Publishing Tips for Self-Publishers

From the Girls Friday

 A significant mistake authors commonly make is to think of marketing as something that happens after their book is written. A good writer keeps that “ideal reader” at the heart of their work. This awareness of the marketplace doesn’t cheapen the act of writing; rather, it does readers a favor by tailoring your message and increasing the chance you’ll effect the change you want to make as an author. Writing is a creative process; publishing is a business.
—Leslie “LAM” Miller, CEO

Your readers are busy people, with a million things competing for their attention. Give them something they want. Focus on adding joy, knowledge, inspiration, beauty to their lives. Write for them, not for you.
—Christina Henry de Tessan, Chief Partnerships Officer

Writing the book is just the beginning, but each step of the publishing process has value and takes time. Trying to fast-forward through edits or design or marketing to hit an earlier publication date will not serve you or your book well.
—Katherine Richards, Production Editor

For editorial continuity, ask your copyeditor to deliver a thorough style sheet, which the proofreader will reference during their subsequent pass. Read-throughs by friends and acquaintances are great for general feedback but are no substitute for professional editing.
—Dave Valencia, Director of Production

If you plan on using any materials inside your book that you didn’t personally create—these could be quotes, tables, images, other graphic materials, etc.—keep a running list of where you found these elements. This list will be massively helpful to you later in the process. You will need to credit the original sources of the borrowed material and, most importantly, ask the rights holders for permission to use snippets of their work inside your book.
—Bethany Davis, Editorial Production Manager

The author’s job is to tell a great story, it’s the publishing team’s job to make them look good doing it.
—Karen Upson, Director of Sales

When selecting a designer, look closely at the covers of books that are similar in subject matter to yours (these are called “comp titles”). The design partner you select should have a portfolio to match both your vision and the customs of the genre. When reaching out to designers, pay close attention to their response (and response time!)—a designer’s pleasantness and promptness is equally important to their talent.
—Paul Barrett, Art Director

Building an email list of subscribers is one great way to build your community and reach your readers directly. A person’s inbox is precious space these days, so consider offering a freebie—like the first few chapters of your forthcoming book—to entice readers to join your list.
—Rachel Marek, Senior Designer

You will be so relieved in the end that you’ve put in the time and effort to do it right—to do the cover research; to understand the marketplace for your genre; to optimize it strategically; to root out those pesky typos; to nail the title; and get that copy just right. It can feel like a lot, but your book is a reflection of you. So give it the time and expertise it deserves.
—Christina Henry de Tessan, Chief Partnerships Officer

There are thousands of excellent books published that never see the light of day. In order to give your book the best chance of success, you need a comprehensive marketing plan—and the willingness to allocate some funds to grabbing readers’ attention. A good rule of thumb is to devote about 50 percent of your budget to marketing and the other half to the production of the book itself.
—Meghan Harvey, Chief Strategy Officer

Connecting with your readers is an essential part of marketing any book. And an important way to build these connections and increase visibility is through your author platform. Essentially, your author platform is created by developing and maintaining different channels that you can use to showcase and circulate your work. Those channels can include a website, email newsletter, social media presence, speaking engagements, online or in-person classes or workshops, and partnering with influential people or brands. Building your author platform does take time, but the work you put in to creating content and increasing connections will be worth it because it is something you own completely and will have with you for every book you write.
—Adria Batt, Marketing Strategist

Social media is one of the best places to form a relationship with your readers. Take the time to truly connect with your tribe through posts, videos, and live sessions. Once you establish a community, this is the group of people that will hype you on their own blogs, podcasts, and amongst their friends. Keep in mind, one doesn’t build an audience of thousands overnight. It’s never too early to start.
—Heena Aswani, Marketing Strategist

Find a social media platform that feels authentic to you and that you can commit to participating in consistently. Aim to be a star on that one platform, rather than scattered across many.
—Meghan Harvey, Chief Strategy Officer

Think of your author website as your own little slice of the internet. The various distribution and social media platforms each have their own layouts, trends, and algorithms that we’re all beholden to, but on your author website you get to decide what content to feature—without a character limit to stand in your way.
—Rachel Marek, Senior Designer

Having realistic goals will directly affect your morale and motivation. There are other ways to validate your work than simply being a New York Times bestseller, such as hundreds of glowing reader reviews, editorial praise, award accolades, Amazon #1 ranking, and more. Don’t cling to one success metric; success comes in many stripes.
—Georgie Hockett, Director of Marketing

A lot of authors make the mistake of thinking that marketing = attention-grabbing. Tactics used at the top of the funnel—those that get your book in front of new readers and facilitate discovery of your work—only result in sales if several other factors are addressed. These “mid-funnel” factors are called conversion factors, or elements that influence the potential readers’ decision to purchase a book, once they’ve discovered it. Conversion factors include things like reader reviews, accolades, third-party reviews that legitimize the book, the cover design itself, the book description itself, and awards. Focusing only on discovery tactics and failing to put effort into conversion factors is akin to spending a lot of money to drive readers to your “store” and watching them turn away at the door.
—Meghan Harvey, Chief Strategy Officer

There are very few products that have more than 30 million competitors on the same “shelf.” Without marketing, the book that you have invested time, energy, and money, is virtually invisible.
—Katie Meyers, Senior Strategist

The moment you decide to publish your book is the time to start talking about it. You need many months to build up your social media channels, find new followers, connect with fellow authors, line up guest blog appearances, schedule readings, etc. Give your book the successful runway it needs to have the most impact.
—Georgie Hockett, Director of Marketing

Success is about positioning, research, a realistic assessment of what books sell and why. It is not enough to write a great story. You need to understand the entire journey your book will take to get into readers’ hands. That knowledge is power.
—Christina Henry de Tessan, Chief Partnerships Officer

Publish your book not because you need it to hit sales benchmarks. Publish your book because your story matters: it’s well written, it’s a gorgeous calling card for your business, it will change someone’s point of view, it will give a reader joy. Know that your story is worthy.
—Georgie Hockett, Director of Marketing