Are you ready to invest in self-publishing your book, but aren’t sure how to make the best use of your budget?
Self-publishing your book properly, with a team of experienced experts, is always an investment. There’s no way around the fact that unlike traditional publishing, self-publishing the right way begins with an investment on the part of the author. Along with all the other benefits of self-publishing your book, you’ll hold on to creative control, the rights to your book, and the lion’s share of your book’s earnings in the long run. But unless you build a team of experts that can offer the quality that readers expect from a traditionally published bestseller, you’re not likely to sell many copies in the first place.
If you do things right, the resources you invest in self-publishing your book are likely to pay for themselves and then some. But many authors, especially publishing their first book, will be working with a limited budget. In this case, it’s best to start small, prioritize, and keep reinvesting the earnings from your book in stages, improving it and reaching a larger and larger audience each time. Even if your success starts small, it can provide what you need to take that next step.
Editing
Editing your book, making it effortless to read, should be the first priority. Hiring an experienced editor, or editors will ensure that your book reads smoothly in terms of content, grammar, style, and typos. For your book to become a bestseller, you should aim to have no errors at all, and for your content to be clear and easy to understand. We recommend this as a first step to take when self-publishing your book since errors will stop it from gathering the kind of online or professional reviews and word of mouth recommendations that it will need to really take off. This kind of publicity will lay the groundwork for more focused marketing efforts later on. You won’t earn it with a book full of errors, no matter how great your concept is.
All books benefit from a content editor, a copy editor, and a proofreader. A content editor checks for plagiarism, accuracy, and clarity. A copy editor checks for style and grammar mistakes, ensuring consistency. And a proofreader looks for typos and typesetting errors. Ideally, you’ll hire veteran experts for all three, in this order, to give readers the kind of experience they’d get with any bestseller. At the very least, a copy editor and a proofreader will root out the kind of problems that would make your book seem truly unprofessional.
Design
Once you’ve published your book with a proper edit, you’ll hopefully be earning some revenue. But if you want to set it on the path to becoming a bestseller, your work isn’t done. This is when we recommend reinvesting in your book by hiring a designer for the interior and cover. A quality cover will draw in readers who might find your book while browsing an online or brick and mortar bookstore.
A quality cover is really key to drawing interest since it’s the first thing readers will see. Major publishers call it the seven-second test—readers will look at your front and back covers for about seven seconds before deciding whether to seriously consider making a purchase. Expert designers, who have experience working on bestsellers, will know how to make the most out of this brief window of opportunity.
By now, your book has hopefully also earned some reviews that your designer can now use as quotes on the back cover, and an interior designer sure the rest of your book is visually pleasing and easy to read.
Distribution
It’s never been easier to get your book into online bookstores like Amazon, and that’s a great place to get started. But it’s also been flooded with mediocre self-published material. To make your book a bestseller, you want to see your book in as many chains, independent bookstores, and online retailers as possible. Major publishers accomplish this by plugging books into established distribution networks. At Izzard, we’re able to put books in a total of 39,000 bookstores worldwide.
Once your book is professionally edited and designed, it’s time to reinvest once again, in making sure it can be found by any readers that would be interested.
Design
Once you’ve published your book with a proper edit, you’ll hopefully be earning some revenue. But if you want to set it on the path to becoming a bestseller, your work isn’t done. This is when we recommend reinvesting in your book by hiring a designer for the interior and cover. A quality cover will draw in readers who might find your book while browsing an online or brick and mortar bookstore.
A quality cover is really key to drawing interest since it’s the first thing readers will see. Major publishers call it the seven-second test—readers will look at your front and back covers for about seven seconds before deciding whether to seriously consider making a purchase. Expert designers, who have experience working on bestsellers, will know how to make the most out of this brief window of opportunity.
By now, your book has hopefully also earned some reviews that your designer can now use as quotes on the back cover, and an interior designer sure the rest of your book is visually pleasing and easy to read.
Distribution
It’s never been easier to get your book into online bookstores like Amazon, and that’s a great place to get started. But it’s also been flooded with mediocre self-published material. To make your book a bestseller, you want to see your book in as many chains, independent bookstores, and online retailers as possible. Major publishers accomplish this by plugging books into established distribution networks. At Izzard, we’re able to put books in a total of 39,000 bookstores worldwide.
Once your book is professionally edited and designed, it’s time to reinvest once again, in making sure it can be found by any readers that would be interested.
