5 basic points you need to consider before publishing any book!
Thanks to Amazon, book publishing has become very easy and anyone from any corner of the world with a computer and internet can do that with just a few simple clicks. Anybody can be a writer these days, even cats and dogs, and that is actually not a bad thing after all. But vanity has its own limitation, it comes with a very short expiry date and your fifteen minutes fame can come and go in a blink of an eye.
However, if you are a serious writer with firm belief, determination and passion, you have to come up with much better plans than a vanity writer and be well prepared to grind it through. Writing is undoubtedly one of the harshest professions, it is also much neglected as well as unappreciated one, and eking out a living out of writing is needless to say extremely hard.
Experts say, only 5-10% of the writers make decent living through actual writing, half of them earn living through catering other wannabe writers, and the rests are just there to make up the numbers. If I were to talk from the heart, I have hardly seen a writer with an easy and comfortable life. It might be wrong but statics don’t lie.
You bled to write the book, got a nice cover and finally downloaded on Amazon’s site. Your job is done, all you have to do now is to wait and start reaping the rewards that you deserve. If you think that way, sorry to inform you that but you will be hugely disappointed. There are millions of books out there in the market, tens of thousands of more new books adding up in a daily basis, and readers are spoiled with choices.
In fact, writing is the easiest part, the real work starts after you have finished the actual writing and sadly it is where most writers like you and me fail. There must be thousands of reasons why we fail or succeed. Besides hard work, perseverance and good connection, luck also plays a big role and there are only few things that one can do as a writer.
Anyway, these are the five basic points that need to be considered before any publication.
1. Book’s title – We writers usually make up our mind with the first title and hardly tend to change it later on. It is sort of emotional thing and tweaking on our original work is like playing with our own emotions which is needless to say, very hard. But having a nice, catchy and interesting title can be a big plus, experts say and I tend to agree with them as well. Books with long and uninspiring title can turn people off and they won’t be reading your book again. Therefore, putting a little bit of effort on your book’s title might pay off at the end.
2. Book’s cover – Don’t judge the book by its cover! We must have heard it almost hundred times but people actually judge book by its cover. We also say ‘first impression is the last impression and that turned out to be quite true as well. A nice and attractive cover can make that decision easy and sell more books. That’s why we should pay more attention on book cover and hire a professional. It doesn’t mean you have to break the bank, there are plenty of very good and reasonable book cover makers out there and all you have to do is ask your author friends or search on the internet.
3. Sample page – Sample page is only needed when you apply for a pre-order launch at Amazon, it means the book is only available in later days, and you haven’t put the whole manuscript there yet. It is like a teaser, a trailer like for a movie, and people would order your book after looking at the sample page. Therefore, it has to be catchy, interesting and a very nicely written piece. This is certainly not an easy for all, even great writers can struggle and we are just the beginners. All I am saying here is we just have to give our best. Once your book is published, the first few pages of your book will be your sample page. That’s editing is very important and you should never publish a book without proper editing. There are many editors out there, choose the best one as per your need and don’t go for the low price. You should never skip on the editing part.
4. Description – Description is probably the most important part of book selling. It has to be not only appropriate, pithy and brilliantly written but also very enticing as well and make people wanting to read your book. People mostly make the decision after reading the description and the writing should help make their decision easier. But of course, it is easier said than done. I have already made few changes on my books and I still have to perfect it. Experts say, the best way to write a good description is to check on the books of top sellers from your genre, see how they have written the description of their books and learn from them. If not, hire a professional content writer and hope for the best.
5. Price – It is undoubtedly the most important factor of book selling. Don’t make the same mistake like I did when I published my first books. My books were priced at $9.99 for e-book, I did actually check on the famous writers and their books were priced at $15-$16 per e-book and I genuinely thought that my price was reasonable. Needless to say, I was way off the mark, e-book by a new writer like me shouldn’t cost more than $2.99 at the highest, and believe it or not, most books sold today as e-books are priced at $0.99, $1.99 and $2.99. Therefore, if you don’t want to get stuck there at the bottom, don’t price yourself out of the market from the very beginning. Experts say, the best starting point is at $0.99, and then raise the price up in a gradual manner as your readers grow.
Hope this was helpful.
