Part 5 – Publish it

Publish it – Hitting the Button

"Publish your work - Wayne Marinovich"

 

Topics

  • Soft release – upload and get ARC’s to post reviews
  • Mailing list
  • Blog about the release
  • Social media yo publish

 

If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write – Martin Luther

You finally have your proofread copy in front of you and can now call yourself an author with a book. Congratulations on completing the writing part of the journey. It’s an epic achievement and something that you should be proud of. Now switch hats and get yourself into publishing mode to publish.

I’ll state the obvious and say you need to publish to sell your book. I’m not going to sugar-coat it here, but you need to sell it to make money from it. If you only undertook this epic journey to complete a big project, then you’ve done it so go ahead stick it in a bottom draw.  Tick it off your bucket list, and make your way off to a tropical island for a holiday – you’ve earned it.

However, if you have your heart set on a career as an author, at this juncture, you need to forget about writing and get selling.

Note: You never hear about things called best-writing lists because they’re called best-selling list. The key is in the word selling. Your writing job is over, so start selling your books.

 

Soft release – Publish and get ARC’s to post a review

The first part of publishing is to upload your cover, blurb and manuscript to the online stores that you’ve decided to sell through. If you’re traditionally published, the publisher will get the book printed and distributed to the bookstores for you. Before you start trying to get people’s eyes on your book, I suggest a soft release. This means your book is technically published, but you haven’t run any promotions for it. Note – some Amazon lists may automatically pick your work up as a new release, but ignore those. You cannot affect them in any way, so just be happy for the early exposure.

Before you tell the world that you’ve written a book, send out free digital copies in the hope of a review. You could also send out paperbacks if you’ve created them and got them printed. I buy my author copies via Amazon because I sell paperbacks for my Kyle Gibbs Series.

"The Kyle Gibbs Series - Wayne Marinovich"

 

Advanced Reader Copies

ARC or Advanced Reader Copies are typically early copies of your book that are handed out before the publication date to help get reviews for the book.

I know you’ve already uploaded your book, which is why this step is called a soft release. When you eventually run a promotion, and readers start hitting your online pages during the “official” launch, a few reviews will already exist.

In publishing, ARC readers can be hard to source. I find it an excellent way to reward your beta-readers with signed paperbacks for being part of the creative process too.

One important thing about your ARC readers (or anyone who you give your book too) is that they need to be a fan of the genre. This will result in a more genre-specific review because they may compare your work to a famous author in that area. Getting loyal genre fans goes a long way to helping you get onto the “Also Bought” section of other book pages.

"Kyle Gibbs Paperbacks - Publish your work"

 

Mailing list

Having a mailing list is a critical part of your ongoing Author platform. Along with your website, it is something that you have control over. Social media is part of that platform, but you’ve no control over the everyday running of those sites. Social platforms fade away and disappear, just look at MySpace and Google+.

A mailing list is critical when you publish because your fans and readers grant you express permission to interact with them. Obviously, this doesn’t give you the right to spam them, but their sign-up means they agree to receive mail content from you. This permission is valuable to you as an author, but make sure you keep to what you promised in the sign-up process.

I currently use Mailchimp for my mailing system, although there are others out there like MailerLite, Sendinblue, Benchmark and others. I haven’t used these so won’t make a comparison.

In general, the one you select should have the following,

  • Forms: Easy to customise the various subscribe, confirmation, thank you, pop-up, and unsubscribe forms.
  • Templates: Email templates that you can copy and use. HTML customisation if that is your thing.
  • Segments: List segmentation facility (allows you to do split testing to gauge audience reactions).
  • Automation: Easy options for following and joining.
  • Reporting: Real-time analysis of subscribes, unsubscribes, reporting on campaigning.

For more information about mailing lists here is a great book – Newsletter Ninja by Tammi L. Labrecque

 

"Mailchimp"

Blog about the release

You may have been sending out blogs or posts on your social media streams about your up and coming book already. If you haven’t, you have missed a chance to build up a buzz around your work. Don’t worry about it if you haven’t, though, just start blogging.

Having your own blog is one of the only bits of real estate where you control what is written and published. You own it, so use it as a hub for all your writing. There are many blogging books out there which I recommend you seek out. I will add that it’s a great thing to have on your website because it’s an area where you can be less formal and gives your fans further insight into your world.

 

Social media

Like it or not, social media is a permanent part of our lives now. We’re like chimps huddled over our little screens, oblivious to the rest of the world while we live like celebrities in our personal soap operas. Rant over. So, let’s focus on it as a vital communication tool for your business. Even if you decide to go the traditional publishing route, your new agent and publisher will expect you to have a social media platform already (for some it’s now a prerequisite to getting any book deal). If you want to be a successful, full-time author, you will need to embrace social media and move away from the myth that you can sit in your writing space, generate work, and wait for the readers to find you.

You’re now in the business of writing, and one fundamental truth exists in the modern creative world. You have to be where you readers (fans) hang out, and that means having a broader presence on social media.

"Publish with Social Media"

Millions of books each year

Each year, millions of books are published alongside your single effort. You will have to learn to market your author platform (your brand) in places where your readers are present. If that fills you with dread, then maybe you should consider keeping your day job and write as a hobby.

I have a dedicated book website, Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram account for my writing because I’m also a photographer. It can take time to curate content for both my writing and photography, so I use aggregation sites like Hootsuite and Smarterqueue as dashboards to help monitor and schedule posts across several social media platforms at once. This does help free up time for writing and let’s face it, that’s what we want to do. Warning: You still have to exercise some discipline when using these sites or else they will suck you into surfing for hours.

You probably have one or two personal social media account anyway by now, but look into getting a professional one, plus do some research into platforms that you are not exposed to. You can’t be everywhere at once, but at least make sure you have a profile that people can see and interact with if they need to.

 

Further Reading

Re-read the fourth page in the Publishing Tip series – Part 4 – Final steps before publishing

Or, move onto the sixth page – Part 6 – Post Publication

 

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