What feels like a big project can be unbuilt and made smaller if listed. Today I am going to teach you all the things you need to get from point A to point B to publish your book. More or less these are the steps you will take if you are going to self-publish.
Develop the idea for the book. There are people who focus on conducting research and then develop the idea. Having an idea first makes you already have a north. After that, how do you work on that idea? You are going to deposit everything you know about the subject at that moment. That sounds attractive to the story. Everything and nothing can make your story grow.
Research the idea. If you don’t do your research, you may not know what you’re writing about. You don’t want to be caught writing something and an expert in the field pointed it out to you. This is where that north will begin to organize. You are going to look for the details of things, the pros, the cons. Here you can read, watch videos, do interviews, go through the experience.
Ex. Talking about living the experience, I am writing about a detective who uses her weapon from time to time. I wanted to go to an armory or these target shooting venues to feel how the gun works. Experiment if after using for X time I would get fatigued. Why? Because I would have to draw something credible for my character.
Define your target audience. Is it an adult? Children’s book? Horror? Is it Fantasy? Or science fiction? This will help you progress to the end of writing. Each genre has its rules and audience and you have to respect the audience. After knowing your audience you can verify what is in books outside and what you can do to make your book unique so it stands out.
Create a detailed outline of the content of your book. There are people who do not like to sketch, but it will help you not to get distracted by the story or get away from the purpose. It also helps with the structuring of the plot. Research the potential content of the book. Check all the components of your book. Villains, Main Character, Main Conflict, among others.
Write the manuscript. You need to write. Three sentences a day. 200 words. Only write. Here you are going to expand what you put in the draft or outline that you drew. Recommendation, write until you reach the end. If you are writing and editing at the same time, it may take you longer, delete something necessary for the book, or get frustrated because you are in the never-ending loop of cleaning your manuscript.
Here comes the point of what audience you are writing to or what genre you are doing.
If it is a short read or short writing it may be that you have 50,000 words or less. An 80,000 regular novel. If it is fantasy, we are already talking about a minimum of 100,000, so it would be the construction of the world and that people understand the laws of what is written.
Establish your publishing company (if applicable). This is optional.
Edit the book. Does the manuscript have to be edited? Yes, yes, and yes. One piece of advice, after you finish writing, take a break. Let the manuscript “simmer” over low heat. When your eyes are fresh, read it. Edit it. Write again. Then send it to someone to help you edit it some more. You want your book to be as polished as possible by the time it is published. If you are writing in English, Grammarly can help you clean up your manuscript a bit.
Choose from: a publishing house, a print shop, or a Publish-On-Demand (POD) service.
The publishing house will take care of the sub-next steps. If you decide to go this way you will have to write to agents so they can represent you. Once you get one they will sell your product. You will have to divide a percentage of the royalties with the agent.
A printing company, you will be paying for the copying or printing. You take care of the inventory and distribution.
There are many ways you can use Publish-On-Demand services and it wouldn’t cost you a penny. There are others who will put it on their system for a fee.
Create Space and / or KDP is Amazon’s space to publish. The pro is that it has no cost. You can create your own art in it but it is not very good. You should however want to hire an artist. The downside is that it is only sold through Amazon.
Ingramspark charges you for uploading your manuscript and charges you one for changes as well. The pro is that you will have access to more distributors globally.
Request an ISBN, copyright, and other book-specific information, if necessary. (International Standard Book Number) Publish-On-Demand, like Create Space, can help you with your own ISBN number. Others, like Ingramspark, will need one. However, this will help you get your book to bookstores if you have a personal ISBN. You can get that ISBN through BOWKER.
They practically control the monopoly of what the ISBN is. So all you have to do is go to Bowker.com or search for an ISBN purchase.
Today’s prices are:
1 – $ 125
10 – $ 295
100 – $ 575
1000 – $ 1500
Set the price of your book. You worked all those hours and now you need to make up for the time invested. Publish-On-Demand will set you a suggested price so that the price of the impression is covered and you can earn some money. We writers are artists. There is nothing wrong with taking that feeling to the chest. But we also have to think that we are business owners. In this way, we will have a greater sense of belonging. What we create is tangible and we deserve to be paid according to what we create.
Select a publication date. This will help you know your date to meet your goal. When everything has to be 100%. Look at it as your goal. But be warned, the publication date is the day it would go live, not to be unfinished the book put the date and reach that day and upload it to a POD that is a NO-NO. There may be grammatical errors, holes in the book among other things.
Every freelance writer has to have a date by which he wants to get the work out of him. It is not the same as finishing the book. Once the book is finished, you can set a publication date for what will be the next topics that we are going to touch on.
Design the cover and inside pages of the manuscript. Format your book. Hire a graphic designer to create the front and back covers of your book. If you are not a graphic designer, let the professionals take care of this. This is where the line “Judging a book by its cover” will haunt you if you let your six-year-old niece draw the cover of your book … unless that’s the purpose or she’s incredibly talented. The truth is that there is a percentage of readers who will discard your book just because of its cover.
Right now there are several people who can work this. Look for references. Check the cost that fits you, but … if you see that for the price you want there is not something you like, maybe consider going up a bit. Additionally, do not haggle with artists and do not ask for something for free. They also have to bring money home.
Develop press materials for your book. You have to promote your manuscript in some way. This information will help different means how to advertise your book. One website that can help you do this is Storiad. You are submitting your book metadata and Storiad will do this for you. Yes, it has a cost.
Plan and implement a comprehensive marketing, public relations, and advertising campaign. Use your resources. Social networks, conferences in bookstores, hiring influencers. This is where point # 3 makes the most sense since you know the audience for your book. You have to promote yourself where your target audience usually gets their attention.
Develop a website to promote your book. This is part of the marketing strategy. Maybe your website is your headquarters, where people will get new information about what you are doing or what your new project is.
The author platform is essential if you are just starting out. If you don’t have an audience, this should be maybe at the beginning. Today you do not write, someone says the book is great, and you are in the New York Best Seller or Amazon. Today if you don’t have a presence, they will look at you just as if you made a poor cover.
Start selling your book in advance. Advance sales include sending press materials, promoting the book to distributors, lining up bookstores to sell the book, running advertisements, and more. This part is super important if you want to be in the famous rankings at the level of distributors and/or Amazon. All pre-order sales will be aggregated on launch day.
Get your book listed in online retailers. You are going to want to get your book in as many places as possible. What was your strategy again? The reality is that online retailers can help you expand your book sales.
Publish the book and send it to consumers, bookstores, retailers, and distributors. Even if you have submitted the book to retailers, you have to do the work of going to the bookstores. To be known. Maybe you can print copies and give them away or find your book physical on the shelves of local bookstores.
And finally, continue promoting and marketing your book as you receive orders. From time to time, you will have to tell people that your book is already published even though you have done it a long time ago.
Hope this helps you a lot. For more information or questions, feel free to leave a comment down below. For now, keep writing mis amigos.