Book Publish – How to self publish for fun and profit
Your job as an author doesn’t end when your book is published. It’s only the beginning. Self-publishing is an adventure that will take every author to more than just writing. Being a self-published author means that you are your own driver. So wherever your adventure is heading, it will be because of what you have done, and what you haven’t.
It’s going to be a real tough job. How do you get your book announced all over the world? Who will be your target market? What are the ways to effectively reach your readers? Is it possible to generate a 6-digit profit on a shoestring budget? Those are just one of the many things that you are going to be anxious about. There are a lot of things to be done and priorities to sort out. You wouldn’t even know where to start.
To fish you out of your dilemma, BookWhirl.com shares its 10 Quick Tips on how to jumpstart your self-publishing adventure.
1. Define your goal. If you know what you want, it will be easy to establish and maintain focus. Defining your goals will refine your self-publishing career. It will serve as an inspiration when you’re already about to quit. Your goal will help you hang on when the going gets really tough. Goals are big and little dreams with deadlines.
2. State your objectives. Success cannot be measured. But stating one’s goal will help you evaluate how far you have accomplished. It refuels your purpose. And most importantly, it reminds you that you have deadlines to finish. Sometimes, the best in you can be brought out by the pressure of beating time.
3. Come up with a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Feature your book’s uniqueness, one thing that other books do not offer. What can they benefit out of reading your book? It should indicate a call to action towards your target readers. Your proposition should be persuasive to pull a magnitude of readers. The competition is fierce that you cannot afford not to have a Unique Selling Proposition.
4. Develop marketing strategies. This would allow you to stir your course of action that leads to sales generation. It’s your marketing blue print to dominate your target market niche. Marketing strategies involves promotion, distribution scope, pricing, and other elements that make up your book’s marketing campaign. This is your basic game plan on how will you engage to your target readers.
5. Learn to choose appropriate marketing tools. These materials should be anchored to what you need to execute your marketing strategies. This must also be carried out according to your budget. Say for example, if your target readers are significantly dominant in the internet, it would be unnecessary for you to buy spots for television commercials. Choosing the right marketing tools will certainly give you big savings and efficiently reach your target readers.
6. Utilize other resources. Your marketing and promotions doesn’t stop with your marketing plan. Learn to go back to basics and utilize what other resources you have. Hang print ad banners on your own fence, tuck a poster on your former schools, donate complimentary copies of your books to the public library, offer to speak on school programs, etc. Those are just one of the many things to reinforce your marketing plan without shelling out too much.
7. Plot a Gantt Chart. Using a Gant Chart will help you plan, coordinate, and keep track on specific tasks for your entire book marketing schedule. The Gant Chart was developed by Henry L. Gant on 1917 for efficient project management.
8. Never get tired to evaluate and revise. If your initial marketing strategies don’t seem to work, take time to evaluate and revise. Reformulate or even overhaul your plans until you successfully penetrate your market.
9. Connect with your readers. There’s a hot list of growing social media sites on the internet. Social media sites are good venues to interact and listen to what your readers think about your book. Most importantly, you’ll be able to market yourself as an author. You will reap the harvest of your fruitful reader-author relationships until your last book.
10. Share your success. Nothing beats coming up with a heart warming story featuring your success amidst challenges and struggles on plunging with self-publishing. Give others the opportunity to be encouraged and inspired with what you have become.
Making a Difference
Today, women are becoming a dominant force in the economy. An article from About.com reported that, “Between 1997 and 2006, businesses fully women-owned, or majority-owned by women, grew at nearly twice the rate of all U.S. firms (42.3% vs. 23.3%). During this same time period, employment among women-owned firms grew 0.4%, and annual sales grew 4.4%.” This is significant since women were once a taboo in the corporate world. Women, who were once used to holding ladles, are now stirring the global economy.
Empowered women are the result of making a difference in the society that we all once thought only men can spearhead.
Just like women empowerment, self-publishing has its share of breakthroughs and challenges. It practically opened more doors and possibilities to writers who once dreamed to be published.
