Mustache style chart. Publishing Archives - Self Publishing School

Not at 40, not at 50, and not even at 80. The idea that there’s a timestamp on your ability to publish a book is a false narrative we’ve been feeding ourselves to avoid confronting something scary. How to grow a pencil mustache.

And we all know what’s scariest to us is the most important to us.

Bill Soroka knew as much. He decided to write a book when he was only 4-years-old.

A few decades later, he followed through on that commitment. Better late than never, right?

It’s actually a common aspiration, with about 80% of people expressing the desire to write a book.

So why, then, do only 2% of people follow through?

Usually, and what we hear most often from students, is that they just don’t know where to start or they don’t think it’s a possibility for them.

But with Self-Publishing School, Bill Soroka was able to keep the promise he made to his 4-year-old self and publish his book because ultimately, he didn’t want to die with a story still inside.

Everyone Has a Story Inside of Them

We’re big believers here at Self-Publishing School that everyone has a story inside of them.

No matter what you’ve done or have gone through, your perspective and events in your life makes that story unique—and worth telling. At only 4-years-old, Bill knew just as much.

But, as with what happens as we grow older, his own perceptions and likely that of those around him made him think he couldn’t do it, that it was impossible.

Misconceptions in the Publishing Industry Almost Led Him to QUIT

We know how much information out there about the publishing industry is false. Particularly when it comes to the differences between self-publishing and traditional publishing.

And Bill was a victim of those misconceptions for years.

It prevented him from following his oldest dream to become an author because he just thought it wasn’t in his realm of possibility.

“Self-Publishing School made publishing on my own a possibility. Not understanding how the publishing world worked, I just assumed I wouldn’t be able to do it or I’d have to work too hard to get myself published.”

This is not uncommon. After all, who wants to spend years simply looking for an agent to take them on, and then have to go through the process of seeing which publishing house will take their book?

And then have to wait in line another couple years for that publishing day to come?

But this is what people think is their only option to publish a book. When it’s simply not.

“When I saw Self-Publishing School and saw the success other people were having doing it, and held a book in my hand that was self-published that was good, it really opened my world.”

The Community Made All The Difference

From never getting past three pages, to publishing a great book was Bill’s biggest accomplishment, to which he credits the community at Self-Publishing School greatly.

It’s hard to showcase just how big our community is and how willing and ready we are to help each other at the drop of a hat.

In addition to the community within Self-Publishing School team members, the Mastermind Community (which each student gets into for free) is made up of over 2500 members, there to aid others in the journey based on their own experiences.

Here are just a few pictures showcasing how the community can help in so many ways.

The Best Part of the Process Was Also The Worst

Few people see writing a book as something as impactful as it really is.

Bill was able to experience first-hand what publishing a book can really do for your mind and spirit.

“When you write a book, you meet every demon that you have inside; the insecurities, the fears, the procrastination, everything that came up.”

Writing and publishing a book is a vulnerable process. Many people who don’t succeed often get overwhelmed by the process without the right support.

Feeling doubt as writer is common, but it should never stop you from pursuing your dreams.

It might be a scary journey, but it’s worthwhile.

“Who I become by writing this book is my favorite part of writing this book.”

If you’re ready to experience that growth the way Bill did, don’t wait. Start today!

Is this a familiar scenario:

“The only person in your way is you.”

You nod as the light turns green. Time to go, time to move forward.

“Letting fear drive you will only drive you to disappointment,” the narrator reads his book to you. Your speakers beg for just a little more volume to drown out the traffic.

This is what you want for your readers, this is what your current readers are missing, and these are the readers/listeners you are missing by not having an audiobook.

There is an entire audience who have no idea that your book could change their lives. In fact, they don’t even know it exists if they only listen to audiobooks.

Don’t worry! We can fix this, just hang out with me for about 10 minutes or so, and you will be equipped with encouragement, inspiration, and most importantly, aplan!

After writing multiple books and recording my own audiobooks, I’ve learned a few things that will help both green and seasoned writers. With so much useful information packed into one post, we’re going to break it down to some basic questions straight from middle-school English class.

Here’s what we’ll cover in relation to audiobook creation (if you’re in a hurry, skip to 1, 3, and 5):

#1 – Why make an audiobook?

Why not just sell both the digital and the audio? I know the temptation. After investing all this time and money into this audiobook, I need it to “pay” off, so why should I give it away? If that’s a hurdle you can’t get over, at least try using it as a lead magnet for a limited time, then switching to paid. Doing it this way allows for #4 (below) to thrive.

When people get something for free, they are less likely to complain about it, though it still happens. However, this releases you from feeling like you have to have the perfect product. As Chandler says, “done is better than perfect.” We’ll cover more in the HOW and WHAT sections.

If you decide to put the book on Audible (the leader in audiobook production) or other sites like Findaway Voices, you will still get sales from people who never took the time to visit your Amazon (or other) page.

Having an author career is a long game. It requires support and a following at the least. This is the point of a lead magnet, to entice readers to sign up for your correspondence. Subscribers by email are gold for an author. Check it out here (and get a free audiobook ) to see how the process looks from the subscriber’s side.

None of the other questions matter if we don’t understand our “why.”

As an author, you want to reach a broader audience while also better serving your current readers.

The market for digital and print books is saturated (which isn’t the worst thing), but the audiobook market is still wide open. This is a great time to jump in, stand out, offer more, and expand your reach.

Go ahead, right click and “Open Link in New Tab,” and click back over here. This post isn’t going anywhere.

Need some more social proof? How about actual statistics? Here are some highlights from the 2018 global audiobook trends article:

Audiobooks are growing faster than any other digital publishing.

Nearly half of all listeners are under 35 and listen to 15 books a year, claiming that “audiobooks help you finish more books.”

People choose audio for multi-tasking, portability, and the novelty of someone else reading to them.

Podcasts (another growing industry) are a gateway to audiobooks.

Some publishers are skipping ebook production and going straight to audio, recognizing that audiobook sales are independently increasing.

Are you convinced yet?Before you go hire someone or crank up your voice memos,read on to see how best to create your audiobook.

#2 – How do you make an audiobook?

SPS has a great post here about how to make an audiobook. It includes tips on prepping your content, recording, hiring narrators, equipment, uploading to ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange) for Audible, and more.

Use two computers or devices. I used one to handle the recording and audio editing (I chose to do simultaneous editing), and the other to read from while revising. No matter how many times you edit your book, you’ll always want to tweak something; recording your audiobook is no exception. If you’ve hired out your formatting, make notes for them of what you’ve changed.

Keep plenty of water nearby. One time while recording some of my music in a studio, the producer told me to take a drink of water before every take. I didn’t realize how much difference it made until I tried it. Take a deep breath and a big swig before each take.

Don’t beat yourself up for tripping over words. If it keeps happening, take a break. “Ahh! Can you even read? Come on, Michael!” Believe me, I understand the frustration.

Invite or hire a professional or semi-professional to help with setup. If you have any musician friends or podcaster buddies, have them help set up your environment and equipment, down to chair placement and lighting. I made the mistake of trying to do it all by myself ( cue Eric Carman ) and I ended up re-recording my book 1.5 times—that’s 2.5 total! It was a mess.

BONUS: A crucial piece of advice: listen to audiobooks in your genre. This should sound familiar, as it’s common advice to read the genre you write in, and it’s just as important to listen to it. To be a great writer, you must be an avid reader (and listener!)

With so much screen fatigue, it’s nice to break away and maybe look at, I don’t know, the sky or something real. Try that now…I’ll wait…

Let’s get back to business! What makes a good audiobook?

#3 – What makes a good audiobook?

Conviction: Not only does your book need to be believable, but your narrator needs to convey the same conviction as you did when writing it.

Eliminate Mouth Sounds: This. Was. A. Pain. You, like me at one point, probably have no idea how much sound your mouth makes, from breath control to saliva and lip smacks. I ended up hiring someone from Fiverr to go through and edit my four-hour audiobook; the cost was around $300, which included mastering (adjusting the levels and frequencies for the specific ACX requirements ).

I would argue that ANY book can be useful as an audiobook!

“What about children’s books?”

Imagine the novelty of having the author narrate his/her own work while the kids flip through the pages, all without having to go to a book-reading.

“How about short, daily reads, like religious devotionals?”

My non-fiction book is a weekly devotional for people wanting to grow in worship,

“I’ve got you on this one: cookbooks!”

Au contraire…imagine how helpful it could be to have someone walk you through a recipe in real time, hands-free. If that doesn’t quite work, it can still serve to push people to your digital/physical book for reference and pictures.

In fact, some audiobooks come with companion content such as Good Clean Fun by Nick Offerman.

By now, you’re seriously considering this audiobook thing. Logically, the next thing to work out is WHO should narrate your book.

#4 – Who should narrate my audiobook?

Having a perfect book will not save you from poor narration. Audible makes it a point to offer a Performance section in their reviews.

Did you also notice the tab below for Amazon Reviews? That’s even more reason to get the “ WHAT ” right in this entire process.

When it comes to narration, there are two ways to go: do it yourself or hire it out.

There a plenty of advantages here. If you choose this route, you can either set up your own recording space or purchase studio time with an engineer.

Many readers will say they prefer authors to narrate their own works because it’s more authentic to the intentions. However, not all writers are great narrators.

Use a phone app or voice recorder and try reading a chapter into it.

Listen back with objective ears, imagining your ideal reader.

Ask yourself if you were drawn in to the story or distracted by the narration. Be honest with yourself, and consider what it would take to make it better: cadence, pronunciation, accent, or perhaps a professional narrator. *If you choose to tackle accents, do your best to respect them rather than stereotyping. Audiobook listeners tend to care about accuracy and honor. For example, in England alone, there are half a dozen or more accents. In America, southern accents vary across states and regions.

Send the sample to an objective friend (preferably one familiar with the accents and style you’re going for), and be open to honest feedback.

If you decide self-narrating isn’t for you, then you can hire a professional.

Voice: fiction or non, nailing the voice is a make-it-or-break-it detail for many listeners. In fact, Audible has an entire section of its reviews dedicated to Narrator Performance. There is a common consensus that says having an non-preferred narrator is one of the biggest turn-offs for listeners.

Communication: you’ll want to make sure the narrator gets the pronunciations right as well as any specific occasions of sarcasm, humor, drama, timing, or more. They can fix some things in post-production, but changing the pronunciation of a main character’s name after finishing the book would be nearly impossible. It’s not as simple as “Find and Replace” (one of my favorite word processing functions!). ACX has great videos to help with such things.

#5 – When to start making an audiobook?

You and I both know this to be true, so here are some things you can do right now to become a better writer and jump start your audiobook production.

Try the self-narrating tip from #4. For me, I’ve always loved doing impressions and finding new voices and accents. In fact, it has influenced my writing; I now try to include characters whose voices I know I can give life to. Recently, I made one of my characters Scottish, an accent I’ve always admired and respected.

Get started listening with Audible right now if you haven’t already, and start reading reviews, specifically in the Performance section. There are also plenty of free audiobook sources out there.

Continue polishing your book as best you can. Adjustments to the written word are fairly easy, but punching in seamless narration is nearly impossible. It doesn’t have to be perfect though! There is always the option to re-record your book (and likely be even better the next time around) or hire someone else to do it.

Imposter syndrome for writers is normal. It happens.

Writing isn’t without its challenges. Like any creative endeavor, there are roadblocks that sometimes obscure the path from your original idea to its final creation.

I’m talking about its sneaky sibling: imposter syndrome.

Here’s how to overcome imposter syndrome for writers:

Analyzing Imposter Syndrome

When you think of the phrase “imposter syndrome,” what comes to mind?

A shadowy figure dressed in mustache and sunglasses? A copy cat watching your every move?

Fortunately, by following the tips outlined in this post, you’ll be able to identify your imposter syndrome and kick it to the curb!

What Is Imposter Syndrome?

Imposter syndrome for writers is when you compare yourself to other writers to the extent that you question your own ability in writing. Imposter syndrome can apply to any creative field, but is prevalent for writers.

On the most basic level, imposter syndrome results in doubting your work. At a severe level, it results in a refusal to engage creatively.

What do I mean by “a refusal to engage creatively”?

Fearful of being inadequate, you don’t reach for your pen to jot down that amazing story idea. Distracted by other writers, you leave your page blank. Though you have great concepts, you don’t show them to anyone because you’re afraid you’re not good enough.

Do I Have Imposter Syndrome?

Bookstores are usually a writer’s paradise. Home to a wonderful collection of different authors and book genres, it’s usually any writer’s dream to display their own work on the shelves.

But to someone with imposter syndrome, this place is a hotbed for competition. If you have imposter syndrome, you might feel the urge to instantly compare yourself to every book you come across. You might start thinking thoughts like: Their idea is so cool! Why can’t I come up with that? There are already so many successful authors…I can’t hope to be one.

Imposter syndrome might affect your writing itself.

Writing workshops are great opportunities to gather feedback and make your work stronger. But someone with imposter syndrome might freeze up when it comes time to share their work.

If you have imposter syndrome, you might start picking your piece apart, embarrassed to utter a single sentence.

How Can Imposter Syndrome Impact My Work?

When someone has imposter syndrome, it’s not just the author who suffers…it’s their work. Imposter syndrome can snuff out someone’s will to write, that key energy that pushes anyone to even start typing in the first place.

You’ll start questioning everything you put to paper; you’ll question the good reviews you get on your work and instead focus on the bad.

That sort of mindset tramples the creative process.

But you can quiet self-doubt and endless comparisons today.

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

If you have imposter syndrome, you’re not without luck.

Here are just a few of many tips and strategies you can employ to hop back on that writing saddle.

#1 – Force yourself to write

This might be the greatest hurdle to overcome. But the first step in overcoming any writing issue is by taking to the page.

Start simple—you don’t have to write a memoir of 200 pages just yet. If you can’t think of any imaginative ideas or writing prompts, write about something that relates to you, like your morning commute.

If pressure forces you to write, add a timer. Hop onto Google and search for a stopwatch, or go the old-fashioned route and grab your own. Scribble down a few basic themes or ideas, set that timer for five minutes, and start writing!

I was first exposed to this tip in one of my college classes last semester. Engaging in it truly helped me shed my imposter syndrome.

Taking to the whiteboard, the teacher wrote a handful of basic words. Robot. July. Clouds. Balloon. It seemed silly, but this exercise helped the entire class.

Instead of being scared to read their work aloud, everyone was eager to share what they wrote. To my shock, I was too!

The goal isn’t to use every single theme you wrote down. If you do, that’s terrific! The main goal of this challenge is putting yourself back into a writing mindset.

Challenging yourself through creative writing is just one of many ways to diminish your imposter syndrome.

Up for taking this challenge with others? Make it a party and grab some friends. Instead of focusing on who wrote the “best” story, though, try celebrating the simple fact that you’re all making something creative.

The more you spend thinking of ideas and diving back into your writing, the less you’ll think of other people’s opinions.

#2 – Create balance in your life

A stressed mind creates stressful scenarios. Look for what is lacking in your schedule—or what’s eating it up. Are you getting an adequate amount of sleep each night? Is your work environment clashing with your mental health? If you’re tense, try deep-breathing exercises, meditation, or yoga.

Here’s a great table on creating your writing environment:

- isolate yourself from family/friends/even the family dog

- remind everyone it's YOUR time

- or resort to using a stand-up desk for more energy

- fill the area with motivational quotes

- make sure you're physically comfortable for the next 30 minutes or an hour

Choose Beneficial Background Noise

- turn off all sounds if it distracts you

- turn on lyric-less music to help you concentrate

- choose energizing music to help you focus

If schedules rule your day, pencil in some time to write. Follow rule #1 and take advantage of gaps in your day. Scribble some sentences while you’re munching during your lunch break, or make a habit of journaling before bed.

Not only will this help you make long-term progress, but it’ll also help you fall into a writing routine.

However, you normally gather your ideas, make sure you’re actually jotting them down. Nothing hurts more than thinking of your next great story idea and forgetting it because you didn’t have it on paper.

The easier you make it for you to find your character bios or world maps, the less stress you’ll be putting on yourself when it comes time to write.

The more you declutter your mind, the more room you’ll have to start focusing on your work.

#3 – Create balance in your feedback

It’s no secret that if you want to grow as a writer, you have to accept feedback. For someone with imposter syndrome, though, accepting negative feedback is especially difficult. The solution?

Realize that feedback is supposed to enhance your work. Instead of attaching yourself to the feedback, remain subjective.

The joy of being an author and sharing our work with the world is that we come across various viewpoints. Some might agree with us, and others might not. And that’s okay! You can decide when and how you want to respond to reviews.

Feedback like this is not worth your time:

For starters, this type of feedback is rude. More importantly, feedback like this doesn’t offer any suggestions or justifications. You can toss “feedback” of this sort out the window. Instead, look for feedback partners who will lift you up.

“I really liked the tone of this piece. It was consistent and locked me in. Yet, I’m not sure if your main character’s actions are justifiable. I didn’t see any character development in this chapter and I think adding that would help.”

Positive, constructive feedback creates balance.

As an author, positive feedback lets you know what you did well and what you need to improve on. Creating this balanced feedback opens up an honest and respectful dialogue between writing partners.

Cultivating these conversations helps eliminate imposter syndrome.

#4 – Interview other writers

No one is immune to self-doubt. But one way to start squashing that feeling is by interviewing authors.

Here are a few sample questions you might ask:

Have you ever faced imposter syndrome?

Are you still battling imposter syndrome?

What tips have you used to overcome your imposter syndrome?

What are your favorite writing exercises?

What are your favorite inspirational quotes?

What book serves as your inspiration?

What is the best feedback you have ever received?

What is the worst feedback you have ever received?

How do you overcome negative feedback?

What might you say to your younger writing self?

What is your biggest writing achievement?

What are your writing goals?

If they are not finished with the journey of overcoming imposter syndrome, you can help each other. Try tip number one and get lost in the sample writing activity together—or create your own!

By engaging with other writers, you’ll start realizing that most of them have the same concerns you do. You’ll realize that writing is a personal—and community-filled—journey. While we might feel excluded in our writing dens, bent over the keys, nothing is more welcoming than knowing we’re not alone.

#5 – Realize every story and writer is different

Your western murder mystery is probably very different than someone else’s comedy road trip novella.

It makes sense that comparing those two ideas is rather difficult. Even at the surface, it’s rather hard to come up with like-minded ideas. Gunslingers and modern-day travel sagas don’t exactly share too many similarities.

But, what if you did? Finding common ground in another work shouldn’t spell the end to your writing career.

Let Stanley Kubrick’s words be of inspiration to you:

“Everything has already been done. Every story has been told…it’s our job to do it one better.”

Take it upon yourself to add your creative twist to your work.

When those comparison-laden thoughts surface, realize that every writer brings something different to the keyboard.

#6 – Everyone starts somewhere

If you’re anything like me, you didn’t pick up writing skillsets overnight. Instead, it’s been a long journey from the day you first started scribbling on paper to where you are at now.

Instead of comparing yourself to others, compare yourself to…yourself. Think about how long you’ve been writing. If you’ve been writing since elementary school, it’s likely your younger self would be in awe about what you’ve written throughout the years.

Picturing that little kid smiling over your skills might be enough motivation to keep going.

Even if you just picked up the creative pen last week, every day is a new experience. Every sentence written is a new notch of knowledge added to your belt. Root for yourself.

Final Tips for Getting Over Imposter Syndrome for Writers

If following numerous tasks stresses you out, nothing says you have to follow all of these pointers at once. Try them out of order, mix them around. If you would rather find a writing community first, then start working on how to balance your feedback, that’s perfectly fine.

Conversely, if you like following guides step-by-step, give it a shot!

Is goal-setting your calling? Try marking on your calendar when you would like to erase your imposter syndrome. Sometimes, having a feasible end date serves as great motivation.

Regardless, by following these steps, you’ll start living the inverse of imposter-ridden scenarios.

Stepping into a bookstore, you’ll feel energized looking at the latest best-sellers and fresh faces on the shelves. You might even picture your work standing proudly amongst them.

Heading to your next writer’s conference, you come prepared. You’re happy to gather feedback on your work and even happier to share your piece aloud.

You don’t compare yourself to the big leagues or your writing partner. You see other writers as writing allies, no matter if they’re writing about a space opera and you’re writing about an romance saga in Venice.

Most importantly…You realize how imperative it is to foster a healthy community of writers—and you’re ecstatic being a part of one.

I get how frustrating it can be.

Writing the book might seem like the most difficult part…and then you have to actually title the darn thing!

When it comes to writing a book , coming up with reasonable book title ideas is surprisingly one of the hardest parts to complete. It’s difficult because titles are essentially short hooks that advertise your book using the fewest words possible.

It’s also what readers look for first when they discover new books, and can take less than 5 seconds to make a decision.

To help spur your creative process, we’ve created a few essential guidelines for you to follow as you craft the perfect book title ideas for your masterpiece.

Since there are different title considerations for fiction and non-fiction, we broke these two topics down separately into:

Let’s create your selling title!

How to Choose a Book Title for Non-Fiction

As you begin crafting your book title ideas for your non-fiction book, the key is knowing that non-fiction readers are looking for solutions.

Whether it’s losing weight, becoming a master in sales, or becoming better at fostering relationships, they’re simply looking for a book that will solve their problem.

To leverage this idea, here are a set of rules to consider:

#1 – Use a Book Title Generator Tool

There are a ton of book title generators out there. And if you’re someone who lacks even the inspiration for a title, these can help you big time.

Book title generators are great tools because they can give you a wide range of different names to choose from.

One thing many authors face when choosing a title is sticking too close to the name they previously thought of. This can blind you to potential other titles in various formats.

However, some of these tools can fall very flat, resulting in names that don’t make sense and should not be used as actual titles.

Therefore, we didn’t just round up a list of every book title generator we could find. Instead, we tested a huge list and decided that these are truly the only ones worth your time.

Give these a try, and comment down below your favorite! Also, let us know if you want any book title generators we should add to this list.

#2 – Your Title Must Include a Solution to a Problem

Your title should be crystal clear on what your readers will achieve by reading your book. Experts say that a title with a clear promise or a guarantee of results will further intrigue your readers.

Here are some questions to consider when creating your title:

Are you teaching a desirable skill?

Can your personal discoveries impact someone’s life?

Can your book solve a very difficult problem?

Here are our favorite book titles that offer a clear solution to a problem with promising results:

Asperger’s Rules! How to Make Sense of School and Friendship by Blythe Grossman

How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss

Book Title Ideas Action Plan:

Write down the best solutions or teachings your book offers and form these into potential book title ideas.

#3 – Use a Subtitle for Clarity

A great non-fiction title employs a subtitle to clarify what the desired outcome will be from reading your book.

In this video clip, Chandler explains in 5 simple steps how to create a compelling subtitle:

Here are some questions to consider when creating your subtitle:

How can your subtitle further expand on achieving a desirable outcome?

What are the biggest pain points that your subtitle can provide a solution for?

How can you further address your innovative solution in the subtitle?

Here are our favorite book subtitles that spell out what their readers can expect from reading their books:

The Crossroads of Should and Must: Find and Follow Your Passion by Elle Luna

Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives by Gretchen Rubin

Work Rules! Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead by Laszlo Bock

Book Title Ideas Action Plan:

Make a list of 10 attention-grabbing subtitles that promise big outcomes and other positive benefits.

#4 – Make Your Title Unforgettable

Catchy titles are memorable, boring titles are not. So make an effort to be more creative and fun with your book title! Use alliterations to make your title easier to read and remember. A memorable and light-hearted title adds additional character to your book and is also a great way to attract readers.

Here are some questions to consider when creating your memorable title:

Will a fun title turn a normally boring subject into something more interesting?

Will adding humor to your title further entice readers?

Will a cleverly written title stand out from other books in this genre?

Here are our favorite books that engaged us with clever titles and subtitles:

Me Talk Pretty One Day and Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris

Trust me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt

Book Title Ideas Action Plan:

Experiment with different types of styles and poll your audience to determine whether a comedic, shocking, or even bizarre title will be the most appealing to your target audience.

No matter which method works best on creating a compelling title for nonfiction books, a good thing to remember is to always test multiple titles with different audiences to determine which book title generates the biggest response.

Getting good feedback is the only way to know for certain which title is perfect for your book.

How to Generate Book Title Ideas for Fiction

Generally, fiction titles are allowed more creative wiggle room than their non-fiction counterparts. That being said, an effective fiction title must still pique your readers’ attention.

And while it’s true that you can title your fictional book with random names, it still must catch the reader’s attention.

Here are some key guidelines to keep in mind:

#1 – Your Title Should be Appropriate to Your Genre

Your novel title should use language that resonates with both your book genre and target audience. For example, a romantic book can call for dreamy language whereas an action book can warrant strong and powerful words.

This means that you must know your book’s genre and words that best fit the style of title.

Here are some questions to consider for appropriate genre titles:

What genre best fits this story?

Which are the perfect choice words for your genre?

Here are our favorite fictional titles based on genre:

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Godfather by Mario Puzo

Book Title Ideas Action Plan:

Based on the genre of your book, pick out a few keywords that best suit its category and evoke strong emotions in your readers.

#2 – Your Book Title Should Pique Your Reader’s Interest

A great fiction title teases and leaves your audience wanting more. You want your audience to read your title and think, “I must read what’s behind that great book cover!”

Here are some questions to consider on how to pique interest with your title:

Which key components of your story best captivates your readers?

What emotions do you want your readers to have once they read your title?

Here are our favorite fictional titles that drew our attention:

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Book Title Ideas Action Plan:

Choose a theme that will best draw your reader’s attention. Come up with 5 titles that will catch your reader’s attention and pique their curiosity.

#3 – Look to Your Characters for Book Title Inspiration

A great book title captures the spirit of the protagonist. Some authors simply use the hero’s name for their title.

Others have combined the names of their hero along with their special qualities to inform the audience about their protagonist’s accomplishments like Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White.

On the flip-side, a formidable antagonist can also be an amazing book title.

A sinister name can convey a sense of dread and expectation for what’s to come like Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. Both choices are great title ideas and should be seriously considered for your fictional book.

Here are some questions to consider when including a character as a title:

Between the hero and villain, who impacts the story more?

Are there any stunning qualities from your characters that will draw a reader’s emotion?

Can the plot of the story be summed up as a title?

Here are our favorite fictional books thatuse characters for its title:

Harry Potter (Literary Series) by J. K. Rowling

Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Book Title Ideas Action Plan:

Determine which character best conveys what the story will tell in your title. You may also include creative words or themes to further showcase the character’s unique qualities or the journey itself.

#3 – Get Feedback From Your Target Audience

The people who will know if your title is a good fit best, are the people who would pick your book out of a lineup.

This can be difficult if you’re not a part of a writing group or aren’t active on social media.

However, here are some tips for getting book title feedback:

Create a poll in a Facebook writing group

Reach out to some friends or family you know read in your genre and ask for their feedback

Post a poll on Twitter with your various options

Do all of these in order to get a wide variety of input

Your Next Steps

Ultimately, the title of your book depends on you, the author. By following these constructive guidelines, you will be able to generate a number of book title ideas you can use to find the perfect one that grasps the attention of readers and soon become an Amazon bestseller in no time!

#1 – Join your FREE training!

This training was created just for you. Make sure to save your spot and sign up right now so you can learn exactly what it takes to write and publish your book within 90 days…or even less!

You won’t find this guide anywhere else. Take advantage of this offer so you can spark multiple book title ideas in as little as an hour!

#2 – Create a list of book title ideas

Now is the time to fire up that imagination and start brainstorming! We gave you a number of different actionable steps to help you generate book title ideas that work well.

Now is the time to make a list of every potential book title you can think of! The more, the merrier.

When this is done, you’ll want to go through and jot down any that really make you feel something in a separate list. These are the ones you’ll use for the next step.

#3 – Get feedback about the top title

It’s hard to pick a title by yourself because you’re too close to the book. What will help you find the best title is putting the options out there for your target audience to choose.

A fantastic way to do this is to join writing and publishing groups online where you can post polls.

For example, our Facebook Mastermind Community has a very large number of experienced authors who respond to polls just like these on a near-daily basis.

Locate a group you like, join, and start polling about your title!

Your author bio matters. As much as we wish we could write up a few words about our lives and just stick it up for the world to see, there’s a lot more to it than that.

How you write our author bio can change the way potential readers and those who’ve already purchased view you and your platform.

But knowing the best way to write your author bio and how to make it speak to your readers in a specific way is the key…and we’ll cover just that for you, with examples.

Your Author Bio & Such Details DO Matter

If you’re looking for a deep-dive on your author bios and the self-publishing industry as a whole, your best bet is to check out this video.

Not only will you learn a lot you didn’t know about self-publishing a book as a whole, but you’ll learn why these small details are so important.

How to Write an Author Bio That’s Impactful

So you’ve finished your draft and are ready to tackle the next steps of putting it out there in the world. (Promise me that you’re not procrastinating by reading this blog! If you are, get back to writing right now!)

The first step is to figure how who you want to be perceived, how you want to brand yourself, is in your author bio.

This is the blurb that will go on your Amazon author page, your Book Bub author profile, your Goodreads page, your author web page, on the back of your book and so forth. It’s a really important little piece of work that you want to get right!

While your book cover design is the most important tool when marketing a book, your author bio is easily number two. This is where you convince your audience why you are the best person to tell them about the matter at hand.

It’s a place to connect with your readers and build your legitimacy.

You’ll want to stay factual while interesting. You want to make yourself approachable and toot your own horn, just a little bit.

Here are some tips to master these.

#1 – Author Bio Formatting

Although you are writing the bio, it still needs to be written in the third person no matter how quirky it is. In other words, avoid using “I” as your sentence subject but utilize your name or last name instead.

Additionally, you’ll have many drafts and varieties of this author bio. You’ll want to change it up depending on the application.

You may have a punchier version on your website while your bio for that speaking engagement session at a writing conference that you’re leading (and we’re confident that will happen for you!) will be more serious.

Today, we’re working on the basic draft that you can tweak as needed.

Remember to keep the bio short, less than 300 words. It seems that three sentences is a well-tested length (more on this later). Your author bio is not an entire list of every single award you’ve won or your life story.

Even if you did win the “Young Writer’s” award in middle school, unless you’re still in middle school, this little known fact probably doesn’t deserve to be on the back of your book.

Feel free to have a “full accolades” section on your author website where you can list every single thing you’ve ever done, won or written.

Your mom will be super proud of this list but readers browsing Amazon don’t need to get into the major details.

Use third-person POV when writing it

Add relevant/recent achievements

Minimize the number of sentences within those 300 words.

And remember: an author bio longer than 300 words or so will take up too much space and become an oversell.

#2 – Know Your Readers

Your bio is an extension of your book.

Write it for your audience. Keep the same writing style and connect this text to your subject matter.

If you wrote a book on productivity, a lengthy sentence about your lazy vacations doing nothing is not relevant and in fact, can persuade readers to avoid your books because they’ll think you to be uncredible.

Here are a few tips for getting to know your audience:

Interact with your readers on social platforms

Listen intently to the feedback during the beta reading process

Run your author bio by a group for feedback and adjustments

Ask people close to you if the bio embodies your personality and is accurate

#3 – Include Your Background

In order to sell yourself to new readers, you will want to include your pertinent background. If you happen to have other books, do include their titles and how many languages they have have been translated into or how many countries they’ve been sold in.

List your related education and memberships. Any higher education beyond college is usually noteworthy too.

Keep your lists short though. Only list three books, for instance, and a couple of memberships. A list of ten books, three degrees, and five memberships will only be skimmed by potential book buyers at the very best.

A huge list like this will become white noise so only include the most important and interesting stuff.

Your fanboys and girls (and your mom’s friends) will look to your aforementioned author website for more info and you can keep the tidy, complete list there.

#4 – Stay Factual

Statements like, “has always dreamed of writing a book,” while certainly may be true, are hard to back up and aren’t going to help sell your book.

Another reason for this is if you claim achievements that aren’t true or invalid, there will always be someone there to point it out in an attempt to cut you down.

This can reduce your credibility, and therefore, readers’ trust in you.

#5 – Use your personality

One of the best things about being an author is that you get to put your personality, views of the world, values, and more into your writing.

What some don’t understand about authors is: if a reader likes you, they’re very likely to enjoy what you write, because your essence bleeds into the pages.

Being able to showcase this with your personality can do worlds for your readers connecting with you and wanting to read your book out of curiosity if nothing else.

Here are a few tips to add personality to your author bio:

Exaggerate your tone just a little in order for it to be more evident

Be goofy and creative with how you describe yourself (See Jenna Moreci’s example in #11)

#6 – Jot down an achievement or award

In addition to your backlist of books, your awards, and education, you’ll want your readers to know any higher-profile stuff you have going on.

Again, if any of these this happened decades ago, it may not be relevant. But if you have a quarter-million followers on Twitter or on your blog, this will sell your authority (and yeah, a quarter-million sounds better than 250,000 but are the same number!).

If your writing has been nominated for awards but didn’t make the cut, that is often fitting for an author bio too. “Award-nominated” anything is pretty cool!

#7 – Get Personal

Provide a bit of personal information to connect with your audience. The reason for this is if a reader sees something they have in common with you, it’s an automatic bond and gives them more of a reason to buy.

It’s standard for authors to share where they live and what their family make-up is.

A few non-divisive hobbies and interests are also often included. If you have experiences that are related, such as extensive travel or extreme situations, they may relevant to share as well.

Again, know your audience and choose wisely. Maybe (terribly) you were part of a cult as a child?

That’s really interesting but unless you’re sharing this story in the book or proves your authority on the subject at hand, skip including it in your author bio!

Bonus Author Bio Tip: Keep these bits broad enough to include a larger number of people. For example, if you play the flute, simply mention that you’ve been playing an instrument for however many years as this is more inclusive, and there’s a higher chance of others connecting with you.

#8 – Chandler Bolt’s Author Bio Example

We all known and love Chandler Bolt, Self Publishing School Founder. We wouldn’t be here learning about writing without his hard work and book writing methods. Chandler’s author bio on the back of his book Published is only three sentences long but packs in a lot of authority building, states facts plus toots his horn a bit.

These three sentences along with the killer book cover art work well to sell Chandler’s mastery of book publishing.

Chandler’s Amazon Author Page is another version of his author bio. Here, Chandler gets really personal stating that his birth was almost miscarried!

He also gives some background about his entrepreneurial experience and awards.

#9 – Joanna Penn’s Author Bio Example

Joanna Penn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller and nonfiction author who also writes under the pen names of JF Penn and Penny Appleton.

She’s written and self-published nearly 30 books so she really knows what she’s doing. On her Book Bub author page, Joanna’s short bio is only (surprise!) three sentences.

It concisely tells potential readers a short version of her accolades and narrows down her writing style quickly. Then it tells us where she lives and one of her favorite drinks.

On her own website, The Creative Penn, Joanna provides a different three-sentence version of her short bio and then gets into the details about all her books, the many awards and best-selling experience she’s had plus where she lives and her favorite wine (a different drink mentioned here!)! Joanna’s short bio on her page is three sentences and shoves in a ton of accolades into a small space.

#10 – Amy Twiggs’s Author Bio Example

SPS alumni, Amy Twiggs, wrote her first book the Self Publishing School way and can now call herself a best selling author among her many other accomplishments (and there are many!).

Here she tells about her family, her gymnastic prowess as well as her authority and love of athletic mental training. T

his all builds strong authority for her book and brand.

On her Goodreads page about the same book, she sells the book by telling prospective readers that she’s been where they are and know “what it feels like to try your best and to fail.

I also know how it feels to work hard to achieve your goals.” She sells her wisdom and experience. Note that it is the norm to write in the first person on Goodreads but this is a big rule breaker everywhere else.

All of these examples have variations of author bios written in just a slightly different way for different applications. They all say very similar things about the same person.

#11 – Jenna Moreci’s Author Bio Example

Not only does Moreci have ample experience when it comes to self-publishing, but she’s also among one of the best examples of how to market your book effectively, including how she’s written her author bio.

Here’s an example of her Amazon author page with her bio:

Notice how Moreci keeps it short, brief, but very clear with who she is, what she writes, and even has enough personal information to let readers into her life at an appropriate level.

If we take a look at her personal author website’s “about” page, we’ll see she has something similar, but with a few more additions, including her books and more.

In this example, Jenna has also doused us with her personality, giving us insight into how she operates and therefore, the tone of some of her books.

Some Additional Author Bio Ideas

Know the very essence of your book and find keywords that your readers may search for to find your book. When crafting your author bio, use these keywords that search engines can catch.

Although it may be irrelative in some bio spaces, add links to any free giveaways (we’ve got some ideas on that here..) on your website, your newsletter, social media or whatever web presence you have.

Also, feel free to add a call to action where applicable.

Final Author Bio Thoughts

Remember that there is no perfect bio, and there are no two alike. Although these are all good ideas, it’s not an exact formula. Your author bio will be unique and will change as you write more books and gain more accolades (because we know you will!).

Now tell me the truth. Is your book really done? We can help you finish your manuscript and really make use of this carefully crafted author bio! Schedule a webinar with Chandler today to get started!

Do you have more author bio tips to share with our writing community? Do you think bios should be longer than three sentences or do you like this standard size?

Knowing how to get an ISBN as a self-published author is crucial.

Since you can’t publish without an ISBN, we’re helping you learn how in order to publish the right way and why you even need an ISBN number in the first place.

But you don’t have to even worry about an ISBN number if you don’t have a book ready to publish, right? And it won’t even matter if you don’t publish that book the right way…

False. Becoming an author is about more than just the book, it’s about the business as well, and we’ll break down a very important part of that.

What does ISBN stand for?

ISBN stands for International Standard Book number and is a 13-digit code used to uniquely identify your book amongst the millions out there.

