You've come a little bit further and now you want to do hardcover books. Find out how to get started self publishing hardcover books as well as some tips to help make self-publishing easier for you.
Today's topic has three points and you're going to want to stick around for the third point. Because it's a secret as to how you are losing money if you're ignoring hardcover books.
So let's get into it, today's topic is how to get started self publishing hardcover books? Now perhaps you're an author and you're getting started. Maybe you've come a little bit further than just the very beginning.
You've got your Kindle book out, you've got your KDP Print version out, and you have your ACX Audible version on the market already. I would suggest doing exactly those three in that order for your books first. Once we've come that far, you may think "well good, I'm finished at this point".
You don't need to do anything else but then you've heard that maybe hardcover books might be an option as well for your book. Maybe you're losing money as a result of that and this can make us very frustrated. It leaves us feeling that we're leaving money on the table.
Check out this related article: Stop Losing Money on Self-Publishing NOW!
And this is what I'm going to answer in today's article. But before we get into that, grab a copy of my absolutely free Self-Publishing Checklist. To help you make sure that you are not skipping any of the steps necessary to get your book on the market and get your bookselling.
So let's get into it. My own story, when I first started, I got the KDP, that's the Kindle version of the book, Kindle Direct Publishing. I got the print version which was CreateSpace originally at that time but now it's KDP Print.
I got the ACX Audible audio version of my book on the market and I thought I am doing great. Now I did play with a few Smashwords, Ingram Spark, and a few other things. But the one thing I wasn't focusing on was hardback books.
So was I finished at this point? The answer is no, I was wrong, I was not finished. Someone pointed out to me that there are lots of people in the world who only like to read hardcover books.
If your book is not a hardcover book, you're losing sales. Now maybe for you, the money doesn't matter, it's just about getting books out there. Well then, in that case, I would say you should get a hardcover book out anyways.
The reason for that is because we reach more people with our books when we're doing it in the way that they want to read it. As a customer, we always have to imagine that we have a way that we want things served. I think it was "Your Way Right Away" was the Burger King slogan.
In this case, we want to make sure that the books are on the market. In the way that our readers and our customers wish to take in those books. So if they want an audiobook, let's give them an audiobook.
The thing I was blown away by is that there are customers who only want to read hardcover books. So what I did was I found a pain when I first got started in terms of creating the cover for my book on the site I was going through.
Get Busy Right Now
But after a while, I discovered that I could also just reuse the manuscript that I had already created using the amazing tool Jutoh to do the formatting. You just use the exact same PDFs that you created for your KDP Print.
You do not need special formats, same size 6x9 and we're just sticking with it. So that's one of the keys that I found with regards to the hardcover books. The second was I started seeing the sales coming in, they just keep on coming in every month.
So I'm no longer just on Amazon. But I'm also on Lulu which is what I use. How to get started self publishing hardcover books? Well, the first thing is to set up an account on Lulu.
You need to get an account set up. You're going to want to get that thing going and don't wait too long. Now if you don't already have the other three types of books I mentioned on the market already, well then ignore what I'm talking about here.
But otherwise, this is useful information that will save you and help you earn a lot of money. And that's one of the things I'm trying to help you do with this blog. So that's the first thing, set up the account and do it right.
Number two, use exactly the same of everything that you did for your KDP Print book. That is the keywords, the title, and the description. Everything is the same but you need a cover and this is a little bit harder.
You're going to take your Kindle cover or virtually the same you did for your KDP Print cover. And we're going to use it through one of the templates that are supplied by Lulu. Now it is not easy, I'm telling you it's not an easy task.
But if you've already figured out how to use the KDP Print template to get your cover created, then you will find that creating your hardcover version cover is not going to be that difficult for you either. So you should just listen to me on this one and start the process.
Check out this related article: Self Publishing Dos and Dont's
Don't get all bogged down in this. Get everything registered in there except the cover and just save that for last. The third thing which is the secret answer of the day is that you are losing every month your book isn't in a hardcover version.
So you're going to need to get busy immediately. This is so painful when we first get started and we start to see the money coming in and we realize, "oh my goodness if I had done this years ago, how much money have I given up?".
Are we talking $5,000? $20,000? $100,000? How much money would have flown through our books if we had it in all of the formats on these different things?
Now one question that often is asked to me is, why Lulu? Why not go with somebody else like Ingram Spark or one of these other places? The answer is Lulu will give you everything you need.
Different Types Of Bait
They're going to give you the ISBN that you're going to need for your book for free, so that's covered. And the other thing we're going to get with Lulu is we're not going to pay them to check the quality of the book. Ingram Spark requires that unless you have a promo code.
But with Lulu, they do require you to order a proof copy of your book. This means for only $20 to $25, you can get a book onto the market. They will send the proof copy to you so you can look at it and make sure everything looks perfect.
At that point, you're going to be able to say "yes it looks great, place the order". Then your book will be distributed on Amazon. It will show up on your Amazon sales page in addition to your other formats that you have for your book.
This is another interesting thing, your readers will see and look at all the formats it's available in. They are going to look at which one establishes your credibility and authority on your books. Because who would take the time to put it in these formats if the book were not high-quality?
Number two what we're saying is we're fishing in different fish like different types of bait. So we're trying lots of different types of bait and we're bringing in the different types of readers that we have. So that if they're like, "wow hardcover book, fantastic!".
If they have to choose between two books in the same genre, they're going to choose your hardback cover book if that's what they like. Some people won't order it all. Personally, I prefer reading the Kindle version or I prefer listening to the text of a Kindle version read to me by a voice stream.
I have an app on my iPhone that I enjoy using. But the most important thing to remember from the print books is that it isn't going to cost you a lot of money or time to get these books out. Because what we're going to do is we're just simply going to take the print books we already have.
Check out this related article: Self-Publish For Under $199!
We formatted them using Jutoh to make sure the formatting is perfect for all of the different formats. We don't even have to recreate the PDF for the book itself, we can just reuse it. So this is wonderful news for everybody who's trying to get started to making as much money off of the book.
Listen, you're an author and you've spent a lot of time putting that book together. Don't you deserve the money that you put into it? And I'm saying yes you do, let's get your book to more readers, and let's do it through hardcover books.
Now, have you ever started self publishing hardcover books? I want to know, so let me know. Write "Yes" below in the comments if you have published your first hardcover book and "No" if you have not.
That will really help me know where you're coming from so I can create better videos for you. And check out my other articles and videos for more answers to your self-publishing questions.