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Book ideas

Before I start I list off a few book ideas in the free PDF. Just download and you will find numerous suggestions on book ideas. Of course the list isn’t extensive. There are millions of books online, but the idea is to just help you see the potentiality of self-publishing as you can write literally about anything. 

You can write about grooming pets to even how to start a grooming business. You can write about inspirational stories or even career guidance books. A great book idea is all about either entertaining or educating and giving a unique spin on it. 

Think about any popular movie. Usually they have a likeable protagonist and a compelling script. Sometimes they have a simple script that has an emotional element attached to it. Creativity is all about finding ways to take old ideas, spin them around and make something unique. 

Here’s an example I didn’t list in the book. The tv show, “Once Upon a Time,” had an original plot, but it wasn’t so original that it didn’t draw the audience in. Here’s the plot: fairy tale characters are brought to life as the evil queen casts a curse on them bringing them into the human world. 

This stuck around for seven years. Incredible. What about the Walking Dead? Supernatural? Those shows made it past ten seasons. The same concept can be applied to Non-fiction. Take for example the popular story, “The Greatest Salesman in the World.” It’s a non-fiction book told like a story. It’s all about a young boy who finds scrolls. Each scroll gives him a new perspective on life and helps him make better decisions. 

Great book ideas are still there you just have to be willing to dig deeper. 

TYPES OF DIGITAL PRODUCTS

The Journey to self-publishing

Most people want to write a book but they never do. Why because they believe they aren’t story tellers? This is far from the truth. Story telling comes natural to all of us. 

Maybe you have been sitting on a book idea and have no idea how to go about writing and publishing it. I feel you right there. We all have been there. Think about the first time you struggled with something. Maybe it was your first day at high school, college or at work. 

 Remember feeling out of place and unsure of what you were doing. The more you did that then you eventually became used to it. You stopped becoming a fish out of water. Instead things became easier for you.

Writing your first book will feel like this. However with time it will become second nature and you will no longer feel as if you’re just faking it. 

Explaination

The benefits of self-publishing

Being an author has never been easier than with self-publishing. Now instead of waiting for a random person at a publishing house you can easily take your life by the bull horn and put success in your hands. 

Knowing this of course this means you need to work twice as hard. As you are doing something. However, even if you have a small budget you can still do wonders and make your book a best seller. Or you can use your novel as a way to get people to know who you are. 

They are also other benefits that are less monetary and aren’t as talked about as much. So here we go.

Explaination

1. Faster time to market

Working with traditional publishers means you have no control over your book. You can work on a novel several months up to years. Whereas when you publish your book by yourself that means you can publish it when you want.

Having more control allows you to create buzz around your project and even find exciting ways to promote it or include incentives. You can create a crowdfunding campaign and you can even create additional items to go along with it.

For example if you are writing a science fiction book you can create a graphic novel to go along with it, unique posters, maybe even merchandize. The sky is the limit 

Explaination

2. Higher royalties

When you learn how to self-publish you will have to pay for everything. Since your taking responsibility for all the cost you also reap all the rewards. Self-publishing isn’t cheap, but it also isn’t extremely costly if you understand how to do it. 

You also do the book distribution the right way than that will help you cut the cost and also not strain yourself by being everywhere. 

Explaination

4. Finding your purpose

Writing and publishing a book will help you find your passion. Not only do you get other benefits from it, this one takes the cup. Why? Most people spend decades trying to find their purpose but by publishing a book it will help you understand what your purpose is. 

You can easily use that book as a vehicle to start a new business or side hustle, but writing the book will help you become an expert of sorts. This will elevate you and give you a strong sense of who you are. 

Explaination

5. You will become an expert

Writing and publishing a book is no easy task. You have to research and market it by the time you have finished you will become an expert. This will give you an edge over everyone else because people are still amazed by those who have written a book. Especially if you self-published.

You can go on podcast and YouTube channels. Even if you are writing a fiction book this still will make you an expert. You can start a YouTube channel, blog or podcast on the subject. Regardless of the book you are writing. 

