10 Tips for Successful Self-Publishing

Don't start publishing until you've first read these 10 tips!

1. Have your book professionally edited.

Most self-publishing services offer optional copyediting, so if you submit your manuscript without having it edited first, be sure to take advantage of their optional editing services. Most optional editing services range in price from 1.2 to 2 cents per word and as much as 10 cents per word for full content editing.

(Perhaps this is what was meant by the phrase: "...an economy of words.")

2. Have your book's interior professionally formatted.

Free DIY (do it yourself) self-publishing services ask the author to submit a formatted file because with them humans are rarely involved in the production of a book.

This is a big and common error quite a few authors make. They mistakenly think a document formatted for an 8.5" x 11" page size using Times New Roman in MS-Word is sufficient for a professional publication.

It isn't, not by a long, long shot!

If you want your book to look and feel self-published, then by all means format it yourself. On the other hand, if you want commercial success then it must look and feel professional... so please — please have a professional format the interior for you.

Don't make the same mistake thousands of self-published authors make by thinking you can format the interior of a book as well as a professional can. Most full-service self-publishing services typically provide professional interior formatting for you.

Be sure to select a company that offers this and then trust their judgment, even if their formatting differs from what you envision in your head. Their experience is half of what you're paying for.

3. Have your cover &mdash front and back — professionally designed.

Whether it's an e-book or paper the cover is the single most important element of your book and most definitely not the place to skimp. Professional custom cover design ranges in price from $300 to $1500 or more, depending upon who does it. For example, we offer our authors custom cover design for just $299.

Freelance cover designers available on sites such as e-lance and other listing services typically change $500, $1000, or more.

And please don't confuse "free custom cover" with a professionally designed custom cover.

The so-called "free custom cover" offered by many self-publishing services is an istock.com or photos.com image with your title on top and your byline at the bottom.

This will be nothing like a professionally designed custom cover that integrates both your promotional material and content into a compelling cover design.

Especially important is the back cover design. Most authors just put some text on the back and talk about their book. This doesn't help sell their book at all and makes it look like every other self-published amateur book.

4. Don't design your own cover.

No matter how tempted you are to do this, resist the urge.

The only thing that reveals a "self-published" book faster than an inferior interior is an author-designed cover. I designed the cover for one of my first books, "How to be Happy," because I thought I knew what I was doing. I understood Photoshop and the requirement of 300 dpi. But I had no idea of just how hard it is to get everything just right so that it looks like a world-class book.

Now I use professional cover designers for all my books and cringe whenever I see another author designed cover. Don't make the same mistakes I've made. Let professional cover designers do their thing. You'll be much happier in the long run (and the short run probably won't be as frustrating, either).

5. Keep 100% of the rights to your work.

This is one of the main reasons for self-publishing, right?

So don't choose a self publishing service that takes your rights. Some of the more unscrupulous publishers even try to take the rights to your NEXT book, too, even before you've written it.

6. Keep the majority of the profits.

Most self-publishing requires self-promotion, which means you will be doing most, if not all, of the book marketing. So you might as well keep most of the money, right?

Some self-publishers will ask you to pay up front for publishing and then keep 35% or more of the profits on the back end as well. So choose a publishing service that allows you to keep 75% or more of your royalties. There's only a handful of services that do this.

Also, look for a self-publisher that provides post-publication support for your marketing and promotional efforts. Having professional marketing and promotional support from your publisher is a huge advantage. That's why the publisher gets a share of the profits.

7. Understand that profits are not the same as retail price.

Yes, there are production costs, retail margins, shipping costs, and trade distribution discounts to account for (even for eBooks). The more informed you are about how the retail price of a book is divided among all the participating parties, the better.

Self-publishing services WANT you to succeed, even if you get most of the profits from your books sales.

After all, the better you look, the better they look. The more books you sell, the more books there are floating around out there with their logo on the spine.

8. Don't expect Twilight Saga-level success overnight.

If it was easy to become a worldwide phenomenon millionaire by writing a book, everyone would be doing it.

Self-publishing a book is a viable and smart option for many writers and professionals, but keep your expectations in line with reality. You will not sell a million copies of your book in the first 90 days.

The sales curve of a self-published book is the inverse of a traditionally-published one. Sales usually start slowly and build momentum over time as you continually promote and leverage publicity campaigns, word of mouth, and positive buzz.

