Business development director and Raleigh commercial real estate enthusiast Jed Byrne joined me on Ditching Hourly to walk through the entire process of self-publishing his first book, Start Small Selling, from idea validation to Kickstarter funding to final production.

We cover testing your book idea with real money, writing a first draft in 35 days, running a Kickstarter campaign to fund professional editing, finding and working with developmental editors, designing a book cover on a budget, and publishing through KDP and Lulu.

Chapters

• (00:00) - Who Is Jed Byrne?
• (03:19) - The Hyper-Local Newsletter
• (07:59) - Why Write a Book?
• (11:41) - Testing the Idea
• (14:05) - The Writing Process
• (21:56) - The Kickstarter
• (31:04) - Building the Editing Team
• (36:23) - The Timeline
• (45:49) - Working with a Developmental Editor
• (52:40) - Designing the Cover
• (57:26) - Publishing with KDP and Lulu
• (01:00:00) - Start Small, Start Now

Guest Bio

Jed Byrne is a business development director at Barnhill Building Group, a North Carolina-based general contracting firm. Outside his day job, he runs Oak City CRE, a platform focused on Raleigh commercial real estate that includes a weekly Substack newsletter, a podcast, consulting, and his first book, Start Small Selling. You can reach Jed at books@oakcitycre.com.

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

People

• Jed Byrne
• Jed Byrne on LinkedIn
• Jonathan Stark
• Tim Ferriss
• Seth Godin
• Noah Kagan
• Rob Fitzpatrick
• Tucker Max
• Pat Flynn
• Chandler Bolt
• Tim Grahl
• Rochelle Moulton
• Corey Quinn
• Mike Michalowicz
• Derek Sivers
• Daniel Pink

Jed / Raleigh / AEC

• Oak City CRE
• The Top Five by Oak City CRE
• Dirt NC podcast
• Barnhill Building Group
• Start Small Selling Kickstarter
• Start Small Selling on Amazon
• Urban Land Institute
• ULI Triangle
• Jed’s book email from the episode - books@oakcitycre.com

Books / Book-Building Resources

• Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan
• The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
• Write Useful Books by Rob Fitzpatrick
• Help This Book
• The Workshop Survival Guide
• The Scribe Method
• SelfPublishing.com / Self-Publishing School
• Reedsy
• Editorial Freelancers Association
• Chicago Manual of Style
• ISBNs / Bowker
• Atticus

Publishing / Production / Selling Platforms

• Kickstarter
• Amazon KDP
• Lulu
• Blurb
• Shopify
• Upwork
• Fiverr
• Otterpine
• Microsoft Word
• Canva
• Inkscape
• USPS Media Mail

Podcast / Episode References

• Mike Michalowicz on The Business of Authority

----

Do you have questions about how to improve your business?

Things like:

• Value pricing your work instead of billing for your time?
• Positioning yourself as the go-to person in your space?
• Productizing your services so you never have to have another awkward sales call or spend hours writing another custom proposal?

Book a one-on-one coaching call with me and get answers to these questions and others in the time it takes to get ready for work in the morning.

Best of all, you're covered by my 100% satisfaction guarantee. If at the end of the call, you don't feel like it was worth it, just say the word, and I'll refund your purchase in full.

To book your one-on-one coaching call, go to:

https://jonathanstark.com/call

I hope to see you there!