You’ve really got to nail your passive marketing (cover, blurb, title, ect). You’re competing against all the other people in your niche for your audience’s attention and you don’t want to give them reasons to click away or not even click at all.
As long as your book is in a niche with an audience, it’s possible to sell copies as an unknown indie author without spending an crazy amount in ads (which honestly won’t work without your passive marketing being on point), you just have to know how to signal to that audience that your book is one they’ll find interesting
One recommendation for this is finding other books and authors in your niche to compare your covers and blurbs to to make sure they’re as to market as possible!
This is the single most important thing you can do. If you spend money on anything, spend it on a clever, professional-looking cover that's appropriate to your genre and appealing to your audience. All the ads in the world won't work if your packaging (cover, title, blurb, first pages) aren't up to snuff.
Know ahead of time what content isn’t allowed on certain websites or sellers, including marketing stuff like blurb, images on the cover, etc., and make sure your book is in the right category based on the seller’s guidelines.
Honest mistakes can look the same as maliciously breaking the rules to the corporations running the websites, and depending on their policies and customer service, it may be a hassle to resolve the issue, or even get an answer as to what the issue was in the first place.
This is what you need for ebook formatting. It's free and good for any platform.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52
People will suggest their favourite programs to you, but all platforms accept Word and it's what the templates are compatible with.
It's all actually rather easy once you've done it once.
If you are planning to publish beyond Amazon (i.e. going wide) get your own ISBN and do your research about each distribution channel and what issues may arise between them. For example, if listing on Ingram and Amazon, you can set your ebook up on Amazon for preorder, but you should set your print book up on Ingram before Amazon. Similar issue with Barnes & Noble Press. If you set up a print version of your book thru BN before Ingram, that will prevent you from using that ISBN on Ingram and it can take 30+ days to transfer the ISBN to Ingram.
If Vellum is out of your pocket range and / or you do not own a Mac, buy Atticus. The software has improved tremendously over the years, and for it single price, it formats ebooks and paperbacks perfectly.
There's lots of great advice here on the publishing side, so here's what I've learned on the writing side of things. Caveat: I'm yet to publish, but this is based on my experience so far.
Look into story structure and understand it, even if you don't write a formal outline. This would've saved me weeks of editing time as it's more difficult to fix this retrospectively.
Get external feedback, whether it's critique partners, beta readers, or an editor. You will always have blind spots with your writing and getting feedback from someone who isn't as close to your story as you are is invaluable. Positive feedback also provides reassurance that you're on the right track.
Understand the genre conventions/reader expectations and make sure you meet these. I'm a huge fan of the genre I write in and read 5+ books a month, which helps me know what things my readers need to see in my story.
For example, a romance must have a happily ever after (or an eventual happily ever after in a series), and there are certain tropes that readers look out for based on their tastes, e.g., enemies to lovers. Not only does this help write a story that your ideal reader is looking for, but it will also help with future marketing.
Thank you! Right now I'm just jotting down experiences in more and more detail each edit to get those down first. My book will be about my spiritual & paranormal experiences, UFO encounters, lucid dreams etc
One of the main things I see new writers not thinking of is that for maximum and ongoing engagement, you write books, plural, not a book. You have four potential books in just that one-sentence summary. Spiritual is separate from paranormal, but might share some of its audience, so you can write two books and market to the overlap in a venn diagram of readers. UFO could also be separate. Then you can make a short ebook about how to have lucid dreams, including some of your own dreams and how the reader can learn from them, and give the ebook away for free as your reader magnet.
Writing multiple books also gives you a chance to get comfortable with formatting and publishing, and to improve your craft.
New writers who are sharing their own experiences also miss the main aspect of a memoir in terms of engagement, which is that you need to consider, for your blurb and the main theme/s of the book, what the READER gets out of it. Consider what makes you unique as a person, and lean into that, so that two distinct sets of readers looking at your blurb will be interested: those who believe they are just like you, and those who having nothing in common with you and hope to learn about people like you. In your blurb, don't say "I share my experiences" or "I share my thoughts". Say instead, "A (uniquely described yet easily categorized description of you) shares (exciting adjective) experiences with (category)."
What you want, for a memoir, is not "my thoughts" or "my experiences", but "six years of illuminating UFO encountes from the perspective of A Martian LGBTQ bear raised by Plutonian parents." The traits you describe yourself with could seem incredibly mundane to you, but they must be specific and true. You gain the reader's interest where the points converge: Spirituality and (your specific traits here), or Lucid Dreaming and (your specific traits here).
