Have you been working as a content writer and answering people, “No, I haven’t written any book”? Not every writer is supposed to write a book, but most writers, at some point in their writing journey, consider writing and publishing a book for myriad reasons.
If you are one of those writers with a story to share but don’t know where to start and how to write a book that will get sold, this article is for you.
Things You Need to Do Before Publishing Your Book
It is so easy to find articles and blogs that guide you about publishing a book but no one is actually talking about how to write a book that deserves to be published. Here are a few things you need to know and take care of before considering publishing a book:
Have Decent Writing Skills
You need to be proficient in English. Please do not believe people who suggest you can write and publish anything.
It may sound surprising to many of you, but writing skills don’t mean just writing grammatically correct sentences. Had that been true, every student could have become a writer. We are taught basic sentence writing in school, do you really think people who can speak grammatically correct sentences become writers?
It’s like saying all science students can become engineers, and all engineers can repair electronic devices. How insane does that sound?
Your writing skills need to align with storytelling. Moreover, writing a book is not the same as writing articles, blogs, and guides. Compare a book with a blog that targets the same concern, and you will find how different the writing styles are.
Before publishing a book, you need to educate and familiarize yourself with this information.
Read more: 5 Content Writing Tools To Write Effective Content
Build Your Audience
Yes, this is something you need to do before publishing your book. While many people rely solely on their friends and family, and their social media followers, they all may not be readers so you need to have an audience that will be interested in reading your book.
How can you do that?
It’s simple. Have a blog. Create blog posts, attract your target audience from different social media platforms to your blog, and finally publish and share your book on your blog so that your audience knows and considers buying your book.
There is a difference between having an audience and having a target audience. Having an audience is not an ideal option for writers even though it is easy to get.
People may be interested in your writing across different platforms but they may not be hardcore readers who will consider purchasing and reading your book.
Your target audience will already be reading your blogs, they will be readers who are interested in your write-ups and content. This is the audience that will help you earn money from your book. And you need to build this before releasing your book.
Keep Your Audience in Mind While Writing the Book
When you are building your audience, there are very less chances that your audience will be interested in almost everything you have to share or write.
The higher possibility is that you will be attracting an audience that is interested in the niche you picked and the opinion you shared within that niche.
So, when writing your book, the least you can do is write something relevant to what you have been writing about and your audience is interested in reading.
For instance, if a freelance writer has been sharing about their freelancing journey and experiences, a book on how people can become writers like them would make more sense than writing a book on love and relationships.
A Small, Simple, and Informative Book Is Better Than Unnecessary Information
There are so many books that serve absolutely no purpose and then there are books that revolve around just one clear message but are stretched unnecessarily.
While these books have become bestsellers because the topic covered in them was fresh and wasn’t covered by a lot of people, achieving the same at this time is extremely difficult.
You have no idea how many authors you will be competing with, as a new writer. You need to come up with an idea that is trending, provides a solution to your target audience, and is informative. It is okay to write a small book.
If you are going for fiction writing, make sure your story differs from the common fiction plot.
One reason why people are not into fiction is that one, it doesn’t offer anything except a decent pastime, and second, because the story in every genre is so predictable. Bring something new to the table, promise more than just a story, and most importantly, have a good hold on the story so that it is not predictable right from the start.
Writing a Book Is not Difficult, You Just Need to Start
You must have been trying to write a book for quite some time if you think writing a book is difficult. Let us tell you a secret, it is not writing a book that is difficult but the starting phase. And in order to get over that, you will need to just start.
We know this is easier said than done but there is no other way out. You may be thinking, “yeah, I need to start but I don’t have material, what should I even write about?”
Well, find the topic that you are most fascinated about and your audience will love to read and just start writing. Don’t give it second thoughts.
Even if you don’t have an outline for the book, simply pick the most searched questions on Google related to your topic and start answering them in detail. That’s how you write a book. Make it an engaging guide. And after you are done, read and edit it until you are satisfied with your book.
Basically, you just need to start.
Why Is Self Publishing Your Book Better for You?
Now that you have your book ready to be published, it’s time to get it published.
Earlier in the day, people used to reach out to production houses to get their books published and it was definitely effective because you would just give your book, pay the fee, and let them handle the editing, publishing, and marketing of your book.
However, things became even more manageable and profitable as the concept of self-publishing entered the market.
The process of publishing became more accessible, faster, and convenient, and the earning potential increased as well. Moreover, you can do it for free without asking for someone else’s help and guidance.
We believe self-publishing a book is better than the traditional publishing techniques because this way you can speed up the process and actually make money by publishing a book.
Nonetheless, you will be responsible for everything along with writing the book which may seem a little hectic. But it isn’t impossible, after all, everyone is doing that these days.
How to Market Your Book to Make More Sales?
After writing and publishing your book your next step will be to let your audience know that you have written a book for them and they should consider reading it.
So, one of the foremost and most important steps will be to share the news on different social media platforms and inform your audience.
Secondly, you can share the link to your bio as well as with people you think would be interested in purchasing your book.
You can also share the link through which people can make the purchase in your newsletter. We are assuming if you have a blog you must have a weekly newsletter as well.
Thirdly, and here the marketing game begins, you will reach out to online magazines and websites that are relevant to your niche and book and ask them for a shoutout.
You can write an article for them as a guest blogger and get the information about your book in your author bio, reach out to podcasters and YouTubers and see if you can collaborate with them for the promotion and advertisement of your book, and create content on Instagram so that your account and book reaches to more people who will be interested in your content.
Parting Words
Marketing and creating content is not as difficult as it seems when you are new to it. Once you know how to do the basics, the process of marketing yourself or your product is very intriguing.
And this is where we can help you as well. From helping you in starting your writing career to introducing you to content creation and marketing, our course called Side Hustle Formula perfectly covers everything you need to know as an aspiring author.
Writing a book is not much different from starting a side hustle and trust us you will require everything that we have covered in our course. What are you waiting for?
Take the course and start writing your book already. We are here to guide you through the process.
