Is Self-Publishing the Ultimate Lifestyle Business?
When I started ninth grade, my English teacher, Mrs. Jackson, had written a book. She was in the process of trying to get it published. Back then, no one self-published.
She took us along for the ride as she shared her journey with us throughout the school year. Mrs. Jackson secured an agent and, as she explained, that wasn’t easy.
She had to convince the agent to work with her on the strength of her book and her charming personality.
What was the purpose of the agent? The agent, she told the class, would represent her and work hard on shopping her book around to publishers until one said “yes.” Then what?
Once a publisher said yes, they would work through all the legal and process nonsense in order to reach an agreement and sign a contract to publish the book. Since this was her first book, she wouldn’t get much and the book may not sell well.
Flash forward 9 months. She didn’t seem any closer to having her book published at the end of the school year than she did at the beginning.
It’s experiences like that where you learn there are forces at work that attempt to prevent us from getting what we want.
It's in the best interest of these forces to keep us in the dark, to keep us preoccupied while they usurp the resources and transfer the capital to themselves and their friends.
I learned about the harsh realities of going the traditionally published route from Mrs. Jackson. I learned that the publishing houses had boatloads of money and a big office in New York City, and yet, they had no interest in sharing it with Mrs. J.
My dream of living on a beach off the royalties from my barely-begun Tolkien-like fantasy series were shattered. If Mrs. J couldn’t get it done, I didn’t think I stood a chance. If Mrs. J couldn’t make a living from writing, who could?
My thoughts of becoming a writer seemed pointless after that, and I resigned myself to a totally different and decidedly ordinary life.
Flash forward again (sorry about the whiplash). I’m at a point where I want to break free of all that is ordinary, throw off the constraints, and once again pursue that dream of living on a beach off my book royalties.
And, like Mrs. Jackson did for me, I’d like to take you on this journey with me, if that's okay? Only this time, there’s no agent and no publisher. Just me.
The best way to achieve the life I want is to create it through a lifestyle business with my own special brand of self-publishing. That life includes some freedoms, such as:
Financial independence (so I don’t worry about money).
Time independence (so instead of spending my days in meetings, I do what I want).
Location independence (so instead of being stuck somewhere, I can go where I want)
All the things those forces don't want you to have can be had via a lifestyle business. In this case, the Self-Published Life. If you want these things, too, I consider you one of us—one of those who sees beyond the day-to-day grind and longs for a better life.
I believe that self-publishing is the best way to get my (and anyone else’s) income levels to where they need to be. I'm posting my journey along with what I've learned from years in IT and running high volume websites and e-commerce stores.
Where there is technology, there are tech dragons, and they will be slayed.
So all the above raises the question, what is self-publishing?
What Self-Publishing is All About
When you boil it down… control. If you must know.
You may already have a definition in your head, but my definition is beyond inclusive. Let's call it expansive.
Most people think “self-published author”—books. Yes, but that’s only a part of it.
You see, to me self-publishing includes the creation and publication, in any form or any medium, of content, digital assets, and processes and systems that may result in a virtual or physical product.
Yes, I include physical products because they start out as ideas that often first become digital products (blog → ebook → book, article series → course).
Ideas are sourced, blended, and synthesized and then typically work their way into digital products. Then, in some cases, physical products.
It's the next logical step. If you create a digital image of a cat, that could become a tattoo (via a tattoo artist), or it could become a sticker (via a POD service), or it could go on a t-shirt or a mug (POD).
If you write a poem, it could also be made into various digital and physical products.
It's hard to come up with a complete list, because if you can think it up, if you can create it in your mind, then you can make it. Either virtually, physically, or both.
If the process results in a thing coming out the other side that people can use, consume, admire, learn from, or otherwise enjoy, you've done it. You've "published" something, and since you did it yourself, or at least mostly, you've self-published it.
Examples:
Video
Audio
Tools
eBooks
Images
Courses
Writing
Artwork
Software
Newsletters
Printed works
POD products
Digital Products
Fiction or Non-Fiction
Games and gamification
Websites/blogs and e-commerce stores
Warning: There will be puns, bad jokes, cat pictures, metaphors, and analogies.
My ultimate goal is to lead by example and combine the best aspects of multiple online business models: influencer, creator, niche business, author, and personal brand, with none of the bad aspects of each of those.
The beauty of this is flexibility within a framework. For example, you can base your business off of writing books, or you can base it off of podcasting, or video creation, or online writing, and so on. Or you can blend.
The creative process shouldn’t be hampered by limiting beliefs. As such, there is an aspect of personal development that naturally ties into this. The creative mind needs both constraints and the freedom to create and grow.
The lifestyle business concepts of financial, time, and location independence fit perfectly with the creative mindset. The use of systems and frameworks provide structure both from which and within which the creativity can be channeled.
A creative let loose with no focus becomes a doodler. A creative with focus becomes known in the world for crafting quality digital assets and physical products in the real world.
I’ve come to call those of us on a creative path who embrace these concepts, Synthesizers.
Synthesizers are creative thinkers, doers, and modern alchemists, transmuting thoughts into ideas, ideas into concepts, and concepts into products and systems.
We go beyond Kirby Ferguson’s 3 basic concepts of learning: copy, transform, and combine in Everything is a Remix. We inject new angles, blend in fresh perspectives, and create new ways of looking at the world.
As such, Synthesizers see things differently, reject traditional constraints on the their time, their freedom, and their lives, and are, in effect, rebels.
This hybrid synthesis of ideas come to life mated with a hybrid business model is a creative path that is, by nature, unique to each person. And it gives you the biggest gift you can give yourself… options. Options = freedom.
It doesn't happen all at once. It's a journey. I’ll make mistakes. I’ll change my mind.
Things generally get harder before they get easier, and they often expand and become chaotic before they contract and become orderly. I might fail.
It’s a process. Subscribe if you want to join me or just follow along to see what I’ll do next.
