Thinking about self publishing your own book but you don't know how to get started. Learn about the right steps and tools that will help you on your self-publishing journey.
Today's topic has three points and you're going to want to stick around for the third point. Because it is a secret as to the one thing you need to do if you're going to self-publish your book.
Today's question is self publishing your own book? That is something that many authors wonder a lot about. Let's say you've finished a book or still working on writing a book. But after you have the book, what are you supposed to do with it?
Are you going to post it online? Are you going to just give it away to people for free? You have an awful lot of choices that you have to make with regards to your book.
Sometimes you begin to think that self-publishing may be the right choice for you. But is it the right choice? Have you thought about how hard it can be to self-publish?
Maybe it costs thousands of dollars to get your book onto the market. You just don't have that sort of money around and who would want to read it anyway? These are all of the questions that go through the minds of self-publishers when they're first getting started.
You've written your book or in the process of it and you just don't know. Well, stick around and we're going to answer exactly this question today.
You can grab a copy of my absolutely free Self-Publishing Checklist. To make sure that you are not making the mistakes that so many authors make when it comes to self-publishing your book.
When I first got started, one of the things that were an early sign that maybe I should get into writing books was exactly the fact that my emails to people were extremely long. Line after line, and after line.
It was just so easy and this happens to be one of the ways to find out if self-publishing is right for you? Is it easy for you to write? Even if it's difficult, you get better with time.
But for me, it was just so easy. I'm not saying my grammar and all of these things were perfect. Though Microsoft Word and these other programs have drastically improved and helped me.
Showing me things that I was doing wrong over the years. But after some time, I began to see that this is something I definitely could do. But then I also realized not only could I write a book but where exactly should I start?
I had ideas I wanted to get out into the world but it was very confusing with regards to writing a book. So I write a book but then what do I do with the book afterward? The thing I found to be incredibly useful was I would first break it down into a thousand words per day.
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That is to ensure that I was going to get my book in a reasonable amount of time onto the market. I want to make sure that people can buy it if they're interested in the topics that I have. I feel I had some ideas to share with the world.
I know you also have ideas that you need and want to share with the world. It's amazing to find out there are so many people that you can help. Whether you're writing a fiction story and something exciting to pull people in.
Whether you're writing non-fiction and telling people how to solve a problem that they have. There are thousands and thousands of people out there who are looking and waiting for a book just like yours to hit the market.
But they can't read it if you don't write it, that's one of the things I found. So writing a thousand words a day, eventually, I had my book complete. But then how do I do the formatting? Do I do it in Word?
Get Your First Book Out
I tried a program called Scrivener, I tried a bunch of other programs but nothing seemed to work. Until I came across an amazing tool called Jutoh which you can find my affiliate link in the description of all of my Youtube videos.
This is the tool I use for every single book I've published right from the beginning. After I found it to be the best easiest one to do. That puts it into the different formats that I need when I'm putting the book out.
If you're not having any issues there, if you've got it figured out well, then don't worry about it. But if you have any issues and you're wanting to have your book in hardback, softback, EPUB, Kindle, and all of these sorts of things, well, Jutoh is the correct starting place when it comes to it.
But I spent a lot of time on that particular one then the thing is I've never looked back. I never thought I would be here today, it was not like I exactly planned it. I know that if you ask yourself, are you planning to become an author?
Somebody who's able to have a relative level of success with regards to publishing books? You may be thinking, no not me, maybe somebody else. You get this Imposter Syndrome where you feel that this isn't something you could do.
The reality is you most definitely can do it and there's no reason to wait. So, let's get into it, self publishing your own book? The first point is that you're going to want to do one thing at a time.
You start working with the first book. Just don't focus on marketing, formatting, covers, or anything else. We're just simply starting with your very first book, putting out so many words a day.
Like I was commenting before, once you have that book out, then the reality is no matter how long or short it is it can definitely be self-published. There are people out there who love to read short stories or love to read long novels or books that tell you how to do stuff.
