Learn How to Self-Publish

This guest blog post was written by Jen Mann.

I’d only been writing my blog, People I Want to Punch in the Throat , for a few months when my readers started asking me to write a book. I had no idea how to get a book published! I was a middle-aged mom living in suburbia with a full-time job, a minivan full of sippy cups, and soccer cleats who wrote snarky stories riddled with f-bombs. I didn’t have time to query agents or figure out how to navigate the New York publishing world. I had an idea for a book and a decent-sized social media platform I could sell it on; I just needed a place to publish.

It was 2012, and I was hearing amazing success stories of authors killing it on Amazon. At that point, I’d only ever used Amazon to buy books; I didn’t realize you could publish books too. I’d had a viral blog post the year before, and I felt like if I was going to publish a book I needed to do it while I still had momentum. After learning everything I could, I decided to take the leap and try self-publishing.

I published my first book,  Spending the Holidays with People I Want to Punch in the Throat  in October of that year. I published it wide, across all the online platforms and it immediately went to the top of the bestseller’s list. I was hooked on self-publishing.

Since then I’ve self-published nine more books (one of which,  I Just Want to Pee Alone , hit the  New York Times  bestseller list), and I’ve sold over 100,000 copies of my self-published books.

Self-publishing gives me the freedom to publish on my own schedule and the control over my content and my marketing strategies. Self-publishing also opened those elusive doors to New York for me too. Once  Spending the Holidays with People I Want to Punch in the Throat  did so well, I was able to land an agent and a two-book deal with Penguin Random House. I also have a manager in Hollywood working on getting  People I Want to Punch in the Throat  made into a television series. By having a foot in both the traditional publishing and self-publishing worlds, I have even more freedom and control over my career because I can pick and choose which books I want to send to traditional publishers and which books I want to keep for myself.

I’ve made mistakes over the years, and I’ve learned a lot. Now, I’m prepared to share my knowledge with you. It took me thirty-odd years, but I’m finally living my dream and I’ve got the job I always wanted and now I want to help you accomplish your dream too.  

I hope you’ll join me for my class at Bridge Space, Self-Publishing Your First Book. See you on January 17.

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