5 Steps to Self-Publication

If you are thinking about self-publishing, then you might be interested to know exactly what the steps are that you will be taking to publish your book. The specific steps can differ a little from one publishing platform to another, but for the most part, the general process remains the same. Let’s look at five steps that will take you from where you currently are to actually publishing your book and getting the word out there about it.

Write Your Book

Obviously, the first thing that you need to do is write your book. If you do not have your book completely written, then there is no reason to worry about self-publishing. Good authors know that when you finish writing your book you should put it on the shelf for a while and come back to it a few weeks later to the revisions with a fresh mind. It is during this period that you can look into self-publishing and take the steps needed to prepare for your releasing your book this way.

Make Your Book as Good as Possible

Before you self-publish, you’re going to want to make your book as good as possible. That means that you want it to look as good as possible as well as have the content be extremely high-quality. The best ways to do that is to first get a graphic designer to create a professional cover. You want someone that has actually had experience creating book covers and knows what a good book cover looks like. You should also hire an editor to go through your book with a fine-tooth comb, not only to fix typos and grammatical errors, but also to make sure that the narrative runs smoothly and that it maintains the reader’s attention throughout.

Decide Upon a Publishing Platform

Next, you’re going to have to decide upon a publishing platform. Some of the most popular platforms include KDP from Amazon, Nook Publishing from Barnes & Noble and SmashWords. Amazon is definitely the most popular publishing platform out there, but you should consider the other ones as well.

Release Your Book

Next, you are going to release your book. If you have a social media following, a blog with lots of readers or any other way that you can promote the release of your book on a certain day, then this is often the best way to get people excited about it and have lots of sales right away. The more sales that you can get for yourself at one time, the higher you will rank in the search results on Amazon and the more sales you will have from people that were not on your mailing lists or social media followings.

Optimize & Promote Your Book

Finally, you’re going to optimize and promote your book. Optimizing your book means identifying the right keywords that it should be listed for, making sure that your description get you into the search results on Amazon properly; and promoting your book simply means advertising using whatever methods you can find.