How to write and self publish a book?
I wrote a book! I have been wanting to do this since I was in high school and I finally managed it. It is a subject I have been learning about and applying in my professional life for the past few years. It is about……
content creation.
Surprise! hehe
I know there are already books about blogging and vlogging out there with a similar subject and I read most of them, but there was a lot of advice that I wished I knew from those books, but I didn’t get it especially when I was starting out. I am hoping that my book KEEP ON SHARING serves as a comprehensive first guide for creators whether it’s to share on a blog or a vlog. I am covering both platforms.
The “keep on sharing” book is divided to three parts: sharing like a pro, sharing for money and caring before sharing. The first part of sharing like a pro walks you through everything I know about blogging, vlogging and supporting social media. The second part is as the name suggests and talks about the possible avenues of money making within the content creation industry. It will give you some ideas to encourage you towards your financial goals. The third part is honest talk about worth, time management and ethical issues. The book is an overview and a starting point to help you and to support your journey. It’s a 100-page book and I really hope it will be enjoyable and beneficial.
Although, I have half finished drafts about books on my travels, I really wanted to get the content creation book out of my head first, but I am 100% planning on doing a travel book next!
I didn’t want to just tell you about my own achievement, but I wanted to share how I did it in case you have been dreaming of writing your own book because it’s much easier than ever before and it was mostly FREE!
In this post:
How to write and an e-book?
Why do you need to write an e-book?
How to self publish a book?
What are the benefits of self publishing?
How to write an e-book?
Choose a subject
The key thing with your book is the subject and you can choose an area that you are passionate about or that you have researched extensively. It can also be based on your own life or your adventures. I find writing nonfiction much easier, but if fiction is your thing, then aim for that too!
Create an outline
The best thing I did when I started writing the book was that I wrote my table of content. I knew a rough idea of what I wanted to cover and I got it on paper. Of course there were lost of changes from start to finish, but the outline was the skeleton or the base I needed to build on. Having it also helped on low energy days, I would fill in my information in each section then come back to it later.
Choose a platform to write your e-book
You can just write your book on word documents or google docs, but I really wanted to see my outline on the side while I worked on each chapter and I wanted to jump easily from one chapter to the other without endless scrolling, so I chose a platform I found on a Google search called Reedsy. It was so simple to use and I found it very helpful for my efficiency. It also exported my book at the end as a Pdf and as an electronic book format, which made my life easier! They do mention that you used them in the beginning of the book, but that’s fine.
Here’s a screen shot of my Reedsy while working on my book
Write, research and repeat
Just start writing. Honestly do not over think it. Write without editing first. Just write whatever comes to your mind in that subject. You can even dictate your book if you feel that writing is a hassle. Artist Emma Block, dictated her book as she mentioned on Bolgtacular’s podcast and it worked for her! Also, writing without research is not enough. I learnt so much about academic research during my master’s degree and basically after writing an introduction, students have to go and consult the available publications on the subject to see what the gaps are and how they can contribute to the literature rather than reinventing the same material. Research will also inform your writing and you will be able to focus on what is missing.
Read your whole draft and edit
When you are done, get your whole book together and read it all together to see if it reads well as a whole rather than individual parts. Easiest way is to print the Pdf copy and correct it by pen or you can just read it on your laptop and make corrections as you go.
Hire an editor
English is my second language, so it was important for me to get my book edited by a professional. Reedsy itself has a marketplace where you can hire an editor and there are other websites like people per hour and so on, where you can find editors to hire. I chose a friend of mine who is a writer and an editor to edit my book. The cost was a little over £300, which isn’t huge in terms of editing. If you don’t have a budget, you can ask friends or family with good language skills to check it for you. If you have a bigger budget you can hire a company that would do it for you.
Create your book cover
A book cover is so important and you can either do this yourself using Canva, InDesign or other programs or hire a graphic designer on Fiver or elsewhere to do it. I knew what I wanted, so I did it myself using one of the available templets on Canva and that was quick and easy. I did the front and back cover on there as you can see below.
Why do you need to write an e-book?
You don’t have to write a book if you don’t want to. Not everything is for everyone, but if you enjoy writing or have some pressing thoughts you want to share, writing an e-book can be very rewarding. Also it has its own benefits:
To fulfil your writing ambition
To share your knowledge with others and add value
To give back to this world with your new skills and thoughts
To gain authority in the subject area
To make a side income through sales
How to self publish a book?
The short answer is Amazon. I did some google searches and Amazon seemed to be the most convenient and quickest one and it is done through their KDP, Kindle direct publishing. You can use that to publish an electronic copy on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited Program and a paperback copy. My kindle copy was approved the same day within like four hours and my paperback was approved the next day. The whole process took me about an hour to get everything set up. The cool thing as well, you can choose how much you want your royalties to be from your book sales.
This is how easy it was to start setting up!
What are the benefits of self publishing?
The biggest advantage is that you will be published. You set the timeline and you get it done. There are no rejection letters and endless months of negotiating contracts. When you make the decision that you want to be published, it’s just a matter of time!
You have complete control over everything, which can drive you crazy, but you can have a call on everything. You control the content, the timeline, the title, the cover and all the details unlike with traditional publishing, where your opinion is only contribution. Depending on the type of contract you enter into with the publishing house.
You make better royalties when you are not sharing your sales with so many different parties. You can sell the book directly as a pdf or even set the royalties you want out the book when you are selling on amazon.
I hope you found the information useful and best of luck with your publishing journey!
If you are interested in my book, you can either order it directly through this website or on Amazon UK or Amazon US.
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