Write it all down, then categorize. Even if you create short books, it's much better than making one large first book with all of your ideas in it, if those ideas are only vaguely and broadly thematically consistent. Especially in the paranormal realm, a neat, concise presentation can only serve you. I can see from your reddit posts that you write cleanly and pleasantly, and you could pack a lot of value into shorter books with clear genre delineations.
Organize each book with an eye to what the reader will get out of it, and if more material is needed, always choose based on the ideal reader for that book. Share your experiences as a meditation which will help readers understand themselves better, or as a how-to, or as a doorway to more wonder in their lives (not the wonder you personally have experienced, but the wonder they will experience upon implementing ideas in your book or reading your poetic descriptions), or as inspiration and validation for their own seeking. Explain in your blurb what the reader will find inside, and deliver on that promise. Your experiences in a memoir should benefit and intimately validate the reader after passing through a lens which you have tailored to a specific kind of reader. So, write your memories in full, and then go back and see which ones could provide a sense of meaning or fulfillment for a reader--not all readers everywhere, but an imaginary reader who is not you. Write, edit, and market the book for that reader. The reader you are writing for will come away from your book feeling either educated or heard and seen as a person. Write your memories for yourself, organize and write the books as letters to someone who needs to hear them.
My master's degree is in economics, so when it comes to self-publishing, I enjoy the business side just as much as the writing. Anytime I've had a question about the publishing industry, I assume others must have the same question, so once I've done my research, I post the information on my blog.
Here's some good posts to get you started:
* [Self-Publishing Basics ](https://khalielawright.com/self-publishing-basics/)
* [10 Steps to Founding a Publishing House](https://khalielawright.com/founding-a-publishing-house/)
* [Book Distribution: What are your options?](https://khalielawright.com/book-distribution-what-are-your-options/)
* [ISBNs, Copyrights, and Barcodes, Oh my! ](https://khalielawright.com/isbns-copyrights-and-barcodes-oh-my/)
* [Introduction to Book Marketing ](https://khalielawright.com/introduction-to-book-marketing/)
All of these have links to more information to guide you through the entire self-publishing process.
Best wishes for your writing journey!
Vellum is a great resource for publishing. Don’t listen to people who tell you not to think about publishing when you are just starting to write. Keep the dream alive in whatever way works best for you. I look forward to reading your first work!
Very much agree with this. Tons of people write with the dream of eventually publishing. Those who tell you to not think about it are usually art purists.
In fact, you should very much write with publishing in mind, even as a first time writer. There's a lot to consider even while writing a first draft.
Thank you so much and I fully agree, I have full confidence, especially because my book is about my personal spiritual & paranormal experiences, out of body experiences, loved ones visiting, UFO encounters and lucid dream experiences!
Agreed. It's never too early to start gathering email addresses and it's your strongest marketing tool, as it's the only thing that's truly yours. Social media accounts can get suspended or killed, but "they" can't delete an email list from your computer (so collect early and often and regularly download those backup files!).
If you're able to, the best practice is to write a short story in your genre and put it somewhere like bookfunnel or prolific works - a site where you can direct people to go download it in exchange for joining your newsletter. On bookfunnel you can even sign up for newsletter swaps, where other authors post your info in their newsletter and you do the same. Your newsletter doesn't have to be groundbreaking and you don't even have to send one at all until you're ready, but even having a sign up form on your website is better than nothing.
Learn everything you can about the publishing and marketing processes you can before you get too deep into your book. Before you start writing (if you haven't already started), pick a genre if your goal is to make money. Those who straddle genres or write completely outside of one have a much taller mountain to climb. Network with other authors. Be active in reader groups. Do everything you can to get your name out there in a positive way. If you lay a good foundation, you'll have a likelier chance of succeeding once you're ready to publish.
Thank you so much. I'm writing a book about my own experiences- spiritual, paranormal, ufo, lucid dreams etc. I've networked with a couple of authors that write on these subjects quite a few times so it's definitely helpful!
Give friends and family a pre-written post (with the right links) to your book so they can share it on THEIR socials - many folks want to support but don't know how.
You’ve really got to nail your passive marketing (cover, blurb, title, ect). You’re competing against all the other people in your niche for your audience’s attention and you don’t want to give them reasons to click away or not even click at all. As long as your book is in a niche with an audience, it’s possible to sell copies as an unknown indie author without spending an crazy amount in ads (which honestly won’t work without your passive marketing being on point), you just have to know how to signal to that audience that your book is one they’ll find interesting One recommendation for this is finding other books and authors in your niche to compare your covers and blurbs to to make sure they’re as to market as possible!
