Uchikura & Co., LLC

What I Learned from Publishing My First Book

My first book, 88 Japanese Wisdom, was released on September 7. By September 22, it had sold 25 copies.

 

Since the book is written in English, it makes sense that about 60 percent of those sales were in the United States. The rest were in Japan and, for some reason, the Netherlands. I would love to know who is reading it there.

 

I started this project because I wanted to understand how the publishing business works. Writing, editing, publishing, and then watching a book find its readers has been more interesting than I expected.

 

Amazon’s print-on-demand system makes the process surprisingly accessible. When someone orders a paperback, Amazon prints a copy and ships it. I did not have to pay for a large print run or store boxes of books. My main investments were the time I spent writing and editing, plus the cost of obtaining my own ISBN.

 

Of course, 25 copies do not make me an expert on publishing. But knowing that something I wrote has reached readers in the United States, Japan, and the Netherlands feels wonderful.

 

Perhaps I will write another book.

 

If you have ever thought about writing one yourself, why not give it a try? It might fail. Mine still might. But going through the process could teach you something you would never learn by wondering about it.