6 steps to start selling your first book on Self-publishing platform

Imagine you’ve written a brilliant novel – perhaps an epic space adventure about a sarcastic robot or a post-apocalyptic tale about how household appliances have taken over the world. And you’re convinced people will like it. But how do you make money from this masterpiece? Fortunately, things are not like they were 20 years ago, when the only way to get a book published was to convince a publisher – often a man named Nigel with always indifferent face – to read and evaluate your manuscript and then wait about two weeks just to receive a letter beginning with, “Dear Author, Thank you, but…”. These days, thankfully, there are self-publishing platforms where you can throw your book in people’s faces and hope they don’t duck. Here are six simple steps you can take to go from an unknown writer to an unknown writer with a published book.

Step 1: Create a Book Cover and Title

You may have heard the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” and it could seem profound to you. But it’s not. The sad truth is that most people judge books almost exclusively by the cover and maybe the font of the title. Your cover and title should be enticing and promise a truly interesting and enjoyable pastime. In fact, the cover and title make up about 50% of your book’s success.

If you are an artist or designer, you can draw it yourself. For inspiration, you can look at other book covers in your genre. Of course, don’t copy them; just look at what others are doing and try to do it a little better. Or at least not worse. If you have never worked in Photoshop, you can ask AI for help. Nowadays, covers are often generated using neural networks like Midjourney or Dall-E (just by text descriptions), but unfortunately, humans have become so good at detecting AI images that such covers fail the Turing Test and are somewhat disgusting. You can also hire a freelance illustrator somewhere on Fiverr or Upwork - you will have to pay, but it might be worth it.

Step 2: Write a Short book description

Once you have an amazing cover, it's time to write a description of the book - that short paragraph that separates you from the reader clicking "Buy" or going off to watch cat videos. By the way, this is a very interesting activity: you compress the entire lump of meanings of your book into a few short, intriguing sentences. You may find that writing a short text takes much more time than writing a long one. This is because every word should have a value. Write it, then rewrite it and rewrite it again. Ask your friends if this paragraph makes them curious.

Step 3: Sign up on Self-publishing platform

There are a several platforms, but the most popular is Kindle Direct Publishing, which is used by all those people who read black e-ink tablets with label "Kindle". It's also powered by mysterious AI algorithms that might (suddenly) think your book is interesting to certain readers basing on their reading history. When signing up you submit basic information like your name, email address and a proof that you actually exist somewhere on this planet. They'll also need your bank account details so they can send you what is left after Jeff Bezos has taken his commission.

Step 4: Format the eBook

Formatting the eBook means turning your brilliant manuscript into a standard file. Self-publishing platforms usually accept Word or EPUB documents. If Word is a clear thing - although it's painfully complex, but familiar from childhood, then EPUB - should be generated somehow. With this task ebook format converters and editors like Sigil can help. And if you are very serious about becoming a professional writer - you can write the text in a specialized program, such as Scrivener or Vellum, which are more like a visual builder for books, but are quite convenient for writing, formatting and can export your book in the desired format. When the book file is ready - you upload it to the platform, click "Preview" and usually find that, despite everything, page 53 still looks crooked. Don't panic - you're almost there.

Step 5: Set a price for your book

Now about the price. You might think, “Nobody’s going to pay for a book of an unknown author, so maybe it should be free.” However, that’s not right. It turns out that people also aren’t interested in a free book by unknown author. They’d rather pay money to get something worthwhile, so if your book is priced reasonably, there is a chance that worth it. Look at the prices of similar books already published on the platform and set a similar price. In any case, most self-publishing platforms don’t allow you to offer books for free because they don’t like selfless authors who don’t make money themselves and don’t share with them.

Step 6: Get Reviews

Congratulations, your book is now available for everyone. The problem is that it’s flying in a universe full of other books vying for attention. You can, of course, rely only on the mysterious AI matching algorithms, but it is better to help yourself - get reviews (preferably positive ones). At this stage, you ask every friend, relative or colleague to buy your book (naturally, in exchange for a beer) and leave a few kind words (and, perhaps, read it). And then, if the AI suggests your book to a random reader - she will see that others have already read the book and may think, why not do the same.

Once you run out of friends, you can try to bribe people with your charm on social networks. Do not write reviews yourself with the help of AI or dive into the dark world of paid reviews (this is a risky game for which you can be permanently banned from the platform). In any case, reviews will gradually accumulate and if you are lucky, one or two strangers may like your book so much that they tell others about it - and before you know it, you will have your own fan club of fans.

See also: Top 5 eBook self-publishing platforms