Self Publishing 101

It really is this simple – and yes, it can seem overwhelming when you start – but over eight-plus years of podcasting, we’ve covered every single step of the above!

If you know what you want to find out more about, head on over to our search bar (right hand side of the page), type in the topic, and it’ll bring up all the relevant episodes!)

Otherwise, read on for the breakdown of the eight steps of self publishing, according to the SPA Girls…

Eight Steps to Self-Publishing your Book

Like many things in life, self-publishing is both extremely simple… and kinda complex. But the following article is our basic run-down of everything you need to know to successfully self-publish your book.

But first, to help untangle some of the unfamiliar terminology, here’s an old episode of the podcast where we take you through some of the jargon you need to know to understand self publishing. Just click the link to listen:

Understanding Self Publishing Jargon with the SPA Girls – EP176

THE EIGHT STEPS BROKEN DOWN

1. Write a book

The number one thing you need to do as an author is write. Write like the wind! Focus on getting your book finished, pushing through the saggy middle to that glorious finish line where you become a person who has finished a freaking book! (Also, well done if you’ve just finished, you’re among a small percentage of people who actually finish writing a book.)

THE HARD WORD ON WRITING

If you’re struggling to get to the end of your book because you’re re-writing the first three chapters over and over and are too scared to move on to the next bit, you’re never going to finish. If you’re trying to write the perfect novel on your first go, you’re never going to finish. If you’re too busy to write or you procrastinate and do everything else but writing… you’re never going to finish a book.

Bum in chair, fingers on keyboard. Get it done!

We’ve done many, many episodes about getting the writing done and writing craft on the podcast. Here are a few of our favorites to get you started:

Interview with Christie Craig – Never Give Up – EP96

Alessandra Torre – Making Your Books Addictive – EP407

All the Best Secrets of Story with Matt Bird – EP396

All About Writing and plotting books with Plottr – EP384

The Power of Writing Sprints in Getting the Words Down – EP347

How to Have Lightbulb Moments in Writing – EP373

2. Get it edited

The next step, once you’ve written that book, is editing. This takes several forms.

The first type of editing is self-editing. This is the drafting stage. You need to go back through your book at least once, if not more, and fix any plot and pacing issues you find. One great way to do this is to get a separate file and do a chapter by chapter one-sentence description of what happens, and then do a big-picture analysis of your book. You can then go through and fix all the grammar and spelling issues you find.

The next type of editing that you can do is send out your draft to a select group of readers, sometimes called beta readers. These readers can give you a sense of whether you’re on track, and can offer potential changes based on a reader’s perspective. Often authors will also use beta readers at the end stages once they’ve made all the changes suggested by their other editors. This can help find any final mistakes or inconsistencies. This could be friends or family or other authors, but make sure it’s people who read in the genre you’re writing in. With beta readers it’s often helpful to ask them to look at something in particular as they read, because they’re not usually professional editors, and won’t always know how to verbalise their issues with the book, if they have any.

Once you’re happy with your book, the next step is to hire a professional editor. This is vital.

Self-publishing is now a very competitive environment, and readers will punish you in the reviews on the publishing platforms for badly edited books. It might seem like an expensive investment when you’ve never even published a book, but you will find a good editor will take your book to the next level. It’s always worth the investment.

There are a couple of types of professional editing. First one is developmental editing, which is more of an overview of the whole story, the conflict, whether you’re meeting genre expectations, that kind of thing. It won’t usually be about the spelling and grammar.

The other type of editing is copy editing, which is about the grammar and spelling, the style, the writing prose, the sentence structure, and the smaller inconsistencies in your book like a character’s eye colour changing. Basically, more of the detail level.

There are also different names used by editors for the above two types of editing (for example: Substantive editing, Structural editing, line editing, manuscript assessment), so it’s important to talk to your editor and clarify exactly what kind of editing they will do for you. Sometimes an editor will do a little bit of developmental with a side of copy editing. Some might just provide an overview of where you could improve the story. Some might be really familiar with the crime genre and have never worked in romance. (Hint: if you have a romance book to be edited, go with an editor who is experienced with romance. Same goes for all the various genres.) Just be really clear about what your editor is providing before you agree to work with them.

The last stage of editing is proofreading, which some authors get as a last-ditch effort to get rid of any last errors. This is more of a quick skim over the manuscript, to find basic errors in spelling and grammar and anything else they notice. You could also get beta readers at this stage to help find any last errors.

THE HARD WORD

Editing is important. Do not skip this step. Even if you think you’ve got no money or you don’t need it because you’re awesome at English. You do need it.

We promise, this is an important step. I repeat, don’t skip it.

We’ve done several episodes talking all about editing, check them out via the links below:

Deep editing for Beginners with Louisa George – EP237

Essentials of Editing with Professional Editor Anne Victory – EP209

How to Self-Edit Your Second Draft – EP367

Top Editing Tips with Professional Editor Mary-Therese Hussey – EP342

3. Get a cover

The next stage is to get an amazing cover for your book. This cover isn’t for you. Don’t pick the cover that you love the best. It’s the cover that your READERS will love. Or that your readers will at least understand on a subconscious level. A book cover is a marketing tool.

Covers are an indication to readers about the type of book you have written. There are symbols in the covers that they may not even be aware of, but that they will immediately recognize. Think of a spaceship on a sci fi book, or a dragon on the cover of a fantasy novel, or a couple gazing into each other’s eyes on a romance. Readers know what the covers of books they love look like. Think of it like a code. You need to get this code right, or your book won’t sell.

