Self-published books are not eligible for major prizes like the Baileys, the Costa and the Man Booker , and getting shortlisted for major prizes is the only way a literary novel will become a bestseller. The chance of a self-published novelist getting their book reviewed in the mainstream press is the same as the chance of my dog not eating a sausage.
The chance of an indie author being booked for a major literature festival? Donald Trump apologising to Mexico. Good writers need even better editors. They need brilliant cover designers. They need imaginative marketers and well-connected publicists. And I mean serious. Providing these services to indie authors is a lucrative business.
Indeed, many indie authors keep themselves afloat financially by offering these services to other indie authors: My final caveat is fiscal. You can put all of that effort in, do all that marketing, and still not make a living. Fiona Veitch Smith made the transition from self-publishing to traditional publishing. I do not earn much as a traditionally published author but I earn more than I did as a self-publisher. But the reality is, of dozens of self-publishers I knew, I was probably the most successful. Publishers and agents have reach. With access to proper distribution networks, they can get physical books into real bookshops.
They can represent you at the major book fairs and sell your books to international markets. It generates a lot of noise on social media. It results in many flashy-looking websites from authorpreneurs keen to sell success secrets to other aspiring authorpreneurs.
You have to forget writing for a living If you self-publish your book, you are not going to be writing for a living. Self-publishing can make you behave like a fool Imagine we have just met.
How to Publish a Book in 2018: Self-Publishing Tips From a Bestseller
One who may not be able to string a decent sentence together, since your sentences come out as semi-literate strings of hashtags: I have my manuscript in word format and it is at an editor at the moment. I am planning to have the cover designed by one of the resources you suggested as well as the formatting for kindle. However, how do I get printed copies to sell on amazon? Once I have a cover design and a completed manuscript where do I go from there where people can buy printed copies of my book?
I know that sounds silly. At this stage, I have two more writers doing this with me, and we plan to be done with a first draft in a few months. How does one go about that? This was a very informative article. I am actually the editor for a book that my son is writing. He chose me because he says I am brutally honest. Thanks for the information. What about protecting what I write from editors? And, the final product? I imagine it should all be copy righted? Indeed, an exceptional Article. It was really informative. But I would like to seek the attention of all the self-publishing authors out there, regarding the self-publishing platform for your book.
You have to forget writing for a living
I got 2 of my books published with The Write Place and I am really satisfied with the supportive efforts of the team at The Write Place. I intend to write and publish a book on Butterflies and Sunrise and sunset in exotic places in my country.. I would publish the book locally through a Printer company as well…can you recommend a software.. Get your free video training course now: Come up with at least 10 valid reasons why you want to write a book. Use the questions above as a starting guide to brainstorm.
Create a resistance plan! Figure out which methods best filter out the negative noise to get you into the writing process. Join Chandler Bolt at his FREE Webinar Training as he reveals the exact tactics and strategies he used to write and publish 6 bestselling books in a row — and how he used them to build a 7-figure business in less than 2 years!
Chandler Bolt At Self-Publishing School, we help people write, market and publish their first bestselling book. You May Also Like. A Detail of Full Expenses Dec 12, Traditional VS Self-Publishing Everything to Consider Before Deciding Dec 7, What if i want to offer my book for free maybe the kindle version.
Can i do that on Amazon? Keep up the great work! This information was amazing. You can do this! It helps a ton!!! Glad it was helpful! Glad you liked it! Thanks for the share, Lise! Great description of the process! Literally the most practical, helpful information.
Perfect article as I prepare for formatting! Indents and double-spacing…who knew?! Thanks for the info! Excited to see your success in the program, Robin!
How to Publish a Book in Self-Publishing Tips From a Bestseller
Great to have you in the program. So great to hear. Great tips and tricks. Thanks for the great information. I hope I can put it to use. Nice introduction with lots of great links. Definitely going to be reading more of the links in this article. Thanks for the kind words, Lewis! Glad to hear it was helpful. For a single post, really gave a lot of insight into the process. Thanks for the kind words! Thanks for the kind words, Sharon! I liked the honesty. Found this extremely useful with detailed explanation!
Looking forward to writing my own book soon! Definitely will do so. Thank you very much. You rock Chandler, thanks for everything! Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for this useful article to be followed for regarding Self Publishing. Glad you found it helpful! Thanks for this motivational article. This is incredibly helpful!
I needed a starting point and this is it. Did you write any book actually worth opening? Useful Article, thanks for sharing. Hi Chandler, I intend to write and publish a book on Butterflies and Sunrise and sunset in exotic places in my country.. Subscribe to the Podcast. Send my free course now! Before you go any further, there are a few things you need to do in between finishing your manuscript and launching your book. I put together a point checklist of these action items. Just like there are a variety of business models to choose from when planning your venture, there are a variety of book launch strategies to choose from.
Your launch plan will depend largely on:. Amazon uses an algorithm to measure and track book sales, and everything else on their platform. Knowing a few basics of it can help you to have a greater launch and to sustain the life of your book for months and years after the launch buzz wears off.
The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber – review
Your book starts ranking as soon as someone buys a copy. Every purchase of your book pushes the ranking up the ladder. As a book moves up, it jumps ahead of the other books in your selected category. The rankings are based on recent sales and Amazon favors a book that is getting consistent, ongoing sales.
A book that runs a promo and gets sales in one day, but then nothing else for the week, will not perform as well as a book that gets the same number of downloads over the course of a ten-day period. The more quality reviews you have, the more credible your book will be to shoppers. This affects their decision-making power to buy, which translates into more downloads and an increase in sales rank.
Focus on getting as many quality reviews as you can during this launch phase. Then, continue to work on getting reviews from organic traffic. And you definitely want to become a bestseller so you can increase your sales and maintain your position at the top.
Why would I essentially give my book away for free? You may be selling it at a super-low point now, but the rewards are coming later. I mentioned that our strategy will have a 3-day free launch. Setting this up is easy.
If you plan to run a free promo for your book, you can set this up as soon as your book is live on Amazon. To run a free promotion, your book has to be enrolled in the KDP Select program for 90 days.
- Scott Allan?
- The Politics of Affective Relations: East Asia and Beyond (Global Encounters: Studies in Comparative Political Theory).
- Johnny Gruesome;
A book that is listed for free will be ranked in the free store and books set at a price are ranked in the paid store. The free promo gets your book into more hands that will hopefully read it and increases its visibility across more platforms. When launching your book, especially during your free promo , you want to put it into the hands of as many readers as possible. Amazon ranks your book in the free store based on how many downloads it gets. This is where book promotion sites come in.
You can use them for both your paid and free launch. An aside if you have a healthy email list: You still need the essentials: Below is a list of my favorites that I have personally used, in combination with an email list to launch multiple bestsellers.