5 Things To Do Before Self-Publishing a Book
Self-publishing authors should know their audience, build an audience, create marketing book launch plans, and know the self-publishing business to publish
When a writer decides to go down the route of self-publishing, it can quickly become overwhelming when they see all the required tasks.
Authors must remember that the success of their book rests entirely on their shoulders. Without taking on certain crucial tasks, the book will never reach its full potential. And without your active involvement, readers may never even discover it.
With this being said, there are five things authors need to do before self-publishing a book.
Know your audience
Ideally, in our minds, we know who will read our books.
For instance, if your book is about a cozy small-town mystery, you may picture your audience to be middle-aged or older audience. Or perhaps your audience is just enthusiastic about mysteries, having grown up on Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys.
However, despite this preconceived notion we have in our heads about who our audience is, we need to dig a little deeper.
To truly know your audience, you need to know:
What social media platforms do they frequent?
What books similar to yours are they reading so you can entice them with comparisons?
What is the age range of your target audience?
Where do they shop? (Amazon, Google Play Books, Barnes and Noble, Book stores)
What price are they willing to pay?
When we gather all this information, we can form a clearer picture of how our market strategy will be moving forward.
Such as whether your audience responds better to sneak peeks in the form of a chapter section, or Instagram photos of your book or characters.
Knowing what they are looking for will increase the chances that your marketing will be successful.
Creating a Book Marketing Launch Plan
Marketing is the big bad beast that every author struggles with.
Why?
Because it requires:
Trail and error
Research of trends, keywords, and audience
Budget you’ve allocated if you are paying for advertisements
Constant tweaks and continuation of effort
When planning to self-publish, one of the most important things for you to do is to create a book marketing launch plan. And when I say launch plan, this doesn’t mean it goes into action once the book is published. It begins at the start.
Every time an author begins a book, they should begin marketing it as well.
So, what does a book marketing launch plan consist of?
Planned content that will be posted across social media from the time you begin writing the book until after it’s been published
Researched and vetted book bloggers and reviewers in your genre that you can contact a few months prior to your publication date
Pre-planned dates for sneak peeks and reveals (covers, description, characters, and locations)
Date to publish
Gathering a list of ARC readers to email an E-Book to
A book marketing launch plan begins when the author begins the book because it’s better to have time to gain momentum rather than scrambling to gain momentum in a short few months.
Build Your Audience
The only way for you to gather an audience for your book is to be accessible to them.
As you write your book, it’s essential to simultaneously build your audience through social media and your newsletter. Doing so not only increases the visibility of your book but also boosts the likelihood that your current audience will help spread the word.
There are some useful ways to build an audience for yourself:
Interact with other people on social media
Have a short story or a book as a freebie for new newsletter subscribers
Make connections with other authors
By focusing on these three strategies, growing your audience becomes almost inevitable.
Have Your Book Professionally Edited
Yes, we all have a friend who is really good with grammar and can look over our work, but please don’t let the editing stop there.
One of the biggest mistakes that authors made in the early self-publishing days was the failure to get their work professionally edited and it hurt the reputation of the self-publishing industry terribly. Not only did self-publishing appear sloppy and second best, but it wasn’t taken seriously.
Since then, self-publishing has come a long way because self-published authors wanted to show the world we were a contender to traditional publishing.
The best way to ensure your book is as polished as could be is to:
Have alpha readers read over your first or second drafts of the book and provide grammatical and developmental feedback
Run your work through grammar editing such as Grammarly
Hire a professional editing service to go through your work
Have beta readers read through your work and provide developmental feedback
Let’s focus on that third bullet point, Hire a professional editing service to go through your work.
As much as this scares and intimidates many writers, it’s a necessary piece of the process. However, hiring a professional editor doesn’t mean you need to spend thousands of dollars to achieve it. Believe it or not, you can find professional editors on freelancer websites such as Fiverr or Upwork for a reasonable price.
For example, two years ago I looked on Upwork for an editor for my 60k contemporary romance book. I managed to pay $50 for a three-chapter sample edit and $250 for a full developmental and grammatical edit. And better yet, the traditional publisher I was working with at the time approved the editor I’d found.
So trust me, pay for the editing.
Learn the Business of Self-Publishing
After publishing 14 books of my own, I am still learning the self-publishing business.
Why is this?
Because there are new platforms to explore or new features on the platforms I’ve already used that I can now try. And just because I thought I knew it before doesn’t mean I can’t let other people teach me new tricks of the trade and improve what I’m doing.
Between the publishing platforms communities and helpful guides themselves, there are also tons of seasoned authors out there who are willing to share what they have learned to help others.
And despite what you think you already know, there is always something to be learned.
Things that are useful to learn about the business of self-publishing:
Pricing your book to make a profit
Creating an engaging and SEO-friendly book description
How to upload your book to platforms such as Draft2Digital, Amazon, Kobo, and more
How to format your book
How to make your book available for pre-order
How to conduct sales for your book
How to size your cover
Knowing elements such as these are going to prove useful to you over time and save you from hiring for them instead.
Self-publishing a book requires more tasks and effort than I believe authors originally realize.
However, if done correctly, can prove to be a truly fulfilling experience.
As long as self-publishing authors remember to:
Know their audience by researching them and gathering data
Creating a book marketing launch plan that spans from the start of publishing the book until after publication
Building an audience through social media and a newsletter
Having your book professionally edited without hurting your precious budget
Learn the business of self-publishing