Tips for anyone working toward being an author

Especially those taking the self publishing route

Are you working toward being a self published author, or just an author in general?

One thing I wish I did before diving right into publishing and becoming an author was more research. After the fact, of course, I started my fair share of research, so each time I publish I learn something new. The industry is also always evolving, so what may have applied a few years ago, might not apply today.

Here are ten tips for those who are hoping to become authors one day

1. You don’t need everything to be PERFECT

2. E-mail lists are important

3. It’s not just the book you’re going to be writing

4. You aren’t just writing a book, you’re building your brand

5. Create your own platform

6. Don’t be a graphic designer if you aren’t a graphic designer

7. Actually, don’t do things you don’t have the experience or knowledge to do

8. You’re going to have to invest

9. Start flashing the book around early, like way before you publish it

10. You probably need more time for yourself than you think you do

Don’t be a perfectionist

Sometimes being an over-the-top perfectionist only harms us from reaching our goals in the long run. I am obsessed with editing as I go, getting it right immediately, and making sure everything is exactly how I want it to be. That does me little to no good though.

The most important thing to do is to get the story out.

My planning sheets take so long, and I just end up scribbling all over them with markers, highlighters, and post-its anyway. Far from perfect.

Perfection is editing everything, so truly, do not worry about it prematurely. It can also lead to mistakes while rushing.

E-mail lists!!!

I will not lie, I am no expert on this nor am I good at it, but I do know those who are see a lot of success thanks to it. The hardest part is actually getting the email from someone. Because who wants “junk” in their inbox? I adore all of the substack email lists I’m on, but it can still be overwhelming to see a ton of emails in my inbox every morning. (I do read through them all though because I know they’re of value and not junk).

One way to gather emails is to offer a free add on or perk for signing up for a newsletter. This could be a bookmark, stickers, or even a free chapter. In exchange for their email of course.

From there you’ll be able to add addresses to your list and send out emails regarding your writing, books, and publications.

Other writing

Writing THE book is the hardest, greatest, most rewarding part! It’s amazing! But it isn’t all you’re going to have to write.

Sure, you can outsource these things, but as a writer, and a self published author, you don’t exactly need to.

Some things you have to write that aren’t the actual book:

• The title

• The subtitle

• The back of your book

• The synopsis

• Press releases

• Ads

• Social media and other content about the book

You could find someone in marketing that has an idea of how to do these things, but keep this in mind for yourself if it isn’t part of your budget, and do research!

Brand building

Yes you want to market your book- but this (hopefully) isn’t going to be the only book you’ve ever written!

If you focus on one genre, you will hopefully be able to publish more than one book and the more you publish (of course with good quality that deliver) the better off you’ll be.

Not only do you want to push your book, but you want to build your brand as an author and showcase everything it is you have to offer.

Your platform, following, and community

This might be the biggest thing when it comes to self publishing- creating a community and obtaining a following surrounding your work but also yourself as a publisher. This means Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Substack, and e-mail lists. The more followers you get, the more attention your content gets, and the more likely people will be to want to read your book. At the very least, they’ll be intrigued by it.

Designers may be worth investing in

I have mixed thoughts on this, but mainly I think the most important thing to remember about a book is everyone judges a book by its cover. This means that you should outsource if you aren’t already some sort of graphic designer.

I’ve designed my own covers but I’ve also outsourced. For my poetry collection I used some sort of Adobe program (spark I think?) and because I knew I was using my own photograph it was easier. For another book that will remain unpublished for various reasons, I outsourced to someone on the Fiverr app, and I was very happy with the results. There are tons of different designers to choose from, tons of packages, and the person I worked with was incredibly helpful. She redesigned my cover numerous times until she produced exactly what I was looking for and the price for the package I chose I believe was around $75. This included a Kindle cover, paperback cover, and a mock up image for advertising purposes.

For 12,775 Days I designed my own cover in Canva by using the accurate dimensions for the number of pages I had with KDP (it tells you when you tell it how many pages and what size book you’re publishing). I have used Canva enough for so many different things that I felt confident enough to publish my own cover. I also created a couple of different covers to ask people what they thought of them before choosing one. I’ve been trying to create one for my most recent WIP, but I may end up just outsourcing for this one.

Many people may be worth investing in if you aren’t an expert in everything (and that’s okay because your expertise is writing)

It isn’t just a cover you’ll need to potentially outsource for.

Here are just a few things you should consider (or definitely) outsourcing:

• Editing

• Beta readers

• Copy editing

• Proofreaders

• Book reviewers

• Help building your platform/following

• Marketing

Doing all of these things yourself might be possible, yes, but it could honestly push someone over the edge. Sometimes it just isn’t worth it.

Investing overall

You can invest a lot, or you can invest a little. A portion of your success could be contingent on what you’re willing to spend, as well as a lot of luck. There is no real formula that can guarantee a self published author to break into the market and find immediate success, you’ll have to work and invest in it.

The more you’re willing to spend, the better service you’ll receive for things like book covers, marketing, etc.

There are so many costs that can go into whatever your plan may be as well, including purchasing ARC copies of your book to send out to people along with the postage and shipping. Any merchandise you may use to create a press box can be costly as well, but if you find bigger book reviewers or social media influencers that would want to unbox something like that in exchange for a review, it may be worth investing in.

Early marketing

You want to start garnering attention for your work as soon as possible. Doing this for yourself as an author broadly is easier, and should be done well before you decide to publish a book. For your book, you want to start advertising for that around 3-6 months before your publishing date. Build up the suspense and if you can, set up an option for preorders.

Time

Finally, do not rush the process and give yourself the time you need to get things done right and with high quality.

If I sat down and rushed my process I could probably have a book out within a week, but it would also be riddled with typos, mistakes, and have zero advertising.

I can tell you right now that the book I have published even after extensive editing, beta reading, and other time consuming, boring, stressful things, still had a few typos in them and people finding them and pointing them out to me super sucked. That means I’ll just devote more time to editing this time around.