Explaination

6. Extra income stream

Relying on one income stream isn’t enough anymore you need to have more than one. In fact you need to have several. That’s why writing a book is so important. It can help you by increasing your income stream. You can use a book to make money in several ways. 

It’s not just limited to the book you can use your book to highlight who you are then you can create courses, merchandize and other stuff. The book is merely something to help you get your name out there so that you can capitalize on other courses, products or services that you have.

You might be wondering what if you want to write a fantasy book. You can still do this. It’s all about how you brand yourself. You can create a service or course teaching people to write and self-publish a book or just simply write a book. 

Explaination

7. It can give you a platform

Writing and publishing a book can give you a platform to go out there. That’s one of the reasons many people self-publish because they want a platform. As I said earlier you can use a book to highlight your services or even how you help people. 

They are so many examples of people who self-published and went on to do incredible things. A book helps you to become more recognizable in whatever space you want to get into. 

Explaination

The cons of self-publishing

As great as all that is. They are cons to self-publishing. I have self-published three books and I am working on releasing two books this year. One an non-fiction and the other a fantasy. 

In my experience self-publishing isn’t an easy thing to do. In fact there’s so much you have to do and working on a non existent budget makes it a lot harder to self-publish a book. So here we go. 

Explaination

1. You have full creative control

This can be a benefit, but it can also be a con. The benefits are numerous when it comes to having creative control. That being said when you have creative control you have to worry about everything. Now you need to carry the weight. 

You will have to decide what the book cover should look like. If you have no art or graphic design experience this can be challenging as less is more is a concept lost on most of us. Many artists and graphic designers are taught this. 

 You have to figure out how you’re going to edit and market your book. This can be extremely tiring and frustrating if you don’t know much about the editing or marketing process. 

Explaination

2. It can be costly or time consuming

Writing a book or starting a side hustle can be either time consuming or costly. The time consumption comes in when you choose to cut cost. For example, you might need to design your own book as good non fiction book covers can cost anything from $25 to $200. Depending on where you go. 

If you go the newbie freelance route it can cost $25, but if you want a more experienced designer it can cost anything from $50 to $150. Fiction book covers cost more. It can cost anything from $100 to $300. Again this depends on where you go, but the cost is a lot. Now if you decide to cut the cost this means learning the basics of graphic design. 

Your book covers aren’t the only thing you need to worry about. There’s also editing the book, getting beta readers, marketing, finding book reviewers and you have to keep tweaking the process so that the end-result is acceptable. This all takes time or money. 

Explaination

3. Harder to get into bookstores

Have you ever dreamed about getting your book into a bookstore. Well then you might have to work hard for this to happen. It isn’t impossible, but it’s tricky to do. 

So you have to figure out how to do it and you might need to spend more money so that you can get your book into a bookstore. Most bookstores won’t want to do that because of the risk, but again it isn’t impossible. They are authors out there you have managed to do achieve getting their books into bookstores. 

Explaination

4. You’re solely responsible for marketing your book

The hardest part of self-publishing is the marketing. After you have written the book you now have to decide how to market the book and if you market the book the wrong way then your book won’t be successful.

That’s a lot of pressure to put on a new author, but if you have done enough homework then you will realize that they are ways to make your book stand out before you publish it. 

• Create a presence online by building an email list, website and being on social media. The best way to do this to promote your book months before you even release it.
• Create a book launch team. In the last few years this has become more popular. A book launch team does the bulk of the work and become your cheerleaders. Many successful authors have used book launches to help sell their books.
• Go on a virtual book tour. What this looks like is you will go on podcast, YouTube channels, blogs or even do Facebook or Instagram Lives. You can even do a Tik Tok promotion. 

This is a lot right. It’s a con because of how much work you are putting into it. Though the statement that comes to mind is if it were easy everyone would being doing it. 

A to z guide to selling digital products

7 Steps to Self – Publishing Your Book

Now that you have a better understanding of the benefits and the cons of self publishing we can go to actually the meat of the topic. How do you self – publish? Now you need to understand the foundation matters. If you get the foundation wrong then this will make it harder for you to self-publish. Make it easier for you. 

