In today’s blog post I’m going to share a few self-publishing secrets with you. Everyone has a story to tell, don’t they? More and more of us are getting the opportunity to take our “stories” to a wider audience with the possibilities that self-publishing brings. This is an exciting breakthrough for many aspiring authors and info product creators who’ve struggled for years to get their work “out there”.
A Love of Reading and Writing
Writing and storytelling has been an intrinsic part of my own life. My mum was always creating stories for me and my 3 siblings when we were growing up. She has also written a variety of inspiring children’s stories.
She produced a whole series of children’s books while she was working as a peripatetic primary school teacher. Her pupils would constantly ask her to tell them her stories because they loved them so much. No better way of doing market research and finding out what your audience wants!
However, she still hasn’t published any of her books because it was never really her objective. She just wrote stories to educate, engage and entertain her young pupils because she enjoyed the process. It’s my intention to persuade her to take these wee “gems” to a wider audience one day soon. Why should only a small number of people get to hear them?
I’ve combined my love of Scotland and photography by writing travel blogs about my adventures close to home. Getting out into the stunning Scottish countryside is one of my greatest joys. It’s the first thing I want to do when I take time away from my computer.
I’d like to further develop my travel writing skills to capture my passion for globetrotting. However, this is on hold right now due to the global pandemic.
The Next Generation
This love of writing and books has carried on through our family and now my nephew is an avid writer. With a Mum who’s a librarian and a Dad who’s thirst for knowledge means he’s frequently got his “nose in a book”, it comes as no surprise that he and his younger brother have shown a fervent interest in books from a very early age.
He’s written several books and made his debut into the world of writing when he was just 6 years old. He wrote a humorous little story called “The Witch’s Underpants” which was published online. They’re both collaborating on a book at the moment with his brother creating the illustrations.
Writing is something I do in my day-to-day work and it’s definitely a skill I’d like to improve.
My business partner and I have always been interested in self-publishing and during lockdown we took the opportunity to write puzzle books in an attempt to help relieve the anxiety and boredom that many adults and kids were experiencing.
Self-Publishing Secrets
If you dream of self-publishing your own masterpiece then you should ask yourself the following questions:
- What am I good at doing?
- What qualifications do I have?
- What are my hobbies or pastimes?
- Do people ask me for advice?
- What courses have I been on?
- What do people close to me know?
Identifying a demand is crucial. Preliminary research is essential to potentially save you a lot of wasted time and effort. Use the Google Keyword Planner tool on your prospective book topic. Also find the most suitable Amazon categories and sub-categories.
Are there competing books and if there are, are they selling well? Don’t worry if there’s competition as that means there’s a demand there. Look to improve what they’re offering. In particular pay attention to the reviews. Are there any clues there as to what readers would’ve preferred to see in the book?
Don’t price your book too low as perceived value is very important. If you’ve created good content (and you should) that you’ve put a lot of work into, don’t under value it.
We found when writing and pricing our books we needed to think of the number of pages we’d be printing. In addition, making sure to price accordingly so that we could make a profit. Also, it was important to emphasize what the reader will be able to achieve after going through our books.
Remember – first impressions count. So, you want to design an eye-catching cover that’ll make your book stand out from others in your niche. It’s essential that your book jumps out in the listing.
More Self-Publishing Secrets
For our books we liked the convenience of Amazon handling absolutely everything from printing and posting right down to customer support.
When your book is ready for publication get an account at Amazon Author Central and write your bio. Be sure to put your keywords into the copy when you write the sales page for your book. Ensure that you sign up to Amazon’s “look inside” feature and make sure that you can take anyone looking at your book to a web page where they can either sign up to your list or make a purchase.
Actively seek reviews from customers which will help with your ranking and also, you’ll get an indication of what people love or dislike about your book and you can make changes accordingly.
Above, all enjoy the process and celebrate your amazing achievement when your book is finally published.
Start by promoting your book across your social media channels and your blog.
Hope you’ve found these self-publishing secrets helpful.
Happy writing everyone.
To Your Success!
