Note: These tips apply for both printed version and PDF (eBook) version.
Recently I helped one of my friends to successfully publish his first book. He was running after different publishers for months but it always kept him waiting.
He had around 200 pages of a fiction story which anyhow didn’t fit any of the publishers requirement. With a face of dissatisfaction, he requested me for a solution to spread his book. Even I was very new to it. So, I researched on this topic and knew the secret of self-publishing.
Self-publishing is what that worked for him to sell around hundreds of digital books.
Now here below, I’m going share the steps that helped us to successfully reach our destination.
ALSO USEFUL: How To Write An eBook To Sell For Profit
1. Well Written Manuscript
Before spreading it to the audience, you make sure that the script doesn’t suck. So, do a number of proofreading to make it finer. Share the draft with some of your close friends and ask them to find out the errors like spelling, grammar and extra-story fluffing. If you need inspiration you can check out Seth Godin’s free eBooks.
Make your story quite crispy with interesting twists and compel them to stay interested till the end.
2. Find a Platform
As you’re new to self-publishing, you need to find a platform. I recommend Amazon KDP (see other resources) which has a large base of book readers. Basically KDP made publishing much simpler .i.e. upload your document with a good title & keyword and get listed to their marketplace.
3. Best Book Cover
You need to have a great cover design to attract readers. Hire a designer or you yourself work on Photoshop. You can also try some professional tools to design your eBook. I generally prefer the books cover with a black background with an awesome illustration in it. This makes the book more appealing.
4. Awareness & Building Audience
It’s very much essential to build audience. You can create a Facebook official page of your book where you can interact with your audience & let them aware of your upcoming book.
5. Tease Them
Tease your audience with few illustrations related to your book story & make them interested in it. Tease them a lot, so that they wait for the book release date.
6. Peaks
Do share small parts of your story to create curiosity among them for knowing further extension of it.
Eg, Extract two interesting lines or dialog from your story which depicts an interesting part of it but don’t give them the clue to predict the whole.
7. Giveaway before the Release
Your only motive is to reach your first book to as many people as you can. So, why not to do some kind of trick .i.e. conduct a contest for your audience where 10 limited people will receive free copy of your book but in exchange request them for an unbiased review.
8. Limited period Free
Two days after the release, let your book go free on download for a limited period of 24-hours so that your audience rush to download it faster. This will help you to get a good number of readers, who’ll not only read your book but will judge its quality. Who knows, they may like it & may even make it popular in no time.
9. The Price
As the limited time ends, raise the price of your book. This will make your reader understand that your book is much worth reading and the reason it gone high price.
10. More Amazon Reviews
Try to gain more reviews on your Amazon page to gain more credibility to it. You can even spend few bucks on the book review to make it work for the long run.
These above are some of the important things about Self-Publishing. If you’ve an extra point to add, then put it in the below comment.