Writing a Book

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These days, I’m regaining my energy. I wake up earlier and I’m less likely to take naps midday (though sometimes I still do). I think it’s all thanks to lowering my dose of medicine. I don’t feel like I’m swimming through mud as much. And with that extra energy, the other day, I wrote a draft for a book. Yes, finally after a few years of wanting to write a book, any book, I got around to it.

The book is non-fiction. It’s for beginner music artists who want to release music online such as through Spotify or Apple Music, but don’t know how. I walk them through the process. I’ve been wanting to share this information (and more) for a while.

Soon, I’m going to look into offering 1:1s as well. The 1:1s would be for those who have more questions or feel stuck somewhere in the process of producing or releasing music. I know I definitely had a lot of questions and unknowns when I first started off, and I’m sure I could help guide the process so that it’s easier.

Now that I’ve written a draft for one book, I feel confident that I could write another even. But before I jump ahead, I’m going to finish this one. I still have a few more sections to write. And the total number of words I’ve written so far is around 5300. (It took a little more than 5 hours of sitting continuously to write.) I’d like to aim for 7500 words if possible, but I think the size is adequate as it is right now.

I’m going to be using a Canva template to create the eBook. And instead of Amazon publishing, I’m going to experiment with B&N publishing. There are some benefits to it such as not being tied to that as only a publisher and them paying out 70% in royalties for eBooks even if you price your book higher. Amazon KDP drops the royalty to 35% if you exceed the price of $9.99, which is kind of blah. (Seriously Amazon, why?) I know it’s a major retailer that drives sales through search, but I think I’m going to look into other publishers as well such as Apple Publishing, and offer the book through a service like PayHip. The main draw that I’m going for is being able to select the pricing. I am giving valuable content away, so it only makes sense to price it that way. There are other pros to B&N publishing, such as the hardcopy of the book looking nicer than what Amazon has to offer. I don’t know if I’m going to sell a hardcopy just yet, but it’s in my thoughts.

This past year has been a quiet one, with me not publishing any new music to DSPs (digital service providers). I did post a video last summer of me covering BTBT by B.I. I actually want to redo the cover with my new Rode mic and make it a full cover that I can post to Spotify or Melon Music. It’s a fun song, and I think others would enjoy it. But basically while I was not producing much music, I’ve been focused on recovery from my second psychosis. It’s really tricky because I don’t want to be so medicated that I can hardly function, but I don’t want to be prone to psychosis again. During this past half year or so, I’ve been feeling down from not being able to do much. I tried and tried to resist the tiredness, but it was so difficult to just wave off. I couldn’t even get myself to post on my blog the past couple of months. Finally, here I am posting something.

And so now that I’m able to be somewhat productive and do more meaningful things, I’m glad that this book is coming to fruition. It’s a way to provide value to beginner music artists, a great coping skill, and another potential passive income stream.

I’m not planning to hit the bestsellers list with this title. But, I hope to generate a few sales and that people find it helpful. I included everything I would want to know when starting off with producing/releasing music. I also shared resources that I’ve used such as when hiring another producer to create the instrumental or securing a license for cover songs. I’m planning to make it comprehensive so that anyone starting off with music online can have their basis covered. I feel like I’m dropping serious gems with this book, cutting months or even years of research and confusion into a single book. Watch out for it in the upcoming quarter.