Self-publishing: How To Make A Living Via Amazon\u2019s Kindle KDP<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The good news: self-publishing is easy these days. If you have a book and a cover, then uploading it is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Free<\/strong>. You pay nothing to Amazon, though there will be some costs involved in preparing properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fast<\/strong>. Allow 12-24 hours for the book to go live worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Awesome<\/strong>. KDP<\/a> can make your work made available to a worldwide audience. That\u2019s something that even the largest traditional publishers can\u2019t offer, unless they have acquired worldwide rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the great side of self-publishing, but there are challenges, too, of which the biggest is simply this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Invisibility<\/strong>. Amazon has 3.4 million titles in \u2018literature and fiction\u2019. 3.6 million history titles. Half a million comics and graphic novels. And of course, the flood grows ever bigger. Half a million new titles became available on the Kindle store in the last 90 days alone.<\/em> Your title might be great, but bury it amongst 499,999 competing titles and it\u2019s still likely to vanish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In short, self-publishing on Amazon is awesome and scary in about equal measure.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This post will tell you how to publish your work on Amazon in a way that is low-cost (not zero cost), professional, and effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just how<\/em> effective it is will depend on you, your books, your genre, and how much work you put in. But it is, these days, perfectly realistic to aim at earning a decent living wage from Amazon KDP publishing (possibly supplemented by publishing on Apple, Google, Kobo, etc).<\/p>\n\n\n\n And just to be clear, although a good chunk of my author earnings come from traditional publishing, the money I earn from self-publishing my work in North America alone is excellent. In 2017, I earned $100,000 from just six e-books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And as you build your range of titles, your readership, your email list and your marketing skills, your income should follow suit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, it\u2019s hard work. Yes, it involves a little upfront cost. Yes, it depends on some clever tricks of marketing and presentation, but it works<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It worked for me. It can work for you. The same basic principles underlie the success of thousands of other indie authors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I\u2019m going to share everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This post is basically the ultimate guide to self-publishing your book on the Amazon Kindle store and I\u2019ll update if things need to be tweaked or changed. Since the post is super long, I recommend that you bookmark it and use the Table of Contents up top to navigate. Tweet it, share it, link to it from your website, if it\u2019s all helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To business.<\/p>\n\n\n\r\n Limited Places Available<\/p>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n Self-Publishing expert Debbie Young’s ten week course will give you all the skills to complete every stage of the self-publishing process. Get personalised guidance on how to format your book, create your author platform, and much more.<\/p>\n<\/div> Effective self-publishing on Amazon requires:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Strong underlying material<\/strong>. In other words, your book needs to be good. If it\u2019s not, no amount of clever marketing will save it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A properly presented e-book<\/strong>. What I mean by this is that the cover needs to be strong. The material at the front of your e-book (the \u2018Look Inside\u2019 portion) needs to tempt the reader to complete their purchase. The material at the back of the e-book needs to clinch the deal. It needs to turn a one-off reader into a permanent, committed fan. (Not sure which ebook format to use? Then check out this article<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n A properly constructed author platform<\/strong>. That means a website, a reader\u2019s magnet and a properly set-up mailing list. If that sounds scary or technical, don\u2019t worry. There\u2019s nothing hard here and I explain it all, anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sensible pricing<\/strong>. No one will buy your book if it\u2019s too expensive. You won\u2019t make any money if it\u2019s too cheap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well-chosen metadata<\/strong>. Another scary term for something that\u2019s basically simple. Because a lot of purchases on Amazon come via different types of search, you need to make sure that your book will pop up in the right places, not the wrong ones. And it\u2019s all easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Proper book promotion<\/strong>. So far, everything in this process is about getting ready for publication<\/em>. Actually launching your book comes right at the end of the process. And, once you\u2019ve built any kind of track record, you do that launch via your mailing list<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You basically tell these guys (your committed fans) that you have a new book for sale. They rush out and buy it. Amazon notices that there\u2019s a huge sales surge in this cool new book, so their search engine starts showing it to more and more people. So now you have totally new readers buying your book and as they enter your world, they start signing up for your mailing list, so your fan base grows and your next book goes even better. All that works well once you\u2019ve got started, but how do you get started in the first place? Well, there are tricks there too and we\u2019ll cover them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In short, the basic marketing process on Amazon is (A) prepare properly, (B) build a mailing list, (C) sell your work to that mailing list, (D) acquire additional sales from brand new readers who arrive at your work thanks to the visibility acquired via those mailing list sales, then (E) rinse and repeat, ad infinitum<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you\u2019ve mastered the basic essence of this underlying technique, you\u2019ll want to add in the following methods too. (I\u2019ve put the easiest techniques first, the harder ones later. Don\u2019t work this list in the wrong order!