The mistake I made with my first book

I hope you’ve been enjoying some downtime between Christmas and the New Year.

I’ve been spending time with family and doing a little work on the side.

Right now I’m updating a short Kindle book I published back in 2020.

(It’s a “quick start” guide to a popular online course platform, and since I wrote it there’s been a bunch of new features to catch up with.)

I haven’t relished the idea of making all those updates. I was even wondering whether to abandon the book altogether.

But revisiting the content reminded of the hard work that went into it, and I realised I’d be an idiot to let it wither away. (And a hypocrite too, since I’m usually the one persuading people of the value of digital assets!)

I originally hoped the book would generate some leads for my business and affiliate commissions from readers signing up for the platform.

And technically it did do both of those things, albeit on a small scale.

But the truth is that once the excitement of publishing had faded, I moved onto other things.

In fact, I made a mistake that I often warn others against…

Sitting on your laurels (or just your hands) once your creation is out there in the world and expecting it to fend for itself.

I published my book in October 2020 and did literally nothing during 2021 to promote it. No surprise then that its success was modest.

Despite that, I still benefited from publishing the book, just not in the way that I expected:

• The expert I hired to review the first draft became a mentor and friend.
• Hanging out in the platform’s official Facebook group led to a couple of great-fit clients.
• The knowledge I gained gave me instant credibility with leads I gained elsewhere.

(I also learned how to self-publish a Kindle book from scratch, which was pretty cool.)

So once I’ve sent this newsletter, I’ll get back to updating the book.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with three lessons I learned from the experience:

1. Success sometimes looks a little different than you originally thought.

2. The work doesn’t stop once you’ve launched. (You just switch modes.)

3. Keeping your assets up-to-date doesn’t have to be hard (if you do it little and often).

Thanks for following along in 2021. Here’s to a fun, prosperous (and asset-powered!) 2022.

Speak soon,

Glen

P.S. Is there anything you created in 2021 that deserves more of a push in 2022? Or an asset you could refresh and put to good use?