In December 2012, when I was six months’ pregnant, I began writing a book to help new authors navigate the book editing and publishing process. In a rare aligning of the stars, three of my scheduled projects were pushed back a month, and I found myself with some time on my hands. I had been kicking around the idea of writing a book, and the opportunity to actually follow through on that had just presented itself.

The idea was that the book would benefit my clients and would help me to grow my established editing company. I had given some well-attended workshops on the topic, and I knew that there were new and aspiring authors who needed this information. However, I also knew that it would be hard to be heard in the cacophony of other voices all trying to get their own messages out into the world.

I had concluded that self-publishing was the way to go for this niche project, and to increase the book’s chances of success, my husband and I decided to start a publishing company. This was a definite complication that we did not have to undertake, but given the state of self-publishing, we wanted to let our readers and reviewers know that we were serious about making a high-quality book. Taking this extra step to demonstrate our intentions was worth the additional work.

So, with our daughter in daycare, my husband and I drove to the offices of the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation in Baltimore and officially formed Hop On Publishing LLC. That was in March 2014. Our first book, Perfect Bound: How to Navigate the Book Publishing Process Like a Pro, releases next week. The book has received great advance reviews, and we are in the process of choosing our next book project. The future of Hop On is wide open and we are excited about all of the possibilities.

Being a new mom made the writing and publishing experience very challenging but also very rewarding. Although I was able to get a first draft completed before the baby was born, revisions were squeezed in during nap time and after the little one went to bed. Middle-of-the-night feedings were brainstorming sessions for chapter titles and cover ideas. I relied heavily on my husband to keep the house running when I had a full day of work and a full night of rewrites.

But when I think about the story of how this book and this company came to fruition, I also think of how proud my little girl will be when she realizes what I have accomplished. She might be 25 years old before she understands what it takes to write and publish a book, not to mention the added challenges of doing so with an infant in the house, but that’s OK with me.

What may be most notable is that I almost certainly would not have embarked on this adventure if I had waited until my daughter was born. Rather, I feel I hit the sweet spot. I built up just enough momentum while I was pregnant to keep me writing through the baby’s first several months of life, and at not quite 18 months, she is much more self-sufficient now, allowing us to charge full-tilt into marketing mode.

As we plan for our next child, sometime in the not too distant future, we have joked about what my next book will be to go along with the baby. I can’t say I would ever again write and publish a book with a newborn at home, but I can say I wouldn’t have done it differently this time around.