How And Why I Self-Published My First Book + 9 Ways To Enhance Your Life
Including a breathing exercise.
Welcome to a fortnightly newsletter for people in the second half of life who want to stay younger for longer and remain upbeat because it’s never too late to thrive. Subscribe to read all my posts, hear my podcasts, and view my videos.
For me, this is a full-time job and I want to send a special Thank You to my paid subscribers. Their support helps me pay my way as a writer, endeavouring to provide value in my posts.
Hello Friends,
For any of you interested in self-publishing your book, this is how I did it. During the second year of the pandemic, in the first lockdown of that year, I set out to write about my ageing experience over the last thirty years, following the science to reach a fit and healthy bod in my seventies. I had an account on Instagram where I posted what I knew about healthy ageing and gained a large following. The information I posted formed the basis for my book.
I also wrote about some aspects of my life to increase the word count so it turned into a memoir. I involved alpha-readers and beta-readers, had it proofread, and then finally sent it off to an agent. I’m fortunate to have friends who are book-oriented people with degrees in English language and they read through it and proofread the manuscript for me, for free.
Three months later, I got an email addressed “Dear Patrick.” As my name is Patricia, it was obvious the agent hadn’t read my manuscript. I sent it off to another. After three months, I’d heard nothing. This agent clearly wasn’t interested, either. Rather than send it off to yet another, I decided to cut out the middleman and go down the self-publishing route.
I’d read about Amazon’s print-on-demand KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) service and thought I’d try that. However, it would mean a lot of work, especially with the manuscript in its current form. Just taking out the information on ageing well would mean a much shorter book and one that I could cope with, so that’s what I did.
Again, I involved my team of alpha and beta readers and then put the manuscript through an editing programme for grammar and plagiarism. I thought up an elegant title. I believed I could do this, but I had a mini-crisis as the manuscript became nearly ready for publishing. There were so many decisions to make and no one to advise me. The stress took over.
Eventually, I hired the services of a self-publishing ‘guru’ to guide me through the process. First, he suggested changing the title; too many other books would appear in Amazon searches for the keywords ‘ageing well’, burying my book. Ten days of keyword research resulted in the title the book now has: Healthy Aging Tips: A Wellness Guide to Aging.
I’m not entirely happy with it, but it was supposed to be a more successful title for drawing in potential readers, my guru assured me. As the keyword research had indicated that the spelling of the word ‘ageing’ should be in the American version of ‘Aging’, to be successful, it meant that the complete manuscript should be in American English, to be consistent. My English readers will therefore wonder if the book has spelling mistakes when it is the American version of the spelling.
The book is around 20,000 words, so it’s not long. I wrote it in Google Docs and created the cover on Canva. I have a Pro account with Canva, but there is a free version. My guru suggested buying an app named Jutoh to format the book, and that is what I did, with the help of my tech-savvy son. The app is not very expensive, under £50.
The book hasn’t sold many copies because I haven’t marketed it as well as I should have. I’m currently writing three other short books and will also self-publish these, using the same route. Two of these books are part of the series that began with the already-published one. However, this time I’ll start the marketing well before publishing.
My local bookshop owner readily put the published book in his shop and it has sold some copies. It’s also in my local library. I had to apply for that to happen. Here in England, authors get paid every time someone borrows their book(s) from a public library so I joined the Public Lending Right (PLR) system which pays them. I can now get paid for this, and any other books I have in my local library. This has to be done through the British Library, which you also need to join.
Since adding it to stock, the book has been almost consistently borrowed, generating a small income stream alongside Amazon sales. On completion of each of the three books I’m working on, I’ll also apply to have them in the library and will notify the local press to get the word out to friends and interested people. It’s been a fascinating, though sometimes stressful, experience, but worth it.
This year, 2025, I intend to publish the other books I’ve almost finished and one I plan to write: a memoir of my childhood. The ones I have almost ready for publication are a very short book on my holiday to Florence last year, the holiday was a birthday gift from my son. It involved my very first plane flight.