What is an ISBN number used for?

Essentially, an ISBN number, or International Standard Book Number, is a regulated 10- or 13-digit identification number which allows libraries, publishers, and book dealers to locate and identify specific books.

But where did these ISBN numbers even start and why do we have them?

In the early days of World War 2, the Japanese military sent messages back and forth and the Allies needed to crack their intricate numbering system to get an edge in the war and turn the tables.

But how did they crack this complex system?

MI6 recruited a young mathematician named Gordon Foster to work as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park , where he scanned millions of numbers looking for patterns in the code.

Decades later, when the book industry needed a standardized tracking program in order to coordinate the increasing number of titles being published each year, Gordon Foster was approached by WH Smith , a British retailer, to write a report on how to create such a system.

This report led to the 9-digit standard book number which went live in the UK in 1967 and eventually led to the ISBN system used worldwide.

Several years later, this turned into a 10-digit numbering system when a policy was needed for new editions and variations. Then, in 2007, the ISBN switched to a 13-digit format and is now the standard used everywhere.

How much does an ISBN cost?

ISBNs cost about $125 for one number in the US. However, if you purchase more than one at a time, this cost could be lowered.

If you publish physical copies through IngramSpark, you get your ISBN for only $85

Buying your ISBNs in bulk can save you money if you intend to publish more than one book

If you’re in Canada or South African, it’s possible to get an ISBN issued through your government

Australians pay about $40 for an ISBN

UK residents will pay somewhere around 89 pounds for an ISBN

Here’s a table of the ISBN prices and what you can expect to pay:

What is the purpose of an ISBN number?

ISBN stands for “International Standard Book Number” and before it was implemented in 1967, the method and system for cataloging, ordering, organizing, and locating a specific book was a chaotic mess.

Today, to get your book into a bookstore, a library, or almost any book distribution channel on the planet, you need an ISBN number.

But the process can be really confusing for new authors. There are a number of questions you might be asking yourself about ISBN numbers:

How does this long string of numbers on the back of books work?

These are all questions answered in this article.

Let’s unweave the intricate web of how to get an ISBN and how they work in the publishing industry.

How To Read an ISBN number with an ISBN Example

As of 2007, the ISBN is a 13-digit number. This came about in part because of the large volume of eBooks now being published every year.

Knowing how to break down and interpret these 13 digits aren’t of much use and interest to most book readers, but for publishers and distributors, it’s a necessity.

If you want to publish lots of books under your own publishing name then it’s something you may want to pay attention to. You can tell a lot about a book and its author by reading the ISBN number.

Identify the specific title

Identify the type of book they are buying

Identify the physical properties of that particular book

Identify the geographical location of the publisher

Let’s break it down and look at what all these numbers mean.

Here is the ISBN for a particular book:

You’ll notice this sequence is divided into 5 number combinations. But the first three digits “978” indicates that this string of numbers is for an ISBN. If we remove these digits we have:

The 3 is the language group identifier which here indicates German. For English speaking countries a 0 or 1 is used. Numbers for language identification generally range from 1-5.

Here is a list of the most common Group identifiers:

It’s worth mentioning that the rarer the language, the longer the number identifier will be. For example, Indonesia is 602 whereas Turkey is 9944. You can reference the complete list at the International ISBN Agency .

Next is “16”. This is the “publisher code,” and it identifies the publisher on any book that has this number. This number can be as long as 9 digits.

“148410” — This six-digit series represents the title of the book. The publisher assigns this to a specific book or edition of the book, such as a hardcover version or paperback. This could be a single digit or stretch to multiple digits.

“0” is the last digit and is known as the “check digit”. This number is mathematically calculated as a fixed digit. This is always a single digit.

This number indicates that the rest of the ISBN numbers have been scanned and is calculated based on the other digits in the code.

Where is the ISBN number on books?

The ISBN is usually found above the barcode on the back of the book. However, they’re not the same.

The barcode is much different than the ISBN number.

This is an important distinction because:

When you purchase an ISBN you don’t automatically get a barcode

The barcode of your book can change, while your ISBN can remain the same.

We’ve already discussed what data the ISBN carries, however, the barcode includes extra information such as the book’s fixed price and the currency it’s being sold in.

Barcodes are a necessary element of your book as they allow for most retailers and distributors to scan your ISBN for retail and inventory reasons.

The standard barcode is known as the EAN (European Article Number) barcode , and your barcode must be in this format to sell your book in bookstores.

Do ISBNs expire?

No, ISBN numbers never expire or go bad. In fact, if you have one from a long time ago, you can simply reconstruct it for use.

The Book Designer also has a great resource for learning how to reconstruct an ISBN if you finally decided to write and self-publish the book you’ve been thinking about since you bought the ISBN.

ISBN Search: How to Find Your Book’s ISBN

If you want to look up the ISBN of any book out there, you can do so easily by visiting the website ISBNSearch.org.

You’ll be greeted with a screen like the one above where you will be prompted to type in the ISBN, author name, or book title.

After hitting “search,” you will have a list of books matching your searched items with the both the 13-digit ISBN and the 10-digit, like in the example below.

How to Read a Barcode

If you look at the picture of a standard barcode, you’ll notice two barcodes side by side. The barcode that appears on the left is the EAN generated from the ISBN number.

The other number appearing on the right is a 5-digit add-on, called an EAN-5, that contains the price of the book. The first digit is a 5 and is a must for scanners to read. The 4-digits after the five indicates the price of the book.

For example, if the number reads 52995, this means the price of the book is set at $29.95. If the price of the book changes, a new barcode must be used, though the ISBN wouldn’t change.

This would only be replaced by a new ISBN number if the book is published as a new edition or as a new version.

To buy a barcode you must first purchase an ISBN. You can buy your barcodes at Bowker and they even offer a barcode-ISBN combo:

The Difference Between ASIN and ISBN

If you’ve used Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) program you’ve probably come across an ASIN. ASIN numbers are used by Amazon to manage and identify the products they are selling on their site. It’s a 10-character alphanumeric unique identifier that’s assigned by and its partners.

You can find this on your book page. In your browser, the Amazon ASIN will be after the product’s name and “dp”. The next place to find this is in your book or product details area of your book page.

However, an ASIN is not the same as an ISBN. You can only use it with Amazon. If you want to sell through other platforms or in brick and mortar stores, you’re going to need an ISBN.

Reasons Self-Published Authors Need an ISBN

If you want to publish and sell your eBook on Amazon, then the quick answer is no, it isn’t necessary. Amazon will assign your eBook an ASIN number which will be used to identify and track your title.

This might be important if you have a brick and mortar marketing strategy, or if you want your book to be accessible through libraries (more on this later), or if you’re looking to deal with wholesalers or other online retailers.

Here’s a simple rule of thumb: if you want to sell your book by means other than as an ebook on Amazon, then you’ll need an ISBN.

How do I buy an ISBN Number?

You might not even have to buy your ISBN number because of services offered to self-published authors. You can get assigned a free ISBN by Createspace , the On-Demand publishing company that has now merged with Amazon.

If you can get a free or cheap ISBN with them, then what’s the use in paying for your own one?

Here’s the problem: most of the time, you can only use those free ISBNs with the channels those companies distribute through.

Let’s say you get a free ISBN with Draft2Digital, but then you notice that there are some retail channels you can access through Smashwords that you can’t with Draft2Digital.

You can’t use the Draft2Digital ISBN with Smashwords.

Smashwords will only let you use your own ISBN or an ISBN they assign to you. So what do you do?

And now you have two ISBNs for the same book. Same book title, same book format, but two ISBNs.

You then hear of some exclusive channels you can get through eBookPartnership . The only wrinkle? You need an ISBN and they won’t take your Smashwords’ or Draft2Digital’s ISBN. So you sign up for their free ISBN instead.

The Problem with Multiple ISBNs

This problem can repeat itself again and again as you discover more ways to distribute your book. Sometimes you’ll have to pay for the ISBN, sometimes you won’t. But it leads to you having several ISBNs, all from different publishers, for the same book.

Can you picture how unprofessional that looks to a bookstore?

Wouldn’t it have been easier to start off by buying your own ISBN? Wouldn’t that make you look more professional?

Not only does this make you look unprofessional, but there are some stores that will refuse to stock your book on this basis. If you have a CreateSpace ISBN, there are a number of bookstores that will refuse to carry your book.

All of these issues can be sidestepped by simply purchasing your own ISBN through Bowker.

Libraries and ISBN Numbers

We briefly mentioned that if you want to stock your book in libraries, you’ll need an ISBN. However, that might be the furthest thing from your mind. You might have decided to focus purely on eBook publishing and what part do libraries play in eBooks?

Libraries are becoming more important to the distribution of eBooks. Overdrive is the largest supplier to schools and libraries in the world (serving more than 30,000), and they circulated more than 105 million eBooks in 2014, a 33% increase from their previous year. They also supply to retail stores globally, making $100 million in sales in 2013.

And guess what you need to be able to partner with Overdrive? Yup. An ISBN.

How to get an ISBN

ISBNs are free in many countries, provided either by the government or a publicly administered branch. However, in the US and the UK, ISBN numbers are administered by Bowker and Nielsen respectively and require you to pay.

If you’re located outside the USA you can find out your local ISBN Agency here . While ISBNs are assigned locally, you can use them internationally.

If you live in the USA, you have to get an ISBN through myidentifiers.com , run by Bowker, the only company that is authorized to administer the ISBN program in the United States. You can purchase ISBNs as a single unit or in bulk of 10, 100 or 1000.

How to Register Your Book and ISBN Number

As soon as you purchase your ISBN through Bowker or the International equivalent in your local area, and you publish your book, you should register here at Bowkerlink .

This is an automated tool that will add your book to Bowker’s Books In Print and Global Books In Print.

How Many ISBN Numbers To Get

So how many ISBNs should you get?

First off let’s clarify a few common mistakes:

You can only use an ISBN once. The ISBN is a unique number for that particular book, and can be assigned once, and only once, to that title. It can’t be used with any other book in the future, even second versions of the same book.

You don’t need an ISBN to sell in each individual country. ISBNs are international, they are just assigned locally. A US-based publisher can purchase their ISBN through Bowker, but can stock their book worldwide using that ISBN.

You need an ISBN for every specific format of the book and any new versions. Want to sell your book in print, as an eBook, and also as an audiobook? That’s great, however, you need a different ISBN for each one. If you want to publish a revised and updated version you’ll also need a new ISBN. (This doesn’t cover fixing some typos and errors).

If you create a series of books you can’t use the same ISBN for them. You can use the same ISSN, however. Many fiction and nonfiction authors have an ISSN number assigned to their book series. ISSN stands for International Standard Series Number and can be purchased from the Library of Congress . However, each book in the series will need its own ISBN.

We mentioned that in the USA you can buy ISBNs as a single unit, a bulk of 10, 100 or 1000. Here are the prices:

First off, it rarely makes sense to purchase a single ISBN. A single ISBN would cost you $125, but a bulk of 10 only costs $295. Meaning if you purchased 10, each ISBN would cost you $29.50, a 76% discount.

Buying a single ISBN might seem feasible if you only want to publish one title, but remember that you need an ISBN for each format. So if you want to publish your book as an audiobook, you’d need a brand new ISBN for that. As well as needing different ISBN numbers for your eBook and print versions.

Not to mention that you’ll need an ISBN number for any future books you publish, perhaps as sequels to your book.

We recommend that if you’re serious about making book sales, you should purchase at least a bulk of 10 ISBNs. That gives you 3 ISBN numbers to use for publishing as an eBook, in print, and as an audiobook. You can keep the remainder for any future books you might publish.

How to Get an ISBN final steps

Now that you have a very good idea how to buy and use ISBNs for your own books, all the best on setting this up. If you want to be recognized as a publisher and have your books available to a larger global audience by registering through Bowker, consider investing in your own ISBN numbers.

Think of it as buying a piece of property: You own it and it is registered in your name.

Here’s a simple actionable checklist for ISBNs.

To buy an ISBN for your next book, here is what you should do:

Under the ISBN drop down tab, click on ISBNs—Buy Here. You can select 1, 10 or 100. For a bulk purchase, go to “Buying ISBNs in Bulk” and you can contact Bowker directly to discuss your options.

Once you have your ISBN assigned, you can then use it everywhere that requires your ISBN number.

If you publish your paperback through KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), you can fill in your number in the “ Paperback Content ” section of your book when you log into your bookshelf. If you choose to have Createspace assign you an ISBN, KDP will ask for your 13-digit number if you are transferring your physical version over to KDP.

ISBN Links & Resources

These links appeared throughout the post but here they are for easy access.

https://www.isbn.org/faqs_general_questions

Bowkerlink Publisher Access System

https://commerce.bowker.com/corrections/common/home.asp

https://www.myidentifiers.com

The awful news for authors out there today is that there are plenty vanity press scams and self-publishing companies to avoid…unless you want your money stolen, that is…

If you are a self-published author, publishing your book today has never been easier. With a quick Google search, you’ll come across dozens of self-publishing companies offering publishing services for authors.

Before making any decisions, you want to check out all your options carefully. If not, you could find yourself the victim of a self-publishing scam, forking thousands of bucks over to a shady publishing company with nothing to show for it.

In this post, you’ll learn how to recognize the self-publishing scams when they cold call you…and the companies you can really trust to get your book published!

Here’s what we’ll cover in this post on self-publishing scams:

As with any lucrative industry, there are a wide range of self-publishing scams in business for one reason: To take your money.

A Vanity press publisher charges sky-high prices for author services that includes editing, formatting, cover design, and marketing.

But, all of this is outsourced to the lowest bidder and in the end, the author is left with a poor quality book and no way to market it.

“You get what you pay for” doesn’t equate when it comes to vanity press and the publishing scams they represent. You do pay top dollar, often tens of thousands, and what you get back for your investment lacks anything of value.

So, how can you avoid these self-publishing scams?

Why Authors Fall for Vanity Press Scams

There could be many reasons why someone would sign up with a scammy publishing company that wants you to pay big money up front.

There is no shortage of scams out there when it comes to self-publishing. The biggest reason authors fall into these scams is because…well, they don’t know what they should know to avoid being scammed in the first place.

The fact that you have to pay a publisher to get your book published is warning sign enough: The lies are on the wall. Most authors who fall into this trap are not published authors yet.

You are either thinking of writing a book, you’ve started writing it, or you’re done and can’t wait to get it out there.

So, when a publisher comes along offering to get their “just finished” manuscript into the hands of thousands of readers and sell millions of books worldwide, I would grab at it, too. Who wouldn’t want that?

As a first time author, you are most likely not going to write a book that sells thousands of copies. And if you do, it will not be through a company that you just paid $5,000-$10 to for this to happen.

Most soon-to-be-published self-publishers fall into the lap of predatory publishers because they need help.

For someone who wants to become a successful author, your passion to publish is so strong that it overrides the sudden impulse to take the first offer on the table.

Here are several reasons why you might fall for the vanity press trap:

You are desperate for the know-how of book publishing.

The publishing process is too complex.

You are scared of “not publishing” and want it done right now.

You are not tech-savvy and would rather pay someone to overcome the hurdles.

Your friends keep asking you “When is your book coming out?”

You know nothing about book marketing and need to hire the experts. Guess what: Vanity publishers don’t know much about it either and you’ll have to market no matter the avenue of publishing you choose.

You watched a video of a self-published author who just signed a 6-figure deal with a large publisher…and you think that is what usually happens.

Before you make any hasty decisions, stop and breathe. If you need help with publishing your book [and everyone does] there is a right way and…

The other way that steals all your hard-earned dollars.

My hope is that you read this post before signing anything. If you can know the danger signs to watch for, you’ll pull yourself back from making a decision that costs you thousands of dollars, not to mention the heavy burden of regret later.

Early Warning Signs: The Lies of Vanity Press

Vanity presses are generally a bad idea all around, but we’ll cover some specific ways they can scam you and why they’re often on the list of self-publishing companies to avoid.

How Vanity Press Publishers Scam You

It is actually easy to spot a predatory publisher. I only hope you get to this post before they get to you. Here are the 5 big signs you are at risk of being scammed.

#1 — The company asks for publishing fees. This should be enough right here. Although Hybrid Publishers require authors to pay for all the publishing services upfront, they usually split the fees later.

A vanity press publisher will charge thousands for a publishing package. You are told that the book sales will be recouped later through book sales…which almost never happen. Don’t listen to the so-called “reviews and testimonials” on the websites. These are rigged, of course.

#2 — “We will publish your book for you on Amazon.” Let me be clear about this: Publishing on Amazon is super easy, even if you have limited tech skills. Not to mention Amazon has an excellent support system in place. The response time to inquiries is less than 24 hours and they are very detailed when it comes to responses.

A vanity publisher will make this sound more complicated than it really is. They will “take care of everything” and upload the book for you. What this also means is you lose control over making any future changes to the book. The only person that should be uploading the book to Amazon is YOU under your own account.

#3 — Charges for A Reading Fee. Never. This just isn’t done. A traditional publishing house never asks for this. If you are told by the sales rep they will read your book for a certain fee, red flag this. The “reading fee” scam is less common today, but just in case you do run up against a company that tries this old scam.

With a real publisher, nobody makes money until the book is selling. Actually, this practice has fallen the wayside these days and it would be rare to come across. But there is always someone willing to try…

#4 — The publisher will buy you an ISBN [because they are so hard to get]. You can buy an ISBN through Bowker.com if you reside within the USA. The cost is $125.00. In the U.K. you go through Nielson. In Canada ISBNs are free through ISBN Canada. If you buy this through IngramSpark they offer a slight discount. Again, this is just another ploy to make you think it is a difficult process that is better off left to the “professionals.”

#5 — “We will take care of all the marketing, because we know how difficult it is.” Yes, marketing is difficult, especially for authors. But a vanity press company won’t market the book to sell, they will do the bare minimum required so it appears as if the book is being placed in the proper channels.

My advice: Grab a book on marketing for authors or enroll in a course. Learn it. You can even outsource it out so that you do Sell More Books. But in the end nobody is better at marketing their own book than the author.

#6 — Excessive use of flattery. The first time I spoke to a vanity press sales rep I remember the praise she gave me for my book. I felt as if I had written a book that was going to sell thousands of copies in the first week.

The rep was quoting passages from the book and referencing everything from the first page. Mind you, I later realized, everything she was quoting was from the first few pages. So did she read it? Of course not.

#7— A sales rep calls you several hours after you sign up to their newsletter with a sales pitch. I tested one of these sites by enquiring about their services, and I downloaded a freebie. The next day I received a call from my “Publishing consultant” ready to help me fulfill my dreams as an author. Wow. The sales pitch was impressive, but if you already knew the situation, it was a total scam. You can smell it.

But, for a new author excited to be part of the publishing journey, listening to someone else tell you how excited they are to publish your boom is a very tempting catch. In the end, they don’t care about your book or you. Whether it is Author Solutions or another of the dozens of publishing scammers out there, they get your money and keep milking it with constant upsells.

#8 — Make “over the mountain promises” to get you endorsed by Hollywood. It is not unusual for these companies to tell you that your book has a shot of being featured in Oprah’s book club, or that they will send your manuscript to one of their agents in Hollywood for review.

I can promise you one thing—Your book will never see the inside of a movie studio. Not unless you are a well-established author who has already proven themselves, and even then, it will not be through a vanity press company that you get there.

#9 — Promises to get your book into barnes and noble and other bookstores. In this case what happens is, they put your book into a large catalogue where bookstores and libraries can order it. But realistically, you’ll be hard pressed to sell a single book in any bookstore if you publish through a vanity press company. Libraries and bookstores won’t even consider it in most cases.

#10 — Insists you sign a contract handing over exclusivity. If this final dose doesn’t make you run the other way, I don’t know what will. By any and all means, as a self-published author, you do not sign over your material rights to anyone. This gives the vanity publisher the right to further exploit your work and profit from all sales. The author, in this case, gets a lower end percentage.

Now that you’ve seen the red flags, you are well-informed to make a decision if you come across what appears to be a shady publisher. You don’t need to sign anything or pay huge amounts of money for the publisher to “publish you to Amazon” or set you up with a movie deal.

Your Self-Publishing Options

We are not living in the 1990s anymore. Back then, choices to self-publish were limited. You either paid a company—like a vanity press—a lot of money. Or, you went on your own and hired a printing company to run off tons of copies that were not cheap.

Today, you will see that you have many good choices these days that make it easier for you to get your book published.

#1 — Self-Publishing Courses

There are quite a few reputable self-publishing courses out there. You buy the course, and work through the modules to write and ultimately publish your own book.

There are costs to publish your book, including creating it, cover design, editing, and launching your book.You still have to pay for these services, but at least you get to choose who is working on your book.

It is up to each individual author to outsource his or her own book. Publishing courses provide the content you need to get it all done, but you do all the work and take on additional costs outside the cost of the course.

You have to pay for the basics that any author pays for: A good cover design, hiring an editor and formatting, and maybe a budget for marketing services such as book promo sites or a media package.

But many new authors are weary about self-publishing and think uploading to Amazon— or other publishing companies—is a complex ordeal. It isn’t. I have been coaching authors for years and, nowadays, the system is built in that all you have to do is plug your book info into the Kindle Direct Publishing Bookshelf and away you go. The cost for actually self-publishing your book is O.

The production cost for the average book is about $1500. If you pay $1000-3000 for a course + $1500 for the book production, you are still under $5,000. If you continue to write more books, you’ve already paid for the course that usually gives you access for a lifetime.

Taking a self-publishing course is the best option we think. You learn how to do so much of the process yourself, and can rinse and repeat for future books. You still pay for everything but, who you decide to hire is up to you and the creative decisions are all yours.

#2 — KDP [Kindle Direct Publishing]

The KDP platform is Amazons book publishing platform. Publishing a book is so much easier now than it ever used to be, especially with Amazon self-publishing.

You no longer need to go through painstaking efforts to land a book deal which locks you into unrealistic deadlines and cuts you out of most of the earnings. You don’T have to sign up and fork over thousands to a vanity press company.

You can now have complete control of your book – and its revenues – by publishing directly through Amazon self-publishing.

Setting up your KDP account is easy, and should be the first step you complete.

Here’s how to set up your Kindle Direct Publishing account:

Go to https://kdp.amazon.com and register with either your Amazon account or with your email address.

Next, click “Update” in your account information and fill in your tax information. It’s important to note that you need to complete your tax information BEFORE you can publish your first book. So don’t skip this step!

Once your tax information is complete, click “Finished” and return to the main page.

Your profile is complete!

#3 — Print On Demand

If you are a new author reading this, with the print on demand services offered by Kindle Direct Publishing and Ingramspark, you can order your own author copies and pay print costs plus shipping to your location. Buy your own ISBN, copyright your book, and own what you create.

To start printing your own books with IngramSpark, visit their website and set up an account. Do the same with Amazons’ Kindle Direct Publishing platform. Do it yourself. It’s not the difficult process many would have you believe, and there is lots of support on these sites ready to help you right away.

How much is the cost to print a book?

It depends on the book size but, for a book that is 30k in length with little to no photos or graphs and text only, expect to pay less than $4 per copy. The average scammy publisher will charge new authors $15-20 dollars per copy.

But for them, they print the books at the same cost as an author who sets this up through KDP or IngramSpark.

In fact, many vanity press publishers use IngramSpark for the print-on-demand service only just to sell the books back to the author at 5x the print cost.

#4 — Vanity Press Publisher

The editing, formatting, cover design, and even marketing the book are paid for by the author through the various packages offered when an author signs up.

But, there is a trap here: The costs are more than you initially pay for, and they don’t tell you this until later when you’re mired deeper into the project. Once invested, most authors are compelled to publish the book no matter the costs.

The emotional investment is what these companies prey on. Knowing how you feel about your book, they are ready to help you do anything to get it to market…and that means offering more expensive services.

By the time you are done and the book is published, potentially you have just spent $10k. With close to 0 book sales.

Vanity publishers make money, not from selling books for you, but from the author buying their own books back from the publisher. It is a scam where the author always loses.

#5 — Traditional Publishers

This is not a self-publishing route but, if you want to take the traditional path, you can begin by querying your manuscript with agents. Keep in mind, you may not see your book in print for a couple of year due to the lengthy process of first finding an agent, and then having them submit it to publishers to buy.

“A traditional book publishing company buys the rights to an author’s manuscript. Buying rights from the author is how book publishers have traditionally acquired books. …The advance is deducted by the book publisher from any royalties the author receives from the sale of the book.”

That’s right, they pay you an advance for the book. You don’t pay them anything. It depends on the publisher’s contract but they will pay for [some] marketing.

The editing, cover design and formatting is taken care of by the publisher [in most cases].

There are a lot of nightmare stories of authors signing on with traditional publishers, but that usually equates to the publisher not trying hard enough to sell any books. In this case the author may end the contract and, after that, many authors take up with self-publishing and find better success. After all, why not be in charge of building your own book business?

#6 — Hybrid Publishers

A hybrid publisher is what you will find between a traditional publisher [pay nothing upfront but get paid an advance] or a vanity press publisher [pay for everything upfront and keep all royalties.

The hybrid publishers model is simple: An author pays for everything upfront but gets a bigger cut of the royalties after book sales, upwards of 50%. The initial cost means that the author assumes all the financial risk in order to get the book to market.

One other difference between traditional and hybrid publishing is, the hybrid has to pay the author a higher percentage of royalties than a traditional publishing house.

In order for a company to be called a hybrid publisher, there are 9 criteria set out by the IBPA (Independent Book Publishers Association) that must be adhered to:

In order to not be classified as a vanity press, ALL book submissions must be reviewed. This means if your book does not meet the criteria, it should be rejected. A vanity press doesn’t care. Anything and anybody will do.

Hybrid publishers must clearly define a vision to follow for their company.

Must report reputable sales on all titles they publish.

Authors who sign with hybrid publishers must be paid a higher royalty than that of standard traditional publisher rates.

The quality of the production—cover design, editing and formatting—must meet industry standards.

The publisher must publish as its own defined imprint and request its own ISBNs.

Manage all distribution services for the works.

Hybrid publisher must manage the rights of the works they publish as well as any subsequent rights acquired.

Hybrid publishers must meet the standards and best practices set out by the publishing industry.

But…the vanity press publishers are bad seeds. Lately they are disguising their services as “hybrid publishers” but still operate with the same scammy tactics.

Take caution here that, while a hybrid publisher might look legit on the surface, there is a possibility you could get ripped off if you are not 100% sure.

Taking Down the Scammers

As a coach and self-publishing authority, I have worked with at least a dozen authors who’ve come away from a vanity press publisher broke, not just financially, but emotionally as well.

Like most authors, they just wanted to fulfill a dream and publish a book. But as soon as you sign up with a self-publishing scam company, your dreams are ripped apart and so is your bank account. By the time the not-yet-published author realizes it, they are invested by thousands of dollars and bound by a contract.

Over the years several class-action suits have been launched against scammy publishers for bad business practice. The worst of these publishers is Author Solutions, a company with a bad rap and a long history of complaints targeted against it by authors who have been exploited.

This company boasts on its website “300,000 authors published.” I would be hard-pressed to believe this and to go a step further, the percentage of those authors who would use Author Solution service again?

Chances are if you have been down this road, you realized before you were half way there that you’d taken a bad path.

Author Solutions is at the top of the chain of seedy publishing houses promising to get your book to market because the world needs to hear your story. And for a publishing package upwards of $5999 it could all be done for you. Well, initially you are led to believe.

Author Solutions is the parent company of several subsidiaries that operate, not only in the US but now have an International reach as they have set up in countries worldwide.

How do they make their money?

It isn’t from helping authors to sell books.

The authors usually end up selling nothing. Instead, they are made to buy the books they want from the publishers at a high cost just so they can have their own copies to sell or giveaway.

Recently, several companies have been shut down in class action lawsuits, and this is still continuing today, with authors taking a stand and fighting back against the book publishing thieves.

Fortunately, authors are better educated these days on the publishing options available. Vanity publishers are disappearing. But do return “wearing different clothing”, disguised as the next best company to get you that bestselling book.

Red Flag List: Self-Publishing Companies to Avoid

I have compiled a list of publishing companies you should avoid at all costs. This is not a complete list but includes names of the major companies flagged by Writer Beware and Alliance of Independent Authors.

For a very thorough listing, I would recommend you check with the Alliance of Independent Authors. ALLi stays up-to-date on the scammy reports, warnings and lawsuits taken against bad publishers.

Here are some self-publishing companies that have made the list of those to watch out for:

Archway Publishing [Simon and Schuster]

LifeRich Publishing [Reader’s Digest]

Palibrio [for the Spanish-speaking community]

Christian faith publishing

Balboa press [a Division of Hay House]

Newman Springs Publishing

Writers Beware and Watchdog Groups

Remember: Always do your homework. To make sure if you are buying into a legit business you should check in with these sites listed below.

“Shining a bright light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes, and pitfalls. Also providing advice for writers, industry news, and commentary. Writer Beware is sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.”

Providing up-to-date action against possible publishing scammers.

“Each month on the ALLi blog, the excellent Watchdog John Doppler explores key issues regarding the provision of self-publishing services around the world.”

A detailed breakdown of self-publishing companies and their ranking based on service and reliability.

Educate Yourself in Self-Publishing

Publishing scams will always be around as long as authors are paying for their services.

How do you, as an author, avoid falling into this trap?

The self-publishing arena is like a vast oasis of information and a never-ending learning process. Vanity press publishers are banking on you having no idea what to do, which is why you might consider turning to a publishing company in the first place.

Our advice at Self Publishing School is this: Educate yourself on how to publish a book. You’d be surprised the things you actually don’t have to pay for.

Take control of your self-publishing career today.

Are you ready to self-publish your book?

Enroll in an online self-publishing course

You will learn how to write and market your book your way and all of it within your control. You won’t have to give up anything or sign your book rights over to a publisher that will exploit your creativity.

If you are uncertain as to whether you should spend money on a course or not, but you want to know the ins and outs of self-publishing, grab a $5 book and start here.

Meanwhile, the scammy publishers are on the phone right now with a future author that isn’t doing these things.

Read Books on “How to Write” and Self-Publishing

Reading is a cheap way to educate yourself on writing. Make it a habit to read for 30 minutes a day. Educate yourself on the publishing industry.

Top 10 Book Recommendations on Writing and Self-Publishing:

#4- Why Authors Fail: 17 Mistakes Self Publishing Authors Make That Sabotage Their Success (And How To Fix Them) by Derek Doepker

More Resources

Amazon self-publishing is on the rise. With it being the #1 retailer for books worldwide, that makes sense.

But if you wind up making some errors in publishing on Amazon…let’s just say your results as an author will be less than satisfactory.

After all, the self-publishing industry is pretty sensitive to those making mistakes.

But Amazon self-publishing is the best option to self-publish and we’ve made it even easier for you with this guide for doing it with Kindle Direct Publishing.

You no longer need to go through painstaking efforts to land a book deal which locks you into unrealistic deadlines and cuts you out of most of the earnings.

You can now have complete control of your book – and its revenues – by Amazon self-publishing.

But many writers get overwhelmed by the abundance of information about self-publishing. It can be intimidating for first-time publishers. We get it – we were just like you!

So to ease some anxiety and uncertainty, we created this step-by-step comprehensive self-publishing guide for you to follow in order to get your book published on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing Network.

Here is your full guide for Amazon Self-Publishing:

Amazon Self-Publishing & Why it’s the Best Option

Traditional publishing is on the way out. This has been the reality for some time now and for good reason.

While traditional publishing had its time and was once the only option for publishing a book, the system in place right now is one made for the next Stephen Kings – not for those who have value to share with the world.

Why Amazon Self-Publishing is the Best Option

Though traditional publishing is still a viable option for some, Amazon self-publishing is the best option and here’s why:

Over 70% of books are sold on Amazon

310 million book buyers through Amazon last year

Those buyers accounted for over $178 billion in sales

It’s easier and faster with Amazon self-publishing

There are major differences between traditional vs self-publishing with the majority of authors opting to take their talents to Amazon instead of through one of the Big 5 publishing houses.

What is Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)?

Throughout this guide, you’ll read the term Kindle Direct Publishing or KDP. It might sound self-explanatory but we’ll cover some basics.

This is an Amazon self-publishing platform that allows you to create and manage your Kindle eBook, paperback, and even audiobooks in a single place. It’s widely used to build books from the ground up.

And fortunately, setting up your KDP account is easy, and should be the first step you complete.

Your Guide for Amazon Self-Publishing

Sure, anyone can technically self-publish on Amazon, but that doesn’t mean it will do well and actually sell. You have to know the specifics, from setting up your KDP account to the pricing of your book.

If done correctly, you can expect a successful launch and a substantial amount of passive income. Here are our steps for Amazon self-publishing.

#1 – Create a Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Account

Before you can start with Amazon publishing, you first have to have an account set up with them.

Here’s how to set up your Kindle Direct Publishing account:

Go to https://kdp.amazon.com and register with either your Amazon account or with your email address.

Next, click “Update” in your account information and fill in your tax information. It’s important to note that you need to complete your tax information BEFORE you can publish your first book. So don’t skip this step!

Once your tax information is complete, click “Finished” and return to the main page.

Your profile is complete!

With your KDP account setup, proceed to

up the details of your book, as seen in the areas below.

#2 – Choose a Book Title and Subtitle

In your Kindle Direct Publishing profile, you need to fill in the title and subtitle of your book. While a subtitle is optional, having a good subtitle is something you should definitely consider to bring in more views and create stronger intrigue and help people find your book when searching.

Use a Book Hook: Your book hook should speak to the reader in a unique voice that grabs their attention and feeds into what they are looking for.

List the Benefits: Your potential readers want to know what they will get from reading your book. One technique is to deliver the benefits in the subtitle, providing enough tantalizing information to further attract readers.

Think about what you would be attracted to in a book title. Keep it simple, clear, and unique. Research the title you want to use and make sure it hasn’t been scooped up by a high-performing book already.

You don’t want to make competition for yourself.

#3 – Write Your Book Description for Amazon

You need a powerful book description in order for potential buyers to read what it’s about. Even though the cover and subtitle should do a great job of this, we all want more information when it comes to putting money toward something.

Here’s what people notice first when seeing a new book:

A book description is essentially a short written narrative that illustrates what your book is about. It should be written like a sales page to capture the interest of your reader.

This is crucial because the description, in many cases, is the final factor that determines whether the reader will read your book or not. That, and great Amazon reviews.

When done correctly, a well-written book description can practically sell a book on its own.

Here are some strategies to help craft your perfect description:

Make your first sentence as enticing as possible

Write your description like a sales page or advertisement, not a dry summary of your book

Have the description feel personal and empathetic

Detail the benefits your reader will gain by reading your book

Here’s a great example of a full book description on Amazon:

You can find more amazing description examples with these books:

Spend some time crafting your eye-catching book description. It will make your book stand out to your readers and motivate them to purchase your book.

#4 – Choose Your Amazon Keywords

If you want your book to show up in Amazon and Google search engines, you’ll need the right mix of keywords. Since Amazon allows only seven keywordsper book, keyword selection requires strategy.

Keywords are specific words or phrases used to describe your book. If someone was looking for a book on your topic, they might type one of those keywords into Amazon or Google in order to find it.

For example, if your book is about perseverance, you might find keywords like this useful:

how to have perseverance

persevering when it’s hard

These are all phrases or words people looking to better themselves with perseverance would type into search engines in order to find what they’re looking for, like in the image below.

You can research the right keyword phrases by using search tools such as:

KDP Rocket: This is a great tool for comparing Google search results to Amazon. It gives you a competitive score from 1-99, keyword results from both Google and Amazon, and how much money other books are making. You can check out this KDP Rocket Review.

KW Finder: This tool gives an analytical view of the keyword popularity using a competitive ranking. You can search for five keywords for free per day.

Amazon’s Autofill Function: Take advantage of Amazon’s search box to find good keywords. Amazon’s suggestions are based on search history so you want to search for words that are high in demand with little competition.

Make a list of possible keywords for your book, then leverage the tools above to test your keywords. Putting in the time to get keywords right will have your book rank higher and appear more frequently to readers.

#5 – Select Your Amazon Categories

Amazon provides a collection of categories and subcategories to choose from. Like keyword selecting, your goal is to look for trending areas that don’t have tons of competition.

If you visit your book page, these categories will appear partway down the page, displaying the rank like in the image example below.

These categories are what you will rank as a bestseller in, which is why you want to make sure you pick fitting categories that are specific, but also not super competitive. You want to stand out.

You can also check the rankings of the top three books on the first page of each category.

Amazon sales ranking measures how well a product is selling compared to its competitors. All books that are ranked 2,000 or less are considered to be highly purchased products in that particular category.

Here are a few tips when publishing on Amazon in order to rank in more categories:

Research your competitors keywords

Choose trending categories with lower competition

Acquire additional categories by contacting Amazon and asking for keyword placement

Unless you have an established audience with significant downloads and reviews, try to aim for categories with books that rank between 10,000-30,000.

#6 – Upload Your Manuscript to Amazon

In your Kindle Direct Publishing account, go to “Your Bookshelf”.

Locate and click on “Kindle eBook Actions” next to the title of your book.

Locate and click on “Edit eBook Content”.

Click on “Upload eBook manuscript”.

Upload your manuscript file on your computer.

Famous horseshoe mustache

Once Amazon finishes uploading your file, a confirmation message will be sent and you can preview the uploaded file to check for any errors.

You can upload the manuscript as many times as you want and the new version will override the existing.

It’s important to check how your book looks using the “Look Inside” feature once the book is live on Amazon. This feature is often the first thing your prospective readers will click on when checking out your book.

If the formatting is off here, it can deter readers from picking up your book. Take this extra step to make sure your formatting looks good here too or consider hiring a professional ebook formatter to ensure it looks good.

