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How I wrote and Published a Book for Under £50

November 2, 2015 by Andrzej Marczewski

As you may have seen by now, I have a new book out! If you had managed to miss that, check it out here 🙂

The purpose of this blog is to give a quick overview of how I got it finished and published in print and ebook formats.

This was a project I started in around February 2015. I had been wanting to create a print version of my previous book for a while, but decided that it would be much better for everyone if I created a totally new book. It would be better value for my readers and actually better for me as it would help cement a few concepts in print! It turns out that academic world really doesn’t like referencing websites.

Content is King!

The first step was to write the book. As this was going to mostly be a compilation of blog posts, the content was about 70% there for me. However, a series of unconnected blog posts doesn’t make a very interesting or useful book. Once I had the basic framework of content, I had to link it all together and create new content that filled in some of the gaps.

Choose a Publisher

Once I had the content, I needed to think about how it was going to get published and with whom. This would dictate things like whether the final book would be colour and what size / format it would be. I looked at a few options and discovered that I didn’t need an actual publisher or even money upfront. I could use print on demand services such as Lulu, Createspace or Ingram Spark. This would keep the costs way down.

One important factor was UK and EU distribution. The book had to be available to those regions via Amazon. After some research I decided that the best option would be a company called Blurb. They had a set of tools to help build the book and good templates. Importantly they gave free ISBN numbers for books being distributed through them.

The ISBN number is an ID number for your book. You have to have one for printed books. Not every service gives them for free, and they are a touch pricey if you have a budget of £0! You buy 10 for about £140. Now, if I had the money, I would have done that as it gives you greater control of your book – keep that one in mind.

Proof Read / Edit

Anyway, I used the tools and the templates and got my book into a decent format. At this stage it needed to be edited. I proofread it a few times, but called on my friends to have a good look at it for me as well.

This is a soul destroying time in an authors life. My main editor was the wonderful Dutch Driver. I uploaded the manuscript to Google Docs and he made changes and suggestions there that I incorporated into my Word version. He was amazing, but be warned, this is tough and you have to have an open mind. That said, you have to be firm with your own concepts – it is your book!

The Cover and Blurb

Whilst this was happening, I also started to create a cover and tried to come up with a title. Again, this was all about getting help from friends. Using Photoshop I created lots and lots of mock up covers and got feedback on them. Once I had a title and a basic idea I was happy with, I went to the brilliant online service Fiverr to get the main image created for me. This was the first expense. Fiverr is a resource where you can get skilled people to do skilled jobs for you – the price starts at $5. I found a great artist who did vector based art. For the Monkey image to be created, for the illustrator files to be given to me and for a commercial license to use the image, I paid $15 – not bad! There are people there who will create whole covers for you, but I just needed the main image.

Another activity during this phase was to try to get some testimonials. I contacted a group of people I knew who were influential in my area and asked them if they would be willing to read my draft and offer testimonials for me to include on the back cover of the book (it turns out this is known as blurb!). I was luck enough to get a few people say yes, so was able to then add those to the back cover, along with a simple description of the book.

Print It and Proof Read Again

Once the manuscript was ready (at least once I thought it was ready), it was time to get a proof copy from Blurb. A few days later, I had my first printed copy of the book. That’s when the next lot of serious work started!! First I had to create a good quality PDF copy, I used PDF Creator. The key here is to ensure you embed the fonts in the PDF document!

Creating Content for a Printed Book

Being used to working with online text, I had mis-formatted the book horribly. Things you have to do when writing a book for print!

Justify your text, left aligned looks awful in print.
Use a Serif font for body text, it makes it much easier to read.
Choose a different font for titles / headings from the body.
Check those fonts are available for printing (not all are and it depends on the service you use).
Enable hyphenation, this is important to help the flow of the text.
Make a choice between indenting the first word of a paragraph and leaving a line between paragraphs – you can’t have both.
Check the contrast of images, especially if you are going colour to black and white in print.
Make sure all images are at least 300dpi.

