Hello World. And welcome to the in my footsteps podcast. I am your host, Christopher Setterlund. Coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This is a special bonus episode it is episode number 54. As I do with these podcasts once a month, I do a special shorter bonus episode that focuses in on one particular topic, we kind of speak about it at length. And one thing that I've wanted to talk about for a while is how to write a book the process behind it what happens when you do it, and what happens after you do it. For those of you that have listened to the podcast before you know my history with writing, if you haven't listened before, I have written six books, and I'm currently working on three more including a rewrite of my very first book. I'm not saying I'm some kind of hugely successful author, but I do have enough titles out that I have a little bit of experience. And I want to share that with you. Because to be honest, most anyone can write a book, just like I say most anyone can create and record a podcast, a lot of it comes down to knowing where to start. And I'm hoping that I can share a little bit of my insight of what I did with my first book that might inspire somebody to write their own. Or maybe you don't have any desire to write a book. But when you're done listening to this podcast, maybe something pops into your head, you never know. So let's jump right into it with a special bonus episode number 54. This is my own experience with writing a book and I'm hoping I can inspire you and answer any questions that you may have. First things first, even if you don't have any desire to write a book or create a podcast, we all have subjects that we are passionate about. I have no idea what your passions are. But if you've paid attention to the podcast, you know, just based on the subjects that I use to create these. I love history. I love travel. I obviously love nostalgia now that I'm middle-aged, my love of history and travel and photography, and general overall enjoyment of where I live on Cape Cod allowed me to create the very first book that I wrote, which was also called in my footsteps at Cape Cod travel guide. We'll get into the nuts and bolts of my first book in a few minutes. But I wanted to get into these overall beginnings of how you create your own first book. For some writing can seem daunting, the idea maybe it come from school and having to write papers about things that you're not interested in. And that's the great thing about writing a book is that you write about a topic you're interested in. So make sure you find something that you're willing to spend weeks and months researching and writing about because that's very important. It's big to see what speaks to you. As far as topics go, you may not like travel, and you may not like history, as I do. But there's something I have one of my sisters, she's very knowledgeable and enjoys gardening. And I always tell her, she should do a gardening podcast. But like her, she's a mother of two, it comes down to time I think a lot of this does. So what you might want to do rather than commit to a book, which can be anywhere from 12 to 18 months, depending on the length of the book and the publisher, etc. You might want to start off with a blog, which is much easier. You pick your topic, whatever you're interested in, and it can fluctuate, it can change. It doesn't have to be Oh, I like travel, I'm going to do a travel blog like I did. It could be just writing about everything in daily life, whatever pops into your head. So you might want to start with a blog, pick a topic, any topic, find. There are websites that have blog ideas that can kind of get the spark going in your head, pick one of those and just take a chance, and write a couple of 100 words on how your day was. Because I've said it about this podcast and about books. There is a market a niche market for everything. If you don't think so, think of any obscure topic and put it in Google and you'll find something on it guaranteed. Once you create your blog and you put it out there in the world, maybe you get two hits, or maybe you get 1000 hits you never know. But once it's out there you might get that writing bug where you enjoy creating something of your own from your own mind, which is really a great feeling. I love it every time I finish one of these podcasts. The feeling that I get that this is all from my own head I create did it, researched it, edit it, and market it and promote it. So we'll jump ahead. So you're writing a book, you've got your topic, whatever it is that you're passionate about. The big thing now is to come up with the pitch to a publisher. Now, sure, you can self-publish. And that's actually what I did to start. Way back in 2006, when the Amazon Kindle had first come out, I had published I think, somewhere in the range of a dozen ebooks on the Amazon Kindle. And Barnes and Noble had the new Nook. So I had a lot of experience with writing and editing my own books and creating covers and marketing them long before my first actual book in stores came out. And maybe that's what you want to do. Maybe you want to create your own ebook, and just do it all on your own, which is great. But if you're looking for a print book in stores, the big thing is the pitch. Why does your book stand out? Why does it deserve to be published? And this isn't meant to deter you from doing it, it's more or less explaining your passion for your project and why other people will be passionate about it as well. Because even the smallest publishers are taking a chance on you and your project, dedicated people and resources to getting it out in print. So you have to let them know why it's worth their risk to take a chance on you, especially being a first-time author, where you don't have a track record. Even mean now, I've got seven books I get the seventh book will be out the end of this year, books eight and nine, probably the beginning of next year. But even then I can't just go to a publisher and say do this book, I still have to make them see why it's worth their time. So that's the big thing to begin on. You got your topic you're passionate about, you're ready to write about it, you have told the publisher, this is why you should publish my book. And aside no note, when it comes to smaller publishers that are the niche that you're looking for for your book, you typically do not need an agent to get in touch with them. A lot of them are looking for submissions. If you're trying to hit the bigger publishers, Penguin, Random House, and Simon and Schuster, you might want to look for an agent. But it is not imperative that