19. Final Tips Before You Hit "Publish"

Here's the final pieces of advice as you publish your first book!

If you did all your homework over the months leading up to your launch, then you should have a fairly solid foundation. If you've checked out any of the previous blogs, you can learn more about what my whole process has looked liked over the last several months.

But the final leg of the publishing journey is mostly tuning and checking to make sure everything is in place for the launch AND the post launch. The last thing you want to do is only focus on launch day and not have a plan for what happens after.

You've got the book edited, the cover done, the social media, website, newsletters, teams, all that stuff up and going. Now you gotta get it published.

You can find a million different sites, blogs, threads on who to go with when you self-publish. There is no right or wrong answer as each option has strengths and weaknesses.

I personally went with Amazon KDP. It's easy and quick to set up and submit my draft and cover. It's accessible to a wide market, and is great for any one starting out. However, it is very easy to get lost in the mountain of other books all competing for those top spots and to get discouraged if you don't sell thousands of copies. But that's ok. It's your first book and this is actually quite common for many indie authors. They key is to not give up and to keep going with your second and third and fourth and...

I won't explain all the in's and out's for Amazon KDP as it is pretty easy to walk through, but I do want to mention a few things.

First, when picking key words for your book, please do your research on how to find the best key words for book and genre. If you pick key words that all the top sellers are using, then you're not going to be able to hold a candle to them. If you pick words that are too niche or specific, you won't get found by the algorithm overlords. There are dozens of guides online so please check several out!

Second, find some guides on book pricing and marketing. It's important to find a happy balance between your book's cost of production vs the return you might see. Shooting to just make your initial investment back is a great starting point and all I am personally working toward. Anything beyond that is simply going into making book 2 less stressful!

Third, It's ok to use Amazon or Facebook ads, but don't go overboard. Be selective and strategic about it. Throwing money at ads will not guarantee you will sell books. Instead, it's about building a community of people who share your common interests and helping other people learn about the unique story you want to share with them. Keeping people in mind is the most important and just trying to hock a product will not sit well with people who are hoping to reach.

I hope these guidelines are helpful. These are by no means exhaustive. Instead, I wanted to share with you some large bucket topics to help guide you or anyone you may know as you look to write your own book! If you're interested, I'd be more than happy to create an in depth guide of my own personal journey if you'd like.

Let me know and talk with you soon!