#7 – Create Your Book Cover

When it comes to publishing a successful book on Amazon, having a perfect book cover design is one of the most important aspects to get right. Contrary to what we were told growing up, people do, in fact, judge a book by its cover. It’s actually one of the biggest deterrents.

Your cover is exactly how your book will be judged at first glance.

So you must make sure that it is created professionally and that it will stand apart from the rest of the books in your genre or category.

You can find cover creators on freelancing sites such as:

Prices will depend on the level of service, but these sites will give you plenty of amazing graphic designers to choose from! It’s a great investment that will make your book stand out perfectly.

If you’re a Self-Publishing School student, we will actually provide a list of qualified, trusted book cover designers you can work with in order to get a worthy cover.

Make sure to do your research regarding what type of book cover does best in your genre. Fantasy books, for example, will be a lot different than a memoir or even a historical fiction.

#8 – Price Your Book

A question often asked is: “How much should I be pricing my book at after the initial launch is over?”

This is up to the author, but generally, the best range to have your book priced is between $2.99 to $9.99.

The royalty payments vary depending on the country, but you can learn more on KDP Select pricing page .

One popular strategy for beginners is to price your book at $2.99 and gradually increase it by $1 per week. At some point, your sales will begin to dip. And while that’s normally a negative statistic, for this case, it confidently tells you the perfect price of your book that guarantees a profit.

Here are the 4 main pricing strategies to consider in order to be competitive and sell books:

Know the price of your competitors. Compare the list price of your book to the books around you and determine if you would be able to sell your book for a higher price.

Know the size of your followers. Famous authors can charge a lot for their books because they have a big following. If you’re not in this category, your book should be priced lower to encourage new readers to buy your work.

Determine price based on the size of your book. Size does matter when it comes to books. Don’t charge $20 for a 75-page book. Customers will immediately be turned off with the lack of content at that price point.

Measure price based on reviews. Reviews carry a big weight on influence, and is social proof that your book has been read and well received. Therefore, a book with higher reviews (1000+ reviews) can be priced higher compared to a book with fewer reviews (30+ reviews).

Fans of your social media page

Adding a note to leave a review in your book

Experiment with these strategies to pinpoint the price for your book, it will drive long-term success.

version of your book might, quite likely, be the death of your success. Which means you must know how to make an audiobook to fix that.

We’re in the age of podcasts, radio apps, and audiobooks, and now couldn’t be a better time to convert your eBook into an audiobook. But many writers get scared off by the thought of creating an audiobook.

Thankfully, self-publishing an audiobook now is as easy as self-publishing your book. It has become cost-effective and approachable for self-published authors, and there is a range of options depending on the budget you want to spend on it.

Here are the steps for how to make an audiobook:

Here are the exact steps you need to follow, and our suggestions for turning your book into the next big audiobook.

How to Make an Audiobook Step-by-Step

Audiobooks are on the rise, and if you’re an author who’s not pursuing this book format, you’re missing out on an entire audience who could be enjoying your story.

Here are our top steps for creating an audiobook.

#1 – Prep Your eBook Content for Audiobook Recording

If you’re starting from the beginning, you may have no idea how to convert your manuscript from writing to audio. Your first step will be to prep your eBook content for audiobook recording.

This creates a script you can read as you record the audio version of your book. You don’t want to get tripped up while you (or someone else) is reading through the manuscript, so you need to remove everything that won’t make sense in the audio version.

These are the pieces you should go through and look for to cut out:

Remove any calls to actions or click here prompts

Once you’ve created your new script, read through it one last time to make sure it all makes sense in audio form.

#2 – Decide who will record your audiobook

The next step in the creation of your audiobook is actually recording the book. But before you can do that, you have to decide who will record the book.

Here are your choices when deciding who will record your audiobook:

Record the book yourself in a studio

Work with an audiobook producer

You now get to pick which option to take.

If you’re writing nonfiction, particularly a story about your life, you may want to record the book yourself. However, if you aren’t confident in producing the best quality audiobook, you can still hire a narrator.

For those of you writing a fiction novel, you’ll likely want to hire an audiobook narrator, as these stories often need a narrator with an acting skillset.

#3 – Hiring an audiobook narrator

Most authors find that hiring a professional to record their audiobook is the most expeditious and least painful route. You may be concerned about the cost of hiring a pro for voice work, but you may be surprised to learn that the cost of this service can be quite reasonable.

In fact, converting your self-published book into an audiobook using a pro can cost less than half the price of doing the work yourself.

Many freelancers will quote a price of under $500 for a full eBook to audio conversion; so don’t let the perceived high cost deter you.

If you’ve never worked with a freelancer before, you might not be familiar with the steps necessary to find the right talent. First, you’ll need a proposal.

The purpose of your proposal is to help delineate the work that’s needed. You’ll want to make sure to include the scope of the work and terms of your offer in your proposal. Your second step is to create sample audio content to share with potential freelance narrators. This is your “retail audio sample.”

The purpose of your retail audio sample is two-fold:

It can be shared with potential narrators during the freelance-hiring phase, and

It can later be shared with your future audience on Amazon to pique their interest in your book.

Have some fun creating your retail audio clip—it can be anything you want it to be! You may opt to read a full chapter, or simply condense a summary of plot highlights.

The ultimate goal of your retail audio sample is to intrigue both potential narrators and your potential audience. If you can capture their collective attention and

your book, they’ll want to hear more.

If you’ve never worked with a freelancer, check out Voices or Upwork for a list of narrator pros.

You can also do a simple Google search to find those who have a career in narrating audiobooks.

#4 – Record the audiobook yourself

Your second option for creating an audiobook is self-recording in a studio. Realize that self-recording may be more costly in terms of effort, time, and money, especially from the paid time to use a pro recording studio.

We recommend that you block out a significant amount of time to complete your self-recorded audiobook.

Here’s a good timeline for self-recorded audiobook production:

Book your recording studio three weeks ahead of time.

Record your book in-studio. Plan for up to sixteen hours of recording studio time.

Plan for at least two weeks of post-recording editing.

Of course, these times are just guides; the time-frame may change once you start your project. Obviously, a longer book will take longer to record and edit.

Plan accordingly, and give yourself plenty of time to polish, edit, and finalize a professional product.

#5 – Work with an audiobook producer

The third path to creating an audiobook is to hire a professional producer. If you have never recorded an audiobook before, working with a producer would help you through the technical difficulties.

For example, when Joanna Penn did the recording for her own book Business for Authors, sh e hired a professional producer, Andy Marlow.

A producer for your audiobook can ensure the quality of the audio tracks as well as mastering the file for the final production load.

You can find audiobook producers [audiobook engineers] on freelancing sites such as Fiverr or, again, Upwork.

Simply log in to Fiverr or Upwork and type “audiobooks” in the search bar, as seen in the example below.

If you go on Fiverr, select the “mixing and mastering” option on the left side. This will give you plenty of choices for finding audio engineers, editors

#6 – Create an audiobook at home

Many authors feel very close their work and would rather the content be told in their own voice. This is particularly true if the book is focused on personal stories or a family memoir.

There are many books that do sound better when told from the voice of the author.

Do you have the confidence and the voice to create your own audiobook at home? If yes, then here is what you need to know to get started in doing that.

Equipment for Making an Audiobook:

If you are a podcaster or music recording talent, you may already have access to the necessary equipment for recording your audiobook.

Audacity. Audacity is a free, open source cross-platform audio software for multi-track recording and editing. You can download Audacity here.

You could go fancier and get higher-end equipment, but these tools should be more than enough to get the job done.

Location and Space for Making an Audiobook:

You want to find an isolated, padded room or recording box. “Room Tone, or “Noise Floor” can bring in all sorts of sounds from around the environment.

Recording in your room is an option but make sure your space is set up for recording and that it is “silent.” If this is difficult, hiring a producer, in this case, would be a recommended option.

Audiobook Recording Tips:

Next, you need to make sure you avoid any random noises that might pop up, and any variances in the recording quality.

Here are some tips to help make sure you do that:

Turn off all fans and machines.

Read in a small, carpeted area

Stay a consistent distance away from the microphone.

Be prepared to make mistakes and record sentences over when necessary.

Read the chapter through from start to end.

Keep your voice at a similar level and tone across recording sessions.

Modulate your breathing and don’t hold your breath.

Read from a Kindle or device. No page turning sounds.

Schedule sessions several days apart. Avoid sounding exhausted.

With the Audacity software and your mic, you should be able to get a decent quality recording of your book. But keep in mind that, recording you own audiobook is an exhausting process and it isn’t for everyone.

You have to set yourself up with the proper environment, and set aside the time for recording. If you have never used Audacity or any type of recording equipment before, there is a learning curve that adds weeks to the audiobook production.

For these reasons you may decide to hire someone for the first audiobook, learn what you can, and then try it for your next book.

#7 – Upload your audiobook to audiobook creation exchange

Now that you’ve recorded your book, either by yourself or with the help of a freelancer, you’ll need to upload your book to Audiobook Creation Exchange, also known as ACX.

When you publish on the ACX, your audiobook will be made available on Amazon, Audible, and the Apple audiobook store.

It’s the only place you need to go to make sure your audiobook gets heard by as many people as possible. You retain all of the audio rights, while ACX handles all of the distribution for you, similar to how the Kindle Direct Publishing platform works.

While there are a lot of steps, uploading is a user-friendly and self-explanatory process.

Here’s a step-by-step guide of how to upload your audiobook on ACX:

Log in to your account at amazon.com.

Click “Add Your Title.” [Note: You must have a Kindle ebook published]

Search and find your book then click on “This is My Book” prompt.

Click on the “I have this book in audio and I want to sell it” prompt.

Choose your territory and distribution.

(Note: We recommend the “World” rights options with 40% royalties for the best results.)

Choose the language(s) you’d like to sell the book in.

Agree to the “Audiobook License and Distribution Agreement” terms

Complete the “About My Book” section.

(Note: You can duplicate the content from your Amazon page or create original content.)

Complete the proper copyright information.

Complete the info about the narrator, audiobook publisher, and any reviews.

Click the “add audio file” prompt.

Go to browse for the first section of your audiobook to ensure it was added.

Continue this process until your entire book is uploaded.

Don’t forget to change the chapters and section titles as you go.

Finally, upload your book cover.

Make sure all info from your printed book matches that of your audiobook. Your author name should be the same and the book cover should be the same as appears on your eBook.

ACX will not allow you to continue if there are discrepancies in identifying information.

What are audiobook royalties on ACX?

When you publish your audiobook on the ACX, you’ll earn between 20%-40% of their title royalties. If you work with a producer, then you’ll have a royalty share with them, and the rate that you receive is dependent on how your producer is compensated.

If you work by yourself, you keep the whole 40%, if you split it with a producer, you could each earn 20%.

It all depends on how you decide to share it, and you can read more details on the ACX site or check out this directly from their site:

Your audiobook will not post immediately. ACX will hold your submission to confirm that all is in order before it posts you audiobook.

Don’t be alarmed if you see an ACX note telling you “This title is: Pending audio review.”

That’s a normal part of the process and not something wrong on your end. When ACX approves your book, you’ll then have the green light to sell the audio copies online.

For a detailed, step-by-step explanation of the entire process—from production to distribution—check out ACX Author’s page.

Even if you’ve never done it before, technology makes the process of creating your audiobook easier than you can imagine.

A well-produced audiobook can help you expand your fan base and earn you new readers.

Don’t be deterred by the idea that creating an audiobook is outside of your wheelhouse—we promise it’s not!

With pro help (or even a little elbow grease on your part), you can have a completed audiobook within weeks, and be on your way to boosting those book sale numbers!

How to Make an Audiobook: Resources for Help

Much like with any worthwhile endeavor, you may have to sacrifice some cash in order to make more down the road.

“Remember to think of the cost of self-publishing as an investment, not a cost. [A book is] an asset that earns you money long-term.” – Joanna Penn

But this comes with…difficulties and expenses that can be a bit much if you’re not prepared for them, and that’s what we’re here to do: prepare you.

But before we get into the meat of this piece, remember that, much like our student Brianna Ruelas, you have to think of your book like an investment into your future.

She invested in Self-Publishing School and is now bringing home $4,000 per month in client work from her book, and that’s not to mention the royalties!

So while she did pay for book production costs (which we cover below), she made her money back, and then some, because she decided to publish her book the right way.

So, “How much does it cost to publish a book?” Self-publishing has broken down a lot of barriers for writers and dramatically lowered the costs of publishing a book, but there are still some involved.

Since the explosion of digital books on Amazon and various other platforms like Kobo, iBooks, and Smashwords, first-time authors and professional authors alike can write, publish and promote their books for less than $1,000.

On the other hand, you can spend as much as $20,000 on self-publishing and book marketing costs if you have that kind of budget. Let’s break down the costs of the self-publishing process.

We’ll share some secrets to bring those costs down if you’re budget-conscious.

The Rise of Self-Publishing

If you’re an author dreaming of making your books available to millions of readers, you can make it happen. You only have to invest your time, some money, and a little bit of sanity.

Before we dive into how much it costs to publish a book, check out how much you will make if you choose to self-publish your book by filling out the book profit calculator below.

Enter Your Information Below To Calculate Your Potential Book Sales

The Royalty You Receive from Amazon or Your Publisher(%)

Want to receive personalized tips on how to sell more books right in your inbox?

Why are you writing a book

No thanks, just show me the results!

CONGRATULATIONS!

Knowing how much you stand to make can help you understand that any investments into publishing your book (like the expenses we’ll detail below), can be earned back—and this shows you how many book sales until you will have earned it.

The sky’s really the limit. Self-publishing on Amazon has made it possible for us to all fly with our books.

Because there are many factors that can affect the cost of publishing your book.

How much are you willing to spend, and how well do you want your book to sell?

The reason I ask these questions is

you go cheap on everything, you could end up putting out a low-quality book that gets panned by bad reviews, and then it won’t sell.

When publishing on Amazon, quality sells. And yes, quality costs money. But there are ways you can creatively cut costs and still put out a quality book. Let’s take a look.

How Much Does It Cost to Publish a Book?

The cost of publishing a book varies greatly but self-published authors can expect to spend anywhere from $100-$2500 to publish a book based on additional book production costs like editing, cover design, formatting, and more, which we cover.

To start, let’s look at a sample budget for publishing a book.

Now, these aren’t the high-end numbers for self-publishing. You can spend as much money as you want — this is a list of budget-conscious pricing for getting your book done within a reasonable budget.

As with really any service, you can choose to spend a lot more for more experience or you can opt for someone really great at what they do, with cheaper prices.

Just keep in mind that quality matters with your book!

It’s better to invest in yourself like you’re a business. Because as an author, you are one!

I’ll go into each of these in more detail, with links you can check out for yourself and find what works within your budget.

Take some time to shop around see where to get the best value for the best price.

However, these are some average prices you can expect when self-publishing your book.

Professional Cover Design

Each book NEEDS a professional cover. People judge books by covers and without investing in one, your book will fail.

Even if you're the best writer out there, your book will still need a fresh, unbiased pair of eyes on it.

A good book needs proper formatting for paperback, hardback (if you want this) and for Ebook. Luckily, this can be included with cover design at many design firms.

If you want to run ads for your site or pay your launch team in any way, these are costs you will have to cover.

This includes courses, building your site, automated email services, writing software, and more.

How Much Does a Book Cover Designer Cost?

Even though we’ve been told “you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover,” the reality is, we do it anyway.

The book cover design can often determine whether or not people will actually pay for it and read it. Your cover will make or break your book right off the bat. If there’s any one cost you don’t want to go cheap on, this would be it.

While it’s true you can outsource to someone on Fiverr and get a decent cover for less than $20, it pays to do your research and find a professional cover designer who is going to deliver a good book cover that sells your book.

Cover designers aren’t just talented creators. Many who do it as a living have inside market knowledge and tailor your book cover for your specific genre.

If you do decide to go through Fiverr, check out this video Chandler Bolt recorded on how to use to outsource your book cover design.

I would recommend setting aside a budget of at least $100. This isn’t to say that spending tons of money will get you an awesome cover, but going cheap may hurt your sales in the long run.

How Much Does a Book Editor Cost?

A high-quality book should always be edited by a real editor. Whether you hire a line editor or copy editor, you should get a professional to look over your work. Don’t try to cut corners here. Even if you’re a professional editor yourself with 30 years of experience, you need to outsource it to a professional editor.

Trust me: A book that contains typos will get bad reviews and sales will drop flat.

Make sure you shop around when hiring a book editor. Since book editors rates vary so greatly, you can often find an amazing editor as a fraction of the price of bigger editing companies, like NY Book Editors.

If you’re a Self-Publishing School student, we provide a rolodex of tried-and-trusted editors with reduced rates.

A 40,000 manuscript edited through NY Book Editors can run you up to $2,700 for a comprehensive edit.

Love your book by spending the cash on editing. You can find quality editors at Upwork, or you can find the editors we recommend in our Preferred Outsourcer Rolodex if you’re a member of the Self-Publishing School community.

You can get a very short book, around 15,000 words, line edited for about $150-$250 if you search a wide variety of editors and find one with reasonable pricing.

Ghostwriting, developmental or structural editing will run you much more than that depending on the length of your book and the depth of edits you require — prices run around $2,000 for 100,000 words.

How Much Does Book Formatting Cost?

When it’s time to format your book, if you’re publishing on Amazon, you might want to get it formatted both for print and for Kindle. You can outsource the formatting of both your e-book and print book for around $60-$200.

at reasonable prices. I’d also recommend asking fellow authors if they have any great recommendations for book

you really like, hang on to their contact information for future reference.

Take a look at these costs of publishing to get an idea for this:

How Much Does it Cost to Promote Your Book?

When it comes to spending cash on promotional sites, you could empty your bank easily. Set a budget for yourself and go with the best of the best within that budget.

Budgets vary but I’ll spend $29 on the low end for Buck Books and Ebook Launch go as high as $1,000 if you add on a bundle of promo sites to launch your book.

Again, this is a major money suck if you’re not careful; you can throw thousands into it and get mediocre results.

For the best results on several paid launches, I have used:

When it comes to paid promotions, do your research on the top sites that can generate a good return.

How Much Does it Cost to Record an Audio Book?

Creating an audiobook can run you anywhere from $300 to $3,000 depending on the length of your book and who you hire to do it.

If you have a novel with multiple characters and want different people to read different roles, it can run towards the high end of the budget, especially if you’re using high-end talent.

Here are some places you can hire audio book narrators:

If you have a good voice or acting experience and you want to give it a shot, you can purchase the basic equipment and record the audiobook version yourself.

Check out this blog post for setting up your recording studio and doing it yourself.

Additional Author Tools and Expenses

Here are some of the basic tools for professional authors. This will add a price tag to your book, but many of these are just a one-time payment. Other tools will bill you monthly.

#1 – Book Publishing Courses

If you’re new to the game of self-publishing, take a course like Self-Publishing School or join our Mastermind Community, for everything you need to get started.

You could also look into taking multiple courses on Udemy.

But again, you can spend a fortune on various courses. I would recommend sticking with one course until you complete it and branching out to learn other skills after you get your first big win.

#2 – An Author Website

Building an author platform is a great consideration if you’re looking to expand your business, write blogs and promote your work. You can build an entire website or just a landing page with a call-to-action to get users to opt in.

It’s also important to capture leads to build your mailing list. A lead capture form on your website helps you find quality leads and determine your primary audience.

Here are some things you’ll need to look into in order to get started with building a website:

Hosting: You can sign up for hosting with servers such as Bluehost or Hostgator. The cost would be around $150 per year, which is very reasonable for website hosting. You will get a discount when you sign up for the first year, but pay full price when you renew.

Domain Name: You can purchase a domain name to secure your brand and start driving traffic to your site. Check out Name.com. A domain name will cost around $10-$15 per year.

If you want to collect email addresses, you’ll need to sign up for an email subscription service to manage your emails. There are several choices:

MailChimp: This is free up to the first 2000 subscribers. If you opt in to use their autoresponder service or other upgrades, you’ll have to pay around $10 a month depending on the number of subscribers.

AWeber: This platform costs $19 per month for up to 500 subscribers.

ConvertKit.com: ConvertKit has tons of value. Price is based on subscribers but starts at $29 a month for your first 1,000 subscribers. This is now one of the most robust sites for building an email list.

#3 – Publish Under Your Own Company

I’ve talked about this elsewhere, but there are perks to publishing your print book under your own company, instead of publishing with a CreateSpace (which has now merged with KDP) ISBN or another print-on-demand service.

The ISBN (the 13-digit number above the barcode at the back of your book) lets bookstores and libraries know everything about your book, including the publisher.

If you use a free, generic ISBN assigned to you by CreateSpace or Ingramspark, you’ll limit your chances of a bookstore carrying your own book.

eliminate your ebook from being stocked on Overdrive, for example, which circulated more than 105 million eBooks in 2014 to public libraries all over the world.

Getting your own ISBN and setting yourself up as your own publisher will cost $295 for 10 ISBN codes, but it will help you access all distribution channels.

This isn’t necessary if you’re just starting out — it’s more important to publish your book and get it out there. However, if you are serious about building a self-publishing empire and making a full-time living from your writing, you’ll want to eventually invest in getting your own ISBN codes and setting up your own publishing company.

How to Increase Book Sales

We all want to make cash with our writing. It may not be the only reason we write, but self-publishing your own book is still an investment. And like any investment, it’s nice to get a return rather than taking a loss.

Here is a list of strategies you can implement to increase your book sales, crush those low book sales, and get more eyeballs on your work.

Reach out to podcasters and influencers in your niche and set up an interview. This has proven to be a big game-changer for authors like Hal Elrod and Tim Ferriss.

Run promos every 3 months. After your book has been at regular price for a while, wait three months and then drop it to 99 cents again. Set up some paid ads every other day for one week. Try using the KDP countdown strategy .

Blog about the topics in your book. Set up a blog and get more traffic and interest in your work by writing about what you love. Traffic that lands on your page can be directed to your Amazon Author Page and that means more book sales!

Write another book. Building a catalog of books is a great formula for generating higher monthly income.

Apply for a spot on Bookbub. Bookbub is the big gorilla when it comes to book promoting. It’s expensive ($300 and up), but it’s a solid investment and you will make your money back on the promo costs. You can check out Bookbub here and sign up for an author account to get started.

4 Ways to Save Money on Your Book Costs

Self-publishing can be expensive if you let it. Here are a few tips to help you save on your book costs, both now and in the future.

#1 – Save Money on Book Formatting (if you dare!)

Write your ebook with Scrivener. Not only is Scrivener the number one author tool for writing and organizing your manuscript but, if used effectively, it can save you money on formatting costs.

If you’d like to learn more about how it works, check out this Scrivener Webinar hosted by Joseph Michael with Chandler Bolt. Joel Friedlander’s The Book Designer also offers a bundle of book design templates for both fiction and nonfiction.

These templates cost money but will save you money in the long run from outsourcing. I have personally been using these to do the formatting for my books.

It can be time-consuming at first but once you get the hang of it, you’ll save money on formatting costs.

#2 – Build a List of Email Subscribers

Although this topic deserves its own blog (or book), I’ll mention it here because if you build up an email list now, it can save you thousands of dollars in promotional costs down the road.

When you launch your next book, you’ll have hundreds or thousands of fans waiting for your next release.

This drives your rankings up, and this drives sales even further. Sound good?

You can start to build your email list by including a link to a lead magnet in your ebook. A lead magnet is an offer of a free, valuable piece of content that readers will get if they go to your website and subscribe to your email list.

#3 – Barter When You Can

If you’re just starting out with self-publishing and you’re on a tight budget, look to barter services when you can. By coming to a deal where you exchange your services or something you have that is of value to people, you can save yourself lots of money.

As a writer, maybe you have some copywriting skills.

See if you can share some of that in exchange for design work from a cover designer. But it doesn’t have to be just raw skills that you barter — Dana Sitar got a cartoonist friend of hers to do the illustrations for her book in exchange for $50 and 10 percent of direct sales of the book.

It’s a decision she doesn’t regret, as the illustrations get her raving reviews. If you’re on a budget, you don’t need to fully cut back on the quality of your book.

See if there are possibilities to cut a deal and get the service you require to set your book apart.

#4 – Write a Great Book!

This might seem like an obvious tip, but paying attention to the quality of your book throughout the writing process is going to save you money. The better your book, the less you’ll have to spend on editing.

You will also gain a solid reputation as someone who writes really well. This means loyal fans will spread the word about your book and your blog, your email list grows, and any future books you release will practically promote themselves.

Your Next Step

We are in a great era of self-publishing.

Anyone can turn their dream into a reality with just a few months of hard work, a bit of cash, and a great book idea. We’ve broken down the cost to publish your book so that you have a rough idea of what to budget. Writers have gone on to publish bestsellers with as little an investment as $1,000, while others have required up to $20,000.

It all depends what you prioritize and if you can save costs in a manner that doesn’t decrease the quality of your book.

While money matters, remember the reasons you want to self-publish your book: to get your message out there, build authority, and add something new to the world.

Spend what you can to make your book as high quality as possible. If your audience likes it, you’ll be sure to hit your goals.

You’re probably thinking that self-publishing a book successfully is nothing more than uploading a document to the web and hitting an all-powerful “ PUBLISH ” button.

In all honesty, self-publishing is certainly a process. There’s a reason big-name publishing houses have been around for so long; they take care of a lot of the work.

You do all the creative thinking while they do the other heavy lifting.

But that also means they get a (very) big cut of your earning. Your hard-earned income. But all of that’s already been discussed with self-publishing versus traditional publishing.

Instead, we’ll talk about what you can actually expect when you decide to put yourself first and commit to self-publishing.

Here’s what you’ll learn about the realities of self-publishing:

Taking that leap can be difficult, especially if you’re not sure what to expect. Let us do some decluttering of your mind by cluing you in on some of the unexpected realities of self-publishing your book!

#1 – You’ll become a tech-savvy self-publishing whiz

Combine into one product

Create online self-publishing accounts

Upload materials to the accounts

Coordinate your launch team in a single place

There is more but I think you get the idea.

Self-publishing involves a number of different technical capabilities you probably don’t know of before starting the process.

And because you’ll be responsible for the entirety of your publishing journey, you’ll learn a lot about all of the different platforms you’ll need to make it happen – which is made a lot easier with a program that shows you exactly what you need to do, when to do it, and how to get it done.

#2 – A lot more income

You probably think of self-published authors as the “starving artist” type, forever playing catch-up with bills and life in general.

In reality, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

In fact, check out this book profit calculator to determine just how much money you can make depending on how you price your book, the royalty rate, and how many book sales you acquire.

Enter Your Information Below To Calculate Your Potential Book Sales

The Royalty You Receive from Amazon or Your Publisher(%)

Want to receive personalized tips on how to sell more books right in your inbox?

Why are you writing a book

No thanks, just show me the results!

CONGRATULATIONS!

That fact is, self-publishing gets a really bad reputation for bankrupting those who pursue its path. And sure, some people may have spent a lot of time and money on their book only for it to tank.

But those people often decide to go it completely alone instead of using a program or guideline of sorts to ensure they succeed.

If you do work hard and pursue self-publishing by learning from those who have done it before, you can actually expect some cushy additional income.

Because you don’t have to fork over a chunk of your earnings to a publisher. Because you are the publisher.

#3 – You’ll learn a lot about yourself

This is especially true if you’re writing non-fiction but it’s just as meaningful for fiction authors as well.

Writing a book takes a lot of your own experiences, values, and meaningful content to you. That means you get to do some digging into your psyche to uncover the very core of who you are. And if you’re writing a memoir, be prepared for a lot of this.

That’s a bit deep, but I really want you to understand just how much you can learn about yourself from self-publishing a book.

And it’s not even all about the writing itself, either.

Self-publishing takes a lot of drive, ambition, and a very determined individual.

It’s a challenge and whenever we enter into challenging times in our lives, we learn more about ourselves than ever before.

Self-publishing a book is the same.

Through your writing, editing, rewriting, marketing, and self-publishing journey, you can figure out more of who you are and what you want out of life.

And that alone is worth it.

#4 – You’ll make amazing connections

Networking isn’t really something many people think of when they consider self-publishing.

In fact, most people assume self-published authors are shut-ins who spend all their time shrouded in thick blankets with a steaming mug of spiked coffee between their hands.

And knowing talented, hardworking individuals will only help you reach your goals faster.

The point is, self-publishing helps you build those connections you might not otherwise get. After all, self-published authors stick together.

#5 – You build almost-instant credibility

The crazy thing about self-publishing is how much other’s view of you changes.

Before, you may have just been a blogger with a business that just wouldn’t take off. After you have a book available, others will see you as an authority figure in your field.

They will feel more comfortable paying for your products or services simply because you wrote a book.

It might seem a little silly because your knowledge base is the same, but when a potential customer can purchase your book, they instantly see you as someone with expert knowledge and this increases the likelihood that they’ll buy from you.

Even if you’re not a business owner, self-publishing a book will still give you a boost in the eyes of strangers and even people you know well.

#6 – Opportunities will come knocking

We like to refer to self-publishing a book as opening the door to Narnia. Once you go through with the process, you will throw yourself into an entirely new world where opportunities basically fall into your lap.

Because publishing a book places you as an authority figure and heightens your credibility, more people will want to hear what you have to say on the subject.

This could lead you down new roads, offer new business ventures (like this entire company!), and change your entire life – just because you decided to take action and self-publish a book.

#7 – Your business will flourish

This is the amazing thing about self-publishing a book. When your credibility sky-rockets, so will your business.

In fact, most aspects of your life will flourish but a book will directly aid your business (and even your side-hustle!).

Take our alumnus Ashley Emma, for example. After the launch of her book, her business generated $24,000 specifically from her book Fearless Author.

So if your business is struggling and you need a new way to bring in sales, writing and self-publishing a book is a fantastic method to do so.

#8 – You’ll want to write another book ASAP

The process of self-publishing can be a long and arduous one – and you’ll still want to publish another book as soon as you can.

Why? Because of everything you gain from it.

Many of our students love what having a self-published book offers so much that they dive into the program again in order to write another one.

In fact, one of our alumni (and now one of our Coaches!), Lise Cartwright, has self-published 26 books simply because of the opportunities she’s gained through doing so.

One of the (arguably) best opportunities granted was becoming part of the Self-Publishing School team behind the scenes by teaching and helping other students find the same success she did.

Bottom line: you might become addicted to writing books.

#9 – You’ll generate tons of new ideas

Writing a book forces you into a quicksand-like imaginative headspace. The more you write, the more you understand what else you can be writing and you end up in a pit of creativity that releases your mind and allows you to think outside the box.

You practically get sucked into creative thinking.

Meaning, you’ll come up with so many new ideas for other books, blog posts, or even business ventures.

Think of your creativity like a muscle and self-publishing as the gym. Each time you sit down to further your self-publishing progress, the more creative you will become.

#10 – You’ll become a routine-writer

Before you learn the real process of self-publishing a book, you probably only ever wrote when you were inspired.

And that’s not always useful.

You’ve always had this book idea and would spend bursts of time typing out so much content…

only to lose that inspiration the next day…and the next…and the next, until you basically forget all about it.

When you actually self-publish a book, you learn that becoming an author isn’t just about writing when you want to but writing anyway.

You write faster, become better, and can publish much sooner than if you waited around for inspiration to find you.

Do you know what makes a good book cover?

Ok, so here’s the deal. What I am just about to tell you might sound controversial. It might even sound downright ridiculous.

You could even get offended.

But bear with me for a while. Just hear me out…because what I really want for you is to sell more books, and your book cover is one of the most important factors playing into that reality, even though we’ve all been told not to judge a book by its cover.

Why does a good book cover matter?

Shocked? Offended? About to pick that nearby glass of water and smash it on my head? Just hold it for a few minutes.

I understand how we creatives hate the four-letter words starting with an S. Sell? Sale? Sold!?

But it’s true. If you haven’t read Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad yet, I urge you to get a copy and read.

Robert Kiyosaki was once being interviewed by this bright young journalist. She had a real flair for writing. She asked Robert if he had any advice for her. And guess what Robert told her. “Go take a sales course”, he said.

The young lady was shocked. She sat there silently for a few minutes, staring at Robert Kiyosaki in disbelief. And then she spoke. She told him she had spent all her life writing and studying. She held master’s degrees in literature and journalism.

And she had worked so hard all her life, so that she won’t have to “stoop so low” as learning to sell!

Robert explained how she was a far superior writer than Robert could ever hope to be, but Robert was still a best-selling author, while she wasn’t. She could write the best book ever written by a human being, but it wouldn’t matter if nobody read it.

Makes sense? I hope it does because as I mentioned above, your book’s cover is one of the most important pieces of becoming a successful author.

What makes for a good book cover?

I have been on that side of the fence where creatives hate the concept of selling or marketing. And I have been on that side for the longest time. But the sooner you get yourself comfortable with these words and concepts, the better.

And why should you even listen to me? Well, I have a bachelor’s degree in marketing. And trust me, I learned nothing at school.

After my bachelors, I spent nearly ten years convincing myself and the world that I am an artist.

And you know the funniest part? All of my creative buddies and peers were in the same situation.

And that is when I decided I needed to learn what I had shunned for the longest time. I needed to learn to sell. We founded Dastaan Online. And the first business that needed our help was our own. We started publishing a literary magazine called Dastaan World.

Writers, artists, photographers, even those who write poetry along with readers flocked to us. I decided to design covers for every story we published. And our contributors loved them!

My covers might well be beautiful, and thought-provoking and sublime and what not. But that is all secondary. They keep coming to me, because my covers help them sell their books.

Every other quality of a good book cover can be indented as a subcategory or explanation of this one point.

Now, the next big question is, what makes for a good book cover that achieves this goal?

#1 – Focus On the Big Picture

The book cover needs to draw the viewer into the story. Even if you are writing non-fiction. You are a writer, so you know there is always a story.

The cover needs to show what the book is about, without giving all of it away, much like the book title but with visuals.

This example from Self-Publishing School’s coach Marcy Pusey shows just how this technique works in her book, Weirdo and Willy .

The idea is to get your reader to open the book. Once they open the book, your magic as a writer will not let them put it down before reading it to the end.

But to catch in your spiderweb of literary magic, you need to use a bait. And that is what your cover needs to do for you. It needs to play on the human emotions of intrigue and curiosity.

So think about the big picture of what your book cover should represent.

Ask yourself these questions when figuring out your book cover:

Does your idea represent your story or message?

Does it illicit intrigue?

Does it stand out from other books in your category?

#2 – Create a Strong Composition

This is where is start to get into the wizardry that is graphic design and illustration.

Composition is one of the most fundamental skills required of anyone working with visuals. And as with all fundamentals, the composition takes a lifetime to master, at least!

This is why it’s advised to hire a book cover designer instead of creating the cover yourself in programs like Canva or Photoshop.

But if you have some experience and want to go for it, here are some guidelines on composition:

Use texture and patterns to add non-distracting details

Combine several composition tips into one for full-effect (but not ALL of them)

But you can start off with a few interesting guidelines or you can simply hire a book editor who’s experienced in the field of composition.

#3 – Develop a Clear Focal Point

Every composition, every piece of deliberately designed visual communication, needs a focal point. The easiest way to find your focal point is to ask yourself (or, preferably, a friend) where your eye goes first on this piece.

Whether it’s the title, your author byline, a figure in the artwork, some specific abstract shape, your focal point is what grabs your attention and catches your eye the first.

In this example by Self-Publishing School’s Omer Redden, you can see that the focal point of his book Life Doc is very clearly and intentionally the eye-catching title.

There’s a whole science behind this elusive art called composition. It is this magic skill that dictates where a viewer is going to look, and in what order.

You can have multiple focal points, but they should not compete with each other. They grab your viewer’s attention in the order you have designed them. Primary, secondary, tertiary and so on.

This dance of attention depends on what story you want to plant in their head. This story will make them open your book and eventually decide to buy it.

#4 – Title, Subtitle and Their Relatives

Please don’t make the mistake of thinking your cover is completely at your designer’s mercy. No. You are the writer. And you play the key role in determining how well your cover is gonna perform.

When trying to come up with a book title idea, ask yourself this: Will it pull your reader from across the store? Or the webpage? It should be compelling. It should be visible and readable.

AND it should be strengthened further by any additional visual elements on your cover.

Self-Publishing School coach Scott Allan’s book Undefeated is a great example of this. Here you can see his title plays an integral role in the cover design as a whole, with a very telling message with the torn reveal of “un” in “undefeated”

Your title, and any subtitles and taglines are going to play a pivotal role in selling your book. So get your inner Don Draper out when crafting your cover copy!

#5 – Simplistic Book Cover Design

And finally, I like to keep my covers simple. And I personally tend to like covers that are simple and minimalistic.

Although, my covers may sometimes look complex because of all the digitally painted and photo-manipulated detail, the ideas and composition must remain simple. It all goes in favor of the focal point and our intention to just say enough that will compel our viewer to buy the book.

Overly complex covers usually give a very blatant impression of desperation, where the designer didn’t exactly know what to put in.

And hence, they put everything they could think of in there. Not cool. Don’t do this. Keep it simple!

So when you decide to finally lock down your book cover, remember to keep it simple stupid. Keep the big picture of your story in mind.

Make your viewers focus on the key selling points of your book.

If you feel stumped about your book cover design, you can always reach out to a professional for help. If you’re a student of Self-Publishing School, you’ll even be provided a list of cover designers whose work already checks the boxes of this list.

You can see a little preview of this below:

Just keep these guidelines in mind, whether you are designing the cover yourself, or paying someone to do it for you.

…to become a bestselling author—to have your name on a list indicating that people wanted to buy your book more than all the other books.

