, lack of success, and common mistakes—usually due to bias or insufficient research.

While some of my mistakes were avoidable, they aren’t catastrophic. They won’t hinder the book’s long-term success or prevent me from writing more. Publishing a book is a skill in itself, it turns out, just like writing.