September 03, 2025
Three years ago, I was convinced that I’d never write a book in my life. But fast forward to today, I’ve written three bestsellers, sold over 30,000 copies, and won multiple awards—all without a publisher.
So, how did I pull this off? In this blog, I’ll share you exactly what I did step by step so that you can follow the same path and write your first bestseller.
Four years ago, I was reading this book on storytelling. 4.6 stars on Amazon, thousands of glowing reviews, and I thought, “This book is going to blow my mind.”
But page after page, it just kept repeating the same three ideas and the rest was total fluff. And I remember thinking, wait, how did that book get so popular?
That’s when I realized I don’t need some groundbreaking genius idea. If I can make it simpler, more practical, and packed with real-life examples, well, that book is already going to be better than what’s out there.
So, here’s where to start. I would suggest you pick a topic you’re obsessed with. This could be something you can’t shut up about, something people already come to you for advice on and then look at what’s already out there.
What’s missing? What’s hard to follow? What feels bloated?
If you see that other books can be improved, well, that’s your opening. That’s where your book begins.
I once knew this guy who spent 10 years writing his book. He kept rewriting and rearranging chapters and eventually he gave up. And when I saw this, I thought, how do I make sure that doesn’t happen to me?
Here’s what saved me: before I wrote a single word, I outlined the entire table of contents. Not vague bullet points, not “chapter 3.” I mean real clarity.
For every chapter, I wrote down the chapter name and one clear takeaway that the reader should walk away with.
For example, instead of writing “chapter 4,” I wrote: Chapter 4 — Confidence takeaway: True confidence is the ability to handle whatever comes up.
Once I had all the chapters and takeaways laid out in front of me, I asked myself: Does my book deliver on all of those? Does it actually solve the reader’s problem? Does it help them reach their goal?
If yes, that’s when I knew I could get to work.
Once I had that first outline, it was time to write the first draft. And here’s what I learned real quick: that first draft is supposed to be messy. My only job was to get the ideas out of my head and onto the paper. No polishing, no obsessing over typos, no rewriting sentence by sentence—just following the outline, one chapter at a time.
And honestly, I don’t even love writing. I’m much more of a verbal person. So, for my last book, I just talked it out loud. I opened ChatGPT, the desktop app, hit record, and explained the chapter like I was speaking to my best friend.
After that, I asked ChatGPT, “Hey, can you clean this? Can you tighten the structure? Can you smooth out the flow?”
Once I had that rough version, I jumped in, added examples, rearranged sections, and tightened up the writing. So much easier than starting from scratch.
Now, I always get two big questions at this stage.
First: How do you stay consistent? Someone once asked the famous writer Somerset Maugham if he wrote only when inspiration struck.
He replied: “I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes every morning at 9:00 sharp.”
I love this because yes, it helps to be consistent. When I wrote my first book, I had a full-time job, but I committed every single morning at 6:00 a.m. I’d write for 60 minutes every day. 6 a.m. worked for me, but you don’t have to write then. Just pick a time you can stick with and make it part of your routine.
Second: What if I don’t know enough to fill a chapter?
My first book was about storytelling and sales. I knew a lot about storytelling, but almost nothing about sales. And yeah, I felt insecure. But then I thought, “I’ll just talk to the best people in the field.”
So, I made a list of 210 sales experts on LinkedIn such as authors, VPs, entrepreneurs and messaged them: “Hey, I’m writing this book. Can I interview you?” Back then, I was a total nobody.
But to my surprise, one in three said yes. I ended up interviewing 72 people, including some very well-known ones. It made the book 10 times better and gave me an incredible network.
So, if you’re feeling stuck, don’t try to know everything yourself. Talk to people, ask questions, and learn as you go.
Once I had my first draft, it was time to test it. And honestly, I wasn’t super confident about what I had written. It wasn’t polished, it wasn’t perfect, it was messy. But I remembered a quote from Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn: “If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”
That stuck with me. I knew that if I waited until I was proud of it, I would have waited way too long to get feedback. So, I started recruiting beta readers.
A beta reader is someone curious enough to read an early messy draft and give you feedback. They’re not there to flatter you—they’re there to help you make it better. They’ll tell you what they loved, where they got bored, where they skimmed, or where they stopped reading altogether. That kind of feedback is gold.
