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Introduction - Why Self-Publishing in 2023?
Do you dream of becoming an author?
Or are you an author who’s been trying to make it in publishing with no luck so far?
Either way, there’s no better time in the history of man to consider self-publishing than now!
When COVID-19 reared its ugly head a few years ago, it impacted our world in so many ways; some were disruptive, at best, and some offered opportunities to millions of people they never had before.
Suddenly, the world’s population took to the internet for everything from dating to ordering groceries to visits with your physician.
Almost everything we need to can be achieved with the click of a mouse. Even self-publishing in 2023 is more accessible, easier, and a more realistic endeavor than we ever thought possible.
In this post, I’m going to give you the four crucial steps to self-publishing success, which you cannot skip if you want to take advantage of this opportunity, which wasn’t available to us even three years ago.
To learn more about self-publishing in 2023, how it works, and why it’s the best option for authors, I recommend you check out this recent Tik Tok post!
Now, here’s a brief outline of the steps you must take to achieve your goal (aside from writing an amazing book).
Choose Your Platform!
Don’t let yourself be overwhelmed with all the options available to you when it comes to which platform on which you publish.
Sure, there are plenty of paths you can take from Amazon KDP to Ingram Spark to BookBub and more.
But as a self-publishing coach with over a dozen years of experience, I always recommend my clients publish their first book on Amazon KDP only.
Hear me out.
By doing this, you’re basically testing the market, as well as giving yourself an opportunity to learn as you go and improve your skills with each book.
Publishing your first book on Amazon KDP is relatively easy from a logistical standpoint, and their customer support is actually super helpful.
As long as you pay attention to your KDP analytics and monitor your weekly and monthly sales, you can look for opportunities to bring more attention to your book when sales inevitably dip, including “going wide.” You can increase promo efforts, or as I recommend, launch your audiobook version to get more visibility and increase sales.
As long as you at least break even with your first book, the key then is to get that second book out as soon as possible, then the third, then the fourth.
Rince, lather, repeat.
Build Your Author Brand!
Before you can even start the self-publishing in 2023 process, you must build a unique, effective author brand that is consistent across all your online accounts.
As authors, we need an identifiable and recognizable brand. Why?
It all boils down to visibility and reader loyalty.
Your group of core readers should be able to easily find you when they are seeking their next fantasy, romance, or paranormal book to read. And for that to happen, you must build your easy-to-find and identify brand first.
But there’s much more to building your brand than choosing color palettes and fonts (although, that is the fun part).
You must first dial in on your ideal readership.
For example, I write crime fiction, set in the south, and featuring strong women protagonists. My ideal readership, on average, consists of women in their late twenties to early fifties. They’re mostly educated, career-minded, and/or family oriented. And they are huge fans of true crime stories.
I call this group my Ideal Reader Avatar (IRA). And you have to figure the same basic information out about your readers, as well as their expectations when reading a story within that genre.
Hell, some readerships even have certain lingo, words, and hashtags they use that people who read in other genres don’t get. Sort of like an inside joke.
Once you have a firm understanding of your IRA, build your brand around what you learn. This will help you not only when it comes to self publishing and marketing your book but also when writing each one.
And one final note…
Building your brand should begin the day you begin writing your book, not after you finish it!
Create Your Pre-Launch Marketing Plan!
One of the biggest mistakes I see authors make every single day is waiting until their book is finished to even think about marketing.
Waiting until you finish writing your manuscript start building your marketing campaign will be the kiss of death for your self-publishing in 2023 plans, at least for this book.
It takes a minimum of two to three months to bring in a decent sized following and build the hype needed around your upcoming launch for it to have a snowball’s chance in hell at success!
I can hear your gears spinning now. You’re wondering, “But how do I market a book I haven’t even written yet?”
The biggest point I must make is that you’re not marketing your book, per se. You’re marketing your brand as an author.
Start by building a basic, four-page website, so you have an established presence online.
Trust me…without a website, you lose credibility. In this day and age, one of the first things consumers do when discovering a new brand is to either click on their bio link or Google them.
Once you have your website up and running, focus next on your email marketing campaign.
You must first bring in subscribers then keep bringing them in as long as you’re publishing books. You do this with a lead magnet (sometimes called a “reader magnet”).
In my “Author Newsletter Notebook,” a super helpful resource, which is listed in my popular Etsy Shop just for authors (BookBossAcademy), I’ve listed over 30 lead magnet ideas and 50 newsletter topic ideas. You can grab that here for less than $4!
When readers land on your website, have a pop-up signup form appear after 3-4 seconds. I also suggest adding a second chance static form on your Contact Me page.
And don’t forget to create emails that will automatically go out to your new subscribers after they sign up and receive your lead magnet.
Finally, create a plan for sending out newsletters that will appeal to and engage with your subscribers every two to four weeks.
There’s no better online marketing service than GetResponse. It is an awesome platform that has all the features you need for online marketing as an author, including signup forms, landing pages, autoresponders, newsletter maintenance, and even websites and funnels!
And with my super special powers, I was able to wrangle up a free trial for those who read this blog, and all you have to do is CLICK HERE!
Become Your Own Publicist!
What if I told you that you don’t need a publicist to be featured on podcasts, blogs, and even media outlets? Would you do a happy dance?
It’s true. You never need to hire an expensive publicist. You can do it all yourself and should. It’s a much more personal approach to which your contacts in media will be more likely to respond.
First, create a spreadsheet using Sheets (better yet, I recommend Airtable), to list and track every contact you connect with during this phase.
Then, research podcasts, blogs, and media that might be interested in author interviews, book features, or even outside of publishing if it falls into your genre/niche.
For example, as a crime fiction writer, aside from the podcasts and media on which I’ve appeared in recent years, I’ve also been featured in media outlets in other industries, where I have spoken about entrepreneurship, authorship, publishing, and social media marketing, as well as true crime.
Mentioning my books or my services is an added bonus!
Write simple, succinct, and friendly emails to anyone you think would be a good fit. But don’t just pitch on the first email! Send a couple “warm-up” emails first, then, eventually, you can send them another email saying something along the lines of, “Hey, new friend! I wrote a book about X, which I think your listeners/readers would enjoy hearing about. I’d be happy to discuss it with you sometime soon…” or something of that nature.
Track all responses you get from every contact on your spreadsheet. Or, as I highly recommend, hire an experienced, professional assistant to authors (PA) to handle the emails and tracking for you.
Conclusion - I Can Help!
If you follow these four steps and start them at the beginning of the self-publishing process rather than waiting until the end, I can promise you will see much better results during launch week and thereafter!
And if you’d like to learn more about how I have coached over 100 authors to self-publishing success since January 2020, CLICK HERE.
I also help authors achieve their dreams of becoming successful full-time writers through my online mini-courses (all under $100!) and downloadable templates and tutorials, all of which can be easily found on my website.
Don’t forget, when it comes time to edit your manuscript, I also run an Elite Editing Team with a combined experience of over 50 years! Simply request your free sample edit and quote by clicking HERE now.
Writing a book and self-publishing isn’t for the faint of heart, but with the right advice, it’s not impossible either. Great article. Well done.
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Thanks. I’ll post about that in the next week or so! THanks for the suggestion!