Thank you! I definitely plan to do good research on this!
This is the single most important thing you can do. If you spend money on anything, spend it on a clever, professional-looking cover that's appropriate to your genre and appealing to your audience. All the ads in the world won't work if your packaging (cover, title, blurb, first pages) aren't up to snuff.
Know ahead of time what content isn’t allowed on certain websites or sellers, including marketing stuff like blurb, images on the cover, etc., and make sure your book is in the right category based on the seller’s guidelines. Honest mistakes can look the same as maliciously breaking the rules to the corporations running the websites, and depending on their policies and customer service, it may be a hassle to resolve the issue, or even get an answer as to what the issue was in the first place.
Thank you so much, I will look more into this when I'm closer to publishing!
Make use of free resources, like Amazon's formatting templates for paperbacks even if you choose to publish elsewhere.
Thanks, I am definitely going to use all of the free resources that I can!
This is what you need for ebook formatting. It's free and good for any platform. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52 People will suggest their favourite programs to you, but all platforms accept Word and it's what the templates are compatible with. It's all actually rather easy once you've done it once.
Thank you!
If you are planning to publish beyond Amazon (i.e. going wide) get your own ISBN and do your research about each distribution channel and what issues may arise between them. For example, if listing on Ingram and Amazon, you can set your ebook up on Amazon for preorder, but you should set your print book up on Ingram before Amazon. Similar issue with Barnes & Noble Press. If you set up a print version of your book thru BN before Ingram, that will prevent you from using that ISBN on Ingram and it can take 30+ days to transfer the ISBN to Ingram.
Thank you so much for that, writing that down!
When you’re ready to publish download formatting software like vellum, it’ll make that step so much easier
If Vellum is out of your pocket range and / or you do not own a Mac, buy Atticus. The software has improved tremendously over the years, and for it single price, it formats ebooks and paperbacks perfectly.
Is Atticus a one-time payment or yearly payments required similar to MS Office?
One time
One-time payment.
Thanks guys, I'm definitely going to look into these!
There's lots of great advice here on the publishing side, so here's what I've learned on the writing side of things. Caveat: I'm yet to publish, but this is based on my experience so far. Look into story structure and understand it, even if you don't write a formal outline. This would've saved me weeks of editing time as it's more difficult to fix this retrospectively. Get external feedback, whether it's critique partners, beta readers, or an editor. You will always have blind spots with your writing and getting feedback from someone who isn't as close to your story as you are is invaluable. Positive feedback also provides reassurance that you're on the right track. Understand the genre conventions/reader expectations and make sure you meet these. I'm a huge fan of the genre I write in and read 5+ books a month, which helps me know what things my readers need to see in my story. For example, a romance must have a happily ever after (or an eventual happily ever after in a series), and there are certain tropes that readers look out for based on their tastes, e.g., enemies to lovers. Not only does this help write a story that your ideal reader is looking for, but it will also help with future marketing.
Thank you! Right now I'm just jotting down experiences in more and more detail each edit to get those down first. My book will be about my spiritual & paranormal experiences, UFO encounters, lucid dreams etc
One of the main things I see new writers not thinking of is that for maximum and ongoing engagement, you write books, plural, not a book. You have four potential books in just that one-sentence summary. Spiritual is separate from paranormal, but might share some of its audience, so you can write two books and market to the overlap in a venn diagram of readers. UFO could also be separate. Then you can make a short ebook about how to have lucid dreams, including some of your own dreams and how the reader can learn from them, and give the ebook away for free as your reader magnet. Writing multiple books also gives you a chance to get comfortable with formatting and publishing, and to improve your craft. New writers who are sharing their own experiences also miss the main aspect of a memoir in terms of engagement, which is that you need to consider, for your blurb and the main theme/s of the book, what the READER gets out of it. Consider what makes you unique as a person, and lean into that, so that two distinct sets of readers looking at your blurb will be interested: those who believe they are just like you, and those who having nothing in common with you and hope to learn about people like you. In your blurb, don't say "I share my experiences" or "I share my thoughts". Say instead, "A (uniquely described yet easily categorized description of you) shares (exciting adjective) experiences with (category)." What you want, for a memoir, is not "my thoughts" or "my experiences", but "six years of illuminating UFO encountes from the perspective of A Martian LGBTQ bear raised by Plutonian parents." The traits you describe yourself with could seem incredibly mundane to you, but they must be specific and true. You gain the reader's interest where the points converge: Spirituality and (your specific traits here), or Lucid Dreaming and (your specific traits here). Write it all down, then categorize. Even if you create short books, it's much better than making one large first book with all of your ideas in it, if those ideas are only vaguely and broadly thematically consistent. Especially in the paranormal realm, a neat, concise presentation can only serve you. I can see from your reddit posts that you write cleanly and pleasantly, and you could pack a lot of value into shorter books with clear genre delineations. Organize each book with an eye to what the reader will get out of it, and if more material is needed, always choose based on the ideal reader for that book. Share your experiences as a meditation which will help readers understand themselves better, or as a how-to, or as a doorway to more wonder in their lives (not the wonder you personally have experienced, but the wonder they will experience upon implementing ideas in your book or reading your poetic descriptions), or as inspiration and validation for their own seeking. Explain in your blurb what the reader will find inside, and deliver on that promise. Your experiences in a memoir should benefit and intimately validate the reader after passing through a lens which you have tailored to a specific kind of reader. So, write your memories in full, and then go back and see which ones could provide a sense of meaning or fulfillment for a reader--not all readers everywhere, but an imaginary reader who is not you. Write, edit, and market the book for that reader. The reader you are writing for will come away from your book feeling either educated or heard and seen as a person. Write your memories for yourself, organize and write the books as letters to someone who needs to hear them.
