So many people want to publish a book, But they have no idea how.
I don't remember where I heard it, But 80% of people want to publish something at some point in their lives.
The beautiful thing is, We can! We have the resources to do that. Companies like Amazon have made it possible for anyone to self-publish a book without a big time publisher.
I started publishing books last year, And it has been an incredibly rewarding process.
- I learned about marketing
- Improved my ability to write.
- Allowed me to quit my job, (after a year)
- Helped me make a bunch of new friends.
- Gave me a better understanding of how the average consumer's brain works.
I published my first book at age 22. I wrote about tips to help people save money. This article will help you get your fiction or nonfiction book published and ready to go! I've also written quite a few articles on the hardest part of self-publishing....
MARKETING!
Not only will you be able to write your book, But it will sell well too.
Lets get started!
What do you want to write about?
What do you know a lot about? It can be a book full of your personal experiences, or even a fictional book. Brainstorm a variety of ideas; You need a topic you can write a ton about, Without dragging on or getting annoying.
- Many books have above 20,000 words.
- My books are 8,000-10,000 and are very short.
But you need to make sure overall you adequately cover the subject you are writing about.
You can use Evernote To document your ideas.
Quick brainstorm of your book
What are the things you want to discuss in your book? Lay them all out!
Write down chapters, subjects, etc. that you plan to cover, That way you have a great game plan to getting your book written.
This is also a great time to begin doing Research On the book, What subjects you need to cover. The information you don't know yet needs to be searched for online. It doesn't matter if you are doing a fiction or nonfiction you want it to be accurate as far as facts go.
First Draft
Already?
YES!
Pretend a serial killer is going to stab you to death in a couple of days. Write as FAST AS YOU CAN.
" spellthings poorly who careab out grammar just spoti it out all over the paper. it doesn't matter if it's good nor not that is why you ahve editors and you will do the preacheck afterwards. getting your book out on paeroer as quickly as possible whe will allow you to publishi your book faster, It's not smart to watit aroudn other wise you'll progractinate. "
For those of you who didn't understand my paragraph
" Spell things poorly who cares, about the grammar. Just spill it out over the paper. It doesn't matter if it's good or not, That is why you have editors. and you will do the spellcheck afterwards. getting your book out on paper as quickly as possible will allow you to publish your book faster, It's not smart to wait around other wise you'll procrastinate. "
Many people turn on their perfectionist's brain when working on a book; They obsess over it being perfect. When that is not the smart way to go. Besides if you spell check too early, You'll miss stuff, and it will just waste your time.
Its better to puke it all up, Then fix it later.
Second Draft
Omg, Now you get to clean up the mess from the nuclear bomb you set off on your book.
This is when you use Grammarly; Microsoft spell check, Etc, and you carefully go over it to correct all your mistakes.
Try to correct as many as you can to make it a little easier for your editor.
Third Draft
You need a second opinion. You might think your book looks great and is ready to go. But there is still work to do.
Look for an editor on Odesk, Freelancer or Fiverr.
Fiverr is your cheapest option but not always the best quality. Look for Gigs that are high rated, and have good quality reviews. With Fiverr, you may need to experiment quite a bit to find the perfect person to get the job done.
You also need to consider having two editors look over it. Even after having my first editor check it, I have some how gotten more complaints on Spelling, Grammar, etc. So Having two editors makes sure that my book is in best possible shape.
Keywords
This gets into the most complicated part of books. You need to choose the correct keywords to ensure that people on Amazon WILL FIND your book. You also want to make sure they are the right people; Otherwise, your hard work will be for nothing when they decide not to purchase your book.
You can use seven keywords on your digital KDP book and 5 for your paper back. USE THEM WISELY.
The Cover
THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR BOOK, I don't care if you are the best writer this world has EVER SEEN. You will NOT get a lot of sales if your cover looks like poo. What kind of cover would you want to see on a book?! Think about it!
Your options:
- Do it yourself, If you know what you are doing
- Hire someone
Make sure to get a ton of opinions on your cover to ensure it's actually something that will sell.
Fiverr
Many people won't use Fiverr, And I don't blame them. Most covers are extremely low quality and crap. You need to experiment and find sellers who provide quality work, Then hold on tight to them.
There is one seller on Fiverr that I love to purchase from, His covers are GORGEOUS!
Here are some of them he made for me:
See? Don't listen to those people who only talk about how BAD FIVERR is, because it's pretty good. But you HAVE TO EXPERIMENT. Heck hire 2 or 3 freelancers to do the same project and see what they come up with!
99 Designs
I haven't used this website yet, but I LOVE IT! You get lots of designs to choose from, tons of art styles. I hope to one day use this site, Once I can afford it. For 300 you can get up to 60 different book cover designs from a variety of free lancers, If you like their work, You can pick them. Then that person gets the payment.
## Archangel Ink ##
I haven't used this site much, But many best sellers have their books made on this site. For 199.00
You need to be willing to invest in your cover, But at the same time. Some of us may not have that option. You can always change your cover later on, but its better off to get the cover right the first time.
There are hundreds of freelancer sites you can use to get a great cover. Be whillnig to explore and look around for those perfect covers.
Book Formatting
This step scares a ton of people. You need to specially format it for Amazon.kdp.com and Createspace. Formatting can be hard! You'll hate it, But there are options.
- You can do it yourself.
- You can hire someone else to do it.
Pros of doing it yourself.
You'll LEARN how! Once you do it yourself, You are golden. You can do your future books on your own too. So it might be better to bite the bullet and learn how. I'll have to make some formatting articles in the future.
Pros of hiring someone
You can hire someone on Fiverr, or other Freelancer sites.
The bad thing though is if you plan to publish another book you'll have to pay again, or learn on your own.
If you plan to publish more than one book, I say do it yourself.
If you plan to publish just one or two books, it may be worth your time to have a freelancer do it for you.
Marketing
Once you have your book published, you'll have to do the marketing on your own.That is the hard part about being a self-published author, Is you don't have a company to help you market.
Because I've written so much about marketing already, I'm just going to send you to those articles :)
Quick Marketing tips for new authors
How I Got My Kindle Book To Sell Like Crazy
How To Stay Motivated To Write
How I Design My Book Covers on GIMP
Thank you Pexels for the great photos