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Self-publishing a book is a big step in any writer’s career. But before you have your finished book (or e-book) in hand, there’s important prep work to be done that will determine whether your self-publishing efforts are a success—or a flop. Here are ten things you must do before you self-publish:
1. Research your market. Determine the audience that will be most likely to read your book. Knowing your target demographic will make your marketing efforts much easier—and more profitable!
2. Research distribution methods. Find out the best ways to reach your potential readers. Will your target demographic be more likely to purchase your book on an e-reader or in print? Do you want your book to be available online through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or in smaller bookstores? If smaller stores are your preference, meet with the owners to learn what requirements must be met in order for you to sell your book on their shelves.
3. Research standard e-book and print book formats. For the electronic version, you’ll need to consider EPUB and MOBI formats; for print, trim size will be very important. When deciding on a trim size, compare similar books in your genre to get a good idea of the standard size.
4. Format and proofread your manuscript. Before you make your book available to the masses, make sure it is in tip-top shape! Have your manuscript professionally formatted and proofread so your finished product is error-free!
5. Purchase an ISBN. ISBNs are must-haves if you intend to sell your book in stores or online. Make sure you have a different ISBN for each version of your book as well (e.g., Kindle, Nook, Print). Get the 411 on ISBNs here.
6. Design a book cover. They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover—but buyers do it every day. Make sure you have an attractive book cover that is eye-catching, thought-provoking, and representative of your book. Sometimes the quality of a book’s cover can make or break a sale.
7. Create an author website. This is critical if you plan on selling your book yourself, since an author website is the best way to promote your book and your author brand. Your author website will act as a hub for everything about you and your book: it will give potential fans an opportunity to learn more about you, while offering current readers an up-to-date resource for more details about your next project.
8. Set up a mailing list. Once you have an author website up and running, your next step should be to create a mailing list. It’s great to have fans visiting your author website, but it would be even better if you had your visitors’ email addresses so you could send updates on your books and events directly to their inboxes. That’s where a mailing list comes in very handy!
9. Create social media profiles. An online author platform relies on traffic and engagement to increase book sales. With social media profiles, you can steer potential fans to your author website and engage in real-time conversations with fellow readers and writers. But it’s imperative that you actively and consistently update your social media—so be sure you’re ready for the commitment. If you don’t have the time to regularly maintain your social media profiles, Writer’s Relief can help!
10. Schedule public appearances. While an online marketing strategy is vital to online sales, word of mouth can be just as effective. Engage your own community by giving readings at local libraries and bookstores. If you’re intrepid enough, you could try booking an interview with a local radio station to help spread the word about your book!
BONUS—Find someone to help! Self-publishing can seem like an overwhelming task, especially to an author with limited or no publishing industry experience. So don’t go it alone! Self-Publishing Relief can help guide you through each step of the process. To find out how Self-Publishing Relief can help you publish your book, click here.
QUESTION: What else have you done to prepare for self-publishing your book?
Publishing a book on your own has finally received a level of acceptance in the publishing industry, and lots of people are thinking about diving in.
But what do you really need to know before publishing a book? I’ve been helping authors get into print since the early 2000s. There are a lot of resources out there to help you publish a book, and many of them are really good and worth your money (get in touch with us if you’re looking for help on your self-publishing journey!). Of course, there are some not-so-great resources out there, too.
That’s why I’ve put together this guide, so you know the landscape you’ll be traveling when publishing a book and can avoid the potholes.
So here they are, the top 19 things you MUST KNOW before self-publishing your book.
A lot of people get into self-publishing thinking they won’t have to spend anything at all, but that’s really not the case. I don’t want you to be disappointed, but it is going to cost something to get your book into print. At the low end you can expect to at least pay for proof copies of a print on demand book and the shipping fee to get them to you. But most authors going into this are going to pay more, and some will spend substantially more to get their book just the way they want it.
Doing everything yourself and not worrying about whether your book looks professional or not, you can get away for under $100 and get 5 copies of your book in the bargain. But if you’re publishing a book that’s been edited, laid out to look the way a book should, and has a cover on it that will stand a chance of competing in the marketplace with all those books from big publishers, you’re going to have to budget $3,000 to $10,000. And if you print offset, want to hire marketing or publicity help, or hire a high-end “book doctor,” you could be looking at significantly more.
