Becoming a Published Author
Becoming a Published Author
More and more writers are venturing into self-publishing. Here are a few comments that many of these writers may not realize.
1
Uploading the manuscript is the easiest part of the entire publishing process. There is a lot of work that has to be done prior to uploading. This work is necessary to prepare the manuscript for uploading. These tasks include getting the book critiqued, having a cover produced, manuscript editing, interior design, and formatting.
2
Once you publish a book, no matter how it was published, you own a business and the mission of your business is to sell your book. This occurs whether the books are self-published or put out by a publishing company. If you’re serious about being an author, you have to accept the fact that you own a business and you have to make decisions based upon business concerns, not ego-driven ones.
3
You are the Chief Executive Officer, Marketing Manager, and Sales Manager for the company. Doesn’t that sound impressive? Please note that none of these positions pays very well.
4
The day your book was published approximately 15,000 other books were published. No one knows about your book and no one cares. It’s the job of your book company’s superhero — the marketing manager– to tell people about the book and to change people’s minds so they buy a copy.
5
If you don’t market and sell the book, no one will. That is the brutal reality of the self-publishing industry. It also applies if your book is indie published and even if you have an agent and a large publishing house behind you.
6
If you intend to market your book, you need a marketing plan. An occasional tweet or blog post isn’t going to cut it. You need a detailed plan on how you will go about marketing the book. Many of the marketing activities will cost money so don’t forget to come up with a budget for all these activities.
7
The first step in a marketing plan is to identify your customers. Who will buy your book? If the book is about making plumbing repairs, your customers are folks who live in old houses among others. If your book is about performing surgery on the kitchen table, your customers could be people without health insurance.
8
Don’t expect to sit back in a recliner and wait for the royalty checks to come rolling it. Ain’t gonna happen unless you make it happen and you have to get off the recliner to do that. No one can buy a book that they don’t know exists.
9
No matter how great the content in your book is, no one will buy it if the packaging screams “Amateur.” You have to invest time and money to produce a quality package to enclose your quality content. Otherwise, why bother writing the quality content? And finally, remember the book has your name on it. Do you really want your name on an amateurish-looking book package?
These observations are taken from my Self-publishing Guides
