“What are the steps to create and publish my book?”
This is the most common question I get from authors—almost every single one asks this during our free strategy call. So today, I’m going to walk you through the entire process, from start to finish.
Preproduction: Your Book Is Born
Strategy
Before you begin writing, start with strategy.
Why do you want to write a book? What are your goals for your book? Do you want it to help you grow your business? Generate leads? Build your personal brand? Help you land speaking engagements?
Who is your target audience? What problem can you help them solve? Narrow down your audience as much as possible, so you can write directly to them. Instead of writing to entrepreneurs, write to new entrepreneurs in your specific industry who are struggling with this specific problem.
Do you want your book to be conceptual and inspirational or tactical and actionable?
Outlining
Once you have a pretty solid idea of the kind of book you want to write and its focus, you can outline it. Most nonfiction books—whether business, leadership, or self-help—are broken down into parts and then chapters.
You want to structure your book in a way that guides the reader through the content and gives them a smooth, pleasant reading experience. When readers start to get confused or bored, they stop reading.
A key part of the outlining process is deciding what information to include and what to leave out. Entrepreneur authors are often tempted to throw everything they know into one book, but there are many problems with this approach. For one, this doesn’t leave them with much opportunity to write more books in the future. But the biggest issue is that this results in a massive book that completely overwhelms the reader.
That’s why it’s so important to narrow down your target audience. Don’t try to help everyone with everything in one book. Instead, help a very specific segment of people with a very specific problem.
Writing
Writing is the lengthiest stage of the book creation process. This is where your spark of an idea becomes a full-fledged manuscript.
Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs struggle to make it out of this stage, and their books never reach the hands of their audience. Sometimes it’s due to lack of motivation or lack of focus, but most often, it comes down to time. Entrepreneurs are busy.
Ghostwriting is always an option, but if you want to write your book yourself, you’ve got to work out the time problem. An excellent way to do that is by working with a writing coach who will help you build a timeline, hold you accountable to it, and give you feedback and guidance as you write.
Editing
It’s never a bad idea for an author to make some revisions to their finished draft, but that doesn’t substitute for professional editing. Professional editing is non-negotiable. Even if you’re dead set on DIYing every other aspect of your book, I implore you to hire an editor.
An editor will clean up little details like fixing typos and grammatical errors, but they’ll also help you identify larger issues before publishing. Maybe you shift from a serious tone to a comical tone halfway through the book. Maybe you have the same content repeated nearly verbatim in two different chapters. You don’t want your readers to be the ones to point out those mistakes.
Postproduction: Your Book Becomes Tangible
Once your book is fully edited, it moves into post-production. The focus here is on your basic publishing strategy and your book’s cover and interior design. You may even choose to produce an audiobook version.
Basic Publishing Strategy
Finalize Title and Subtitle
If you haven’t yet, now is the time to finalize your title and subtitle. Your book has likely evolved a bit during writing and editing, and the title you initially had in mind may not still be the best fit. Read through your polished book, reflect on its purpose, audience, and key message, and choose a title-subtitle combination that communicates those details clearly.
Choose Publishing Platform
What platform are you going to use to publish your book? Popular options for self-published authors include Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Barnes & Noble Press, IngramSpark, and Draft2Digital. Most authors I work with opt to use KDP—primarily because it is free and convenient, as a large percentage of all book sales occur on Amazon.
If you want an audiobook, you’ll need to choose a platform for it as well. Audible’s Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) is the most common.
Nail Down Print Book Specs
Once you know where you’re publishing your book, you’ll need to decide on its print specifications. This information is necessary before your book can move into the design phase.
Specs will vary by publishing platform, but generally, you’ll need to know:
- What trim size your book will have
- If the interior will be in color or black and white
- If your cover will have a matte finish or a glossy finish
Book Blurb
The last thing you need before moving into the design phase is your book’s blurb. This is a short 150- to 200-word description of your book that will be displayed on the back cover of your book and on its online listing.
Your blurb should be a concise summary that piques potential readers’ attention and entices them to buy your book.
Design
For many authors, the design stage is where the finish line finally comes into sight. The hardest part of the process is behind them, and now they get to watch their book transform into its tangible form.
Interior Graphics (Optional)
Whether your book includes graphics is entirely up to you, but if you ask me, they’re a valuable addition. Graphics provide readers with a visual breakdown of concepts that they may have difficulty understanding with written explanations alone.
If you choose to include graphics, they must be complete before your book moves to layout design.
Layout Design
Next, your manuscript needs layout design to turn it into a professionally formatted book that meets industry standards, as well any requirements of your chosen publishing platform and print specifications. You will need two separate files: a print-ready PDF and a reflowable e-publication file for your ebook.
Cover Design
The front cover for your book can realistically be created at any point once you’ve finalized your title and subtitle, but your full print cover can’t be created until the layout design is finalized.
That’s because the file will include your front cover, spine, and back cover all in one connected design, and the spine has to match the exact width of your print book. You won’t have that information until you know exactly how many pages are in your final print layout file.
You’ll also need a standalone front cover file adjusted to ebook specifications, and if you’re publishing an audiobook, you’ll need another version adjusted to the platform’s requirements.
