You’re an author.   You’ve seen tantalizing tales of people making a career out of self-publishing their books on Amazon Kindle.   You want to be one of them, so off you go-

BAM!

Your first obstacle:  You Have No Idea What You’re Doing.   Fortunately, there is an easy fix.   All you have to do is read an ebook or two, maybe take a video course.  Hey, there’s some folks offering paid mentoring-

Wait, wait, wait… hold on.  Before you spend your money or cough up your email address for some mailing list, here are some basic things that you shouldn’t have to pay for or spend hours researching to know.

Hire a Professional Cover Designer or Buy a Cover.   The phrase “Don’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover” exists for a reason:  because it is human nature to do exactly that.  Don’t fight human nature.     A good pro cover doesn’t cost as much as you’d think.   Do NOT use Fiverr for covers.   Do NOT pay over $100 for a cover if you’re just getting started.   There are websites that will customize a cover for you for $50-$100.    Do it.   Don’t argue… DO IT.    Only attempt to create your own cover if you already have both the skill and the software to do so.   Do not waste time learning a new skill just so you can cheap out on cover art… unless you want to become a professional cover artist as a side business.    Did I buy all my covers?  Nope.   Do I regret not buying my covers?  Absolutely.  Moving on…

Hire a Professional Editor.   EVERYBODY tells you to hire an editor.  NODODY tells you that it’ll cost a car payment.  Well, I just told you.  There are different types of editing, with costs that range from “Ummmm, really?” to “Are you KIDDING me, do I look like J.K. Rowling?”     If you’re just starting, you’ll probably wind up editing yourself or “hiring” a spouse or a particularly helpful fan to do your editing.    Or you might use special editing software to do it yourself.   You may (or WILL) end up with an inferior product, but at least your bills will stay current that month.   The real advice people should give is to hire a professional editor as soon as you are able… whenever that is.   It might be a while.  Did I use a professional editor for my stuff?  No.   Is my editing sub-par as a result?  Yes.    Was hiring a professional editor an option at the time?  Nope.   I did the best I could with what I had and moved on.

Set Aside a Specific Time to Write Every Day.    Make it a priority and do it.  But don’t let it become a chore.   If writing becomes a chore that you need to “get out of the way” every day, then something is wrong.    Either your story is broken, or your personal situation is interfering with your creativity.    Go introspective, figure it out, fix it, then get back to work.    If you don’t have a project to work on, get a book of writing prompts or writing exercises.    Writing is like a muscle.   If you’re not using your muscles to do useful things like lift cars off infants every day, then you need to use them for non-useful stuff so they’ll be ready when you need them.

If It’s Hard to Write Every Day, Get Up Early.   Newsflash:  Not everyone can engage the language centers of their brains at Oh-My-God-O’clock.   I’ve tried it more than once.  You know what I wrote?   Utter Garbage That No Amount of Rewriting or Editing Could Fix.   And then I was dead on my feet for the rest of the day while doing my real jobs.   Now whenever I see somebody recommending this tripe, I get the overwhelming urge to kick them to sleep.   If you’re a morning person, knock yourself out with this one.   If not, then aim for the solar plexus and move on.

Always Be Writing.  Always have a project in the works.  Preferably a queue of them.   A long queue.  When you finish one book, take a short break, and go straight into the next one.  In fact, consider skipping the break entirely.  Breaks are the enemy.  Breaks are the momentum-killer.   Ask my long-term fans about all the “short breaks” I’ve taken.    The most important and effective thing you can do to for your career is to write another book.  And then another.   And then another.   If I could go back in time and put a gun to the head of my younger self and FORCE him understand one thing in this list… it’s this one.    If I could choose TWO things, then the second would be…

Success is 60% (or 80% or 90%) marketing.  I hate this with every fiber of my being.   I hate it because it’s true.    The number changes depending on who you ask, but it’s always high.  The repercussions of this are widespread and insidious, like cancer that has spread from your lymph nodes into your soul.   Just reading it once probably isn’t enough.  Read it again and keep reading until you get that tight, sinking feeling in your gut.   Am I really saying that the quality of your marketing is more important than the quality of your book?  Yes.  Yes I am.   Because it is true.   Go ahead and take a vomit break now; I’ll wait…

All cleaned up?   Okay, where were we?  Oh yes; Marketing…

Marketing Is Not As Trivial As People Want You To Think.   It is a career.    People get college degrees in it.    You cannot get professional-quality marketing results by reading a $2.99 ebook and following a blueprint.  You can’t.  YOU CAN’T.   All you can do is follow what other people have done and accept results that are vastly inferior to those of people who actually know what the heck they’re doing.  (You know… like a publisher. ) But it gets worse.   What do you get when every self-publisher is following the same script?  You get lost amid a sea of clones.   So what’s the secret here?  First, accept the fact that you’re a rank amateur and adjust your expectations downward.  Then start learning.  Skip the cheap ebooks and find some blogs/books written by actual marketers (of both the internet and the non-internet variety).   Keep learning.   Adapt.   Don’t be afraid to try new stuff with your marketing because the “script” you bought for $2.99 is the same one everyone else is using.   Okay, so what’s this “Script”?   Well…