But there’s more to becoming a bestselling author than simply writing and publishing a book.

There are steps you need to take both when writing your book and during the publishing process that will make the difference between landing yourself on a bestseller list and hardly selling books.

What is a bestseller list?

A bestseller list is created by different publications indicating and recognizing the top selling books of a given time period in any given number of places.

I think you’ve all heard of the New York Time’s Bestsellers list. This is by far the most popular list, but there are many other types of bestseller lists out there today.

Types of bestseller lists

Not all besteller lists are the same. Like I mentioned above, the New York Time’s Bestsellers list is among the most popular, but any publication can craft their own version of a bestseller list.

And that means you, as an author, have more opportunitites than just one to become a bestselling author.

After all, the term is “bestselling author” not just “New York Times bestselling author”.

These are the most popular bestseller lists you can land on:

New York Times Bestsellers List

Publishers Weekly Bestsellers List

Amazon Bestsellers List

USA Today Bestsellers List

The Wallstreet Journal Bestseller List

Are bestseller lists a lie?

I can’t continue with this blog post without touching on the controversary surrounding bestseller lists—espeically the New York Times bestseller list (but all of them are like this).

Most of the bestseller lists you know about or hear about aren’t exactly all they’re cracked up to be.

When we hear or see the term “bestseller list” we automatically think that it encompasses all the books who had the most sales.

That’s what “best seller” technically translates to.

For example, most lists only take into account the number of book sales in a very specific time period and from very specific places—and most of them don’t count online book sales the same as in-store sales.

What does this mean for you and your desire to be on a bestseller list?

While bestseller lists aren’t exactly a “lie,” they don’t paint the whole picture. Someone who sells a lot of books right at launch and then nothing for a while can still make the New York Times bestseller list…even though they might sell far fewer books than someone else who just didn’t have as many sales at once.

Essentially, it means that becoming a New York Times bestseller is a great goal to have, but it doesn’t mean that your book is any better than the millions of others out there.

That being said, many of us love the title of becoming a bestseller, so I’m here to walk you through how to do that in the way that makes the most sense for you.

Benefits of being a bestselling author

Even if most of the popular bestseller lists aren’t necessarily “fair,” there are still some perks to becoming a bestselling author.

Here are some benefits of landing your name on a bestseller list:

The title. There’s really nothing that has quite as satisfying of a ring to it as “bestselling author” does. It makes you feel good and rightfully so! It’s an accomplishment no matter how it happened and the confidence boost alone is enough of a reason to work hard to reach that goal.

The credibility. People just take bestselling authors more seriously. Because there’s some sort of proof that your book sold more, people think that means it’s better. When they feel that way about you being a bestselling author, they’re far more likely to respect you, your book, and anything else you put in front of them—like a business.

It helps you sell more books. Just like I mentioned above, being a bestselling author increases credibility. That means people will buy your book simply because it has that title—even if they’re not quite sure who you are or what’s in your book. It’s a simple way to increase your book sales.

It’s easier to sell future books. Once you hit bestseller status once, you can then add that title to your future books. Because of the same reason I mentioned in the point above, people are more likely to buy your book because the public perceived a bestseller status as an indicator of a good book.

You can charge more for non-author gigs. This includes if you want to be a speaker or any other side business connected to your book. Because you have that bestseller status, you can charge more.

How to become a bestselling author

If your heart is set on becoming a bestselling author and reaping all the rewards associated with it, we can help you get there

No matter if you want to become a New York Times bestselling author or an Amazon bestselling author, we’ve got you covered.

#1 – Decide which bestseller list you want to get on

This will ultimately define which path you follow to get published.

Our list above details a couple bestseller lists you can aim to get on, or you can shoot for all of them if you’re really ambitious.

Here at Self-Publishing School, we teach our students how to excel in becoming Amazon bestselling authors in order to gain authority, increase your book’s rankings on the #1 platform for book sales in the world, and ultimately, sell more of their books.

It’s up to you to determine if you want to get on one, two, or even all of the bestseller lists available.

#2 – Write an amazing book

Obviously, your book is important. While there is a lot of strategy involved in becoming a bestselling author, you do have to write a book worthy of selling.

Decide if you want to write fiction or nonfiction. Both types of books can land on their respective bestseller list. This is a fairly easy decision—just go with the first idea you have.

Come up with a book idea. This can be made a lot easier with a list of writing prompts like this one right here. Remember that you have to be passionate about your book because if you’re not, your readers will be able to tell. No “bestseller” banner will save you from negative reviews.

Outline your book. One of the best ways I’ve learned how to write a good book is to outline it. When you know where you’re going, everything in between is easier to write, and that means you can focus on writing with quality.

Write your book. It may take time, but if you follow our process for writing a quality book, you will be proud to have it out into the world. Keep our tips in mind throughout the process and you’ll write a better book, faster.

#3 – Build an author platform

This should happen before you write your book—or during it, if you just decided you want to become an author at all, let alone a bestselling author.

Your platform is your audience. In order to sell your book and on a consistent basis (which is key if you want to be a full-time author), people need to

that you’re writing books for them to read.

In order to do this, you have to be present on social media, have an author website, and market yourself as an author regularly.

Where you spend your most time and how you go about that marketing will depend on what type of book you’re writing and who your audience.

As an example, if your intended audience is an older generation between the ages of 45-60, they’re more likely to be on Facebook than other social platforms simply because those are Facebook’s deomgraphics.

Here are the demographics for social platforms so you can determine where you’ll focus your efforts:

Facebook: 54% female, 46% male, 65% between 50-64 years old

Instagram: 39% women, 30% men, 72% between 13-17 years old

Pinterest: 41% women, 16% men, 34% between 40-49 years old

Using these numbers, you can get a better idea of where you should start building up your author platform first.

#4 – Market your book NOW

If you start on your author platform like I mentioned above, you can start marketing by simply creating social posts, videos, and more content related to your book and its contents.

Here are some ideas for marketing your book before it’s done:

Create social posts with tips and tricks related to your book’s contents

Update your followers on your book’s progress

Talk about the process of writing a book

Voice your challenges with the writing or content itself

Create countdown posts when it gets closer to time to launch

Engage with your followers by asking them to comment below—and then have conversations with them

Reach out for interviews about you and your book

#5 – Decide to pursue self-publishing or traditional publishing

This is where your earlier decision of which bestseller list you want to be on comes into play.

If your goal is to become a New York Times bestselling author (which isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but you do you), you’ll have to go the traditional publishing route and commit to spending a

However, if you want to become an Amazon bestselling author, that achievement is right around the corner.

Here are some of the main differences to help you decide:

Traditional Publishing

Sole control of your book's outcome

Sole control of your book's rights

#6 – Build a large launch team

If your goal is to hit bestseller numbers on the first week of your launch, you need a large and dedicated launch team to help make it happen.

A launch team is a group of people dedicated to helping you launch your book. They read it, review it on Amazon and other platforms, and participate in promotional activities.

They’re actually interested in your book.

They’re motivated and enthusiastic

They participate in promotional tactics

They offer new promotional methods

They have a moderate sized audience of their own

They’ve been on a launch team before

Your launch team will be an integral part of whether or not you become a bestselling author—keep that in mind when recruiting volunteers.

#7 – Create a solid launch plan

We have a very specific process for launching your book to become an Amazon bestseller.

These tactics may not work for if you want to be a NYT’s Bestseller. But they will get you that coveted orange “#1 Bestseller” banner on Amazon, which has relatively the same perks.

Price your book for maximum sales

Host a “soft launch” and nail down your complete launch strategy

Get book reviews from your launch team

Reach out to book promotion sites for both paid and free promo

Stick to a minimalistic launch plan

#8 Become a bestseller

If only it was that simple.

This last step should really be something along the lines of “mess up, try again, try it all over again, and then hope and pray, and try again” instead of “become a bestseller.”

Because that’s what it usually takes:

Luck, the right marketing, the best launch team, and a lot of hope.

But if you have a system that is proven to make you an Amazon bestseller, then it’s almost guaranteed.

How many books do you have to sell to become a bestselling author?

There is no set specific number of book sales needed in order to become a bestselling author. After all, it depends on how many books other authors are selling at the same time.

And it also depends on the rules and criteria of that specific bestseller list.

Here’s a guideline you can follow when it comes to other lists:

New York Times Bestseller list: 9,000 copies

The Wall Street Journal Bestseller list: 3,000 books

Amazon Bestseller list: this number depends on current numbers being sold in the categories you listed your book in

Ultimately, we here at Self-Publishing School believe becoming an Amazon bestseller is not only the most attainable goal of becoming a bestseller author, but it also grants the same rewards as the others.

I get it. The concept might seem a little crazy right now. After all, it’s called self-publishing, not self-and-a-company-publishing.

But the thing is…you don’t know everything you need to in order to self-publish…

Okay, that’s not true. You don’t know everything you need in order to self-publish successfully.

That’s the key here. Do you have what it takes to self-publish and actually achieve the level of success you desire?

The truth is that the large majority of self-publishers out there don’t.

And we’re going to cover exactly how self-publishing companies can help you bridge this gap.

What is a Self-Publishing Company?

A self-publishing company is a business dedicated to helping you achieve your desired level of success within your self-publishing journey.

They detail the process and streamline otherwise difficult avenues you might not be able to maneuver yourself.

But every self-publishing company is different.

Here at Self-Publishing School, our mission is to make the process as easy as possible for you while ensuring you do everything you can to succeed the right way.

Sure, you can throw your book online with a cover you created in Canva and call yourself a self-published author. But will that yield book sales? Will that give you the authority, recognition, and fulfillment you’re looking for?

How is a Self-Publishing Company Different than a Traditional Publishing House?

Traditional publishing houses are where you first land an agent, and then they submit your manuscript, and they take care of the printing/editing/publishing – at the expense of your hard earned royalties, of course.

Here’s a table detailing the differences between self-publishing companies and traditional publishing.

Traditional Publishing

Sole control of your book's outcome

Sole control of your book's rights

Why Use a Self-Publishing Company?

After all, you want to do this yourself, right? Self-publish. But like I mentioned before, you don’t know everything about self-publishing.

Do you know the best book launch process for getting your book with the coveted orange “Bestseller” banner (that also increases your book’s

There is far more to self-publishing than simply hitting “publish” on Amazon, and without the right process, your book might end up as one of those stereotypical self-published books that sells 3 copies – to family members.

And that’s why you use a self-publishing company. Someone else has already done the research, the work, and has the experience to guide you through the process.

If you’re someone who wants to see real book sales and achieve other goals, like growing a business or becoming a full-time author, then a self-publishing company will help.

What You Can Expect with a Self-Publishing Company

What does working with a self-publishing company look like?

While not all self-publishing companies are the same or provide the same type of information and training for you, it’s important to understand what you’ll take away from working with one.

This is what you can expect when working with a company that helps you self-publish.

#1 – You keep all rights to your book

Unlike traditional publishing houses, you actually get to keep all the rights to your books.

It mean that, when you publish, you are the sole owner of the book and all of its contents. It’s copyrighted under your name and the self-publishing companies will not have any of their information inside of the book (unless you want to thank them for everything they’ve helped you with).

This is a major benefit because with self-publishing companies, you can keep the book in print for however long you want.

On the flip side, traditional publishing houses can choose when to pull your book from shelves and simply no longer print or sell it. And since you no longer own the rights, you can’t self-publish that book unless you buy the rights back (which some publishing houses don’t even offer you the option of).

#2 – You’ll save time

Time is our most valuable asset. It’s the one thing in our lives we can never get back no matter what.

Unless you’re a secret time traveler and have uncovered the secrets of bending and warping time (and if you are, PLEASE SHARE), you have to treat time like it’s precious.

One of the biggest perks of using self-publishing companies to help you get your book published is the simple fact thatthey tell you what needs to be done, when, and how.

Not only will you save time actually writing the book (assuming the company gives you instructions on how to write faster, like we do here at Self-Publishing School), but you won’t have to go through the hours upon hours of research in order to get it right.

And, you don’t have to waste time making mistakes and adjusting them.

#3 – You keep 100% of royalties

Everything you earn, you keep. Now, there may be self-publishing companies out there who require a percentage of your royalties, since they helped you, but here at Self-Publishing School don’t’ believe in that.

Aside from what Amazon takes for allowing you to use their platform, 100% of your profit is yours to keep.

This is much different than traditional publishing houses in the sense that through them, you’re only pocketing about 10% of royalties (and sometimes even less).

#4 – You’re kept accountable

The hardship is in the name itself: self-publishing.

It’s a very lonely process if you don’t have anyone else going through it with you. And we all know how much easier it is to stay on track when we have someone else rooting for (or hollering at) us.

Many self-publishing companies have some sort of progress tracking, coaching, or community to help keep you motivated and working to achieve your dream.

How we do that here at Self-Publishing School is through all three of those methods, including a Facebook Mastermind Community with hundreds of dedicated current and past students ready to help.

#5 – You get coached by experts

At least here at Self-Publishing School, you do. Not all programs have this perk, and boy is it a perk.

Our coaches are all experts in their field. You get one-on-one coaching that allows you to take personalized tips and put them to use in your own publishing journey.

Since coaches have been exactly where you are and have come out on top, and maintained book sales themselves, you get a leg up on anyone else doing this without that help.

Take a look at one of our amazing coaches, Lise Cartwright, and how she still manages to bring in $4,000 on her self-published books, all while helping our students learn to do the same.

Again, not all self-publishing companies offer this service to their students, but if they do, it can help you understand a side of the industry you likely wouldn’t get to see otherwise.

#6 – You make connections

This is particularly true for programs that include access to a community of somesort.

You never know who you’ll get to know, like, and befriend. These are all like-minded people who are after the same things as you.

You can make dear friends, get even more advice when needed, and maintain a sense of purpose when you’re constantly fed motivation from them.

#7 – You create a bigger impact with your book

What’s the reason you’re self-publishing. Why do you really want to get your book out into the world?

I’m willing to bet it has something meaningful to you. You want to help others, share information, or show the world a theme or message that’s important to you.

By using one of the self-publishing companies out there, you’re able to create a bigger impact with your book.

Because you will write it better, market it smarter, and sell more. And after all, that’s the point. Right? You want to get as many eyes on it as you possibly can.

#8 – You gain more opportunities

Because your book will do better than it would if you didn’t have that outside help, you gain many more opportunities.

Becoming a published author places you as an authority in any field you’re writing in. Not only does this help your business grow, if that’s your goal, but it also helps you sell more books through new and better opportunities than you’d have otherwise.

Take these students of ours for example:

After publishing their books, they have been either contacted or pursued speaking engagements on their own along with other opportunities to grow their book and platform.

#9 – Your business will grow

Leveraging your book to grow your business is one of the best methods out there.

Chandler Bolt, you know him—the guy who built this 8 figure business from his first bestselling book—swears by it.

But he’s not the only expert out there who agrees.

Ryan Deiss, CEO of DigitalMarketer, also uses a book to grow his business. You can check out how he does so in the video above, but the point remains: self-publishing is a perfect way to grow your business.

And if that’s your goal, then you want to make sure you’re self-publishing for success. Otherwise, your book won’t make nearly as big of an impact on your business, which is why working with a self-publishing company can help.

#10 – You have a repeatable, successful process

Many of our students write multiple books with our program – not just one.

As one of our favorite author says, if you write one book and you enjoy it, you will write another book.

The most successful self-published authors out there are those who write more than one book. Not only do they maintain a steady stream of passive income this way, but since they have a reliable, repeatable process, it makes it easy for them to publish multiple.

So long as the self-publishing company you’re working with has lifetime access (like we do), you can hop on and go through the system every time you want to.

Plus, imagine how nice it would feel to say, “Yes, I’m a published author of multiple books.” Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

Self-Publishing Companies to Avoid

Not all self-publishing companies are created equal. Unfortunately, there are some self-publishing companies who only want your money and don’t want to see you succeed.

These are some red flags to keep a lookout for when researching self-publishing companies to help you get your book out there.

#1 – They take a cut of your royalties

Why even self-publish if you don’t actually get to keep your hard earned money?

This won’t necessarily mean that self-publishing company is a scam or fraudulent in any way. However, it is something to think about and be wary of.

You want to make sure you’re actually benefiting fairly for your book’s success. So working with a company that allows you to keep every cent is essential.

#2 – They make you sign over your book rights

As mentioned earlier, traditional publishing houses technically “purchase” your book from you. It’s why you get that nice big (usually not big, though) advance.

However, self-publishing companies should not require this. Since you are self-publishing, all of the rights should remains 100% yours.

#3 – They maintain creative control

Obviously, self-publishing companies are meant to help you.

That being said, they can certainly offer advice on your book title, subtitle, cover, and even contents, but they should never demand something of your book in order for you to continue with their program.

#4 – Unrealistic expectations

Self-publishing is a varied game. No two authors can expect the exact same outcome and your results largely vary on how much you’re willing to work and how well you’re following their program.

However, self-publishing companies also shouldn’t guarantee crazy expectations—especially without having the proof to back it up.

Guarantees of making $10,000 in the first month are often unfounded. Look for company promises that you feel good about actually being able to achieve them.

#5 – There are a large number of complaints online

Not every self-publishing company can meet everyone’s expectations. Not every single review will be positive – and that’s understandable.

What you do want to lookout for is a large number of negative reviews, complaints, or claims of fraud or scams. These are certainly something to be wary of, but make sure you research some positives as well.

Learning how to publish an ebook can be pretty painful without the right process.

But with kindle direct publishing, Amazon publishing, and other forms of self-publishing at your disposal, publishing an ebook can even be easy—with our help.

We get how much information is out there about learning how to publish an ebook.

How do you position your ebook to sell in a the current times of millions of ebooks available online?

And how do you sell your ebook effectively?

Here are the steps for how to publish an ebook:

With all the different types of advice, how do you know what to follow and what will just elongate your already lengthy process?

Since we specialize in self-publishing, we can easily teach you how to publish an ebook without all the fuss and fluff that can bog you down along the way—because there is a lot.

Why write an ebook?

The ever-rising trend of ebooks should be more than enough of a reason to write and publish your own ebook but if you’re not quite sold, we’ll break it down a bit further.

In 2018, ebook sales are projected to account for about one quarter of global book sales.

Ebooks sell easier online

You make a bigger profit from ebooks

You can embed links directly to your site and products you sell

They’re cheaper to produce

Many authors choose to sell both physical copies and ebooks when they write a book but you can easily sell only ebooks and reap all of the benefits above.

How to publish an Ebook on Amazon

Amazon is the biggest retailer online and with the world of book-buying migrating and settling on the internet, Amazon is the place to publish.

Here’s how you can publish an ebook on Amazon with Kindle Direct Publishing.

#1 – Write a book worth buying

There’s no point in publishing a book that’s not your best work. But if you’re not much of a writer or have no idea how to write a book in the first place, that can make this entire process much more daunting.

In order to write a great ebook to sell on Amazon or even on your own website, you first have to pick a book idea that you’re passionate about. Remember, you’ll be writing up to and even more than 25,000 words so you want to make sure you have a topic you know a lot about and love.

Here are the overall steps for writing a book and getting it ready for publication:

Schedule your writing time and get your book done!

This might seem overwhelming but I promise, it’s not. We even have free training for you to understand exactly what it takes to write and publish your book.

#2 – Create your Amazon KDP account

Learning how to publish an ebook means navigating the online space in a way you may not be familiar with, like using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing to get your ebook out into the world.

Setting up your KDP account is actually really easy.

Visit https://kdp.amazon.com and create an account. You can either use your existing Amazon account or a different email address.

Set up all your tax information. You can’t submit your published ebook unless you have all of these steps completed.

Once your tax information is all filled in, hit “Finished” and you’re all done.

#3 – Format the ebook properly

Book formatting is really, really important. If you just upload your manuscript as is, you’ll run into a number of different problems.

And this is awful because with the “Look Inside” feature Amazon offers, anyone can see the formatting of your book right away.

If it’s bad and difficult to read, they’ll avoid buying your ebook and your sales will tank.

Most people hire a professional to format their book to ensure everything looks great but we also have a guide to help you format your book properly.

#4 – Upload your ebook to KDP account

This is a very simple step for publishing an ebook. All you really have to do is “plug and chug,” as they say.

You have all of the information you need and now it’s just about uploading your formatted manuscript to your KDP account and filling in the information you need to.

That means you’ll need to fill out the title, subtitle, and the description.

Now, you really don’t want to write a boring “filler” description. After the cover, this is the single most important part of publishing an ebook.

If people aren’t sucked in by your description, they won’t buy your book.

Here’s an example of a killer description that has helped sell thousands of copies of this book:

#5 – Choose a launch date

Believe it or not, there are actually good and bad days to launch your book. Typically speaking, the winter holiday season is the worst time to publish a book simply because the advertising market will be super saturated.

Everyone is putting their best ads forward so they can reap the rewards of those holiday spending dollars.

And although this might seem like the perfect time to launch, it’s actually one of the worst.

Your book can easily become lost in the hype of literally every other book and product marketed during that time.

If you want to launch a book during the best possible time for its sales, use this guide below:

Self-help, goal setting, inspirational/motivational

Summer-focused reads, fiction

Baseball books, sports, spring, women's books

Religious, Easter, memoirs, World War II, Fiction

Love/romance, winter/holiday

Summer reads, fiction, history, parenting

Contemporary fiction, fatherhood/parenthood

Fiction, heavier reading materials

History, politics, memoirs, school, college

Mysteries, horror, thrillers, dark nonfiction

Love/romance, happily-ever-afters, self-help

Cookbooks, holidays, religion, children's books

Generally avoid launching during heavy buy/ad months

#6 – Put together your launch team

This is such an important step when it comes to self-publishing an ebook. What you really need is a great group of people who can help launch your book to heights you wouldn’t reach otherwise.

If you want to learn more about how a launch team can hep you, check out the video below:

Your launch team should be composed of people who:

Are very enthusiastic about your book

Have some sort of following or online presence

Are fans of you and your work

Since you’re trusting these people to help get the word out, make sure they’re all committed. A great way to do that is to have an online application form that each person has to fill out.

This will help narrow down those who are serious about helping you and will put in the time and effort to do so.

#7 – Build hype for your ebook on your website or blog

Many who publish ebooks usually have a website or blog they can use to drive traffic to it. Not only that, but some actually use the ebook as a lead magnet and even the main source of income on their site.

What you have to do before your launch is to build interest about the ebook.

Here’s how you can build hype for publishing your ebook:

Link to your book within blog posts

Create blog posts related to the topic of your book

Create graphics for your book and place in your sidebar and within blog posts

Create a graphic to use on the front page of your website

Create an email sequence to sell your book (this is for those more advanced with a larger email list)

Continuously look for ways to integrate your book into blog post ideas and on social media

The idea with optimizing your website with your book is to convert your blog followers into customers and to give those coming to your website from your book the content they’re actually looking for.

All of this builds fans and most importantly, a loyal and engaged following!

For example, we use Chandler Bolt’s book Published. as

point of interest on our website. This gives those who are already interested in the publishing industry something of high value right off the bat.

#8 – Publish your ebook!

It’s time to kick off your ebook and launch! If you’ve followed the steps above, then you’re ready to get your book published and start reaping the rewards.

The best part about publishing an ebook is that you don’t have to worry about ordering prints and going through the proofs and the entire process of adjusting how they look.

Once the ebook format is complete, that’s all you need to concern yourself with in terms of delivery!

Your launch day is very important and exciting.

Make sure your launch team is ready for a day of sharing and even some activities.

It’s best to host activities that your audience can actually engage in. Some fun launch day activities include things like hosting a live webinar, doing a Q&A on Twitter or Facebook or your preferred platform, sending out an email to your entire email list, and any other fun pursuit your readers will benefit from.

Get together with your launch team beforehand and have everyone brainstorm some launch day events.

You can even give prizes to those whose ideas get used!

#9 – Create emphasis of your book on your webiste, social, or email list

Now is the time to leverage that book!

Writing the ebook itself isn’t the hardest part of this process; making continuous sales is. And the best way to ensure you keep pushing buyers to your book is to make it the focus of your blog and website.

Plus, if you have those great reviews from your launch team, you can actually leverage those to make more sales.

Place reviews on your website on the same page your book is linked to. They’re kind of like testimonials for a service. Except, in this case, your service is a book.

You can feature them on your website wherever you want.

Obviously, if you’re someone who only wants to sell your ebook, a blog or website might not even be something on your ebook publishing to-do list.

You should, however, think about creating a website to at least host your book and information on in case others want to find you and even connect with you about speaking engagements and other amazing opportunities a book can grant you.

Historically, if you wanted to know how to publish a book, you needed an agent to get a traditional publisher to look at your manuscript.

In fact, many publishing companies won’t even open a manuscript if it doesn’t come through an agent…

Which makes learning how to publish a book way more difficult.

Not to mention the fact that going through all that work to just land an agent isn’t necessary if you want to publish a book.

What’s worse is even if they do open it, it’s still unlikely that your book will be published and sold in bookstores!

In fact, there is another way for your book to not only be

What is Self-Publishing?

Self-publishing is the act of independently publishing your book on a platform like Amazon without the need of a traditional publishing house.

Personally speaking, I’ve self-published 6 bestselling non-fiction books on Amazon, sold tens of thousands of copies, and continue to collect thousands per month in royalty checks.

The success of my books has been directly responsible for the strong performance of my business, which has grown to over 7 figures in less than 2 years.

Self-publishing a book is done with these steps:

Write a book you’re proud of

Decide which self-publishing platform to use

Get your book edited, a cover designed, and it formatted

Upload your manuscript and accompanying assets

Your book is self-published!

Five years ago, in order to achieve this level of publishing success, you would have needed to be extremely lucky to even land an agent who would attempt to find you a deal at one of the “Big 5” publishing houses.

So If you are trying to publish your book and are having no luck landing a publisher, self-publishing could be the best option for you.

Better yet, making the decision to learn how to navigate the self-publishing world the right away can save you countless wasted hours.

Whether you want to do it yourself or work with one of the many self-publishing companies out there, we can help.

What’s the Difference Between Self-Publishing and Traditional Publishing?

It’s easy to look at these two publishing routes and get confused. Why would someone self-publish when there are companies dedicated to doing it for you? There are actually many reasons.

Self-publishing is a completely independent route with no barriers to entry whereas traditional publishing involves the acts of querying, landing an agent, and getting approved by a publishing house.

Check out the video above for more details on choosing self-publishing or traditional publishing.

Traditional Publishing

Sole control of your book's outcome

Sole control of your book's rights

How Much Does it Cost to Publish a Book?

Pricing to publish a book varies greatly depending on its length, production costs, and the retail price you set.

That being said, it’s important to be prepared when it comes to how much you’ll actually pay to self-publish a book.

There are a number of factors that contribute to how much it costs to self-publish a book:

The length of your book (this impacts printing costs)

Getting your book edited

Any promotional ads/materials you want to utilize

Another surprising, lesser-known cost I cover in the video below

How to Publish a Book in 2020

So many writers get overwhelmed with the abundance of information about the self-publishing process, what it’ll cost, how to do it right, how to come up with a good book idea, and more.

I’ve created a step-by-step comprehensive self-publishing guide that will walk you through the beginning steps of how to write your book all the way to how to self-publish it on Amazon’s Kindle (KDP) Network.

Let’s get started so you can get started!

#1 – Decide Why You Want to Learn How to Publish a Book

I encourage going through this brainstorming process as it’s the only way to ensure that you’re 100% committed to writing a book (and you’re doing it for the right reasons).

Here are some questions for you to decide why you want to publish a book:

Are you an entrepreneur or freelancer with a new business trying to get a leg up on your competition by publishing a book?

Do you want to leverage your skills and knowledge to become a paid speaker or coach?

Do you have a well-established business and you want to write a book to diversify your income streams and land speaking engagements?

Or do you already have a successful story, and want to build an asset that will share the knowledge and skills you’ve gained over decades of experience?

Action Plan:

Come up with at least 10 valid reasons why you want to write a book. Use the questions above as a starting guide to brainstorm.

#2 – Write Your Book

If you’ve ever tried to start writing a book, you might have had moments where you’ve stared at a blank page for hours with nothing to show for it. Feeling frustrated, you resort to procrastinating and get nothing done!

This is normal, writing a book is hard work.

can be very tricky. But in order to start writing your book, you must develop a writing process.

Here’s are some effective ways to write a book worth self-publishing:

Buy a calendar. The best way to have your book complete is to have a calendar that schedules your goals per day/week.

Create an outline. An outline is like a map of your book that provides direction to your story. It keeps you on track and ensures that your ideas are organized.

Develop a writing habit. Condition yourself to write at the same time every day. With this practice, it will soon become a habit that will make writing a book automatic.

Get an accountability partner. You can hold each other accountable to write and finish your by your “draft done” date.

Build your writing environment. Yes, this can be a blanket for if you choose to use “build” literally or you can simply find an area where your head is clear, there are no distractions, and where you can write in peace.

To learn more tips on how to write faster, here’s a tutorial video of the simple process I use to write over 1500 words per hour:

Action Plan:

Create a resistance plan! Figure out which methods best filter out the negative noise to get you into the writing process.

Painter's brush moustache

#3 – Get Feedback on Your Book Before Publishing

When writing your book, it’s important to get as much feedback as early in the process as possible.

It’s essential to get this feedback in order to improve your writing.

Everything from creative writing to factual, non-fiction works needs feedback in order to produce a polished publication.

As writers, it’s all too easy to retreat into your cave for a long period of time, spend countless hours writing what you think is the perfect first draft, only to find that a) your draft doesn’t make sense to anyone else or b) no one else is as interested in the topic as you originally thought.

Writing tips can come from anywhere and the best usually come from those reading your book for the first time.

Not only can a fresh set of eyes on your book help you catch typos and grammatical errors, but a new perspective can give you ideas for tightening up your story and making the theme more clear, like in

Giving your book to one (or more) “beta readers” before giving it to an editor and self-publishing can also cut down on the time and cost of paying a professional editor.

You can also use a beneficial piece of writing software like Grammarly or the Hemingway Editor so you can learn as you write!

Action Plan:

Reach out to a few friends who could provide good (preferably unbiased) feedback, and ask them if they’ll be willing to read a chapter or two (or the whole book!) as you finish writing

#4 – Choose a Book Title

Contrary to popular belief, you should never decide on a book title until after you are done writing your first draft.

This is because choosing a book title first often results in you “writing yourself into a corner” because you’re trying so hard to align your story to the title of the book instead of writing what needs to be written.

Don’t make this more complicated than it needs to be.

As you’re brainstorming ideas, always remember to keep it simple.

Your title should also be clear on what your readers will receive by reading your book. This is because experts state that a clear promise or a guarantee of results will further intrigue your readers.

Here are some questions to consider when creating your memorable book title:

Is your title going to teach a high demand skill?

Can your title impact someone’s life?

Can your book solve a very difficult problem?

Is it short enough to read in a thumbnail image on Amazon?

Does it elicit an emotional response?

Action Plan:

Once you’ve narrowed down your book titles, send out an email to your friends and family or put a poll up to your audience asking what title they’d prefer. You could also ask a community of other authors what they think.

#5 – Hire a Great Book Editor

Hiring a great book editor can mean the difference between becoming a bestselling author, or self-publishing a mediocre book. Therefore, it’s important to take as much time as necessary during this stage of the process.

To find an editor for your book, begin with your personal network.

Start there. If you don’t, then do you know someone who knows an editor? If you don’t have any luck finding an editor within your personal network, don’t worry!

Depending on your budget, you can either hire a professional book editor or hire a more budget-friendly editor from Upwork. But be careful and always check references and portfolios of work.

As a Self-Publishing School student, we will also provide you with a Rolodex of approved and vetted book editors who all do a great job, as you can see in the example below.

No matter how you find your editor, make sure you’re a good fit before committing to the full book by paying them a small sum ($25 or so) to edit a few pages or a chapter of your book.

Make sure the editor is interested in the subject matter, that they can get your whole book edited in 3.5 weeks or less including back-and-forth revisions, and that their edits are both accurate and make sense to you.

If you don’t feel you’re a good fit following a sample edit, then let that $25 go and find an editor who’s going to work out rather than sinking more money into a relationship that might be a mistake.

Whatever you do, don’t give up during the editorial process! If one editor isn’t working out for you or meeting your needs, find another.

Action Plan:

Find a friend or professional editor who can make sure your book is error-free, and start working with them sooner rather than later!

#6 – Design a Book Cover that Converts

When it comes to self-publishing, a high-quality book cover is one of the most important elements that will get your book to convert into sales!

book cover design is what readers see first and will immediately determine whether they want to read your book or not.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover” simply doesn’t apply to actual book covers, as much as we wish it did.

The hard truth is that everyone judges a book by its cover whether they realize it or not.

So you must make sure that it is created professionally and that it will stand apart from the rest of the books in your genre or category.

Simplistic styling. Too much going on will make readers unable to figure out what your book is about. Keep the cover minimalistic and it will convert more readers.

Professionally designed. Book cover designers know how to create book covers that convert. They have industry knowledge and have studied what works and what doesn’t.

Clear title and subtitle. The title on your cover does matter. The easier it is to read, the better. This allows your readers to clearly see what your book is about as they scroll through Amazon or other book retailers.

A design style that fits your intended audience. If you’re writing a faith-based book intended for an audience of faith, having an overly dark, devilish cover doesn’t make sense.

You can find amazing book cover designers on freelancing sites such as:

Prices will vary depending on what type of service you want, but the end result will be well worth the spend.

Action Plan:

Find a book designer with any of these sites and your book will stand apart from the rest of its competition!

#7 – Create Your Kindle Direct Self-Publishing Account

Amazon has a self-publishing service called Kindle Direct Publishing where you can create and manage your Kindle eBook, paperback, and audio books.

Amazon has recently acquired the well-known book printing company CreateSpace and they’re now merged as one.

This means you can now offer print books to your audience. It’s the best way to learn how to publish a book and start selling quickly, and I’ve used it for all my self-published books.

I highly recommend it for all new self-publishers!

Visit https://kdp.amazon.com and create an account with either your existing Amazon account or your email address.

Next, you must complete your tax information. You will not be able to submit your published book if you do not complete this step.

Once your tax information is complete, hit “Finished” and your account is complete!

Action Plan:

Follow these steps to create your KDP account! With this platform, you can figure out how to publish your book within minutes and soon have it appear worldwide!

#8 – Format Your Self-Published Book

If you’re on a budget, there are plenty of resources online that can tell you how to format your book yourself for free. You can start by looking at Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing forums where there are plenty of discussions on book formatting.

You can also use KDP’s free resources to help format your book. Formatting can be a frustrating experience for the uninitiated though, so if you have a few bucks to spare, you might consider paying someone to help you.

keep in mind that formatting will look different for fiction versus nonfiction books.

Typically, nonfiction books don’t have an indent between paragraphs but instead, they have spaces whereas fiction books are indented with each new paragraph.

If you want to pay for formatting, Liber Writer is a low-cost, effective option for converting a Microsoft Word file to Amazon’s Kindle format. If $60 is too much, you can also find people on Fiverr to format your book for Kindle.

Just be sure you hire someone who knows how to format your specific book genre.

Action Plan:

Make sure your book is formatted properly by using the free online resource above or hiring someone who can handle the formatting process for you.

#9 – Self-Publish Your Book

When you feel confident your book is ready for the public, you can create a KDP account and upload your book.

On the KDP mainpage, locate and click on “Your Bookshelf”.

Locate and click on “Kindle eBook Actions”.

Then, locate and click on “Edit eBook Content”.

Finally, click on “Upload eBook Manuscript”, and upload your manuscript file from your computer.

Amazon also allows you to select 7 keywords or keyword phrases to make sure your intended audience can find your book when searching on Amazon.

It’s highly recommended you also select two different categories on Amazon your book might fit into so you can reach a broader audience.

To select keywords and categories, look at other best-selling books in your niche and notice what keywords and categories those authors chose.

Once Amazon finishes uploading your file, a confirmation message will be sent and you can preview the uploaded file to check for any errors. Create your Amazon author central account after uploading your book.

Include a bio, photo, and link to your website or blog to help you stand out among authors. After a few more steps, you’ll be ready to publish your book, at which time you’ll click “save & publish” in your KDP book dashboard.

Afterward, you should be ready to publish your book! Just click “save & publish” in the book editing screen!

Action Plan:

Follow these steps to upload your book. You are allowed to upload your manuscript as many times as you want with each upload overriding the previous.

#10 – Price Your Book

One of the most important decisions when it comes to self-publishing a book is how to price it. The most common question I get from new writers is, “How much should my book cost?”

To answer this, my general rule of thumb is to have your book priced is between $2.99 to $5.99. To be more specific, when beginning a launch, I would begin by pricing the book at $0.99 for the launch period.

Then I would set the price to 2.99, and I would moderately increase the price by $1 every week and measure how well the new price performs. Once you see a sales dip, that will determine the exact price of your book that will guarantee book sales.

Action Plan:

Find the perfect price by using this strategy that will attract your readers and best drive long-term success.

#11 – Form a Launch Team

Your launch team is the group of people who are dedicated to helping make your book successful.

They should be a passionate group of individuals who are eager to make your book launch successful. Remember, one highly skilled team member is better than a group of mediocre ones!

Here’s a video detailing how to use a launch team effectively:

To find quality candidates, here’s a questionnaire you can use to assess applicants and see if they’re qualified to market your book:

Why do you want to support my book?

What goals are you trying to reach with this project?

How would you market this book?

Which influencers would you reach out to and why?

Do you have a genuine interest in my book and its genre?

Action Plan:

Create an application with questions that align with your thought process. Try to be open-minded with those who think outside the box – they may be the perfect candidates that can get your book to become a bestseller.

