In the last blog, I explored some things I thought about when writing my first novel, The Kaiser's Machines: Panzerwanderer. Now, we will enter the unglamorous phase of releasing a book: editing and setting your book up for launch. If you followed the timeline I mapped out, you only have two weeks to finish this part of hitting the 90 days mark. If you didn't take as much time writing, then good for you! You have more time to edit and put the final touches on your book.
Edit – Step One: Focus on Grammar or Story Edits…Not Both At Once
There are two types of editing in my mind. The first kind is reading it with your "story" glasses on. You aren't concerned with grammar issues. You are purely trying to gauge the quality of the writing on the page as it pertains to telling the story. Moreover, you need to make sure that you have everything buttoned up in terms of plot. In other words, ensure there are no loose ends unless they are intended to set up future books if you write a series. When you think you've gotten it to a good place, give yourself a day or two to step away from the text before returning to do another round of edits.
The second kind involves correcting grammar. If you have Grammarly, you probably caught most of these issues while writing (which is why I recommended getting a paid subscription in the last blog). But if not, then you'll need to read through with an eye solely focused on the grammar piece. I put this after the story editing phase because if you add, change, or modify something, you'll want to ensure it's grammatically correct. That's easier to do when you've accepted the book is in a good enough place to move on to looking solely at grammar.
Don't try to do both types of editing at once. They require different sets of eyes and mindsets and are better left to do one at a time, or you'll end up missing something.
Edit – Step Two: Get An Unbiased Set of Eyes
Two weeks to edit a book is not a lot of time. I know this, but if you want to finish your book in 90 days, you must learn to let some things go. That doesn't mean putting out a bad story. But it does mean that if you're a perfectionist (like me), you'll have some anxiety and fear doing this process as quickly as I have prescribed here. That's why you should have a set of unbiased eyes to look at your book.
Why unbiased? As the writer of the story, it's easy to miss things. Fatigue is a real thing in the editing phase, and you can easily miss a comma or a spelling mistake just because your eyes are no longer trustworthy since you're so close to it. Having that extra layer of unbiased editing really helps ensure you're putting your best foot forward, given how fast we are trying to do this.
So where should you look for unbiased eyes? If you're like most indie authors, you probably don't have much money to throw at this project. If you can, I would try to find someone that's two degrees of separation from you. That means no family or friends. I used my friend's mom, who's a retired English teacher. She was kind enough to edit my books for free. But I recommend finding an editor if you don't have that kind of connection. Reedsy is a popular website for finding editors, book cover designers, and more. If you're going to spend any money, I would say you should put it towards the cover art, editing, website, and some digital advertising (I'll get to that in the next part).
Launch – Step One: Website and Social Media
Remember those days I mentioned you take a break editing? Well, that doesn't mean you get a free day to do nothing but eat junk food and play video games. Just kidding. You're probably working 9-5 like the rest of us. But these days, you should set up your social media pages (if you haven't already) and launch your author's website.
For social media, I only use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I only post when I have updates since many of these platforms are pay-to-play to reach a wider audience (I am by no means a social media expert; I am sure over time, you can build up a following to reach more people). Building your newsletter will be much more valuable than social media, but you should post when you have something to share. I also keep exclusive updates to my newsletter to make joining my newsletter more attractive.
For my website, I used Wix. I broke down the costs of this in my other series, but if you want to look professional and serious, you should have an author website. They are pretty easy to set up since they have templates that require no code. And I run my newsletter and blog out of Wix, keeping it all centralized rather than using Mailchimp or some other service. I would look at other indie authors' websites to understand how to set yours up.
Launch – Step Two: Setup Book On Preferred Platform(s) Following Best Practices
Once you've completed the editing on your book and have formatted it for publishing (you should also have your cover art ready), you can now upload it to your preferred platform. In other blogs, I broke down how to do this using Amazon KDP and Barnes and Noble Press. Once you upload your book, it can take a few days for it to obtain approval and publish.
Depending on the platform you're uploading to, you'll want to follow best practices in writing your book descriptions, what keywords to select, and what categories to place your book into. There are entire articles on each of these things, but I touched on it in my other blog series. I recommend you read through that and use the resources I linked out there to help you navigate this part.
Launch – Step Three: Advertise Launch
Woohoo! If you've reached this part, your book has been published or is waiting to be published. Now, a note on advertising. As I mentioned before, social media is a challenge when you're first starting out. You won't get the reach you want unless you pay for some advertising. But then again, here's something to keep in mind.
If this is the first book in a series, you may want to hold off spending too much on advertising. You don't want to risk advertising your first book, getting readers hooked, then having them wait around for your next ones (that's why building your newsletter is crucial!) Instead, I would use your first book to build out this newsletter I've mentioned.
I use my first book as a gateway to my work. I price my first ebook at only $.99 to make the barrier to entry very low for new readers. However, I also use a nifty tool called BookFunnel. This allows you to set up a landing page where people can download your first book FOR FREE in exchange for their email. I then drive traffic to this landing page via FaceBook ads. If you've never advertised on FaceBook, I highly recommend David Gaughran's walkthrough (see the resource section at the end). It'll save you money and help you get the best results.
Your newsletter will become your single most crucial marketing tool. It'll take time to build up, but once you have a decent-sized list with hundreds of readers interested in your books, you'll have a direct line to them to share all your future releases.
Releasing a Book in 90 Days…No Small Feat
That's it! That's what I did to release my first book in 90 days. Look how tired I looked! So much so that I poured myself a glass of Blanton's to celebrate with my wife.
Little did I know the work had only begun. Self-publishing takes a lot of dedication in, both time and money. You most likely have another job that's your primary source of income. And if you have a wife and kids, your time becomes much more valuable. However, if it's something you are genuinely passionate about, hopefully, you'll have the support of your friends and family to find the time and budget to push your stories out into the world.
If you haven't already, please consider joining my newsletter to receive the latest updates in blog posts and what I am up to in my self-publishing journey. Thanks for reading!
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