Ep.14: How Michele DeFilippo Helped 4,000 Clients Self-Publish Their Books

Transcript

This episode is brought to you by Equilibria, Inc. Equilibria provides training to assist fast-growing companies in documenting and improving their key processes for maximum operational performance. Visit EQBsystems.com to stop the chaos of fast growth and start flowing today! EQBsystems.com.

Welcome to Scale Tales – the business storytelling podcast where entrepreneurs, executives and experts share firsthand accounts of those magical moments when they achieved something bigger than they could have imagined.

I’m Alicia Butler Pierre, host and producer of Scale Tales, and I have to let you in on a little secret. Producing this show is a lot like writing and self-publishing a miniature book. We don’t just record interviews with people and then, voila! It somehow magically appears wherever you’re listening. No…there’s SO much more to the process. Why do we do it? Because it helps us scale our impact. Otherwise, we’d likely never reach you.

You are the reason why we do this. That’s why I’m glad you’re about to get a peak into what it’s like to self-publish a book. Unless you’ve written a book, you probably don’t know what it takes to self-publish a book? But after listening to this scale tale, I promise you will.

This is Ep. 14: How Michele DeFilippo Helped 4,000 Clients Self-Publish Their Books

Hi, I’m Michele DeFilippo. I’m the owner and founder of 1106 Design in Phoenix. And this is my scale tale.

My business started in the fall of 2001, but it’s only the latest chapter in my long career in publishing, which started in 1972 with my first job at Crown Publishers in New York City, where I grew up. I kind of wound up in publishing by accident. I had gone to community college to learn advertising design and went on a bunch of job interviews.

And it just so happened that Crown Publishers was the first company that offered me a job. So I took it, and that’s where it all began. I wish I could tell you I had a great plan that I worked from start to finish, but that’s not actually how my life has panned out.

And I don’t think anyone’s life pans out that way. But I worked at Crown Publishers for a while, and then my husband and I decided we were going to move to Phoenix, Arizona.

We were 24 years old. So I made the assumption at that time that I could as easily find a job in Phoenix as I could in New York. That turned out to be the wrong idea. I got to Phoenix and I found out I couldn’t earn more than minimum wage. And so I worked for minimum wage for five to seven years in Phoenix. And then I decided, this is for the birds. I have to do something else. So I opened up a typesetting business, which was my first business.

That was back in 1980, and that lasted for 13 years. We did a lot of fine work for companies. We did annual reports, we did car ads, we did books for publishers in the West. We did magazines that no longer exist. And that lasted until Steve Jobs released his Apple computer to the marketplace.

And that put every typesetting business out of business, including mine, by 1993. So I went back to freelancing. And then around 2001 is when independent publishing, self publishing, first became available. And so I saw that that aligned really nicely with my past experience. And that’s when I opened 1106 Design to serve independent authors who wanted to publish their books.

Now, I don’t think anybody’s business story ever goes smoothly, but I would like to encourage people to just not be afraid to go into business, because I will admit to you right here that I knew absolutely nothing about running a business either time that I started one and I just put one foot in front of the other and it all worked out okay. So if I can do it, anybody can do it. We’ve had a lot of challenges along the way, and I think that’s just the nature of being in business. So the difference, I think, between people who fail and people who succeed, or just the willingness to keep going and not give up when those bad events happen or when something unexpected happens, you just plow through it. And that’s the nature of business.

And part of the nature of business are the ebbs and flows, the peaks and valleys that you are sure to experience as you build, grow, and scale your business. When selfpublishing came onto the scene, it was revolutionary.

Because until around 2001, authors could not release a book without the assistance of a publisher.

They couldn’t get distribution. The major publishers had that all locked up. And Amazon came to be around the same time. I don’t know the exact dates, but they changed everything in the publishing industry. All of a sudden, it was for any author to put their book up on Amazon, which was as important as Gutenberg’s invention of movable type. It just revolutionized the publishing world.

