Self Publishing

Last updated: 2025-03-10

What is the most popular self-published book that you’ve read? That you’ve heard of? Unless you read deep corners of the internet, the answer is likely The Martian, which was originally self-published on Andy Weir’s website in 2011 before Crown Publishing Group bought the rights in 2014 (and, around the same time, when it was turned into a movie).

Over the course of my undergraduate career, I completed many homework assignments using MATLAB. In some cases, it was the best tool that I knew how to use. In other cases, it was a requirement. But all along the way, I knew that there were other ways to accomplish the same thing. I took a few computer science courses throughout undergrad, mostly in Java, and I eventually learned enough Python to be dangerous. It continued to bug me that all of my engineering homework was done with MATLAB for no other reason than that is what everyone else (professors and teaching assistants included) was using. So, in order to keep sharp, I went back and re-did some assignments using Python instead of MATLAB. These files sat in a Homework folder collecting dust until March 2020.

When COVID hit, I worked for an air line, which means that I got a front row seat to COVID absolutely decimating air travel. With my paycheck 25% lighter and my work week 25% smaller, I took a fresh look at these Python programs. I realized that there were no entry-level programming materials specifically for mechanical or aerospace engineering. Many "MATLAB for Engineering" books are 800+ page textbooks with a lot of equations and code jumbled together. I wanted to create an easier read that shows what the code actually does and functions more as a proof-of-concept than "here is my PhD thesis condensed into a textbook." Python has been either the fastest growing or top 3 fastest growing languages in the last 10 years. With a nearly limitless supply of mechanical and aerospace engineering students and an untapped market, I started writing Python for Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

I shopped some proposals and a draft chapter to several textbook publishers; all declined. I shopped it to No Starch Press, the publishers of Automate the Boring Stuff who eventually declined and said that they did not typically see a lot of sales in the "engineering" genre. Their guess was that the audience either bought actual textbooks or attended bootcamps. So, that started my self-publishing journey.

I discovered that many authors in the self-publishing space are writing fantasy series like Harry Potter or Game of Thrones. Not many are writing non-fiction “could be confused for a textbook if you squint hard enough.” As such, most of the recommendations and “dos and don’ts” were focused for this genre. I read through most of them, and I broke almost every single rule. Here is the reasoning:

1. You need a backlog (multiple books) to be successful. Since most authors in this space are writing fiction/fantasy trilogies or longer series, it makes sense that a reader should have access to most or all of “the universe” for something to really take off. Fortunately for me, I was writing a non-fiction one-off book that was more of a technical reference than a beach read, so I wasn’t worried about breaking this rule.
2. Don’t edit your manuscript yourself. I had no need for character development, plot synopsis, etc, so I wasn’t as concerned with this. A minor typo here or there wouldn’t cause my reader to throw the book in the trash. Still, I wrote several drafts, used friends and family to proofread, used Grammarly before the AI and generative AI craze, and even had my computer read the text to me so I could listen to what I had written.
3. Don’t design your own cover! Though nearly everyone judges a book by its cover, all I needed was “good enough” for a design. If I was writing a fantasy book, I absolutely would have hired someone else to design the cover. As it was, Word Art and some pictures I had taken or had license to use is all I needed.

Along with the material, I also wanted to show a little bit of the troubleshooting and debugging process; I think a lot of early programmers/engineers get discouraged by bugs and by resources which do the classic "Step 1: Draw a circle. Step 2: Draw the rest of the owl" approach. Showing the debugging process shows insight into how to think, which is always a valuable skill to build.

It has been fun to be on this self-publishing journey: it’s easy enough to talk about, and it’s great practice to be chief decision maker on any endeavor. The entire project has touched just about every skill you need in any business: reading, writing, evaluating, marketing, selling, developing, web design, and so much more. I encourage anyone contemplating their self-publishing journey to dive right in! I had fun, learned a lot, and gained some great experience.