As a first-time author, you're wondering about what will be the best steps in marketing your self-published books. Check this out, let me tell you about these 3 common self-publishing questions in regards to your self-publishing journey.
Today's topic has three points and you're going to want to stick around. Because the third point is a secret as to the top question that writers and authors have when it comes to self-publishing. The topic we're discussing today is 3 common self-publishing questions.
You're going to know exactly what those three questions are. You're going to have to answer these specific questions so that you can move forward. You're going to feel great that you finally don't have to linger around in your head any longer.
Grab a copy of my completely free Self-Publishing Checklist. When I first got started, I immediately encountered thousands of questions every time I learned a new skill. Like I should get a cover order.
What kind of cover? What should it look like? Who do I order it from? What's a reasonable price? Where should I order it?
You see how every little step of the way when it comes to self-publishing triggers more questions. Even once you answer one question, it's followed up quickly by a lot more questions.
This is what I was experiencing when I got started. Maybe you were experiencing something similar. The thing was that I had the book, the production, the marketing sales, customer feedback, the finances behind all.
What am I supposed to do with these royalties? Do I need an accountant? Should I set up a company? How do I do this, the logistics behind the books and the publishing?
And even hiring freelancers and later permanent employees. To help me ensure that this process goes as smooth as possible when it comes to self-publishing my books. Here is one of the key reasons that I started Self-Publishing Made Easy Now.
It was to take one step at a time and ignore everything else. So we take not just any question but the most important question. We break down and we say what is the correct answer for this question or at least the best guess we have.
Then we move forward with that answer until we've done that step. Only then to ask the next question and move on. This is the key secret that many of the fake gurus out there when it comes to self-publishing will tell you.
It's that there's a lot of risks associated with self-publishing. You have a risk of as I'm going to put in my next step is getting burnt out. Or feeling completely overwhelmed with all of your self-publishing efforts.
You're using all of this time, money, and energy to get your book self-published. Then you find yourself completely flooded in these questions. And it just leaves you feeling in a sense that you are completely stuck.
I have no idea how are you going to get out of this mess. That's one of the reasons why I like to focus on just one question. What is the next step you need to do?
And then let's look and explore how we can go about doing it. This is something I do with my Coaching clients regularly, break it down into its simplest elements.
Jutoh Tool
The key issue here then is the 3 common self-publishing questions. Let's hear them number one, how well does my book needs to be? This one is a very common one that I see come up all the time when it comes to self-publishing.
The thing is that you've got your book on the market but then how well does it need to be to put it out? Do I need to have it run through a thousand rounds of editing? I don't feel like I'm an author, a writer, or any of these things.
Maybe my book isn't worth it and maybe people would just laugh at me if I put it onto the market. But these are completely ridiculous. You don't need to worry about it.
The answer is your book should be at a level where it's going to get three to five stars on Amazon. That is to say, whether the average reader who reads it they're going to say "it was okay, it was at least okay to amazing".
But we're getting started, we need to cut ourselves some slack here. Give ourselves a break when it comes to self-publishing our books. They don't have to be perfect when it comes out, when you come out with it.
What's going to happen is you're going to improve over time. But you have difficulty improving if your very first book isn't on the market in the first place. That's one of the reasons why it's so important just to get the book onto the market.
The second question I'm asked a lot is, how much does it cost to self-publish? And the answer is it depends upon the size of your budget. If you have tens of thousands of dollars, well I guess you could do it that way.
Or you can do it for free. But if you do it for free, the quality is going to be lower in terms of your editing, your cover, and all of these things. Though we discussed some of these methods as well.
But one thing I would say you should not outsource is the book formatting. You should be putting the book together yourself. Because you're going to want to do a lot of changes.
Check out this related article: How To Find Success In Self Publishing
Remember that very first question which is how good it needs to be? Well we want to be able to improve upon it. Then put it out into the different formats.
That's why I use a tool called Jutoh. You can see my affiliate link below in the description of all of my YouTube videos that I use for this one. I show you in my Course Book Formatting Made Easy exactly how to go about using this tool.
That's why I work one-on-one with people through this course. To make sure that you succeed in this because when you first get your book out, you're going to want to make changes.
Content Marketing
But do you want to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars every time you need to make a change? I think it's better to invest in yourself with courses. Some people say but your courses cost hundreds of dollars.
It is true but they're worth every penny of it. The reason is that it will save you thousands of dollars and hours if trying to put together the book yourself. As opposed to paying somebody else and then having to do corrections.
Whereas you should invest in yourself. In the long run, you don't depend upon anyone. Then when you put your next book out, you can do it for completely free.
It doesn't cost you anything. So do yourself a favor and if you need help with formatting, then get that help. I take my coaching clients through this process. It's very simple if we break it to one step at a time.
The third answer for today, it's the secret one, it's what can I expect once my book hits the market? This one is painful, so many writers and authors think well the point of putting the book on the market is to be read by as many people as possible.
That maybe you could even make a full-time living off of your book. But if nobody knows who you are, it's going to take a lot of practice to get there. You're going to have to learn a lot of things about building a brand around yourself and your books.
That's something that so many authors and writers underestimate. So the answer is for many books that first hit the market, it's just going to be crickets. They're not going to sell any copies.
It's painful. This is the truth but then we're going to optimize your book. I could work with my coaching clients to optimize the books. Improving the quality that we have on them.
Check out this related article: Your Price is Too Low!
Then after we've gone through the optimization, we're going to run ads against the books. And we're going to start doing content marketing. One of the things I do is offer in my Content Marketing Course.
I go through point by point. And how we're going to produce the content necessary to drive traffic towards our books as we build a brand name. At the end of the day, our top goal is that when people hear our name, they associate it with our books.
These two things are very very closely associated. We're not building books on lots of subjects. We're building books that are targeting specific niches, specific genres so that people associate us with that book. That's the secret answer of the day.
But my question for you today is what is your top self-publishing question? Because I want to be able to answer these questions in future articles. Go ahead and let me know and check out my other articles and videos for more answers to your self-publishing questions.