Venturing into the self-publishing world can be confusing and frightening for many writers. With the sigma associated with self-publishing fading, the door is open wide for anyone to publish. Yet, few will be successful.
The following are just a few areas you’ll need to implement in order to build a strong foundation.
Your writing as a business. If you are a serious writer, then your goal is to sell your hard work. To do this you first need to think of your writing as a business – not a hobby. To do this you need to make a checklist of the items you need to implement prior to publishing. This includes:
Make a production schedule. Set a deadline for every step. Once you have established a deadline – double it. It is better to have more time to accomplish your goals than to continually extend them or worse, doing a shoddy job trying to meet your timeframe.
Establish and online presence. Every author NEEDS an online presence. Readers expect it. Publishers expect it. Free blog software such as Typepad, Blogger and WordPress allow you to be up and running in minutes with little to no cost to you. And since their services are free you have no excuse to not set one up – right now.
Find your target audience. Who are your trying to sell your book to? If you say everyone, then you haven’t defined your “target” audience. No book is popular to everyone, and yours is no exception. You need to go out into the Cyber world and find where your readers hang out.
Facebook, Twitter, discussion groups are good places to engage with potential readers. The key is to get involved and engage with readers – not to immediately push your wares. Once you establish yourself as a helpful resource, then politely as people to “check out your book.”
Write an error-free bio. Your bio needs to be shirt, concise and error-free. Include a link back to your site and use this on Facebook, Author Pages (such as Amazon Author Central) – even connect your bio to your email using the free source Gravatar.com. Then every time you post on a blog the information follows you providing readers a way to connect with you.
Have your book professionally edited, formatted and designed. I know that you may think you can do it all, and save money, but many of you can’t. An Author’s time is better spent doing what he does best — promoting, connecting and writing.
If your book is riddled with errors, it will kill your readers attention and you’ll lose them. And you can’t grab a readers attention without a well designed cover. If you want success, then don’t skimp in any of these areas. You owe it to yourself and to your readers to provide the best quality product possible.
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Conclusion
Don’t let anyone discourage you. If writing is your dream – your passion – then pursue it to the fullest extent. Give your readers the absolute best you can and do not fret over bad reviews or rude comments (in fact, just ignore them). Once your book is published and you have established your author platform, you owe it to your readership to write another book.