The second book is based on my family tree research, many of the stories I uncovered, and how I went about it. The third is looking at aspects of aging not covered in the previous books.
I’m currently in the final stages of creating a workbook, The Ageing Healthily Workbook to accompany the book for those who want to actively improve their physical and mental health. The workbook will assume you’ve read “Healthy Ageing Tips….” but it stands alone as a tool for change. The workbook will only be available on Substack, in the first instance, as individual chapters for paid subscribers and as a PDF to purchase. Watch out for an announcement of its availability.
NB: See the foot of this post for the book Healthy Aging Tips, A Wellness Guide to Aging on Amazon.
9 Ways to Enhance Your Life
Keep Houseplants. Living and breathing greenery in your space helps to reduce stress and induce calm. Houseplants can improve air quality by purifying it. I have several spider plants scattered around the house, which are particularly good for air quality, as well as others. If you have a pet, you need to choose plants that are not harmful to them. The chilled cat in the illustration is not mine. I don’t have a pet at the moment.
Practice positive self-talk and turn negative statements and thoughts from your inner voice into positive ones. Negativity solves nothing.
Eat mindfully, and concentrate on every mouthful. This helps you feel full. Eating absentmindedly leads to snacking because you haven’t savoured your food. Walk mindfully to benefit fully from the activity and notice what’s around you rather than be absorbed with what’s in your head.
Make time when you can to just sit and do nothing. Even if it’s only ten minutes, clear your desk and your head. Think about your life without the distractions of screens and people. This is not meditating, as thought is welcome. It’s the pleasure of focusing on your thoughts without distraction. If you have a life problem to solve, mentally work through the options to help you see the way through in peace and quiet.
Declutter regularly. Only have things around you that are useful or aesthetically pleasing.
Take days off from the news. Good news is rare these days and constant bad news can lower your mood. Having a day off from news programmes will give you peace and emotional calm. You can always catch up tomorrow.
Check out The Eightfold Path in Buddhism which is the path to enlightenment, and was in the first sermon given by the Buddha. It’s a philosophy to live by, not a religion. People of all religions and none can follow it.
Instead of chemically based products to scent the air in your home use non-toxic essential oils, and herbs and spices dispensed by a diffuser. If you have houseplants, too, you’re really looking after the air you breathe to take care of your well-being.
Lastly, here’s a breathing exercise, a tool to help reduce stress.
Breathe in deeply counting to 8
Hold and count to 4
Breathe out counting to 10 - this is the most important part of the exercise to calm everything down so don’t rush it.
Hold and count to 4
Do the above for 5 inhales and exhales.
Walking Challenge
We’re now halfway through this month’s Walking Challenge and it’s proving so popular that I’m thinking of continuing it into next month and maybe beyond. What do you think about this? Let’s discuss it next week’s post with a poll.
A way to lend one-time support for my work, if you so wish - tip your server with a £4 hot chocolate: https://ko-fi.com/patriciacusack
Leave A Comment
What would you have done in my situation of overwhelm as publication of my manuscript drew near? Let us know about your experience of self-publishing?
I hope you find this post of value. Tapping the heart icon will show you liked it and help others find it. I appreciate each one of you who reads my posts.
If you get value from the content I provide, and share my ethos of paying people for their work, please consider a paid subscription. It will give you access to the posts behind a paywall, an occasional video, and a monthly chat for the paid subscriber community. A paid subscription will also help support me in my work.
Another post from the Archive: What Happens When The Simple Life Chooses You?
Do you know about the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi)? It is, as its name suggests, an organisation for writers who self-publish and offers a wealth of material and advice. I have been highly impressed by the thoughtfulness of the people I have met through ALLi. If you want to know more, go to https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/members/join?affid=3803 (that is an affiliate link such that if you want to join, I will gain some benefit but you will pay the same). I not only self-published my last two books, but I took back other books originally published by traditional publishers, have marketed them and sold a lot. Happy to discuss further if you wish.
Just finished the rough copy of my book — was refreshing to read this and thank you. Amazon is next for me.