Finally! You’ve made it to the last step in the process. Getting your book on the market is one of most exciting steps, along with being one of the easiest!
Pick Your Platform
If you’ve been following this guide from beginning to end, you’ve likely already set up your publisher profile on the platform of your choice. If not, head to one of the following sites and create an account for yourself:
Creating a New Account
Creating a new account may differ a bit from platform to platform. But, generally speaking, get ready to verify your identity, telling them where to send royalties, and review the file uploading requirements and steps. Deciding that you’re going to use a pen name don’t matter. These companies need to know who they’re actually dealing with, even if you want to hide behind a pseudonym. They need this information, in part, to make sure they send your royalty payments to the right place.
This step isn’t difficult. Just follow the instructions the platform will give you and keep your phone handy for email and / or text verification methods.
Book Format
Generally speaking, the more versions of your book you have available, the more people will be able to buy and read it.
Take advantage of all the format options your platform has available. Commonly, they will offer any or all of the following:
- E-book (a digital version of the book in .epub, .pdf, or similar file types)
- Paperback (a softcover, physical copy of the book)
- Hardcover (a hardback, physical copy of the book, with or without a dust jacket)
- Audio book (a sound file, such as an .mp3 file, of you or a voice actor reading your book aloud for people who have vision problems or simply prefer to listen instead of reading).
You will select your format and complete the steps below. Once finished with one format, move to the next.
Book Title and Subtitle
Your book’s title and subtitle will often be requested early on in the set up process. So, just enter the title of the book.
Your subtitle is simply an extra opportunity for you to use some relevant keywords so that it’s easier for people to find your book. This is part of your book’s marketing (branding).
For instance, Small Red Cloak may be the title of my fairy tale thriller that’s the beginning of my book series. However, only having Small Red Cloak as the title is a missed opportunity. Small Red Cloak: ‘Fairy Tale Thriller’ Series Book One is much more descriptive and helps people find my book while browsing for “fairy tale retellings” or “fantasy thrillers,” but if someone stumbles across my book some other way, it helps them understand what they can expect from the reading experience.
For nonfiction, the same is true. How to Write a Book is not as helpful as How to Write a Book: The Seven-Day Guide to Fabulous Fiction.
Of course, you have every right to leave the subtitle section blank if you prefer.
Book Description
This is where the blurb that you created in the Blurb lesson comes into play, as well as your outline. If you haven’t updated your blurb since you first wrote it, now is the time to whip out your outline and your original blurb and get to work on tweaks based on what the manuscript looks like now.
Remember that your blurb isn’t going to a literary agent or a film producer. You don’t want to give away the ending or all of the key turns. You’re trying to give a potential customer enough information to make them want to read more.
For example,
A young girl is sent to deliver food and medicine to her ailing grandmother only to find herself confronted by a wolf along the way. Evading him, she finally makes it to her grandmother’s house, only to find that she’s been eaten by the wolf! The girl is also eaten, but a hunter hears her screams. The hunter rushes to the house, kills the wolf, and rescues the grandmother and the girl from the wolf’s stomach.
Most people would not go on to read the book because they literally know exactly what’s going to happen.
That being said, it can be a tricky business to figure out how much to reveal and how much to leave for the book’s interior.
I’ve found it most helpful to revise your blurb in such a way as to layout the premise (bet that word looks familiar at this point!) up to the first major pitfall (though, not the climax). This is normally the inciting incident, end of Act 1, or the Catalyst (depending on which storytelling templates you prefer).
The idea is to let them know what life-changing thing happens to this person and hint at the rest (what problems it creates, how / they get resolved, etc.).
There’s no such thing as perfect, so don’t get too caught up on this part of the process. As long as you’re not letting the entire cat out of the bag, it should work.
Here’s an option based on the Small Scarlet Cloak example (depending upon the content of your book, it’s okay for your blurb look different):
Redd is a little girl living in a forest village with her mother a year after her father’s death. When her mother sends Redd to Granny Amber’s house to drop off food and medicine, Redd is glad to add some spice into their hum-drum routine. But when she realizes that she’s being stalked by a giant, lone wolf, she’ll have to use her wits and her brave spirit to get home safely and save her village from the savage threat.
If you’re still struggling, try looking up the blurbs of best sellers in your genre. You can use those examples to come up with a general template for what you include in your own (i.e., [intro character] + [step before inciting incident] + [description of dangers / problems inciting incident causes] + [vague description of what character will need (to do) in order to overcome the threat]).
