If You Can Write, You Can Self-Publish a Best Seller

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Yes, if you can write, you can self-publish a best seller. Practice writing every day, read every day, and improve your book and your process in small steps over three to five years, without trying to game Amazon’s system. I was not a reader or a writer when I started, so below is how I got there and what I do now.

Where did I start?

When I started, I was not a reader. In school I read the cliff notes or not even that. I flipped through the back cover and winged the tests. I wish I had been a reader earlier. It was only in my mid-30s that I began reading Kindle books on my phone, in a series. I listened to an audiobook of Ender’s Game, and when I did not have the audiobook of the second book I tried it on Kindle. That pulled me into the game I am still playing today.

Because I read little, my grammar was terrible and I had written almost nothing. Becoming a reader drastically improves your writing. I read one to two hours a day to keep improving. Read more on this in you don’t have to be an expert writer to be a best seller.

How did I become a writer?

Through emails. I had so many ideas to express that my emails got longer and longer, my typing sped up, and without meaning to I was becoming a writer, which I never was in school. Running those emails through a spelling and grammar checker showed me which words I misspelled and which grammar was wrong. With enough practice I made far fewer mistakes. I still run everything through spell check, but I find far fewer errors than in the old days.

Why should I write every day?

Because daily practice raises the quality of your writing more than anything else. Set a target such as a thousand words a day, or a time like 30 minutes. You can start as small as five minutes a day, as I did, to build momentum and the habit, and then raise it. I ask my coaching clients whether they are writing daily. If not, that is the problem to fix first.

How do I optimize my book to reach best seller status?

Optimizing gives you the best chance. For nonfiction, titles and keywords are crazy important, and I can often reach bestseller status in a narrow category within a week or two of release. For fiction you need to build an audience, which is slow if the book is not optimized. What to work on:

• A cover that looks like the best sellers in your category.
• A title and keywords that match what readers search for. See how to use keywords on Amazon KDP.
• A strong description.
• An email list and reviews from honest readers.
• Ads, which bring more sales and reviews.
• The right sub-niche. KDP lets you pick three categories and asks for accurate ones (KDP Categories), so pick the sub-genres that fit and do not put your book in unrelated categories. I do not suggest breaking Amazon’s terms of service.

Here is a story of a tool that helped me, how this tool made me a best seller.

Do I have to tell KDP if I use AI to improve my writing?

It depends on what the AI did. KDP’s content guidelines call text, images or translations “created by an AI-based tool” AI-generated, and say you must tell KDP about it when you publish, “even if you applied substantial edits afterwards.” Content you wrote yourself, where tools only helped you edit, refine or check it, counts as AI-assisted, and KDP says you don’t need to inform it (KDP content guidelines). A spell checker is the second kind. The page gives no date, so check it before you publish.

How long does it really take?

For fiction, about three to five years of small, incremental improvements. It is painful to say, but that is what I see. Put books out regularly, build your audience, tell them about new books and get better at each small step. When more people buy, Amazon shows your book to more people, and you get a positive loop. Small improvements do not show in the short run, and in the long run they move mountains, whether you are playing tennis or puppy training.

Do it organically. Some people try to game the system, which can violate Amazon’s terms, and I do not recommend it. Do one step at a time and finish a step before the next. That is how I keep self-publishing easy and avoid burnout. For the basics, read how easily you can self-publish your book.

How will you know what to improve? That is where a coach helps. If you want help with the small improvements that add up to a best seller, book my free 25-minute discovery call.

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