Mistakes Made, Lessons Learned

Just a day after I self-published my ebook on problem-solving late last year, I realized I’d made mistakes. I’m not talking about typos. I’m talking about important, big-picture stuff, like marketing and selecting the right platform to sell on.

While working on the book, I got so tied up in hitting an arbitrary deadline that I overlooked critical details and rushed parts of the process. After all, writing a book involves a lot more than just writing. I also should’ve done a better job researching and understanding the self-publishing process.

The common denominator was this: I didn’t plan well. Big mistake. However, I learned from it and took action.

Look Back at Your Work

There’s so much emphasis to create, create, create. And while I do love creating, it’s important to look back on your work. Reflect on what you did, whether it was a success or failure, learn from it, and do something with this knowledge. Use it to improve your current project, or apply it to a future one.

For me, looking back at a side project means to identify what went well (so I keep doing it) and determine what could’ve gone better (so I can do things differently next time).

Keeping the scope of the ebook small (it’s less than 100 pages) was something that went well. This kept the project manageable and realistic for getting done.

However, there were many things I could’ve done better, like planning all aspects of writing a book. Writing is only one part of the process. Editing, formatting, marketing, distributing, and selling the book are others.

Looking back on your work is more than a nice reflection exercise. Take what you learn from looking back and take action.

I decided to update my ebook and relaunch it. I took time to plan upfront and throughout the time I spent updating my book. But, and this is the important point, by planning meticulously I accounted for the entire scope of work, including and how and when it’d get done.

Although this planning took a lot of time, it saved me time and mental energy in the long run. After all, re-doing something takes even more time than just doing it right the first time.

Learn From Other People’s Mistakes

As I reflected back on my ebook, I realized I could learn from other people who’ve self-published non-fiction books on Amazon, which was the platform I decided to move to. “Why not talk to them and learn from their experiences and mistakes?!” I asked myself.

So I did.

In addition to a fine-tuned plan, I hired a coach who’s published over a dozen books on Amazon. The cost of a single coaching session paid dividends in return. It helped me better understand the self-publishing process, and I learned important details that only a seasoned author would know about.

Although I spent time and money on that coaching session, and even more time implementing his suggestions, it’s definitely been worth it. I have a much better product.

It’s Never Too Late

A key takeaway from this ebook experience is this: it’s never too late. As I reflected back on the ebook and the mistakes I’d made, I realized that it wasn’t too late to implement changes.

Sure, it would’ve been great if I did everything right the first time. But I didn’t. So why not implement the changes and see what happens?!

My ebook seemed like a viable side project, so investing more time and effort into it was a reasonable decision.

However, not every project is worth the extra investment. After launching a skill-building planner with my husband last year, we reflected back and learned a lot from the experience. We could’ve put even more into the project, but didn’t. We felt it was better to learn from our mistakes and apply key learnings, like taking on smaller-scale projects, to future endeavors.

Make the Investment

As any parent-entrepreneur will attest, time is precious. Time is limited. Time needs to be well-spent to move the needle. Investing in my product by planning meticulously and hiring a coach has proven to be time well-spent.

Whether or not this problem-solving ebook is a success is yet to be seen; I just launched it on Amazon. Before rushing to another project, I’ll take time to look back at this re-launch effort. I’m going to learn from it—both what went well and what could’ve gone better—and apply these learnings to whatever is next.

I write about entrepreneurship and parenting on my newsletter, Entrepreneurial Parent, which is where this post was originally published.