The next expense was a pack of highlighters and some sticky tabs. I went through the book and highlighted errors, write corrections in red and used tabs to mark my place. Not a single page survived unscathed! Once this was done, I uploaded the new version and got a new print copy sent.

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I went through the same editing process with this version as well. Highlight, edit, tab. It turned out that Words automatic hyphenation has its issues, so I spent some time working on getting that right. It is important to not let a word hyphenated between two pages for instance! My wife also went through the book at this stage to correct anything obvious. At the same time, two more friends int he form of Mike Finney and Richard Wallace were looking at the latest draft to give me any feedback.

Create an eBook Version and Hit Publish

Once all the edits on this version were done – I ordered a new copy. This one, was the final one. Using another free word template I had found, I used this version of the manuscript to create a Kindle ready copy. Publishing for Kindle is very simple. You sign up for Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), fill in some details and then upload your Kindle ready word document. It really is as simple as that!

Once I had looked it over and was happy – I hit publish on KDP and Blurb. Blurb gave me the option for global distribution that would put the book in 39,000 places online apparently.

That’s when Blurb became an issue. At first I was ecstatic. After a week, my book was on Amazon.com and available for purchase. However, on any other region it was noted as being unavailable. After some tooing and froing with Blurb, it turned out that those 39,000 online shops and lists didn’t actually include any Amazon store outside of the US.

Amazon Author Tools

However, it was not time wasted, I discovered a few helpful Amazon related tools.

Author Central. Use this to take ownership of your books on Amazon and to create a profile for yourself. it gives you control of book descriptions (in the US) and also stats on book sales.
Look Inside. Many books on Amazon let you see previews of pages. This is not automatic, you have to specifically request it from Amazon. It is easy to do and I recommend that you do it!
Book Match. This is only available in the US, but it links a Kindle version of your book to the print version. This allows you to create a discount on the Kindle version if someone buys the print version.

However, I was still left with an issue – how to distribute on other Amazon Territories. After a little looking around, I landed back at Amazons own Createspace. I had discounted this service as proof copies of books are posted from America, making them very expensive – however, I didn’t really need print copies anymore. After a little reformatting, with the help of the great online proofing tools, I had a new version of the book ready to print. They gave me a new ISBN number and I had to change the cover a little, but it only took a day or two to be ready.

Within in 24 hours, Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play was available for print in the UK and the US and other regions!

Costs:

Cover Image $15 (£10)
Stationary £10
Proof copies 3 x £8

Total = £44 ($70)

So I am now using Createspace for print copies of the book to be sold through Amazon and other online stores. I am using KDP to sell a Kindle version and I am using Blurb to allow me to print promo copies as delivery is still much cheaper!

Quick run down.

Tips:

Proofread
Proofread
Print
Proofread.. you get the idea

Tools:

Word 2013 – Main authoring tool
Powerpoint – Images and Graph creation
Paint.Net – Photo editing
Photoshop – Cover Creation
PDF Creator – production of PDF version of book and cover
Google Docs – Collaboration with editors
Dropbox – storage
InkScape – vector image editing

Services:

Fiverr – Monkey image for cover
Blurb – initially distribution, now promo copy printing
Createspace – distribution
Amazon Author Services

FRIENDS!!!

Amazon: Getting customer care wrong

June 22, 2015 by Andrzej Marczewski

Recently my wife pre-ordered a book from Amazon. She put her order in the day after pre-orders opened and chose super-saver delivery. Her understandable assumption was that if she pre-ordered, then the book would at least be dispatched on the day of release. She knew she would have to wait a few days for delivery, but that was fine.

The truth was a little different. The book was due for release on the 18th of June. Looking at her delivery estimates in Amazon, it stated the book was due for dispatch on the 22nd of June with a delivery estimate of 27th of June. She was a little confused by this.

So, she opened a dialog with customer support. Here is that conversation.