THE HARD WORD

Covers aren’t about reinventing the wheel, especially when you first start out. They’re about fitting in, looking the same as the other books in your genre, so readers will recognize your book as being in the genre of books that they like to read. Again, a cover is a marketing tool.

We’ve talked to several cover designers on the podcast about the best covers for your books. Check them out here:

How to Get a Cover that Sells – EP330

Insights into Book Covers with designer Rebecca Haskell – EP224

4. Format Your Book for the eBook Publishing Sites

You need to create an .epub file for your ebook so you can load it to the various retail platforms like Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Apple Books, and others.

You can pay someone else to format it for you, you can do it yourself via software like Vellum (Mac computers only) or Atticus (for PC and Mac), or you can do it for free via Reedsy and Draft2Digital (which is a distributor that can send your ebook to a range of other retailers around the world).

It can seem overwhelming at first, but once you’ve done it a few times, formatting your book for the different platforms becomes a breeze.

When you format a book, you’ll need to have your manuscript, your cover, the front and back matter (such as a newsletter sign-up page, author bio, links to your newsletter, and copyright details). If you’re unsure about front and back matter, check out other authors’ ebooks to see what information they have at the front and back of their ebooks.

We’ve talked about formatting many times on the podcast, but check out these podcasts for more information:

Dave Chesson from Kindlepreneur and Atticus – EP352

Tweaks to Improve Book Sales with Leanna Morgan – EP374

5. Write a Blurb

The blurb is the description of your book that sits on the retail platforms like Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Google Play and Draft2Digital. It’s sales copy, not a play-by-play description of everything that happens in your book. You’re trying to convince a reader that your book is one they’d love to read, so you need to intrigue, entice, and hook the potential readers in, in a very short space of time.

It’s one of the hardest pieces of writing you’ll do in your writing career. We’re so close to our books, we can’t step back and see the big picture again. In fact, we know a lot of authors who write the blurb before they start writing the book, so they can do it with a clear vision of the hooks. There are also people who make their living writing blurbs for authors, because it’s so hard to do! In the SPA, we always ask each other for feedback, and that’s a great way to get the blurb done – ask your author friends to help.

We’ve done several podcasts about writing an awesome blurb, check them out here:

The Power of Clever Copywriting with Jacob McMillen – EP310

Power Words That Will Level Up Your Writing – EP241

Write a Kick Butt Book Blurb with Glenna Mageau – EP75

Better Book Descriptions That Sell More Books with Brian Meeks – EP180

6. Put Your Book up on the Retail Platforms

This is the point at which the rubber meets the road. You have a decision to make first – do you want to be exclusive to Amazon, and go into their Kindle Unlimited programme, and not publish your books anywhere else… Or do you want to go wide, and publish on Amazon (but not in KU) as well as every other platform available?

There are authors with successful careers on both sides of the wide vs exclusive debate, so there’s no clear argument as to which is better. They’re just two different ways of publishing depending on your goals and the kind of books you’re writing.

Once you’ve decided, you can create accounts on the various platforms. You’ll need to know your bank account details and your tax information, as well as your personal information to set up the accounts. You can then follow the instructions to load your books on the platform/s and start selling books!

We’ve talked about wide vs exclusive, and loading your books on the podcast, check them out here:

What is Wide Versus Exclusive? – EP292

Publishing Wide with Erin Wright – EP391

Which is better – Wide or Exclusive? – EP160

7. Market Your Book to Readers

This is the piece of the self-publishing jigsaw that tends to cause the most trouble for authors. But marketing is simply telling readers who will love your book that it’s there for them to read. Most readers are looking for the next book (or to add something more to their TBR pile!) and will be happy to find you.

But the tricky piece of this puzzle is to find the right readers for your books. There’s no point telling hard core military sci-fi about your sweet rom-com. In fact, it’s likely to be detrimental.

Marketing is a big topic that includes advertising, social media, newsletter promos, newsletters, websites and so much more… We usually advise new authors to start simple, learn one or two basic marketing techniques and then move on from there.

We’ve done many, many episodes on marketing for authors. Check out the links below for some of our favourite podcast episodes.

What to do when your marketing isn’t working – EP410

Book Marketing Organization Made Easy – EP362

Book Launch Strategies For Authors – EP353

Marketing books that straddle genres – EP398

8. Write the next book!

Some people say the best marketing for your books is to write the next one. While we don’t necessarily think it’s that simple these days, there is some truth to the idea that you need to have more than one book to have a successful indie author career. The more books the merrier!

For many authors, their backlist is just as important as the latest release, and having many books in one series allows you to think about things like read-through and makes your marketing even more effective.

You’ll also become a better author the more books you write, and you’ll learn and gain experience as you go along. This is a marathon, not a sprint. As much as we’d like to tell you the stories surrounding newbie authors hitting it big, the chances of having a bestseller on your first book are very small. Even those authors where urban legend says (based on media reports) that they created a bestseller on their first book, a bit of digging will usually find a long history of writing, editing, and publishing in their background.

We’ve done many podcasts on writing the next book, check a few of them out here:

Bestselling Author Brenna Aubrey on Career Sustainability – EP394

Writing series with Lynn Rae Harris – EP401

Thanks for reading this article!

If there’s something that wasn’t covered in this article that you’d love to learn more about, head to the home page and use the search bar on the right-hand side. With over 400 episodes of the podcast, there will be something that covers your query! You can also find us on Facebook here.