How the first edition of "Process Empathy" was written

Ben Payne, 2024-08-19

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Writing the first edition of "Process Empathy" took 12 years. Primarily because I didn't start out with a plan to write a book. Creating the content as blog entries was motivated by my intent to write down what I was observing as a experienced it. The time between my decision to convert blog content into a book and publish on Amazon KDP took 2.5 years.

Here's the sequence of events.

  1. Over the course of 10 years write 1000 blog posts on whatever topic I find interesting.
  2. Realize that a recurring theme is bureaucracy.
  3. Come up with a unifying definition of bureaucracy.
  4. Cluster ~300 blog posts into subtopics. Use Latex's "book" documentclass.
  5. Revise and make the transitions smoother.
  6. Decide to self-publish rather than go with a traditional publisher.
  7. Seek editors on FreeLancer. Input from one editor helps me understand how far away the current content is from a book.
  8. Use Grammarly to catch spelling and grammar mistakes. Tried the "professional" (paid) version for a month but didn't get that much value.
  9. Send content to readers to get feedback.
  10. A reader's spouse offers to provided editing. This is very valuable.
  11. Purchase ISBNs.
  12. Publish using Amazon KDP.