It is no more news that there was what I would call a great publishing process shift many years ago when the likes of Amazon began the self-publishing revolution. I believe strongly that everyone especially authors need to say a big thank you to Amazon for this.
Since Amazon’s breakthrough activities, a lot of other publishing companies have followed. The sweet result is that lots of people can now put their thoughts on paper as books and actually get them published and sold without all the ‘killing’ bottle necks and requirements of the traditional publishing companies.
Most times, authors will be able to do all of these at no cost to them. This is good news!
The Shift of the Publishing Process to Authors
Now as the power of publishing process shifts from Publishers to authors, how can authors take full advantage of this? What is required of them? How can they play the game at the level of the big traditional publishers? This is the focus of this article, The Publishing Process Shift, How Authors Can Take Advantage.
Let us look at the various ways authors can take advantage of the publishing process shift below:
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Authors Must Manage their Time Well and See it as a Business
Authors must get organized and begin to manage their time well: Authors should see this as a business. A business that will succeed must know how to manage time and resources well.
Today, we have lots of best-selling authors who are doing this. They have created an organisation around their author job or book writing and selling business. You can’t get good books into the market and get good sales if you are not organized and see your vocation as a business entity.
See Yourself as a Professional Publisher
You need to add this to what you learnt from the first tip above if you have to effectively take advantage of the publishing process shift. Though, you an author but you are now a publisher because the power of publishing has shifted to you.
You need to start taking the same responsibilities the well-established publishers take. The remaining tips below will show those publisher tasks you must begin to carry out.
Edit and Proof Your Books Professionally
Many authors are careless about this. Have you read books published by those traditional publishers? Did you notice the quality of the editing? I am sure you loved the look and arrangement of the books. No one can dispute the many benefits of using professional editors.
You should also ensure you professionally edit your books before they are published. Sometimes, readers don’t care if your books are published by traditional publishers or you. All they want is a book that is professionally published.
Yes I agree that for starters, it may be extremely costly to hire professional editors but I believe there are other ways around this. You can seek for assistance from friends and acquaintances. Some will be ready to help even without any cost to you.
An English instructor in that local high school may just be ready to proofread your book for you at a small fee. You should also ensure you read through your book over and over again before you hit the publishing line.
Format Your Book Professionally
Most online publishing companies require you format your book professionally before you publish them. Most of them have strict formatting guidelines which you must adhere to. If you can’t get this done yourself, you should outsource it to someone else.
My video course and book, How to format your books for Kindle and Smashwords publishing will help you.
Use Good Covers
The cover of your book, apart from the title and the sub title, will say a lot about your book. It should be good looking, descriptive and professionally done. If you can’t design your covers yourself, you should give it to experts to design it for you. There are good cover designers at fiverr.com that are ready to do this for you at 5 dollars or more.
Publish With Lots of Retailers
If you really want to make the best of your book-selling experience you should publish your books with as many online retailers as possible. There are many ebook retailers online today.
They are ready to take your book if it agrees with their rules. You may not publish with retailers who require exclusivity, that is, those who ask you not to publish with other retailers if you are publishing your books with them. You have to weigh the advantages and disadvantages before you choose exclusivity.
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing is well known for asking authors who publish on their platform to go for exclusivity with their Kindle Select programme. I have some of my books enrolled in their Kindle Select programme anyway because I have written and published so many books and I have weighed my options carefully.
You can also use distributors like Smashwords.com to distribute your books to retailers. It is simple and more convenient this way.
Publish in Both ebook and Paper Back Versions
I always ensure I publish both editions of each of my books. I use Creatsapce.com (now KDP Print) to publish the paper-back versions of my book and use Smashwords.com and Amazon Kindle to publish ebooks versions.
Always Write a Good Book
The last tip in this article on how authors can take advantage of the publishing process shift is that you must always ensure that your book over delivers on its promise. You should understand that a good book, whether fiction or non-fiction, should solve the problems it’s intended to solve.
When your book does this, you have solved over 50 percent of the obstacles that may prevent your book from selling very well in the market.
Thank you for reading this article, The Publishing Process Shift, How Authors Can Take Advantage. I hope it helped you. Please share with your friends on the social media.
I will also like to read your comments and contributions.
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