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of these methods, Facebook is probably the most powerful and scalable \u2026 but it\u2019s also the most complicated and the easiest place to lose money. Most indie authors want to add Facebook advertising right away. That\u2019s a mistake you pay for \u2013 with dollar bills magicked out of your pocket and into Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s Fund For More Digital Wickedness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And though this post is long, don\u2019t panic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, there is <\/em>set-up time and cost involved in getting started, but the basics of marketing are really quite easy thereafter. In July 2015 I launched a book in the US where my complete marketing plan consisted of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nothing else. (My wife had her second set of twins that year and we were \u2026 busy.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn\u2019t tweet, post on Facebook, blog or send out review copies or anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You want to know how much money I made?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I earned $30,000 from that one email and, since then, things have only got better. I\u2019m going to show you how to do all of that, so buckle up as we hit the detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People always laugh when I say that, \u201cWrite a good book<\/em>,\u201d but it\u2019s the only absolute essential of the whole marketing process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s also the area where writers most tend to rush things. (Simple starter guide on writing a book here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again and again, we see writers struggling to achieve sales on Amazon. They talk with intensity about their metadata, their Facebook campaigns, their experiments with permafree and a million other things but when I look at their books, they\u2019re too often just not good enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if your product isn\u2019t a hundred percent, your sales will only ever be mediocre. Remember that if you\u2019re writing thrillers, you are selling head-to-head against Lee Child and John Grisham. If you\u2019re writing YA fiction, you are selling head-to-head against Stephenie Meyer and Veronica Roth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Getting nice comments from your beta-readers is not enough, because \u2013 scary truth \u2013 everyone gets nice comments from their beta-readers, so do things properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hone your craft, say with a writing course<\/a>. Get detailed feedback<\/a> from professional, third-party editors like ours<\/a>. Put your work in the way of people who are skilled at finding flaws, not too quickly generous with praise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a lot of different editorial services out there; from manuscript assessments to developmental editing<\/a>. We obviously think ours are pretty good<\/a>, but do check out what different types of editing<\/a> have to offer. Some of them are damn expensive and best avoided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s one school of thought, which is that you may as well get your work out there. Make some<\/em> sales, acquire some<\/em> readers, and learn on the job. Well, maybe, but I think that\u2019s the wrong attitude. I think the writers who succeed are the ones who want to put the best possible product out there always, every time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And indeed, in self-publishing, there\u2019s a strong argument which says that book #1 in your series should be the best one you write. That\u2019s the portal into your series. That\u2019s the one which hooks fans and compels them to read on. If you write a dud Book #4, your core readers will forgive you and buy Book #5 anyway. If you write a dud Book #1, you won\u2019t have any readers for anything else you write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another way to look at the same thing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Great marketing + a lousy product = a lifetime of struggle<\/em> A great book is the foundation for everything else. So get it right. Build those foundations strong. They\u2019re going to support your entire career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cover is second in importance only to the book itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the cover doesn\u2019t immediately appeal to your core reader, then that reader won\u2019t even arrive on your first page to read a single word. You must<\/em> get the cover right. Nothing less than perfect is enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That means your cover needs to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look good in thumbnail<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The book must work at small scale. Designers always like showing you the hi-res version of their image, which is fine, it needs to look nice at scale, too. Still, your very first task is to shrink that right down and see if it works when tiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look good when compared with competing titles<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I always copy that thumbnail sized image onto a screengrab of an Amazon search page, full of books written by my own direct competition. Then I ask: does my image look competitive on that page? If not, try again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inform the reader instantly what kind of book<\/em> it is<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A YA dystopian cover should announce its YA dystopia instantly. A rom-com cover should be instantly interpretable as such. Yes, that means that those covers tend towards clich\u00e9s, but in this case, that\u2019s good<\/em>. The first task of a cover is to say, \u201cI am a book of this genre\u201d, where said genre is a rom-com, or thriller, or romance, or whatever else you\u2019re selling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Convey a mood or feeling<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Readers typically buy books because of a hook and a feeling, e.g.: \u2018It\u2019s this book about an ordinary girl and vampire who fall for each other.