#12 – Maximize Book Launch Exposure with Reviews

It’s not enough to learn how to publish a book and be done with it. You still have to take action even after your official launch.

As soon as your book goes live on Amazon, be sure to leverage your launch team and your audience to help you market your book! It may be odd to ask your fans for help, but your fans are there to support your project and want to see you succeed.

You might be surprised how willing they’ll be to help you if you just ask!

Here are some marketing initiatives you can assign your team and audience to do:

Share content from your book as blog posts across social media

Help build your book’s website

Reach out to influencers for a future guest post or podcast feature

Share a book review on their YouTube channel

Buy extra copies to gift their friends

The additional exposure generated from your launch team and audience will help push your book up Amazon’s rankings, which will drive more sales!

Action Plan:

Create your book marketing launch plan using these methods. Measure each of these methods to see which will best get your book in the hands of new readers and convert into sales.

#13 – Celebrate Learning How to Self-Publish a Book!

Publishing after writing a book is just the beginning. Depending on your goals for your book, self-publishing can get you more customers, free publicity, and establish you as an expert in your niche.

This can help you land speaking gigs and build a business within your area of expertise.

Your book sales can also help fund your lifestyle with passive income.

Dream big about what you want your book to do for you. When you have a vision for where you want your book to take you, it will be easier to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

Getting clear on what you want will also help you to be more effective when expanding your network along on your journey.

What to do Now

Now that you’ve learned how to publish a book, it’s time to take action and bring yourself one step closer to your goals and dreams.

If self-publishing a bestseller is something you want to do, and you’re serious about changing your life and your business for the better by getting your book out there in the world, then you need a step-by-step system to follow to take action.

Richard put hours upon hours into writing a book he was proud of. He had it edited, spent the time to have others beta read it, and was SO happy with the results.

But…of all the many hours he spent on his book, on the proofing and even self-publishing it on Amazon, the cover design was not even a whole one of them.

And that’s what his low book sales were reflective of.

You see, Richard knew the contents of the book were important. What he failed to realize, however, is that people do, in fact, judge a book by its cover.

In reality, according to The Book Smuggler, 79% of people say book cover designs play a decisive role in their decision to purchase a book.

So, are you a Richard…or will you learn what it takes to design a book cover that will sell your book?

Here are our tips for how to design a book cover:

How much does it cost to design a book cover?

On average, you can expect to spend anywhere from $50 – $500 for a book cover design that’s professionally crafted.

There are always (worthwhile) expenses you incur when self-publishing your book. The total cost of your book cover design will vary based on a few key factors.

These rates of a book cover design depend on the following criteria:

cover designer’s experience

how intricate your book cover is

the time it takes to design

how many options you want to choose from

the cover designer’s expertise with cover design

the cover designer’s demand for work

What you want to remember is that your book’s cover is its very first impression to the world. Investing in this is above almost anything else (aside from book editing ).

How long does it take to design a book cover?

The length of time it takes to design a good book cover can vary from a few hours when making it yourself to a few weeks if you choose to hire a cover designer.

Overall, we recommend our students allot roughly three weeks from initial touchpoint to self-publishing your book in order to ensure your cover is fully complete before launching your book.

However, please keep in mind that if you hire someone to design your book cover, they may not have availability right away. Meaning, reach out a few months before you want to launch your book in order to hire someone.

Design your own book cover

If you’re not quite ready to put your book in the hands of a professional designer, we have methods to help you design your own book cover.

#1 – Develop book cover ideas

We all typically have a thought about what we want our book covers to look like. Sometimes we even save images to our phone of covers we really like or want to emulate.

Your first step for designing your own book cover is compiling all these ideas into a single place.

You can find book cover ideas in all of these places:

Pinterest – sign on to Pinterest and look up “book covers” to get a ton of brilliant covers all in one place. This is also a great place to create a board specifically to save book covers for future reference.

Goodreads – There are so many books on Goodreads for you to look at as covers inspiration. You can even simply add these to your “to be read” list in order to save them for reference as well.

Google book cover ideas – Others have already done the work for you! Just go to Google and type in “book cover inspiration” and click on the “images” tab to be greeted with tons of great options you can save. Or you can check out helpful blog posts like this one on the 100 most creative book cover ideas.

Peruse Amazon in your book’s genre – This is by far the best method for coming up with book cover ideas. Simply go to your book’s genre by navigating to books > your genre > subgenre and look at the typical covers of bestselling books, like in the image below.

#2 – Use free stock images for your book cover

Once you have an idea for your book, you may need to outsource the images by using free stock photo sites.

We highly recommend stock photos (if you can’t have professional ones taken) because they are readily available for use, unlike some you might find on Google and want to use.

Here are a few places you can get free photos for your book cover:

If you do want to up your game with stock photos, you can purchase licenses for the images (meaning oftentimes, you’re the only person who can use that image).

#3 – Choose book cover fonts

Fonts matter! Depending on your genre, the style of your book, and even the vibe or voice you want to convey, your book cover fonts can make a major difference in how potential readers view your book.

For example, I used three different fonts to make up the covers in the images below. Depending on which font used, the title suddenly has a new meaning—and a new audience.

You have to make sure you’re using a font for your cover that coincides with its message, tone, and the audience you’re trying to reach.

#4 – Find the right book cover dimensions

You can’t design a book cover all willy nilly. The right book cover dimensions are crucial.

What are the proper book cover dimensions?

This is often your call and depends on your book formatting, but the most common paperback book dimensions are 6″ by 9″ (15.24 x 22.86 cm).

This doesn’t mean you have to use this size, but this is the most common size for a paperback book, and is Amazon’s default book dimension option if you publish through them.

Here are more book cover dimensions for the multiple platforms you may publish on:

Book Cover Size (suggested)

Cover Size Requirements

- 2560 x 1600 pixels - Ratio of 1.6:1

Between 1000 x 625 pixels AND 10000 x 10000 pixels. One side must be at least 1000 pixels long/wide.

- Height and width of 1400 pixels minimum

750 pixels minimum for height and width

1400 pixels wide as a minimum

Tall rectangle of 1600 wide and 2400 pixels long

1400 pixels wide as a minimum

#5 – Use free or paid cover design software

Now it’s time to put everything you’ve created and gathered together and design your actual book cover.

There are many different options to choose from, some of which don’t cost you additional money, while others do.

You don’t have to be an expert designer to create a great cover, but you do have to use certain methods to make it look like your book cover was designed by an expert (and we’ll cover professional book designs in a bit).

Using different design softwares, much like writing softwares, allows you to upload your work in a way that provides you with a clean finished results.

Here are our top free book cover designs softwares to use:

These are design softwares that are more advanced, and therefore not free:

#6 – Create 3 different cover options

Instead of creating one solid cover, make three very different cover options. You never know what your audience will find most appealing.

For that reason, we always recommend to our students to have at least three different book cover options available for them to narrow it down from.

#7 – Test your book cover options with an audience

You can’t possibly know what will resonate well with your audience. Sure, if you’ve done your book research on your specific genre, you’ll have a good idea, but that’s not always a sure thing.

This is why we have someone else edit it. Fresh eyes can make a major difference on deciding what’s best.

We recommend joining a group (for our students, it’s our Mastermind Facebook group ) or sending your cover options out to a group of people in order to get feedback.

Here’s an example of one of our students posting their cover for feedback in our group:

Hire a professional book cover designer

Sometimes you just have to leave the professional work to, well, the professionals.

They can create custom designs, instead of using stock photos

They have inside knowledge about the book cover world

They will almost always make something of higher quality

You can trust that your cover will be good for its genre

There are many ways you can go about hiring a cover designer, one of which we discuss in the video below, but following our steps for working with a professional will help you come away with the best book cover you can.

#1 – Put together book cover inspiration

Much like we discussed in the section on creating your own book cover, there are so many ways to find cover designs you like.

We mentioned perusing Pinterest, searching for book cover inspiration on Google, and even heading to your book’s genre on Amazon to find what covers are performing best.

The main difference when working with a professional designer is that you should compile these ideas somewhere you can share with them.

Ultimately, they will create a cover they know to be great for your book, but they also want to know your vision for the project as well.

#2 – Research popular book covers in your genre

We touched on this in the above section as well, but when looking for book cover ideas, spend some time to research what’s populat in your genere.

Your cover designer will likely have experience creating in your genre (if you chose one wisely, at least) and can help with this but giving them a starting point will help you get to the cover you’ve always wanted, faster.

#3 – Hire a book cover designer you like

Finding a cover designer can be tricky. Here are Self-Publishing School, we actually provide a Rolodex of talented book cover designers (as seen in the image below) in order to allow our students to cut down on expenses and time spent searching.

That being said, there are many methods for finding cover designers.

Here are the many places you can find book cover designers for hire:

If you’re a student of ours, the Rolodex featured above in your course

Google and research freelance book cover designers

Once you find a book cover designer you want to work with, the rest of this process continues.

#4 – Communicate your ideas about the book cover

Be as clear with your design as you can about what you want and expect for your book cover.

Remember, they’re not miracle workers, but if their experience is in line with what you’re looking for, be very upfront about what you want.

Share your book cover inspiration ideas with them in order to give them an idea of what to create for you.

Another thing they’ll ask is what your book is about. Give them the core elements, the style of it, and the tone you want it to have along with who your core audience is.

#5 – Ask for 1-3 options

At minimum, you should have 2 different cover options completed, though we highly recommend 3 in order to get a wider range of what you truly want.

This allows you to find the cover that BEST suits what you’re looking for.

Like in the example from our very own team member, Michael Lachance’s book, Land Your Dream Job , these cover design options should vary greatly from one another, and not just be different in their text or colors. Make this very clear to your designer—most offer 3-4 cover options within their packages already.

#6 – Test your book cover options with an audience

The above image is an example of getting feedback of your cover design. It’s always a good idea to run the final cover options through a feedback group in order to see what OTHER people resonate with.

Sometimes your target market will like a book cover that isn’t your favorite.

While it’s completely up to you which cover to go with, remember to keep your audience in mind. After all, your book is for them, not for you.

#7 – Finalize your cover options

The final step for your book cover design is to finalize it! Work with yoru designer to choose your favorite design, finalize the color and font options, and that’s it!

We recommend hosting a book cover reveal as a way to stir up more anticipation for your novel before your book launch as well!

Knowing how to copyright a book — the right way — is something that scares the crap out of most authors!

After all, if you get it wrong, someone could steal your work and pass it off as their own. It’s practically an author’s worst nightmare – for good reason.

A lot of us get caught up in a confusing haze of copyright laws, infringement, and wondering how to stay out of hot water with the law and angry lawyers (okay, maybe it’s not that dramatic) while also protecting our book babies. Learning how to copyright a book can help alleviate all of that worry.

With the explosion of self-publishing, authors must be aware of what they can and can’t do when it comes to quoting, borrowing, and publishing works from other authors.

We’ll give you all the information and resources you need to protect yourself and your own work from being misused or stolen while keeping you from committing the same crimes against your fellow authors.

We’ll also look at the most frequently asked questions authors ask when it comes to copyright concerns, for both their own works and when borrowing from other sources.

It all begins with creating the copyright page in your book.

How to Copyright a Book

Every author needs to copyright their book. This process shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes and it’s very easy with our steps.

Here’s are the steps to copyright your book for peace of mind:

On the left box, select “Literary Works”

Navigate to “Register a Literary Work” on the right sidebar

Select either “new user” or login with your account

If you’re a new user, fill out your information

Navigate to “Copyright Registration” on the left and select “Register A New Claim”

Fill out the copyright form

Pay your $85 copyright fee to complete registration

Submit your finished manuscript to the U.S. Copyright Office

Copyrighting your book is much easier than it seems

Create Your Copyright Page

The copyright page will appear in your book right after the title page and just before the table of contents. The copyright page needs to include some essential information in order to copyright your book.

The main components of your copyright page are:

The copyright notice. This has the little © symbol or you can use the word “copyright.” So it would look like this: ©2018 Jane Doe

The year of publication of the book

The name of the owner of the works, which is usually the author or publishing house name

Your website (You need a site where they can learn more about you, your other books, and other opportunities.)

Disclaimers When Copyrighting Your Book

You may not think you really need a disclaimer but it’s essential for protecting yourself and potentially others.

If you are writing a book on health and fitness, success as an entrepreneur, providing financial advice—anything that readers could fail at—an extended disclaimer is something you should consider.

If you give advice on earning a million dollars this year, and the reader ends up losing money, you could be blamed for their misfortune because of a promise you made. Consider putting an extended disclaimer in your book that comes after the copyright jargon to protect your opinions, advice, and information.

In other words, tell readers that they are reading your book and applying your advice at their own risk. The thing to be aware of that most authors don’t realize is that these don’t have to be boring.

On the contrary, the more personality these have, the more likely they’ll be read.

A disclaimer is meant to protect you, but it can’t hurt if your audience actually reads it .

Helen Sedwick did a great job collecting examples of authors who got creative with their disclaimers and made their work all the better for it.

Let’s take a look at some specific examples of different types of disclaimers for different types of books.

#1 – Fiction Copyright Disclaimer

The characters in this book are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

How could this be “livened” up? See how Thomas Wolf in A Man in Full , acknowledges that parts of his story are from real life:

This novel’s story and characters are fictitious. Certain long-standing institutions, agencies, and public offices are mentioned, but the characters involved are wholly imaginary.

Or Margaret Atwood in Cat’s Eye tries to dispel readers’ assumption that the book is the alter-ego of the writer:

This is a work of fiction. Although its form is that of an autobiography, it is not one. Space and time have been rearranged to suit the convenience of the book, and with the exception of public figures, any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental. The opinions expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author’s.

If you’ve written about a prominent figure that people might be familiar with and don’t want confusion over whether you’re now writing history or still sticking with fiction, you can approach it similar to D. M. Thomas dealt with using Freud as a character in The White Hotel :

The role played by Freud in this narrative is entirely fictional. My imagined Freud does, however, abide by the generally known facts of the real Freud’s life, and I have sometimes quoted from his works and letters, passim. The letters... and all the passages relating to psychoanalysis... have no factual basis.

Here’s an example of what your book copyright page would look like for a fiction book.

#2 – Nonfiction Copyright Disclaimer

The typical disclaimer you’ll find in works of nonfiction?

The advice and strategies found within may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that neither the author nor the publisher are held responsible for the results accrued from the advice in this book.

However, Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks found a way to get her disclaimer to speak to the honesty of the text:

This is a work of nonfiction. No names have been changed, no characters invented, no events fabricated.

A nonfiction book copyright page looks like this:

#3 – Memoir Copyright Disclaimer

This book is memoir. It reflects the author’s present recollections of experiences over time. Some names and characteristics have been changed, some events have been compressed, and some dialogue has been recreated.

But in The Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolf, he buries his disclaimer in his acknowledgments. As he thanks those who read drafts of the book, he says:

I have been corrected on some points, mostly of chronology. Also my mother claims that a dog I describe as ugly was actually quite handsome. I’ve allowed some of these points to stand, because this is a book of memory, and memory has its own story to tell. But I have done my best to make it tell a truthful story.

How to Copyright a Book: Familiarize Yourself With Legal Terms

I know, I know…we would rather write books, rake in the cash, and sign autographs than worry about technical legal jargon.

I get it. It can seem boring but the better you understand how copyright law works, b ut the more you know, the more time you can spend writing without wondering, “Is this legal?”

Here are some legal terms to keep you informed on your rights as a self-publisher and protect your works:

Copyright infringement: is the use of works protected by copyright law without permission, infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, such as the right to reproduce, distribute, display or perform the protected work, or to make derivative works. The copyright holder is typically the work’s creator, or a publisher or other business to whom copyright has been assigned. Copyright holders routinely invoke legal and technological measures to prevent and penalize copyright infringement.

Intellectual property (or “IP” ): is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect, and primarily encompasses copyrights, patents, and trademarks. It also includes other types of rights, such as trade secrets, publicity rights, moral rights, and rights against unfair competition. Artistic works like music and literature, as well as some discoveries, inventions, words, phrases, symbols, and

can all be protected as intellectual property.

Public Domain Work: refers to works whose exclusive intellectual property rights have expired, have been forfeited, have been expressly waived, or are inapplicable. For example, the works of Shakespeare and Beethoven, and most early silent films are in the public domain either by virtue of their having been created before copyright

or by their copyright term

expired. Some works are not covered by

and are therefore in the public domain—among them the formulae of Newtonian physics, cooking recipes, and all computer software created prior to 1974. Other works are actively dedicated by their authors to the public domain; some examples include reference implementations of cryptographic algorithms, the image-processing software ImageJ, created by the National Institutes of Health, and the CIA’s World Factbook . The term public domain is not normally applied to situations where the creator of a work retains residual rights, in which case use of the work is referred to as “under license” or “with permission”.

Plagiarism: is the “wrongful appropriation” and “stealing and publication” of another author’s “language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions” and the representation of them as one’s own original work.

First Amendment (Amendment I): to the United States Constitution prevents Congress from making any law respecting an establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise of religion, or abridging the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the right to peaceably

or to petition for a governmental redress of grievances. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights.

Fair use: in its most general sense, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. In other words, fair use is a defense against a claim of copyright infringement. If your use qualifies as a fair use, then it would not be considered an infringement.

Libelous writing: can be personal libel or trade libel, which is also known as “product disparagement.” Product disparagement can include a product, service or entire company. Libelous statements, whether against persons or products, are published statements that are false and damaging. Slander is the same as libel in most

but in spoken rather than written form. The terms “libel” and “slander” are often subsumed under the broader term “defamation.” It is a tort (a wrongful act) to harm another’s reputation by defaming them.

You can also check out this handy guideline for authors from Wiley on what needs permission vs. what you can use without asking.

When in doubt, consult with legal counsel or take the time to research the material you are either protecting or planning to borrow from another source. The time invested could save you an embarrassing or costly situation down the road.

Knowing what you can and shouldn’t do is a critical part of the publishing business.

When you write and publish your own works, you are now in business for yourself, and business owners protect their property by learning how to copyright a book the right way. Don’t make things harder for yourself!

Like this post? Sign up below for a FREE video course and learn how to go from blank page to bestseller in 90 days!

How to Copyright a Book: The 9 Most Common Questions

Nowadays, with the massive expansion of self-publishing, it is more important than ever for authors, artists, and creatives putting their work out there to ensure that it is fully protected.

When we borrow work from other authors, living or dead, we have to consider:

When is permission needed?

Here is the golden rule when it comes to copyright laws: Never assume that anything is free!

Everything out there, including on the internet, has been created by someone. Here are common questions authors have about protecting themselves, their works, and others they may have quoted in their books:

#1 – Do I have to register my book before it is copyrighted?

Your book is legally copyrighted as soon as it is written.

But, to scale up your legal rights and protect your material to the fullest extent, register your book with the Federal Copyright Office.

On the chance someone does attempt to pirate your book or portions of it, registering with the US Copyright Office will give you greater leverage if it comes to action being taken.

#2 – How many words can I quote from another book or source?

Generally speaking, there are no set rules on how much you can actually “borrow” from existing works. But, it’s best to exercise common sense here and keep it short, as a general rule under 300 words.

Paul Rapp, a lawyer specializing in intellectual property rights, says that, “if the quote drives your narrative, if you are using an author’s quote in your argument, or if you are giving an opinion on an author’s quote, then it is considered fair use.”

What is fair use? A legal concept that allows the reproduction of copyrighted material for certain purposes without obtaining permission and without paying a fee or royalty. Purposes permitting the application of fair use generally include review, news reporting, teaching, or scholarly research.

If you use something published by someone else with the sole purpose of monetary gain, this doesn’t constitute fair use.

#3 – Can I write about real people?

Especially in works of nonfiction, real people are often mentioned to express an opinion or as an example to clarify the writer’s fact or opinion. Generally, you can use the names of real people as long as the material isn’t damaging to their reputation or libelous.

Stick to the facts and write about what is true based on your research.

#4 – Can I borrow lyrics from songs?

Stephen King often used song lyrics for his books including Christine and The Stand. He obtained permission for these works. King says, “Lyrics quotes in this book [Christine] are assigned to the singer most commonly associated with them. This may offend the purist who feels that a song lyric belongs more to the writer than the singer.”

Basically, song lyrics fall under strict copyright even if it is just a single line used. Try to get permission if you use a song.

You can contact the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) or Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI). Once you find the rights owner, you have to ask for permission through writing.

#5 – Do I need permission to borrow material from a book that is over 100-years-old?

Once the copyright on a book or material has expired, or the author has been dead for seventy years, the work enters into the public domain and you can use it without permission or licensing.

BUT this does vary from country to country. You can check the copyright office in the US here.

#6 – Are authors liable for content used in a book?

Even with traditional publishing houses, the author is still responsible for the content written and used in the book.

In fact, traditionally published authors usually have to sign a waiver that removes the publisher from any liability pertaining to the material the author used if the writer included that material without proper permission.

#7 – If I use an inspirational quote from another writer or famous person, do I need permission?

You don’t need permission to use quotes in a book provided that you credit the person who created it and/or spoke the quote.

For example: “Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream” – Edgar Allan Poe

#8 – What is the best way to protect my work from being stolen?

Your work is copyrighted as soon as it is written.

But you can register your work with the US copyright office. If you have a blog where you also post content, you need to have a Terms & Privacy disclaimer on your page.

This would preferably be at the top where it is easy to see, although many writers and bloggers include this at the bottom of every page.

You should also include your Copyright on your blog that protects your content from being “copied and pasted” into another site without permission or recognition.

#9 – A royalty free stock photo means that I can use it for free and don’t have to get permission, right?

Most stock photos are copyrighted, even if they appear in search engines and we can easily download or copy them.

If you grab a photo off the net and think you can slap it on a book cover or use it for free in your book, think again.

It’s recommended you purchase photos through sites such as Shutterstock or Depositphotos.

When it comes to launching a bestselling boo k on Amazon, the biggest leverage an author can invest in is building a stellar book launch team.

Your launch team will receive an early bird copy of the book, read through it, and write an honest review to be posted when the book is live.

But a launch team can be much more effective in other ways too that we will look at in this post.

In this post, I will walk you through the steps for building, guiding and managing your book street team.

If you follow this system, you will be investing in the most critical part of your book launch, setting your book up for the long term success it deserves.

Here’s what you’ll learn about building a book launch team:

What is a Book Launch Team?

Your launch team, also known as a street team, is a group of people who are going to set you up for success when your book launches. They could be fans of your previous work, readers of your blog, friends who want to support you, or the members in your mastermind group.

And, ideally, a combination of all of the above.

The launch team has a massive impact on, not only the success of your book launch but, the long term success of the book. They are a group of people who are passionate about your book, your brand, and they want you to succeed as much as you do.

Your job, as the author of the book, is to guide your team to take action both before the book is launched and then during the launch window.

Why do you need a book launch team?

Launch team members will help you to get reviews during the launch and, help you to share the book launch as well as get downloads for your book.

If you have a weak launch, you have weak book sales and you’ll be forever struggling to drive traffic towards your book.

Your launch team will read the book before anyone else and prepare an honest review of the work to be posted during launch week. Amazon favors books with review activity.

The more Amazon reviews you can get posted, your book moves up the rankings faster and gets promoted by Amazon under the “books you also might like” section.

Reviews also increase book sales. If you manage to get 20-30 reviews in the first week, this would create serious momentum for your book rankings. It is the best social proof that your book is getting read and people are taking an interest in the content.

The bottom line: Reviews convince browsers to buy. Amazon will rank your book higher as well if there is activity taking place.

Building Your Team: Where do I recruit?

The question that I often get is, “Where do I find people to join my team?” This is a challenge if you don’t have much of a following and have never launched a book before.

Let’s assume that this is your first book launch and you are looking for people to join your launch team. Where do we begin to build? Who can we ask?

Here are a few suggestions for building a book launch team:

Make a list of 20-30 people you can contact directly.These can be business contacts, online relationships, or subscribers to your email list. This list functions as your core team, what I call your level 1 launch team. They are the most committed to your launch. Perhaps they joined a previous launch you had and now they want to sign up for this one as well.

Post to your Facebook/Social Media Platforms/Mastermind Groups.This is where you can gather a lot of your level 2 launch team members. If you are going for a large launch team, this would be the next phase. If you want to keep it more personal and limit the number of people, just follow through with the first step and leave it at that.

Keep in mind, with your level 2 launch team, you could get anywhere from 20-200 people sign up. The reason we call it a level 2 group is, many of the people joining may not know you personally, but they have an interest in your book.

But the question is, how committed are they to following through?

It is just a fact that not everyone on your team is going to follow through. Maybe they didn’t like the book, they had no time to read it, or, they were uncertain what to do during the launch. There is the possibility that they won’t leave a review for whatever reasons.

This is why we have to be clear with our launch team as to:

How to implement the action plan

The best you can do is encourage people throughout the launch and keep the pressure momentum turned on. This is where team incentives and providing value will deliver in the end.

When people feel as if they are a part of something important, they are more likely to follow through.

Team Incentives: What to offer?

This is the part of the process in launch building that you can really make a difference to the strength of your team. By adding incentives to what you can give your team, you will increase the commitment of your team.

Decide what you will give to your team to offer quality incentives that makes them feel a part of the team.

What can you offer a launch team?

Check out Kevin Kruse’s post “Sample invitation to build a launch team.” In this invitation to join his street team, Kevin offered up a bundle of incentives to the launch team when he published 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management .

Some of these perks included membership into a Mastermind Group on Facebook and an exclusive “ask me anything” webinar before the launch.

Likewise Michael Hyatt, when he launched Living Forward, offered launch members an exclusive look into how the book launch was structured as well as access to a special 30-minute group phone session with him prior to launching the book.

The digital version of the book way before anyone else sees it. This can be in PDF or Mobi file. For creating a PDF or mobi file of the book, check out the free calibre software.

A free hardcopy of the book delivered right to your door.

A free webinar or a facebook Live Q&A session: you can get close and personal with your team by hosting a live webinar where you talk about the book, get into behind-the-scenes strategies of the launch, and share inside tactics that nobody else can get.

Exclusive access to a private Facebook group. Here you can post videos, share posts, and converse with your team in real time as they get excited about the launch

Free training videos based on the content of your book

Additional freebies that you want to share with your team.

An advance copy of a workbook that you will be offering to subscribers

Early access to course material that won’t be available until the book is launched.

The goal is to provide your team with a lot of value so that they know they are part of something important. This will increase the level of commitment you will get from members reading and promoting the book during launch week.

Building a Quality Launch Team

When it comes to launch team members joining your team, it isn’t about the numbers. It is the quality of the team. It is much better to have 40 people who are committed than 200 that just sign up and don’t do anything.

You want your team to be involved and take action. So, how do you build a quality street team fully committed to launching your book to bestseller status?

Here are four strategies for building a quality launch team:

Reach out to people personally. By contacting people you know on a personal basis you can get a solid commitment from that person with a personal email.

Create an application form process. This creates a barrier to entry. The people who are serious players will fill out and commit. You can check out an application form template right here. In the application process you let the potential member know what is expected and what they will be responsible for. The application process creates accountability and exclusive access to the launch team material.

Invite people who you have worked with and trust, such as podcasters, bloggers and influencers, to help you with the launch.

Create a team of committed reviewers and promoters to set the launch on fire when it takes off.

How to Manage Launch Team Expectations

This is when you are up front with the launch team about what is to be expected during the launch. What actions are you asking them to do? On what days will they take these actions? What is at stake as far as the success of the book is concerned.

Remember: The success of your launch plan is critical, and the launch team is the all-important component to making it happen.

Expectations should be made clear from the beginning. When you put up a post for early bird readers, let them know that taking action is a must. This is the big ask and what you will expect from the team if they are selected to join your launch.

Here is what you could ask of your launch team:

Read the book before the launch day. Provide feedback if they pick up on such as formatting problems, misspellings, etc…

Write up an honest review of the book and post it during launch week.

Share word of the launch through your social platforms, mentioning the book in a weekly blog post, and starting a discussion about the book in chat forums. This could also include tweets, Facebook posts, or post the cover to Pinterest and Instagram.

Share promotional ideas within the launch group. This is where a Facebook Group would come in. Members can easily post ideas and swap strategies for promoting the book.

Take a photo of you holding up a copy of the paperback. This would require that the paperback be ready in advance to send to select team members so they have time to take the photo before launch.

Provide your team with a list of action strategies they can take during launch week. Let them choose what strategies they like and fits into their schedule. You can encourage the team by adding a points system.

The members who take action and complete each promotional strategy earn a number of points. This could lead to receiving even more freebies.

Launch Team Communication

Now that you have your team together with emails, you have set the expectations and outlined the launch plan, now you have to decide how you will communicate with your team.

People need to feel connected to you during the launch or else they lose interest and you lose the trust of your team. Set up your method of communication and invite everyone into the launch.

Email Campaign

Set up at least 6-10 emails to be delivered throughout the launch. You can add your team emails to a campaign in your email service provider such as Mailchimp, Mailerlite or Convert Kit. You can set up email autoresponders to go out on certain dates, or customize your emails as you go.

Launch Team Emails: How often and how many?

One question that comes up often is, “how many emails do I send out, how often and what should the content look like? Once again, if you are running a Facebook Group and using that as your main source of communication, I still recommend you have a set of emails set up to be delivered throughout the launch.

I send out an email every second day.

Here is a breakdown of what these launch team emails would look like:

Email #1: Welcome Email: Includes Intro to the team and the PDF of the book.

Email #2: How is the book reading? General overview of the launch plan.

Email #3: 5 Days Before Launch. Include a video of how to leave a review on Amazon

Email #4: The day before launch—Are you ready?

Email #6: Review reminder, update on book status and current ranking.

Email #7: Final reminder. Leave a review and FREE paperback giveaway reminder.

Email #8: Final email. Thank you for joining the launch team.

What you want to do is take time to customize your own emails. You can space the emails out accordingly. I like to keep them balanced so that the team is getting the support they need without feeling too overwhelmed.

Facebook Group

A group you can add your members to for easy access and communication. You can post regularly and easily add video and communicate with regular updates. Members can, as we mentioned, share ideas for promoting the book during the launch day.

Even if you do a Facebook Group, I recommend sending out regular emails regardless. Not everyone is going to be into joining a Facebook Group, so communicating with regular emails set up to be delivered on select dates will cover all the bases.

Sending Out Your Book to Your Launch Team

There are three ways you can get the advance copy to your team.

PDF Form. Attach the PDF to the welcome email if you are delivering it this way. For larger files, you can drop the book in Dropbox and share the link with your team. Dropbox allows people to download the book without having to sign up for an account.

Bookfunnel.com This is a great way to deliver your book. BookFunnel has a yearly subscription fee but it’s worth it if you launch regularly. The basic price is $20 a month for 1 pen name and 500 downloads per month. You can check out the features of bookfunnel right here.

The pigeonhole. I’ve used the pigeonhole before and I really liked it. How it works is like this. You upload your book in PDF form to the team at Pigeonhole. You provide them with your launch team emails and then, Pigeonhole posts a chapter a day of your book on their site. Members read right on line and can comment on the book as they work through it.

This is a great platform for improving the quality of the book as well. Early readers catch the small mistakes that were missed and you can fix everything up before launching.

4 Common Launch Team Mistakes to Avoid

In order to make the most of your launch team, there are different mistakes we see often that you want to avoid.

#1 – Sending out emails with long gaps in between

You want to be consistent in communicating with your launch team. Long gaps in between emails will result in people losing interest and not following through when they should. I average an email every 2-3 days. For a Facebook group, you could post something everyday, even if it is just a short blurb.

#2 – Failing to set expectations

Remember the list of expectations we looked at in the beginning? By not setting your expectations you are leaving the launch wide open to chaos. Be sure people know what they need to do and when they need to do it. Don’t just assume people will take action. They need you, the author, to lead them. Be upfront and let them know they are with you until the end to take action.

#3 – Setting your initial price point too high

Okay, you might think this is common sense but, you want to launch your book right away at the lowest price point possible. That would be 0.99, and then possibly free after you’ve set set your promo up in the KDP dashboard.

If your price is upwards of $5-10, people may not download it. You want your price to be low so the launch team especially can download it to leave a verified purchase.

When it comes to Amazon rankings, a book that has the verified purchase tag weighs more than a non verified review. Make it easy for people to download. Set your price low and get the rankings moving. You can increase your price point after the launch.

#4 – Giving unclear directions

You want everything to be so easy for your team that it can literally run itself. What this means is, setting up all the steps so that people know exactly what to so. Some of the questions I have had from team members were:

You can eliminate confusion and wasting time answering basic questions by setting up the steps so it is like paint-by-numbers. For example, shoot a short video of how to set up a review.

Walk people through the process. Video is a fantastic way to visually teach the steps and can be done easily. You can then post it in the Facebook feed or embed the link in an email to be downloaded from Dropbox or Vimeo.

It all comes down to planning ahead. By foreseeing possible problems that can slow down your launch, prepare ahead of time and set your team up for success.

The Power of Sharing

Swipe Copy for Your Team is a set of pre-formatted/written emails and/or posts that the launch team can use to share either via email or online. You want this to be as simple as possible so people can just copy and paste to their social media platforms or deliver by email without it taking too much of their time.

The easier it is for your team to deliver, the better.

Create swipe copy for your book launch and make this available to your team via dropbox or upload to your Facebook Group. The swipe copy should be easy to use and provide material for sharing online or via email.

You should include specific instructions as to how to use the swipe copy. Not everyone has used this before and you will get questions from people if they have difficulty.

I would recommend shooting a short video explaining how to set this up on launch day. Show people how easy it is. Encourage them to share where they can and as often as possible.

If each of the people on you team threw up a post on their Facebook page, and they had an average of 500 friends each, that would exponentially share your book with a large community that you otherwise wouldn’t have had access to.

Setting up a Launch Team Roster for Future Books

Once the launch is over, your facebook group will most likely be disbanded. You could try to keep it going but after the launch is over, but without a specific purpose for the group that extends beyond the launch, it is a lot of work to keep the interest going.

This is where a long term strategy for your books could be put into play.

Are you planning to launch another book? Do you want to use some of your core launch members for another book launch?

In that case, you could set up a street team of reviewers that are ready to support you on, not only this launch, but all future launches.

Remember: a launch team is more than just getting someone to review your book. You could take the relationship to the next level. Consider setting up a private facebook group for people who want to stay in touch and support your work in future launches.

And, if they agree to this, it will be far easier to tap into a group that is already in place then recruiting new members.

Build Your Launch Team [Master Checklist]

Here is a review of the steps to build your launch team.

Reach out to at least 20-30 people directly to begin the recruitment process. Ask for permission to put them on your launch team.

Expand to social media circles like Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

Put together an incentive package: free digital copy, paperback, question and answer group call, or a sneak peak at the launch behind-the-scenes.

Choose your method of communication: email, a Facebook group, or both. [Both methods are recommended together]

Be clear about your expectations for the launch [launch goals for reviews, ranking, and book sales]

Create a series of emails to send to your group. You can set these up beforehand or create as you go for a more ‘on-the-spot customized feel.

Decide the method to deliver emails: gmail template or email server campaign template [recommended]. You can use Mailchimp, free up to 2000 subscribers.

Send out your Welcome Email. This includes the digital copy of the book. In your email outline the expectations for being on the launch team.

Create a “ Swipe File ” for the team to share. Deliver this to your team the day before launch.

Keep track of your team emails using an excel sheet.

Send out a “review reminder” a week after the launch.

Final email/posting: Thank your team for their support during the launch. Follow up on any final incentives promised.

Stay in touch with members of your team. Continue to build relationships with people so that your book launch can get bigger with every new book release.

Making a book isn’t as complex as it seems. While it does take skill, it mostly takes the right method to get it right.

That’s exactly what have for you. Our steps for how to make a book are easy to follow, straight to the point, and effective at producing a bestselling book.

If you’ve authored an eBook, you may be interested in printing paperback books—either to keep for yourself or to sell.

How to Make a Book

Luckily, we’ve got great news: the process of how to make a book isn’t as challenging as you might think. And, we’re here to walk you through the process.

#1 – Define Your Why

First and foremost, because you want to! You put the blood, sweat, and tears into authoring a book. Now you want tangible proof that you can see, carry around, and display on your bookshelf.

That’s a good enough reason!

Some authors, especially those who identify as non-fiction experts, find that paperbacks serve as glorified business cards.

These copies are especially useful for speaking engagements or professional development events, such as conferences or continuing education courses.

Passing out free books to interested readers is a terrific way to build a solid fan base as well as spread the word that you’re an author.

If you elect to sell your books at events, you can recoup some of your costs and potentially even turn a profit.

Using your printed book to generate leads and make network connections is never a bad idea. If your book genre lends itself to this type of network development, then definitely go for it.

#2 – Write an amazing book

Writing a book is about a lot more than just throwing your ideas on paper and hoping they stick.

It takes skill, knowledge, and a strategy to make sure it’s done and done well.

Here are some steps to writing a great book the first time:

Determine what you want to write about by perusing writing prompts

Make sure you have all the necessary parts of a book for your genre

Focus on writing daily to finish your draft!

Celebrate a job well done—and a finished book!

Writing a novel is no easy feat! Make sure to take your time but commit to a deadline that will keep you moving toward progress every day.

This writing schedule should be realistic but difficult enough to require regular progress to achieve.

#3 – Decide your book’s distribution channel

Not every distribution channel is the same. When you’re making a book, you have to think about who is going to print this book.

Who to choose for book prints?

You may have heard that Createspace was bought out by Amazon, meaning KDP now prints your books.

Since there is really only one other major book printer for self-published authors, the big question everyone has on their mind is:

Since you’ll already be familiar with Amazon from uploading the Kindle version of your book, it may seem like KDP paperback publishing is the easy choice.

But that’s not necessarily true, at least not yet.

