The answer is YES… we’re most definitely crazy to publish our own hardcopy book! Actually the truth is… since we quit our full time, (boring as) Government jobs we’ve been on a crazy but very merry rollercoaster.
[Tweet “Are we CRAZY to self publish our own hardcopy book?!”]
Every day we jump out of bed and we’re actually (for reals) excited to get on to our to do list.
We’re not saying every day is easy, actually lots of the days are like “what the bleep are we doing” and we might just be proper… bonkers.
But it’s worth it, right? You know we’re all about following our bliss and creating meaningful lives.
Today we stop and reflect (and write a post) about how freaking proud of us we are. Not just about publishing our book… Make it Merry: A Healthy Cookbook BUT for simply believing in ourselves enough to know that we could turn our passion in to a business.
Look at our book! 🙂
It’s ok to be proud of yourself, not just ok, it’s necessary to be proud of yourself, to create and live your dreams. So we vote, let’s all reflect on our own amazingness (coz you’re definitely amazing!).
Before we get in to the book stuff we have to send you huge virtual hugs/high fives/kisses for supporting us in one way or another.
Whether you bought our eBooks, hardcopy book or if you simply visit our site and social media channels! We love you guys!
Who’d a funk it all started with a simple Google search of ‘what is a blog?’ followed by ‘how to start a blog?’.
Google has definitely played an important role in our merrymaking, blogging, online business journey. And still does. #welovegoogle errrrrryday!
We decided to print a book because we were asked to (definitely not the best form of research!). But we gathered enough people had asked for a hard copy book to make it worthwhile… plus we just wanted a merrymaker book for ourselves… and for our Mum.
‘Hard copy book’ was on the goal list but we thought… we’ll wait til we’re ‘big enough’ to get a publisher. THEN we’ll get our hardcopy book!
Mid 2014 we read Lisa Messenger’s book Books To Boost Your Brand and realised we should listen to the people and just print our own hardcopy merrymaker recipe book!
Books aren’t just about selling a product or making a bunch of money (trust us, they’re not big money makers!). Our book allows us to provide a personal touch, make our merry message stronger and literally send a piece of us home with our people (hopefully in the kitchen covered in food… because merrymaker recipes are getting made left right and centre!).
You know we love working with aligned, amazing brands so we approached the BEST Australian health and wellbeing brands out there to help us create our book (because we couldn’t afford the initial investment ourselves).
We would help promote their amazing products (because we love them) and in turn they would help us fund our book! Collaboration is where it’s at yo!
We’re sending extra huge love to our book sponsors: Paleo Café, 180 Nutrition, Primal Collective/Optimoz, Fire and Shine Active Wear, The Love Letter, The Fix, Matcha Maiden, Paleo Perfection Espresso Bar, Roooar Magazine, Power Super Foods and Belconnen Fresh Food Markets.
Now. What we should’ve done was plan the book process and stick to the process. And of course we did nothing of the kind!
Flash back to early 2015 when we started working on the Make it Merry recipe book, we managed our projects like…
Work on project A, switch to project B, start project C, learn about project Z, back to project C because it’s the most fun… OH what about project A?!
As you can imagine, efficiency wasn’t in our vocabulary! Yeh, like efficiency… say whaaaaat? So this meant we were kinda (definitely) all over the shop!
Our book took us a lot longer than we had planned and this was because we didn’t really know how long design would take… or that we needed to pick a certain kind of paper… or get a barcode made… and don’t even get us started on how we were actually going to launch the book.
Our landing page alone caused a lot of merry disagreements and frustrations. But this was our first ever landing page and although it took us longer than planned, the final product is what matters… and we are SO over the moon with it! Check it out here (thanks to Joana Galvao design for the epic pretty factor!).
Our project hopping (un-management) technique wasn’t moving us forward, so we realised it was time to stop with the “but this is how we work/merrymake” affirmation.
And thanks to Chris Ducker for this little tip we scored from his Tropical Think Tank conference. He told us to simply stay focused and work on project A until we’ve finished it and then move on to B and then C etc. etc.
Yah, we know it’s like DUH MERRYMAKERS… but apparently at times we need Chris Ducker to tell us to do something… to make it happen.
We look back at our publishing process and (again) think ‘what the bleep’! Actually we think this about a lot of our processes… BUT we learn every day.
We definitely agree with Dan Norris when he says that sometimes you don’t learn until you launch…. that’s from his super motivating book The 7 Day Start Up. Get amongst this book if you need a little motivation (or kick up the butt) to start something… what ever it may be.
Now that we’ve designed the book, edited the book, picked the paper, launched the book and now at final print stages this ‘self publishing’ business seems 100% doable.
Are you ready for another inspirational quote? This one helps us move forward in all of our projects… because sometimes, things are hard… sometimes you feel you’re at a blocked road… but remember:
[Tweet “Everything is difficult… until it is done.”]
Now, if you were to ask us: Are We Crazy To Publish Our Own Hardcopy Book? We’d be like… naaaah, let’s do it again, but better.
Always merrymaking,
Emma + Carla
p.s we’re thinking of writing more about our self publishing process, so if this is a topic that might interest you, leave us a comment below!