Many writers dream of publishing their own books. But without the assistance of a publishing company, it’s nearly impossible to make their dreams come true.

Connecting with any renowned publishing company is a challenging task. To reach them, you must go through several processes.

First, send your manuscript and wait for their response. If they respond with an acceptance, that’s great. But if they reject your manuscript, stay positive.

But what happens if you could skip all the processes altogether? What if you could do all the tasks yourself?

Technology has made it easy for writers to self-publish their own books. Its a cost-effective way for your book to reach the public and earn money.

Here are five tips that provide you with the necessary resources you need to know to self-publish your first book:

1. Edit Your Book Like a Professional

You already have your written manuscript in hand. The next stage is to edit the manuscript. When self-publishers publish their books, they will be compared to the books published by traditional publishing companies.

To be competitive in the marketplace, your books must be edited and refined as if they came from any renowned publishing company.

Start Editing by Yourself

Think of yourself as an audience, and then finish reading the manuscript. Once you go through a start-to-finish read, it helps you understand how the audience sees it as a whole. After finishing editing, you can hand over this manuscript to someone else.

Get Feedback from Beta Readers

Before sending the manuscript to any professional editor, it’s better to send copies to beta readers and collect their feedback as much as possible. Their feedback is not about fixing typos or any grammatical errors but getting the book’s overall tone and marketability.

Have Your Copy Edited by a Professional

Professional editors do a meticulous job for you. They revise your copy line-by-line, focusing on improving its readability. They also make sure the piece is grammatical and fact check the copy to make sure it’s error free. You can also hire freelancer editors within your budget.

2. Hire a Book Cover Designer to Develop an Eye-Catching Design

Once you have edited your manuscript, it’s time to move on to the next stage—cover design. As you know, people tend to judge a book by its cover. Your book cover acts as a primary visual aid and marketing tool to grab the reader’s attention.

Some free tools can help you design the cover by yourself. These tools include Fotor, Canva, Visme, Edit.org, etc.

Keep the following things in mind when evaluating your cover design:

• Evaluate cover designs of some successful books and identify why one cover is more eye-catching than another.
• Make your book’s title legible so readers can easily associate the content with its title.
• During the designing process, keep the back cover and spine in mind because they both are visible in their physical copies. Many readers care about the cover’s aesthetic and how the spine will look on the bookshelf.

3. Format the Manuscript for Ebook or Print

In the past, authors had to pay up-front for thousands of print copies. They also ended up with a large number of unsold copies. But modern publishing comes with the following solutions:

Print on Demand

Thanks to print-on-demand, you don’t have to print a specific number of copies in advance and keep them in stock. Rather books are printed and shipped upon ordering.

Many self-publishing companies in the USA provide book printing services to authors along with other services like book and ebook formatting, audiobooks, professional book editing, and so on.

Ebooks

Some websites can help authors sell ebooks through which they could publish profitably. Supply the digital copies on demand is easier because you don’t require any printing equipment or paper.

Audiobooks

In recent years, audiobooks have gained much popularity. They are released after releasing the printed or ebooks versions of books.

2. Select a Self-Publishing Platform

Once you have done with your writing and formatting the manuscript, now it’s time to share it with your target audience, right?

So, the next logical step is to publish your book. But selecting the right self-publishing company is very important for bringing your book successfully to the market.

Along with finding a self-publishing company, you must ensure that the company matches your needs. There are different self-publishing companies to choose from according to your needs.

• In vanity publishing, the publisher charges the author a down payment fee to turn his manuscript into a final or physical product. In this system, the author gets some rights to marketing services such as cover design, layout, marketing, editing, etc.
• Hybrid publishers also charge fees just like vanity publishers. But hybrid publishers are preferable because they selectively add value to book designs, marketing strategy, specifications, and the details of the deliverables.
• The arrangements and investments in multiple books make shared publishers different from vanity or hybrid publishers.
• Writers on a limited budget always prefer print-on-demand publishing as it allows publishers to print copies without the expensive conventional printing press.
• In true self-publishing, authors need to bear all the expenses. It includes pre-set packages of publishing services such as hiring cover designers, editors, layout designers, marketers, and others.

Market Your Book

Along with writing your book, you must research and plan to fully understand the marketing side of the self-publishing process. Some tried-and-tested methods are available for promoting the your book title, including price promotions, automated mailing lists, and online advertising.

As you are not famous, thinking that the world will easily stumble upon your book is unwise. Rather you need to market your book to reach the masses.

You can promote your book via book reviews, guerilla marketing efforts, book publicity, social media advertising, and many more. Plan a strong marketing strategy before publishing the book for the best possible outcome.

Social media provides great marketing advertising to self-publishing authors. The cost is low, but you can reach a large audience. An effective social media marketing strategy helps you garner engaged audiences and increase sales. Try the following ideas for promoting your book.

Start a Facebook Ad Campaign

If you arrange ad campaigns, it helps you reach ideal customers. Set aside a budget for this campaign. These ads will raise awareness of your book among readers.

Encourage User Reviews on Amazon

Customer reviews boost the visibility of the book. Encourage the early purchasers to leave their reviews on Amazon so that other potential customers get motivated to purchase that book.

Collaborate with Social Media Influencers

Social media influencers have plenty of followers. If you collaborate with them, they can help you build awareness among their audience.

Write on Your Blog and Share Articles on Social Media

It’s also cost-effective to publish and share blog articles on your website. If your audience enjoys your articles, there is a huge possibility that they will be interested in purchasing your book.

Social media advertising takes some time to grow audiences. But once they become familiar with your writing, it will undoubtedly boost your online book sales.

Final Thoughts

Publishing a book via a traditional publisher is a daunting task. With the growth of self-publishing, you can write, edit, publish, and even sell your own books. You can also hire professional editors and cover designers to ensure the maximum accuracy of your work while maintaining your artistic freedom.

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Bio: Stephanie Jonson, a loving mother to her two children, is passionate about reading, creating, psychology, and philosophy. A foodie at heart, she loves channeling her inner Nigella Lawson and coming up with delicious dishes. She also has an avid interest in home decor and coming up with innovative ideas to make the home more functional.