What is holding you back from publishing a life changing book?
Here are 10 self-publishing tips:
1. Be realistic - understand your goals for your book:
Do you want to be a New York Times best-selling author? Or, would you want to be a top 100 Amazon best-selling author? Or, something in between? You have to decide what your goals are for your book to determine if the self publishing process is the right process for you. Your goal may be to have information available to your network or a legacy for your family and friends. You just have to decide what you want that to be and that will determine the direction you should go.
2. Help - understand what help you will need:
You need to decide what kind of help you think you need and engage that help early. Do you need a publisher or an editor? Do you need a cover designer? Do you need someone to help with marketing? These are all questions you need to answer before you get too deep into the process and have to back track.
3. Marketing - understand that marketing doesn't happen on it's own.
You have to plan your marketing strategy and start your marketing plan early! Determine how you want to market and to whom you want to market? Who is your target audience and how do you plan to market to them?
4. Networking - get others involved in your process and learn from them:
It is important to find other authors, writers, and editors, people in the field that you are writing about, etc. and network with them. You can network with them through social media or through various networking events, but the key is to network in order to learn. (See Launch Team)
5. Mind map - do a mind dump:
As you prepare to write your content, it is important to visually map out and organize your information. This can help you determine the appropriate topics, the appropriate order, and help you see if you have the right content and if it is structured for ease of reading.
6. Authoring - the hard part:
Now it’s time to write your book. Make sure that you do these three things: use a hook, make it clear, make it unique. It is important to reel them in with the hook and get people interested in your content. It needs to be easy to read so make it clear. And finally it needs to be unique so that people will learn something new.
7. Book Launch Team - find who is vested in you and your process:
You need a group of supporters! These supporters can assist you in developing the right strategies for your launch as well as helping you have a successful launch. You should actually recruit your team based on those who want you to succeed with your project. When recruiting your book launch team, ask some of these questions:
· Why do you want to support me and my book?
· What kind of marketing ideas do you have?
· Who are some influencers in the field you are discussing?
Engage the book launch team early and keep them involved during the publication process.
8. Publicity and Launch - needs to occur early and ongoing through the process:
Determine the type of publicity and how you want to launch your book. Several options are through email lists, social media, press releases, book signings, and even a launch event. Get guidance from your book launch team.
9. Find Your Tribe of Supporters - others who want you to succeed:
In addition to your book launch team, you need to identify your supporters; those who will assist as you market your book. As you discuss your plans for your book with others, be bold enough to ask the question, “Will you support me in my book launch”? If the answer is yes, make sure that you have all of their contact information and do periodic follow-ups to let them know the status and how they can help.
10. Enjoy the moment - this should be FUN!
Once an author, always an author! Enjoy the experience!