Keywords
Platforms may ask you for keywords. These are meant to help categorize your work so that the site’s algorithms know when to show your book to someone and when not to.
It may be tempting to simply choose keywords that you think a lot of people are looking for, but this won’t help you. Making sure that you use keywords to accurately reflect what your book is about is your best bet.
This is because keywords are used to show people who are searching the website whatever they are looking for. If someone is searching for “interracial erotica,” books with those exact keywords or similar keywords (“interracial couple,” “BWAM romance,” etc.) will show up.
Understanding the strong popularity of the romance genre, if you use romance-related keywords for your political thriller, your book might show up in romance searches on a site. However, that doesn’t do you any good because that’s not what the shopper is searching for. They’ll scroll right past your book since it obviously isn’t romance, which is what they want. Don’t waste your, or their, time like this. Choose accurate keywords related to what’s actually in your book (“political espionage,” “DC thriller,” “presidential assassination,” etc.).
When it comes to figuring out which keywords to use, you’re essentially trying to pretend that you’re a reader who loves reading whatever you write. For instance, I write a lot of literary self-help for new writers. So, a new writer is likely going to be looking for books using search terms like “how to write,” “how to publish,” “how to get a book deal,” or “books about writing.” So these are the kinds of keywords I’ll use for my books.
Single-Word Terms
You’ll notice that I used multiple words in the previous example. That’s because it’s helpful to get as close to what the customer would be searching for as you can without being overly general. I could use “book” as a keyword, but that could be detrimental for a couple of reasons.
First, that single word will be used in a lot of different searches that may have nothing to do with what I’ve written. Especially on sites that sell more than just books, such as Amazon, single-word search terms are virtually useless. Someone could be searching for “pocket book,” “address book,” “booking ledger,” or “receipt book” and my book might enter the fray of hundreds of thousands of other products. That means that, even if someone was searching for a book like mine, they would have to sift through hundreds of pages of other products before they would find my book.
The second reason is that, the more words you use, the more you narrow down who sees your book. If someone is looking for “books for new writers” they are likely ready to buy such a specific product. I want to get in front of those people who are ready to purchase, especially if they are looking to pay for exactly what I have to offer.
Shoot for keyword phrases that have been three and six words.
Categories
Your book is going to fit into multiple pre-made categories. Just like books are divided into sections at libraries or bookstores. You’ll often have at least two categories that you can choose, so select them. There are many categories and subcategories. Just like the keywords, dig deep and drill into niche categories as best you can.
For instance, on Amazon, you can select a broad category like “Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense” if your book fits there. However, that’s a huge amount of books that you’ll have to compete against for any kind of attention. But if you dig down a bit, you will likely find a niche category that is smaller and more precisely reflects what’s in your book. Some examples:
Mystery, Thriller, & Suspense > Mystery> Women Sleuths > Military > British Detectives
Mystery, Thriller, & Suspense > Technothrillers > Religious > Lesbian Protagonists
When you narrow down into these sublevels, you start to find where your passionate readers will be looking for the next book like yours.
ISBNs
If you haven’t already, now will be the last possible moment at which you can wait to purchase an ISBN or take the free one that some platforms will offer you.
Buy Your Own ISBNs
This is the option I normally recommend for people who plan on making a career out of their writing. Especially since there is virtually no reason to ever purchase a single ISBN. Even if you only print a paperback and upload an e-book, that’s two versions that each need their own ISBNs. So, instead of paying $250 for 2, you might as well pay $300 for 10 and have some ready for the next few books you plan to write and publish.
You can purchase ISBNs from Bowker.com.
Take the Free ISBNs
Some publishing platforms, such as KDP, offer free ISBNs. If this is the only book you ever plan on publishing, you literally have no funds to purchase an ISBN batch of your own, and you don’t plan on doing any complex distribution work with bookstores or libraries, this is likely the best option for you.
Publication Date
If you plan on setting up pre-orders, and your platform allows it, you can choose a date in the future as your release date. This can give you a little more time to get people interested in the book and have them commit to ordering it before release so you get some advance funds.
On KDP, you can set a pre-order only for an e-book. You can choose a release date that is up to a year in the future.
However, I encourage you to never set a release date before a book is fully developed (meaning self-revised, professionally edited, designed, and proofread). I have tried this several times and have seen other people try it and it almost never works out. An illness, formatting issue, or last-minute technical problem is all it takes to derail your carefully laid publication plans.
