3 Things Self Publishers Should Do

Book a free 25-minute call. Tell me where your book is now.

Three things self-publishers should do: pick one topic and start building an audience from your first book, run ads and publish articles that bring in traffic, and stay in the game long enough for the sales to arrive. I learned the first one the hard way with my own books, so I’ll start there.

Why does a self-publisher need one topic?

When I started, I wrote about goal achievement, habits, sleep and several other topics that I found interesting, each as an easy-to-read book. The books were all over the place. I built an email list, and then I could not decide what to send. One reader wanted puppy training, the next wanted yoga, another a fantasy novel. If everyone is your audience, you lose them all, and the same goes for a YouTube channel. That is why I now stay on one theme, self-publishing, every day.

My books from five or six years ago still sell, because I run ads on them and they sit on strong keywords. But I am not building an audience from them. A new reader likes a book, maybe leaves a review, maybe joins my list, and then I have nothing relevant to send. I regret not choosing one topic for many books.

Google makes the same point about websites. Its guide to helpful content asks whether your site has a primary purpose or focus, and treats covering many unrelated topics in the hope that some will rank as a warning sign.

Ask yourself what people think when they hear your name. The survivalism guy, the interior decorating person. You want one thing to be attached to you. For me it is making self-publishing easier. If you plan books on unrelated subjects, keep them under separate pen names, as I explain in if you don’t fix this now, you’ll hate yourself later.

1. When should you start building an audience?

On day one. Don’t wait six months, or for your tenth book. Email is the strongest way: readers join your list, and when a new book comes out they are ready to buy it. The catch is that the new book has to be on the same topic. If someone liked your horror book and you email them about a children’s book, they will mark the email as spam or unsubscribe. 3 things readers hate has the story of an author who learned this from spam complaints. For the other side, see the three things readers love. Email also comes with legal rules, such as a postal address and a working unsubscribe link in the US, as the FTC’s CAN-SPAM guide explains.

2. How do you get traffic without an audience yet?

Run ads, and publish content that people find through search. You can push ads against a book even when you have no audience, and 3 ways to find more readers shows where to aim them. For free traffic, write articles and reports on your blog about the topics your readers search for, with the keywords your book uses. Short stories or parts of your existing books work too. Your posts can show up in Google, and that traffic costs nothing.

Keep to KDP’s rules when you choose keywords for the book itself: KDP does not allow references to other authors or their books, sales rank like “bestselling”, or promotions like “free” in keywords, and it does not allow unauthorized trademarked terms in the title.

3. How long should you stay in the game?

Longer than you think. Many authors assume that if they write it, readers will come, like building a baseball stadium and waiting for the ghosts to arrive. They won’t. But writing the book gives you the chance. A second book helps sell the first, and a third pushes both. You slowly build your email list, your organic traffic and your reviews.

Most people who start give up before the money arrives. Expect too much from the next few months and too little from the next five to ten years. If you quit early, you also give up on readers who would have loved the book and never found it, because you did not put it on the market or tell them it was there. Nobody knows you when your first book comes out. Build up slowly.

What should you start doing first? Tell me in the comments. If you would like help choosing your one topic and building an audience, book a free 25-minute discovery call and we will work it out together.

Listen to this episode on Spotify

Free 25-minute self-publishing call with Chris Baird

Tell me where your book is now. You leave the call with a clear next step for publishing it.

Book your free call

Free, 25 minutes on Zoom, no card needed.