This week we’re joined by travel writer and world traveler, Nicos Hadjicostis.
It’s always interesting to read about indie authors who started out by pursuing the traditional publishing route, only to do an about-turn and end up self-publishing instead. I’ve encountered so many authors who have lost months (and sometimes years) of lost sales because they’ve been holding out for a publishing deal.
When you have something to say, nobody is going to know about it until they have your book in their hands, so the sooner you can get your book available in the marketplace, the better.
Nicos ended up self-publishing a book that earned him three different publishing awards.
It just goes to show, as long as you create a professional product, readers don’t care who the publisher is. Do you have a book burning a hole in your creative core? Then get writing and self-publish. But before you do, read and get inspired by what Nicos has to say about his writing and self-publishing adventures. ~~ Jay
Author Interview: Nicos Hadjicostis
How would you describe the type of books/genre you write?
In 2016, I wrote my first book, Destination Earth – A New Philosophy of Travel by a World-Traveler, that is about the philosophy of travel. It doesn’t belong to a specific genre. It is not a travelogue, not a travel guide, not philosophy-proper, not a how-to book. Yet it is all these and more. It deals with the totality of life using travel as the springboard.
What motivated you to start writing?
For most of my adult life, I have been writing. I started as a journalist and always wrote essays despite my career progression into the business world. I decided to write my first book after a multi-year journey around the world. I now write essays with a philosophical bent in which I address various aspects of life.
The writing process helps me make sense of the world in which we live, delve deeper into how we relate to one another, and how technology impacts our lives. But the connecting thread of my writings is the search for meaning in any field I explore, and of course, most importantly, the meaning of Life as a whole.
Tell us the journey you went on to get your books published (e.g. direct on your website, self-published, assisted-publishing, traditional publisher)
To start, I was very fortunate to work with my partner, Jane Kayantas, who managed the entire publishing process. Initially she had approached traditional publishers with no success. Most did not reply at all, or replied with a dry letter saying “not interested.” Therefore, we decided to create an independent publishing company, Bamboo Leaf Press, to publish this first book and my future books. This gave us a great sense of freedom, and above all the ability to control all aspects of the book. As the control freak that I am, I was elated at being able to design the book myself and realize every minute detail of my vision (especially since the book is comprised of many elements).
Doing the whole job ourselves entailed a thorough investigation of the independent and self-publishing landscape. Many companies provide all the services needed to bring your book to market, literally from A to Z. We however, found them all constraining, with limited services.
Let’s look at the book cover design example. Most companies offer three design concepts and would charge us more for additional concepts had we not liked the initial three presented to us. For me, this would have been a big issue since I like to have many options. Freedom to do exactly what we wanted became paramount as we learned more about these self-publishing companies, so we thought it best to simply establish Bamboo Leaf Press. This meant that we found our own editors, book designer, printer, distributor as well as managed all promotional and marketing activities. It was a ton of work but it has paid off as we produced a high quality book printed on an offset printer that ended up winning THREE book awards and entering many physical bookshops too, such as Barnes & Noble. The book is now already in its second edition and doing great!
What publishing elements do you most enjoy and most like to avoid, and why? (e.g. design, marketing, formatting etc.)
As mentioned, Jane was heavily involved in much of the book’s publishing. For my part, I loved working closely with our book designer, Poppy Alexiou, to create the book’s design. Since my book has three elements, the main philosophical text, 25 short travel stories, and 60 photographs, it was a challenge to integrate all three in a harmonious way so that the final design would be a unique reading experience. What I enjoyed the least, is the book marketing as I do not like self-promotion. Yet, without my marketing involvement, I’d have sold fewer books so I am gradually becoming more comfortable with marketing my work.
With the hindsight of being a published author, anything you would have done differently?
I wouldn’t have wasted a year and a half trying to secure a literary agent or a traditional publisher. The entire publishing world is changing by the day; no longer is the traditional structure needed to publish a high quality book and to sell it. Plus, unless you are a well-known bestselling author, no publisher will market your book and it will be dead-on-arrival. By controlling all aspects of the process, as well as the most important, which is marketing, a new author has many more chances to succeed.
What tips or advice would you give an aspiring indie author who is looking to self-publish?
Work on creating the best manuscript possible. Edit your work, get feedback from a group of objective readers, edit again (my published draft was the 13th!). When you think you’re done, hire your three editors: one for a developmental edit, one for copyediting, and one for proofreading. This may seem excessive but it is not. The best book marketing and promotion in the world will not help a mediocre or grammatically problematic book.
What marketing or promotional tools or techniques do you use to reach your readers?
I have discovered three important techniques to reach my audience and attract new readers.
The first is to strategically plan a book launch with several simultaneous activities. Potential readers need to see the book multiple times via different channels to spark their curiosity enough to seek the book and, hopefully, buy it. These promotional activities range from sending a compelling press release to media outlets and developing an engaging website, to winning a book award, doing radio/ YT interviews, having the book presented on websites, and more.
The second is to create a promotional frenzy every six months or so to keep your book relevant to new readers. Let’s suppose that a popular podcast host interviewed you about the book but couldn’t publish it until six months after the book launch. The podcast’s air date is the perfect opportunity to promote the book to your audience and beyond. You can submit a press release specifically about the podcast interview, send an email blast to your community, post it on your social media channels, and do more activities to spark interest in you and your book again.
The third, and in my opinion, the most important of all, is to manage advertising campaigns with Amazon Marketing Services. Amazon does a tremendous job in supporting independent authors. With the right book description, keywords and bids, your Amazon ads can literally find you new readers from all over the world.
Set aside a monthly budget for the ads and manage these campaigns on a weekly basis. Be sure to experiment with different keywords and bids to create effective campaigns. This is both an art and a science that may take a year or two to master.
What impact do you want your books to have on your readers?
I want them to become more brave! To venture out into their larger home, the Earth, and explore it. At the same time, I want them to think about the meaning of their life as a whole. A chapter of my book is dedicated to the “Parallels Between a Travel-Journey and our Life’s Journey.”
What’s your book’s elevator pitch or key selling points?
I always hated this question, for the simple reason that this “elevator” thing cannot be easily applied to non-fiction books. I think it is something that arose out of the fiction category.
But non-fiction books like mine, which are multi-dimensional and do not explore a single subject, cannot be contained nor described by one or two or three sentences. It is the same as if asking Beethoven to describe in a few words his Fifth Symphony, or Picasso, his Guernica! How will such a description relate to the actual work?
That said, maybe I could answer with a mysterious statement: Destination Earth is a four-dimensional book that cannot be described in two-dimensional sentences! 🙂
What’s next on your writing journey?
I continue to write my monthly Tuesday Letter blog which explores ideas related to practical philosophy and life in general. My second book is in the works and I expect it to be published in late 2020.
#Author Interview with Nicos Hadjicostis who shares his #travelwriting and #selfpublishing journey with us. #travelblogger #traveltuesday Click To Tweet
About the Author
Nicos Hadjicostis is a writer, world-traveler, and former media executive. His award-winning book, “Destination Earth – A New Philosophy of Travel by a World-Traveler,” now in its second edition, is the result of a six-and-a-half-year around-the-world journey during which he explored more than 70 countries on 6 continents. To read more, and subscribe to his monthly Tuesday Letter blog, visit his site at: www.nicoshadjicostis.
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