With the internet and self-publishing, there has never been a better time to write and sell your own book. If you choose to go this route, you should know that in addition to writing and editing your book, you’ll also be responsible for marketing and distribution.

The good news is that once your book is written, you can use it to market yourself to prospective clients and also to build your email list.

However, if you’re feeling a little intimidated by the thought of writing a book, don’t be. The truth is that anyone can write a book, even you. The trick is to write a book that people want to read and then promote it. If you can do that, you’ll have an instant best-seller.

So how do you write a book that will rock your industry, make a lot of money, and boost your reputation? Keep reading.

Get to know your audience

Before starting to write, you need to know precisely who you are writing for. This is a massive part of marketing your book because it’s all about knowing your audience, knowing what they want and how to cater to them.

If you’re writing a non-fiction book, some good questions to ask yourself are:

• Who is my target audience?
• What do they like? What do they hate?
• What can I write about that will help my readers?
• What can I write about that will help my readers to achieve their goals?
• What is my book about? What is the message I want to send to my readers?
• How can I make my readers feel?

The first step in creating a book is to figure out who you’re writing it for. To know your audience, you must know what they like and dislike, the words they use, the way they talk, their questions and their goals.

Create a timeless and broad audience book

Creating a book is a lot of work. And if you want to sell books, you’ll have to market them. As a self-published author, you don’t have the advantage of a publishing company’s marketing budget. But you can still reach a diverse audience and sell your book by writing a book that many different kinds of people can enjoy.

You can do this by writing a book that is a timeless topic or by writing a book that is broad in scope so that many kinds of people can find a way to enjoy it.

Hire a book editor to edit and format your book

Book editing and formatting are essential steps to publishing a book that is free of errors and ready to be listed for sale on Amazon or any other e-commerce site in your region. For example, if you want to garner any success from your self-published book in the UK, you need to hire uk book editors.

Unless you have a background in book editing, you probably don’t know what kind of editing is needed to produce a publishable book. You might think that hiring a copyeditor and a proofreader is enough, but you’d be wrong.

To make sure you have a publishable book, you need to hire someone who specializes in editing books. A book editor knows how to topic-ify and organize a manuscript, how to make sure a book is consistent in tone and voice, and how to make sure the language is correct.

A book editor also knows how to format a book for publication, which is a bit different than formatting a manuscript for submission to a publisher. After all, a book editor knows the difference between a hardcover book and a paperback and between a trade book and a textbook.

Publish your book where your audience is

Creating a book is hard. Writing one is even harder. Self-publishing one is a whole other beast. As an indie author, you’re the publisher, the editor, the cover designer, the marketer and the promoter.
You’re the person who has to figure out everything from your book’s title, to finding an editor and an illustrator, to how much you should charge for it. But it’s all worth it when you see your book on sale on Amazon.

It is a rule of thumb in the world of self-publishing that you have to publish your book where your audience is. In other words, you need to publish your book on the channels that your customers will be able to access it.

You will want to publish your book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple or on your own website because these are the places where your customers will want to buy your book.

But where can you publish your self-published book? Well, you have a few options. You could go with Amazon, the largest online bookstore on the planet. Or you could go with a print-on-demand service like Lulu, so your book can be available on Amazon.

Or you could go with a service like Smashwords, where your book can be available on all e-readers and platforms.

Know which marketing platforms your target market uses

If you’re a self-published author, you know how hard it can be to get your book in front of potential readers. If you’ve tried going through the traditional route, you know that the big publishing companies only look for popular books that they can make big bucks off of, leaving the rest of us out in the cold.

But with the explosion of social media and independent publishing, that’s all changing. Now, you can get your book out there and in front of readers without the help of a big publishing company. The key to marketing is knowing where to look and how to reach your target audience.

Build a following

The first step in building a following is to get yourself on a platform where people can see what you’re doing. The most popular mediums for this are blogging, social media and podcasts. The more content you produce, the more people will follow you.

The more people that follow you, the more people you’ll have to market to when you release your book. The more you have, the easier it will be to get a publisher. You can start a blog and write articles on topics that you think people would want to read a book on.

If you have a good following, you can then approach a publisher.

Choose a great book cover

A great book cover is one of the most important parts of selling a book. You need to design a book cover that will attract your target audience and make them want to click through to your book. A good book cover will be simple but also eye-catching.

A good book cover designer will create a cover that will really stand out on bookshelves and online. It’s important to remember that book covers are not just for the author but also for the readers and bookstores. If your cover does not grab the attention of the reader, you may end up losing sales.

A book cover is the first thing that your potential reader will see when they are looking for a new book to read. Most people judge a book by its cover. You want to make sure that your book is appealing and stands out from the crowd.

When selecting a book cover, it’s not enough to just have a great picture; you also want to consider the colors of the book cover. You want to go for colors that are appealing to your reader but aren’t so bright that it hurts the eyes.

Get your first reviews by giving away books for free

While you may be able to get away with writing a book and not getting any reviews, this is not a good idea for a few reasons:

• Getting reviews for your book will improve your sales on Amazon and other e-book marketplaces and sites.
• Getting reviews for your book tells you what improvements you can make to your next book.
• Getting reviews for your book will make your book look more legitimate, which will make you look more legitimate as an author.

Thankfully, there’s a fantastic way of getting reviews for your book by giving books away for free.

If you get a few reviews on the book, you can get a few sales easily. Even if you have a large following on social media, if you have a few reviews, you can sell a lot more books. All you need to do is get a few reviews to generate some sales, and the snowball effect will do the rest.

Connect with the audience personally

Whether you’re creating a book for business or pleasure, it’s a good idea to make sure you connect with your audience personally. Your book will be a reflection of you, and if you want to create a successful product, you want your readers to connect with you. You must build connections for your next book to be embraced similarly.

To improve your book sales, connecting with readers personally is the best way to do this. Readers do not like being sold to. They like to be treated like human beings and not just another sale. People like to deal with people they like. So, it only makes sense to be nice to those who matter to you.