This paved the way for Michele’s next breakthrough – an opportunity where she could leverage her experience in traditional publishing and entrepreneurship. She accidentally found out about the Arizona Book Publishing Association where she not only learned more about this new big thing called self-publishing but it would also serve as a gateway to clients for her next business.

All things in my life just came together and I just happened to find out about the right thing at the right time. And I did bring my business experience from the typesetting business into 1106 Design, of course. And I also brought along some of my customers, my freelance graphic design customers. But mostly after that, I got my customers from the Arizona Book Publishing Association. And it became pretty clear shortly after that that it was possible to work for authors nationwide. There was no geographic limitation any longer with email and the Internet. We were no longer limited to working with people locally.

In case you’re wondering about the name of Michele’s author services company, it represents her birthdate. Nov. 6 or 1106.

It kind of had an interesting, unexpected benefit because the name 1106 Design always appears first in databases.

Now that she had a new business with a clever name in a market where there was growing demand, Michele began building her customer base.

As far as finding customers, it was kind of interesting because of course, Amazon created self-publishing by opening up their first print on demand division, which was called Book Surge. So with Amazon behind it, the word spread pretty quickly that, Wow, we can now get our own books up on Amazon and we don’t need any publisher to give us permission. And then shortly after that, the Ingram company opened up their own print on demand division.

At the time it was called Lightning Source, now it’s called IngramSpark. But the same thing with those two companies on the scene, the customers just flooded in and there weren’t enough people to serve them. Now, the interesting thing is when self publishing first became possible, authors understood that they no longer needed a publisher. And that message has gotten lost somewhere along the way. Now, when authors go looking online for information about how to get their book produced, they will find selfpublishing companies, hybrid publishers, independent publishing companies, all kinds of publishers that are sort of like the old publishers were and they think they need a publisher.

But I want to remind people that self-publishing means you are the publisher. You do not need a publishing company to prepare and distribute your book. You can and should choose to work with experts who can help you prepare a good book. But, after that, you can and should distribute your book in your own name to Amazon and to IngramSpark so that you get the sales reports, you get the money deposited directly to your bank account, and no third party is sharing your revenue from book sales.

And Michele’s business model works! By being transparent about the self-publishing industry she’s earned the trust of her customers. So much so that 40% of 1106 Design’s business comes from referrals and, 22 years into the business, they’ve scaled revenue to just under $1M. This success comes from the authors she and her team have worked with as well as trying different promotional activities.

We’ve serviced about 4,000 authors since I started. We’ve done every kind of book you can imagine. I joined organizations. I ran ads in publishing industry magazines. They came to me truthfully, they found me on, on Wrike most often. And that’s because there were so many authors. So as long as you were on the Internet, you really didn’t have to do much. It was just like having this great big net in the ocean and the fish just swam in without too much effort on my part.

That’s certainly a great problem to have – a situation where demand is high, and supply is low.

Yeah, something like 2.1 million books were published in 2022.

I couldn’t help but wonder how, in 2024, Michele is coping with competition. Not just from others who are increasing the supply of people to assist authors with selfpublishing but from yet another emerging technology – AI. After all, there are some people who are using AI to write entire books for them.

Well, gosh, I think everybody can see that AI can be a wonderful benefit and also can be misused. We’ve got people out there already saying, “Let AI write your book.” And I can tell you, after all the authors that we have worked with, every author is unique and every book is unique. And as far as I can tell, AI is probably great for research, maybe to help you figure out what you want to write about or even provide background information that you may need on your topic.

But from what I can see, AI doesn’t have a voice. It’s not human, it’s not creative, it’s not original. It’s just basically automated plagiarism. I hope it’ll shake out to where authors use it as the tool that it’s made meant to be. I hope literature, real creative, human literature doesn’t die because everybody takes the lazy way out and lets a machine write their book.

