Jed Byrne - Self-Publishing Your First Book

Business development director and Raleigh commercial real estate enthusiast Jed Byrne joined me on Ditching Hourly to walk through the entire process of self-publishing his first book, Start Small Selling, from idea validation to Kickstarter funding to final production. We cover testing your book idea with real money, writing a first draft in 35 days, running a Kickstarter campaign to fund professional editing, finding and working with developmental editors, designing a book cover on a budget, and publishing through KDP and Lulu. Chapters (00:00) - Who Is Jed Byrne? (03:19) - The Hyper-Local Newsletter (07:59) - Why Write a Book? (11:41) - Testing the Idea (14:05) - The Writing Process (21:56) - The Kickstarter (31:04) - Building the Editing Team (36:23) - The Timeline (45:49) - Working with a Developmental Editor (52:40) - Designing the Cover (57:26) - Publishing with KDP and Lulu (01:00:00) - Start Small, Start Now Guest Bio Jed Byrne is a business development director at Barnhill Building Group, a North Carolina-based general contracting firm. Outside his day job, he runs Oak City CRE, a platform focused on Raleigh commercial real estate that includes a weekly Substack newsletter, a podcast, consulting, and his first book, Start Small Selling. You can reach Jed at books@oakcitycre.com. Resources Mentioned In This Episode People Jed Byrne Jed Byrne on LinkedIn Jonathan Stark Tim Ferriss Seth Godin Noah Kagan Rob Fitzpatrick Tucker Max Pat Flynn Chandler Bolt Tim Grahl Rochelle Moulton Corey Quinn Mike Michalowicz Derek Sivers Daniel Pink Jed / Raleigh / AEC Oak City CRE The Top Five by Oak City CRE Dirt NC podcast Barnhill Building Group Start Small Selling Kickstarter Start Small Selling on Amazon Urban Land Institute ULI Triangle Jed’s book email from the episode - books@oakcitycre.com Books / Book-Building Resources Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick Write Useful Books by Rob Fitzpatrick Help This Book The Workshop Survival Guide The Scribe Method SelfPublishing.com / Self-Publishing School Reedsy Editorial Freelancers Association Chicago Manual of Style ISBNs / Bowker Atticus Publishing / Production / Selling Platforms Kickstarter Amazon KDP Lulu Blurb Shopify Upwork Fiverr Otterpine Microsoft Word Canva Inkscape USPS Media Mail Podcast / Episode References Mike Michalowicz on The Business of Authority ---- Do you know you need to niche down, but keep hesitating because you're afraid of picking the wrong niche, cutting off good opportunities, or boxing yourself in? You DON'T need more convincing that vague positioning is a problem. You DO need a way to make positioning feel less risky so you can finally choose a direction, test it in the market, and adjust without blowing up your business. On Tuesday, September 8th, 2026, at noon Eastern Time, I'm running a live workshop called Positioning For Soloists Having A Hard Time Niching Down. That's what we'll tackle in this workshop. It's the second session of my Fall 2026 Soloist Growth Workshop series for expertise-based business owners just like you. Live attendance is limited to 20, so don't wait. Learn more at: https://jonathanstark.com/sgs Enroll in Positioning For Soloists now » Hope to see you live in Zoom on Tuesday.