The important thing to remember is that you’re in charge. As long as your goals for publishing a book line up with your budget, or you can crowdsource the money you’ll need for your book (via kickstarter.com) you’re good to go. That leads us to the next consideration.
This decision is a big one for lots of people. Let’s face it, the book you’ve been dreaming about looks like the latest Stephanie Meyer, doesn’t it? Well, here’s the problem. If you want a book that looks like it was produced by professionals, you’re going to have to hire those professionals to create the book for you.
It’s just not possible to acquire all those editorial, design, typography, and cover creation skills in the next few weeks so you can do it yourself. That’s why this is such a big decision—it will affect lots of other things you’ll be doing later on.
Four people will be really important if this is the way you want to go: editor, cover designer, book formatter / layout artist, and marketing consultant. The first three will get your book where it should be; the last one is who can tell you what that book ought to look like, how to spread the word about it, and how it should be priced.
I’m not saying you can’t do any of this yourself, because I don’t know what talents and experience you bring to the table, do I? That’s what you’ll have to decide.
But keep in mind that if you want your book to take you some places—like consistent sales, podcast appearances, bookstore signings, top speaking gigs—you’re going to need a book that looks as good as anyone else’s book. And that means finding the people who can do it with you.
Selfpublishing.com, Smashwords, and BookBaby are three of the top companies in the industry for publishing a book. They have entire teams that can help you get your book self-published. More on this in point #13.
There are thousands of editors out there. You can find them on Upwork, Fiverr, other freelancing sites, or through direct referrals. Self-Publishing School has a curated list of folks that you have access to if you choose to work with them. The most important thing is making sure you find an editor that jives with you and your needs, and that is familiar with your genre of book.
Editing fantasy fiction is a world of difference from a self-help or leadership book (bad pun, not intended!), so do your research to find the right one.
Covers sell books. They can make or break traditionally published books and that’s equally true when publishing a book on your own. Make sure yours is great! Stick to the rules of your genre, make sure the title is crystal clear and easy to read, and don’t put your face on the cover unless you’re Oprah or Brené Brown. You can find book cover inspiration just by browsing Amazon or your local bookstore, although consider looking at other sources, too (even in unlikely places like Taylor Swift album covers!).
We also have this free Book Cover Design Checklist for you, if you need it.
There’s nothing more disruptive to a reader than poor formatting. One of the best tools on the market for formatting your book yourself is called Atticus. You can outsource formatting or do it yourself, but only do it yourself if you use a tool like Atticus.
I cannot stress enough just how important your book description is when publishing a book. It needs to grab the attention of the reader. It needs to give a brief description of what they’ll learn (or set-up the plot or a major scene, if fiction). And it absolutely has to leave them wanting more.
Have friends read it first, before publishing, so they can tell you if it works or not.
I’ve linked up a ton of helpful resources for publishing a book just in this article and there is so much more out there on the web. Blog articles (like this), YouTube videos, Udemy mini-courses, and entire self-publishing courses/programs are out there to provide you with the information you need.
There are a bunch of charlatans out there trying to make money with cheap, low-quality books on how they went about publishing a book. Don’t learn from just anyone. Learn from experts. Learn from people who have real success. (Although you can grab a free e-book copy of Published. by Chandler Bolt.)
There are so many ways to make money with books, but if you’re nonfiction specifically, it’s true: “The riches are in the niches.”
Be the best in a narrow niche and Amazon will find ways to push you into the bigger segments. But if you start in a big broad category like “Finance.” Go into something like, “Money Management for College Students” or “Tax Advice for Single Member LLCs.”
I’m just making categories up, but you get the idea. You have to niche down when publishing a book. If you go too broad, you’re going to get lost in the masses.
Now, if you’re a fiction writer, your ticket to making money is releasing ebooks, in rapid succession. Fiction readers are addicts, and they often read on Kindles. So, your overall page reads and read-through rate from book-to-book in your series are super important.
For more on that topic of fiction series and readthrough rates, check out this tool and article from Self-Publishing School.
People who run businesses or serve as high-ranking executives in companies—they are busy! They don’t have time to lounge on the beach and read their Kindles. They don’t have time to sit in a chair and read a paperback either. These people are on the move, and they are audiobook and podcast consumers.