\u2019 That\u2019s a hook plus a feeling, giving a reason to buy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A book cover can\u2019t really convey the hook (that\u2019s the job of your blurb), but it can and must convey the feeling. Those Twilight<\/em> covers conveyed a general sense of dark, forbidden sexiness. That was all they needed to do, and they did it superbly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Generate questions, don\u2019t close them off<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Covers that answer<\/em> questions don\u2019t tempt readers in. Covers that prompt<\/em> questions invite further exploration. Stephenie Meyer\u2019s Twilight<\/em> cover is a good example. Why that girl? That apple? That black background? You instantly want to know more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the cover had been pretty-girl-plus-hunky-vampire gazing adoringly into each other\u2019s eyes, it would have sold some<\/em> copies, but never have been the global hit it became. Similarly, your approach to your subject matters needs to be oblique and suggestive, not right on the nose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Use good quality images<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s sort of obvious, but it\u2019s common to see self-published books where the images look like (and almost certainly are) stock images from some free or low-cost image library. And they don\u2019t look bad, exactly, they just look like stock images. They have a seen-it-before quality, death to your project of attracting a reader\u2019s eye. If you need to pay money for a top-dollar image, then pay that money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Use good quality typography<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again obvious, but getting the typography (font styles, etc.) on a book is harder than it sounds. If a draft cover feels a tiny bit \u2018off\u2019 when you see it, then it is<\/em> wrong. That feeling never lies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So once you know what you want to achieve, how do you achieve it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s strangely hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019d think getting a strong book cover was a reasonably mechanical process. You write a design brief. You hand it to a competent person. Boof<\/em>, you get back a design that\u2019s going to be anywhere from good to excellent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, in my experience, it\u2019s not really like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve had poor to mediocre covers from best-of-breed traditional publishers. I\u2019ve had mediocre book covers from talented, award-winning freelancers. I\u2019ve used competition type websites with results that were okay, but not utterly satisfactory. And, yes, I\u2019ve also got some book covers that I\u2019m totally happy with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So my recipe for success is as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fire your Uncle Bob<\/strong>. Unless your friend, relative, etc., is a professional designer, that person is not right for you. And yes, you may save some money. But NASA would probably save some money by patching their rockets together from stuff found in a junkyard. There\u2019s a reason they don\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Use pros<\/strong>. You can go to competition type websites, of which 99Designs<\/a> is the most prominent example. (Personally, I think you have to pay a lot of $$$ to get a good outcome from this, however.) You can go to outsourcing type sites like Fiverr<\/a> or Upwork<\/a>. You can search libraries of premade book covers for sale (for example, The Book Cover Designer<\/a>. You can just Google around (search \u201cbook cover designers\u201d) and look at different offerings. Or, simply design your own ebook cover<\/a>. There are pros and cons to every avenue and in the end, there\u2019s no one-size-fits-all solution. You may blunder around a bit until you find the right solution for you, but that\u2019s fine. This is a creative process and you may need to experiment before you get it right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spend money<\/strong>. Just to be clear: the phrase \u201cblunder around a bit\u201d can mean \u201cspend some money getting projects started with designers who looked really great (and are<\/em> great, actually), just you didn\u2019t like their initial designs and twigged things weren\u2019t going to work out.\u201d Don\u2019t end up settling for almost-good, because you couldn\u2019t bear to write off the $150 that you had to spend. Either invest again with the same designer to get something you\u2019re happy with or close off that avenue and start again. Remember that your first cover will almost certainly be by far your most expensive. Once you\u2019ve settled the look (the kind of image, the mood, the typography, etc.), the next batch of covers will be easy-peasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only work with people where you\u2019re happy saying \u2018no, not yet\u2019<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a crucial one. You must<\/em> be happy with your cover. That means continuing to look at images, to work away at typographical niggles, until you\u2019re genuinely delighted. If your designer charges you $90 an hour beyond a certain level of changes, or if your (talented, but not infinitely patient) Uncle Bob is just going to start rolling his eyes, then those people may not be right. You must feel okay with demanding perfection<\/em>. And yes, that may mean being pushier than you normally like to be, but it also means working with someone where you can feel safe to be pushier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re unsure, look up more tips on how to commission ebook cover designs here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now we turn to the book itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is the front material there to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n For ebooks, there is only one answer: the front material is there to convert<\/strong> \u2018Look Inside\u2019 browsers to people who buy your book. It\u2019s effectively a front door that has to look welcoming if you want to tempt readers inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your front-end material does not directly contribute to that goal, then it needs to go elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, you may want to find room for your thanks, your copyright notices and all the rest. Those things don\u2019t make people buy your book, though, so bury them at the back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The front of your e-book probably only needs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cover<\/strong> \u2013 because you need it, and readers expect and want it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A title page<\/strong> \u2013 ditto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Formal proofs<\/strong> \u2013 that means any plugs from fellow authors, from newspaper reviews, or anything which tells readers, \u2018Yes, serious, professional readers have read this book and rated it highly\u2019. At the start of your career, you may struggle with those formal proofs, but that\u2019s fine. All new authors are in the same position. Do what you can, but don\u2019t fret too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Social proofs<\/strong> \u2013 in other words, any comments from readers that tell people, \u2018Yep, people like you have read and enjoyed this book.