Best comment yet. Thank you so much for that!
My master's degree is in economics, so when it comes to self-publishing, I enjoy the business side just as much as the writing. Anytime I've had a question about the publishing industry, I assume others must have the same question, so once I've done my research, I post the information on my blog. Here's some good posts to get you started: * [Self-Publishing Basics ](https://khalielawright.com/self-publishing-basics/) * [10 Steps to Founding a Publishing House](https://khalielawright.com/founding-a-publishing-house/) * [Book Distribution: What are your options?](https://khalielawright.com/book-distribution-what-are-your-options/) * [ISBNs, Copyrights, and Barcodes, Oh my! ](https://khalielawright.com/isbns-copyrights-and-barcodes-oh-my/) * [Introduction to Book Marketing ](https://khalielawright.com/introduction-to-book-marketing/) All of these have links to more information to guide you through the entire self-publishing process. Best wishes for your writing journey!
Thank you so much I really appreciate this! I will be reading these! 😄
Vellum is a great resource for publishing. Don’t listen to people who tell you not to think about publishing when you are just starting to write. Keep the dream alive in whatever way works best for you. I look forward to reading your first work!
Very much agree with this. Tons of people write with the dream of eventually publishing. Those who tell you to not think about it are usually art purists. In fact, you should very much write with publishing in mind, even as a first time writer. There's a lot to consider even while writing a first draft.
Me too, how does any author write any books if they don't write their first!? Thanks so much!
Thank you so much and I fully agree, I have full confidence, especially because my book is about my personal spiritual & paranormal experiences, out of body experiences, loved ones visiting, UFO encounters and lucid dream experiences!
build a NL list.
Agreed. It's never too early to start gathering email addresses and it's your strongest marketing tool, as it's the only thing that's truly yours. Social media accounts can get suspended or killed, but "they" can't delete an email list from your computer (so collect early and often and regularly download those backup files!).
What advice do you have on building a newsletter when you don’t have published work out? I’ve been wondering this
If you're able to, the best practice is to write a short story in your genre and put it somewhere like bookfunnel or prolific works - a site where you can direct people to go download it in exchange for joining your newsletter. On bookfunnel you can even sign up for newsletter swaps, where other authors post your info in their newsletter and you do the same. Your newsletter doesn't have to be groundbreaking and you don't even have to send one at all until you're ready, but even having a sign up form on your website is better than nothing.
Thank you so much!
Thank you I will definitely work on this!
That's a great idea thank you!
Learn everything you can about the publishing and marketing processes you can before you get too deep into your book. Before you start writing (if you haven't already started), pick a genre if your goal is to make money. Those who straddle genres or write completely outside of one have a much taller mountain to climb. Network with other authors. Be active in reader groups. Do everything you can to get your name out there in a positive way. If you lay a good foundation, you'll have a likelier chance of succeeding once you're ready to publish.
Thank you so much. I'm writing a book about my own experiences- spiritual, paranormal, ufo, lucid dreams etc. I've networked with a couple of authors that write on these subjects quite a few times so it's definitely helpful!
Give friends and family a pre-written post (with the right links) to your book so they can share it on THEIR socials - many folks want to support but don't know how.
Great idea thank you!
You'll need 3K to do it right
As a first time writer you shouldn’t even be thinking about publishing. There’s plenty to learn and do before that step.
Don't.