At Self-Publishing School, we recommend you choose a means of making your book that best fits what you want.

There are pros and cons to using Ingramspark versus Amazon that you have to consider.

Here’s a list of what Ingramspark has to offer with their different packages for making a book:

Both Amazon and Ingramspark print your books and distribute them on Amazon. Meaning, they sell those books on Amazon without you as the middleman. They’re direct sale-to-print and they ship out from their warehouses.

That being said, they don’t offer the same perks.

For example, Ingramspark actually prints hardback copies of your book, where Amazon only prints paperback copies.

#4 – Factor in the cost of making a book

When you decide to learn how to make a book, you’re also diving into the world of business.

That’s right, making a book has a lot to do with business and we all know businesses have certain factors that can be a little confusing, including the cost of publishing a book.

So how much does it cost to publish a book?

The truth is that there are several factors that add to the cost of making a book.

time spent in the writing, marketing, and publishing phase

If you’re basing your decision strictly on revenue, then you’ll want to think about it before heading down the printing path.

Paperback can be costly to produce if you’re not sure what you’re doing, which is why we created a program to help you avoid those expensive mistakes.

Luckily with Amazon and Ingramspark, they take care of the cost upfront, but they will take a higher percentage of your revenue to make up for the printing cost.

This means you won’t make as much money off the sales of a paperback as you would with an e-book.

We’ve often seen that the most lucrative path for e-authors is the combination of a Kindle eBook and an audiobook.

If your goal is to make as much money as you can, and you have to choose between the two, then consider pursuing an audiobook over a paperback. (Although funding an audiobook can be pricey, and you are responsible for that upfront cost, so do the math!)

#5 – Determine your book’s contents

You’ve given it some thought and considered the factors above, and you’ve decided that you do want to print paperback copies of your book. Before you take the next step, it’s important to dot your “i’s” and cross your “t’s” by figuring out your book’s contents.

Run through our pro-developed, pre-printing checklist to make sure you’ve checked all the appropriate boxes of making a book.

Choose the size of your book

Decide on black & white or color ( Note: The prices may vary )

Price your book properly (which we cover in our book launch post)

Create a rough concept for your covers

Decide whether to outsource your cover graphics and design

Write your author bio for the back or inside cover

Pick your author headshot for the back or inside cover

Pick your spine design and layout

Decide whether to outsource the interior formatting

Work out an interior layout—from fonts to chapters to margins

Once you have the above checklist of making a book complete, you can move on to the next and one of the most exciting parts…

#5 – Your Cover Design

Ok, that’s a lot of pressure, but you should aim for at least a Barnes & Noble-worthy design.

Meeting with a designer can help you verbalize and align on your creative aesthetic and vision, resulting in actionable suggestions.

Here at Self-Publishing School, we provide our students with a Rolodex of SPS-Approved cover designers we know and trust to produce a star-worthy cover.

If you decide that you’d rather design your book’s exterior on your own, there are online programs that can help, although again, we highly recommend you not design your own book cover.

Here are some cheap resources you can get a book cover design:

Once you know who you want to design your book cover, you also have to think about other small details for the actual printing of your book.

Some design elements you’ll need to consider are:

whether or not you’ll want a matte or glossy cover

the design of your book’s spine

Typically, books with less than 101 pages should have a completely blank spine, due to space restrictions. Books with more than 101 pages have room for a title on the spine.

You know that, of course, your book will need a front cover, but you shouldn’t neglect your book’s rear. In addition to the cover art and fonts, you’ll need to create a back cover design.

Most back covers provide a brief description of the book, an author headshot alongside a quick bio, and an optional barcode and ISBN placement.

#6 – Format your book

For this reason, many authors say that outsourcing this chore to a professional book formatter is well worth the cost. Page margins, titles and subheading, and fonts are all tough to layout properly.

Handing this over to a pro can save you a big headache.

Moreover, at the end of the book making process, a good formatter will give you an archival quality product.

There are major differences in book formatting between fiction and nonfiction you have to take into account as well (though if you hire someone, they will know this).

If you do decide to tackle the interior formatting yourself, then there are programs that can make the process simpler. Word has downloadable templates to make the work easier.

These formats vary, depending on how many pages your book has. Make sure to experiment with multiple formats to help you decide which works best for your specific layout needs.

#7 – Upload to Amazon

Once you’ve created your printed book, the next step is to find your fulfillment house.

There are many options available. Fulfillment houses pack and ship, and provide customer service for your books. We tend to overwhelmingly recommend publishing on Amazon.

Their services are user-friendly and simple to follow.

This works the best, as you can curb the costs of printing more than the number of copies you need because of Amazon’s print-on-demand.

There are multitudes of resources out there for learning how to. make a book. Whether you want to sell your printed books, use them as pro book marketing tools, or simply admire how lovely they look gracing your bookcase, realize that with a few easy steps, you can create your own beautiful paperback version of your eBook.

You might be about to make the wrong decision…

And before you waste a ton of time (like many of our students), we want to give you the information you need to avoid the pitfalls aspiring authors make.

You want to or have already written a book and now it’s time to decide between traditional versus self-publishing.

So…which can help your book see the light of day for long-term success?

Here’s what you’ll learn about traditional vs self-publishing:

Traditional Versus Self-Publishing

It’s a tough, yet brave decision. Sitting down to get your message out in the world will be one of the most challenging yet rewarding things you do.

But now that you’ve made this decision, you may be wondering:

Should I approach a publisher and go down the traditional route? Or should I self-publish and become an indie author? Which is better, traditional publishing versus self-publishing?

Before the age of the internet, the only way a writer could get their book in front of millions was to send a book proposal and a query letter to a traditional publisher or agent. The writer hoped that day’s gatekeeper had drank their morning coffee, woken up on the right side of the bed and actually given your letter and proposal more than a 10-second glance.

Unfortunately, the likelihood of that happening was slim to none.

This resulted in brilliant people like yourself being denied the opportunity to share their experiences, stories, and knowledge with the world.

The Publishing Industry Is Shifting

Thankfully, this industry is changing for the better – at least for those of us who are savvy in self-publishing.

With the development of online marketplaces like Amazon, the publishing process has changed. You can distribute your book to everyone, regardless of what some traditional publishing house thinks about your idea.

You have a book inside of you and the world needs to read it!

Why Self-Publishing?

The publishing world has changed, and it’s time for you to reap the benefits. Here are seven reasons why self-publishing is the best route to take —and why you’ll think twice before dealing with a publishing company again.

#1 – You Don’t Have to Wait for Permission

With self-published books, you do not have to wait for anyone to give you the green light.

You decide when and how to publish a book.

You decide whose hands your book gets into.

You decide how successful you are.

In other words, you don’t have to convince any gatekeepers to allow your book to reach the global market.

“But, don’t traditional publishers have a good idea for what will sell or not? I mean, if they reject my book, they’re probably right that no one would want to buy it.”

Have you ever heard of Tim Ferriss’s book “The 4-Hour Workweek”? It has been a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller for over four years. It sold nearly 1.5 million copies and has been translated into 35 different languages.

Oh, and get this: It was rejected by the first 26 publishers it was presented to.

Maybe you’ve also heard of a certain children’s book, the one about a young boy with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead who discovers he is a wizard. The ”Harry Potter” franchise is a patent bestseller, with the last four books in the series being the fastest-selling books in history.

Yet it was rejected by 12 publishers in a row, and was only picked up because the eight-year-old daughter of an editor demanded to read the rest of the book. Even then, after the editor agreed to publish, they advised J.K. Rowling to get a day job as she had little chance of making money in children’s books.

Little did they realize the publishing success they had stumbled onto.

Now, just imagine all the other authors out there who stopped after the first 10 or 20 doors slammed in their faces, believing the lie that they didn’t have a profitable idea.

You cannot allow other people to determine your success.

Self-publishing gives you the avenue to do that. You and your readers decide the worth of your words, rather than one person at a publishing firm who may not realize the potential publishing success in their hands.

#2 – You Can Publish Your Work Quickly

If you were to take your book to a traditional publisher, it would take years to publish.

For example, it may take up to six months for you to even hear back about the book proposal. And assuming they accept your proposal, it will take at least another year before the book is actually published.

With self-publishing, you can produce your content as quickly as you want. And in the Amazon Kindle store, you can publish a new book whenever you want. That way, you can share your work as quickly as you create it!

#3 – Bring Home the (passive) Bacon

Traditionally-published authors are typically paid an amount of money up front. However, once the sales come rolling in, they only get a small cut of the earnings.

Why? Because they have to pay the publishing house, the editor, the marketers, the designers, etc.

But when you self-publish, you take in most of the earnings (save for the money you actually choose to spend on marketing, book production and publishing). On Amazon, for example, self-published authors receive 70% of the royalties for an eBook priced between $2.99 and $9.99. Now that isn’t bad!

#4 – You Form Invaluable Connections

Self-publishers around the world have gathered online and in person to provide a community that supports one another in publishing their work.

These connections become priceless as you meet other up-and-coming influencers like yourself.

Because self-publishing requires that you find your own editor, cover designer, formatter and launch team members, you end up connecting with people throughout your whole writing experience.

Self-published authors also gather on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Reddit.

The camaraderie allows people to expand far beyond what they could have done on their own, or what they would have been limited to with a traditional publisher.

#5 – You Control Your Objective

So much of a book is influenced by the motive that fuels it.

Is your motive to make money?

It is to launch a new career?

Is it to become a public speaker?

Or, is it simply something to cross off your bucket list?

Remember, writing a book is hard work . And nothing is worse than seeing your hard work be transformed into something you didn’t want. When you self-publish, you are able to preserve the dignity and genius of your objective. No one is pressuring you to sell more books, or to taint your message so that it will reach wider audiences.

You are not pigeonholed or made to become someone you’re not comfortable with.

You write as you, and for you. And that is liberating. That is self-publishing freedom!

#6 – You Control Your Creative Concept

There are horror stories about authors whose ideas and voice became unrecognizable after they went down the traditional route.

When you work with a traditional publisher, you don’t just sell them your manuscript, you sell them your idea.

Your book may become something you are not comfortable with. Or, your dreams for a sequel or a revision may be completely squandered if it does not comply with the motives of the traditional publisher.

But as an independent author, you retain total creative control.

You are free to be expressive with your work. You are free to be vulnerable and controversial. You are free to be you .

When you self-publish, you also control who you write for. If you sell via the Amazon Kindle store, you can choose, and then tweak, your categories and keywords. You determine your marketing efforts.

With 45 percent of e-book sales going to indie authors, audiences are showing that they respect and want to purchase the ideas of everyone—not just those endorsed by traditional publishers.

#7 – You Control Your Future

Most people looking to write a book want to earn more money, gain more freedom or have a platform to share their ideas.

When you self-publish and have complete ownership over your ideas, you also have complete ownership over your future.

There is no traditional publishing firm to stop you from selling a supplementary online course that includes material from your book, starting a speaking career, re-releasing your book with a hardcover or audiobook, or even releasing an updated version of your book.

You determine the trajectory of your book, your ideas, and your publishing career when you self-publish.

Even Big Names Choose Between Traditional Publishing VS Self-Publishing

Though there are some benefits to traditional publishing, even some well-established and successful authors admit that the joys of being an indie author outweigh a traditional publishing deal.

So much, in fact, that big name entrepreneurs who have large followings and could easily get a traditional publishing deal are opting to go the self-publishing route.

Traditional Publishing

Sole control of your book's outcome

Sole control of your book's rights

Why Go With Traditional Publishing?

As you can probably tell, we here at Self-Publishing School are huge advocates of being in control and ensuring you get all the money you deserve for the work you’ve put in.

That being said, sometimes traditional publishing will be the best option to fit your needs.

Here is why some people might opt to go with traditional publishing instead of reaping the rewards of self-publishing.

#1 – You have connections in the publishing industry

The chances of landing and agent and making it in traditional publishing is very low.

Because this market is very saturated and publishers really only publish certain types of books, those who have better luck with traditional publishing are those who have connections within the industry.

Bascially, if you know someone who is an agent or an editor at a publishing house, it might be beneficial for you to work with them in order to get published through that house.

#2 – You want the label

The best perk when it comes to traditional publishing is typically the fact that you can say you’re a traditionally published author.

Because you have to go through a number of different processes and rejections in order to “make it” with traditional publishing, it can be seen as a sign that you’re a better writer than others.

However, as much as it can sound impressive, it doesn’t always mean it is.

#3 – Distribution

Book distribution is much easier as a traditionally published author, mostly because you don’t have to deal with any of it.

Traditional publishing houses have very wide reaches and because of this, your book can reach a lot more stores in more places than if you traditionally publish.

#4 – Less responsibility on your part

If you’re the type of person who just wants to write the book but don’t want to worry about the title, book cover design, editing, or more, then traditional might be for you.

Keep in mind that traditional publishers do purchase the rights to your book when you get a book deal and therefore, can make you alter anything in it to meet their needs.

Meaning, your plot and characters can drastically change. If you’re okay with that, then traditional publishing works for you.

#5 – No upfront costs to you

Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean traditional publishing is necessarily “free.”

Typically, those who get traditional book deals receive an upfront payment of varying amounts. From there, the rest of the expenses fall on the publisher.

However, those upfront payments aren’t often big enough to cover your living expenses for the length of time it takes to get your book finished and out into the world. And that means you’ll still have to continue to work another job while writing and meeting deadlines in order to get your book done.

#6 – A slow and steady process

This can be both a pro and a con. If you’re not in a rush to get your book out into the world, then the slow and lengthy traditional publishing process might be a good thing for you.

Ultimately, Self-Publishing Will Change Your Life

It may be that, like quite a few writers, you’ve dreamed about working with a big-name publishing house all your life, and nothing will satisfy you until you get that experience. There is nothing wrong with that.

If you’ve identified this need early on, then maybe it’s best for you to go down the traditional publishing route.

But let’s say you win the book lottery and get published. There is still no guarantee that your publisher’s efforts will get your work in bookstores or into the hands of the editors of your favorite literary magazines and newspapers. There’s also no guarantee in sales volume.

However, self-publishing gives you an alternative path. It gives you an assured chance of getting your book out there. You have a better chance of seeing success in your sales and making an impact if your message resonates with enough people. Not to mention, you get to stay true to the vision of your book.

Self-publishing allows you the freedom, money, community and control to shape your life into one that you adore.

“Build it and they will come” is advice that rarely works when trying to sell books.

Amazon is full of successful self-published authors with books that have barely made any sales, leaving many writers dejected.

If you want your books to succeed, to get into the hands of your readers, to potentially achieve bestseller status…. you need a book launch plan.

After all, you’ve already spent months (or even years) crafting your manuscript. You’ve also spent a small fortune on a book cover, hiring an editor, proofreading, formatting, and other related expenses.

The last thing you need after all you’ve invested is for your book to fail, to make exactly zero sales.

(Okay you might make a few, to friends and family. But that’s not why you wrote your book, right?)

If you have a book, or are looking to write a book, and are already thinking about promotion, then this is for you. Contrary to what you might expect, launching a book isn’t hard, and it doesn’t need to break the bank (although you do need to invest some money).

By focusing on the minimal book launch strategy I’ll outline here, you’ll avoid being overwhelmed and launch your book on Amazon like a pro.

Price your book during launch

Set up your complete launch strategy during

Collect reviews from your launch team

Set your book up with the best promo sites for both paid and free

Stick to a minimalist launch plan

What to do Before a Book Launch

Before you go any further, there are a few things you need to do in between finishing your manuscript and launching your book. I put together a 13-point checklist of these action items.

You don’t need to carry them out with perfection since they can be tweaked later.

But don’t launch your book without doing these key tasks:

Landing Page — Create a landing page for your book. This can be used to collect email addresses and give away a chapter of your book before its release (optional).

Upload Manuscript — Upload your manuscript to KDP. Proofread your book using the KDP online previewer.

Upload Cover — Upload your Kindle cover to KDP.

Lead Magnet — Insert a lead magnet into your book, both at the front and back. Connect this to your email list provider such as Mailchimp or ConvertKit .

Paperback — Get your paperback version created. You can set up your paperback at CreateSpace . Optional: Your paperback can be launched after the Kindle release.

Goodreads — Goodreads account created and author profile setup. Your book will end up there either way, so it’s worth setting up an account to associate the book with.

Launch Plan Model — Map out the specific action steps you are taking for each day of your launch. I have provided a model for this further down the post.

Download Your book Launch Checklist

Your free pre-launch checklist for landing yourself a “Bestseller” banner!

Just like there are a variety of business models to choose from when planning your venture, there are a variety of book launch strategies to choose from.

These are all plans that work because of one thing: They are strategic in their planning and strategic in their execution.

However, while there seems to be a lot of steps, an effective book launch plan isn’t complicated.

Your launch plan will depend largely on:

Your objectives and purpose.

Your platform. The bigger your platform and access to influencers, the bigger (and more diverse) your launch.

In the strategy I’ll show you, I keep things simple. It’s a 12-day launch, including a 3-day free promo through Amazon.

If you’ve ticked everything on that checklist, then it’s time to hit publish on your book and to start your launch strategy.

But, before we dive into that, there are a few things you need to know about Amazon’s algorithm as it informs your book launch strategy.

The Amazon Algorithm: A Few Basics for Your Book Launch

Amazon uses an algorithm to measure and track book sales, and everything else on their platform. It’s worth remembering that Amazon wants you to succeed: if you make money, Amazon makes money.

Knowing a few basics of it can help you to have a greater launch and to sustain the life of your book for months (and years) after the launch buzz wears off.

Your book starts ranking as soon as someone buys a copy. Every purchase of your book pushes the ranking up the ladder. As a book moves up, it jumps ahead of the other books in your selected category. The rankings are based on recent sales and Amazon favors a book that is getting consistent, ongoing sales.

A book that runs a promo and gets 200 sales in one day, but then nothing else for the week, will not perform as well as a book that gets the same number of downloads over the course of a ten-day period.

Slow, steady traffic and a long-term plan is the way to succeed with your book.

Steady, organic growth will always outperform a sudden burst of downloads.

It’s worth noting also that while reviews and the price of your book do not affect your sales rank, they’re still worth having. The more quality reviews you have, the more credible your book will be to shoppers.

This affects their decision-making power to buy, which translates into more downloads and an increase in sales rank. Focus on getting as many quality reviews as you can during this launch phase.

Then, continue to work on getting reviews from organic traffic.

With that out of the way, let’s look at two necessary steps you need to do before you promote your book.

Setting Up Your Amazon Bestseller

There’s a very specific formula to follow during your book launch that will have you hitting those Amazon bestseller lists. And you definitely want to become a bestseller so you can increase your sales and maintain your position at the top.

The $0.99 Launch Strategy

I know what you’re thinking, “$0.99? Why would I essentially give my book away for free? I didn’t get into this business to fulfill the starving artist stereotype.”

I know how you feel, but trust me, there’s a good reason for launching it at this price. You may be selling it at a super-low point now, but the rewards are coming later.

It’s better to have a book that has steady sales in the long term than to just have a burst of downloads now, then zero in the future.

Action Item:

Go to the KDP dashboard and set your book at $0.99. With the exception of the free promo period (which we’ll get to shortly), your book will be at $0.99 for the duration of the launch.

The Free Book Launch Strategy

I mentioned that our strategy will have a 3-day free launch . Setting this up is easy. If you plan to run a free promo for your book, you can set this up as soon as your book is live on Amazon. To run a free promotion, your book has to be enrolled in the KDP Select program for 90 days.

A book that is listed for free will be ranked in the free store and books set at a price are ranked in the paid store.

If you don’t have a following ( email list ) or you are just getting started, I suggest you do the free promo. The free promo gets your book into more hands (that will hopefully read it) and increases its visibility across more platforms.

Action Item: Go to the KDP dashboard , and under “Kindle eBook Actions,” enroll into the KDP Select program. While enrolled in the KDP select program your book has to be exclusive to the Kindle Store.

Action Item:

Go to the KDP dashboard and set your book at $0.99. With the exception of the free promo period (which we’ll get to shortly), your book will be at $0.99 for the duration of the launch.

Book Promotion Sites: Free and Paid

When launching your book, especially during your free promo, you want to put it into the hands of as many readers as possible. Amazon ranks your book in the free store based on how many downloads it gets.

The higher you rank, the more downloads you’ll get from Amazon browsers.

Which means to maximize your launch, you need an initial surge of readers that don’t come from Amazon.

This is where book promotion sites come in. You can use them for both your paid and free launch. In the launch scenario later on in the post, I’ll show you how to batch these sites together to give your book the boost it needs.

An aside if you have a healthy email list: you won’t need to rely on these sites as much. This is especially beneficial for authors who are just starting out and don’t yet have a strong platform.

Keep in mind that results vary for each site and your performance will largely depend on your book’s quality.

Below is a list of my favorites that I have personally used, in combination with an email list to launch multiple bestsellers. You can also check out Dave Chesson’s blog on this as he covers the best sites to use for both free and paid.

The price for each promo site varies depending on the niche and category.

The Best Book Launch Promotion Sites

Buckbooks . If you can get onto any of these promo sites, Buckbooks is the one you want to try to get into. You need 10 reviews before they’ll schedule you. Note: You can promote the 2nd book on the same day for only 25% of the price. Great deal. But you can only promote once every 6 months for each book. If you use their Archangel Ink book production services you’ll get a guaranteed placement.

Robin Reads — (need 10 reviews and a 4.9 rating) Takes a couple days to get approved ($55). Great results. I usually get anywhere from 60-100 downloads with this one. https://robinreads.com/author-signup/ Note: They have a calendar that is usually booked out weeks in advance. In this case, consider using Robin Reads for future promos of existing books already launched.

BKnights (Fiverr) You can’t go wrong for $5. I would also take the extra gig for $5 and get in on their daily newsletter. Downloads average 12-30 depending on the book.

The Fussy Librarian ( https://www.thefussylibrarian.com/ ). Great promo but very hard to book in advance. They are usually booked out 2-3 weeks ahead. Need 10 reviews to get accepted. Various price ranges. Strong results.

BookBub . This is by far the biggest and the best promo site. Very tough to get accepted and it is expensive, but worth every dime. At the very least you should set up an Author profile on BookBub and start to get people to follow you. They have a great blog too that gives powerful tips on how to get a BookBub feature. https://insights.bookbub.com

Email your list (if you have one). if you don’t, BUILD one. This is by far better than all of the promo sites combined. If you don’t have a list yet, start building one with Mailchimp , Mailerlite or Convertkit .

The Book Launch Sequence and Set-Up

To keep things simple, I’m giving you an example of a book launch that covers 12 days. This is similar to the launch that I did for my book Relaunch Your Life , except that I didn’t run a free promo. However, for this post, I will look at how to include a free promo as well.

Your launch will look and perform differently than this, but you can use this as a model and tweak as required. This launch assumes you are launching your book at $0.99 with a free promo set up through KDP for 2-3 days.

What is the difference between a soft launch and the actual launch?

I use the term soft launch below, which is different from your actual book launch. Your soft launch begins from the moment you hit publish.

As Amazon takes about 24 hours to set up your book, I recommend hitting the publish button at least 24 hours before you begin your actual launch. For example, if your launch plan beings on a Sunday, then publish your book on a Saturday.

The 12-Day Book Launch Model

Ready for your book launch? In this book launch model we use 3 days for our soft launch window, and then begin the actual launch on day 4.

Day 1: First Day of Soft Book Launch

The first day of your soft launch is critical. This is the day when you are going to set up your book to successfully launch over the next 11 days. The price point is set at $0.99.

Here is a brief checklist of what to do on day 1 of the soft launch:

Claim your book by hitting the ‘add more books’ tab. This will appear on your author page within 24 hours.

Email your launch team. Let them know the book is ready for verified reviews.

As soon as you have ten reviews, set up the rest of your promo sites for the week. Not all of these promo sites require a set number of reviews. Check the list for links to the sites and submission requirements.

Set up your Free promo in the KDP dashboard. Your free promo will be 2-3 days. This will start on day 4 (or however long you decide to run your soft launch). If you do a 5-day soft launch your free promo will start on day 6. Set up several paid promo sites to advertise your book for free. Although your book is free, the promos will cost you.

James H Mayfield (Note: his calendar is very busy. You might not get on for the days you want with short notice. Consider using your remaining free days at a later date and arrange to have James promo your book.)

If you combine these promo sites with the organic traffic you’ll get from Amazon, you should do very well for free downloads.

Day 2-3: Soft Book Launch (Optional: You can extend this up to 5 days)

Social media burst to your FB page, mastermind groups, and other sources to spread the word. Don’t forget about other social platforms with large reader audiences like Twitter and Tumblr.

Day 4-6: FREE Promo

The promotional sites you got in touch with on day 1 will be advertising your book. Send an email to your team to notify them that your book is now free. Promote to social media!

Day 7-10: Paid Promo Sites

Run paid promo sites recommended from the list above. You can cluster these a day apart or combine 2-3 promos a day.

Day 11-12: Winding Down the Book Launch

If you followed the plan you should have had a considerable number of downloads for both your free promo and your $0.99 promo. Remember that your numbers will vary depending on your platform, book quality, niche, and sometimes, luck.

Email your list and remind them the book will be 0.99 for only one more day. Contact your launch team and thank them for reviews and their support.

This is the last call for reviews and downloads.

Day 13: Increase the Price to $2.99

Leave it there for one week and raise it to $3.99. You can test the pricing by going up to $4.99 and watching what happens. Monitor the sales and adjust accordingly.

I usually spend around $300-$400 per launch minimum on promo sites but how much you spend is up to you. Stagger them out over the course of 10-12 days.

Beyond the Book Launch

One of the biggest challenges authors have is where to go after the initial book launch is over.

How do you promote, market, and keep bringing in traffic so that your book doesn’t drop off into oblivion? Here are two things you can focus on:

#1 – Write another book

Multiple books create momentum. Look at the army of fans that Game of Thrones had before the TV Show launched. How did George R.R Martin build that? By setting up and writing the books as a series.

Do you have a series of books you could write?

A series is a great way to build your brand, a list, and to keep traffic growing with increased interest in your books.

#2 – Build your business on the back end

Create a business around your book with coaching, a course, or an automated email course that gets readers engaged after they are finished your book.

They want to know more about you and so, if you have a business set up to kick in for subscribers, this is the start of what could be a great author business.

Launching a book is a combination of strategy, imagination, and hard work. If you have a great book to promote and a team of people (a small team will do) backing you up, you can have a great launch that gets your book into the hands of your market.

With every book launch, there is more to learn. If you keep launching, you’ll get better. And as you get better, you’ll get more fans.

Eventually, you can turn your launch into a massive movement with thousands of fans standing behind you pushing your book towards New York Times Bestseller status or get featured in The Wall Street Journal.

Choosing the right book editor means the difference between tons of book sales and 5-star reviews…and a book that flops.

I don’t care who you are – even if you’re an editor yourself – you need to get your book edited. This is a non-negotiable when it comes to self-publishing.

If this is your first time writing and self-publishing a book, then working with a book editor may be novel ground. (Pun intended. Hardy-har-har.)

Let’s get one thing out of the way: we encourage all self-published authors to hire a book editor. Nothing will tank a book faster than a whole bunch of reviews complaining about typos.

To give your book the best chance of success that you can, and get a pro to get your manuscript into tiptop shape before publication.

A lot of first-time authors make the mistake of editing their book to death, never progressing far enough to finish their book and getting to the publishing phase.

What mustache fits my face

Others think they can toss a messy draft at an editor and expect them to fix everything. There’s a happy medium between making your draft good enough for an editor—and trusting when it’s time for your editor to step in and take over.

With that in mind, in this article, we help you navigate the process of getting your book edited—both by you and your editor—so you can get published faster.

Before we get into our seven tips for getting your book through the editing phase, let’s take a look at what an editor does – and why it’s crucial you have one.

What exactly does a book editor do?

A book editor is someone who reads through your book several times, correcting for grammar, punctuation, structure, content, and more, depending on the type of editor you hire.

Essentially, a book editor is there to help your book become the finalized version with the outcome being what you intended.

Because let’s face it, no matter how hard we try, we can’t always get the book right by ourselves. We know all of the content, the message, the theme, and we’re far too close to the work to understand how an outsider will perceive it.

An editor works as that outsider as well as someone who views it with a critical eye. They can help you alter the book so your intended purpose is fulfilled by its end.

What type of edit does your book need?

Not everyone will need the same type of edit because everyone has varying levels of skill.

For example, someone who has a great mind for structure but lacks in the technical skills of writing will benefit more from a line edit versus a developmental edit.

That being said, here at Self-Publishing School, we highly recommend all writers of all skill levels get a full edit, which often includes copy, line editing, and developmental edits.

Here’s a table detailing each type of edit and what they entail.

In this type of edit, the editor will correct sentence structure, inconsistencies, tense, spelling and grammar, as well as some content feedback.

This is what most people think of when they think "editor." This type is when your punctuation, word choice, dialogue structure, and more is corrected.

This is where the editor organizes the structure, moves pieces around, and suggests changes based on how the information comes across in its order.

This type of edit is when the editor pays close attention to how each chapter builds on the previous, as well as comments and feedback on the content itself.

#1 – Edit Quickly

If you make the mistake of editing extensively, especially while you’re still actively writing, you potentially set yourself up for a major headache, which can delay publishing your book.

Look at the example of Scott Allan. Before he joined Self-Publishing School, he spent two years working on a voluminous self-help tome.

His first draft clocked in at an impressive 90,000 words. He spent months perfecting each word. In the blink of an eye, six more months had elapsed, and he had not only sucked himself into the drain of editing, he hadn’t written anything new since he became stuck in

For one year, he wrote (and rewrote!) the book three times.

you might wonder? In his words, “I suppose I didn’t know any better, first of all. That was before I learned the expression ‘Done is better than perfect.’

I was under the impression that it wasn’t done until it was perfect.” Months later, he found an expensive editor to take on his book, but the author couldn’t stop tweaking the material.

to rewriting…and the book which had been so carefully drafted, then rewritten, then tweaked, never saw the light of day. The book was never actually published.

Allan says, “Painful lesson learned: Unpublished books don’t make money!”

Eventually, the author went on to write Pathways to Mastery and publish it on Amazon. Using the lessons learned during his first failed self-publishing attempt, the author spent just eight months writing and only two months editing this time.

Since writing Pathways to Mastery, Allan has gone on to write and publish three more books, with a significant reduction in writing and editing time for each successive book.

His latest book was in the editing phase for only three weeks.

Keep it simple: Draft first, then edit quickly.

#2 – Accept Imperfections

Letting go of perfectionism is one of the hardest things to do. It sounds doable in theory, but in practice? It’s a challenge.

Many writers strive for perfection—the perfect grammar, spelling, and choice of words. Especially when the story we’re putting out there is our first book, or about an intensely personal topic, it ups the ante significantly. We’ve been there, and we get it.

You can spend forever and your book still won’t be 100% “perfect.” The editing phase can be rough because of the personal investment and attachment we have to our books.

Key Takeaway: Instead of striving for the mythical unicorn of book perfection, strive for a reality-based “as good as this book can be.”

#3 – Do a Quick First Revision

Before you give your book to your editor, you want to do a read-through to catch any glaring errors.

Make your first revision fast. Here’s the best way to make that change of phase from writing to editing: when you’re done with your first draft, circle back and do a quick-and-dirty first revision.

This involves a rapid read of the book, just to get a feel of what you’ve written. Brace yourself. This phase might just be the most painful part of the editorial process. This is because it’s the first time you’re looking at your book with a critical eye and reviewing the results of your first draft.

You need to make sure your book makes sense and that it doesn’t miss any words that would confuse a reader to the point that they don’t understand what you’re trying to say.

This will reduce the back-and-forth hand-offs between you and your editor and will shorten to overall editing phase.

If you notice any major problems, like plot holes or missing information, make a note of them but save these bigger edits for the next round of revisions.

Your mental game needs to be strong here. You’re going to think, “I really suck. I hate writing, I hate my book, and I’d rather watch Netflix than ever look at this crap again.”

The Buddha once said: “All things must pass.” Namaste, my friend. You’ll get through this phase and eventually love yourself (and your writing!) again.

Key Takeaway: Give your book the chance it deserves. Right now, it’s just you alone with your book. Make this first revision quick.

#4 – Read Your First Pass Out Loud

During your first pass, it’s necessary to read your book out loud to yourself. Your ear processes words in a way that your eyes may not so this gives you sense of pacing, chapter structure, and tone.

While you’re reading out loud, try to read through the eyes of a reader.

Imagine what your ideal reader looks like and how they’d feel reading this. Visualize their experience with your book.

During this read-through, don’t stop to make large corrections. Just use a red pen or highlighter to take notes of the obvious mistakes. Simply mark or circle these errors to come back to later.

Put yourself on the clock when you do this. Time yourself for ten-twenty minutes per chapter and keep reading the whole draft through to completion.

Key Takeaway: Reading out loud during your first pass can help with tone and pacing. Do this quickly, with a timer.

#5 – Delve Deeper With a Second Pass

Your next step is to go back to the beginning of the book and do a second pass. Your second revision should delve deeper. As you read, stay alert to passages that have “holes” or sections of the book which need to be filled out more.

Think of the analogy of building a home:

the frame goes up, then you build the walls. Keep adding to your book until your story and message is clear. Some of us have a tendency to change our voice from one paragraph to the next.

Tone shift is something that a strong editor will pick up on, but to the

you can make things consistent, you should. As this point, your book should be more polished.

This is also the stage in which you should focus on making your book stronger by getting rid of weak verbs and replacing them with stronger verbs, like in this video of a live-edit below:

Your book still isn’t perfect (remember we cautioned against perfect!) but at this stage, you should have a working manuscript which should be close to publishable.

Key Takeaway: Your second pass should fill in the gaps in your story or chapters, and keep

#6 – Hand Over the Reins to an Editor

One of the hardest parts of the editorial relationship is handing over your passion project to a complete stranger.

You may be thinking, “What? I’m giving it to a complete stranger who doesn’t know me—and doesn’t understand the blood, sweat, and tears that went into this—just so they can mark it up and tell me about all the things I did wrong?!”

There’s a reason the editor-writer relationship can feel fraught. It’s because while your book is deeply personal to you, whereas for the editor, it’s just another day at the office.

Your editor’s job is to care about the flow of the book, the grammar, spelling, and in some cases, content.

They will take your draft and elevate it to a readable manuscript. Try not to take it personally or push back at their criticism.

Your editor will shape your draft into a “good” book to publish. Notice the deliberate choice of words—we didn’t say perfect!

A “good” book is enjoyable, useful, readable and publishable.

Key Takeaway: Don’t take your editor’s constructive criticism personally. You have the same end goal: a good book!

#7 – Impersonate a Certain Disney Princess

Time to just Let it Go. Send your draft off to your editor and celebrate. Put up your feet and queue up your Netflix binge.

You’ve certainly earned it! By the time you’re done with your own revisions and have added and subtracted material, your editorial return time shouldn’t take more than a week—or two, max.

Key Takeaway: Just get your draft into the hands of your editor! Let them worry now. You’ve done the heavy lifting. It’s easy to get bogged down in perfection, and it’s tempting to hold on tightly to your work.

It can be a natural reaction to pouring your heart and soul into your dreams. But the quicker you can move your first draft through to the editing phase, the sooner you’ll achieve your dream of a published book.

Before, you were at the mercy of your publisher on how your book format looked, but today, you have control over this entire process.

In fact, you have the final say over everything in your finished manuscript is displayed. Therefore, knowing the proper book format you need is crucial. And with great power comes great responsibility.

If you’re not careful, you may end up with a sloppy and messy manuscript that an editor will refuse to work on until you tidy it up.

Or worse, your audience will slam your book with negative reviews because you published it riddled with errors.

An unprofessional looking book will not only distract readers, it will harm your brand and label you as an amateur, affecting the sales of future books as well as your current one.

Your completed self-published book should convey professionalism in all aspects – including with its book format. In faact, if budget permits, you may consider hiring a professional formatter.

Here’s mistakes to avoid when formatting your book:

7 Money-Sucking Book Format Mistakes

There are over a hundred things that can go wrong with your book formatting, and if we wrote about all of them you’d be reading from sun-up till sun-down. But fear not!

From our experience, most authors make the same mistakes when with their book format.

In this article, you’re going to learn what the most common book formatting errors and how to avoid them. By avoiding these mistakes, not only will you have a professional looking manuscript, but you’ll make the process of designing your book to publish on Amazon’s Kindle or in print via CreateSpace a lot easier.

If you have a completed manuscript with botched book formatting on your hands, this article will teach you how to fix it using Microsoft Word.

(A quick note: it’s possible to do many of the fixes in Google Docs, however, Word has a more comprehensive set of features, so it’s better to use that when formatting your complete manuscript.)

#1 – Avoid Hard Indents in Your Book Format

A hard indent is when paragraph indentations are created by manual use of the keyboard’s Tab key.

Many of us learned how to type using the Tab key to create an indent at the start of each paragraph, so this can be a tough habit to break.

When it comes to book formatting, use of the Tab key is a no-no, because it results in an indent that’s far larger than you need.

With fiction book formatting, you want to have just a small indent at the start of each paragraph. If your book is non-fiction, generally speaking, you want to use block paragraphs rather than indents, unless your book is a memoir or historical fiction. (More on that in tip #2.)

If your book is fiction, you may be wondering how to create paragraphs without the Tab key. The fix is simple: In MS Word, set the Paragraph settings to automatically create indentations for the first line in each paragraph.

This simple auto fix will make creating your book format way easier. In Word 2016, on both Mac & Windows, to get to Paragraph settings, click the Paragraph dialog box launcher on the Home or Layout tab. Then on the Indents and Spacing tab, go to the box under Special and click on First line. You can change the size of the indent using the box to the right.