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My goal is to make sure that I'm targeting all of these markets. I know that the books that I'm putting on the market are going to be appealing to different types of readers. Whether they want to listen to the book or whether they want to read it.
Maybe they want to read it multiple times like a short story, a picture-book, or something along those lines. You can do all of these choices, you figure out what works best for you. But don't think for a second there isn't a market with regards to the length of the book that you have.
I can say that there aren't markets for all topics. Some people like to only read certain topics in magazines and not buy books on them. But other people prefer books and so we use keywords to find out which books are selling.
Make sure that we're jumping into a market that already exists. We're never creating a market when it comes to self-publishing but if you've already written your book, then get it out there.
Because your first book as many people have been talking with lately is probably not going to be amazing in terms of the sales. It's the next book and the next book in fact, if you look at the authors who are making a hundred thousand dollars or more on Amazon, you will discover a pattern.
They all have 40 books or more that is something an average. The average number of books they had was 40. So if the idea is you're going to come out with one book and be an amazing success. Unless you have already been building an audience somewhere else which most authors have not.
Then you should not expect to make a killing on your very first book. Now, it can happen I know people personally who have amazing success. But don't set yourself up for a fail this is a long journey, it is a marathon that we're in here.
Invest On Good Tools
How many books can we get on the market? We should improve and have higher quality books with each one we put on the market. Let's get into our third answer, our secret answer of the day and that is that you begin with Kindle Direct Publishing.
As your first goal, you have your book we're going to use Jutoh as I mentioned before to get it formatted correctly into the KDP Kindle format. Then we're going to hire somebody on Fiverr, you can also find my affiliate link on the description of all of my Youtube videos.
For my exact cover designer who will make you an amazing cover. For only $18-$20, it's unbelievably cheap. The covers look great so this is a fantastic starting place.
Do not attempt to make the cover yourself, that is usually a bad idea and so you should go with her, give her a try. You know you always can change your mind, just give everything one chance. The same goes with self-publishing, like Jutoh for example, if you don't like it just return the product.
But at least give it a try to see if it's right for you. Many people have already made up their minds about not trying this tool or trying that tool without actually even giving them a chance. I want to make sure that you are not making that mistake.
Give these tools a try and just don't do it again if you find that you're not satisfied with them. After that, you've got your Mobi file, you've got your cover and you can just post it onto Amazon's platform. You're going to have your Kindle book.
You can get the description, some keywords, you have your author, and your title. Then we just publish it out there and see what happens. The next step is ads and putting the paperback format which Youtube works great for as well.
But we start with the Kindle version. So if you're ever talking with me, the one thing you'll notice and I know some of you out there get very annoyed with me, I see it from time to time where I just speak the truth to you.
But the truth is that don't focus on when you become a millionaire from your first book or what do I do about marketing and stuff? The answer is you need to get your first book in the Kindle Direct Publishing KDP format. A marketplace first then we can go from there.
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But if you've already done that then we go into paperback and ads. Ads maybe even come before because you need to see those sales coming through. But I would do paperback because you'll make more money off your paperbacks which is also a surprise.
It surprised me and a lot of other people when we're first getting started. The second thing is to use the tools to keep it easy. If you want to do it free, you may find that you spend no money and you make no money, those two sometimes hang together.
Unless you naturally are a graphic designer or you're technically fine. You can figure this all out for yourself but for me, I am not built that way. The way that you're going to do it is to make sure that what you're putting onto the market is exactly engineered to make as many sales as possible.
And if you want to do it for free and make no money, that's an option but I would suggest investing a little bit of money in yourself. Have faith in yourself, invest a little bit of money and get things going. Get the right tools, hire the right people and get the process going.
I'm always here to do coaching if you wanted, if you want coaching help, you can always check out my link for Coaching. But I also just answer your comments and your questions below for free. But I have a question for you before we leave, have you tried self publishing your own book?
That is something I've been wondering about. I would really love to know below in the comments. Just let me know so I know where you're coming from. Check out my other articles and videos for more answers to your self-publishing questions.