- Be prepared to spend a lot of time writing, and rewriting, and rewriting.
Most of my early days writing my first self-published poetry collection involved printing out the poems I was working on and taking a pen to them. I’d do this a thousand times in a single week. The finalized poems would be completely different from the originals and better. Spending time with your writing is incredibly important to the process of self-publishing, even if you are hiring an editor when you think your work is done.
- You may have to invest some $ out of your pocket.
How much you invest is entirely up to you! It is possible to complete this process without spending a dime. You could decide to use a free ISBN, copyedit yourself, and design your cover. However, some self-published authors choose to invest a little into their projects, choosing to pay for an ISBN that gives you more freedoms (we’ll get into that later), hiring editors, book cover designers and even help with marketing. But if you feel you can tackle the project all on your own, then go for it! In my own experience, I found the hands-on process to be thrilling and a great learning opportunity.
- The internet will be your best friend.
When I first started the process of self-publishing, I was looking everything up. What was the best platform to use for self-publishing? How long would it take? What sorts of things should I be prepared to handle? How do I format the ebook copy? Most likely, this is why you’re here: you’re beginning the long road of research. On top of this research, you’ll most likely also used online tools such as Google Docs and my Kindle Direct Publishing online account. There are so many online tools that can help you with this process–but I’ll get into that another day.
- The work doesn’t stop after your publication date.
In fact, it’s just beginning. Now, you have to consider marketing and branding your book and your name. Yes, social media makes the world of marketing and advertising ten times more efficient, but you can’t just post about your book once and expect to see the royalties flooding in. Building a name for yourself and promoting your book takes several combined strategies, time, and commitment.
- You have to be okay with occasionally failing.
There will be times when you mess up or make the wrong call. Maybe during the process, you use the wrong text size or don’t account for the bleed. Perhaps you find a few typos in your published copy, or you are struggling to gain readers and followers. That’s okay. You just have to give yourself a break and remember that this process is not easy for someone to take on all by themselves. You’re doing the job of several different people all at once! Instead, be proud of the things you accomplish and overcome––which will be a lot. And trust me, it’s a rewarding feeling.