How to Self-Publish a Book
When I first considered publishing a book, I had never heard of self-publishing. I didn’t even know that it was a thing that existed! I always assumed that in order to publish a book, you had to have an agent and a traditional publisher.
How I Became a Self-Published Author
Flash forward 10 years to where I now have my own self-publishing business and many award-winning children’s books.
Was it exciting? Yes!
Did I always know what I was doing? No!
Was it hard? You know what, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. But I definitely needed some help along the way.
4 Key Steps to Becoming a Self-Published Author
There are several key steps to becoming a self-published author. Generally speaking, here’s what you will need (outside of a great story!):
You need to work with an editor. Not sure which type of editor you need for your book? Check out this blog post.
If you are going to self-publish a children’s book, you need an illustrator. Please trust me when I say that if you aren’t a professional artist, please don’t try to illustrate your own book! We can all tell, and you will thank me later.
You need to select the right printer and platform for your book. This could mean publishing a book on Amazon, publishing through KDP, publishing a book with IngramSpark, or- my personal preference- publishing a book with a local printer and selling books on your author website.
You need a book marketing plan that will help you sell books and get book reviews.
Self-Publishing Resources
Here’s the good news. You don’t need a self-publishing company. But you do need a plan. Better yet, you need a coach.
As a marketing and communications professional, one of my favorite things is to work with other self-published authors. And now having provided training and coaching to authors across the world (33 countries and counting!), I’ve got a pretty good sense of what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to self-publishing a book.
That’s why I offer limited coaching sessions to help other authors achieve their publishing goals!
