Hey there rebel!
Today we’re gonna look at the self-publishing process through a simplified lens and break it down into 3 simple steps:
preparing your book
publishing your book
promoting your book
But before that I want to discuss what the difference between traditional publishing and self-publishing are, to help you choose one. :)
And then we’ll move on to each of the 3 stages.
What’s the difference?
Before we start, I know what you’re wondering: What is the difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing exactly?
So traditional publishing is when you submit your manuscript to an agent or a publishing press (big or small). Once a press decides to publish you, they will do everything - book cover, editing, etc., and later take a percentage from your royalties and some of your rights. They might even give you an advance!
Self-publishing is when you publish your book yourself, cover all the costs of editing, book cover, etc, and get a bulk of the royalties and retain your rights. And even though it sounds scarier, it’s funner if you’re a creative type who likes having control over the entire process and you don’t want to wait so long.
Disclaimer: Do not pay a large amount of money to ANY “press” claiming they can publish you. Legitimate presses don’t ask for money.
Step 1: PREPARE
Before you can self-publish your book, you need to get it READY.
That means:
it needs to be edited
it needs to be formatted
it needs to have a book cover
Once you have all these elements, you can proceed to the next step.
Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean you have to break the bank for this. If you hire professionals to do these things for you, yeah, it’s gonna be around $1000-3000, but if you’re on a tight budget like most of us, it is possible to find affordable services and affordable tools for the DIY-ers.
affordable services - check out the Indie Helper Database
affordable (and free) tools - check out the Self-Publishing Toolbox
This stage could be time-consuming, especially if you’re working with freelancers, so I would take a few months to make sure your book is the best it can be before I publish. Besides, that gives you time to share some of your journey with your followers and fans. Enjoy it. :)
Step 2: PUBLISH
If you’re a beginner, all you have to do is publish on Amazon.
You’ll hear a lot of things about “going wide” as in publishing in all the places, but realistically, you don’t need to worry about that at the start. Right now your goal is to get your book onto the most popular platform where readers can’t wait to get your book into their Kindle. Amazon outdoes any other book retailer.
To get on Amazon, sign up on kdp.amazon.com.
You will need your tax information to fill out.
Once you are approved, you can upload your book along with the book cover and everything else.
Everything else is title, subtitle, book description, keywords, pricing, etc.
You can publish both ebook and paperback for free (it’s print-on-demand which means when a customer orders, the book is printed).
Other than on Amazon, you’re going to have to get your book on Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Google Play. You can do that by using an aggregator that will distribute your book everywhere. My favorite ones for ebook are Draft2Digital (offers free formatting) and Smashwords, and for paperback there’s Lulu and Ingramspark (has some fees).
However, in the beginning, I do recommend keeping your ebook exclusive on Amazon because of the strategy I’ll mention in a second.
Truthfully, this stage is the fastest - it takes minutes, not months.
Step 3: PROMOTE
To be able to promote your book, you need the foundation first:
an author platform
a quality product - your book
the marketing trifecta - content, social, email
If you have these three things, you are ready to promote! If not, you can still start on these things and get them lined up whenever you can. No rush, I don’t want to make you feel guilty or tell you that you are late. I want you to feel good about this experience and to know you’re doing great. :)
To promote your book, you’ll need to launch it.
This part is the hardest and most time-consuming for authors. Even though you want to just publish and leave it, an author must promote their book a LOT, to make people notice and to help people buy. And please, do not feel weird about promoting your book, feel honored that you get to share it with the world!
Here’s the strategy that let me make $100 in 2 months:
Enroll book on KDP Select (which means the members of Kindle Unlimited will be able to read your book for free and Amazon will pay you per reads, which will be the bulk of your income) - this means you can’t publish on other platforms for at least 90 days.
Schedule a 3 day free promotion - so your book is free for everyone.
Build buzz on social media to get a lot of free downloads.
Also, utilize some free book promotion sites.
Achieve at least 500 downloads in that time to get on the best-selling lists of several of your chosen sub-categories.
Once you’re ranking up on the lists, people start to notice and start buying, and if you have good keywords, you’ll be able to sell on autopilot for a while, but not too long and not too much. Don’t expect to get rich from your first book, okay? The more you publish, the easier it gets.
Overall, a marketing strategy grows with time and experience.
Now, if you don’t want to get on KDP Select, there are some strategies for “going wide”, too. I just found this to work for me because I was a new author - I used a pen name. Once you are established, you can put your books on more platforms because you have the time and experience.
Okay… now what?
Now download the The Self-Publishing Toolbox, where I give you all the self-publishing tools and resources you’re going to need at this stage. I also go into a lot more detail, so hopefully, it will help you understand the whole process better and help you get your story out there with confidence and joy.
The toolbox is free, you just have to sign up below! Yayyy.
All the tools you need for self-publishing and selling your book, in one place. Free download.
It contains free and affordable tools for indie authors on a budget. Specifically, inside you’ll find 12 writing tools, 13 editing tools, 12 book marketing tool, 52 self-publishing tools, and 30 book marketing tools. Sound good?