you have one to get a book published. I know because I don't have one. And I'm looking for one. But hey, you never know. When it came to my first book, The Cape Cod travel guide, I had a lot of say in the content because they were interested in the idea of a Cape Cod travel history photography combined together book to help people get around on Cape Cod. The big thing for me when it came to this first book was the publisher was going to print it. And that was great Schiffer Publishing was my first publisher. And I'll put a link to them in the description of the podcast because you never know if you may have a project that they might be interested in. The thing with my first book was they approved the overall concept. The problem was I had the pressure on me of creating the content, doing the research for the accuracy of where, uh, places historic dates. And because it was a travel guide, I had to have the correct addresses. And I put in GPS coordinates to make it easy for people to find the places to get to on Cape Cod. So that pressure was on me, I had to make sure it was right because they weren't going to do it for me. And they told me that. So make sure when you are doing your own book or your own blog, or whatever it is to really hammer home the accuracy do the work the research because there's nothing worse than creating a book having it out there and then having someone come to you and say this fact is wrong or this address is wrong because there's little you can do to change it once it's out there. But before you get worried you do have a lot of time and a lot of chances to fix it before it's published. Typically what I do with books or with articles from my blog, my blog is also called the in my footsteps podcast blog. For those of you that haven't checked it out. It's a lot of Cape Cod in New England history and nostalgia. It's literally an offshoot of this podcast, although the blog has been around since 2010. But what I do with anything I write is I do the first draft you kind of plow through it. You've done your research, you're pretty confident in it and you just write from point A to point B. But then what you have to do before you click publish on the blog or before you send your manuscript in, you should write you should go over it again at least twice, once where you kind of fix any grammar and spelling errors, obviously, because if you're plowing through, you don't have time to go back and fix everything you want to get the first draft done. When doing ebooks, and I told you I did more than a dozen, I was the one that was doing the editing. So I became kind of an expert at looking for things that I screwed up. But even though you'll have, I believe I had two different chances with editors with my first book, where they would send back the proofs, and I had a chance to go through and find any errors. Just because they're professional editors, does not mean they're infallible, I always find things that they miss. And that's important because you do not as I said, you don't want to have your book in stores and have a spelling error get through, or a grammar error gets through. I had things in the Cape Cod book, that were there specific spellings of things on the cape, and the editor thought that it was misspelled. And I had to tell them, No, no, this is how it's spelled down here. And no, I'm not talking about spelling car C-A-H, I'm talking about proper names. And I know I'm throwing all of this at you kind of fast because it's a shorter bonus episode. And it might seem overwhelming if you've got that kernel of an idea for a book. But all of this that I'm talking about, despite this being crammed into, like 20 minutes, it's typically an 18-month process. So don't get overwhelmed, just start at the very beginning with finding something you're passionate about, don't worry about all the other steps until they happen. Okay, so you've got your book, you got it approved, you've got a publisher, you're passionate about it, you're writing about it, you love it, you have gotten to the point where it's being edited. And this is where the real excitement comes in. Because now you're finishing up the actual building of the house and you're getting ready to live in the house for a good metaphor. Typically, when you get the final proofs of the manuscript, I get them online, they get sent via email. From that point on, it's usually two months, maybe until the book goes to print. And the publisher will send you the information. Essentially, this is the date it's going to be out. And it allows you to start to prepare to promote your book, which is the biggest part. Because you can create a project and feel great about it. But there's nothing better than having other people feel the same way. As I said, I record this podcast, I'm recording this, and I'm feeling good about the info I'm sharing with you. But nothing beats when it's actually released and put up online and having other people reach out and say, Oh, I really liked what you did. That's the best part. What you should do when it comes to the promotion and marketing of your book is create a list of local bookstores, libraries and other organizations that can be relevant to what you've written about. When I was doing the Cape Cod book, I reached out to all of the local libraries and bookstores, the publisher loved it because they were going to do some marketing, but I am very hands-on. I firmly believe that if you're a content creator, nobody should be promoting you more than you. If you're running your own business, and you've got other people promoting you more than you do it, then you don't really want to be successful. I always say with the podcast that the best way to help me out is to promote it and share it and I appreciate all of you that do. But when it comes down to it, I'm the one that promotes this the most. And so when it comes to a book, any sort of content creation, you need to be ahead of the game when it comes to promoting and marketing. And this just comes down to doing some research. It doesn't take that long to research people and places around you that may be interested and you'll be surprised the hits you get libraries and bookstores, they're always looking for content for events to bring people in, and a local author with a book that will appeal to people that's gonna get people in the door. Once that's done, you'll get you usually will get your first author copy of the book. That's the big moment you get this package. You open it and there it is in front of you a physical copy of a book that you created from your own mind. It's I don't have any kids but I always like in my