Maybe some of you think that going through the process of publishing would be very hard especially if you are first getting started. Find out the exact steps you need to take for you to succeed at self publishing through Kindle.
Today's question has three answers. And you're going to want to stick around because of the third answer. It is a secret as to why you can lose with even just the smallest bit of frustration that kicks in.
Now, let's get into it. The question that was sent to me today was, how to start self publishing through Kindle? This is an excellent question.
When you're first getting started, you expect things at one level they should be easy. You've got a good idea of what exactly you're trying to achieve with self-publishing on Kindle.
But then you start the process and you realize it is not so effortless as you would have liked it to be. It can be quite daunting, the process of getting yourself self-publishing.
But before we get into the answers, check out my absolutely free Self-Publishing Checklist. It'll help you make sure you're not making any of the mistakes when it comes to self-publishing.
So, how to start self publishing through Kindle? Well, let me get a little bit into my story. When I first started, I realized that I had an idea, a book that I wanted to get out.
I could feel that internal desire to get it out. But at the same time, trying to figure out how was I going to deal with the pain of not knowing what are the steps involved? How much time will it take?
Check out this related article: How To Publish A Kindle eBook Today On Amazon?
Will I fail at actually even getting the book onto the market? Even before we've started, led a little bit to the feeling of maybe this isn't going to be so easy to succeed at after all. That it's going to be quite a bit of a challenge.
So after some time, I began to see that no, this was going to be doable. If I read and watch the right videos and I'm reading the right books just by simply working through the process. And making lots of mistakes when it comes to publishing on Kindle.
But it took a lot of effort and I had to be willing to make the necessary mistakes. As I was setting up the account on Kindle and as I was uploading the manuscript and the cover and all of the things that were necessary from the description to the keywords.
Then finally putting it out onto the market. And then not even seeing sales and learning about ads and so forth. So I guess the lesson that I took from all of this was that it isn't going to be easy.
Everything is difficult when you're first starting at it. But if we can just stick with it long enough, then we're able to break through those barriers that we had. And to start to succeed at what we're trying to do there.
So the first answer on what you're going to want to do if you're going to be publishing on Kindle is that you're going to need to set up an account.
Have An Outstanding Cover
So setting up an account was the first and that's the most important thing we start with. And one of the things with the account is that it can be a little bit challenging. But it's free and it can be done with a little bit of effort.
But if you're depending upon who you are, maybe you don't have a technical background. So that makes it a little more challenging for you when you're first getting started.
You're going to need to invest some time and maybe look it up on the internet. Google how exactly to set the account up or ask the customer support like anything. It requires a little bit of effort.
The second is you're going to want to make sure that you have your book formatted correctly. I am using a program called Jutoh. And there is no better program on the market to make sure that you can get your books self-published in the exact correct format.
Not just for Kindle which is Mobi but also when you're doing EPUB for Smashwords or PDFs for Lulu, KDP Print, or Ingram Spark. So those 3 there, it gets all of the formattings correctly so that we don't have to waste time later.
We just hit a button and it will produce those books in the correct format that we're going to need. Then our next item is that you're going to create or order your cover. You can create your cover for free through Canva.
Or you can order your cover through Fiverr if you feel that obviously, it will be a lower quality cover and that is what I like to do. The person that I use on Fiverr is Vikiana for under $20 a cover which is fantastic and she does a wonderful job.
She has done it on at least 120 books of mine. She has created the covers for them. Even some of the covers that I created on my own in Canva, she's gone back and has been able to then create better covers that have resulted in more sales.
This is just about optimizing our book. There's nothing worse than the feeling of putting a book on the market and not seeing sales because your cover is poor. And that's the first thing that people are going to see when they're considering "should I buy this book?" or "should I not buy this book?".
When we are going to get our book out onto Amazon Kindle, you're going to need to make sure that your cover is looking great. And this is exactly the trick that you're going to use to make sure that you have an outstanding cover.
The next thing is we're going to put everything together. With the description and the keywords, we're going to have to create those. And we will set it out and we will publish the book on Amazon through Kindle Direct Publishing.
To make sure that our Kindle books are published, so we have our Mobi file our cover out there and then we have the additional metadata that we have for the book and we're going to put it out there.
A Positive Cycle
This is an amazing thing but you're going to need to run ads most likely to get sales. If you don't already have an author's platform like where you have people who are going along and following you and already like your blog or some sort of content marketing that you'd been doing.
This is a point that a lot of people make a huge mistake which is that they put their book together, they put it out there and it's high quality. It's just that they're not building an audience by running ads to make sure that more people are finding your book.
And in your book, you're going to be wanting to get people to sign up for emails so they can hear from you. When you come out with future books, you're going to get them to buy from you. Those people in the future also can be asked to help review your book.
So we get into a positive cycle with those exact people. Our readers are helping us to find new readers who will like to read the books that we want to put onto the market. These are the key steps that we're looking at.
But the secret step of the day and is our third answer is that dealing more so with the psychology of the mindset. The smallest of failures can demotivate you to just stop. Besides, one of my students was just having difficulty setting up the account in the first place.
And that can create a lot of frustration. You're trying to get the book onto the market but even just getting the account going, you can be tempted to stop. But when you experience failure early on, you feel it much more intense.
Because you think "I'm climbing this gigantic mountain and I'm only up the first meter of it and I already have pain in my knees or my ankles". How exactly are we going to go for the rest of the way? Then, if I do get it out maybe it's not even going to be good.
Check out this related article: KDP Publishing: Is It Still Worth It?
But these are thoughts that are just trying to stop you from succeeding and getting that sensation of knowing that feeling of what it is to get a book onto the market. Finding these readers who love to read what you're producing, that is really what I'm here for.
To help you to try to get through that mindset to push through it. But if you allow your failure, in the beginning, to stop you which is what most authors do who just simply never manage to publish their book for some reason, this is a big one.
You face some obstacles and so you just give up too early. So how exactly do we go about self publishing through Kindle? Tell me what you found below in the comments, I would love to hear it.
Have you managed to self-publish a book right? Write "yes" if you have and write "no" if you haven't. That would really help me get a better feel if I'm hitting the target here.
And maybe some of the frustrations that you also have experienced or the joy of succeeding. Check out my other blogs and videos for more answers to your self-publishing
questions.