4 Deeply Crucial Steps for Starting Authors on How to Publish a Book

How to get a book published? How to publish a book online?

By the time you penned your first book, these questions pop up in your head—begging for answers. Well, not a problem. You do some research and visit some usual yada-yada about publishing. But at the end of the week, you only got some bunch of okay ideas and a few of unsure tips that could help.

You’ve wasted enough time.

Whatever your publishing goals maybe, you can find here the essential, practical, and easy-to-follow steps to fulfill your dream of becoming a published author sooner than you think. If you want to write and publish a book, this is how you start.

Step 1: Build your own author platform.

For most of the traditional publishers, they look for authors that have huge following (Facebook, Twitter, and even blog visits). That means, your book proposal is good-for-nothing if you got zero subscribers, or followers who want to hear more from you. A blog can be your portfolio, your profile where readers can connect with you.

Here are the top platforms and their numbers of users (in millions):

Pick the most suitable platform for your book’s genre. For example, Instagram has more teenage users than other networking sites, and Twitter has more male active users. Write blog posts, update your online sites, create a Facebook page, and so on and so forth, until you build an empire of potential readers.

Step 2: Develop an effective author branding.

What makes you different from your competitors? Being an author also makes you an entrepreneur. You have to make a promise, a unique brand that captures the essence of your writing. To grab your reader’s attention, you have to build a reputation—an identity that represents who you are as a writer.
Branding is also what people expect from you. For Stephen King, readers would always want to read his suspenseful horror and gripping tales, and J.K. Rowling is always associated with the wizarding world. As you may have noticed, they are the masters of their own genre, or if you like, you can create and combine different genres. And likewise, you also have to match your author platform with your branding to quickly convey who you are to your readers.

Step 3: Start choosing a suitable publisher.

This is one of the most crucial steps in publishing a book. For starters, you have to be familiar about the basic knowledge on how publishing houses work. But it would be a shame not to ask for some advice from those experienced ones, or find the most reliable self-publishing book companies available today.

Why Traditional Publishing?

For traditional publishers, you don’t have to pay to publish your work. Instead, all costs, including printing are paid for by the publishing house. However, you must prepare a winning book proposal and hire an agent to land a contract. In such case, you’ll have to send book proposals to multiple publishers.

Most nonfiction books are best for this kind of publishing. As long as you already have a marketable idea and a huge audience, you can (after waiting to be picked) close a book publishing deal.

Why Self-Publishing?

Don’t worry if your book doesn’t land a deal. You can always self-publish if you want, and still get profit. Self-publishing is an effective route for authors who want to be a publisher of their own work. Usually, they collaborate with editors, designers, and other self-publishing services to create a book that readers will love.

According to Book Promotion, authors could spend thousands of dollars (from $500 to $20,000), or find alternative and creative ways to minimize the spending. The trick here is to find a smart way to spend money, and do the marketing hands-on, or other possible easy services. It’s a ton of work and time, but if you can’t afford the cost, you should start saving now to at least improve your craft.

Other than the two options mentioned, you can also publish your book (either on e-book or Paperback) in Kindle store. Once you’ve edited and formatted your book, you can log in to a KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) account and enter the information needed—details, content, rights, and pricing. You can also reach a wider audience through their program, which means your book will be available on their Kindle Unlimited (KU) and Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL).

Step 4: Market your book to your niche

Marketing your book all the way to the top can be mentally and physically draining. Remember your author platform and social media accounts? These will help you leverage and attract the right potential buyers. Give it time to grow and establish deeper relationships to earn your reader’s trust.