Pre-ordering can be set up for much shorter time periods than a year. You could offer pre-orders for a single month, for example.
When offering pre-orders on your author site or at an event, be sure to keep careful records of who ordered what and where it’s supposed to be delivered to (the email address for the ebook link, or the mailing address for the physical book).
Print Options
When prompted, select the trim size of your book file (as you discussed with your book designer).
You may be offered a few different combinations of interior options, such as a full color interior or cream pages. While different options will have different prices, it’s up to you what you think looks best for your book.
Matte or glossy cover options will come up as well.
I personally love the feel of a matte cover. It’s soft and doesn’t pick up smudges as easily as a glossy cover. But, again, this is another personal preference. A decision you have to make as an author.
File Uploads
Remember to pay attention to the file types that your platform of choice accepts. Not everyone allows for PDF uploads for each type of book. Your typesetter should have the software to easily convert your book to another popular file type, if needed.
Previews
Most platforms allow you to see a preview of what your digital or physical book will look like upon publication. I hope you’ll NEVER skip this step.
Spend the few extra minutes to review your piece page-by-page. Don’t just look at the first few pages and assume everything else converted correctly. Even if your site has a built-in alert system for problems, do a manual check of each and every page to make sure everything looks like it’s supposed to at a glance.
Fixes
If you do happen to run into a problem (awkard spacing on a page, a diagram got warped or cut off, a page number is missing, etc.), write down the page number and the problem that you found. Don’t switch gears to fixing anything until you’ve reviewed the entire piece. You should finish reviewing the preview file with a list of pages and what adjustments are needed on them.
You have three options at this point:
- Ignore all of the issues and publish anyway.
- Try to fix the problems on your own (if you’re savvy enough).
- Go back to your book designer and ask them to make the adjustments for you.
Remember that the problems may not necessarily be the typesetter’s fault. Sometimes things get jumbled up upon conversion on your platform. It’s the tech, not the professional, in some cases.
Pricing
When it comes time to price your book, you can technically do whatever your platform will allow.
However, figuring out what most consumers would consider a reasonable price takes a little more restraint and finesse. Here are a few methods you can use.
Comps
Take a look at books that are similar in content and length. Whatever they’re selling for, sell yours for a similar price.
Retail Consideration
You could also use tactics that are common for commercial publishers and even general product retailers like Walmart or Target. They consider their costs for the product all along the supply chain, as well as what consumers will be willing to pay for an item. In an author’s case, that might look something like this:
Cost to print and ship: $5.00 (no profit).
Price for wholesale orders: $7.00 ($2.00 profit per book).
Price for retail consumers: $15.00 ($10 profit per book).
Don’t forget to consider shipping costs when figuring out what your per-book printing cost is. After all, even if your book only costs $2.00 to print, it won’t do you much good sitting at the printers instead of at your house. I bring these two costs together to become my printing cost.
Adding a profit margin of your choice to that amount (being sure to charge separately for shipping), is how much you would make for anyone purchasing in bulk. For example, if a local college professor wanted to use their book for a few of their classes, the campus book store or other university textbook sellers would be ordering dozens, if not hundreds of copies of the book. You’ll want to make a profit on those sales, but still have them be lower cost (55% less than retail is a common number) than the retail amount. So, at the $7.00 example, an order of 100 copies of your book would give you $700 in revenue, with a profit of $200.
The retail cost is what the end buyer would be buying the book for. This is the price you would sell the book for at a signing, in a local bookstore, or at a writing conference, county fair, or book festival. I recommend using nice round numbers to make sales faster and easier at in-person events. You don’t want to have to stop to dig around for coins or singles any more than necessary. If I hear of an author wanting to sell their book for something like $12.50, I’d encourage them to either do $10 or $15. That way, when someone comes to the table to a $20 bill, they can just give them a $5 bill or a $10 bill back instead of having to find $7.50. It may not seem like a big difference, but people tend to be impatient. The faster you can close the purchase, the happier they’ll be, and the sooner you can move on to the next customer (meaning more money for you in a shorter span of time).