\u2019 Social proof is quite possibly just as important, maybe more important, than any number of great notices in the New York Times Review of Books<\/em>, and even as a newbie, you can accumulate social proofs. So go do it. And put those proofs up front where casual browsers can find them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Constant reminders about what your book is and what it offers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember that people who click on the \u2018Look Inside\u2019 feature may well only be browsing in quite a casual way. They\u2019ll have sort of took in your cover design, sort of read your book description. Just as bookstore browsers flip books over to look at them in quite a casual way, though, so it is with people browsing on Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to assume that these browsers haven\u2019t intently<\/em> studied anything. They are only two or three clicks away from buying something quite else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hammer home your message, by carefully choosing formal and social proofs and other related text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My own \u2018Look Inside\u2019 text will try to remind readers that, \u201cThis is an exciting crime thriller featuring a really interesting female detective.\u201d That proposition won\u2019t appeal to all readers, but it should appeal to the kind of readers my book is aimed it. So make it clear. Keep it uppermost in the browser\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Offer a freebie<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m going to talk more about readers\u2019 magnets and email lists in a later section of this post, so for now, just notice that I recommend you offer a freebie, a story available for readers to download for free, up at the front of your e-book. We\u2019ll talk more about what and why soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And plenty of text<\/strong>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The shorter your other front material, the more room you have to give readers what they really want, which is a taste of your book itself. Make sure that your first chapter is strong, and let readers get there fast!<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the front material in your e-book is there to persuade the browser to buy, the end material has a rather more complex set of functions. It should:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The thinking here is simple. A reader has just finished your book. We have to assume they enjoyed it (if they didn\u2019t, no marketing genius in the world will entice further sales.) So what next? Now is the moment to reach out and build a lasting bond between you and the reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n E-books that just finish without doing that are kind of like the door in the image: they kick you out onto the street, leaving a slightly disappointed feeling behind. E-books that look after the reader are far likelier to create a pool of keen buyers, who\u2019ll come back to your work again and again and again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So how to achieve those happy results? Answer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Write an author\u2019s note that feels personal<\/strong>. Make sure it\u2019s full of your voice and personality, and directly thanks (perhaps even compliments) your readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Invite participation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Notably by encouraging readers to give you their email address in exchange for a free story from you. More on this shortly (and it\u2019s key, you can\u2019t miss this step).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Be smart about offering those buy links<\/strong>. Remember that Apple won\u2019t accept books with Amazon links in, so you can either (A) work exclusively with Amazon (probably the best bet for newcomers to indie-dom), (B) have a mobi<\/em> (Kindle) file that is different from your epub<\/em> (Apple, Google, Kobo, and everyone else) file, or (C) create a landing page like this<\/a> to let readers choose their own store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember that e-readers are probably reading in an online environment where they can take instant action, meaning print books are a terrible model for how to put together your end-material. Web design is a better model. You want easy-to-access links in places where your readers may want to take actions enabled by those links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, don\u2019t just talk<\/em> about other books in your series, make it simple<\/em> for readers to buy those books on Amazon, Google, Kobo, wherever. Making it easy will make a huge difference to your conversions and that means making a difference to your pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t feel too fussed by this. Writing a great book, preparing inviting front material, developing material at the back of the book that seals the deal with the reader, those things matter. The rest is a technical exercise that you can either do yourself or outsource. It\u2019s not expensive and easily done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So first, make sure that your Word file is in good shape to be converted. We\u2019ve lots more advice if you need on how to format your ebook<\/a>. (This section assumes that your MS is basically textual. If you are creating a design-led book that involves a lot of images, then Visme offers a great, simple, e-book creator<\/a>. Did I mention that it\u2019s free? Well, yes, it\u2019s free.