When we think about George R.R. Martin and the money he receives from writing the famous series “A Song of Fire and Ice”, adapted for the screen in HBO’s Game of Thrones, it almost makes you write your own novel.
Publishing a book can be a very difficult process, but with these ten steps, you too can make it in the writing business. Writing, publishing and selling a book with today”s technology can take as little as a few months.
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1. Identify your target market
The most important part in publishing a book is to identify a target audience and establish what they need to know and how. With this first step, you will make sure that you will actually earn money from your book, and if you find it difficult, know that it’s even more difficult to sell a book that has shortcomings in terms of concept, after it was published.
You know you”ve done this step when you put in front of potential customers a 400 word description of your book and they ask if they can order a copy.
Make sure the title of the book incorporates keywords that your target market is looking for on Google. This research will get you a long way.
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2. Start writing the book
The big secret when writing a book is to write a presentation, write the text, and then edit the text. If you try to write without a presentation, you will overlook certain things and you will repeat others. If you want to write and edit at the same time, you”ll never finish, because you’ll always try to figure out what you mean. If you have a well structured, complete and correctly written, you will find that you can edit later. You can also find a publisher to give a beautiful shape to the text written by you. Never edit while you write, not edit a book chapter by chapter. Write it entirely then edit it entirely. It is a faster process and the outcome is always better.
Your objective is to write as fast, clear and efficient as possible. Do not worry about the length of the chapters, if you write in the passive voice or not, or if your book seems too informal.
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3. Edit the text
After you have written the book, hand it to a professional editor and ask him to edit the text so that it sounds good. You can find editors that don’t charge more than $ 200 to edit a well written book. You can spend up to $ 2000 for them to rewrite the book for you.
Elance.com is a great place to find publishers who will work on a contract basis and will be paid on term. You can write the book in Google Docs and can ask your editor to make the changes there. Google Docs has a feature that will allow you to see corrections during each session in a common document, and this is a great way to track work done in time. Also, if you want, you can go back to previous versions.
When the book is completed, give a copy to some of the representatives of the target market. See if they have comments or changes you wish to include.
Make sure you have signed a contract with your publisher who will transfer all rights to the work they perform for you, in a deal that provides total customer rights (work for hire).
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4. Create graphics
After the book is written and well edited, begin to create graphics for each chapter to illustrate key ideas in each chapter. Sketch them on paper or create them in Google Docs using tools for presentations or drawing. Your objective related is to make each image clear and simple. Two or three simple pictures are much better than a complex image.
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5. Hire a graphic designer
Hire a professional graphic artist to make your ideas real. You may want him to create the first and last cover for your book. Make sure you have a signed contract.
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6. Text formatting
Hire a professional to create your book in Adobe InDesign format. You should want to be delivered all source files and a PDF of the book completed with all the artwork. You want to make sure that the PDF file is set to include all fonts in the document. This is essential because you are about to start publishing a book using CreateSpace.com or LuLu.com and if you want to fully control the fonts used, they must be set in the document. Make sure you have signed a contract.
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7. Upload a copy of your book on the U.S. Copyright Office
For details on copyright and concrete methods of protection, visit www.ipo.gov.uk or www.copyright.gov.
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8. Start selling
Access CreateSpace.com or LuLu.com and create your free book. Titles you upload on CreateSpace.com can give you a royalty of 45% when purchased through Amazon. You can get an even higher percentage from the books that you order from CreateSpace or LuLu.com and deliver them directly. Enter the description of your book, set a price.
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9. Start sending copies of your book to targeted representatives
Another important step in publishing a book is sending a copy to targeted representatives. Ask for comments. Enter their comments on Lulu and CreateSpace. You will find that LinkedIn helps you find people who might be interested to review and purchase your book.
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10. Social media helps
Write press releases to include comments from those readers. You can find a list of free websites press releases on School for Startups. Create a blog, a Word Press website with a domain name relevant to your book, which includes the searched keywords on Google for your target market. Post press releases, comments and reviews as they are available. Make sure each title and category on your site is using the keywords and phrases of interest for your target market. Make sure that your website contains a link which refers to where your book can be ordered. Use tools like Tweet Old Post and other plugins for social sites to promote your book through sites like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and Linkedin.
Given all these solutions, there is no reason why you cannot write and publish a profitable book, if you want to do this. The process is simple, straightforward and can be very profitable if what you say is important and you take the time to communicate your book.
How about you? Ever thought about writing a book?