As for Michele’s formula for sustainable scaling, it obviously involves having a process.

We do have a process, and it is always evolving. But we started out pretty crudely just trying to keep up with projects by using a Microsoft Word file to record every detail of the job. Then we moved on to Basecamp project collaboration software. And from there we moved on to a different system called Wrike. Now we’re using a similar platform called Nifty to keep track of all of the details of the project.

Authors don’t understand just how much goes into the creation of a book. Technology makes them think that all we do is click a few buttons, and all of a sudden a book pops out. And what they discover when they work with us is that there are hours and hours of collaboration, starting with the editor who takes the manuscript and polishes it up.

I’ve had authors come to us who say, “My manuscript is in great shape. It’s not going to require much editing at all.” And then they’ll get the manuscript back from one of our editors, and it’s just loaded with red track changes, corrections. And they’re kind of shocked at first, but then when they start to go through the changes, they realize, Yeah, that’s true. I didn’t think of that.

It takes a lot of work to shape up a manuscript to where it’s ready to be published into a book. Same thing is true of cover design. I once had an author on the telephone call about our services, and she said,

“You can’t fool me. I know you only spend 15 minutes on a cover.”

And it’s like, “Wow, I wish, lady. Because no, that’s not what happens at all.” We spend hours and hours and hours on a cover design getting everything just right, and again, collaborating with the author one iteration after another. Sometimes we’ve done as many as 64 revisions on a cover design before everyone is satisfied. Same thing with interior typesetting. If you go online, you’ll hear people talking about typesetting their manuscripts in Word or Vellum or using some other system that somehow automatically formats book pages.

But that’s not how a major publisher produces a book. Typesetting is a whole separate field of endeavor that meticulously looks at the spacing of every element on that book page so that the reader doesn’t get distracted by poor spacing or tight and loose lines or any number of other issues that types that are just routinely fixed. So a book looks easy to do when it’s all done, but it’s not easy to get there. It takes a lot of work.

Yes, it does. Having written a book myself I know this all too well. Writing the manuscript turned out to be the easiest part of the process, but then there’s the editing, typesetting, indexing, cover design, and…promotion! In fact, you’ll hear about my book during the commercial break. And when we come back, we’ll pick up with tips Michele has for you whether you are considering scaling your ideas through a book, a business, or both.

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We’re back and before the break, Michele DeFilippo, owner of 1106 Design, shared how she scaled her client base to 4,000 customers and her company to nearly $1M USD in revenue. Self-publishing a book is like managing a project. It requires a team of editors, graphic designers, typesetters, marketers, and more. Take heed to Michele’s advice.

Don’t hesitate, don’t be afraid, because there’s an army of people who are willing and able to help you craft whatever manuscript you are able to produce into a finished product. You know, sometimes a manuscript is very good, just needs a little bit of cleanup. Sometimes it’s pretty rough. But that’s what editors do.

So you shouldn’t let it stop you that you’re not really sure about what to do because that’s where every beginner has to start in any field. There are experts to help you. The main thing to remember though is that you don’t need a publisher if you want to keep control of your book, and you want to earn the maximum revenue possible. It’s better to work with author services companies like mine. And we make that whole process easy for you because we have the team in place.

You don’t have to worry about hiring someone who may disappear or who doesn’t know how to do the job. So put experience on your side and work with people who’ve been in publishing for a long time, and you’ll get better results.

I completely agree with Michele and, as I hinted earlier, getting a physical or digital book completed is just the beginning. You now have to promote your book. After all, it’s likely that not enough people know about your book or your amazing ideas unless, of course, you promote it like crazy. Michele’s company helps with that too.

I introduce them to three marketing people that I trust with my life. I try to stay in my lane. We know the design and the editorial side. Marketing is a specialty all its own. So I introduce them to people I trust. We also have some do it yourself marketing retail resources on our website that people can find if they want to roll up their sleeves and do some of the work themselves.