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, iff you\u2019re working exclusively with Amazon (which, as I say, I recommend when starting out), then you can just upload your Word document to Amazon. It\u2019ll make the conversion for you. And boom<\/em>, that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are distributing to all the e-stores, you\u2019ll need an epub file, not just a mobi one. You can create that file yourself via simple online tools, Scrivener<\/a> being one option (you pay for this, but it has loads of other features and loads of writers swear by it). Calibre<\/a> is another. Apple users love Vellum. Some e-book distributors, for example Draft2Digital<\/a>, offer free online tools that are very simple to use and come with no strings attached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever route you take, just make sure that you preview the ebook before going live with it. All the those conversion tools offer previews, and just go through, checking every page. This is your product we\u2019re talking about. Checking matters!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most self-publishers will sell work in e-form, not book-form. My own e-sales are probably about fifteen times greater than hard-copy sales. (With my traditionally published work, the balance is much more even, or even leans more to print.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s more, print books are harder, more expensive to put together. You have much less control over the selling price. A lot of the promotional techniques that work brilliantly for ebooks don\u2019t work as well for print. And so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I say that to be honest, not to put you off. I sell several thousand self-published print books each year. I make a little over $3 per sale, so I end up with a satisfying amount in my pocket because of those sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I do nothing at all to promote those books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All I do is promote my e-books actively and intelligently via the Kindle Store and elsewhere, and that visibility brings my work to the attention of some readers who think. \u2018Hey, this looks good, but I\u2019d rather have it in hard copy.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n And it\u2019s easy enough to add a print element on to your offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n KDP<\/a> offers a print option too. You\u2019ll need a back jacket and spine design, as well as your front cover (but those things are easy, once you have the front sorted). The additional cost involved is minimal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll also need interior formatting, to be sure your book looks lovely when laid out on the page. Don\u2019t try to do that yourself \u2013 it\u2019s harder than you think. Your best bet is an outfit, BB eBooks<\/a>, which is based in Thailand and combines excellent experience and quality with Thai pricing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you have your cover and your text, you just upload them via KDP. Bingo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Worried about an ISBN? Don\u2019t be. Ebooks don\u2019t need one and most top-performing indies don\u2019t bother with them at all. In terms of your print books, your print partner will sort out an ISBN for you. So, for example, if you create print books via Amazon KDP (your best starting option), Amazon will simply take care of it for you. Easy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just remember, e-sales are likely to predominate by a large margin, and your print sales will only start to take off if your e-sales do. National or international distribution via bookshops is basically a fantasy, unless you have a traditional publisher to take care of that for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You know you need a website, but why? What do you want it to do for you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are lots of flaky, fuzzy answers floating around the internet, and they\u2019re almost all wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people will tell you:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Oh, it\u2019s a key part of your brand. You need to build a platform.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Really? Why? Most readers will surely just be happy with (a) the book, and (b) Amazon. Why do they need anything else?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018You need to make yourself discoverable by search engines.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is rubbish. Or it is if you\u2019re writing fiction. Google-search and similar just doesn\u2019t matter to most novelists. How could it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s the one thing you need to know about your author website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your website is there to collect reader\u2019s email addresses.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That is its purpose. That is why you have it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If it does that and almost nothing else, you\u2019re doing fine. (Or, full disclosure, that\u2019s true if you\u2019re a novelist. If you\u2019re writing non-fiction, then the truth may be a bit more complicated.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, you will probably want a page for each one of your books. Yes, you probably want some kind of bio. Yes, you probably want a contact page. If you like writing blogs, you probably want a \u2018news\u2019 or \u2018blog\u2019 type page as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, I can\u2019t even remember the last time I posted on my author blog. I don\u2019t make sales from my book-specific pages (I make them on Amazon.) The contact function is nice because it means readers can get in touch with me, but if I disabled the page, the world wouldn\u2019t collapse and my sales would remain untouched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your website is there to collect reader\u2019s email addresses \u2013 and how does it do that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, the primary chain is simple. It\u2019s this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s a fair exchange: you are, in a way, giving the reader something of more value than the thing they\u2019re giving you. And it\u2019s an honest one. You will make it clear that yes, you will retain that reader\u2019s email address and sometimes make use of it, though only for matters directly related to your books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The way you structure that basic exchange is critical.