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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
If you are reading this, there is a high chance that you love writing and are thinking of becoming a published author. Here we are going to talk about how to self-publish your own bestseller. Not all realize this but everyone has a writer hidden in them somewhere. It takes time and patience to bring that out and nurture it. Everyone who has an opinion on anything that matters to the world, or what should matter in principle, can become a writer. Words are the ultimate level of sophistication our thoughts can achieve. Writing is an art that only few are good at, and even fewer have mastered it. Our brain is an avalanche of thoughts and chaos. Penning down the best thoughts in a way that mesmerizes the reader is a skill that can only be learnt with practice.
Writing a book is hard work. It takes immense amounts of patience and perseverance to write one. A book is a concentrated representation of the best of your thoughts and ideas. While it can be a painful process to write a book, the satisfaction that comes with writing one is incomparable to the struggle involved. A book is your lasting imprint on the sands of time that will be there long after you are gone.
But it is not just writing a book that is hard. Sometimes getting your book printed and published so that it reaches your audience can be equally daunting. There are a lot of stakeholders involved and as an aspiring author you should be aware of these challenges. In this article we are going to discuss how to self-publish a BESTSELLER, but before we do that we need to understand it in the context of traditional publishing.
A glimpse at traditional publishing
Books have been around for thousands of years now. Since the time mankind learnt how to write and print, the publishing industry has grown bigger and bigger. To make the process of writing and publishing a book easier and economic, publishing houses were established. These publishing houses are the backbone of the writing industry. They take care of everything from printing, copywriting, editing, proofreading, pricing and marketing of the book. They leave the author to focus on his/her writing. In return for these services these publishing houses take some share of the revenue generated by the sale of the book. This can be very helpful if your book has been selected by the publishing house.
The lifecycle of a traditional publishing starts with a contract between an author and a publishing house. During this contract they mutually agree upon the revenue split and from there the publishing house takes over. The author is asked to submit a manuscript which is edited and revised until a final copy is developed. The publishing house takes the rights of the book and agrees to pay the author royalties from the revenue earned.
The advantage is that the author does not have to worry about anything else except the quality of the writing. The author can peacefully go back home and keep earning royalty checks. Sounds like a rosy picture, doesn’t it? However, there is a downside too. These days publishing houses exercise a huge about of control over the author’s work. Even more concerning is the fact that a lot of authors get rejected as the publishing houses have their own criteria for judging manuscripts they receive, which sometimes can be unfair. J.K Rowling, the famous author of “Harry Potter series” was rejected 21 times before getting accepted by Bloomsbury. This can be discouraging for new authors who really believe in their work.
This is where self-publishing comes into the picture.
Diving into self-publishing
Self-publishing is a relatively new idea promoted by the democratization of the global village and spurred by the advent of the internet. Self-publishing allows you to take the whole process of writing and publishing a book into your own hands. You own the rights to your book and do not share any revenue with anyone. The idea behind self-publishing is to bring the control in the hands of the author.
The lifecycle of self-publishing starts with the author deciding to publish a book. Once the decision has been made, there is a lot of work that the author must do. He or she is responsible for all the tasks that would normally be done by the publishing house. We will go deeper into how to go about it, but let’s talk about the advantages of self- publishing.
Advantages of Self-Publishing:
● Control: The author gets to control everything about his/her work. Almost everything from pricing, marketing, copywriting, editing, printing, cover design and even proofreading is managed by the author.
● Revenue: Compared to traditional publishing, the author has full rights over the work and thus earns a lot of money. This is a huge advantage for unknown authors who might not be able to negotiate a good deal with the publishing house.
● No fear of rejection: A lot of authors get rejected by traditional publishing houses because they are reluctant to bet on new names and try to play safe. Self- publishing puts you in the driver’s seat and you take the control of your work.
● Personal Brand: Self-publishing shows that the author is a confident person and is really passionate about writing. Otherwise why would someone go through the struggles of self-publishing? This adds to his or her brand image.