They listen on the road, on the plane, while doing chores around the house. If you’re publishing a book for this audience, make sure you’re releasing an audiobook version of your book.
If you’re serious about publishing a book yourself, it’s worth spending the money on your own ISBNs. This gives you more control over your book’s metadata, allows you to switch printing companies without having to get a whole new ISBN (which can cause confusion for booksellers), and any order inquiries will be directed to you as the publisher of record for the ISBN rather than your publishing service company.
Not everyone can afford a $24,000-$48,000 USD program like Scribe Media offers. But I would encourage you to invest as much as you are able and comfortable investing in your book. This goes back to point #1 & #2 above.
If you don’t want a quality book that sells a lot of copies and you’re just making something for the heck of it, by all means, use Fiverr and Upwork and spend less than $100. But if you want a high-quality book that thousands of people will buy, and you want something you can be proud of showing off to family, friends, colleagues, and strangers, then invest as much as you can and get a quality book.
Teams like Self-Publishing School can really help. They educate you on the process, but they also have coaching and community support, as well as done-for-you services. They’re moderately priced with most programs under $10K, but you certainly get bang for your buck, as their authors can attest.
SEO is the common abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization. What does SEO mean for the average author?
It means you optimize your book in a way that search engines will easily find and connect to it. You have to think from the users’ and readers’ perspectives, meaning you must consider how people will search for and find your book. Are they looking for men’s devotionals or a memoir about how dogs are man’s best friend?
Don’t go overboard and just start keyword stuffing your book title, subtitle, and description. We’ve all seen those horrific examples. Don’t be a cheater. Write a good book, have a great title and subtitle, and write a book description that sells your book. Then, if you can, which I’m sure you can, find a couple small ways to optimize for what people are searching.
Similar to point #14, but this goes beyond search engine optimization. If you’re publishing a book on caring for children with autism, you need to know where doctors and medical professionals who treat autism gather. You also need to know where parents of children with autism gather. And it may help to know where nonprofit organizations that help autistic or special needs individuals congregate.
I use this example not as a way to take advantage of those folks, but because if your book is actually helpful and you’re passionate about helping folks with autism, then you should be the biggest believer in getting your book out there. And to do that, you need to know where those caretakers hang out.
There is so much to discuss here. The Amazon bookstore is a behemoth, and it’s only growing. But to stick out from the crowd, you need to understand keywords, categories, and Amazon ads at the very least. Selfpublishing.com and Amazon both have tremendous resources on this. There’s even a tool called PublisherRocket that can help you navigate this jungle (pun intended!).
You need people to speak well of your book. As you’re starting on writing it and before you publish it, make sure you have some folks in mind who could put a good word forth on your book. If they’re in your circle, good. If they are leaders in their industry and it’s the space you’re writing in, even better.
Book reviews add fuel to the fire when you’re publishing a book on Amazon. Think about it: when was the last time you ordered a product on Amazon that didn’t have any reviews? You at least want 20+ people saying your book is worth the read, minimum.
I know it’s the dream of every author to see their book on the shelves of Barnes & Noble. But here’s the problem: bookstores all over the United States are shutting down. Borders went out of business. Barnes & Noble has been steadily closing stores, not opening more. Remember how Amazon opened up physical bookstores for a few years? Yep, those are closed too.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your local indie bookstore is about the only physical place you’ll be able to sell a copy of your book anymore, unless you’re traveling around the country and speaking at conferences. Otherwise, you should probably focus on selling your book on Amazon and the digital bookstores.
Which leads me to my final tip…
I’m writing this article today, as current as I can possibly be. Yet, tomorrow, something could change in the industry that changes the way publishing a book is done or how books are consumed. Or maybe it will be a change in an ancillary arm to publishing, like cover generators, book title generators, AI-written book descriptions, or something else we haven’t even thought of.
We live in an age of technology and information.
That said, the basic process for publishing a book probably won’t change that much. You have an idea, you’ll need to write it or speak it in an organized format, then you’ll have to find a way to make it look like a book, and distribute that asset to others. Right now, we have ebooks, print books, and audiobooks. Who knows what the future holds?
The best thing you can do is keep an open mind and work on your book project today!
Now that you know what to consider before publishing a book, it’s time to get started! If you have a finished manuscript and want someone to take care of the publishing process for you, check out our publishing package.
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