> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://justincox.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# What I Did Different With This Book
- URL: https://justincox.com/blog/2025/09/what-i-did-different-with-this-book/
- Published: 2025-09-09T11:00:27.000Z
- Updated: 2025-09-09T11:25:12.000Z
- Description: This Just In: Launching a second edition wasn’t as simple as I thought it’d be, and I learned some lessons along the way.
- Author: Justin Cox
- Tags: Publishing, This Just In, Craft, Tech

It’s been two weeks since I published the second edition of [*Write Now*](https://justincox.com/book/). Going into the rewriting process, I thought it’d be simple — edit the whole thing, rewrite the applicable sections, and republish. Boy, was I wrong.

The rewriting was actually the easiest part. It only took a few months and was no different than writing anything else. I went a chapter at a time, ripping the entire thing out and reworking everything from the ground up. The problems began when I started *replacing* the rewritten text in the book.

For the first edition, I hired a typesetter. To save a little money and learn how to typeset myself, I wanted to [control the process](https://justincox.com/blog/2025/07/battle-of-the-book-builders/). I *thought* it’d be easy. It led down an entire rabbit hole that ended in typesetting not one but *two* versions of the book — one for print and one for digital.

You all, typesetting is *difficult*! There isn’t a great tool out there for *non*fiction typesetting. Vellum is fantastic for ebooks, but its limitations in print are substantial — especially if you want to include worksheets, as I did. I likely could have saved some time and frustration by shelling out for a professional instead of trying to do it myself.

I learned that simply dropping the words into Apple Pages or Vellum led to SO MANY unexpected — and, frankly, *unexplained* — mistakes that somehow Grammarly and ProWritingAid missed. For example, no tool could tell me I had typos or misspellings in a chapter heading. *Huh?!*

Anyway, these issues all came to light when I sent out Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) of what I *thought* was a polished and print-ready book — it wasn’t.

There’s an entire chapter in my book about the benefits of *multiple* revision rounds and hiring a high-quality editor. Reader, this is one of those times that I absolutely should have listened to myself. Instead, I had built the idea that the first edition had been professionally edited, and I was simply making some changes; naturally, the second edition would be fine without a professional.

Why this logic made perfect sense to me, especially when I was READING MY OWN INSTRUCTIONS TO THE CONTRARY, is beyond me. I’ll just say that writing a book is hard, and your brain stops working somewhere along the way.

Thankfully, the amazing [Sandra Wendel](https://www.sandrawendel.com/?ref=justincox.com) and her teammate, Kathleen, stepped in and assisted with a fabulous *professional* edit that crushed the glaring issues that I was absolutely blind to. Reader, if you’re writing a book, don’t do what I did and bring Sandra on from the start.

In addition to typsetting and editing, I spent more time marketing the second edition. By *more* time, I mean that I spent *time* marketing the second edition. I sent out the ARCs and requested honest reviews to try and drive organic traffic.

I followed all of the admittedly high Amazon guidelines and asked people to leave honest reviews based on receiving an advanced reader copy. In the end, about *half* of those reviews were gated by Amazon anyway since the book wasn’t purchased on the site. So that kind of sucked. Amazon reviews are a mystery to me, so if you did read Write Now, please consider leaving a review; maybe it will get posted!

I also created some social posts and — *gasp* — videos that may or may not have driven some traffic. Just like last time, *LinkedIn* somehow drove the most engagement. Why? Maybe it’s because a book is a “professional achievement” that caters to LinkedIn’s algorithm. Or maybe people are generally more engaged on that network. I have no idea.

So, what did I do differently with the second edition? Well, in a way, everything. But also, *nothing*? I ended up following a process that was more or less the same as round one, but completely unplanned and *way* out of order.

Despite the challenges, I feel really good about the second edition of *Write Now* — the advice is better, it (*hopefully*) won’t age, and it is in a much better package. If you’re curious about the final product, it’s [available now](https://justincox.com/book/).