If you’re wondering how big to make your indents, my advice is to pull your favorite book off the shelf, open it up, and take a peek. How big are the paragraph indents?

Experiment with making yours larger or smaller, printing out the

and comparing them to the book in your hand.

But what if your 535-page tome has already been drafted, using the dreaded Tab key for each and every paragraph? No need to set fire to your laptop!

Enter ^t in the Find (This will help you find every “Tab” in the document.)

Leave the Replace field blank.

Going forward, set your Paragraph settings so that you don’t have to remove hard indents again. Presto!

You now have a much prettier, easier-to-convert document through the magic of technology that will make your book format much more professional-looking.

#2 – Indentation vs. Block Paragraphs

Works of non-fiction today typically don’t use indentation, except for some notable exceptions we will discuss momentarily. Rather, a popular book format for modern non-fiction is the block paragraph.

A block paragraph doesn’t have indentation on the opening line, but instead uses a horizontal line of white space beneath each paragraph. This helps to delineate the separation between paragraphs.

For instance, I used block paragraphs in my latest book Published., which looks like this:

The reasoning behind whether you should use indentation vs. block paragraphs is this: in works where one thought should flow smoothly into the next, such as in a novel, paragraph indentations are used with no line spacing between paragraphs.

But in books where complicated information is being consumed, having a single line space between paragraphs aids the brain in processing one piece of information before moving on to the next.

An exception to the block paragraph for non-fiction/indents for fiction guideline: non-fiction narratives, such as a memoir or historical fiction, should use the same indent style described above in tip #1.

In non-fiction works where some information should flow, and other sections require more brain power to comprehend, some authors decide to mix formatting types and use indentation where appropriate and block paragraphs where useful.

But in general, to avoid confusing the reader and to make your book look uniform, clean, and as if you didn’t make a book formatting error, it’s best to choose one style or the other and stick with it throughout your book.

However, if you insist on getting crazy and mixing it up, knowing how and when to use block paragraphs versus when to indent results in a more professional manuscript.

#3 – Avoid Double Spaces After Periods

Here’s the truth: Two spaces after a period is wrong . Period. (Ha!) Just as with the good old-fashioned Tab key indent, two spaces after a period may have been the norm back when you were learning to type.

This is because, with typewriters, characters were all the same width, so the two-space rule allowed for greater readability.

With modern computer fonts, the characters all fit closer together in a proportional fashion, thereby eradicating the need for that one additional space.

Most major style guides—including the Chicago Manual of Style , which is used by traditional publishers —now formally recognize the more modern single-space rule.

From an aesthetics angle, one space looks neater, which your readers’ eyes will appreciate. Before you convert your manuscript, change all double spaces to single spaces. The result will be a better formatted, stylistically correct book.

You’re going to use that super handy “Find and Replace” function again:

Enter two spaces in the Find (This will help you find every double space in the document.)

Enter a single space into the Replace field.

#4 – Be Cautious with Hyphens

Improper hyphenation is a common error that may be harder to stay on top of because the rules of hyphenation differ depending on the grammatical situation.

Generally, keep these three rules in mind while you write so you’ll have to do less work when it’s time for book formatting:

Two or more words that, together, function as an adjective are joined with a hyphen. For example, dark-pink skirt or two-way street.

Two words or more that form a number are joined with a hyphen. For example, twenty-one.

Compound words, which are two words that are joined together to make a single word, do not require a hyphen. For example, toothbrush or starfish.

Two or more separate words that are used as a single word or idea. For example, action-grabbing, top-notch, or larger-than-life.

When in doubt, look it up! For a more detailed treatment of the hyphen, here is an important source to consider: Elements of Style.

#5 – Know When to Use Quotes vs. an Apostrophe

Few things scream “new writer” like a book formatted with punctuation errors. You want to make sure you’re using quotes and apostrophes correctly so you don’t lose credibility with your readers.

When you’re quoting someone, use quotes! This means either a person is speaking—like in fiction—or you are borrowing material verbatim from another source, like in non-fiction.

Use of quotes is rarely needed for common expressions.

Ironic terms can be set off in quotes.

Overuse of quotes can get annoying, so be judicious in their application.

Use an apostrophe for possessive form (except the word its.) For example: The cat’s toys are blue.

Use an apostrophe for contractions, such as it is. For example: The cat’s playing with its toys. It’s a happy cat.

Avoid using an apostrophe for plural forms. For example: Five cats ran past her.

Again, the rules can be complicated, such as when to use an apostrophe when dealing with an acronym, so when in doubt, look it up .

#6 – Be Careful When Using the Enter Key

There are many times in your book you’ll want to go to a new page or to create a blank page.

This is simple right? Hit enter a few times, and presto, you’ve got a new page.

For instance, you or your book designer will need to change your page size or page setup according to the book size and style you’ve chosen.

Using paragraph breaks will create extra space where none is needed and will change the page layouts of your book, making your book look ugly.

If you’re wondering why after you change your paper size, your chapter headings are no longer at the top of the page, but halfway down, it was because of your liberal use of paragraph breaks.

This instantly creates a new page, and it remains a new page even when you’ve changed the page size, page layout, or added more content above. On Microsoft Word, this can be done by pressing Ctrl+Enter (Windows) or Cmd+Enter (Mac).

You can also find it in the ribbon in Word. Google Docs also has this feature. In Word 2016 go to Insert > Page BreakIn Google Docs go to Insert > Break > Page Break

#7 – Use the Styles Feature Instead of Formatting Yourself

Stop formatting your chapter titles yourself. Many writers indicate a title or subtitle by simply changing the font size and changing the font from the default font (ah, Times New Roman, how we miss you) and thinking their job is done.

This makes navigating and formatting your book a pain.

What you want to do is use MS Word’s “Styles” feature. Google Docs also has this feature. In Word 2016, you can find the Styles section under the Home tab on both Mac & Windows.

In Google Docs the styles section can be found by clicking the box between the zoom level and the font type.

When creating a new chapter, highlight the chapter heading, and then make it a header by applying the relevant style. If it’s the main heading make it “Heading 1”, if it’s a subtitle make it “Heading 2”, etc.

This has the added benefit of allowing you to easily automatically create a table of contents page, or to navigate through your 30,000-word manuscript with Word’s navigation pane, while also making your book format look professional.

You Need a Proper Book Format

Without question you want your book to stand out because of its invaluable content, stunning tone of voice, and laser targeted towards your audience.

However, don’t let your book formatting or grammatical errors get in the way of your book’s success. If you’ve written your book , and are ready to get it published, follow the guide you just read to make sure your manuscript isn’t full of errors.

For tips on how to format your book for Kindle, it’s best to follow Amazon’s comprehensive guide on the matter. It will help you design your title page on a different first page, your copyright page, trimming to the correct paper size, and the million other things you need to do to get your book ready for print.

As much as you think all of your book ideas are fantastic and anyone would love to read them…you might be completely wrong.

And I’ll explain why shortly but

if you want to skip ahead and discover if your book idea is indeed a great one, take this intuitive quiz that will tell you exactly how it fares against the competition.

What makes a good book?

A good book is a combination of high passion on your end, making your readers feel intensely along with a structure that toys with their emotions and an overall message worth sharing.

In order to come up with a good book idea, you have to understand what makes a book great and then work backward from there.

This might seem a little vague but in reality, this combination isn’t easy to come by.

A good book takes time, effort, and the right formula to get right. If you want to leave readers feeling stunned in the best way (and ready to give you those coveted 5-star reviews ), it’s essential to first start with a great book idea.

Here are some of the top qualities that make a book good:

It invokes high levels of emotion in the reader

It has an overarching theme or message

A structure that builds on itself

Quality writing that’s enjoyable to read and visualize

Once you know what your book needs, it’s time to figure out what you should write about.

What should I write my book about?

When determining what you should write your book about, start with figuring out if you want to write fiction or nonfiction.

If you want to write nonfiction:

Fiction and nonfiction are basically two different worlds when it comes to writing.

You have to determine if you’re someone who wants to write fiction or nonfiction. This decision is typically simple to make because if you don’t have an interest in creating new worlds, realities, or making up characters, fiction is not for you.

On the other hand, if you love to write guides and how-tos and maybe even self-help related books, nonfiction is going to be a better fit for you.

If you want to write fiction:

You have to start by determining what kind of fiction you want to write.

Which genre will be your battlefield?

These are just the more popular fiction genres:

In order to choose, pick the genre you enjoy reading the most. That means if you love fantasy and typically read that more than anything else, this will be the genre you’ll enjoy writing the most.

Once you know what you want to write, you have to learn how to come up with a good book idea in it.

Coming Up With a Good Book Idea for Both Nonfiction and Fiction

We’re going to separate these two simply because the process is so different. Coming up with fiction book ideas differs greatly from nonfiction because they cover much different information, key elements, and reader intent.

— How do I come up with a fiction idea for a book?

Fiction is amazing because you can come up with pretty much anything and it can be formed into a good book idea.

Let us help you break it down.

#1 – Use writing prompts to spark your creativity

If you have a hard time coming up with book ideas, then what you really need is something to prompt your mind into thinking creatively and imaginatively.

And that something is a writing prompt.

Writing prompts are very short ideas or story concepts for you to use in order to get started. Think of them as the catalyst for your imagination.

We actually have a list of over 200 original fiction writing prompts created for this specific purpose.

You can fill out the form below to download them! These prompts might contain the beginning of your next book idea.

DOWNLOAD 200+ FREE WRITING PROMPTS HERE

#2 – Do some people watching

Head to a park or airport and just sit down to watch people. This might seem a little odd (or even a tad bit creepy) to you but it’s often a great way to get real-life writing prompts.

You may overhear a snippet of conversation or witness someone doing something interesting.

Take a notebook and jot down notes in order to flesh it out into a full story later. Consider it more like research for your novel.

#3 – Bounce ideas around with a friend

If you have a creative friend you love to chat books and book ideas with, just sit down and bounce ideas around with them.

Two minds are greater than one is most cases – including coming up with book ideas.

You can ask them to come up with a character and their background, and then you can give their life a reality with problems and a main conflict.

This alone can get you started on a book idea!

#4 – Play the “What If” game

This is my favorite way to come up with book ideas and it’s based on the concept of saying “what if…” and thinking up a crazy situation in this world or one of your own making.

Not only does this open your mind to otherworldly possibilities, but it’s also great practice for your imagination.

Here are a couple examples of how to play the “What If” game and how it can yield interesting book ideas.

Expanded on for book idea

What if...there's already a cure for cancer.

The cure for cancer is kept hidden due to the large amount of money it generates for research.

What if...there are hidden civilizations living among us.

These hidden civilizations have advanced technology and medicine we know nothing about.

What oceans are home to alien life.

Aliens are living among us...deep, below the ocean, with entire cities and civilizations.

What if...money became obsolete.

Money no longer has value and the world is thrust back into a world of trade, barter, and other means of getting what you want—dangerous means.

#5 – Pick a different time period and think about issues that could arise

This specific technique is designed to free your mind from common problems in this time. Because it’s all you’ve known, your mind can try to come up with problems deserving of a book, but it’s a little difficult to make those seem interesting.

Instead, give your brain a shock by thinking of problems from another time period, whether that’s the past or the future.

You might have a book idea hiding in the past that you’ll never be able to see if you’re only looking in the present.

#6 – Use Pinterest to find interesting pictures

Then write a book about their reality.

One thing I like to do most often is type “character inspiration” into the Pinterest search bar.

Then, once the images load, I pick someone who stands out to me.

From there, I do some deep thinking about a world they could fit in, what it looks like, what the big problems are, and even go so far as to create a job and personality for that character.

You can do this very same thing with “fantasy world” or “sci-fi world” if you want to think up some books revolving around those ideas.

The results often give you images that can spark a small idea – which we can help you develop into a fully-fleshed story.

#7 – Make up a character you’d like in real life

From here, you’ll craft a story about their life in their own reality.

This exercise is perfect for coming up with a good book idea because generally, you want your protagonist to be a character people like.

And when you create a character you genuinely like and would be friends with, other people will feel the same.

While the story and plot have to be intriguing, the character is sometimes the biggest selling point. A book with great characters will stand out.

— How do I come up with a nonfiction idea for a book?

You’ll have to unleash your inner child.

Yes, I’m serious. Coming up with good book ideas involves a lot of creative thinking and suspension of disbelief.

Here’s how you can come up with great book ideas many will love to read.

#1 – Determine your passion

Writing a book without passion is useless.

Your distaste or worse, your indifference, will bleed through the pages and be obvious to anybody reading it.

If you want to come up with a book idea that not only other people will love, but that you will also love, it has to be something you’re passionate about.

The process of writing a book can take some time and a lot of dedication, rereading, and editing to get right.

It will only do well and be met with praise if it’s something you put a lot of passion into.

#2 – Think about what you know a lot about

What are a few topics you seem to know more than the average person about?

The reason you have to figure this out is that it will help you determine the best book idea for you to write.

Here are some questions you can ask in order to uncover what you’re knowledgeable about:

What are people always asking you advice for?

What are key concepts you find yourself repeating a lot?

What do people tell you you have a lot of knowledge about?

What are your “specialties” both at work and at home?

These questions will help you determine the common theme within the answers. Once you know what you have a strong knowledge of, you can narrow down your book ideas.

#3 – Brainstorm many main concepts

You don’t just have to limit yourself to what you know a lot about. Instead, brainstorm a very large number of main ideas.

These can be anything from your hobbies to your work expertise to even your view of the world and how it works.

Anything that comes to your mind and sparks your interest is worth writing down.

When you do this, you’ll typically find that there’s a main topic or overarching theme that sticks out the most. Usually, this is what you should write a book about.

#4 – List book concepts you’d want to read yourself

What are the nonfiction books you’re drawn to most? This will often give you insight into great book ideas for you to write yourself.

The reason for this is because if you wouldn’t read the book you’re writing, then you shouldn’t be writing it.

This technique works backward from your own interests in order to determine which book idea you should push forward.

#5 – Write down the things you daydream about

What do you most often find yourself spacing out about?

When your boss snaps to get your attention or when your partner has to wave a hand in front of your face to bring you back to reality, write down what you were just thinking about.

Even if it’s just what you’re going to make for dinner, write it down because you want to get into this habit.

After a week, take a look at all those thoughts and you’ll usually find a pattern amongst them. That’s the book idea you should write about.

#6 – Start with a narrative about your day-to-day life

This is a very unique technique that can help you discover what’s important to you from a day-to-day perspective.

In order to do this, open a blank document and just start writing about your everyday life – but do this as if you were writing a story about yourself through narrative. Meaning, from a third person perspective.

Here’s an example of this book idea finding exercise:

Book Idea Exercise Example:

She was perched at her desk, the monotonous tap-tap-tap of the keys a familiar comfort amidst the silence of her lonesome. Leaning in, her eyes flitted across the screen, following the lead of each word she typed.

Start writing yours and your mind might just come up with a book idea for you to take to publication.

Other Methods for Coming Up With Book Ideas

Everyone is different and all of our minds work differently. And that means if you want to come up with a good book idea, you’ll have to try a number of different methods to determine what works best for you.

Here are some alternative methods for coming up with a book idea that aren’t listed above.

#1 – The snowball method

This is a technique that helps your ideas build on one another – much like a snowball builds on itself when you start rolling it through the snow.

How it’s Done:

How to do this book idea-generating exercise: This is done by writing down a broad concept first, like: Confidence. From there, you will list more specific but still general terms related to this, like:

– Confidence and your mood

– Confidence in the workplace

-What affects confidence?

After you have these ideas, pick a single one to narrow down even more until you have a niche-specific book idea.

#2 – Your own twist on a heavily-searched topic

This is for you nonfiction writers out there. In order to find topics that are searched a lot, hop on Amazon, choose “Books” from the search bar drop-down, then click the search icon or hit enter (yes, without typing anything in the search field).

This will bring you to the generic “home page” for books. Scroll down a little bit and locate the left sidebar with the different categories like “Popular in Books,” “More in Books,” and more.

From here, choose “Top 20 Lists in Books” as seen below.

You can easily scroll through the different sections in order to get an idea for what’s the most popular.

Now, most of these will be fiction, as it’s the top-selling genre.

If you want to find nonfiction-specific top sellers, repeat the first two steps in order to go back to the books “homepage.”

Then scroll down until you find the “Books” category with specific genres beneath. You can click on the genre you have the most interest in, like “Self-Help” in the example below.

From here, scroll down until you find the “Bestsellers” section in which you can discover the hottest titles and topics they cover so you can shape your book idea based on what will sell, like in the image below.

#4 – Write down any and all ideas

Even if they’re tiny and you think they could never make a great book, write them down.

You never know what could blossom into sometime incredible. Maybe JK Rowling never thought an idea about a wizard in school would be interesting – and look what happened there!

We all know that self-publishing successfully can sometimes have a less-than-desirable reputation.

It might seem like it’s impossible to make a career out of being a self-published author.

I even thought as much—until I started following Jenna Moreci on Youtube.

This author has not only given me countless pieces of advice via her Youtube channel, Tumblr blog, and even just chatting, but she has paved the way for self-published authors by proving that you can be successful and write books for a living, even if you self-publish a book!

For those of you unfamiliar, Jenna Moreci is a self-made full-time author and Youtuber.

She currently has two novels published, each the first in their respective series.

(YES! Her books are even in bookstores and libraries across the country!)

When Jenna’s not pumping out incredible books, she’s over on Youtube giving out some of the best advice for writing and self-publishing out there. Her Youtube channel has amassed over 147,000 subscribers – and climbing rapidly.

One is all about building a platform and fan base as a writer and the other details the process of having a successful book launch – something she did only a few short months ago in April when she released her second novel, The Savior’s Champion.

Let’s kick off this interview so you can learn how you can also create a living through your books!

Tell us a little bit about your career as an author – how did you get to where you are today?

Well, I wanted to be a writer since I was a little kid. I basically decided when I was 6-years-old that this is what I wanted to be, and I guess I was a very tenacious kid because I just stuck with it.

But, you know, especially back in those days – back in the 90s – there was kind of a stigma around creatives and starving artists.

So, people weren’t super supportive. They were like, “Don’t you want to be a doctor, don’t you want to be a CEO?” Things like that.

And eventually, that kind of talk sort of wore me down and by the time I was in college, I sort of figured writing would be something I did on the side – something I did for fun.

So I went to college for business instead. And I entered the world of finance and when I graduated, I got a full-time job as a stockbroker. I figured that’s what I was going to do with my life and writing would just be some fun thing I did in my spare time.

As I started working in finance longer and longer, I sort of had this realization that like, “Wow…this is what I’m going to the rest of my life…and I HATE it.”

I just could NOT stand my job. I would get there and be counting the hours until I got off so I could do something I actually enjoyed.

So I realized, “You know what, I don’t think I can take this forever.” And I’ve always been passionate about writing so… I might as well just give it a shot. If it doesn’t work out, I can at least say I tried. I can at least have that in the back of my mind, that closure that it’s not for me.

Then I started working on my first novel, EVE: The Awakening.

And I would go to work and right when I get home after work I immediately started my book. My thought was, “I just want it to be a lucrative part-time job, something that fulfills me, something I look forward to once I get off work.”

That lasted for a few years. Toward the end of the process, my then boyfriend and now fiance, he had a serious accident and he broke his spine.

I quit my job so that I could sign on to be his full-time caregiver. At that point, everything went on hold. It was all about his health.

Then as he got better, time started showing up in my schedule. So I was like “okay, I can finish my book and I can market it and I can try to get it out there and try to develop an audience.”

People had nagged me to start a Youtube channel for a long time so I thought, “I’m stuck at home…might as well give it a shot. I can say I tried!”

And at first it was pretty slow but then I made a satirical video called the 9 Weird Habits of Writers and suddenly my channel just took off.

It got all these subscribers and it was getting all this attention and long story short, by the time I was able to release EVE: The Awakening, what with the growth of my platform and the growth of my channel, I was able to make writing my job.

And now I’m a full-time author and I have a Youtube channel and it’s crazy! I did not think that I would be here.

I feel very fortunate because my main goal, originally, was to just one day – not anytime soon – but one day be able to make a living off my writing. And I figured, maybe that’ll happen when I’m like 40.

But I was able to do it at 28 – and now I’m 31 and this is my job and I feel so fortunate that I’m able to do what I love and make money off of it, especially after hearing for so many years that it’s impossible.

So did you immediately decide you wanted to self-publish? What made you decide to go with self-publishing versus traditional publishing?

Well originally, I was going to go traditional. For the same reasons most people initially decide traditional.

They’re like, “That’s the legitimate option. You’re a real writer if you go traditional and self-publishing, there’s no success there; it’s vanity press.”

The more I researched it, the more I realized how little I knew about the industry.

I basically spent years researching the different publishing options. I interviewed at least 20 different authors, both self-published and traditionally published authors.

A lot of people see the New York Times bestsellers, the JK Rowlings, John Greens, Stephen King – they see that and they think that’s the reflection of traditional publishing. And it is a reflection of a small percentage of traditional publishing and traditionally published authors.

But there are millions of authors out there who are traditionally published and they’re just not getting that kind of exposure. That’s the 99% of traditionally published authors.

You go into the process, you get maybe a $10,000 advance, and that’s not really enough to live off of. That’s just like a nice side gig.

And this was something I wanted to eventually make my full-time job.

So once I learned that, and that traditional publishers weren’t going to market me the way I thought they were, I thought, “Okay, well this changes things a little bit. But let me interview the different authors.”

When I interviewed the traditionally published author, she said it took her 20 years and around 15 books to before she was able to make it a full-time job.

And that, for me, was really eye-opening because I had a self-published author who had sold one book and he was on his way to being a full-time author and a traditionally published author who spent 20 years trying to get her publisher to pay attention to her.

After that, doing more research, it became clear that the business control, more than anything, was the reason self-publishing seemed like the best fit for me.

No one was going to care more about the success of my novel and the success of my platform than I was.

I figured, I might as well just bet on myself because it looked like publishers were probably not going to give me the kind of attention I would need in order to make this a career, which is what I wanted to do.

Speaking of the business part, do you think that having that background in business and finance has helped you as a self-published author?

Oh definitely. It’s funny because I went into the degree very jaded because it’s not what I wanted to do; I wanted to be a writer.

I went into it like, “This is not what I want but it’s what my family expects of me.”

And now, if I were to go back, I wouldn’t change a thing because it was my knowledge of business, my background working in finance, that gave me the tools I needed in order to take the place of a publisher.

Because a lot of writers choose traditional publishing because they don’t understand business.

I understood the business parts, and when I saw the sort of things publishers do for writers, a lot of it was something I could do and knew how to do because I learned it in business school.

And the things that I didn’t know how to do were things that were easy to learn because of what I learned in school and when I worked as a stockbroker.

I’m really grateful for my business background because it filled in the blanks of being a writer and I basically was able to, very easily, translate that into acting as my own publishing house, pretty much.

So, going off of the business aspect being a huge misconception for self-published authors, what do you think are other major misconceptions of self-publishing?

I think one of the biggest misconceptions is a lot of people thinking, “I’m just going to throw my book online, and that’s it!”

There are millions of books online. What are the odds someone’s randomly going to see yours and just decide, “I’ve never heard of this, but I’m going to buy it.”

You have to market it. You have to treat it like a business. You have to understand that your book is your art. Yes, you are an artist, but it is also a product that you’re selling to people.

So you have to be aware of how you package that product.

Your book is not going to perform well without one. The same goes for formatting. It needs to be professionally formatted and needs to have a professional cover.

You could write the most amazing novel. It could be the next great American novel and no one will buy it if the cover looks like crap. It’s just not going to happen.

Are there any other misconceptions you see aside from that?

I think another misconception, especially recently, there’s been a misconception that you can’t do well in self-publishing, that it’s not legitimate.

That seems to be going away over time. I’ve only had maybe 2 people say anything to me about it not being legitimate.

So I think that misconception isn’t as big nowadays, especially with so many New York Times Bestselling authors who are self-published and authors getting movie deals.

But one thing that’s especially become popular recently is pumping and dumping.

That’s where an author will write as many books as they can in a year, like one book every two to six months and they just pump it out and pump it out.

And that’s become a model for self-published authors making a lot of money and being successful.

There is some weight to it and it is working for some people, but the point is that it significantly diminished the quality of the book and it’s not viable for a long-lasting platform because people become loyal to authors because they trust in the quality of their work.

So if you’re constantly pumping out of very low quality, no one’s really going to become loyal to you, they won’t become a loyal fan.

You’re just going to constantly “pump and dump” for the rest of your life in order to maintain an income because you’re not really going to develop a fan base or a legitimate audience.

And I think that’s what a lot of people think is the only way to make it in self-publishing nowadays.

But I’m living proof that you can take your time and spend a year or two on a book and you can still turn it into a full-time job if you take the time and invest in the quality of it.

So where do you see self-published authors making the biggest mistakes overall?

Honestly? The number one thing is the edit.

You know, self-published authors not getting their books edited. Now, the cover is something you can maybe overlook but the edit – you have to just edit the book!

And that’s the thing. Anytime I see someone who is kind of apprehensive about self-published books, that’s always what they mention; that the books are not edited.

So just edit it, guys! That will end the stigma entirely!

Has self-publishing changed in any way since you published EVE: The Awakening in 2015?

Back then, like I said, I wasn’t receiving any flack or anything like that for self-publishing. In my whole career, I’ve only had two people say something about it.

So I think it was viable then, but it’s way more viable now.

There are way more options. When I published EVE: The Awakening, there was pretty much the option to have your book in ebook and paperback. That was pretty much it.

Now, you can do audiobooks, hardbacks and additionally, there’s much more expanded distribution.

For example, The Savior’s Champion is on Barnes and Noble’s shelves and in bookstores across the country.

Whereas with EVE: The Awakening, that wasn’t even something on my radar. I wasn’t even thinking about that because you never heard about self-published books being in bookstores.

So I’ve got the audiobook for The Savior’s Champion is in the publication process right now. We have the hardback available, it’s in bookstores, and the options for self-published authors is very similar to where they are for traditionally published authors.

There really aren’t that many limitations – except self-published writers typically have to price their books higher because they don’t get as many pricing discount opportunities that traditionally published authors do.

So I would say the biggest limitation is pricing but other than that, we have the same access to distribution channels that they do.

It’s crazy. The options are limitless!

You know a lot about the whole self-publishing world and the writing world. Pretty much your entire Tumblr blog is people asking you questions about the writing and publishing process. So what kind of advice do you have for people who decided to go with self-publishing versus traditional publishing?

My first piece of advice is to research the industry as much as possible.

What I see often is a lot of people see self-publishing and think that means, find a self-publishing group and publish directly through them where you pay an upfront fee and then you’re paying them to publish the book for you.

That’s not necessarily what self-publishing is. You can self-publish through Amazon and Ingramspark. There are lots of different opportunities available to you.

And if you don’t do the appropriate research, you may end up getting scammed. You may end up getting suckered.

So be sure to research the environment, research all the platforms, and make the decision that works best for you.

Additionally, start saving your money.

Because the biggest downfall for self-publishing is that it’s expensive. You’re paying for everything. Start saving and create a budget so when the time comes to hire an editor, you’re not sitting there going, “Oh I can’t afford it. I’m just going to publish it as-is.”

One of the last questions I have for you is, what would you say is your favorite part of being a self-published author?

I think it’s the power and freedom. It’s nice that I don’t have anyone giving me deadlines; I give myself deadlines.

I don’t have anyone telling me how I need to write my story for it to be marketable. I get to decide how I write my story. No one gets to have creative control over me.

That’s not to say that if my beta readers or editors give suggestions that I’m going to ignore them. But I don’t have a business person telling me, “No you can’t write about that because that’s not marketable, people aren’t going to buy it.”

I get to decide what I want to write. Everything is under my control.

I know a lot of traditionally published authors who have to get everything approved. It makes sense. This company is paying to put your book out and it makes total sense they have to get it approved.

But it’s nice that I don’t have to. I get to do whatever the hell I want, whenever the hell I want to do it.

And it’s awesome. It’s awesome being my own boss.

Okay, for real last question. What are you currently working on? What’s your work in progress right now?

I am working on the companion novel to The Savior’s Champion, which is The Savior’s Sister.

The Savior’s Champion takes place in sort of a Grecian/Roman world called Thessen. It follows Tobias, one of 20 men competing in what is known as The Sovereign’s Tournament, which is a month-long gladiatorial event where 20 men compete in violent challenges to win the hand of their magical holy queen, The Savior.

So that story follows Tobias, and things get a little tricky when he falls in love with the wrong woman; he falls in love with Leila.

So The Savior’s Champion follows Tobias in the tournament and throughout it, you realize that Leila has got her own little story going on. She’s got something going on behind the scenes of the tournament and their stories become intertwined.

At the end of The Savior’s Champion, there are a lot of questions about what’s going on with Leila. T he book I’m working on right now answers all of those questions.

It’s Leila’s story during the tournament, her whole battle she’s dealing with within the palace of Thessen, all the craziness. It’s been so fun to write! I cannot wait to release it!

Jenna Moreci is one of the most talented authors and businesswomen I know. Her books are as (if not better) than the advice she gives.

Make sure to check out the whole interview right here and follow this incredible self-published author.

Jenna Moreci is a Silicon Valley native and Youtube sensation, dominating the authortube community with her straightforward and hilarious writing channel. A lifelong storyteller, Jenna specializes in crafting thrilling adventures with heaping doses of bloodshed and romance.

When she’s not writing or ‘tubing, Jenna enjoys angry music, potent wine, and laughing until her face hurts with her goofball fiancé.

Read the first 3 chapters of The Savior’s Champion and EVE: The Awakening for FREE.

We are so proud of all our students who launched a book in the month of August.

Technically speaking, a student from Self-Publishing School launches a book almost every single day of the year. And as a way of showing them how much we’re rooting for their success, we highlight each author and book published every month in a roundup post just like this.

Now check out these fantastic books from our students. Congratulations published authors!

Timothy M. Horn – Skies Wide Open: How to teach your child to dream big and love learning

My only regret is that I wasn’t aware of this program when I was in school. I would have achieved my goals much sooner.

-Dwayne Epstein, NY Times bestselling author of Lee Marvin Point Blank

This book provides foundational strategies and ways of thinking to support and encourage inquisitive minds valued in the knowledge age.

Skies Wide Open is a guide for leading your child to have a life-long love of learning. This guide to simple practices and patterns that reinforce a child’s innate abilities can create for your child a map to a happier, more fulfilling future. When these exercises are practiced with some consistency, the habits of learning become ingrained and will carry through long after your child leaves school. You will become your child’s greatest teacher, before, during and after their school career.

Receive more strategies and tips from the author by signing up at www.SkiesWide.com.

Jennifer Hayes Yates – Inside Out and Upside Down: How Intimacy with Jesus Changes Everything

Do you feel there should be more to the Christian life? Are you hungry for more of God? Have you ever struggled to live a counter-cultural faith?

Inside Out and Upside Down: How Intimacy with Jesus Changes Everythingis a 7-week Bible study that explores the Gospels and the Song of Solomon to help you discover God’s plan for personal relationship and kingdom living. In these lessons you will understand the difference between religion and relationship

learn how to find satisfaction in Christ alone

discover God’s purpose for community through the local church

explore the counter-cultural kingdom of God

assess the costs and benefits of kingdom living

Each week of study ends with a Weekend Devo that summarizes the lessons and gives opportunity for thoughtful reflection and application. Dive into this study and discover a life of intimacy and adventure with the King that supersedes religion and inspires devotion.

Kathy Heshelow – Essential Oils Have Super Powers: From Solving Everyday Wellness Problems to Taking on “Superbugs”

This is a fascinating book that covers the spectrum of essential oils – a “must have”!

Alternative, natural wellness methods are growing today, and essential oils are at the top of the list! A most important super power that essential oils hold is anti-bacterial strength – including overcoming MRSA and “superbugs”.

Essential oils also have an important role to solve common wellness issues (headaches, indigestion, insomnia) and enhance day-to-day life (reduce stress, strengthen the immune system, uplift, help with focus or bliss.)

how and why essential oils and aromatherapy work

some fascinating history

info on modern scientific research

why essential oils have been lesser known in U.S. medical circles (and big “pharm”)

what is happening in the field today.

Kirkus Review says: “…Heshelow (Phytoceramides: Anti-Aging at Its Best, 2014, etc.) makes the case for aromatherapy and essential oils in this examination of a misunderstood branch of alternative medicine…The author is clearly a true believer in the power of essential oils, and by the book’s end, even skeptical readers may be tempted to give them a try.”

Jaclyn Foster – I Touch Myself: Lessons to Wake Up Desire & Fire Up Your Sex Drive

Are you always giving to others in and out of the bedroom? Do you find that your sex drive is suffering along with your energy levels? Are you craving more pleasure in your life?

This vulnerable and explorative book will share how I woke up my desire and dive into how you can wake up your desire too.

This book is for those who find themselves stuck between pleasure-hungry and pleasure-resistant. Those who have struggled to find pleasure in their own bodies. Those that have a hard time asking for what they want and maybe even find themselves feeling guilt and shame for their sexual desires.

I have been there – and I’m so excited to share how I woke up my desire. As my own hunger grew for more pleasure in my life, I was driven to dive into exploring desire, pleasure, sex, orgasm, and intimacy.

I Touch Myself shares what I have learned to improve my sex life with myself and others, have orgasms, and most importantly, to feel more alive in every aspect of my life.

How I started to question the rules I learned around sex and pleasure

The golden rule I use to decide whether or not I want to pursue a desire

Eleven lessons I’ve learned on my path to waking up desire

Five stages of desire that provide me with structure and momentum to follow-through

Along the way, there will also be opportunities for you to practice what I have learned through exercises ( “sparks”) to provide inspiration and experimentation with the topic being explored. With each spark you read and respond to, you will have the opportunity to strengthen your own internal flame of desire.

I am super confident these lessons and stages can help you too. Even if you only choose to take one or two of these lessons and practice them regularly, you will notice shifts in the way you see yourself and your relationship with desire and sex.

Scroll to the top and click the “buy now” button. Your future self will thank you.

Shelease Roberts – Help! I’m Stuck: How To Manage Your Mind, Defeat Distractions and Create Confidence

Does your environment make it difficult for you to make responsible decisions? How often have you been lured away from productive work by endless distractions? Does facing spontaneous challenges make you uncomfortable?

It happens to everyone. You become a product of average surroundings and your mindset goes into ‘default thought.’ As a result, you think on the most basic level, just to get by.

If you can control your mind, you can control your life.

Everyday, there is a battle going on in your mind. At any given time, the right decisions have to be made, opportunities must be taken and challenges need to be met. Book 2 of the Help! I’m Stuck series shows you how to discipline your thoughts, through mindfulness and self-awareness.

build a strong work ethic by eliminating distractions

exercise your power of choice to reach peak performance while working on your goals

organize your thoughts to proactively handle challenges

When you’re not thinking for yourself, someone else is thinking for you.

If we allow others to control our mindset, it becomes impossible to build a future. How can you take action towards a positive environment, when someone else has the advantage over your thoughts?

Help! I’m Stuck: How To Manage Your Mind, Defeat Distractions and Create Confidence gives insight on how easy it is for someone to manipulate your thoughts.

The information contained in this book will shatter the most ordinary mindset, while building a more progressive way of thinking. It will silence the negative internal chatter and enhance your self-motivation.

Toni Crowe – NEVER A $7 Whore.: My Journey from a Lady of the Night to the Lady of the Boardroom

She should have been a $7 whore, but she became a Fortune 50 Vice President.

A true crime memoir of survival and resilience, Never a $7 Whore, is the story of a teenaged single mothers escape from her unscrupulous lover. Part one of the $7 series, NEVER A $7 Whore details Toni’s transition from a girl into a woman while trapped in horrific circumstances. Developing the perspective to see a different outcome, she develops the will to change her fate. Matching her wits and will against her pimp and his companions, Toni struggles not to fall into the tar pits of prostitution.

Using those same skills that helped her escape. Toni became a tough as nails executive. Today, Toni Crowe is a successful award-winning executive specializing in Operations, Manufacturing, and Productivity.

NEVER A $7 Whore is unforgettable—a well written, heartbreaking memoir reminding us that no matter where you start in life, the American dream is within your reach if you have the desire and determination to change your destiny.

Matt Moore – Investing in Brokenness: Lessons from Living with an Addict

Are you struggling to rescue your friend or family member from addiction? Discover a powerful method to help your loved one navigate the road to recovery.

Is an addict ruling your life? Does your friend or family member’s regressive behavior leave you feeling frustrated? Are you running low on options and hope for a full recovery? Matt Moore has spent over 25 years developing professional treatment programs. But his firsthand experience in helping his own brother overcome decades of substance abuse is what makes his methodology so profound. Now Moore is here to show you how to help your loved one to create life-altering change.

Investing in Brokenness: Lessons from Living with an Addict is a step-by-step support system for empowering drug-dependent friends or family members along their recovery journey. Vividly illuminated with personal accounts, you’ll learn how to offer meaningful aid and encouragement at every stage of their return to sobriety. Through Moore’s methods, you’ll help your loved one finally break the cycle of resistance and regression and embrace a new drug-free future.

In Investing in Brokenness, you’ll discover:

Fundamentals of the Change Process and how to help loved ones stay focused on recovery

Techniques to ensure you aren’t enabling destructive behavior, but are part of the solution

How to offer the right kind of support and structure to maximize positive outcomes

The Three Essentials you’ll need to help an addict in their journey towards sobriety

The innovative “Good Life” model for empowering progress, and much, much more!

Investing in Brokenness is a life-changing how-to manual designed for anyone supporting an addict’s recovery. If you like real-world examples, practical techniques, and straightforward advice from an experienced professional, then you’ll love Matt Moore’s powerful program.

