It is believed that over 90% of those who started out as self- publishers have failed at this business practice. Most have written one book and have tried to get the word out about their book but have stopped due to discouraging sales results that they have achieved. However, the truth of the matter is that there are still the minority 10% that have made a success out of this great profession. I have personally, using the platform of our organization, InfoBooks Resources, recorded significant results as a self-publisher.
I know you desperately desire to succeed as a self-publisher. You have probably searched for traditional publishers to publish and sell your book without success and you want to give self-publishing a trial. This money making article, How to Succeed as a Self-Publisher of Books: 15 Simple Steps to Follow will teach you how you can start and succeed as a self-publisher. The tips here are majorly from our practical experience in our organisation.
1. Pick a niche market you are familiar with: This is important so that you can give yourself the opportunity to receive inspiration to write as many quality and relevant books as possible.
2. Research problem areas in this market: You should find out problem areas in your market. Your books are coming to solve problems. No one will be ready to pay you anything if your book is not adding any value to him or her. List these problems areas on paper.
3. Gather your knowledge and put ideas together to draw up outlines to address these problems. Put up a small free report or videos or audios to solve one of these problems.
4. Set up a platform like a blog or website you can update regularly to attract interested members of the public. Gather their contact information. Give out your free product to anyone who gives you his or her contact information on your website or blog. You can read How too… to learn more about how you can use the power of auto responder to sell your books. You should also start a free email newsletter which you send to your contact list every one week, two weeks or one month. This free newsletter should also be centred on the theme of your blog or website.
5. Put short relevant articles on this blog weekly.
6. Publicize your blog: Let the internet world know about your blog so that more people can opt in to receive your free product. These people may just be potential customers for your upcoming book.
7. Write your first full book solving one of the other problems you identified under step 2 above.
8. Register with any of the various online book distribution bookstores: Examples of these are amazon, smashwords, lulu etc. and upload your book to their platforms. You can also register with all of them and sell the same book on all the platforms.
9. Choose the right keywords to describe your book while you are uploading it to these websites: This will make your book enjoy the patronage of the numerous visitors to these websites. You should find out the natural keywords that average searcher online would use if they want information on the topic your book treated. You should also ensure you use a good descriptive cover. This is the first picture a potential customer see about your book.
10. Announce your book to your list by giving out the link to the sales page to them. You can even give freebies to encourage them to go to the websites to buy immediately. You can ask anyone who buys between a particular date ranges to send an email to you to receive these bonuses.
11. You can also give a discount to members of your list. Most of the various top bookstores online have on their website a system where you can set up a discount for a group of people of individuals.
12. Write 2 articles teaching the main theme of your book with good keywords. The first article should be placed on your blog. It should end with a call to action for readers to visit your book sales link. The second article will be distributed to the various article submission websites. This article should end with a call for readers to visit the link of the first articles on your website to read another interesting article on the topic. This type of call to action should be placed in the resource box while submitting the article. You can search for “top 50 article distribution websites” at www.google.com .
13. Join book forums and websites to get the word out the more about your book. Ask for reviews from members of these websites or forums.
14. Set up a free seminar platform to teach your book theme or topic and sell your books to attendees.
15. Find other ways to publicize your book and your website.
Self-publishing can be very interesting if you understand how things work and also give the whole of yourself to it. I am wishing you all the best.