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tiny differences in set-up will make a few percentage point impacts on your conversion rates, and, when cumulated, those little impacts can make a huge difference to the success of your campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your ebooks need to take people to a page on your website that maxes the number of people downloading your story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is an example of a good page<\/a> from my own website (and see what happens when you click the buttons \u2013 functionality matters).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Key design points to consider are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eliminate all in-site navigation<\/strong>. This page exists on my website<\/a> and has completely normal navigation tools up at the top, excepting this page. On this page, I want people to click those buttons. I don\u2019t want them to be distracted by any other good stuff I have on the site. This page has to say, \u201cEither download the story, or close this page: there is nothing else to do, read, see here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have incredibly obvious calls to action<\/strong>. Giant orange buttons on a monochrome background works for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t ask for an email address straight away<\/strong>. It\u2019s better to make it a two-stage process: (A) let the reader give you an order: \u201cgive me my freebie\u201d, then (B) obey the command. And it just so happens that obeying that command involves collecting an email address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Around two thirds of visitors to my website end up leaving me their email address. They\u2019re readers who have liked my work enough to buy it in the past, and to collect the free story I\u2019ve offered. Those are the people who are likeliest to buy my work again in the future, and now I have a way to get in touch with them direct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since you\u2019re building a website, too, you may as well do the obvious bits right. Its branding should be synced with your books\u2019 branding. The site should communicate what you are all about as an author as swiftly as your book covers do. Your site should be mobile responsive, so that it looks as good on a phone as it does on a PC or tablet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so on. There are other bits and pieces to get right, but any half-way competent designer should do them fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few rules to follow are these:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your website doesn\u2019t make you money directly, but it\u2019s the launch pad \u2013 the blast station \u2013 for everything that follows. So build it good, and get ready for launch . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n OK, now listen up, because this stuff matters. We\u2019re talking reader magnets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To secure these outcomes, your reader magnet needs to be good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So be sure your story lives (broadly speaking) in the same fictional world as your for-sale novels. You can\u2019t use a horror-fiction magnet as a lure for your fluffy romance readers, or vice versa. Be sure that your magnet is well-presented and has a lovely book cover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obviously, you\u2019re going to scatter plenty of links in your ebook (the front and back of it, not the actual text), so readers can\u2019t miss the fact you have something free to offer. I also recommend you make at least some of those links visual (i.e. you use a book cover or similar) to invite the eye. Text links are great, and you should use those, but visual plus text beats text alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That story you offer does not need to be a full-length novel. Anything from 5 to 15,000 words is fine. Just make sure it\u2019s a satisfying piece of quality writing. Don\u2019t cheat your reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s it. One story (a magnet) to attract readers and collect email addresses. That already sounds good, but in fact, as we\u2019ll see, it\u2019s going to form the absolute heart of your promotion strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now we\u2019ve got links in our e-books to take readers to your website, where the story-for-email exchange is made, but how does the actual plumbing of all that work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer is that you will need two tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first is Mailchimp<\/a> (or any other mailing list provider<\/strong>.) They will store your email list, send mass emails, eliminate duplicates, handle the unsubscribe process, and plenty more. Some people find Mailchimp hard to use and prefer Mailerlite<\/a>. If you are ambitious and tech-confident, you might want to use the more powerful Convertkit<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second is Bookfunnel<\/a><\/strong>, an outfit that makes the delivery of your free ebook (your reader\u2019s magnet) unbelievably simple \u2013 both for you and for your reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both services are paid, but the money isn\u2019t crazy. You\u2019ll pay $100 a year for Bookfunnel, and Mailchimp is free until you hit 2,000 mailing list subscribers, and $20-30 monthly thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bookfunnel is so simple to use, you won\u2019t need any help setting it up. In fact, I would be insulting you if I told you how to use Bookfunnel, so I won\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Phew. We\u2019re still friends.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Integrating Mailchimp with your website could require help, depending how much you hate fooling around with that kind of thing, but don\u2019t cut corners. Creating a smooth path for your readers is key. They need to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s all easy. If you need help with web bits, then get this. Again: all this set-up stuff can seem boring, but so is climbing up a long flight of steps. You\u2019ve got to put the effort in, if you want the reward at the end. Rushing to publish too soon is the absolutely class, #1, gold-plated mistake that most indies make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Put in the effort, then enjoy the rewards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a lot to take in, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There is, yes. Self-publishing is<\/em> more complicated than regular publishing, especially at the start. (Later on, it can actually seem simpler in many ways, especially if you hate giving up control.