Ever wanted to self-publish your own book but you are worried that you will make silly mistakes along the way? Now you don’t have to worry as here you can learn my top five tips on how to self-publish with the world’s largest book store – Amazon!

1: Decide on what it is you want to publish

Now, I know that this may seem like a ridiculously obvious point but really, the world is your oyster when it comes to self-publishing on Amazon. Of course, there are some limitations and guidelines as to what you can and can’t publish but realistically as a business owner you could become slightly bogged down by the choices available.

I would recommend that you sit down and think about what your audience would like to see from you – this could be a DIY book, a planner for social media or even a fully-fledged book that you spend months writing!

Once you have decided what it is that you’re thinking of launching then you need to think about a strategy (planners have timelines that you don’t want to miss ie: Christmas sales!)

2: Decide on what you’d like to outsource

If you aren’t very artistic or you struggle to see how you could design your own book cover then this is something that you’ll need to think about outsourcing. You don’t need to have design programmes though, so if you do want to give it a go, you can of course design a PDF cover in Canva. This also goes for proofreading too – sometimes the silliest of mistakes are the hardest to see. Ensure that you outsource your manuscripts or flatlays for others to see.

3: Think about launching and promotion

As business owners having a book self-published on Amazon could be a fabulous passive income stream. Not so great though when you don’t have an audience to promote it to! Ensure that you have a launch strategy in place for your book/planner/stationery otherwise you could be flogging an empty horse (is that the saying?) You can also access author copies from Amazon KDP which means that you can sell from your own websites/social media platforms too – you won’t get the royalties from your author copies though. Amazon also has the potential to reach millions of people, so get the seo right for your published piece and you could be onto a winnner!

4: Have a really compelling description

Ensure that you really put some time and effort into your book descriptions – yes, even for planners and notebooks! The reason being is because a huge proportion of people buy a book purely for its description! Do ensure that it is short and straight to the point in the retrospect of hitting your market… lure them in with an emotional pull!

5: Have fun with it

Writing your first book or designing your first planner doesn’t have to be daunting or an arduous task. It should be fun and more importantly it should be a reflection upon yourself. If you aren’t having fun with it, you need to question why you are wanting to do it!

love,

Sophie xx

P.S If you’d love to self-publish your own book and would like the guidance from someone who has publishing AND design experience (and has also published their own books – this is me by the way!) then head on over to my Get Published! course here