Book Birthday: Successful Independent Consulting: Relationships That Focus on Mutual Benefit

I am thrilled to announce a book birthday: Successful Independent Consulting: Relationships That Focus on Mutual Benefit.

People often ask me how long it takes me to write a book. Every book takes the time it takes. But this one took much longer than I expected. Here's the story of the consulting book.

In the mid-2000s…

I started my consulting business back in 1994. A decade or so later, I'd published several best-selling books, was already writing my blogs, and often spoke at conferences. So several people asked me how I had become a successful consultant. I started to write what I called “chapter-thingys.” (This is just one example of every project starting before you think it does. See Manage It! for more about that topic.)

Those pieces of writing were somewhat coherent, but not nearly useful enough on their own. And even though I updated them every so often, I didn't put the consulting book at the top of my book-writing list. Instead, I referred would-be consultants to books by Weinberg, Block, and Weiss.

Then, in late 2019, a fellow consultant asked me to run a workshop about consulting. How was I successful when he was not? What were my secrets? Would I please run a consulting workshop so he could learn those secrets?

I started the first cohort in January 2020. Unfortunately, the cohort was too late for his business—he took a job as a manager inside an organization.

January 2020-March 2021

I started the first consulting cohort in January 2020. At the time, I thought I had the right user journey for the workshop and the eventual book—because I used my journey as a consultant. (I was wrong!)

I have a guideline for my books. When people ask me questions, I answer them. If enough people have enough questions, I write a book, using workshops to validate my suppositions about what people need to learn. (That's me, not every nonfiction writer out there.)

Since enough people had asked me questions about consulting through the years, I was sure there was enough interest in a book. But the content? That's why I used the cohort, to inform me of the necessary content.

During that cohort, I wrote most of a chapter every week to supplement my notes and our discussions. The participants got a ton of value from that cohort. As they learned, I realized I needed to write more and in a different order. So I wrote and changed the order of the pieces of the workshop.

I offered another cohort in March 2021, after I'd written and reorganized most of the material. I still didn't recognize the user journey for this book was not quite right.

In the fall of 2021, I asked for technical review on the book. And I discovered a big problem—I confused my reviewers. They mostly had confusion about how I'd organized the book, although they didn't recognize that. Instead, they said, “I needed this information two chapters ago.” Or they asked me to answer a question that I answered two paragraphs later.

My information flow was wrong. Worse, each reviewer found different information in different spots. All their feedback overwhelmed me. I had no idea what to do.

I was stuck. And my long-time editor was not yet available to help me.

February 2022

I normally recommend a writer finish one thing, especially a book, before they start another. But since I was stuck and my editor would be available “later,” I wrote and finished a different book, Free Your Inner Nonfiction Writer. That allowed me to clear my head and succeed with something.

I started calling the consulting book the “damn” book.

My editor became somewhat available during the summer of 2022, but she suffered from long COVID. She could work, but her disease limited her working hours. (Which I knew.) She finally sent me her comments by September 2022. That's when she explained the user journey she had expected to see.

Oh boy. I had to reorganize and rewrite much of the book. I finally understood why my reviewers offered the feedback they did. Here's what I did:

  • First, I reorganized all the chapters, putting them in the correct order.
  • Next, I integrated feedback and moved pieces around. There were several times I had four chapters open because of where I needed to move pieces.
  • Between deleting duplicate pieces and reorganizing, I iterated through some chapters six or seven times.

It took me months to do this rewriting and editing because I had to keep a lot in my head as I implemented the new user journey. I finally had a book I was proud of.

Then, as with many small projects, everything imploded.

January 2023

Have you ever noticed that the fewer people you have on a project, the more crazy things happen? It's partially Murphy's Law colliding with Hofstadter's Law colliding with general randomness. But this book project definitely took longer. (See Little's Law and the other various laws in that post.)

I finished the organization and all the rewriting late in 2022. My editor was not available until after New Year's in 2023. Well, that was fine, since I was aiming for Q1 of 2023 to publish the book. Three months “should” have been enough time to finish the book. Normally, she would have finished in a week or two.

However, my editor did not start editing until late January. Then, she stopped. Between her long Covid and other responsibilities, she could not edit the book. I needed another editor. But not just a copyeditor. I needed someone who would also review the order of the ideas and any duplication. By now, I'd read the book so many times, I had no idea what was in it.

I found a terrific editor who did that. We finished the book by the end of February. Yes, a full month or more after my anticipated completion date.

Then I had more delays.

March – April 2023

I've worked with a layout person and indexer for several books. I enjoy working with them. However, layout and indexing take time. And because I had taken longer to get them the manuscript, I lost my place in their queues. I didn't lose it by much, but enough.

Add to that problem, the last bits of a print book are a serial lifecycle. You can't do an index without the finished layout because the index relies on accurate page numbers.

Finally, in late April, everyone finished everything. I uploaded the cover and the book to all the stores in early May.

And now, I can celebrate the book's birthday!

Why a Birthday and Not a Launch?

I don't “launch” my books, because I'm not looking for a bunch of sales on Day 1 and zero sales ever after. Since I didn't start marketing this book yet, this book has a birthday, but not a big splash.

I write evergreen books. Sure, sometimes I make mistakes and write something that dates the book. But more often, the entire book is evergreen, as this one is. So I don't need to launch it with big fanfare. Instead, I can build my content marketing, slowly but surely, and help the book find the right audience.

I don't enjoy a frenetic launch. But I do love a good birthday.

Buy this book if you find yourself in these situations:

  • You want to be a consultant, and you're not sure how to start or succeed.
  • You know you offer value, but you can't find clients—and they can't find you.
  • You're not sure how to reimagine your value so you can find clients and they can find you.

I'm starting to offer talks, for external consultants, and internal consultants and managers. That's because if you want to influence people to change (the consultant's role), you need relationships that work for everyone concerned. (If you want me to talk with your group, contact me.)

See the book page for Successful Independent Consulting: Focus on Relationships That Matter. And if you're interested in another cohort, please see the workshop page: Successful Independent Consulting Workshop and add your name to the email list. I hope to offer another cohort late this year. Maybe early next year. It all depends on the next book.

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