You’re now connected to Bob (name changed for privacy) from Amazon.co.uk

Me:Hi there,

I pre-ordered a book on 2nd June. I’ve just checked my order and it says that the item won’t be despatched until 22nd June which is 4 days after release day. I thought the point of pre-order was so that you had it either with you on the release date, or it was at least despatched on the release date? Can you please explain this to me.

Thanks

Bob:Hello, my name is Bob.

Thank you for contacting Amazon.co.uk. May I know your name please?

Me:Yes, it’s Laura

Bob:Hi Laura.

Me:Hi there.

Bob:I am sorry for the delay in delivering your order.

I will surely check this and help you.

Are you referring to the order for the item ” This Book”?

Me:Yes – it’s on order number xxx-xxx-xxx

Bob:Thanks for the details.

I have checked and see that you have placed this order via Free super saver delivery which will take 3 – 5 days to deliver the items.

This is the reason for the delay.

Me:I get that, but that doesn’t explain why it’s not being despatched on the release date at the very least.

Delivery type shouldn’t mean a delay on despatching the item in line with the release date.

Bob:To help you better I have now upgraded the delivery method to first class at free of charge.

Laura, we used to dispatch the items according to the delivery method.

Hope we are connected.

Me:I’m sorry but why should super saver delivery mean that a customer doesn’t have their product shipped in time for release or on the release date. That’s treating someone who places a bulk order and takes advantage of your own delivery offers as a second class citizen, and quite frankly makes you feel like you don’t particularly matter as a customer.

Bob:I am sorry that you feel this way.

Since the item is releasing on that day we will dispatch the items accordingly and there is no need to worry about this, Laura.

I have just requested them to dispatch your order as soon as possible.

Once we dispatch this item we ill update you via email.

Me:You’re missing the point here. If I order something in advance, it shouldn’t matter what the delivery method is, it should still be despatched to either reach me on release date or be sent on the release date otherwise what is the point of pre-ordering?

Bob:There is no need to worry about the estimated delivery date which is on our website.

I have requested them to deliver the this item much sooner.

Yes, I apologies for that Laura.

To get Release Day Delivery, orders must be placed by the applicable pre-order cut-off date – you must select First Class delivery no later than 4 days before release day, or One-Day no later than 2 days before release day.

Me:I’m not worrying about the estimated delivery date, I am questioning how Amazon can justify doing this on pre-ordered items when the whole point of pre-order is to receive an item on release date or at the very least have it despatched on that date. Delivery method should have no bearing on this. I ordered on 2nd of June which was 16 days ago, well before any ‘cut off’ date, and delivery method should have no bearing on despatch date. That is the point.

Bob:However, I have now upgraded the delivery method to First class at free of charge.

I have checked and see that you have placed this order via Free super saver delivery, Laura.

Me:Amazon have utterly failed in terms of customer care here. Upgrading me now is completely pointless given that release day is tomorrow. If you are not willing to treat Super Saver delivery customers orders as equaly important as those who select First Class, Next Day etc, then why even allow them to pre-order items in the first place?

Bob:I have also forwarded this issue to our internal team and requested them to avoid this issues in future.

Me:I am absolutely disgusted by this, and shall be cancelling my order.

Bob:I am sorry that you feel this way.

Laura, I have made everything to get your order on the 19 June, 2015.

We are sorry for the inconvenience caused by this.

Hope we are connected.

Your chat has been idle for one minute. I may close this chat after one more minute. If it isn’t convenient for you to reply to me at the moment, please contact us again later:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/contact-us

Me:I doubt that Amazon actually is sorry for any inconvenience Bob, but I appreciate your sentiment. I shall leave the order as is, but I think Amazon need to take a long hard look at how they treat super saver customers on pre-ordered items in terms of when an item is despatched. We are not second class citizens and should be entitled to the same despatch efficiency as any other customer. Thank you for taking the time to help me.

