I have been asked for a few pointers on taking the road to being Independently Published, so I thought I’d write a little blog to help those budding Authors out there. All I can do is let you in on how I got to the point I am now – so bear with me…
So you’ve written a book? Excellent! Well done you! But where do you go from there? Work up the courage to ask a few friends and family to read your work. Don’t be shy, be proud of your book! It’s a masterpiece you’ve worked on for years and it’s fantastic. Ask them to proof read along the way – we all miss things, believe me!
Try uploading your book to Wattpad shortly after having a few people read it. They will give you a boost of well-needed confidence, so unleash your book to the online community of readers and writers. It doesn’t have to be Wattpad, but it is free! You will receive a lot of feedback and make a lot of friends. You may also make some very good connections with people who can help and give you handy tips and advice.
I naively took my book off Wattpad in order to follow my dream of being traditionally published. You may have read about this in my journey into publishing so I wont go into detail. However, there is no harm in trying. During this process, I used the website Querytracker. This is a great way of keeping track of where you’ve sent your book, to which agent, on what date and document any replies. It also has a fantastic search engine for finding publishers and editors who are looking for books in your genre. If you decide to take this route, then I suggest you check out that website.
Now I didn’t go any further than that, as I had tried this route for nearly a year and had no success.
Look into publishing with Amazon Kindle and Smashwords. I will be uploading Witch Hunt to Smashwords in the new year so it will be available on the Nook, Kobo etc. I’ll let you know how I progress with that in the new year. I suggest you look into these two self-publishing platforms though. Also, I found there were better reviews from people regarding Createspace in comparison to Lulu when considering making my book available in paperback. I am still working with Createspace at the moment, but what they have provided so far is very promising.
Tweet, post on Facebook, Pinterest and blog. Get yourself a website. You’ll want to interact with your fans and thank them for their support.
Write down a plan of action when you decide to self publish and give yourself a timeline for the completion of each target. For example, decide when you want the book to be available and advertise it on your website, Facebook page, Twitter page and post images of the cover art on Pinterest. This is a great way of drumming up awareness for the release of your book.
When your book is finally out there, continue to Tweet and blog etc. People will want to hear from you! Get yourself an Author page on Goodreads and send your book off to review websites to get you and your book noticed.
Below are a few links to helpful websites that you might want to take a look at:
I hope this helps! xx