Audiobook (Optional)
Many authors choose to create an audiobook version of their book. Audiobooks are becoming increasingly popular—if you decide not to create one, you may miss out on a segment of your audience.
Audiobook Narration
Will you narrate your own audiobook, or will you elect to have it read by voice talent?
If you’re narrating it yourself, you’ll need to have access to the proper equipment and environment for recording. Not only do your listeners deserve a smooth listening experience, but audiobook publishers have strict quality standards. Files that don’t meet minimum requirements will be rejected, delaying your timeline.
Audiobook Production
After your audio is recorded, an audio engineer will need to edit it to cut out bad takes, reduce background noises, level the volume, and ensure files meet the publishing platform’s specifications.
Publishing: Your Book Enters the World
The last step of creating your book is getting it out into the world—publishing!
Publication Date
One of the first details you’ll need to input is your publication date. When selecting a date, keep in mind the typical processing times for your selected publishing platform. Avoid announcing a date to your friends, family, and followers until your book has been submitted and approved.
If you’re publishing an audiobook, you’ll need to factor this into your timeline as well. Depending on your audiobook publishing platform, there may be other variables to consider. For example, to claim your title and publish on ACX, you must first have an ebook listing on Amazon.
Marketing Data
Next, you’ll need to enter in information that will help potential readers find your book and be motivated to read it.
Description
Your book’s description will be displayed on its listing page. Typically, this is the same blurb from the back cover of the book, sometimes preceded by the author’s accolades or a review from a prominent voice.
Categories, Subcategories, and Placement
Next, you’ll decide how your book should be categorized. This will affect which books it will be grouped with and where readers will come across it.
Available categories vary by platform, but authors I work with often select options such as “Self Help,” “Business & Money,” and “Health, Fitness, & Dieting.”
Subcategories get into slightly more focused areas. There are dozens of options here, but a few my authors commonly select are “Business Development & Entrepreneurship,” “Business Life,” and “Management & Leadership.”
If using KDP, you’ll also be prompted to select your book’s placement, based on your categories and subcategories. Here, you’ll see more specific breakdowns by topic. For example, if you chose “Management & Leadership,” some of your placement options will include “General,” “Leadership,” “Motivational,” “Systems & Planning,” and “Teams.”
Keywords
Keywords play a large role in your book’s searchability. Consider your target audience and the search queries they may use when looking for help. If your book helps hopeful entrepreneurs start a business, strong keywords could include “how to start a business,” “business start up,” and “small business ideas.”
Distribution and Pricing
When making decisions around distribution and pricing, keep in mind that book sales are likely not the primary way you’ll see an ROI. Set your prices too high, and you might miss out on readers and fail to achieve your real goals for the book.
Distribution
A key distribution decision you’ll need to make is whether you want to purchase your own ISBN (International Standard Book Number) or use a free one provided by your self-publishing platform. Every book must have an ISBN, and the ISBN’s owner is listed as the publisher. If you use a free ISBN from KDP, KDP will be listed as the publisher, and there will be limitations on where your book can be distributed.
Depending on the platform, you may be given a few more distribution options. When publishing an ebook on KDP for example, you’ll be asked if you want to enroll in KDP Select. This program is advertised to help you reach more readers, but it comes with some tradeoffs; it limits where your book can be distributed, and its promotional prices can reduce what you receive in royalties.
Be sure to research any available distribution options and weigh the pros and cons. If your rights over your book will be limited, that’s something you’ll want to consider carefully.
Pricing
One of the final decisions you’ll make before submitting your book for publishing is how you’ll price it. A major factor in this decision is your royalty plan, meaning how much money you’ll earn per book sale.
Some self-publishing platforms offer more than one royalty plan, and it can be tempting to automatically choose the one with the highest royalty percentage. However, higher royalty plans often place a limit on your book’s minimum and maximum list price and come with other fine details that cut into your earnings.
Your publishing platform will also set a minimum list price based on the print specifications you’ve selected. Your book’s size, paper quality, interior color, and cover type will factor in here.
You need to also take into consideration your target audience and how much money they’d be willing to spend on your book. Most readers are willing to spend more on a print book than they are for an ebook, and some people will be wary of spending a lot of money on a book from a first-time author.
A good strategy is to look at comparable books in your industry that have been successful and price yours somewhere below those. Many new authors also run promotions to build momentum with an early boost in sales and reviews.
Submitting Your Book
The last step in the process is submitting your book for publishing. This step seems simple—and it is if you have all the right files with all the right specs. But layout and cover files don’t meet the necessary requirements, your book will be rejected, and your publishing date may be delayed.
Or if the publishing platform is experiencing a higher-than-average volume of submissions, their approval process may take longer than anticipated. Build some buffer time into your timeline to account for these possibilities.
Investing Time vs. Money
A great deal of time and energy goes into creating a book. That’s why at Aha! Editorial, we offer full-service packages for self-publishing entrepreneurs. We streamline the process by handling everything in-house with a team of vetted professionals.
Skip the guesswork, and hit the easy button—if that sounds like something you’re interested in, book a free strategy call.
Owner of Aha! Editorial
