As of this writing, I’ve published 6 best-selling books on Amazon, sold tens of thousands of copies, and continue to collect thousands per month in royalty checks. the success of my books has been directly responsible for the success of my business, which has grown to over 7 figures in revenue in less than 2 years.
less than five years ago, this level of authorship success would have been reserved for only those select few authors who were lucky enough to catch the eye of an editor at one of the “big five” publishers (a process that was based as much in luck and “who you knew”, as in the quality of your book).
You are reading: Where to publish books
Today, however, all that has changed. not only do you no longer need one of the “big five” to publish your book to have a successful launch, but many successful authors are turning away publishers.
Why are more and more authors turning to desktop publishing (and forgetting about “traditional” publishing)? simple:
- you have full control over your book
- it’s significantly more profitable (unless you’re a household name like james patterson or nora roberts, most authors make pennies on every book sold )
- Traditional publishers won’t promote your book at all (but you’ll still get a cut of every purchase)
- “Vanity” publishers are expensive and no longer necessary.
frankly, unless your name is stephen king or j.k. rowling… there is very little reason why anyone would want to continue publishing traditionally.
So whether you’re trying to grow your authority and business by writing a book, or trying to make your mark on the world, desktop publishing is the best option for you. Read on for the exact steps you need to take to write, publish, and launch your first best-selling book.
1. decide what to write your book about
The first thing you need to decide when self-publishing a book is what you want your book to be about.
what is your why?
Are you trying to build an asset that will earn you passive income month after month?
Are you an entrepreneur or freelancer with a new business, trying to accelerate your growth and authority in your market by publishing a book?
Do you have an existing, well-established business and want to write a book to diversify your income streams and get speaking engagements?
Or have you already had a successful career and want to build an asset that shares the knowledge and skills you’ve gained over decades of experience with those who come after you?
These are all perfectly valid reasons to write a book, and we’ve had students in desktop publishing school publish best-selling books for each of those reasons.
2. choose the theme of your book
Once you’ve decided on your why, it’s time to decide on the topic of your book, not its title (which comes latest). When choosing the subject of your book, there is only 1 rule to follow:
use the rifle approach, not the shotgun approach.
When deciding what you want your book to cover, it’s tempting to try to make your book about anything and everything you know. This is a mistake I see a lot of first-time authors make, and as a result, it has a negative impact on their book sales. if you can’t summarize what your entire book is about in a few words, then it’s probably too broad a topic (and sales will suffer as a result).
3. write your book
You’ve decided what you’re going to write your book about, now it’s time to write it. writing a book is a process that deserves its own blog post, so check out this post on how to write your book in 30 days.
After reading that, check out this video where I talk about the simple process I use to type over 1,500 words per hour.
4. market your book & form a launch team
It may seem backwards, but you need to start the process of marketing your book before your book is published (that’s how important).
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The most effective way to market your book is to create a pitch page where you can collect the email addresses of those who might be interested in reading your book and build your pitch team.
then send people to that page using social media (we have a roadmap in our community of experts that provides a step-by-step template for this). post about your upcoming book, post about the process you’re going through to write your book. ask your friends and family if they would be interested in helping you promote. you’d be surprised how many people are willing to help make your book a success!
Tell people to visit your page and enter their email address to find out how to get their book for free or at a deep discount. try mailchimp or aweber to collect email addresses.
then, a few weeks before launch, start reaching out to influential bloggers and podcasters in your market (there’s a roadmap for this too!). If you think your audience would be interested in the topic, offer a free copy of your book and ask if they’d like to review your book or interview you.
For a more detailed look at all the steps required to successfully market your book, check out our post on the step-by-step guide to market your book
5. get feedback on your book
When writing your book, it’s important to get as many comments as possible early in the process. As writers, it’s all too easy to retreat to your cave for a long period of time, spending countless hours writing what you think is the perfect first draft, only to discover that either a) your draft doesn’t make sense to anyone else or b) no one else is as interested in the topic as you originally thought.
Not only can a fresh set of eyes on your book help you spot typos and grammatical errors, but a fresh perspective can give you ideas to improve your story and make the topic clearer. Giving your book to one (or more) “beta readers” before giving it to a publisher can also reduce the time and cost of paying a professional publisher.
6. choose a title
Contrary to popular belief, you should never decide on a book title until after you’ve finished writing your first draft. this is because choosing a book title first often results in it being written in a corner of the book title, rather than writing the book to be written.
so it’s not until the first draft is written that you need to worry about the title of your book. don’t make this more complicated than it needs to be.
It’s incredibly easy to get stuck in “book title land” when it comes to finding a title. don’t fall into this trap. don’t try to be too smart or “dumb”. the truth is… the simpler the title, the better. while brainstorming, always remember to keep it stupidly simple. As catchy or clever as you think your title idea is… it will probably go right over your audience’s head (and they won’t buy it as a result).
For example, if you’re writing a book on home renovation, the title “7 Steps to Profitable Home Remodeling” is much better than “Zen and the Art of Architectural Restoration.” the first is simple and to the point (and most importantly, people will know exactly what the book is about). the latter is more elegant, but most people have no idea what that means.
once you’ve narrowed down your book title to a few possible options, send an email to your friends, family and audience (if you have one), or take a facebook poll and ask for feedback. you’ll be surprised which is your audience’s favorite.
tim ferriss took audience polling to another level when he wrote his first best-selling book, the 4-hour workweek. tim set up a split test on google adwords and spent $200 testing 3 titles for her book:
- the 4-hour workweek
- broadband and white sand
- millionaire chameleon
Companies like pickfu.com also offer very simple and affordable survey services… you can even define your audience demographics and have your survey answered by people who match those demographics!
