Think you have a book in you? It's super easy to
self publish your book and sell it on Amazon, Kindle, Sony,
iPad, and other platforms. It's also a great way to
leave a positive lasting impression with prospective
customers. If I can do it, you can do it.
To help you in your self-publishing journey check out the
tips below to help you write, publish and promote your book:
Start with a self-publishing provider.
Createspace is an
Amazon-owned company that allows
you to publish books, music and DVD's, Books published
on
Createspace are distributed to
Amazon,
Barnes &
Noble, and other retailers. Costs $39 up-front
per title for the pro plan (it's worth it) plus
commission charges for each unit sold.
For eBook platforms such as iPad, Nook, and Sony Reader, I use
Smashwords.
No up-front charge.
Smashwords
takes a commission for each unit sold. Make sure
you read the
Smashwords Style Guide before you publish.
Will save you a ton of time later. I also recommend
using the Smashwords formatted book for your Kindle
book.
Make sure you have your book
professionally edited. Seeing a finished work with
mis-spellings and grammatical jambalaya is like nails on
a blackboard. if you need a good editor
email me and I can hook you up.
Set up an
Author Page
on Amazon. This gives you an opportunity to aggregate
your work, blog about your business, and communicate
with your readers.
After you publish your book think
about putting up a website. See
Why Don't They Follow Me? for an example of a
self-published book web page.
Godaddy is one of the biggest web hosters and is
very reasonably priced. If you need a web
developer,
Consetta Web Solutions really knows their stuff.
eBooks give you a lot of flexibility
in book format and length. Rather than publish a
40,000 word book, why not publish ten 4,000 word eBooks?
My
Leadership Made Simple series does just that. Each
is much shorter than a book and is very targeted to a
specific topic. It's just like buying a single
song versus buying the whole album.
For you big-idea entrepreneurs, think
about publishing a series and getting other authors to
write for the series. My
Six-Word Lessons series includes books by both
myself and other authors.
Don't limit your books to just print
or eBook format. Audio recordings can be an
effective means to further get your point across.
I did four
audio books based on four chapters from
Why Don't They Follow Me?
Get on
Twitter. Follow several other authors or
personalities who have notoriety in your subject matter
area. See how they "tweet" and get into your own
rhythm. I'm new to the twitterverse as well :-).
Set up a Facebook fan page. I'm
not talking about your personal facebook page with your
high-school buddies and Aunt Mabel. I'm talking
about professional group pages targeted to your readers.
See the groups I set up for
Project Management Advisor,
I Need to Lead, and
Six Word Lessons.
Linkedin can also be a great way to network
professionally. I set up my
Linkedin account to automatically post my "tweets"
to Linkedin.
You can also do
newsletters. They're getting a bit old school,
but can still be an effective means to promote your
book. I use
1Automationwiz.
Constant Contact is also a good email service
If you're feeling particularly
adventurous consider doing
webcasts to promote your book.
GoToWebinar is pretty easy to use and gives you what
you need to get things going.
Publishing your own book isn't brain
surgery. A little time and energy is all it takes.
If you don't want to go it alone I can help you. I am
looking for subject matter experts for my
Six-Word Lessons series;
email me if you have a great
Six-Word Lessons idea. If you have another book
idea and want some help then
lets talk about how we can work together to make your
book a reality and boost your business.
-owned company that allows
you to publish books, music and DVD's, Books published
on
. No up-front charge.