1. What’s the purpose of your book?

This first step is by far the most critical step you have to take in. This will give you am insight on how to write the book or even market it. Marketing a non-fiction book is different from marketing a fiction book. Though most of the steps apply, how much work you need to do depends on the material of your book. 

When you figure out the purpose of your book you can then start go extra steps to ensure it’s success like making a landing page, YouTube channel, podcast or blog. You can even join Face groups that align with your book’s topic. Here are a few prompts to help you out.

• What is the end result?

• What journey are the characters going to go on?

• Why is this book important?

• Who do I want to help with my book?

• How will this change the reader’s life?

• What do I want to be known for?

 There are more prompts in the free book guide. Make sure to download it. 

2. Create an outline

The next step is to create an outline. Even if it simply is chapter titles to give you an understanding of what’s going to happen in each chapter. If that’s too hard just make sure you have an understanding of what your book is going to be about and how it’s going to end. 

They are two types of authors. Pantsers and planners. The first writes by the seat of their pants and the other plans everything. Now you have to figure out which one you are. This helps you to understand how you should outline your book. I’m a pantser so when I was writing my non fiction book I just wrote chapter titles and this gave me an idea of how I should write the book, 

3. Plan your book launch date

Sounds strange working on the book launch date before you publish the book. Though there’s a method to the madness. Since all this is time consuming you need to know when you are going to publish the book because that will give you time to work on the kinks. 

It will help you understand how much time you need so that you can start working on everything. Here’s a trick don’t give yourself limited time. Ask yourself the following questions.

How long will it take to write the book?

Are you doing the book cover yourself or giving it to a book cover designer?

What’s your budget?

How much time will be spent on editing?

After asking yourself those questions you will have a better understanding of how much time you should spend on each part. From writing to the editing, book cover design and even formatting and finally the marketing. 

When you have figured this out you can also work on how you will find beta readers, book launch team and even people who will review your book. You will also have enough time to figure out how you will market your book. 

4. Write the book

You can take your time on the third step while working on your book. The rest steps are extremely important. Write the book. Every book needs to have a beginning and an ending. A resolution that helps the character grow or change. 

The best stories also have strong themes so make sure to have a theme that resonates throughout the book. This will give your book oomph that is needed. Not only that, but it will help you stand and give you the motivation to keep going. 

If you don’t know why your writing your book or you don’t have a strong theme then chances are you will eventually throw in the towel. Writing and self-publishing is a lot of work. 

5. Set deadlines

While you are writing make sure to set deadlines for you for every step. Without deadlines you can easily get lost in the shuffle of day to day. So even if you have a full time job make sure you have deadlines so that you are on top of things. 

The deadlines will help you finish writing the book on time. It will also help you know when you should finish every step so that you don’t procrastinate. People procrastinate when they believe they have enough time or they aren’t aware of what they should be doing. 

6. Have a writing routine

Without a writing routine it will be hard to stay on track. For the last seven years my writing routine has been set in stone. I usually write early in the morning and even I am extremely inspired I can write in the evening. Though most of my writing is early morning. I also have a set number of words I write. 1000 to 1500. It can be more depending on the day.

Having a writing routine will help you to stay motivated and on track. Writer’s block happens because writers don’t have a writing routine. If you push yourself even if you don’t want to write you will always write regardless of the circumstances unless you’re under the weather. 

7. Prepare your book for self-publishing

When you’re done writing your book you need to prepare for self-publishing. This encompasses a lot of things. From the book design to the editing and the formatting. 

Earlier you should have figured out the budget. If you’re cutting cost then you need to a lot of these by yourself. No fret it isn’t hard. You can easily get a simple book cover design from Fiverr instead of 99designs. The editing process you can use free programs like Hemingway or if you want something more advanced there’s prowriting aid. 

Now that’s out of there you also need to figure out how you will market it. Will you solely distribute it on Amazon or will you publish it on other sites like Apple Books, Barnes and Nobles, IngramSpark or Kobo. 

Decide how you will market. Will you pay for ads on Instagram? Do social media lives? Contact book reviewers or will you pay for professional book review companies. There’s also Reader’s Digest that is 100% free, you can pay to speedfast your review, but the free version takes weeks to months. 