new books to the birth of a child. So I typically will light a cigar like you would with the dad's having a new kid. I don't drink anymore like I've told you but I used to have a shot and a cigar with my copy of my book. It's a fun celebration and you deserve to celebrate because creating a book is an impressive feat. Whether it's a hard copy in a bookstore, whether it's an ebook that you made, whatever it is, the creative process is, it can be long and arduous, and difficult. So finishing it is a huge accomplishment. Now you're promoting your book, you're telling people on social media, check out my book, typically, there's a website, link, go and buy it when it's launched date. The most fun though, that comes from writing books is the actual events and the book launch party, which became my favorite thing about a book. And these events don't have to be huge, especially if you're a first-time author, they'll probably be a smaller intimate gathering, with a lot of family and friends. But that's the best you celebrate your accomplishment with those that have had your back from the beginning. My very first author event was at the Osterville library. And I'll never forget walking into the conference room in the library, and my grandfather, my grampa, that you all know, was my hero and role model. And here's my big debut on the stage as an author, and he was there before me waiting for me to show up. You want to talk about it is just the perfect situation, there was nobody in the world I would have rather have had be there for me than my grampa, my family, my mother, and my sisters have always been at all my events, I would never want to have other random, famous people be there above my family and friends that have supported me. And as I've gone with my books, the events have gotten slightly bigger for my historic restaurants. the event that was my biggest one. I had probably 100 people there, I had guest speakers, and people that had owned restaurants. When I did my Cape Cod Nights book, which was about historic nightlife, nightclubs, and bars. I had former nightclub owners there speaking. And it's one of those things that as you go, you may find that people that are experts or more well-known in the field that you're writing about, might seek you out and see you more as a contemporary where you're putting together things that are relevant to them. But remember, when it comes down to book creation, be proactive, your publisher might help you. If you have an agent, they might help you. But nobody knows your topic more than you. So you'll know who to reach out to, you'll know, the local newspapers, and you will know the other organizations that are relevant to your book. When it comes down to it, you never know when the right set of eyes might fall upon what you have created. I promote the hell out of these podcasts every time I release one. And I do it repeatedly because you never know if, at that time of that day, somebody sees your podcast and suddenly the right set of eyes and ears are upon your work. The big breaks come when you least expect them but you've got to keep pushing for them. And believe in yourself. Believe in your abilities. Believe in your topic, and your knowledge. Because in this world with mental health as it is, it can be so easy to trip on a stone or trip on a route and feel that the world has crashed all around you. But if you have a topic that you're passionate about that you're knowledgeable about, you can create a book you can create a podcast, a blog, you can I did it, I am no different than any of you. The only difference is I took the time and the risk and have created this content. And as I said at the top of this podcast, I may be whipping through a lot of this material, because I'm trying to give you all as much from my head in the time allotted for this bonus episode. But if you have any questions on writing a book, any of the nuts and bolts of it, or creating a blog or a podcast, shoot me an email at Christopher setterlund@gmail.com Send me a DM on social media. I am always willing to answer any questions. If I don't have the answer, I will try to direct you to someone that does. And if you want, you can go to Christopher setterlund.com. And you can see my six current titles. My seventh book is a Cape Cod photography book. I'm finishing the manuscript by the end of March. It should be out sometime in the fall. It's going to be really good. I'm excited about that. I am rewriting my first book like I've mentioned before. And then my other book is a true crime Cape Cod True Crime book that I'm still shopping around for a publisher. So you can see I've got seven books that will be in stores and I'm still shopping around my stuff, but I'm not giving up. You shouldn't give up. Follow your passions and who knows as this podcast goes on, like you've heard we've KeeKee’s Cape Cod kitchen, her book, go and find it on Amazon. If you write a book and you feel that I've inspired you at all reach out and I will promote your book on the podcast that's just part of one hand washes the other. And as we wrap up, I want to thank all of you that have tuned in. Thank you all for any of you that have shared my stuff like I'm talking about here. That's the way that we grow this. I promote it the most, but maybe you can promote it. Second most. Find me on social media, YouTube, and Twitter. Listen to the join me for the live streams every Friday at 8pm on Instagram, they're called without a map. Those are a blast. I'll be back with episode 55. Next week, it's going to be a regular full-length episode and it's going to be jam-packed. I'm super excited about it. I'm going to share the story of the wreck of the Montclair off of Nauset beach on Cape Cod and how myself and my buddy Steve found it. We're going to take a really awesome road trip to the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I'm going to take you way, way back in the days we go over the genius that was and still is Weird Al Yankovic there's going to be a new top five featuring the top 5 1970s Ad mascots, except cereal ones I told you, those are gonna get their own list. And there'll be a brand new this week in history and Time Capsule all coming up next week on episode 55 of the in my footsteps podcast. And remember when it comes to creating a book, creating a blog, creating a podcast, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path and enjoy every moment you can on this journey because you never know. Leave as big of a footprint as you can in this world. Thanks again for tuning into this special bonus episode 54 of the podcast and I will talk to you all again soon.
