In Step 1, we celebrated and put some distance between ourselves and our novel.
In Step 2, we figured out what we wanted from our novel, then edited and revised.
In Steps 3a & 3b, we looked at the traditional publishing route.
Step 3c: Self-Publishing
First of all, let me tell you what I don’t mean by “self-publishing”: I don’t mean taking your unedited manuscript, slapping a cover on it, and publishing it on Kindle Unlimited.
If you want to do that, that’s fine. That is what most of those books are on there, anyway. But I consider that to fall more in the category of “I just wrote this for fun, and I found a way to share it that could maybe get me a little money.”
No, I mean that you do the job of publishing your novel. And that is a lot of work, and a lot of money.
Step 1. Market yourself.
Social media engagement is important for any professional author these days, but it is especially important for the self-publishing author. And you aren’t just marketing your book: You’re marketing yourself. You are the product. Write a blog, make a podcast, make a YouTube channel. Be active across social media.
This is different from the author going the traditional publishing route, who will start to build a foundation once the novel is done. No, without a publisher backing you, you need to be able to market your book completely independently. And one of the best ways to do that is to build a platform.
(Ideally, this process started before you finished your novel, as it takes time to build an audience online, but if it didn’t, don’t worry. You can still do a lot during the time you are editing your novel and doing everything else you need to do in order to prepare your novel for publication.)
Step 2. Budget.
Self-publishing a novel can be very expensive up front. Know that going in, or it will take you much longer to publish your book than it would otherwise.
So look up the cost of the various steps I list below and make a budget. Then, figure out where that money is coming from. Do you have it saved up? Can you save it up? Is crowdfunding an option that you can use?
No matter what, DON’T borrow the money with the intention of paying it back from the book’s earnings. No matter how good your book is, no matter how well you market it, there is no guarantee that you will break even on your book, much less turn a profit. Figure out the most you can get scraped together and afford to lose in the case of a flop.
No one likes to think about their book flopping, but that is a consideration that a publisher has to make, and you are the publisher in this case.
Step 3. Hire an editor.
It is the job of a publisher to make sure that an editor works on a piece before it is published to work out the problems, especially if people are paying for it.
There are 3 kinds of edits: developmental edits (which look at story structure, character development, and other broad strokes stuff), line edits (which look for things like consistency in detail and voice, as well as any places the language of the text could be clearer or smoother), and proofreading (which check for grammar and spelling errors). You need all of those. And they are not cheap. But they are the first step to making your book professional rather than amateur.
Step 4. Decide which formats you will be publishing your book in.
Obviously, you should publish your book as an e-book. It has the lowest overhead cost, and can be sold at the lowest price while still turning a profit. It’s a no-brainer.
Audiobook is also growing in viability for self-published authors, thanks to exchanges like ACX, where you can connect with contractors who can work with you to make it happen, either at an hourly rate or for a share of the royalties.
But what about paperback and hardback? Should you publish your book in either or both of these formats?
The thing about publishing physical copies of your book is that it is expensive. Either you have to pay thousands of dollars upfront to do a print run, or you pay more per book by doing small batch printing or print-to-order, driving up the cost of your book. And either way, you will have to go through the process of researching printing companies, comparing rates, and finding one that works for your situation.
Still, it is worth considering. After all, there are still a lot of people who greatly prefer reading physical copies of books. You can check out industry data and find out how books in your novel’s genre sell as e-books versus other formats and let that help you make the decision. But if your marketing plan includes going to conventions and having a booth, you should probably have physical copies. People are more likely to buy a book when they can see it, hold it, and flip through the pages first.
There are also differences between hardback and paperback. Hardback is more expensive, but usually looks nicer and holds up better. Hardback can also be made available for pre-order on Amazon, while paperback cannot. (E-books also can be made available for pre-order.)
So figure out which formats will work best for your book and your budget.
Step 5. Hire an artist and a formatter.
