7 self-publishing tips for beginners

Julie-Ann Harper is the founder of the Pick-a-WooWoo Publishing and Authors Wish, a platform that offers self-publishing tools and services for independent authors. Here, she shares her tips for getting started in self-publishing.

1. Remember that publishing is a business

Self-publishing or independent publishing should be treated as a business. Would you ‘willy-nilly’ open a retail store or create a product without doing some competitive research, a business plan, or a marketing plan? Know your market and how to get your book out there.

2. Know your goals

Have a clear set of goals in mind when you start and how you plan to achieve them. You need to understand why you’re writing this book, who it is for, how you will reach your readers, what your budget is, and what you want to get out of this journey.

3. Don’t rush

Take the time to understand why you’re publishing, and work with your team to achieve your goals. Produce a book that you’ll be proud of and that is worth your reader’s time and money.

4. Patience, persistence, passion and play

Have patience with publishing and in expectations of sales. Books are now available forever. Start writing that next book. Enjoy the journey and have fun.

5. Develop relationships

The most important relationship in the book business is between you and your reader. IngramSpark’s distribution service makes your book widely available, now you need to find the readers, connect and network with them.

6. Pre-order, pre-sell

Utilise trade publishing’s best practice sales secret—set a pre-publication date and release your book as a pre-order with an ‘On Sale Date’ from your website and IngramSpark dashboard. Pre-orders are one of the most powerful merchandising tools for new book releases. It enables advance marketing of the title and special visibility advantage on the day of release, as well as getting in front of book buyers and readers.

7. Remember it’s not set in stone

Do authors and publishers make mistakes? Absolutely. Limit this by inviting beta readers to view your book and to grow your author platform, as you perfect it. Utilise the services of an editor—only blank pages don’t require editing. Once published, if there are changes, errors or improvements—don’t despair. IngramSpark’s Print-on-Demand service allows you to publish, sell, remove, improve, revise, replenish and re-publish in absolutely no time.

Julie-Ann Harper has 25 years of experience in publishing, business training, self-publishing workshops and presentations. Julie-Ann is a passionate advocate towards true self-publishing and helping authors to view publishing as a business. Pick-a-WooWoo Publishing is the only Australian company listed under IngramSpark’s Resource Experts page as an ‘IngramSpark Self-Publishing Friend’.