publishing a book: what I'd do differently

notes for first-time authors & my future self!

found on pinterest! not sure

In October 2023, I got a book deal for my first book. In October 2024, it was published around the world. My most consistent dream ever since I can remember has been to be an author, and this is the year the dream came to life.

I wanted this first book to be a learning experience, and to show me what it’s like to go through traditional publishing, as I knew that’s something I’d probably want to do again and again in some way. So I didn’t attach many expectations to this book, I didn’t want to stress about how it’d be received or how to sell as many copies as possible, and I didn’t want to go into it hoping for it to be a large revenue source—more than anything, I wanted to create something useful and true, that would reflect my journey so far and introduce me to the world of publishing and authors.

As expected, I learned a lot! I didn’t know much about how publishing worked beforehand, and was very much just figuring it out as I went. There are things I think I did well, and others I wish I had researched more earlier. I don’t have any published author friends so aside from my editor and my publishing house (and ChatGPT and Reddit threads), I had no one to ask questions to, to get extra perspective.

I know a lot of my paid subs are here for insights about the process of becoming a published author, so here are a few things I wish I knew, or did differently. Basically, everything that will help me have a better experience when publishing a book in the future- so hopefully helpful for you, too.

Negotiate a lot of control over cover design

Ahhh this one quite literally kills me. I’m not kidding when I say it makes my heart beat faster as I’m typing this because I have such strong feelings about it and count rant for a while. I come from the world of marketing and branding, and I always say I’m a very design-driven person. I’m not a designer, but I am good at creative direction, and my work in creative advertising has made me very sensitive to the aesthetic value of different things.

The whole ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ talk is all great in theory, until you realize that a book is a brand, and its cover and creative direction is its branding. Having founded my own company over 4 years ago, one of the things I paid the most attention to was making sure the company’s branding would appeal to the right target audience.

With the book, I knew I wanted some control over the cover design but I didn’t inquire enough about the specifics of what that meant, and did not negotiate any specific requests I had, which I should have, for sure. I recommended a designer to my publisher that I wanted to work with, and I had a moodboard with a very specific aesthetic vision for my cover, but my publisher said they had to go with someone else, and sent over two cover designs that I could choose between, neither one of which matched my vision in the slightest. I chose the one I felt better about, but was left with a cover that I never really liked, a cover that I honestly believe pushes the book away from the right audiences, greatly minimising its distribution potential.

I’ve been incredibly lucky to see my book receive overwhelmingly positive reviews, readers calling it life-changing and telling me it’s made a big tangible impact in their lives. That’s all I want the book to achieve, and I feel genuinely sad at the thought that the cover makes it look like a basic type of airport book that a lot of people who would need it, wouldn’t look at.

Design is a very real purchasing driver for people whether they recognize it or not, and everyone judges books by their cover to an extent; the same way we judge products to buy, brands to follow, etc. For my next book, this is genuinely going to be a top priority, whether I work with the same publisher or a different one. I’ll make sure to set a clear expectation at the beginning where I ask them to agree to me bringing in a moodboard that determines the book’s visual language.

A book is a vessel for a lot of your greatest lessons as an author and a reflection of a lot of passion and dedication, so it’s a shame to end up with a book you’re not happy with in every way. It’s an extension of your own personal brand as the author, and naturally you’d want every large element of your personal brand to feel like you!

I read

Amanda Montell

‘s blog post here where she describes all the back-and-forth she had with her publisher about the cover of The Age of Magical Overthinking, a book whose cover I’ve always really loved. Reading about how persistent she was about getting her vision across, was inspiring to me and something I will carry forward into my next book.