6. hire a great editor
Hiring a great publisher can mean the difference between writing a bestseller or a mediocre book. therefore, it is important to take as much time as necessary at this stage of the process.
To find a publisher for your book, start with your personal network. Do you personally know any English teachers or others in the publishing field? start there if not, do you know anyone who knows an editor?
If you’re having no luck finding a publisher within your personal network, don’t worry! Depending on your budget, you can either hire a professional book publisher or hire a cheaper publisher from Upwork. desktop publishing school also has a list of approved and vetted book publishers who do great work.
No matter how you find your publisher, make sure you’re a good fit before committing to the entire book by paying them a small fee ($25 or so) to edit a few pages or a chapter of your book. Make sure the publisher is interested in the topic, that you can edit your entire book in 3.5 weeks or less, including back and forth revisions, and that your edits are accurate and make sense to you. if you don’t feel like a good fit after a sample edit, then spend that $25 and find an editor that works instead of spending more money on a relationship that might be a mistake.
Whatever you do, don’t give up during the editorial process. if one editor doesn’t work for you or doesn’t meet your needs, find another.
7. design a book cover that converts
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despite the saying (and contrary to the beliefs of many writers), people absolutely judge books by their covers…especially books on amazon.
You don’t have to like it, but the truth is, if your book doesn’t have a 100% professional looking cover, people will just skip it and find something else. That’s why it’s so important to take the time to purchase a professionally designed cover that converts.
Unless you’re a graphic designer, you need to hire a professional to put together the cover design. however, before you approach a cover designer, you should have at least a rough idea of what you want your book cover to look like so you can give your designer a brief. this helps avoid wasting time and money on covers that don’t fit your vision.
An easy method to generate some ideas when creating your design brief is to take a look at other books in your market (especially other best sellers). You’ll notice that in most genres, book covers tend to follow a design theme, and these themes are what your audience expects. While you certainly don’t want your cover to be an exact clone of another design, you also don’t want it to look completely out of place. a good designer will help you find this balance.
To find a designer, visit fiverr.com or upwork.com. Make sure your designer has experience meeting specifications for an Amazon book cover and lots of positive reviews. you may want to pay more than one designer and choose the best design from all of them. the choice is up to you, just make sure the end result is something you’re proud of. it will be the first impression your readers will have of you!
7. format your self-published book
If you’re on a budget, there are many online resources that can tell you how to format your book yourself for free. You can start by checking out the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) forums where there is a lot of discussion about the format of books. You can also use the free kdp resources to help format your book. however, formatting can be a frustrating experience for the uninitiated, so if you have a few bucks to spare, you might consider paying someone to help you.
If you want to pay for the format, Liber Writer is an effective and low-cost option for converting a Microsoft Word file to Amazon’s Kindle format. If $60 is too much, you can also find people on Fiverr to format your book for Kindle. Whichever option you choose, preview your book using kindle preview to make sure there are no formatting errors.
8. complete the self-publish process
When you’re sure your book is ready for the public, you can create a kdp account and upload your book. You should be almost ready to become a published author, but you’re not quite ready to publish yet, so click “save as draft”.
Create your Amazon Author Central account after uploading your book. Include a bio, photo, and a link to your website or blog to help you stand out from the authors. after a few more steps, you’ll be ready to publish your book, at which point you’ll click “save and save.” publish” in your kdp book control panel.
Amazon allows you to select 7 keywords or keyword phrases to ensure that your target audience can find your book when they search Amazon. it is highly recommended that you also select two different categories that your book could fit into so that you can reach a wider audience. To select keywords and categories, search for other best-selling books in your niche and see what keywords and categories those authors chose.
9. decide on a price
You’re almost ready to publish, but there’s only one more step before you can: price your book. this is not a “set it and forget it” process. you’ll select a list price, but then you’ll choose a discounted introductory price by clicking “promote and advertise” within your kdp dashboard.
Amazon crosses out that higher list price and shows how many dollars buyers will save. this lets users know they’re getting more for their money during your discounted launch, enticing more readers to buy. now you can publish! (doesn’t it feel good?!)
10. reach readers and influencers
now is the time to really leverage the launch team you created in step 4. as soon as your book goes live on amazon, it’s the right time to reach out to your email subscribers and let them know your book is available .
Sending as a sales email can be scary, but you should do it for two reasons: First, these people signed up for your list because they want to know about your book! and whether you’re launching it for free or at a discount, they’ll be very happy to hear about your offer. In addition, these people have been with you and have been following your success since the beginning of the process of launching your book. they want to help you!
The initial sales generated by your launch team will help your book rise in Amazon rankings and increase the chances that Amazon’s algorithm will recommend it to buyers, leading to even more sales.
During this time, it’s also a great idea to follow up with any influencers you’ve contacted and make plans to promote your book. you can offer to give away a free copy of your book to a winning audience member, or make some other offer to sweeten the deal.
11. celebrate! (now decide what’s next)
Publishing a book is just the beginning. Depending on your goals for your book, desktop publishing can get you more clients, free publicity, and establish you as an expert in your niche. This can help you land gigs and build a business within your area of expertise. your book sales can also help finance your lifestyle with passive income.
dream big about what you want your book to do for you. When you have a vision of where you want your book to take you, it will be easier to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. Being clear about what you want will also help you be more effective in expanding your network throughout your journey.
If publishing a bestseller is something you want to do, and you really want to change your life and your business for the better by publishing your book to the world, then you need to watch this free 4-part training video. , where I explain the exact steps I’ve taken to write, publish, and market 6 of my own best-selling books (and how I’ve helped over 200 students do the same).
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