As you can see, my wife tried to valiantly explain that the issue was not that there would be a 3-5 day delivery time, but that the dispatch of the item would also be delayed by 3-5 days, even though she had pro-ordered. This meant that because she chose super-saver she would have to actually wait up to 10 days from release date, not the 5 she was prepared for. Bob was lucky he could not hear what she was saying during this conversation, just read her more tempered comments!

Whilst it seemed like a pleasant gesture to upgrade her delivery to first class, that was not the solution to the problem she had actually raised! Also, as it later transpired, the upgrade was not free, her charges had now updated to include this new delivery option!

What made the whole thing even more insulting was the closing message from Amazon;

No Amazon, you did not solve the problem. You solved a symptom of the problem, but ignored the actual problem entirely. The whole thing felt prescriptive rather than “Customer-Centric”. It was as if there was a script with canned responses and solutions that could not be strayed from. She of course clicked no.

Further insult was piled on when she discovered that a friend who had ordered at the same time, using the same delivery options, received her book on the day of release.

There are a lot of issues with how this played out, but there are three main ones that stick out for me.

The first is that it was not made clear on the pre-order that the method of deliver not only affected how long it would take for the item to reach you , but that it also affected when the item would be dispatched.
Bob, whilst very polite and offering to upgrade the delivery method, completely missed the point of the complaint. This just lead to more frustration and a very circular conversation.
The gesture to upgrade delivery was not a gesture of goodwill as it was actually being paid for by us.

The outcome is that my wife now feels that Amazon may not be all it is cracked up to be. Had she just gone to a shop, she would have got her book a the same price (actually cheaper if you account for having to use premium delivery methods to get the book near release date). She would have never had to deal with Bob and would not be left wondering why she had bothered in the first place.

As I have said before, loyalty is about more than just price or convenience. It is a mix of things with one key feature being that you are made to feel valued as a customer. This sort of thing makes me wonder if Amazon has hit the point where they no longer care at all. Is that the fate of all companies that grow too big?

As a small conclusion, after a second frustrating conversation with Amazon, she declined the book and I bought it from her from our local Waterstones. It was a much nicer experience and worked out cheaper. I also had the opportunity to take my daughter, buy her a book and even buy myself one. Physical stores must not die!

Loyalty: What is it and how do you cultivate it?

October 4, 2013October 4, 2013 by Andrzej Marczewski

I have been meaning to write about this for a while, but it wasn’t until I answered a question for someone yesterday that I had some words that actually made sense to me!

Old School Loyalty

When we think of loyalty, especially when we consider it in the context of gamification, we tend to think of loyalty cards , air-miles or other point collection systems. You spend £X and we will give you points that can go towards other goods or discounts. When I was a kid, we used a petrol station called Texaco. There were two reasons for this. The first, it was on the way home from church on a Saturday evening and two, it was cheaper than other local options. Something they started to do, was give you stickers based on how much petrol you bought. These stickers were used to fill up cards. These cards could then be traded in against goods – the more cards, the better the goods you could get. Using this method, my Mum and Dad managed to kit out our kitchen with new mugs, new glasses – I even got a Swiss Army Knife out of it!

All of that makes it sound like we were loyal customers of Texaco. The truth of the matter really, it was convenient and cheap. The sticker scheme was a nice extra, but if we were not near home we would not go out of our way to find a Texaco garage for petrol, we would go where ever was near or cheap.

Real Consumer Loyalty

Loyalty in the consumer market is seen when people will go out of their way to just use a particular product, service or brand. This is irrespective of convenience or price. Take for example our Christmas Turkey. Every year we buy our Christmas turkey from Graham Turner. He used to run a very local butchers. In the last couple of years he moved to a new area, making his butchers no longer all that convenient to go to. However, we still go there to get out turkey (and any decent joints of meat we need). We have a butchers less than a 2 minute walk from us, we have two super markets less than 5 minutes drive from us, but we always go to Graham. Why? Because he has cultivated loyalty in us. He and his staff make every visit feel special. They treat us as old friends, greeting us by name or as Sir or Madam. The quality of their products is second to none and their customer service should there be an issue is unparalleled. Christmas eve a few years ago, we got our Turkey and found out once it was home that it was not big enough. We called Graham to complain, he told us to come straight back and he would keep the shop open for us to sort out a replacement – Christmas eve and he kept the shop open just for us! With service like this, I don’t need to collect points to want to keep using Graham!