Look, I don’t know you. Maybe you are a fantastic artist or photographer and can easily design a professional-looking cover yourself. Or maybe your day job is formatting books and e-books. But most authors to not have the requisite skills to make their book look attractive and professional. And that’s okay. It just means that the overhead cost of self-publishing includes hiring people who can.
Of course, the cost (and quality) of the work in each of these categories can range drastically. You don’t need to drop thousands of dollars on this. But remember: presentation may often be the difference between someone deciding to read your book and someone passing it by.
Step 6. Marketing the book.
Hopefully, by this point, you have increased your social media presence. Now that you have followers across platforms, it is time to tell them about your book! Give hints, drop interesting tidbits, run contests or drawings, engage with your audience. But do it in ways that draw attention to your book. And the great part about all of this is that it can be done in the months leading up to your book launch, building anticipation!
Then, after the book has launched, find other people on social media (bloggers, YouTubers, etc) who would be willing to do an interview or a book review, often in exchange for nothing more than an e-book copy of your book! This allows word of your novel to spread outside of your social media circle, and their (hopefully positive) reviews will allow people to read an opinion about the book apart from your take, which is probably biased.
You can also go to conventions and rent a table so that you can sell your books there. (As I mentioned above, this especially works well if you have physical copies of your book.)
If you have the budget, you can also take out internet ads for your book. I have no idea how effective those are for self-published books, but I see enough of those ads that I am sure you can find data about how much business they bring in.
Step 7. Start (or continue) writing the next book.
In all honesty, you should be doing this the whole time you are preparing book 1 for publication. But whether you have already started writing your next book or not, now is the time to jump in completely. You want people who liked your first book to still remember it when the second one comes out. That allows the marketing for the first book to pull double duty, and potentially increases your audience for the next book. If you take too long, however, you could see your audience size decrease for your next book.
George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicle are two of the best selling fantasy series still being written. And yet, even they are losing readers for their next book due to how long it has been since their last books in the series were published. If it is happening to them, don’t think it won’t happen to you.
If your next book is a sequel to your first, that’s great! You are primed to attract people who liked your first book. The downside to this is that, unless your books are standalone episodes, your marketing for book 2 will also have to involve getting people to read book 1 if you want to grow your next book, so keep that in mind.
If your next book is not a sequel to book 1, then realize the closer it is in genre, style, and tone to book 1, the more retention of fans of the first book you will have. This shouldn’t dictate what you choose to write, but it is something to consider.
So the question is, Why?
Why, when it is so much work, with no guarantee of even just breaking even, would people choose to self-publish like this?
Freedom. When you hire the editor, you get to decide which suggestions you will follow or not. When you hire the cover artist, you get the final say on the appearance. When you are in charge of marketing, you get to decide how your work will be presented to the world.
I want to note that most self-published authors don’t do this, or at least don’t do all of it. But I can say that the self-published books that I have been truly impressed by have done at least most of these things.
Yeah, I’m not gonna do all that when I self-publish.
That’s fine. I’m not your boss, and I’m pretty sure half the reason you’re self-publishing is because you don’t want a boss. Still, I’ll give you a piece of advice:
If you aren’t going to go through all the steps I have outlined above, write fast.
The most financially successful fiction e-book self-publishers release new (often fairly short) books rapidly, usually every 1-3 months. If you have that kind of release schedule, then you don’t have to build as big of a following to see financial viability, since your following will be buying 4-12 books of yours a year. Still, if you are doing this, you should take the time and money to have someone at least proofread your books before you publish them, as well as work with a professional to develop a basic format that you will use for all your books. (It is also advisable to primarily write series if this is what you are going for.)
Maybe you’ve read through this and thought, “Wait, I just wanted to write books, not start a whole small business! I can’t do all that! And, more importantly, I can’t afford all that!”
If that’s the case, then traditional publishing, as outlined in Steps 3a & 3b, might be a better route for you. That is the route that I am pursuing.
Or maybe you’ve tried it, put in all the work, and it just didn’t pan out. That’s when we move to Step 4: Back to the Drawing Board.
