One Year Down: 3 Unexpected Things I've Learned

A reflection on the one-year anniversary of starting my book publishing project

Today marks one year since I publicly announced my plan to publish 100 books.

While my output for the year is less than I expected going in — only two books published — I have so many more at various stages of completion that I’m expecting a far more eventful second year.

Especially now that I’ve been at this for 12 months.

Here are three unexpected things I learned during my first year of the book publishing project.

1. Build-in-public accountability can still be opaque

It was a huge step for me to make the public announcement about my book plan.

I much prefer to operate privately. Also, I know I have the self-discipline to get things done even under that veil.

But I wanted to announce this project and work on it in public as an extra measure of accountability. For an extra bit of motivation. And… as a way to ensure I would stick with the plan and avoid drifting to a different shiny object as I’m wont to do.

I’ve learned, though, that even after making the announcement it’s still been possible to operate largely in private.

Yes, throughout the year a decent number of people have asked me how the project is coming and I give them the real answer: I’m working on it daily. But it’s rare I get into the specifics.

I’m not sure if the unexpected opacity is a good thing or a bad thing. The “good thing” side of the ledger is I can operate at my desired pace and in my comfort zone. The “bad thing” is I’m not feeling a constant sensation of “just push through a little longer tonight because everyone’s watching, waiting, and expecting.”

Perhaps that will change if year two leads to as little output as year one.

2. Getting immutable projects completed is tougher for me than anticipated

I hate putting imperfect products out into the world.

That’s the main reason I had so many unpublished books sitting on my hard drive last fall. Nothing was ever “done” enough.

For this 100 books project, I made a promise to myself that I would let things be “done.” Even if more tinkering could make them 1% better, or even 5% or 10% better, I’d let them be “done.”

But even with that philosophy, I still just can’t allow myself to put something out in the world that feels too incomplete. Or, in the case of printed and therefore immutable books, something with a typo or formatting mistake.

In fact, with the Simpsons book I published, I rejected my test copy and had to go through the entire manuscript building and uploading process again. Why? Because I couldn’t handle the single minor, minor, minor punctuation error I found in the book. (It was a sentence that ended with a period but no space after that period and before the next sentence.)

My need to do things to a perfectionist standard also came up in the editing and artwork process. I have a professional editor working on some of my books right now. That adds a lot of time and back-and-forth to the process but, again, I don’t want to put out something until I’m satsified with its quality.

The artwork process was also an adventure. I hired an artist at the beginning of the project and managing the art flow was far more time consuming than expected — to the point of the artist eventually giving up and taking a different job.

Getting things to a satisfactory point of “done” remains a bigger challenge than expected, and a struggle I will continue to fight against going forward.

3. Planning ahead is essential when trying to pull off a massive project in around 90 minutes per day

I operate well at night. I get a second wind and can do some of my best work at night.

If I have a plan.

I’m a big believer in the finite nature of willpower. And by the evening, I’m usually quite low on willpower.

That means: If I have a clear, predetermined task to do, thanks to my second wind I can almost always get it done. But if I haven’t figured out in advance what I’m going to work on, it’s incredibly difficult for me to pick a task and then also work on it.

Over the year, the quality of my planning has ebbed and flowed. Sometimes I’m really good about planning out my day, properly scoping tasks, and making sure I have a solid plan. But sometimes I start slipping and progress slows.

No matter how much I think I can pick something to do at night and do it… that has not proved to be the case.

That’s something else I need to really work on for the next year.

—

Lessons absorbed, lots of books close, still excited about this project and all it can be.

On to year two.

To see what I’ve been working on this week in my journey toward 100 books, check out the Work Log.