It is this kind of personal touch that keeps people coming back time and time again, the feeling that you are special and important. Big brands like Amazon know this as well, making every visit to the Amazon website a more personal experience. Items are recommended that their algorithms have predicted will be of interest to you (and they are normally pretty spot on). You are greeted by name in a friendly manner. Emails you get from them have some kind of relevance to you, offering tailor made (or seemingly tailor made) deals that will interest you.

Tesco have begun to do the same, using their standard looking loyalty scheme to personalise the offers you get. Their website even states The more you use your Club-card the better we can understand the sort of coupons you might like to receive”. They are being honest, keep using us and we will make sure the service you get will become more and more personalised to what you want. It is the difference between getting vouchers for DVD’s when you really need them for nappies.

Big brands like these can do this, because they have huge amounts of data about you. You keep hearing about Big Data, well this is what it can offer the loyalty market – personalisation of everything. Amazon knows what I buy, so can tailor what I see. Tesco knows what you buy on-line and in store, because we scan our Club-card after each shop and they can then identify us. It may sound creepy, but it begins to build a picture that allows these brands to make us feel like the centre of the experience.

Consumer loyalty is now about finding out who your customers are and what drives them and giving them what they want or need.

Enterprise Loyalty

In the enterprise, loyalty is important as well, loyal employees are valuable. They work harder and they are more likely to stay. However, many mistake loyalty for obligation or even lack of other options. A loyal employee is one who will stay even if they are offered what on the face of it looks like a better opportunity, because they feel that they are valued and are valuable to the company they are with. Some may stay because they feel some level of obligation, gratitude towards their employer for employing them. This won’t last though. Unless they feel valued they will soon walk.

In much the same way as Graham Turner makes people feel they are at the centre of the experience when they are in his shop, employers need to make employees feel that they are at the centre of their experience in the company. If they feel like just another cog, they will feel no loyalty to the company at all.

4 Types of Loyalty

Barry Kirk from Bunchball has a really neat way of categorising loyalty.

Inertia Loyalty: This is where people stay with something because it is too much effort to leave or change. Think of people in jobs who are just their going through the motions, but it is convenient for them to stay and would be risky or too much effort for too little reward to leave.

Mercenary Loyalty: Old school loyalty schemes fit here. Buy from us, collect points, get free stuff. My Consumer user type sits here and the Texaco stickers are a great example of this.

True Loyalty: This is where my loyalty to Graham Turner fits in. I go out of my way to use him because of the service, the quality and the experience. He may be more expensive and harder to get to, but that won’t stop me! This is what you should be striving for.

Cult Loyalty: This is a strange one and one that can’t really be made – it just happens. As Barry says, this is demonstrated by those who tattoo a brand logo to themselves, or will only buy a Harley because that expresses deeply who they are. The closest I have seen to this kind of loyalty being manufactured is when Apple created the iPhone. Steve Jobs was often described as a cult leader with is Reality Distortion Field. The iPhone was a bit of leap of faith for Apple, it had to work. They started by making people feel that this was the future, to not have it would be to miss out on the future (Loss Aversion). Once people started to buy them, they made everyone else feel that if they didn’t have one, they were missing out and a bit of loser (Social Pressure). This social pressure and loss aversion style cycle has been continually cycling since the first iPhone was released. It has kept people buying the iPhone even though it was considerably more expensive than any other phone on the market – and did considerably less than many other phones!

Creating loyalty is not easy, but a good place to start is to put the person whose loyalty you want, back into the centre of the experience. Make them feel that you as a brand or an employer or whatever, care about them directly and that you value them and understand them. Don’t try to bribe them, loyalty has to be earned.