A to z guide to selling digital products

Book Launching Strategies

Now that you have a better understanding of the benefits and the cons of self publishing we can go to actually the meat of the topic. How do you self – publish? Now you need to understand the foundation matters. If you get the foundation wrong then this will make it harder for you to self-publish. Make it easier for you. 

1. Start with your why

Being an entrepreneur for almost five years has taught me that you need to understand what your why is. This will help you focus and not only that push yourself to go for your dreams.

It’s so easy to become aimless because you are focusing on the wrong things and have no idea why you are going after your dreams. Those who never give up on their dreams understand what they want. They understand why they are doing this. Writing and publishing a book isn’t easy. It’s a lonely journey and they will be moments when you contemplate why you even started this journey. 

However, if you understand why you’re doing this then it will be a lot easier for you to keep going after your dreams. You will keep chasing after your goals because your why is so strong quitting isn’t an option. 

2. Build a community

Selling a book is hard so before you publish that book try building a community. This is something that a lot of experts suggest you do to give you not only credibility, but to make it easier to sell your book. The worst thing is to publish your book to crickets and beg your friends and family members to buy your book.

Been there and done that. Definitely not a fun thing to do. So while you why not build a community. You can do this on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter or even Facebook. Choose one medium to build there. If you are ambitious you can choose two. Instagram and YouTube go really well together. 

Since YouTube isn’t necessarily a social media site and more of a search engine you can combine it with a social media site. 

3. Your story matters

Stories matter. This is why people love watching inspirational stories. It’s why we connect to people who remind us of ourselves. Look at the most popular celebrities. What makes them popular is their relatability. We connect to those who allow us into their world.

This is why telling your story matters. Everyone who writes a book has a story. A reason why they did it. The first story I ever wrote was when I was thirteen. I wrote a story about kids getting abandoned on an island. I know not the most creative story. My reason for the story was escapism. No one but me was going to read it and I was alright with that. 

Your reasons can inspire someone to take action whether it’s simply by following you or even watching out for new content that you release. 

A to z guide to selling digital products

Design and editing process

This isn’t comprehensive. There’s a lot that goes into all this, but if you are totally new than that’s why I want to help you out by giving you an overview of what you should look for. 

1. The message

When you are thinking about your book cover, the formatting and editing you need to understand what you want the message to be. Especially if we’re focusing on the book cover. Your message is important.

It gives an idea of what the book is going to be about. The first thing someone sees is the book cover. The other things are not as important. Get your message wrong and you have lost the audience. 

What message do you get from the below book cover? Write down your answer than look up the plot. Human beings are extremely visual and we pick up on visual cues more than we believe. 

2. Get help

When it comes to book cover design, editing and formatting you can do it by yourself. A little warning though. It’s exhausting. Especially if you are new to all this and like I said before if you don’t have the necessary tools at your disposal it’s tricky. 

Editing you can do for free. You use free editing software or hire a freelance editor. Keep in mind there a numerous ways to edit something. There’s line editing and developmental editing, proofreading and evaluation editing. You can get a beta reader who can help you figure out what is missing. You can get free beta readers or even hire freelance beta readers. 

3. Formatting

This one is by far the easiest, all you need to do is spend time figuring out how to format a book on word the easy way. There are numerous tutorials to help you out here. You can also use a paid service like Chapterly or you can use a free service like Reedsy.    

 

 

 

A to z guide to selling digital products

Kindle direct publishing

Kindle direct publishing isn’t complex however when you are new to it than yeah it can be frustrating. Below is a link to a detailed explanation of how to publish a book on Kindle. 

Kindle direct publishing

A to z guide to selling digital products

Getting reviews

Once you have finished and are ready to publish your book you need to start looking for reviews. When I started I went to my friends and asked for reviews. Many of them were happy to help, but it still is a process asking family and friends for reviews.

Thank God things have gotten easier since then. There are many places you can look for reviews. Here are a few ways you can get reviews. 

1. Family and friends

If you are starting from scratch like I was asking your family and friends for a review is a great way to garner attention for your book. I did this and got a few reviews. 