But whether they hire an expert or whether they do it themselves, it is absolutely essential to market the book. Some people will tell me, “Oh, I’ll just put it up on Amazon and the world will find it.” No, the world will not find it! You have to drive people to Amazon so that they can buy your book.

We mentioned AI as a shortcut that some people are now taking. But there’s another one that’s probably as old as the publishing industry itself – ghostwriting.

A lot of people misunderstand ghost writing. They think they can just hire somebody and write a check and someone else is going to write their book for them, but that’s not the case. You do have to spend a lot of time with the ghostwriter. The ghostwriter will participate in terms of their skills, organizing the book and actually writing the text, but the ghostwriter has to pull your ideas and your concepts and your passion out of your head. And that takes a lot of time. I guess it depends on the author and the ghostwriter. But the more you can do before you approach a ghostwriter, the less time you will have to spend and the less the fee will be, I can tell you that much.

A good ghostwriter will capture your voice because they’re basically going to become part of your family for six to nine months. But, but that’s also expensive. A good ghostwriter will charge $50 or 60 thousand dollars to write your book.

They’re putting in a lot of hours with you and then separate from you they’re actually doing the job. So, they have to get paid for their time too. I’ve seen the work of a lot of bad ghostwriters that people have used if you find a low price for ghostwriting, you might want to watch out, especially now, because those bad ghost writers might be using AI and that’s not going to capture your voice either.

As for the time that you can expect to go from manuscript to publish, Michele says it can take about four months depending on the length and complexity of a book. That is, unless there aren’t multiple iterations and authors responding quickly to questions. If what Michele described appeals to you, take her up on her offer.

I hope your listeners have found this interesting. I believe in complete transparency. All of our prices are on our website. All of our blog posts and educational articles are there. Design samples are there. And you can book a free consultation. We’ll have a respectful conversation with you. We won’t blow up your inbox with messages after you contact us, I promise. We don’t operate that way.

And I don’t know about you, but I appreciate transparency. It lets me know what I’m potentially getting myself into, armed with knowledge and with my eyes wide open. I really like Michele’s slow but steady approach to scaling her business. What about you?

It seems to have worked well for her considering the longevity she’s had in business. Here’s a recap of some lessons learned for scaling your message through books as well as your business:

1. There’s nothing wrong with planning but learn to become comfortable with change so that you can easily adapt. Challenges and hiccups will happen. You may get knocked down, but as long as you get back up and into the game again you will persevere.

2. Be transparent. No hidden fees. No scams. No spam. Your customers will appreciate that and, they’ll gladly refer more business to you.
3. You can either become a victim of technology or a victor. Instead of fearing the change that can come with a technological advance in your industry, embrace it to figure out how to best leverage it.

4. Books are an excellent way to scale your reach, impact, and revenue.

5. Self-publishing a book involves project management. You must identify and manage the associated tasks, resources, timing, and budget for successful completion.

6. AI and ghostwriters may offer shortcuts, but you will pay one way or another whether it’s your credibility, more money, or both! While there are no shortcuts for sustainable success, you can streamline it.

7. Promote, promote, promote! What good is your idea, product, or service if no one knows about it!

A special thank you to Michele DeFilippo for sharing her scale tale with us. She has some free resources she’s offering to you. One of them is a pdf called, Publish like the Pros. It’s available on her website. You can also see design samples of her team’s work as well.

This information, plus other resources she mentioned, are available in this episode’s show notes at ScaleTalesPodcast.com. Again, that’s ScaleTalesPodcast.com.

Thank you for listening! If you learned something valuable from this episode, please leave us a five-star rating and review wherever you’re listening.

I’m Alicia Butler Pierre and I produced and narrated this episode. Music production and original score by Sabor! Music Enterprises. Video editing by Gladiola Films. Show notes by Erika Ve Revilla.

You’ve been listening to Scale Tales, a podcast by Equilibria, Inc.