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n But still: a lot to take in. A lot to do. And there\u2019s this horrible (but accurate) sense that getting the detail right really matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s kind of yikes!<\/em>, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, yes and no. Because the thing is we created an entire step-by-step video course<\/a> that\u2019s intended to be everything you need to know about getting set up as a self-publisher<\/em>. That course is super-premium, which is a fancy way of saying (a) really high quality, and (b) scarily expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So don\u2019t buy the course!<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s right: don\u2019t buy it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a great course, but it\u2019s expensive, and you\u2019re on budget, so \u2013 don\u2019t buy it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After all, why buy, when you could rent? For a crazy-cheap (and cancel-any-time) monthly fee, you can become a member of Jericho Writers \u2013 a club designed for writers just like you<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quite simply, we aim to give members as much as we possibly can. An insane amount of value for as little as we can possibly charge. Think of us as a kind of Netflix for writers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So members get unlimited access to our self-publishing course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And unlimited access to a whole heap of filmed masterclasses, including some brilliant ones on self-publishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And filmed interviews with authors and agents and publishers. And an incredibly supportive community. And live webinars from top experts on all the topics that matter most to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why so much? And why so much for so little? Well, that\u2019s easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re writers too, and we built our club for writers like you, writers like us. You can find out more about joining us here.<\/a> We really hope you do.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n A lot of writers worry that self-publishing is going to be all about bigging yourself up on social media. Endless tweets, endless bragging Facebook posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And it\u2019s not. It\u2019s not.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Those things don\u2019t work. They\u2019re a waste of time. They\u2019re horrible to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I do have a Twitter account and an author page on Facebook, but I don\u2019t get book sales via either route. (I have a Twitter account mostly because that makes it easy for Twitterholics to contact me if they want. Some of those contacts have proved of real value. I also have an author page on Facebook because a traditionally publisher once told me I had to have one. I got one, and neither they nor I ever used it.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nor do you need to blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although I do blog here, I hardly ever blog about author things on my own website. And if I do, that\u2019s because I feel like doing it. Actual book sales deriving from those blogs are trivial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There will be categories of author where social media does really matter. If you\u2019re a fashion blogger wanting to sell books, you\u2019ll need an Instagram following, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s also true that social media can be a great way to network with fellow authors and influential bloggers in your niche. Those relationships are<\/em> worth fostering but they\u2019re not, directly, to do with selling books at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For most of us, the big news is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you hate social media and want nothing to do with it, you can still sell books very effectively on Amazon.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you don\u2019t want to blog routinely or do the work involved in building a large following, that\u2019s fine, too. It doesn\u2019t matter.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n To be clear, there are<\/em> exceptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In particular, if you build a strong audience on Facebook, you will make your FB advertising life a lot, lot easier. If you\u2019re interested in doing that, the rules are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Simply](\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Debbie-Young-alternating-block-SSP-.png\")
\r\n Become a Self-Publishing expert in 10 weeks<\/h2>
An Overview Of The Self-Publishing Process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/SSP.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nStep 1. Write A Good Book<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
So-so marketing + a brilliant product = easy sales<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nStep 2. Create A Strong Cover<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Step 3. Create Your Ebook: \u2018Look Inside\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Step 4. Create Your Ebook: End Material<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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![\"person-with-an-ebook-book-self-publishing\"](\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/book-self-publishing.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nStep 5. Format Your Ebook<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Step 6. Want A Print Book? Then Sort That, Too.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Step 7. Build Your Website<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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![\"ebook-self-publishing\"](\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/ebook-self-publishing.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nStep 8. Create Your Readers\u2019 Magnet<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Step 9. Mailing Lists And Other Technicalities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Step 10. Social Media: Why You Can (Mostly) Ignore This<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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