2. Paid sites

There are numerous paid sites out there and if you have extra cash to spare why not. Plus have a paid review site give you a review can help you stand out from the crowd. 

Below are some of the best ones:

Reader’s Favorite – you can also get a free review but it can take sometime to come out.

Reedsy – This is another great site. All you do is pay $50 and you will get a few great reviews. 

Kirkus Reviews – This one has been around for sometime. It’s on the expensive side but it’s worth it if you have extra cash.

Publisher Weekly – This is the paid version of Booklife, but it’s a great site if you also want credible reviews. Though like Kirkus it is pricey.

Booklife – Booklife does offer free reviews, but not every author who submits a book is chosen. However it is also pricey. As it charges $399 for a 300 word review. 

This isn’t an extensive list. However, when it comes to self-publishing the best thing to do is not to over extend yourself because that can cost you so much time and resources. Choose one paid version and then you can focus mostly on the free book review sites.

3. Free review sites

 Usually when people hear free they want to run for the hills. Not all free review sites are built the same. Some are terrible. Others are great and the few and far between are so amazing you can’t believe that they are free.

Reader’s Favorite –  This is an amazing site and if you receive the five seal this will help you sell your books. However, even if you don’t getting a great review from Reader’s Favorite is an awesome achievement.  The difference between the paid and free reviews is how people review the book and the second is when you will get the book. So if you want a review make sure you submit your book weeks in advance. 

Booklife – Booklife does offer free reviews, but there’s a chance you won’t get a review. They are a little picky on the books they review. It’s still a possibility though. My suggestion is don’t put all your eggs in one basket. 

Pubby – I am still shocked that Pubby doesn’t get as much recognition as it deserves because it is awesome. Maybe it’s because it’s the new kid on the block compared to the others and most people think that you are paying for reviews. This is further from the truth. How pubby works is this? This is a site made by authors for authors. You can do exchanges so you can get a verified review. Pubby has a seven week free trial and then you pay just $8 for a month. So you can use it out and decide whether you want to use it in the future. 

If you are looking for more review sites then go right here

A to z guide to selling digital products

Self-published success stories

Self-publishing is a journey. One that is an amazing experience and you have no idea where it can take you. They are so many people who became self-published authors and became success stories.

I know taking all this is a lot. That’s why I want to end this guide on an inspirational note by showing you all the authors who became bona fide self-publishing gurus all because they took a leap. 

1. Mark Dawson

Mark Dawson is a lawyer by trade who published his first two novels with a traditional publisher, but they weren’t given enough attention and he didn’t make much money from them. That is when he decided to go the self-publishing and that is when his life changed.

His sold millions of copies world wide and has made seven figures from publishing. Not only that but Mark Dawson has become a strong advocate for self-publishing and even teaches other authors how to self-publish. 

2. Christopher Paolini

Do you remember the financial bomb Eragon in 2005. Well that was a long time. Did you know that young Christopher wrote the book when he was just fifteen and it was published later on when he was nineteen. 

He self-published it with his parents help. Alfred Knopf approached him with a publishing deal. Over 35 million copies of the Inheritance Cycle has been sold. Christopher eventually finished his series, but it all started with one self-published book. 

3. Andy Weir

Do you remember The Martian with Matt Damon? Yes that book was self-published and it went to become a motion blockbuster. How it started was Andy posted chapters of his book on his blog. Then his growing fan base asked him to put his book on Amazon. It became an instant bestseller.

Traditional publishers approached him and well that’s how the Martian became a motion blockbuster. 

4. More success stories

There are so many other success stories out there. Here’s the thing you tend to do more self-publishing fiction books compared to non fiction books. However, most non-fiction authors use a book to show their expertise or capabilities. 

Whereas fiction authors can sell more copies. Unless you are Robert Kiyosaki chances are you will need to have an extensive backend. The author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad also self-published way back in 1997. 

As a non-fiction author you will need to have courses, services and other products and the book is just an avenue to get customers to buy your products.

What’s more intimate than a book? You are giving people a glimpse into your thoughts and life. 

Anyway that’s all from me. Hope you enjoyed reading this guide.