Steps to Publishing Success
March 14, 2011 
12 Comments
You can have the biggest connections in the publishing world and the biggest network. It DOESN’T guarantee you any success. To be successful we are going to look at three major steps for you to have success at publishing.
They are:
- Write a quality book that has a clear target audience.
- Price your book correctly.
- Develop a marketing plan and stick to it for at least a year or two.
How to write a quality book
- Your book should answer a common problem or meet your audiences needs. So, before you even think of starting to write, do a lot of research. Read all types of books in your niche, ones that you love and even those you cannot seem to go past page five. Figure out what the author of the book you love did in his book, and what did the author did with the book you couldn’t finish. Write these points down so you have very clear dos and dont’s when you start writing.
- Plan your book out properly. Narrow down your subject/niche down properly and divide them into chapters. Focus every chapter on an aspect of the problem you’re trying to solve. Break the aspect down into several parts helping your readers take the information in a little at a time. Try getting as close to spoon feeding your readers as you possibly can without actually pushing the spoon into their mouth.
- Now, go ahead and write the book. Find tips on how to write a book here.
- Once your done writing the book, take some time to revise the book. This includes proofreading, editing, formatting and cleaning up the overall look. For more help feel free to Google a ‘how to write…’ guide for your specific genre.
- Once you’ve revised your book at least twice, give it to someone else to go through for a fresh look at editing and a unbiased opinion. You could ask other bloggers in your network to read it and critique your work for you. It is imperative tho’, that it is someone that you trust not to leak your material or steal your content.
- Now have one last read at your book. From beginning to end, without skipping pages or sentences. Read it like you’ve never read it before. Once you’ve gone through this grueling process, stop! It’s now time move the keyboard if you have to.This is like, a step. And important step.
- Now that you’ve written the book, it’s time to celebrate. Pop some Cristal and go have fun on the town, paint the whole thing red. In fact, take a new color and paint it that! You deserve it. Besides, you need the rest and switching off from the process.
- For a revolutionary way to publish your book, try publishing it in ebook format. This way the printing costs is omitted completely. With relevant and targeted subject matters you can transform your manuscript into a book with some inexpensive software. You can also publish your ebook on the kindle. The problem with ebooks though, is that the market is pretty much overwhelmed. Remember that the ability to produce one doesn’t mean the content is good. You’ll have to step up your game to rise above all the other.
- It is imperative that your book isn’t filled with fluff. Not even material that is available elsewhere. Try be innovative, try to break new ground. If you did the tasks from the beginning of this post you would already have some solutions to problems people may have. If you produce material that people can read elsewhere you’ll lose your credibility as an expert and as a pace-setting blogger will be sunk. constantly revise your material to make suire your materialis of high quality and the most current. A good book will eventually sell itself and may even become viral.
Pricing your ebook.
Assuming you have a great product to offer your readers/client, the problem is always what one should charge for your book. The general rule of thumb is to set a price for your book equal to its value. If you under-charge for your book, it will give the impression that your book isn’t worth much.
To set the price correctly, estimate how much time you spent creating the book and how much time you spent making it understandable and coherent text. Perhaps look at how much time you put in, work out your rate and charge accordingly by dividing the money into the amount of books you project to sell.
Read how Amanda Hocking priced her ebooks strategically and made millions in the process.
Promoting your book
- Once your price has been set at an affordable rate, it’s time to promote it on your website. Consider posting excerpt articles for free on your website as a sort of demo or sample. It may be advisable to include an order form at the bottom of each excerpt.
- The only way you will attract sales is through traffic. For this you need a properly worked out promo campaign, especially if you are a fair unknown author. There are thousands of books available on promotion to guide your efforts. You may even want to Google some articles on it. If you want some articles on book promotion sign up for the newsletter.
- Then write a catchy and professional press release.
- Also send copies of your book to companies specializing in book reviews.
- Write sales copy for your book. If you’re not skilled in this area, it might be advisable to outsource this task. Make sure the copy includes why your target audience needs to own and read your book and the benefits from buying it.
- In you promotional materials, its advisable to use excellent, impressive graphics. They have the power to convey to the prospective buyer the quality f our ebook. On top of that it also conveys the valuable information it contains. It’s simple math: professional graphics sell professional books reassuring the customer of the quality it provides.
