One of the best self-publishing tips that I can give you is that money is not the primary reason we write a book. If that’s your end goal, then you’re probably going to be disappointed. The reason we write a book is to improve our credibility, share our story, or to attract clients to our business. Books are a value proposition. I tell all of my clients that they should not set their expectations solely on royalties. They should use their book to support other goals.
With that in mind, more entrepreneurs are self-publishing today than ever before. Writing and publishing a book seems quite intimidating, but it’s actually easier than it’s ever been. Follow these self-publishing tips to start 2018 with a bang!
Choose an Engaging Topic
You need to make sure that you choose the right topic for your book. Don’t just recap your blog posts or publish a book that is solely written to pitch a new product or service. Your book must solve a specific problem. For nonfiction, choose a specific niche, a specific problem, and then write a book that shows the reader how to solve that problem. For fiction, you simply write your story to entertain a targeted group of readers.
Learn the Basics
The nest of our self-publishing tips is to do your homework and learn how self-publishing works before you attempt to upload your first book. You can find a lot of free information on this website or from websites like Writers Digest. There is a lot to learn so I encourage you to do a lot of research before you self-publish your book.
Create a Budget
Self-publishing your book is going to cost money. If you try to do this without a budget, then your book is never going to find its way into the hands of readers. You will need to invest in editing, graphic design, and marketing. If you plan to cut corners here, then you risk ending up with a visually unappealing, low quality book. Successful authors have an editor and graphic designer. They also take an active approach to marketing. That brings us to the next self-publishing tip.
Develop a Marketing Strategy
Even though most of you will be using your book to supplement another product or service, you should still do everything in your power to sell as many copies as possible. In order to accomplish that goal, you will need to dedicate some of your budget to marketing. Amazon and Facebook paid ads are a great place to start. You should definitely be on Twitter. Readers tend to gravitate to that platform so it’s a powerful tool for self-published authors.
Choose Where to Publish
Let me share three places where you can publish your book.
CreateSpace: This is a free platform for publishing and selling print copies of your book. It’s probably the best self-publishing platform for those looking to sell print copies of their book.
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP): Kindle accounts for the majority of eBook sales in the world. You absolutely must have your book published on Amazon if you want to be successful. This is also a free option.
Lulu: If you have some extra money to invest then Lulu offers self-publishing tools that go above and beyond what CreateSpace and KDP offer. In my opinion, the tools are not powerful enough to justify paying money to publish but I would be a fool not to at least mention Lulu.
Start 2018 on the right track by following these five simple self-publishing tips. If you want to learn more, then feel free to check out my comprehensive guide to self-publishing.