Gentle reminder: Please note that I never write as an expert, I only write as my own experiences and you should take it only as a reference. Thank you for the reading!
TIM I GURUNG/AUTHOR AT ISSLCARE – http://www.timigurung.com
However, if you are a serious writer with firm belief, determination and passion, you have to come up with much better plans than a vanity writer and be well prepared to grind it through. Writing is undoubtedly one of the harshest professions, it is also much neglected as well as unappreciated one, and eking out a living out of writing is needless to say extremely hard.
Experts say, only 5-10% of the writers make decent living through actual writing, half of them earn living through catering other wannabe writers, and the rests are just there to make up the numbers. If I were to talk from the heart, I have hardly seen a writer with an easy and comfortable life. It might be wrong but statics don’t lie.
You bled to write the book, got a nice cover and finally downloaded on Amazon’s site. Your job is done, all you have to do now is to wait and start reaping the rewards that you deserve. If you think that way, sorry to inform you that but you will be hugely disappointed. There are millions of books out there in the market, tens of thousands of more new books adding up in a daily basis, and readers are spoiled with choices.
In fact, writing is the easiest part, the real work starts after you have finished the actual writing and sadly it is where most writers like you and me fail. There must be thousands of reasons why we fail or succeed. Besides hard work, perseverance and good connection, luck also plays a big role and there are only few things that one can do as a writer.
Anyway, these are the five basic points that need to be considered before any publication.
1. Book’s title – We writers usually make up our mind with the first title and hardly tend to change it later on. It is sort of emotional thing and tweaking on our original work is like playing with our own emotions which is needless to say, very hard. But having a nice, catchy and interesting title can be a big plus, experts say and I tend to agree with them as well. Books with long and uninspiring title can turn people off and they won’t be reading your book again. Therefore, putting a little bit of effort on your book’s title might pay off at the end.
2. Book’s cover – Don’t judge the book by its cover! We must have heard it almost hundred times but people actually judge book by its cover. We also say ‘first impression is the last impression and that turned out to be quite true as well. A nice and attractive cover can make that decision easy and sell more books. That’s why we should pay more attention on book cover and hire a professional. It doesn’t mean you have to break the bank, there are plenty of very good and reasonable book cover makers out there and all you have to do is ask your author friends or search on the internet.
3. Sample page – Sample page is only needed when you apply for a pre-order launch at Amazon, it means the book is only available in later days, and you haven’t put the whole manuscript there yet. It is like a teaser, a trailer like for a movie, and people would order your book after looking at the sample page. Therefore, it has to be catchy, interesting and a very nicely written piece. This is certainly not an easy for all, even great writers can struggle and we are just the beginners. All I am saying here is we just have to give our best. Once your book is published, the first few pages of your book will be your sample page. That’s editing is very important and you should never publish a book without proper editing. There are many editors out there, choose the best one as per your need and don’t go for the low price. You should never skip on the editing part.
4. Description – Description is probably the most important part of book selling. It has to be not only appropriate, pithy and brilliantly written but also very enticing as well and make people wanting to read your book. People mostly make the decision after reading the description and the writing should help make their decision easier. But of course, it is easier said than done. I have already made few changes on my books and I still have to perfect it. Experts say, the best way to write a good description is to check on the books of top sellers from your genre, see how they have written the description of their books and learn from them. If not, hire a professional content writer and hope for the best.
5. Price – It is undoubtedly the most important factor of book selling. Don’t make the same mistake like I did when I published my first books. My books were priced at $9.99 for e-book, I did actually check on the famous writers and their books were priced at $15-$16 per e-book and I genuinely thought that my price was reasonable. Needless to say, I was way off the mark, e-book by a new writer like me shouldn’t cost more than $2.99 at the highest, and believe it or not, most books sold today as e-books are priced at $0.99, $1.99 and $2.99. Therefore, if you don’t want to get stuck there at the bottom, don’t price yourself out of the market from the very beginning. Experts say, the best starting point is at $0.99, and then raise the price up in a gradual manner as your readers grow.
Hope this was helpful.
Gentle reminder: Please note that I never write as an expert, I only write as my own experiences and you should take it only as a reference. Thank you for the reading!
TIM I GURUNG/AUTHOR AT ISSLCARE – http://www.timigurung.com
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