If you are planning on doing self-publishing, it is better to know first the things you need to invest in as well as how much you can earn. Learn more about self-publishing and whether or not it is a good idea.
Today's question has three answers and the third one is one you're going to want to stick around for. Because I'm going to explain how the actions you take daily are going to impact whether self-publishing is a good or bad idea.
So let's get into it. The question that was sent into me was, is self publishing a good idea? I completely understand the frustration that can come.
You want to get a book out or maybe you want to make money. There are many reasons a person might be getting into self-publishing. You are wondering, is this something that's going to be worth my time and my money to go about doing?
Or maybe it's a complete waste of time. You're just going to throw it out there. Nothing's going to happen and you're just going to regret it afterwards.
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When I first started self-publishing, my motivation was, well, I had some ideas in terms of efficiency, getting tasks done, and project management. I've been doing all these sorts of things throughout my career in the Air Force and beyond.
I wondered maybe I could share these ideas with the world. I had a whole series of ideas and I thought maybe I could put some books out there and see what happens.
And I at the time had been going through another book, a simple one that was telling me how to put books out. So, I started going through it and I realized when we break it down into some simple steps, it makes it not so difficult.
I took those ideas and I made a little bit of progress every day. I put my first book on the market and no, it did not sell at all. It is because I was breaking a lot of key strategy rules when it comes to self-publishing.
Then I started wondering was it a good idea? Well, I still actually felt good in my case even if I wasn't making a lot of sales. I felt good because I got something out there.
I had my ideas in the world. It was just a strange feeling knowing people were reading some of the ideas that I had on a subject that I was very enthusiastic about.
I'm still enthusiastic about it now my book has sold thousands of copies since that point in time. Even today, people are probably sitting around the world somewhere flipping through one of my books.
This is the nature of it even though it's kind of a strange feeling even now. But I have gotten used to it over the years realizing that people are out there. They're in libraries around the planet.
It's funny when you look it up, you know and you begin to realize, "wait for a second here, what I put out into the world actually can be found even now across the planet".
Right Keywords And Profitable Niches
You can look at these global libraries and realize they're checking out my book from libraries. I have 170 books and those books today are being read and then donated to libraries.
Some are also given to other locations and bookstores where they are being distributed. So for me, I would say yes, it was a good idea. But is self publishing a good idea?
Let's take a look at the answers for today. The first answer is it depends upon what your goals are. For example in my case, I wanted to get an idea out into the world and I thought wow, this is amazing.
You can put a book and this is one of the best ways to get your ideas into the world is by creating a book. So, I did that, and that works for me. But maybe you have an idea so this would be a great way for you to do it.
Number two, once you get the book into the world, you realize you are not making any money on this book. It is because your keywords are off. I use Kindle Spy to find the correct keywords that I'm going to use for my book.
Certain keywords will make you more money than others. Even if the books on the same subject, you'll find certain keywords are very very powerful when it comes to making more money versus making no money at all.
Like you get creative on your cover and nobody has a clue what those keywords are. They are not searching for them and so they are never going to find your book.
So, that's the second reason and you definitely can make money with Kindle books. Kindle Publishing is one of the easiest ways on the internet today to make money.
If you're looking to start your business, learning about the nature of online business and stuff, I would highly recommend getting into self-publishing. This is a fantastic way to do it.
The third thing is it works as a business card where you put it. You've created some books that are to your name, you've sold tens of thousands of copies of these books.
It says few people have some respect, a level of respect for the fact that you've gone about doing the process. That brings an end to answer number two. Is it a good idea?
Well, 80% of people want to publish a book. They've got an idea on their minds and they want to do it. But very few of those people get around to like 5% or less actually end up doing it.
We're not talking even about getting a book accepted by a major publisher which some people think you have to do if you want to publish. But you do not that's why self-publishing is the perfect direction to get your book.
You have this great story or this great idea and you want to share it with the world. All of us are experts at something. Even the city you live in, you could write a book on that.
I would of course use Kindle Spy to verify that these are actually profitable book niches that you are going to be publishing into. But still, it's a great way to go about doing it.
Put Your Learnings Into Action
Here is the third and the secret answer of the day to the question, is self publishing a good idea? It's a yes. If you do this one thing and that one thing doesn't have to be so hard.
The key is you need to just make progress. There are two things you need to do every single day. The first one is you need to be learning how to do it a little bit better.
It's making small incremental improvements on what you're currently doing and not just learn. This is the trap of learning too. You need to be implementing and executing a little bit every day.
So, you are working on getting that cover done. You're working on your description. You're working on finding the keywords for what the subject is going to be.
Then, you are writing the book, pounding out a thousand hours a day with your butt in the chair. That's the key to making progress here. Or you pay somebody else to write the book.
Ghostwriting or whatever other means you wish to do to get your book onto the market. So, we are learning because if you skip this phase, you will never sell anything.
You might get lucky but for most people, they are not going to make money at all off of your books. So you need to be learning what it takes.
However, you don't have to look at other Youtube channels. There's plenty of good material out there that will show you how to do it. I personally like to look at the easiest way to make money and to get your books out there onto the market.
Check out this related article: Where Can I Find A Good Self Publishing Podcast?
Other people like to look at very complex and introducing all sorts of themes. I say one step at a time, keep it simple and you can do just fine. But we do need to learn a little bit every day.
We need to continue to execute and not just learn. This is a huge problem that a lot of people have and your learning does not count as actually executing.
So you could sit there all day and take courses and read books on it. But if you aren't actually writing your books and getting them out there, then it is a bad idea.
Self-publishing is a bad idea for you because and this is true with almost anything else if you want to make it build a boat or something, reading about it all the time does not make the boat get built by itself.
You are going to need to take action every single day and that is the secret to success at this particular thing. So, is self publishing a good idea?
What have you found? Go and let me know below in the comments. Maybe you found that you did it and it didn't work for you. I would love to hear about that or maybe you've tried it and you did succeed and you found yes, it is a good idea.
Maybe for reasons I didn't explore. I would love to hear what exactly you have found. Check out my other blogs and videos that answer your self-publishing questions.