But you need to recruit more people than you think. Friends told me: aim for at least 15 to 20, because life happens. Some people will say yes and never open the file. Others will read one chapter and disappear. If you want three to five really engaged readers, you need 15–20 volunteers.
That’s exactly what I did. Some were friends, but most came from social media. I made a post on LinkedIn inviting people from my target audience to become beta readers. They had three weeks to read and give feedback. Then I made edits and launched a second round. Each round refined and improved the book.
Up to this point, I did everything myself. But once the draft was done, I knew if I wanted my book to stand out, I needed help. So, I brought in professionals for editing and design.
For editing, I hired two editors:
A copy editor, who polished the draft, improved flow, fixed grammar, but kept my voice.
A proofreader, who gave it a final check and caught small mistakes.
I found both on Reedsy.com. Personally, I wouldn’t use Fiverr or Upwork for this but the quality isn’t usually good enough.
Then design. The cover is everything. People do judge a book by its cover. If it looks amateur, they’ll assume the content is too.
For my first book, I hired one designer. He gave me two or three options. They were okay, but I didn’t love them. So for my second book, I used 99designs, a platform where designers worldwide submit ideas. I got over 60 cover concepts in just a few days. Way more creativity, way more options, and a much better final design.
So if you’re serious about your book, don’t cut corners here. Don’t let weak editing or a bad cover hold it back.
Now, do you need a publisher? Sure, if you had one, editing and design might be free. But I’ve heard horror stories like publishing can take years, with endless approvals. And yes, publishers may get your book into some bookstores.
But here’s the thing: 90% of sales happen on Amazon anyway. When you self-publish, you keep full control and all royalties. No print copies, no inventory and you just upload your final PDF to Amazon. That’s it.
Personally, I don’t think you need a publisher.
When you check out a book on Amazon, what’s the first thing you look at? For me, it’s the number of reviews. If it has hundreds of reviews, it feels legit, credible, trustworthy.
So when I launched my book, my number one goal was simple: get as many reviews as possible legally. You can’t pay people for reviews. That’s against Amazon’s rules.
Here’s what I did instead: I built a launch team. A launch team is just a group of people who read your book before it comes out. A few weeks before launch, I sent them a free PDF.
Then on launch day, I made the book free on Amazon for a few days, so they could download it themselves. That way, when they left reviews, they showed up as verified, which carries much more weight.
And I didn’t ask for five stars. I just said: “Please leave an honest review.”
How many people did I invite? A lot. Because most people won’t leave reviews. From my experience, at least two-thirds won’t follow through. For my last book, I recruited 150 people and ended up with about 50 reviews.
Some people asked: “Aren’t you worried they’ll just share your PDF for free?” Honestly, not at all.
That’s free marketing. Every book eventually ends up on a piracy site. You can’t prevent it. If people share my book because they love it, even for free, I see that as a good thing.
Final step: promotion. I used three main strategies.
Share in public. Anytime something interesting happened—an interview, a title idea, a challenge—I shared it. If I interviewed someone, I’d post a summary on LinkedIn and tag them. If I was stuck between titles, I ran a poll and asked my audience to vote. People felt part of the journey, so when the book launched, they were excited to support it.
Pitch podcasts. I searched for podcasts in my niche, told them how I could help their audience, promised to promote the episode, and even included a screenshot showing a 5-star review I’d left for their show. A tiny gesture, but podcast hosts loved it. About one in five invited me on. For my first book, I joined around 20 podcasts.
Run 99-cent promotions. There are email lists that promote discounted books to readers. You pay a small fee and they feature your book. I lined up one promo per day for two weeks. Most gave a small sales boost, but one was a game-changer: BookBub. During that promo, 700 people bought my book in just a few days. That signaled to Amazon: “This is good stuff,” and they pushed it to more readers.
Promoting isn’t always glamorous, but it’s how people find your book. Don’t stop at publish—share, pitch, and promote.
And that’s it. Those are the seven steps I used to publish three bestsellers. Writing a book is hands down one of the best ways to build authority. But you know what might be even more powerful? Growing on YouTube.
If you’re curious how I went from zero to 100,000 subscribers in just 4 months, check out this blog where I break down my exact strategy.
Enjoy.
P.S. Want to become a stronger communicator?
Here are two ways I can support you:
👉 Want to tell more engaging stories? Join our next Storytelling Workshop.
👉 Want to speak with confidence and clarity? Check out our Communication Skills Training.
Both are fun, practical, and designed to help you grow fast.
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