6 Easy Steps to Self-Publish

It’s been just over a week now since my first novel, “Blood Hunger”, went live on Amazon. It’s been getting a lot of downloads and some really great feedback, so I am super stoked!

After a lot of research and mulling over of choices, I decided to go ahead and self-publish my book. I am a new, unknown author, and although I may choose to go with a traditional publisher at some point if the opportunity arrises, I think self-publishing was the best way to get my work out there and learn about the entire process – and there is a LOT to learn. I will try to lay it out as simply as I can here:

1.) So you’ve finished your book, and it’s been proofread and edited until you’re sick and tired of looking at it. Yay! Congratulations! My first suggestion – Put it down for a few days. Give it to a trusted friend or professional editor to go over it, and when you get their feedback, read it over carefully again yourself while making their changes. I went over my novel three times, gave it to my proofreader/editor, and still found grammatical errors/extra spaces etc. that we both missed when it was returned to me. We’re only human, after all. Setting it aside for a few days really helped me to look at it with fresh eyes.

2.) As soon as you have a finished manuscript, and before you send it to anyone else, copyright your work. You can do it online here: http://www.copyright.gov for about $35. This isn’t required, but I would suggest it. You spent months and maybe even years writing, don’t let someone else take the credit. If you’re not sure how to write your copyright page, just google it. There are a lot of examples out there.

3.) Now you need a cover, and actually you can do this at anytime, even before your book is finished if you’re certain of the title. There are many different websites where you can request cover art, and the total cost will run you anywhere from about $50-$300, depending on where you get it done and what you ask for. That’s a broad range, I know, and I may be off on the amounts, but that’s what I found in my experience. I’ll list a few of them here, but there are many other sites if you google it. The most important thing is to remember to ask for the PDF file. A PDF file is a layered Photoshop file. As long as you have this file, you can make changes to the artwork later on if needed- like having it in another language or adding “Amazon Bestselling Author” if you get on that list. Don’t forget to ask for the back and spine if you’re planning on having your book available in print also.

A few sites that offer covers:

http://99designs.com
https://www.freelancer.com
Fiverr.com

IF YOU CHOOSE TO DO YOUR OWN COVER: Kindle, Smashwords, BookBaby, etc. all offer their own services to help you do your own cover if you choose. I, personally, hired someone to do mine. It was just one less thing to worry about that way, and sometimes you can get a better deal.

4.) You have your finished manuscript, your copyright, and your cover. Now you need your descriptions and your Author Bio. You’ll need a long description and a short description of your book. If you’re not sure how to do this, look up some of your favorite books/Authors in the same genre as yours on Amazon for some examples.

5.) There are many publishing options out there. You can choose to upload your book separately to Amazon, B&N, ibooks, etc., or you can use one service like Smashwords or BookBaby to publish it on multiple different venues all at once. With Amazon, you need to format your manuscript for upload yourself, but they have instructions on how to do that (you can also find Youtube videos online to help you). The other services will normally convert your file for you. (Some advice: If you haven’t started your book yet, type it in Word and format it from the get-go. It will save you a LOT of time later on. I have a Mac computer and wrote my book in Pages originally. I love Pages, but I didn’t format it correctly when I was writing and I had to move my manuscript over to Word and re-format it. Pain. In. The. Butt. The book I’m working on now is being done in Word for Mac.)

 I chose the Amazon KDP Select program. With this program, you agree to publish your ebook exclusively with Amazon for 90 days. You can also publish in print (I used Createspace), but your ebook must be exclusive to Amazon. In return, you get to use their marketing tools, your book will be available for their Kindle lending program, and it will available worldwide.

The KDP Select program has a marketing tool called “Free Book Promotion” that you can use 5 times during your 90 days. Now, I have to admit, when I first heard about this, the idea of giving away my hard work for free just got under my skin. It seems counterproductive to me. I mean, we all want to earn a living doing what we love, not give it away for free! But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Readers are much more likely to take a risk on a new author if they can download your book for free, right? And what new authors need is exposure – lots of exposure – and reviews! My first promotional day, which was just a few days ago, I had 682 people download my book. Hopefully, the majority of these readers will consider leaving a review, add it to their Goodreads list, and recommend it to friends.

So I’m going to use the KDP Select program for the first 90 days, and then I plan on dropping out of the Select program (still leaving my book on Amazon) and using Smashwords or Bookbaby to get my book to the other venues after that.

6.) Last but not least, I wanted to touch on the most important aspect of self-publishing – Marketing! I’ve got to tell you, the one place that I have found to be the most bang for my buck so far is Facebook. They walk you through the entire process of creating an ad, and you can choose how much money you want to invest. Of course, the more money you add to your campaign, the bigger audience you will reach, but you can do an ad for as little as $5. I put up an ad for my free promo day on Amazon, and again, 682 downloads!

I put up ads on Facebook every chance I can, and I always see a noticeable upswing in sales on those days.

Goodreads is another good one. I have an author’s page on there that I recently set up – Goodreads – and have really been enjoying getting to know the other readers, and participating in the Group discussions. It’s a great place to network.

Some other marketing ideas:

Press Releases- there are many sites where authors can upload press releases for free. It’s best to do this a few weeks before your book launch. Here is the list of the ones I’ve used:

http://www.prlog.org
http://www.1888pressrelease.com
http://www.openpr.com
http://www.onlineprnews.com
http://bignews.biz

Bloggers – A lot of bloggers will review your book for free. You can send them a PDF file, or gift them a book. Just make sure they read your genre.

Facebook- Set up a Facebook Page

Twitter- Set up a Twitter Account and be active on it

I have to admit, my husband was an enormous help in this department. He has had websites and has his own game app company, so he’s much more familiar with all of this stuff. Thanks honey!

So I hope this was helpful! Personally, the whole self-publishing thing was a bit overwhelming for me until I sat down and made a list of all of this stuff. Just go through it step by step, and before you know it, you’ll be a “Published” Author! Good luck!