I have to say, the last year was a pretty tough one.
Good. But tough.
After a 9 months in the making I just welcomed my third child into the world. My book “Love At First Site” was born:
A year ago I set myself the challenge of writing a book about website design.
After 10 years of building websites I felt I had learnt a thing or two along the way and wanted to share this with the world.
The challenge was, that in between trying to be a good husband and father while keeping the dollars coming in, there wasn’t a lot of time left to go around. Weekends were spent in front of the laptop while the kids slept and weekdays started at 4am to get a few words out before sunrise.
After coming out the other end this would rate this as one of the most difficult and satisfying tasks I have attempted in my 33 years on this earth.
The truth is I wasn’t a writer at all. I had written about 3 (very poor) essays at university and English has never been a strong suit.
Apart from the sheer volume of work required, there is something VERY frightening about putting words on a paper which exposes yourself bare to the world. Naked for everyone to see. What if someone disagrees, or doesn’t like what I have to say? What if I am wrong?
What if….?
Maybe this ties into the fact that I have always been someone that is very conscious of what other people think. So the last year has been spent beating that little voice in my head into submission.
But part of growing is pushing yourself. Leaning into the fear. Conquering fear means you are growing as a person.
And that is how I feel. It has been a real confidence booster. To be able to call myself a published author. It’s a pretty special thing.
So how the hell does one write a book (the equivalent of eating an elephant)?
One bite at a time.
I was guided through the process as part of the KPI course. FYI highly recommended – these guys rock!
During December 2013, I embarked on a 30 day writing challenge. 1,000 words a day for 30 days. 30,000 VERY rough words. While everyone was at the beach sunning themselves I was writing about websites getting whiter and whiter! But I got these random thoughts out of my head and down on paper in a somewhat logical fashion (much love to Andrew Griffiths for the guidance through this whole process).
My editor was engaged and we beat my random mess of a manuscript into a flowing story (big wrap to Paul & Daniella from Cavalletti Communications).
Next step was to bring this to life visually. As we are designers, there was a bit of pressure to make this look great.
Insert my awesome, super talented, insanely creative graphic designer Sam Horn; who created a beautiful cover and 150 awesome illustrations & diagrams from the canvas up.
He put his heart and soul into this and I am eternally grateful for his patience and vision. He treated this project as his own – and it shows.
Anthony from Book Cover Cafe did the typeset and made it into the beautiful finished product it is today.
It was then converted to an audio book by a professional voice over artist (given away 100% free here).
In addition a book trailer was created for the launch:
1,500+ hours have gone into this including research, writing, illustrating, proofing and putting this baby together.
After many VERY early 4am starts, late night edits, changes and reviews – I am proud to say “Love At First Site – How To Build The Website Of Your Dreams” is complete and I couldn’t be prouder.
I TRULY hope it helps business owners to build a better website for their business.
A website that actually gets them results.
One that grows their business and gives them more freedom to do what they love.
Now, to get started on book number 2….(my wife is going to kill me)