Get a Website.  Specifically, one that YOU control, with a domain name that YOU own.    No, not Facebook.   It’s not as hard as you might think.  If you’re non-technical, WordPress is your friend.  I’ve heard good things about Squarespace as well, but I haven’t used them.   Sites like Fiverr have folks that’ll help you out for cheap.    Honestly, the hardest part about websites is figuring out what to put on it once you have one.   Start with a list of your books (which is why you need to Always Be Writing.  A list of one book is just silly).   I’ve put a blog on mine.    I’m still looking for other ideas.  Please send me some.  The point is to have an internet home under your control where your fans can reach you, join your mailing list and get updates on stuff.   You were paying attention when I said Facebook doesn’t count, right?  Good.

Build a Mailing List.    You know what a mailing list is.     You’re probably on half a dozen right now.   I’ll be honest… I despise mailing lists.   I think they’re stupid, time-consuming, and only a step above spam.   But now that I’ve seen concrete examples of how to use one, I’m at a loss for how to justify not having my own.   What IS it used for?     Several things, but the important one is to…

Get Reviews.  Reviews are the King, Queen, President, and God Emperor of Marketing.  Use your mailing list to offer advanced copies of a book so that they can write reviews as soon as you publish.  You can also offer your book for free for a limited time in hopes that random book-browsers (or people you’ve contacted) will review it.     Do not buy (or trade) reviews.

Paid Advertising is Voodoo.   I’ve seen blog posts from people who’ve used [insert advertising venue here] to sell a bazillion copies.   I’ve seen blog posts from people who’ve done the exact same thing and sold two copies.   I’ve BEEN that second person.   More than once.   What is it called when you follow the same steps as someone else and get the opposite result?   Voodoo.  It’s called Voodoo.  Unless you enjoy frustration and have money to burn, don’t put a lot of effort into paid advertising.   Yes, there are some very convincing success stories out there, but your results may vary significantly.   If you insist on paying money for something that’ll sell more of your books, buy better covers or hire a publicist.

Keyword Research.  I write fiction.   My inspiration is not derived from keywords and search statistics.   If yours is (or if you write non-fiction), then I guess this stuff is valuable.   For me, when someone starts talking about researching keywords my creativity (and my attention) vanishes in a cloud of boredom and disgust.

Run Contests?   I don’t know about this one.  The general idea is to run contests on sides like GoodReads where you give away something to people who review your book… or something like that.  I ain’t doing it.   I’ll need to see evidence of it having a significant impact before I consider it.  I include it here because I’ve seen it mentioned in a few places.     I have yet to be convinced of its usefulness.

Lower the Barrier to Entry.     Most people do this by making one of their books permanently free (“permafree”).     I don’t do that, for reasons I will rant about some other time.     The important part here is not to charge $9.99 for an ebook when you’re brand new.   Make it cheap (or free, if you’re into that) for new readers to try you out.     Many self-published authors will make a book temporarily free so early reviewers (that they’ve contacted via their mailing list or other means) don’t have to pay for it, or because certain advertising venues require the book to be free.   I’d like to add another valuable reason to consider it:  as a no-ulterior-motives gift to your fans.    Funny how nobody mentions that one.

Don’t Waste Time on Social Media.   I’m not saying social media is a waste of time.  I am saying there are much more important things you can do with your time instead, like writing another book or finding someone who can make a great cover for you.    Minimize, but don’t eliminate the time you spend on Twitter and Facebook.    An hour a day seems to be the prevailing advice, but that’s too high in my opinion.

Don’t Waste Time on Social Media. Did I just repeat myself?  Technically, yes, but I’ve got something different to say now:  Don’t use social media to market your books.    Huh?    Yes.     Social media is about making connections with your readers (first) and your peers (second).   So, go ahead and announce your new book.  Post progress reports on your writing.   Whatever.     But constantly asking/begging/suggesting/hinting at people to buy stuff is going to backfire.  You are not on social media to MARKET.  You are on there to CONNECT.    Connect for the purpose of marketing stuff, right?!    NO.    You connect for the purpose of building relationships.  Relationships that you can exploit for marketing, right?!    …sigh… Nevermind…

And that’s it.

Wait… what?   Clearly there are some pieces missing here.  Like how, exactly, do you build a mailing list?  What makes a good cover?  How do you make a book permanently free? How do I contact people to ask for reviews?   Where are all the details, man!?

Well, for THOSE you’ll have to buy my video series-  HAHA, just kidding.  I don’t know a lot of that stuff either.    But as someone who is a few steps further down the path, I can warn you that most of the ebooks, courses, etc that you’ll find don’t have those answers.   They’re loaded with the same (mostly) good advice you see here, but short on specifics.  There are lots of people selling what you need to do, but hardly anyone is selling the how.   Even if they say they are… they aren’t.    And that has been the most frustrating thing about my self publishing education so far.    But you now have an advantage.  Since you already know these basics, you can now ask better questions.  And if you find some answers that work for you, don’t forget to share them.