Challenges in Self-Publishing:
● Workload: Self-publishing involves the constant presence of the author in each and every part of the publishing process. This can become overwhelming for first time authors. However there are a lot of platforms that will help you kick-start the process. We are going to discuss them in the next section.
● Initial cost: The initial costs have to be borne by the author.
● Risk: Like any other venture, self-publishing involves a risk of failure. Without the backing of a publishing house you don’t have a cushion in event of a loss. However, this can be overcome through careful planning and the right pricing.
So the big question now remains is: should you self-publish? Or should you go with the traditional methods? The answer lies in how much effort you can put into the process. The input is high, but so can the output be. The questions you should be asking yourself are; “Am I ready to put in all the extra effort? Am I really passionate about the publishing of my own book?” If the answer to these questions is “yes”, let’s dive into how to self- publish a BESTSELLER.
Self-Publish a BESTSELLER
This is the section you have been waiting for. Here you will learn how to self-publish a bestseller. We will walk through it step by step.
Step 1: Become Popular. You don’t have to be a celebrity for this. All you need is a good social media presence. This could be on Facebook, Twitter or having your own blog. This does not mean it is mandatory, but now that you don’t have the backing of a powerful publisher, you need to build your own audience. The best way to gain an audience is to write about things passionately.
Step 2: Write your book. This is the most important step. What will you publish if you do not have a book? Jokes aside, you will be surprised to know that many authors just never finish their first book.
Step 3: Choose your medium. Once you are done writing your book, you need to choose a medium where you will create your book. The most popular as of now is CreateSpace (acquired by Amazon). They can make your life really easy. Within a few days your book can go from an idea to be listed at an Amazon store. But you still need to do a lot of non-writing chores such as editing. You can also choose to use Kickstarter, or similar crowdfunding platforms to get interested customers to buy in advance. This money can help you keep going.
Step 4: Editing. Editing your book is important to get high quality writing and a professional feel to your book. No one likes to read a book with glaring mistakes in it. You can hire editors online to do this work for you. The better the editor, the higher the cost.
Step 5: Marketing. Marketing is very important. Without marketing, no one will ever come to know about your book. The first thing to do is to use your audience to sell the book. Create a dedicated Facebook page and Twitter handle. Engage with your potential buyers. Write about your book. Write blog posts. Pay for advertising if you have the budget. Remember that this is the most crucial step. If done right, it can even make an average book a BESTSELLER. This is not saying that the quality of the book does not matter. It does. But with poor marketing, a potential bestseller can miss the audience. Spend a lot of time thinking of different ways of marketing your book.
The secret to a BESTSELLER lies in all the steps being perfectly aligned, but also requires a bit of luck and timing. Wishing you all the best with your self-publishing adventure.
About Mitch Carson
1. Experienced speaker and seminar promoter
who has been on the platform throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia,
United Arab Emirates and New Zealand. Responsible for placing over
1,000,000+ buying units in conference halls in multiple niches and
categories. Turned unprofitable categories and seminar companies into
cash-positive operations.
2. Produced several short-form
infomercials that have aired on Home Shopping Network (HSN), QVC and
international markets grossing over 8 figures in sales over the airways
and through retail channels.
3. Wrote a column in The
Glazer-Kennedy newsletter for three years. A paid subscription
newsletter that is considered the cutting edge publication for the small
business and information publishing markets.
4. Personally read
more than 100 books per year over the last several years. Categories
would include marketing, sales, direct marketing, promotional products,
PR, direct sales, online PR, social media, social media marketing,
direct mail, dimensional mail, 3-D mail, lumpy mail, seminar marketing,
Google adwords, organic search, article marketing, bookmarking, pinging,
podcasting, blogging and video marketing via YouTube and Viddler.
5.
Has been featured in 200+ newspapers worldwide. This includes the
Sydney Morning Herald, Los Angeles Times, Roll Call, and The Wall Street
Jounal.
6. Has hosted a radio show on 97.1 CBS Radio in Los Angeles for over one year.
7. Author of The Silent Salesmen which is published by John Wiley and Sons.
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