Buy Investing in Brokenness to pave the way for your loved one’s recovery today!

Melissa Feick – A Radical Approach to the Akashic Records: Master Your Life and Raise Your Vibration

Are you ready to accelerate your spiritual awakening?

Do you want to learn the most valuable ascension tools that will help you become your higher consciousness?

You have a special purpose! There is a radical spiritual awakening happening, and the Akashic Records say that the intention of the shift is to transform the lower vibrations and raise your vibration.

In this book, you will have the best ascension tools, and you will learn a simple, easy process of accessing the Akashic Records on the Quantum Field so that you may transcend the lower vibrations and create a life filled with Joy!

Are you ready to learn the real secret to transformation?

A Radical Approach to the Akashic Records: Master Your Life and Raise Your Vibrationdoesn’t just explain the Akashic Records, we give you the most important information about reaching the Records at the Highest Vibration.

Be in the frequency of Oneness and Love

Drastically change your life and the lives of others

Do readings and healings in the limitless energy of the highest vibration of the Akashic Records

Experience a step by step guide to the what, where and how of working in the Akashic Records on the Quantum Field

Practical meditations and exercises to help you read and heal in the Akashic Records for yourself and others

How to rewrite your Akashic Records and transform your lower vibrational patterns that keep you feeling stuck

Transcend your Kamric patterns that keep you experiencing the same issues over and over again

Live your life more on purpose and more consciously

Discover your gifts and truth of your soul purpose

A Radical Approach to the Akashic Records gives you the tools to live a happier life!

A Radical Approach to the Akashic Records helps you create a meaningful life of manifestation and creation. Transform all your negative patterns quickly and easily by healing in the Quantum Field of the Akashic Records.

Read this book and unlock the benefits of the Akashic Records on the Quantum Field today!

Franklin Neal – Six Years Black

Take a breath. Now close your eyes. Imagine you are engulf in darkness. Your front door opens but you never know who walked in. You hide under your bed, then a voice on the phone says four frightening words. “Do you have her?”

Syble Green first home was her sanctuary. Her mom new career advancement made them move to the city. To heal the family woes the mother surprises her husband who is equally as hurt by the move with a trip to an art exhibit. After the lovely evening, they drive home. A car collision occurs. That day Syble lost more than one girl should.

Many years later now living a new life, one without sight. Her mother eventually puts a malicious man behind bars. Before the trial, she received threatening messages stating what will happen if she continued.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you life is manageable or I’m accustom to being blind. There is no fabric of lies woven in that statement.

Barbara Miller – The Dying Days of Segregation in Australia: Case Study Yarrabah

Did the deep north of Australia experience racism, discrimination and segregation? Yes. A system similar to South African apartheid existed on Aboriginal reserves like Yarrabah in Queensland till as recently as 1984. This book is unique in that Australian Aborigines themselves tell their story of living under legal discrimination on reserves and discusses their aspirations for self-determination, local government and land rights.

Adebanke Adesuyi – BECOMING A PASSIONATE CHRISTIAN: YOUR PATH TO PEACE, LOVE, AND AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE

Do you ever wonder if you could preach the gospel with such passion and power as Billy Graham, teach the word of God like Joyce Myers and TD Jakes, and get excited about saving souls into the kingdom like Paul and Jan Crouch, including hosts of great men and women past and present who followed Jesus with great passion? They all understood one thing, that God loves us passionately and gave us His best and all. Likewise, wants us to love Him passionately and give our best. It also makes perfect sense that we give God our best and our all.

And you don’t have to wonder any longer. The power, passion, zeal and driving force behind those passionate Christian is available to all believers in Christ when we embrace the Holy Spirit. It is not for selected few as some people think. Becoming a passionate Christian is about letting Jesus shine through you as you live every day having Him in the center of your life. It is about doing great, as well as small things for God.

Becoming A Passionate Christian will:

•Open your eyes to see the love of God for all humanity in a new way.

•Show you how to experience – the peace, love, joy, freedom, fulfillment, power, fellowship and hope that is in Jesus regardless of circumstances you find yourself in.

•It will help you to recognize the things that actually hinder or kill Christian passion.

•Give you the keys to becoming passionate and show you the steps to take to get there.

•Enable you to be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit and be energized to pursue God with passion.

•Introduce you to examples of people from the past and present, whose lives show us how they became passionate for God.

God is waiting to meet you in this book and you will be forever changed and blessed.

Jed Jurchenko – Becoming Brave: How Little Buffalo Finds Courage

Help your kids be brave and do hard things. This kid’s personal growth book will show you how!

This children’s book tells the story of how Little Buffalo finds his courage and learns to be brave by facing a storm. On the other side of the storm are green pastures and a beautiful rainbow. For kids, personal growth can be scary and a lot like charging into a storm. Whether they are moving to a new house, switching schools, making new friends, or dealing with life changes after their parents’ divorce, change can be difficult.

This kid’s self-help book begins with the story of Little Buffalo. After the story, parents can help their kids prepare to be brave and tackle hard things by practicing three courageous skills. These include:

Easing anxiety by taking big, deep, buffalo-breaths.

Using self-talk statements to move forward when things get tough.

Identify and draw strength from their support system.

Help your child get a head start by learning and practicing key, personal growth strategies early on. This book will guide you on the journey!

Kary Hays – The Mystic RUNES A Portal to Secret Wisdom and Heightened Awareness

Experience heightened awareness and tap into your soul’s innate wisdom! Are you looking for insightful thought-provoking guidance? Are you ready to be uplifted, stimulated and intrigued in your search for direction?

This is not your ordinary book on RUNES! The Mystic RUNES is here for you to find purpose, spiritual guidance and enlightenment through accessing the hidden meanings of the RUNES and their wisdom!

Did you know that the RUNES are considered secret? The truth is that their secrets lie within the Soul of the Self!

The Mystic RUNES is written to help you tap into the very core of your spirit through their messages. In this book you will learn how to use the RUNES to create talismans, intentions and affirmations. You will be guided through exercises in activating the energy of your RUNES and learn to integrate their essence into your very being! You will also be shown how to understand the meaning of your name with the RUNES and experiment with friends’ and family’s names as well! Along with all this, most of all, each RUNE offers insight that opens doors meant to assist you in looking at situations in your life with power and compassion toward finding your way in accessing heightened awareness. What an amazing journey The Mystic RUNES offers the seeker! You will want to use this book as reference every day to guide, to uplift and to enlighten! Scroll to the top and BUY NOW! And enjoy the process!

Marc McLean – The Healing Power Of Ayahuasca: 16 Incredible Life Transformations That Will Inspire Your Self Discovery

When Western medicine had failed them, these 16 people turned to the magical, mysterious plant medicine ayahuasca…

And their lives changed forever. Could it do the same for you?

When life gets painful we go searching. Searching for ways to overcome the depression, break the addiction, fix the relationship, heal the chronic health problem, or simply to figure out why you’ve always felt that something’s ‘just not right’.

Always looking for solutions that are out there when, in reality, the answers are inside ourselves. But who can hand you the key to your subconscious mind so you can finally break your destructive patterns?

Which genius can help you properly understand why life seems to be one long, repetitive mess at times? What can give you hope to turn your life around when everything else has failed – Ayahuasca – the hallucinogenic plant medicine that’s been used for thousands of years in the Amazonian jungle – can help you achieve all of the above.

In The Healing Power of Ayahuasca, author Marc McLean tells how the medicine saved him at the lowest point of his life. Ayahuasca gifted a level of emotional and psychological healing he’d never have achieved in a lifetime of therapy.

Those profound experiences inspired Marc to interview people from all over the world whose lives have been completely transformed after drinking ayahuasca. In this collection of incredible true stories, you’ll read about an American woman who overcame bulimia and the depression that had haunted her from the age of 11.

A South African woman addicted to heroin for four years cured overnight. An elderly Dutchman aged 85 releasing childhood trauma from the Second World War.

You’ll learn about the amazing healing power of ayahuasca for emotional, psychological and even physical issues

Questions or doubts you may have had about ayahuasca will be answered in these remarkable first-hand accounts

You’ll be inspired that you too can overcome your darkest days with the help of ayahuasca, just like the people in this book who are now living healthier, happier lives

You’ll be given hope that you can become well again, even if doctors, therapists, or all other avenues of treatment have let you down in the past

You’ll be given hope that you can become well again, even if doctors, therapists, or all other avenues of treatment have let you down in the past

This is not one person’s life story that you probably won’t relate to, or a dramatised version of events at ayahuasca retreats filled with colour and lacking substance.

Instead, 16 people share how they healed a multitude of illnesses and issues through ayahuasca, including PTSD, depression, sexual abuse trauma, eating disorders, crippling fear, chronic health problems, and more.

These people openly share how they overcame the toughest times in their lives, their deep inward journeys with ayahuasca, and how they finally discovered who they really are.

Want to learn all about their incredible stories, and find the inspiration for your own healing and self discovery? Order your copy of the book today.

Toni Crowe – The Daytime Lives of the Ladies of the Night, My Journey from a Lady of the Night to the Lady of the Boardroom, A $7 Short Story

A true story of survival and resilience, The Daytime Lives of the Ladies of the Night, details the daylight hours of three women surviving while working for a notorious pimp and their trainee, Tee.

The Daytime Lives of the Ladies of the Night is both a standalone story and a great add-on to the debut memoir, Never a $7 Whore, by Toni Crowe.

Irish, Essence, and Baby live together under Prince’s rules. Each woman leads an isolated separate and painful existence as they work to survive day to day living while meeting the demands of their night jobs. Tee, the newest addition to the crew, is being trained to be a paid escort.

This well-written, heartbreaking short story reminds us all of the fact that no matter where you start in life, we all want the same things: the American dream. Success is within your reach if you have the desire and determination to change your destiny.

Chris Stewart – Prayers, Punk Rock and Pastry

This is the inspirational story of a man that has been to hell and back. This heart warming and inspiring tale of a missionary kid turned punk rocker,gang member, drug dealer and finally a drug addict. Becoming a husband and home owner wasnt enough either to stop my drug abuse and then I became ahomeless crack head and heroin addict on the streets of Hollywood CA.

Becoming a firefighter should have been enough but it wasnt enough as a drink and a drug were all I cared about untill finally drugs and alcohol rendered him bed ridden and incapable of getting through the day without them losing everything I cared about and my self worth in the process.

Found outhow I got back up and now I help thousands of people get their dreams back. Find out how I started the only leadership interact club for continuation high schools in the country of the U.S. Find out how I started a company that became one of the top and most inspirational company’s in the world with just a cookie and a prayer to a homeless man for Christmas and much much more. For any human being this book will rock you to the core with its honesty vulnerability and redemption. We are all addicted to something break free today and get your dreams back!

Vivienne Wei – Labor Force: Winning Strategies During Pregnancy, Maternity Leave and Return to Work

Are you excited about your pregnancy, but anxious about how to make it all work?

Are you looking for take-charge strategies that will help you embrace your new identity as a working mom and set yourself up for success?

In this resourceful and action-oriented book, Labor Force reveals the unspoken truths about your transition to motherhood and provides a blueprint to have a satisfying career and a thriving family at the same time.

You should never again worry about motherhood derailing your career.

Drawing on the personal stories of working moms at the highest levels of success and on her experiences balancing motherhood, a demanding job and cross-Atlantic travel, Vivienne Wei offers guidance and support for dealing with the fear, stress and guilt that come with having a career and building a family.

The book features strategies and insights from C-level executives, including CEO of OpenTable Christa Quarles, COO of Salesforce Technology Andrea Leszek, CTO of Redfin Bridget Frey and Co-Founder of CoffeeMeetsBagel Arum Kang.

Labor Force tackles every personal and professional detail with defensible strategies that can lead you to succeed during your pregnancy, maternity leave and the return to work, including:

The boss-approved way to share the pregnancy news

A roadmap for building your mommy tribe at work

How to develop a transition and re-entry plan for your maternity leave

How to evaluate the real value of your career using a data-driven approach

Negotiation tactics for transitioning back into your new work life with ease

How to instantly dissolve fear and guilt as a new working mom

Labor Force helps you ascend the steep learning curve of working motherhood through hard data, compelling research and personal stories.

Labor Force equips readers with actionable advice and practical tips for success from high-achieving working moms.

Claire E. Hallinan – I Notice: A Step-by-Step Guide to Transform Student Potential Through Building Intentional Relationships

Teachers and coaches get frustrated when their students don’t perform at their best. “How many times have I told you?” “You are lazy!” These phrases don’t help students improve their performance; they don’t ease the teacher’s frustration either. Instead, they create a distance between the teacher and their students.

Rather than blame others when we cannot control a situation, we should focus on learning how to manage it by noticing ourselves. To be aware of our inner experiences (emotions and thoughts) helps us to connect to ourselves and to control our impulses. That is when we can intentionally establish relationships with our learners.

o Claire Hallinan’s 6-Step Method that shifts your thinking patterns by using “I notice” statements,

o How non-judgmental observations will consequently increase the students’ desire to connect with their teacher,

o How to monitor your progress using the provided worksheets, and

o Small and simple daily routines that transform your relationships with youth.

I Notice equips readers with the key to uncovering the relationship with young learners that has been stuck at a certain level.

With intentional relationships, students will perform beyond their perceived abilities.

I Notice teaches you how to be aware of present moments.

I Notice enhances your communication pathways with students in addition to your already existing good intentions. When the communication pathway is mindfully established between the teacher and students, young learners will soar to success.

Read this book and unlock the benefit of intentional relationships!

CONGRATULATIONS to Our Self-Published Authors

Once again, we’re so incredibly proud of the hard work and dedication that went into each and every one of these books. Seeing our students succeed in bringing their dreams to life never ceases to be amazing to us here at Self-Publishing School.

Do you want to write and self-publish a book? What’s stopping you?

Self-published books by our students make us proud. With more self-published authors finding success, it’s great to see our students do the same.

Our Self-Publishing School students have been crushing this past month. With so many books launched in July, it’s incredible to see the success and outcome of our students’ hard work and dedication.

Congratulations to our Self-Publishing School July graduates on their book launches! Check them out and enjoy some great reads.

Do you want to get in on the fun with our students and go from blank page to published author in 90 days…or even less? We can teach you how! Each of our students started out exactly where you are: with nothing more than a desire to publish a book and maybe an idea.

OUR JULY SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHORS:

Tracy Hagerman – Apex of Doubt

Apex of Doubt is the second book in The Wilson Series penned by the author, Tracy Hagerman.

A young family reunited. A three-year-old with a new lease on life. A surgeon on the cusp of international fame. Fighting an ominous attack, the Wilson family finds that their faith is once again put to the test in this romantic suspense novel.

Apex of Doubt is the second book in the Christian Fiction Wilson Series. If you like gripping suspense, touching dialogue and enduring romance, you’ll love the second installment of Tracey Hagerman’s moving series.

Kathy Heshelow – Use This for That

Are you interested in essential oils, but don’t know where to start? Are you confused about which essential oils to use for what? Be confused no more! This book is for you!

This is an easy-to-use guide to get the most out of your essential oils.

Essential oils hold great wellness benefits. Kathy Heshelow makes it easy for beginners or dabblers in aromatherapy to walk away with a good understanding of how to USE THIS FOR THAT.

You’ll get great info, recipes, applications and tips to keep you and your family well.

Brett Dillon – Millennials: Your Secret Weapon to Kick Ass in the Marketplace

Do you struggle to lead Millennials? Do you look at your Millennial workforce and wonder how on earth you can win in your marketplace? Do you feel stuck with a generation of workers who just can’t get it together?

This insightful and entertaining book will teach you how to win in your marketplace with a secret weapon: your Millennials!

I teach you how to turn your Millennials into a kick ass team through 3 workplace interventions.

If you are like many business leaders and managers, you struggle with how to recruit employees who are engaged with their work, retain talented employees, increase productivity, help your people gain rare and valuable skills, establish a culture of accountability, and most of all— how to turn your Millennial workforce into your secret weapon to win!

Let’s face the brutal truth: your people are your only unique, sustainable, competitive advantage and differentiator in your operating space—learn how to develop them for maximum effect!

Roger D. Haber – A Great Cloud of Witnesses

A Great Cloud of Witnesses: Listening to Faith Heroes, is an inspirational Christian book that invites the reader to listen to the stories of faith heroes like Noah, Moses, Rahab, and David. They and countless others, of whom the world was not worthy, are cheering us on as we run the race of faith, keeping our eyes on Jesus.

Jean Max St. Louis – You Only Have One Life

In a unique way, this book will help to tackle your stressful situations from the inside out. Namely, this book will help you to deal with your troubles at the very root of them. The lessons taught in this book do not promise to remove all your stresses. However, they will teach you how to have full control over your stress and how to prevail over it.

Tammie Pittsley – Rising Above the Fog

Does your life hurt? Are you hopeless? Do you feel helpless to change anything? Do you think the bad times will never end?

If so, Rising Above the Fog is the book for you. In its pages, you’ll find a kindred spirit who has walked the road you’re on and come out the other side, victorious over the depression that at one point threatened everything she held dear.

Part self-reflection, part self-help, the author takes the reader gently towards the truth that no-one is responsible for your life but you – even when living with depression, or maybe especially when living with depression. With Biblical guidelines and illustrations, as well as personal anecdotes, this book will illuminate your understanding of how much is in your power, and where to start in changing your life.

Elle Muliarchyk – What Underwear Does a Zebra Wear?

What Underwear Does a Zebra Wear? is the first-ever book of jokes totally written by a kid for other kids.

Is there any sound in this world more exhilarating than the sound of your child’s laughter? Laughter comes so easily to them. A silly sound… dad stubbing his toe…boogers!

But one day will suddenly develop a more “sophisticated sense of humor – their very own brand of jokes!

That s what happened to the parents of 2.5-year-old Henley, when she began creating her very own jokes…complete with clever puns, wordplay and an innocent irreverence.

In the utterly delightful and hilarious What Underwear Does a Zebra Wear? Henley s jokes are brought to life with elaborate and gorgeous illustrations.

Chris McKay Pierce – Customer Service Can be Deadly

This is a tongue in cheek, cozy mystery with a slight edge for any audience, young adult to old adult. The quiet life of a Customer Service Specialist just got interesting, and scary. Chris is a quirky but feisty lady who is faced with a stalker who wants her help, extreme cold, and a crazy private investigator who loves the chase. Flowers and vague notes are not the boss of her, but she wants to help a woman in trouble, if only that woman can figure out what she wants. She is a typical Minnesotan faced with the unexpected. That has to be funny. At least she has wine, her neighbor has chocolate and her Saturn works.

Qat Wanders – Dancing with Venus

A Theological Tale of Travel, Romance, and Spirituality

Ruth’s unusual journey continues when she leaves her childhood home once and for all and embarks on an adventure of wanderlust, gypsy culture, and spiritual disruption.

Her life lessons about love, loss, and inner peace have only just begun. Ruth is searching for depth in a shallow world. But she fully intends to travel every inch of the earth until she finds what she is looking for.

In her quest, she meets Bianca—who embodies everything Ruth has been striving to achieve.

Their deep soul-connection blossoms as the two women dance their way around the world together.

Ruth and Bianca experience different cultures and lifestyles in some extreme circumstances, such as burlesque dancing in Europe, belly dancing in India, train-hopping across the United States, and even joining a circus! Ruth eventually opts to step away from her prestigious modeling career to embrace a simpler and more challenging way of nomadic living with her free-spirited partner.

In her travels, Ruth discovers she is actually comfortable with discomfort, and she is addicted to simplicity.

Join these two vagabond beauties in Phase Two of the Searching for Venus trilogy, as they face mainstream society, urban sub-culture, and their own egos head on.

Wendy Van de Poll – Off to School

The fourth book in the Bestselling Series ~ The Adventures of Ms Addie Pants

Off to School is perfect for every child who is learning they are perfect just the way they!

Learning to trust and love oneself when faced with bullies is not always easy. Ms Addie Pants seems to have the most difficult time with this task but she finds that she can do it!

Ndeye Labadens – How to Crush Social Media in Only 2 Minutes a Day

Discover How You Can Become A Social Media Titan By Spending Only A Couple Of Minutes A Day!

How does travel-vlogging and making money at the same time sound?

What do you think about skyrocketing your social media pages by simply spending just 2 minutes every single day?

Impossible and unreasonable?

That’s because you do not currently possess all the information and tools to make it happen!

Not to mention, you will also get a free trial to the Online Course as well!

Social Media Marketing Is The Name Of Today’s Game -And This Is How To Crush It! Whether you’re trying to promote a business, a book, a product of any kind, or simply yourself, social media are the way to go. Correctly using social media for promotion, however, is easier said than done. That’s why we’re here! A Hands-On Approach To Tons Of Social Media Insiders’ Secrets! This social media marketing and promotion guidebook is your go-to resource for all your social media promotion needs.

So, What Are You Still Waiting For?

Laura Domino – 5 Powerful Ways to Show Love

Wouldn’t life be better if we all focused on loving God and people? (Matthew 22:37-40) Looking around at the way humans are treating each other, it seems that we need a refresher course on how to do that.

Author Laura Domino, having experienced the thrill of volunteering locally and internationally, helps women build love and kindness in their community.

5 Powerful Ways to Show Love is the pathway to more powerful love. It walks you through easy-to-follow examples as you learn to set in place the building blocks of a kinder, more loving community.

Yvonne Jones – My Robot Bot

This sweet book is all about Robots. You will find a flying Robots, a water-spraying Robots, a really, really strong Robot, and a Robot that justGOES, GOES, GOES.

With rhyme and rhythm, Robot and his little friend play, tumble, and have lots of fun all day long. Together, they discover that we all are unique and perfect just the way we are.

With sweetness and humor, this fun story of an adorable duo will win the hearts of all little Robot lovers out there.

Kim Baker – Girlfriend 101

Are you in a committed relationship and some issue keeps coming up again and again? Or are you single and every time you start dating, something blocks you from moving forward into a long-term relationship? Or maybe you aren’t dating but would like to and aren’t sure how to move forward. In this relatable, action-oriented book, Kim Baker presents 7 ways to get rid of past baggage to make room for the relationship you’ve always wanted. Girlfriend 101 offers • A way through old grief and patterns that keep us stuck • Strategies for getting more in touch with how our thoughts impact our lives • Practices to become more self-responsible rather than telling ourselves a victim story • Tools to identify if you’re in a toxic relationship with another person or yourself • Strategies for building consistent self-care habits to stop abandoning our own needs • A focus on building empowered, authentic relationships Girlfriend 101 helps readers drop the baggage to heal most important relationship of all – the relationships with ourselves.

Ariston C.M. – Poetry’s Love Song

This book contains a mix of emotions that connects to love; some good, some bad, and some that will give us hope. Hope that we will truly find the love that satisfy our thirsty souls. This book contains some of the poetry from my book The Courage to Dance Again: Finding Purpose in Your Pain. It is my hope that you will enjoy the full range of emotions that you will feel as a result of reading this book. May you find love and satisfaction in all areas of your life. Embrace the beauty of love, it has been waiting for you!

Catherine Beck – Clawdia’s Capers: Making New Friends

It’s tough being the new kid sometimes, isn’t it? Clawdia, a spunky little kitten, feels lonely in her new home. Clawdia wants to make friends with her new brothers, ChiChi and Clyde. But ChiChi and Clyde are not sure they want to share with this bouncy little cat. Can Clawdia change their minds? Will Clawdia find her own special place in the house, or will she give in to her bossy brothers? Dive in and find out if Clawdia’s shining purr-sonality wins them over!

Rajendran Selvaraj – Stocks to Buy

As a trader, investor or beginner, you always have the question, “How can I find the best uptrending momentum stocks every month?” Most of the time it is a complex process. Other times it is quite easy. Even when finding the right stocks is easy, we still want to be sure to make a profit.

Stocks to Buy is a simple strategic guide that anybody can use to find the best-performing stocks in the market.

Stocks to Buy will show you that.

Jennifer Kittredge – Arranged

Sam Andrews, Tampa Bay’s most notorious millionaire bachelor, is infamous for getting exactly what he wants. A shrewd real estate investor, known as bulldog when it comes to business transactions, he does whatever it takes to win, no matter the cost. When he discovers his inheritance comes with a marriage clause, he finds himself working the deal of his life. Hire someone to marry him or lose everything he’s worked so hard to attain.

Sydney Andrews is in way over her head. Not only did her fiancée leave her for someone else, he also left her buried under a mountain of debt. A chance meeting with the infamous Sam Andrews, finds her with a proposition that would change her life. Desperate to eradicate her financial strain she quickly realizes, this arrangement would indeed eliminate her debt, but it could also break her heart.

Ariston C.M. – The Courage to Dance Again

The Courage to Dance follows the story of one woman’s search for meaning and quest for a better life. In her journey toward success, Ariston C.M. struggles through the trials and tribulations of child poverty, abuse, domestic violence, and her own self-doubt. As an adult, she is left at the mercy of two unhappy marriages, riddled with mental abuse and infidelity. In her greatest moment of despair, she has thoughts of suicide and even wanting her own children to die to avoid pain. Her escape from these marriages comes as a relief, but in her journey toward healing she is also met with a realization: Survival is not the aim anymore. She must think bigger and realize her own potential. Through her renewed faith in God she begins on a path of self-actualization, no longer deferring her own dreams or happiness. As she pursues her education, she begins to understand that it does not matter where she comes from or where she has been. She must see herself as her God does, born anew and ready to build a better future.

Inside this book, Ariston C.M. discusses her life and her arduous journey toward salvation. She shines light on what it is to emerge from ultimate darkness and offers strategies to empower women from all challenging walks of life. Through her own lived experiences, she shows that believing in God and oneself are not mutually exclusive but both necessary parts of a life built on redemption. This book contains poetic expressions throughout it and begins a meaningful dialogue on what it is to overcome just about anything and find life’s purpose as a woman of faith. Her story is a testament to the power and resilience of the human condition.

Teresa E. Garvin – To Reach the Stars

A true-life story, “To Reach The Stars”, Teresa is rising above her past, while she struggles to embrace the reality that she will not be able to return to her native homeland.

With nowhere to go, she soon realizes that the unfamiliar and challenging country where she had thought she was only visiting for a short time was going to be her new home.

Her soon thought plans of returning to her home in her native Poland crushed by circumstances beyond her control.

Beautifully written, with heartbreaking honesty; “To Reach The Stars” is an unforgettable reminder that regardless of one’s social status, or place of origin, the American Dream is still within reach for those who have the desire and determination to succeed.

In this short story, you will find many business inspirations that come from the authors 37 years of challenges and achievements that she experienced as a successful business owner, entrepreneur and mentor.

Her practical and useful business lessons are mixed with thetrue life struggles and set-backs combined with the achievements and goals that resulted in rich rewards and success.

This short story will inspire you “To Reach The Stars” and help you to build the confidence in yourself to achieve.

Teresa E. Garvin – Clean Up: Wipe Your Debt Away

This book will take you through every step of building a business. From assessing what form of business is good for you, through gaining your new client base, to growing your business and leading you towards a life of financial independence.

Soon, you will become a business owner, not a business operator.

To find the right answers, we must first ask the right questions.

What questions are the right ones, when you don’t know the subject?

This book asks the right questions, and provides answers to get you started in creating your business.

And when you grow your knowledge and curiosity, you will have more questions.

This book provides you with a website to post all your questions and receive excellent answers to help you become the best in your industry.

The only move that matters is your next one.

CONGRATULATIONS to all of our students who published a book in the month of July! Your hard work has not gone unnoticed.

And remember, if you want to self-publish your book and end up on a page just like this, get started today with your free training because you can never start working toward your publishing dreams tooearly.

Have you ever seen an Amazon book description that looked absolutely stellar? Nice big words, perfect layout, well structured? What am I saying? Of course you have!

Well, there’s a secret to how those self-publishers are making it look that way. They’re using Amazon’s approved HTML in their product description. That’s right, they’re coding it to look that way and you can, too.

By adding a little code in the editor when writing your book description, your sentences can now be bold, underlined, or even bigger in size.

Here’s what we’ll cover about how to write Amazon book descriptions:

Having an eye-catching book description is critical to marketing your book . After all, why would your potential buyers read your tantalizing book description and click “buy” if it’s ugly to look at?

By adding some code here and there, we can craft your book description to catch the attention of your audience and improve conversion rates.

As you can see, there is a clear difference between a well-structured book description using basic HTML and a book description that just uses plain text.

It isn’t as simple as writing it in a Word document then copying and pasting it into Amazon.ope. That well-formatted beauty requires a little HTML-love in the text editor.

I’m going to show you exactly how you can tap into this, even if you know nothing about HTML or CSS. I’ll even introduce you to a free book description tool that will help you build beautiful, eye-catching summaries so that your book will stand out and get even more customers.

Amazon Book Description Tips

Lucky for us, we can use special snippets of code in our Amazon listings to access their font styles. All you need to do is type the right things around the sentences in your product description to make the words stand out and look great.

However, there’s a limit to what we can do. Even though we can use HTML, it isn’t like eBay where you can make flashy banners, pretty tables and style your product description with your web design kung-fu. There are restrictions on what we can and can’t do.

Formats enclosed text as bold.

Emphasizes the enclosed text; generally formatted as italic.

Determines the appearance of the enclosed text.

Formats enclosed text as a section heading: <h1> (largest) through <h6> (smallest).

Creates a horizontal “rule” or line. Often used to divide sections of text.

Formats enclosed text as italic.

Identifies an item in an ordered (numbered) or unordered (bulleted) list.

Creates a numbered list from enclosed items, each of which is identified by a <li> tag.

Defines a paragraph of text with the first line indented; creates a line break at the end of the enclosed text.

Defines preformatted text.

Formats text as strikethrough. See also: <strike>

Formats text as strikethrough. See also: <s>

Formats enclosed text as bold. See also: <b>

Formats enclosed text as subscript: reduces the font size and drops it below the baseline.

Formats enclosed text as superscript: reduces the font size and places it above the baseline.

Formats enclosed text as underlined.

Creates a bulleted list from enclosed items, each of which is identified by a <li> tag.

Don’t worry if you don’t know what all that means. I’ll show you.

To get your words to do the above, all you need to do is sandwich your sentence or words with the <fill in the code> above and end your sentence or word with </fill in the code>.

So, for instance, if you wanted to add a bit of code to the sentence, “My book is the best thing you’ve ever read,” you would type into the editor:

<fill in the code>My book is the best thing you’ve ever read.</fill in the code>

(Don’t write “fill in the code”—instead, use the cheat sheet above to see what letters will make the change you’re seeking.)

HTML Examples for Each Tag

Now that you know how to wrap a tag around a sentence and which HTML tag you can use, let’s go through each one, apply it and see how it will look on the U.S. Amazon market.

Header Font Size

To get the words to be larger, you’ll need to use the Header Tags which are <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5> and <h6>. The H1 tag is the largest; H6 is the smallest.

Let’s see what they look like when wrapped around a word:

To make a sentence or word bold, all you need to do is wrap that word or sentence with <b></b>

Like this: Self-Publishing School is <b>amazing</b>.

Italics

Like this: Self-Publishing School is <i>amazing</i>.

Underline

Like this: Self-Publishing School is <u>amazing</u>.

Horizontal Lines

If you want to separate some text with a horizontal line (also called a line break), all you have to do is add <hr> and it will look like this:

There are two types of lists: ordered lists and unordered lists. Ordered lists are numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. Unordered lists use bullet points.

Unordered are denoted at the beginning using <ul> and their structure looks like this:

Ordered Lists are denoted by the <ol> and their structure looks like this:

HTML Tags You Can’t Use

Well, you can’t do anything with images, like you can with normal HTML. You can’t insert images into your book description, nor set a background image. But who would want to do that? That’s what your book cover is for .

Anyone familiar with HTML will also know its cousin, CSS. You can’t use CSS with a Kindle description. So no fancy new fonts, font colors or CSS styles for any Kindle-specific summary you’re crafting.

Quick Word on Special Characters

Though it isn’t necessary, you can use trademark and copyright symbols in your book description by using the following code:

Registered trademark symbol ®

Free Amazon Description Generator Tool

Hand-coding your own book description can be tedious. That’s why I designed a special free software that lets you see in real time what your description will look like. It’s called the Amazon Book Description Generator .

Just type in or copy and paste your book description, and with a few clicks, you can make it look the way you want it.

Once you’ve gotten it the way you like, just click “Get My Code” button and it will automatically create the HTML code you need for Amazon.

Then take that code, go to the KDP bookshelf and update your book’s description.

Examples of Well-Formatted Book Descriptions

To get your creative juices flowing, here are some examples of other books that have used book description formatting on their product page and taken it to the next level:

Steve Scott’s “ Email Marketing Blueprint ” : Here’s another well-laid-out description that highlights the right spots and makes it easy on the eyes. My favorite part about his book description is the first paragraph, which shows up even before the customer clicks “read more.” Steve has made it so that his most eye-catching hook is featured right smack dab at the top of his sales page. Nice move.

Get Our Feedback on Your Description

Now that you know what is allowed by Amazon, how to code HTML for book descriptions and have a cool free tool that will do it for you, it’s time you get started on creating your book descriptions.

Remember, making a well-formatted book description will not only make your product listing more professional, it’ll be sure to hook your potential readers.

So get started now! Use the free tool in this article to bypass the hassle of using HTML code and make a gorgeous book description today.

Once you’ve created a savvy-looking book description, comment below with your book’s link, and I’ll check it out and respond.

Although it may appear to be a small detail, you must realize that your readers often resort to categories when looking for books on a specific topic.

Therefore, selecting the best book categories for your upcoming bestseller is a critical decision as it will impact your book sales.

Here are more notable reasons why your book should have best-fitting categories:

It can help you become a bestseller. Like the New York Times bestseller, Amazon can also tag your book with an orange badge that says “#1 Bestseller”. And with thousands of Amazon categories to compete and rank for, this means that there’s plenty of opportunity for you to become an Amazon bestseller!

You can gain more exposure on Amazon. By appearing in different categories, your book can appeal to different audiences. And if your book ranks in the top ten of any category listings, Amazon will include your book to its “Recommendations Engine” which will generate more publicity!

But with plenty of book categories on Kindle Direct Publishing as well as the plethora of books competing for attention, how do you choose the right categories to make your book stand out to your reader?

In this post, we will share our best strategies to help you pick the right categories for your book that will increase your sales rank and obtain maximum exposure through Amazon’s search engine.

#1 – How to Research Your Competition

If your goal is to appear on the first page of search results on Amazon, then you must take advantage of every window of opportunity to succeed. In order to do so, you first must research your competition.

When you begin researching for book categories, you should start by scanning the bestselling books on every first page results of your target category.

The reason is simply due to the fact that the first page results are most likely what your readers are going to be looking for! Therefore, it’s important to identify the top selling books for each category you want to target.

Next, go through each of the books on the first page results and study its category string links. For example, here are the category links for Taylor Pearson’s book, The End of Jobs :

Notice that for a book on Entrepreneurship, it’s ranked highest for “Labor & Workforce” and “Economics”. This goes to show that by placing their book into such unique categories, the author completely understood their target audience which is why The End of Jobs appears on several first page results.

So if you want to have a high ranking for your category, make it a priority to research your competitors’ categories and emulate their methods with your book.

Action Plan: Research the first page competitors in five categories of your choosing. Take note to any unique categories your competitors rank in, and apply them to your upcoming book.

#2 – How to Strategically Select Your Category

Because the Amazon’s Kindle Store has thousands of categories to choose from as well as an overwhelming amount of books fighting for attention, the competition can be relentless and unfair to new writers. But there is one approach that will have you stand out: Select trending categories with little competition.

What is considered a competitive rank?

We find that any categories with books ranking higher than #2000 is considered very competitive and not a recommended category for new writers. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you shouldn’t place your book in a competitive ranking, but if you do, be sure to have a well planned book launch with a sizable audience that can provide a lot of verified reviews. For new authors with a smaller following, we recommend aiming for certain categories with books that rank between #10,000-30,000.

Once you’ve completed this research, you should have a list of thriving categories to place your book in that will outrank your competitors.

Action Plan: With the five categories you’ve researched, take the time to review your competitors’ ranking that fall between #10,000-30,000. For even better results, we also recommend using the KDP Calculator to calculate how many books you would need to sell in order increase your ranking.

#3 – How to Acquire Additional Categories

When you upload your book for the first time, Amazon will offer you a select list of categories to choose from. At a first glance, you will notice that the selection seems rather limited and is missing plenty of categories that you’ve seen other books rank for. Unfortunately, Amazon has done this intentionally so that they can place new books into their own kindle categories.

Don’t let Amazon determine your categories! There’s thousands of sub-categories you can rank for, and you can even include an additional eight sub-categories not found in the usual channels.

Here how you can acquire these categories:

Use Amazon Keyword Selection. Include the name of your category as one of your “Amazon Keywords”. In order to obtain a particular category, you must include specific keywords in the Kindle submission form. For more information on Keyword requirements, visit Amazon’s browse category page to learn more.

Place your categories in strategic places. To convince Amazon that your book should be placed in specific category, strategically work the words of the category onto the title, subtitle or even the summary of your book page.

Contact Amazon. You can contact Amazon and request your book to be placed in a particular category. Amazon will then assess your entire book and determine if it’s an appropriate fit for the specific browse category. If approved, These categories will appear in the “Look for similar items by category” at the bottom of the book page.

Action Plan: Experiment with these strategies to acquire additional sub-categories for your book. Remember you can include eight additional keywords that can convince Amazon to place your book in the categories of your choosing.

If you want a successful book launch, you must not overlook even the tiniest of details.

By following these guidelines on how to select your book category, your first book will have maximum exposure and the best chance to appear in the Amazon bestseller list.

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