9. Work with a publisher that will support you after your book is published.

The second biggest mistake I see authors making time and time again is thinking that once their book is published they can just sit back an let the money flow in.

Nothing could be further from the truth. And most self-publishing houses walk away after sending out a press release and a book trailer.

Once your book is published the only people who are going to rush out and buy it are your friends and family... if you're lucky. With over 500,000 new book titles published each year (that's about one new book every minute, 7 days a week, 365 days a year) unless you get professional help marketing your book no one is even going to know it's available.

Getting your book published is the easy part. Now comes the hard part: convincing strangers that not only should they pay to buy your book but they should spend several hours of their precious "free-time" reading it.

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention the first biggest mistake authors make — they did't create a book marketing plan before they start writing their book!

Imagine spending 10 years writing the most fabulous book, one that every critic agrees is "the book of the century," "wonderful," "illuminating" or however you imagine critics praising your work.

The only trouble with your amazing new book is that there's only 100 people in the whole world who think the material is worth their time reading (apart from your Mom and a few friends).

It's not that the book isn't "good" it's just not a story or subject that many people want to spend six or more hours engaged in.

That's why finding a publisher you can work with both before and after publishing your masterpiece is so important... first, to ensure you have a viable marketing and promotional plan and second, to ensure that plan gets executed right the first time — there are no second chances.

Check out www.InTheBook.tv. It's just one of the ways we help our authors succeed in today's highly competitive publishing world.

10. Publish more than one book.

It takes less than twice the effort to promote two books.

It takes far less than three times the effort to promote three books. This is digital leverage.

Now that self-publishing a book is so easy with self publising services like The Great Little Publishing Company, build your brand name and your author platform by publishing multiple books — on different topics or the same topic, it doesn't matter — just make sure you mention ALL your books at every possible opportunity.

BONUS TIP #1

KEY TIP: Don't Start Writing Until You've Done Your Marketing and Promotional Plan

The reason I'm stressing this point is because at one time I was one of those authors: you get a great idea for a book, perhaps talk to a few friends and family who also think it's great, then immediately "dive-in" and begin writing your masterpiece.

This is exactly how most authors ensure they will never succeed.

For writers seeking commercial success the most critical step in their book project takes place BEFORE THEY EVER PUT THEIR FINGERS TO THE KEYBOARD.

The first and most crucial step ameteur writers miss after having their brainstorm is go through the process of creating a viable book marketing plan.

Here's some sample questions your book marketing plan should answer:

• Who are the competitors? (yes, there are always at least half a dozen)
• who will want to pay to read your book and why?
• How will you connect with that potential audience?
• Where do they hang out?
• What will they expect from reading your book?
• What will they expect your book to look like, to read like, its formatting?

Before any writer begins writing, but certainly before they complete their manuscript, they should have a marketing professional help them address these questions and create a formal marketing and promotional plan for their book.

That way, their finished book won't end up as yet another unsuccessful mediocre self-published book but will have the potential to become a best seller.

Oh, and if you've already written your book... I urge you to STOP NOW AND DO NOT PUBLISH UNTIL YOU HAVE DONE YOUR MARKETING AND PROMOTIONAL PLAN.

Doing that can save you from wasting thousands of dollars.

BONUS TIP #2

KEY TIP: Don't Select a Publisher with High Print Costs.

Some publishers advertise that you keep "100%" of the profit. However, these unscrupulous services hide their profit in the printing costs or e-book distribution costs.

The reality is there may be no, or almost no, profit for you due to their high print or distribution costs.

So before you sign make sure you know what the cost per copy will be for printing one single book. That will determine how much profit is available.

80% of something is far better than 100% of nothing.

Some facts about publishing profits

In the publishing world, the publisher normally recieves 45% of the retail price. the retailer, such as Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble keeps 45% for selling the book (either online or in stores), and the distributor keeps 10% for their efforts. That leaves 45% for the author and publisher BEFORE PRINTING, DISTRIBUTION AND SHIPPING COSTS.

The available profit is the retail price, less retail margin, less distribution costs, less shipping and printing costs.

The situation is similar for e-books where the publisher typically recieves 50% to 70% of the retail or sales price with zero print and ship costs there is only the per-unit distribution cost to consider.

Amazon charges a per-ebook fee similar to "print-cost" and the royalty is based on actual sales price not the suggested retail price — keep in mind that it's Amazon that sets the sales price not you or the publisher. So a book that list for $7.99 might actually be sold for $2.99. That won't leave much profit.

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