- When you provide a download link to your book, make sure you simplify the process. It always helps adding a few bonuses to entice the reader to purchase your book. They need to be high quality, perhaps you could include a title that is either redundant or out of print (out of catalog). Your customers must feel they are getting a high quality product with equally high quality bonuses. Remember that the goal is to convey the message that they are getting a great deal, so too many bonuses will diminish your credibility and the products.
To conclude; make sure your the quality of your product is impeccable, it should be relevant and current, develop an effective marketing plan that includes great sales copy and some excerpted articles. Have a great offer, price and bounusses and wait for your audeince to find you.
For more information, see my post self publishing for bloggers.
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Stop dreaming and make it happen!
Ivin Viljoen
Image courtesy of photostock
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Hi Ivin,
nice post, just one question, what does ‘Pop some Cristal’ mean?
Also – on your site you have posts about self-publishing (some of which I’m definitely going to come back to as I don’t have enough time now) and posts about it being essential to have an agent – which camp are you actually in?
thanks again,
Alan
alan recently posted..How much should I pay for a Life Coach?
Thanks Alan. I’m checking as I write this (slow internet) And I’m sure I’ve been to your site before (Oh, yes, I have, today actually – and ‘liked’ your FB page too!)
That’s a good question. I must be honest and say that with over 400 posts written here in a little over a year (a year and two months?), it’s difficult to remember all the posts. But you’re right, I’ve been accused before of NOT choosing a side in many things, but I have to say that I hope you can see, that what I lack in skill in an area, I have invited VERY talented professionals (like freelancers, book designers, etc.) to fill whatever void there is – and looking for more.
If I have to recollect and answer your question, I gotta say that whatever skill you lack, or may not be too good at, you outsource that. For instance, I may have written my first book in 3 days and had a published, printed copy of the book in my hands two weeks after starting, but that doesn’t mean that’s it s selling brilliantly, or that it is particularly well designed. So, this blog has really become a search for information and sharing my findings (after trying some of the methods – time IS limited you know…) and I will always tell you that whatever you lack or need help with, get help!
Many people want to do everything themselves, but many of my writers would tell you that isn’t really a wise choice. A self publisher, for me personally, is a person who wishes to have his book published, but was shown the door by many conventional publishers who threw his manuscript in the trash, and then went and solicited the help of professionals and friends with the adequate skills to add to the value of your book, work until you’re satisfied with the end product. Conventional publishers would do that too! Self publishing just puts the power in your hands.
Ivin Viljoen recently posted..Get It DONE: Turn Deadlines Into Headlines
If someone reads and likes your book, what is to stop them from mailing the PDF to a friend? Very interested in writing e-books and enjoying your site!
AstroGremlin recently posted..You Don’t Know Your Best Ideas
That’s a good point. I actually read today that you’ll be protected from download fraud using Amazon and another affiliate program. People NOT sharing your book AFTER they’ve downloaded it, well, I don’t know if you can stop that
Ivin Viljoen recently posted..Get It DONE: Turn Deadlines Into Headlines
Touche’. My blog articles aren’t getting stolen. Darn it.
AstroGremlin recently posted..Blog Grader for Free WordPress SEO Review
Getting success in Internet Marketing is one of the achievement and one way succeed is using content. Quality and relevant content must be maintained.
Michel Blaze recently posted..Portable Surveillance Unit
Am very good resource. You can even link to some of your other posts with the info over here
I need to do that yes. And write some posts for open ended material
Ivin recently posted..Steps to Publishing Success
I get stuck at ‘how to write a quality book’. It’s most important to me. If that’s done properly the rest is smooth sailing…
Quite true. This is the foundation. Good quality writing a like good content on a blog.
Ivin recently posted..Steps to Publishing Success
Three points that could have made three posts by itself. Thanks for the great value Ivin. I’m finding the book promotion tips in your newsletter very useful.
It could have made three posts, you’re quite right. And yeah, that auto responder is not quite done yet
Ivin recently posted..Self Publishing- Monetization Method Most Bloggers Miss!