OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
Publishers will scream and shout from the rooftops that e-publishing is not the way forward and that every writer still needs a publisher. That's simply not true. I know this for a fact, as I was an unknown author who managed to sell 130,000 books in my first year without a publisher, without a marketing budget, and without any experience. And I'm going to tell you how I did it.
1. Know your audience
It's the same for any form of art or business (and self-publishing means these two areas unavoidably overlap). A lot of resources will tell you to just write and let the industry decide what genre it is, but so many of my unpublished writer friends keep telling me that their books are rejected by publishers due to not fitting into a pre-conceived genre. Now, I'm all for artistic license and freedom in writing but that's a story for another day. Even in self-publishing, you need to identify and physically select your genre when publishing, so you need to be sure in your own mind.
2. Be realistic
The fact of the matter is that very few self-published authors become successful. I freely admit that luck played a huge part in my success, but I also openly publicise my goals: originally, it was for someone I didn't know – a complete stranger – to read my book and tell me what they thought of it. Subsequently, I wanted to top some sort of best-seller chart. My third goal was to make enough money from writing fiction to allow me to do so on a full-time basis. I achieved all of these goals within six months of completing my first book, purely because I had set targets and goals which I knew I wanted to achieve.
3. Utilise your other skills
Self-published authors have to be more than just writers. More often than not, they have to be editors, publishers, PR managers and cover designers. Use your other skills where you can, be it in graphic design or marketing. For me, marketing is not a problem as that's my professional background. I promoted my books heavily using Twitter and Facebook, both of which are vital tools in the modern day. Free book giveaways are always a great way to attract new interest; one of my most successful avenues was to offer free copies of my book to a set number of new Twitter followers on a given day. Try this, and you'll find that you get a surprising number of new Twitter followers very quickly.
4. Utilise other people's skills
If you've got a friend who's a graphic designer, why not ask him or her to design your cover for you? I designed the covers for my first two books (and, looking back, they look pretty amateurish) but by the time I released my third book I'd earned enough money to employ a professional graphic designer for the book cover and a BBC video producer who put together a YouTube trailer. You can only work with what you have, so make sure you utilise it to your full advantage. Friends can also make great proofreaders and editors (providing that they've a good standard of English and are keen readers). Send your finished book to a few friends or contacts and ask them to be brutally honest; how can you improve? What needs changing? What works best? Do parts need rewriting? Only by acting on constructive criticism can you improve as a writer.
5. Choose your outlets
The quickest and best way to get your book available on the mass market is to use Kindle's direct publishing program. Following that, I'd strongly recommend using Smashwords to get your book into the other major markets as quickly as possible. Initially, I made my books available free of charge in order to generate interest. Now, they sell just as well (if not better) as paid-for books. Amazon's Createspace program is highly recommended for printing paperback copies of your books at a reasonable price. Once I'd ordered a batch of ‘real' books, I organised a book signing at one of my local bookshops in order to generate local interest. Local newspapers and radio stations will also more than likely be interested in your story.
6. Tell everyone
Your best (and, let's face it, only) marketing tool at this point in time is yourself. Tell everyone – your friends, your family, the bloke in the pub – all about your new book and that it has been published. I used to have an annoying habit of accosting people reading Kindles on trains and asking them if they'd read my book. If people have met you, they'll more than likely download your book. Call your local newspapers and radio stations and let them know that you've just written a new book. Often, these local outlets are crying out for some real news and will be more than happy to write an article on you. This helped generate a lot of local interest in my books and was one of my main marketing tools in the early days. There really is no secret, other than effort. Get on the phone and call them!
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1 2 Next »Congrats on the success Adam. It's always good to hear these kind of stories. Gives everyone hope
You mention gathering local interest to be a big thing for you. Did this result in a lot of sales? And totally agree about audience. Knowing your market is key to most success stories, even if other areas are not implemented too well.
Matt (Turndog Millionaire)
Love the titel on this article! Very interesting to read. Thank you for sharing this with us!
Love Kim, author of 19 historical adventure books, selfpublished!
That's a great post. Very interesting, I was always interested in self-publishing.
I'm a new follower and look forward to your future posts ;)
I love to read posts like this; they're like an adrenaline shot which make you just want to shout out in the street, "Please read my book, I'm sure you'll love it!" ... or is that just me?
amazing story. there seem to be few out there. the rest of us just keep slogging away ...
Joanna, I follow you on Facebook and twitter and appreciate your work, and the information you provide. I just released my first book late last year. Not only was the writing a learning experience, but the publishing and marketing is also. I published with Createspace, but realize all the promotion is up to me. Often, I'm overwhelmed because there is so much work I know I need to do. Plus, blogging is taking up a lot of my time. Adam, thanks for this post. I am working on trying to get more "out there" and being comfortable by it.
Thanks Randall, it is a journey and you can't do everything at once, but over time, it all fits into its place :)
If anyone would like to answer a few questions, I would greatly appreciate it. I'm a musician and I have been playing in praise bands for about 15 years. As I was listening to the preacher, before I went on stage, I was given a vision or a "Job to do". It was so clear I looked for the "burning bush". I believe I am suppose to share my testimony in book form and travel around to different churches promoting/sharing my experience, strength and hope as to help the powerless and helpless. My question is; do I tell my story to a "ghost writer" or just pound it out on paper and have an experienced "whatever the person is called" edit it. Oh, maybe that would be the editor? I see that Adam and a few others have and are currently doing exactly what I believe I'm called to do. "Make a living by helping others with my amazing testimony." I can get in front of the audience pretty easy! Thank you in advance to the person or person's that decide to share what they have learned in their journey.
Interestingly enough I have been engaged in this conversation recently. Thank you for sharing your journey.
Congratulations on your success, Adam. That is a huge achievement for anyone to accomplish, especially on your first book!
Maybe most self published authors don't succeed because they give up after a while? Success like you've had is extremely rare with a first book and many writers don't find that success until many years later.
I think too many people expect instant success because digital publishing is instant. You can upload a book on to the Kindle in less than an hour. So many people are impatient expecting their dreams to come true instantly, but this isn't always going to be the case.
You're story is certainly extraordinary. Congratulations once again!
This is an excellent article, and taking advice from it, I want to let you know about "Oscar the Elephant" a children's book I wrote now available for Kindle on http://www.amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Oscar-the-Elephant-ebook/dp/B006XZH4ZA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328120730&sr=8-1) and Nook on http://www.barnesandnoble.com (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/oscar-the-elephant-john-odziemek/1104154723)
The ebook is only $1.00, and a print version will be released next week via http://www.createspace.com
Much congratulations Adam...wishing you continued success....over the years have tried most...if not all of your suggestions....going to keep plugging away....just launched my 3rd book...all of which are Spiritual Guidance and Education themed. Thanks for helping to inspire us all. Cheers Dave http://AscensionFotYou.co.UK/blog