If you’ve self-published before—by which I mean, if you’ve been the one to upload your files and click to publish—then you’re familiar with that adrenaline-fueled second guessing that occurs as your pointer hovers over the button.
Should I read through it one more time? Double check the formatting of that one sentence that’s given me problems before? Am I sure this is ready?
It’s a bold and spicy flavor of anxiety.
If you haven’t self-published, well, I bet you still know what I’m talking about. We all ache and toil over our manuscripts for weeks, months, or years, and still most of us experience this moment of doubt at some point in the process.
That’s why I found it pretty remarkable that there’s a kind of self-publishing going on that hardly requires any words on the page at all.
They’re called low-content products.
If you spent any time at all researching “side hustles,” you’ll already know that some people publish coloring books, journals, and other books-that-aren’t-quite-books to make money online. From what I could tell during my tumble down this rabbit hole via YouTube, most of the people who teach how to do this have no aspirations to become authors. They merely saw a way to use a tool we’ve all been using for a decade in a new, funky way.
And I think that kind of creativity is a little bit brilliant, don’t you?
Now, make no mistake. I’m not talking about hopping on some sort of get-rich-quick scheme bandwagon. I’m not suggesting we all stop what we’re doing and start slapping lined pages together in a PDF and calling it a day unless you’re passionate about that. None of us need another distraction from our writing. Our lives come with plenty of those pre-installed.
But imagine the possibilities!
Thinking of the publishing process as having the potential to produce such a wide array of printed materials can open the door to new ways to serve the readers you already have—and, potentially, introduce new ones to you.
For example, The Write Gym member and occasional blog contributor Kerry Evelyn has plans in the works to create a cookbook to complement her Crane’s Cove series. “That’s exactly what my character Shelby did in the third book—she gathered Meemaw’s recipes and published them as a book,” she says. “I already have a list of recipes that go with each of my stories. It’s just a matter of finding the time.”
Writer’s Atelier team member A.M. Bochnak has created creative journals based around your favorite fantasy creatures—unicorns, dragons, and fairies. She says, “Writing prompt books and fun and unique journals that accompany the fantasy fiction I write are a great way to provide readers with additional content connecting them to my work until the next novel is released.”
I’m sure you can dream up a scenario where you feel a little lost at sea once the editor takes your book off your hands. You have one foot in reality and one foot in a world of your own invention. What better time could there be to brainstorm a unique piece of swag like a companion journal or workbook—something to give away come release day, or something to surprise a reader with when they pre-order a signed copy of your book through your website?