Lowball
I find a few issues with this method, but out of respect for your autonomy, I’ll include it here. You usually have the option of making minimal profit on each sale (less than a dollar, in most cases, if not $0.00). While some people do hunt around for bargain books, if you’re planning on writing and selling books long term, it’s helpful to look like your book is of the same quality as what is being sold by major publishing houses like Penguin Random House or Hachette. If all their books are selling for $15, but your is selling for $6, that can give an air of cheapness to the piece and your authorship that you might not want to start your authorship journey with. It can come off as desperate, versus confident.
It’s tempting to lowball yourself because you’re not sure if anyone will like what you’ve written and you see a reasonable, higher price as something you’re not entitled to ask for. It’s a common self-esteem issue that I’ve dealt with myself as an author.
But remember that, if people weren’t willing to pay these prices for books, no one’s book would ever cost much more than what it took to print them.
If you’re considering selling your book for less than $10, check out your comps to make sure that’s a reasonable price for a book like yours. Going a dollar or two under what similar books are selling for is okay. But when your price is less than half what other books cost, I get concerned.
You worked hard on your book and you deserve reasonable compensation!
Overshoot
On the other end of the spectrum, some people price their books only concerned about how much they want to make on each sale (usually an arbitrary and insanely elevated number). Just like the books that people have listed for $200 on Amazon.
There’s nothing wrong with valuing your work and all that you’ve put into it. But if your prices are so high no one can afford to purchase your book, that doesn’t do you any good either. Moderation is key.
Yes, if you charge more, you’ll make more than other authors on a per-sale basis. But you’ll have fewer sales and likely make a lot less income overall because people may be too afraid to pay that much for a book by an author they’ve never read before.
Size, format, and reputation make a difference. A novella shouldn’t cost as much as an epic-length piece. A paperback shouldn’t cost more than a hardcover. A book by a brand new author shouldn’t cost more than a book by someone with decades of writing experience and multiple global best sellers under their belt.
It you’re considering charging more than $15 for your book, check out your comps to make sure that’s a reasonable price for a book like yours.
Distribution
Distribution can be handled relatively easily on most platforms. It’s as easy as clicking a button to allow the book to be distributed to other retailers besides whatever platform you’re on.
Just remember that this expanded distribution means those other retailers will want their cuts as well. So, even though you’re casting a wider net and selling in more places, you’re making less money per sale because you’ve got an additional hand in your pocket.
One way around this issue is to create separate accounts on each of the platforms you want to sell to. For example, if you’re publishing on Amazon, but want to distribute to Barnes & Noble as well, you can use the expanded distribution option to do so and just make less money for each book that sells through BN. Or, you could create an account directly with BN and sell the book that way so that you’re having only BN take their cut from direct sales instead of BN and Amazon taking cuts on each sale.
Don’t forget to add your e-book for sale on your personal website if you plan on selling books there. Selling the physical books directly to customers does create a bit more work for you to do. You’ll have to receive orders, communicate with customers about their order, safely package the book, ship it, and handle any customer service issues that may arise during the entire process. If you only think you’ll sell a few dozen copies a month, this might not be a big deal to you. However, when you’re selling hundreds of books per week, it could get overwhelming.
What many authors (including myself!) do instead is to allow people to order the physical book through their publishing platform. On the e-book sales page, you might just have a link that says something like “Order the paperback version on Amazon!” and a link for them to click on. That way, you can let Amazon (or your platform of choice) handle all of the extra work that comes with warehousing, selling, and shipping physical books.
Proof Copies
Proof copies are physical copies of your book that you order before it becomes available for consumers to purchase. It’s an option you have that, while it takes a bit longer, can help you feel more confident about what your finished product is going to look like.
Ordering proof copies also lets you bring them to a critique group, give them to a proofreading team, or just review them on your own for the sake of catching any printing or copy problems. If you find something, you can adjust your book files and re-upload the corrected versions before publishing.
Clicking ‘Publish’
And that’s it!
After you’ve filled in all the information above, it’s time to click that best button in the whole wide world.
Once you submit your book for publication, your platform will normally review it and then load it onto the website. E-books are faster, often going live on a site within less than a day, if not less than 12 hours. Printed books take longer, usually a couple of business days or so.
Your platform will be able to let you know when you should start to worry.
Congratulations!
At this point, you’re a short (though agonizing) wait away from becoming a published author. You’ve finally made it! Take a moment to pat yourself on the back and bask in the glory of what you’ve accomplished. Call up your friends, tell people in your social media groups, and run through the house telling your family members!
For your next book, just head back to the earlier lessons and work your way down again. See you next time around!