Tackling The Process
While Amazon and direct publishing options have revolutionized the industry, sometime the process of getting your story out of your head and into reader's hands can be quite daunting. The various sites (Amazon, KOBO, Apple, Smashwords) have tried to streamline a process that anyone can use to get their content published. However, with each wanting a different format, file type, text formatting, etc. it's hard to always know where to start. Here are the basics.
Content is key.
It's true that the independent publishing explosion has made it very easy to get your content published and available to readers. Unfortunately, the independent publishing explosion has made it very easy to get everyone's content published and available to readers. While I believe this is good for us and the industry as a whole, if you want to have a successful run at publishing your book, your content has to be worth reading.
The writing process is the one step that is all you! It's your story, your passion, your heart. That being said, before your book is ready to be published, your eyes can't be the only ones who have seen it.
What will help separate your book from the mass of self-published novels out there is a solid story, well written and properly edited. If at all possible find a reputable editor to read you book. There are plenty of great sources for this online. If that is not a financial option, and for many it is not, find a few close and trusted people that will agree to be Beta readers for your book. Ask for honest and direct critiques and suggestions. Stroking your ego will do you no good at this point.
After making appropriate changes based on your editor or beta readers suggestions you should have a solid well written story. Well done. That's the first step in a long but rewarding road.
Standing out in a Crowd
Again the double edged sword of self-publishing has resulted in thousands of new book coming out regularly to compete with your epic masterpiece. The silver lining here is that you can generally browse through Amazons newest releases and pick out the self-published titles instantly based on their cover alone. The surest trick to succeeding with independent publishing is to make sure your work is indistinguishable from a new release from a major publishing house.
This is accomplished with proper editing, a professionally designed cover, and a well written description. A reader should be able to pull your book up on Amazon, check out your cover, look at your description, and read the first couple of preview chapters and never question whether it was traditionally or independently published.
Your book cover is the first impression a reader gets of your book and it is one of the most important assets you have. It should be high resolution, genre appropriate, well balanced, and attractive as a thumbnail.
Your book description it the next thing a reader will see. It should tell us what your book is about without getting too deep into plot details. There are plenty of resources available online help with writing your description.
And the third impression a reader gets of your book is from the preview chapters Amazon makes available. By now your book has been edited or at least beta read and you have completed re-writes to fix any issue they found. So this shouldn't be a problem. Right?
Sit back and relax?
So you have done all the work of writing a book, had it edited, completed re-writes, found a professionally pre-designed cover that fits your book perfectly, wrote a top-notch description, had the whole thing properly formatted for publishing on Amazon, and released it to the world. Now sit back and watch the accolades roll in as your masterpiece takes the world by storm. Well that would be nice anyway. In reality your work is far from over.
This is where the line between traditional and independent publishing starts to truly fade away. Gone are the day of large publishing houses buying your book and doing all the work to get it out to readers. Even traditionally published authors are expected to promote and push their own books in order to get them to sell. Luckily is also where today online world comes in very handy.
Now you start to develop your online presence. This can be as basic as a Facebook page for you and your book to a full author website or book site. Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Goodreads. There are countless opportunities for you to share your story with the world through the web. Local bookstore love to host local authors for book signings. You can now launch full Virtual Book Tours online scheduling guest visits to book blogs and review sites.
How Can We Help You?
LampLight MediaWorks is a unique publishing experience. We use the various media tools available today to help independent authors stand on a level playing field with traditional publishing houses. We can help you get your story into the hands of readers with a profesionally designed cover, a well written description and a fully developed web presence. Do you have a completed novel and just don't know what to do next? Do you just have a question about the independent publishing process? Do you need advice on cover designs, web sites, author pages, social media marketing, or just someone to talk to about your publishing experience. Contact us anytime at LampLightMediaWorks@gmail.com.