Two students publish their first book

I love a success story. And regular readers of this blog will know that the Sydney Writers’ Centre helps students produce real results.

Louise Woodbury attended our course Feature Writing for Magazines and Newspapers in late 2005. Louise had a non-fiction book idea and wanted to hone her writing skills before she and husband William de Ora began writing the book.

In early 2006, William attended the Sydney Writers’ Centre seminar on Self-Publishing. And by September 2006, their book How to Grow Your Business by Taking 3 Months Off was released!

I’ve read the book and I love it because:
•    As a business owner, it offers some really valuable lessons
•    It’s very easy to read – you can relate to the case studies and can implement the tips immediately
•    It’s the work of two former students of the Sydney Writers’ Centre!

In fact, this book has already caused so much of a buzz that it’s been featured in everything from the Australian Financial Review to The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and many more.

Here’s the transcript of my recent chat with Louise.

Valerie: Did you know much about publishing before this book?
Louise: We had no idea about all the intricacies of self-publishing but we certainly learnt that there is more to just getting the book typeset and printed. All of the advice we got about the book came from the Self-Publishing seminar at the Sydney Writers’ Centre. The seminar was full of gems and a real eye-opener. It also gave us the confidence we needed to just do it and make it happen.

Valerie: What have been the benefits of self-publishing?
Louise: There are a lot of benefits to being a self-publisher – one of the biggest benefits is the freedom you have in the content of the book – we had the luxury of including whatever we wanted to include.
The other benefit is the money – we feel we will be in a position to recover our costs a lot sooner than if we were paid a royalty by a mainstream publisher.

Valerie: What was the most challenging part of writing this book?
Louise: There were a few. It was about being judged – being consultants – what we said and wrote about would directly affect the business and what clients would think about us – current clients as well as potential clients.
If we published rubbish, then we would look like people who didn’t know what they were talking about. It was also about going public with our philosophies and view point.

Valerie: How long did it take for you both to write it and how did this collaboration work?
Louise: The printed version is really the fourth version of the book. We had written three manuscripts before being totally happy. Bringing the book together in a powerful way took from May through to August 2006 .

Doing the research took a great deal of time – more than expected. William and I collaborated on it and, in the majority of the cases, one of us would start a section and the other would finish. Or one would criticise and then re-write the section completely. However, each time we kept on building on each other’s thinking.

I brought the structure and disciplines into being and was always thinking about the reader, whilst William was always more focused on the big picture. We worked to each other’s strengths because we are not only business partners but also life partners – no room for any ego issues.

Valerie: Do you have plans for any other books?
Louise: We have two other books in the pipeline – however, what we have to do is get this book to being a best seller and beyond – our goal is to sell 100,000 copies worldwide. At present, our plans are to promote, promote, and promote.

The book was launched in September 2006 and so far we have given keynote presentations to about 10 Chamber of Commerce groups. The Department of State & Regional Development has also helped us to get the word out and in December we will be presenting in Queensland to about 80 business owners.
We have received reviews in the Australian Financial Review and The Sydney Morning Herald as well as the Melbourne Age – so things are happening.

As a self-publisher we have to do this ourselves and what the workshop did was to map out what we needed to do and create a plan of action.

Valerie: Any final words of advice or insight now that you’re well on your journey?
Louise: They say there is a book in every person – well, we have given birth to our book and the journey has just begun – it is an exciting and exhilarating journey. The best advice we could give anyone who is thinking of writing or self-publishing a book is to attend the workshops by Valerie Khoo – it’ll save you a lot of money and time!

NOTE FROM VALERIE:
I didn’t pay Louise to say all that! Seriously, I’m thrilled when students achieve what they set out to do and even more thrilled when the result is such a quality publication. Well done guys. You can check out their book at www.take3months.com

Comments

[Janet Shaw]

It's great to see self-publishing getting more press. I think it is a way of the future, and not just in book format. I am working on a fiction e-book for kids. I'd love to do it as a print book as well, but will have to see how the budget goes first. I only wish I lived in NSW and could attend the self-publishing seminar. There's only so much you can get from reading about it.