How To Self-Publish a Book in a Week
By: Matt Sandrini
Tags: Goals, Publishing, Self Improvement, Leadership, Books

How To Self-Publish a Book in a Week

A step-by-step guide for writing a book on a tight deadline

When my editor replied with this message, I almost couldn’t believe it.

Author’s image.

For the past two years, I have written a contract with myself containing three things I was going to do over the following 12 months. Three things that would make me act and think in a radically different way.

After all, if you keep doing the same things over and over again, you’ll keep getting the same experiences and the same results.

One of the three points for 2019 was to publish two books.

Putting my thoughts and experiences out there, and starting new platforms has always been a test.

It was the perfect challenge.

When I launched Invest Your Time, it became an Amazon bestseller in eight categories on launch week. (It also got an international translation and distribution deal!)

Here’s my favourite screenshot from the day it came out.

Author’s image.

It took me 18 weeks to go from idea to publication. I was very clear about the book, and a solid structure helped me finish it up quickly.

Yet, the contract with myself said two books.

However, the writing wasn’t my only (nor my main) focus.

Dating, fitness, business — these were all prominent themes in my year. I knew the second book would have had to be different.

Excellent: constraints help creativity.

I decided to pick one specific topic I’m passionate about that I could explain in a shorter, very actionable book.

I also noticed that some of my favourite books are very short but full of takeaways.

One is Neville Medhora’s “This book will teach you how to write better”. A concise book on sales copywriting that I gifted to many people, which didn’t need to get too technical.

Another one is Austin Kleon’s “Steal Like an Artist”. I was fascinated by the use of words and sketches to convey concepts memorably.

Both books use formatting and sketches to complement the text; they give you what you need and nothing more. No fluff.

Author’s image.

Next, the idea.

I was on the phone with my friend Tom. He tried to read the leading book on the 80–20 principle, but couldn’t finish it. “It’s so repetitive,” he said. That got me thinking.

The 80–20 Rule (or the Pareto Principle) is a tool I have used in my life to figure out which actions will give me disproportionate results, instead of trying to do everything.

The 80–20 Rule shows you that in many aspects of life, the majority of results (roughly, 80%) come from a minority of efforts (approximately, 20%).

In one line: only 20% of what you do matters.

I have used the principle in business, dating, fitness, nutrition, to find friends, and to optimise my processes.

I wanted to dive in and learn even more about it, and I was looking forward to sharing the step-by-step with others.

So I looked up the book my friend mentioned, and I found that many reviews were saying one thing: the book didn’t follow its principle.

Author’s image.

So I decided to write a book containing only the 20% that matters, an embodiment of the 80–20 rule itself.

Here were the rules:

I set out to write a print-only book that would be precisely one hundred pages. Twenty pages of text and eighty pages of illustrations or… just blank space.

So many books repeat the same concept over and over again: I wanted to make a fun book that would pack a lot of value. Plus, the illustration and the 80–20 content split would create a memorable “I see what you did there” moment, designed to trigger action in the reader and apply the Pareto Principle.

Here’s a sketch from the book:

Vilfredo Pareto (author’s illustration)

I decided to publish the book in a week

That meant writing it in a single day.

The morning was spent reading all the research my VA and I had gathered: I wanted to find the best examples to include in the book.

Then, I started with a solid “book journey”: a mindmap that turned into an outline. I expanded the outline in bullet points and wrote about each bullet point.

At this point, I proceeded to eat a TON of dark chocolate, and wrote the entire first draft in a day (Monday), sent it to my editor Chris, and listed all the illustrations I wanted to include.

Chris lives on the other side of the pond (Indianapolis!), so we were able to leverage time zones to our advantage: on Tuesday, we went through three edits, while I drew all the illustrations in a few hours.

I then sent the manuscript to formatting and commissioned the cover. All that was left for me was: wait, call Amazon up to get listed in the right categories, write the description of the book. Oh, and list the book for publication.

Here’s the final cover (to the left, the initial concept).

Matt Sandrini on Amazon

I faced a lot of resistance before writing this book: it was a big enterprise, and choosing an experimental format felt like a risk, but I wanted to show myself (and hopefully, to you) that most limits reside in our mind only.

Here’s how I used the 80–20 Rule to write the book:

Finding and focusing on my strengths and delegating the rest

Filtering through a lot of information to select only the truly impactful nuggets

Creating a solid structure that guided me through the process and eliminated the unnecessary

In a world of infinite information, boundless possibility, and countless choices, the 80–20 Rule can help you select what matters and, in this case, share it with others.