How was it like writing a book?

[sindresorhus]

Referring to https://sublimetextbook.com/

Did it turn out more difficult than you initially thought? What did you learn from writing it? Any tips to others that want to do the same?

[wesbos]

Whew - yes, way harder than I thought it would be! It was probably 3x the work I thought it would be, most of that coming near the end which involved proofreading, setting up the book for PDF + Epub, getting the site up, and making sure all the loose ends were tied up.

I wrote it over a 1.5 year period. Motivation to write was initially hard, but once I got into the swing of things, I found it easy to put into words what I already knew about the editor.

I learned a lot about writing, and how much I enjoy it. I learned that the community is amazing - the initial version of the book had a bunch of errors that myself and my 5+ reviewers didn't catch. Rather than be mad, my readers asked for Git access so they could send in PRs!

I learned and still am learning that self publishing is all about being a good marketing .It's all about how visible you are, the relationships you have, and the size of the email list at the end of the day. My 17k twitter is peanuts compared to a 2,000 person email list on launch day.

I've got a lot to say about this which I'm going to somehow get out - probably in a podcast form. My biggest advice is to no undervalue or underestimate your work. Make something amazing and people will respond well!