By Andrew Mcmanaman and Joshua Webber

You’ve created your book and prepping for its launch, here is what the next steps are to becoming a successful Self Publishing Author.

Short-Term and Long-Term Goals

As we start out on the self publishing journey, your short-term goals are to get the word of your book out there. It’s a rare case that your first book will sell millions upon millions of copies from the first go. We are looking to go the long haul. The great thing about self-publishing is your book is always for sale. It’s always there to create a profit. But as a start, you have no readers. No avid fans will buy everything that you produce because the chances are that you’re a nobody.

Summary of Short-term goals

Advertising your first book, selling it for cheap, doing discounts and even giveaways, driving traffic towards your first product, getting people’s emails for subscribing to you and building the foundation of your business.

Summary of Long-term Goals

Creating a series of products that people can continue to buy and allowing new readers to discover you and find other products that you have created.  

But how do we start this journey to becoming a self publishing author? First choose how you will have your book presented and the price of which you will be selling it for. Will you be doing E-book only? Or Paperback as well. The options are Hardcover, Paperback, E-book and audiobook. Set the price as well. These are steps we take before any advertisements.

Short Term Goals

1st Month-

Launch first product and market towards niche audience. Create your brand and how people see you and what they will expect from future books.

2nd Month-

Keep up with social media and delivering great content for your readers as they build. Keep reaching out on social and traditional media to let the word spread of your product. Share your book trailer on all social media accounts as well.

3rd Month-

Tease them of your next book. Get readers excited. Maybe some concept cover art. A picture of you working. Plant the knowledge in people’s heads that more is to come.

4th Month-

Have a minimum of 1000 followers on social media. Minimum 500 email subscribers.

Long Term Goals

Having other books come out and marketing and those products to allow traffic to new readers who’ve just discovered you. Keep up with social media.

End of the First-year—Have the second book released with the same tactics. Same social website and have a visual book trailer to show as well. With the second book, have the first chapter of the first book you have written for a tail at the end of your new book to drive readers to your first. Same with the first, go into your final copy and add the first chapter of your second book once it’s resale. The next day your former copy of your book will have a new chapter. The point of this is to let the two products work on top of one another.

1.5 years in Have 3rd book released with the tactics as the second, with the bookend of the second book. Aim to gather 20,000 followers.

Find your Niche

Make yourself different from the competitors. Ask yourself what you can do to make you original to the other millions of self-published authors out there. You have an audience for who you have written for. Research what these readers like and what kind of look these products have. How are these writers creating their work?

• What others have done

Find out what the others have done and see what you can do to make it better. From the cover art to marketing, see what your competition is doing do what they did but better.

• Show them the problem you solve.

Need information on getting out of debt? Let them know that’s what your book will help them out of? Bored and looking to be entertained? Check out the Adventure thriller you have to offer.

• What is it about you that makes you different?

Is it a lower price on your book that makes you different from others or is it a unique selling point that you have? A niche topic for your niche. You’re offering something to the table; show them what it is.

Create a Website

You need a website; all authors do. If you are strictly a writer, create a place where readers can subscribe for more content or future content.

• Getting subscribers is the key!

You want emails. YOU NEED an email list. Having this acceptable to visitors to your site is critical. Please don’t allow them to have a hard time finding it. Make it visible, simple and accessible. We want to build a readership. That’s how you make this a career.

• Easy Social Media Access

Have links to social media of yours for people who visit your site to follow and vice versa.

Social Media

It’s best when it comes to your social media marketing to pick two that you will use. RESEARCH on what social media accounts your readers are on. Facebook is almost guaranteed. But if you decided to use Instagram, you might be targeting a younger audience. If it’s older, Twitter. Have links on your social media pages that will allow people to go to your website. You might think of doing some short courses to grow your knowledge on social media and how to use it effectively. I would recommend the Advanced Content Marketing Master with The International Institute of Digital Marketing™

A Book Trailer

Create a visual piece to your book. If it’s fiction, tell a story with your visuals. If you are writing fiction, you’ll have to get creative, as readers like to use their imaginations for character’s faces. If it’s for business, use yourself as the Author, explaining what your book is about and giving it the appeal it deserves. This will provide possible readers excitement and interest into what you have to offer.

Podcasts

Podcasts are hot right now. They’re a great way to sit down and plug what you have to sell. It also allows you, the Author, to show the readers who you are as a person. Most are happy to have a guest. So, you can reach out, let them know what you’re up to. It’s great exposure and an excellent way for people to see who you are as a person. Building trust is essential.

Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited paid out over a quarter of a billion dollars to indie authors in 2019, apart from regular sales.

One in every four books that sells on Kobo comes from their self-publishing platform, Kobo Writing Life.

Kindle Unlimited (KU), Amazon’s eBook subscription program, is estimated to represent about 14% of all eBook reads in the Amazon ecosystem, according to Author Earnings and 85 percent of these are produced by self-published authors, plus 2,000 audiobooks from Amazon’s Audible business.

Traditional Media

Most traditional media is a great way to advertise your books. Same as podcasts, the more exposure, the better.

Amazon Advertisement

Using advertainments on Amazon is a wonder. Amazon will be your biggest seller. It’s a hands-down fact. So, utilizing the tools they offer will help you get more readers. The first book, especially as it enables you to show up on the rankings and targets people looking for something in the lines of your content.  

 Conclusion

Self-publishing is losing its stigma. It had a bad rap to start, but so did independent filmmaking in the 60’s and 70’s. Art that was thought of as “low budget” or “Not passable by the suits upstairs” was deemed as a joke. But not anymore. We could use podcasting as an example as well. It was only a few years ago where big wig radio would look down on those who created their Podcasts. Not anymore. The world is changing and that’s exciting. Self publishing is at its start, and its only growing. Be a part of that future.