I have been self-publishing since August 2017, so the following is based on my good and bad experiences.
Why Should You Start Self-Publishing?
Whatever business you are in, there are lots of good reasons why you should start self-publishing your own books.
If you are writing non-fiction, it establishes you as an expert in your field.A non-fiction writing credit gives you instant credibility when talking about that subject.If you have popular blog posts, those posts can be repurposed and slightly modified to form a book for extra income.Having published books looks impressive and is a massive boost to the ego (I won’t lie!)It provides constant passive income (provided your books continue to sell, obviously).Provided your books sell well, self-publishing pays you a LOT more than having your books “traditionally published.” Traditional publishers pay authors no more than 10% of the book price. With self-publishing, it is as high as 70% of the book price.
What Are The Drawbacks Of Self-Publishing?
But before you start salivating over the idea of 70% royalties, there are some big drawbacks to self-publishing you need to take on board first.
Set Up Your Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Account
Just go to this link and sign in. Once you have, you need to go to your account (the link is in the top right-hand corner), and there you have a lot of details to complete. Make sure you get the tax paperwork right, especially if you are outside the US. Otherwise, 30% of your earnings will be automatically held back by the IRS. If that happens, you can claim it back eventually, but do you really want to go through all that hassle needlessly?
Claim Your Author Central Page
Set Up Accounts On Bookfunnel & Booklinker
Bookfunnel is a site that is not free. In fact, it is $150 a year. The only reason why I am recommending an expensive service like this is that, as an independent author, free giveaways should be part of your marketing and promotion efforts. So if you are giving away eBook copies of your work, Bookfunnel takes away a lot of the headaches. It quickly becomes your best investment. Despite more and more people having e-readers, not many people know how to load eBooks onto them. So you will likely get emails from readers saying, “I can’t get the book to work.” Once you get to the 20th or 30th person saying that, you’re ready to hit the bottle. Bookfunnel takes away that pain by letting you upload your books to them. Give your readers the Bookfunnel download link, and if they have any loading problems, Bookfunnel’s customer service will step in on your behalf and help the reader for you. Bookfunnel also runs free promotions where you can enter your book, and you can set up your own promotions. They also recently introduced a new feature where you can generate download codes that you can hand out at places like conventions. The site is constantly evolving, with new features in the works all the time.
Set Up Your Email List Platform
One of the things that the eBook platforms will definitely not do for you is to share customer information. So if you ask them for customer names and emails, you will likely be met with loud laughter from Jeff Bezos. This means that if any of the platforms cut you off for any reason, you will lose access to your fans. To counteract this, you need to set up an email list from day one and promote the hell out of it. Put signup links inside your books and signup boxes on your website. Or even better, make a landing page on your website where you send people to sign up. As you can see, I bribe my visitors with two free books for signing up. You need to do the same – give the person a reason for giving you their email address. Make them excited about wanting to sign up. You will have to abide by the anti-spam laws, and your newsletters need a contact address (I opened a post office box for this purpose). But done properly, you can make some really good relationships with your readers, who will hopefully become your biggest advocates and brand ambassadors. Opinions vary as to which email list platform is best. I use Mailerlite, but it is not perfect. Others swear by Mailchimp, but it is rather expensive. You just have to experiment and see which one you are most comfortable with.
Choose Your Writing Platform
Everyone has their own way of getting the book down, but whatever method you choose, remember always to back up your work. With that in mind, my preferred writing platform is Google Docs. Not only is every single word instantly backed up but being cloud-based, I am not confined to one computer. Other people choose Scrivener (paid writing software for Windows and macOS), Reedsy, and of course, Microsoft Word or LibreOffice. I even know someone who writes the book by pen and then types it up afterward. That seems crazy to me, but each to their own, I guess.
Choose Your Formatting Software
Once the book is written, you have to format it and turn it into a Kindle-compatible file, called a MOBI file. If you are a macOS user, there is a piece of fantastic software called Vellum. It’s not cheap, but you need to look at it as a long-term investment. The image above is what it turned the Spanish version of my book into.
When pricing your book, look at how much the books are in your genre and try and compete. Pricing your book too high is going to result in virtually no sales (unless your name is John Grisham or Stephen King, of course).
More Useful Links & Services
Here quickly are some sites you should bookmark and make a habit of visiting if you decide to make a serious stab at being a published author.
Self-Publishing Formula – run by my writing mentor and hero Mark Dawson. He does a video podcast, hands out freebies, as well as sells paid courses to help you be a better author. But Mark is extraordinarily generous with his time. His Facebook groups are utterly invaluable.Let’s Get Digital – run by David Gaughran, this is another guy who is generous with his help and time. His website is extremely informative, as are his weekly email newsletters.The Creative Penn – is run by Joanna Penn, a bestselling indie author. She does a podcast and a blog and regularly appears at conferences.Trauma Fiction – a fun Facebook group populated by doctors, nurses, and paramedics. If you have a medical-related question, then get the right facts here. One person once asked the group the best way to (theoretically) murder a husband.
Comment
Δ
