Flirty & Feisty Romance Blog...spice up your relationships: I Have Written A Book

Friday 12 June 2020

I Have Written A Book - What Next? #BookPublishing

WELCOME TO WRITING TIPS!!!

Longing for You ~ A BWWM Sweet & Steamy Romance

To experience and enjoy a racing pulse, an elevated heart rate, laughter & a scorching skin, read Longing for You.

Hello Romance Lovers,

Every now and again, people ask me what to do next, after they have written their books.

So, I decided to blog about what your next steps should be if you have now written your book. I'm assuming you have edited your book, got an attractive book cover and written a catchy blurb to get readers attention.

Pre-Publishing Questions
What genre is your book?
This is critical. if you are writing a romance novel like me, then check Amazon to see what kind of covers are on romance books.

What is your sub-genre?
For example, Romance is a broad genre that includes many sub-genres: contemporary, historical, erotic, romantic suspense, Christian, clean, time travel, paranormal (sci-fi, fantasy) and young adult.

There are many others that narrow the sub-genre further such as interracial romance, sports romance, African American romance, BWWM (black woman white man) romance, biker romance, billionaire romance etc.

If your book is not quite ready, click here to find tips.
If you are sluggish to complete your book, read 14 reasons to stay motivated to write.
If you are struggling to write a blurb, click here.
Get rid of the common errors in your book before publishing.

Now You Are Ready To Publish
You might ask; 'Which publishing platform should I try?'

I ask you; Do you want to send your manuscript (unpublished work) to a traditional book publisher?
OR
Do you want to self-publish?

I have self-published 32 books in 10 yrs through God's grace.

If you choose to self-publish, here are several steps to follow:

Self-Publishers
Once you decide to self-publish, here are the popular online self-publishers;

You might ask; 'How easy is it to publish on each platform?'

Choosing Self-Publishing Platform
1. Amazon and Draft2Digital are EASY platforms to publish your eBooks. They both accept word documents!

2. Smashwords accepts word, but it has to be formatted to a requirement I can't achieve most of the time. If you don't meet the peculiar requirement, your book will not be submitted into the premium category.

That means your book will not get distributed to Apple Books and other online retailers. Don't worry, there is a substitute in D2D.

3. Thankfully, once you publish on Draft2Digital, your eBook gets distributed to the same online retailers where Smashwords also circulates your books.

4. Okada Books is a Nigerian-owned website. It's fairly easy to publish your book on the site. But you will need to convert your book to an ePub format before uploading.

Readers from all over the world buy books from Okada books website or App. You can download the app on your phone.

Set up An Account
To publish your book on any of the platforms, you need to set up an account with Amazon, D2D, Okada Books etc. If you reside in Nigeria or Africa, there are challenges to setting up an account on Amazon maybe because there are no reliable post codes.

You also have to fill a tax form provided by the publisher. Once you have done that, you are ready for the next step.

Publishing Process - Amazon KDP
After you log in,
Click on Bookshelf.
Under Create a New Title, click on +Kindle ebook.
If you want to publish a paperback, click on +Paperback
The subsequent steps are easy to complete.

1. Complete the boxes indicated as required.
Under Kindle eBook Details

Language
Book Title
Sub-title
Series Information
Edition number
Primary Author
Contributors - you might include your editor.
Description - Add your book description.
Publishing Rights - Did you write the book? If so, indicate it there.
Keywords: See explanation in step 2.
Categories: Browsing sites where readers can find your book. Is it in the self-help, romance, fiction section?
Age/Grade: Select readers ages for your books.
Preorder: Are you ready to release or you want to set up a date for release in the future.

2. Choose Keywords:

Enter up to 7 search keywords that describe your book. This step is vital. Think about the various words readers might type to search for books like yours (in your genre). Those are the keywords you need here. It will help readers find your book easily.

3. Upload your book in word document format on the next page after you have saved.

4. Upload your book cover in JPEG format

5. Click to turn on Digital Rights Management (DRM) - this prevents your book from being shared online.

6. Select your distribution channels.

7. Set the price to sell your books.

8. Click to publish.
All done! Such a relief mixed with joy.

Distribution Channels
1. If you click the worldwide distribution button during the publishing process, Amazon makes your eBook available on 13 market places including:

US
UK
France
Germany
Spain
Italy
Netherlands
India
Japan
Brazil
Mexico
Canada
Australia

However, Amazon does not distribute your eBook to other retailers such as Apple Books, Nook etc.

But Amazon distributes Paperback to other retailers in the Expanded Distribution Channel.

2 Draft2Digital distributes your eBooks to the following online retailers & libraries within a few day to less than a week:

Apple Books (iBooks)
Kobo
Barnes & Noble Nook
Scribd
Tolino
Baker & Taylor
Vivilio
24Symbols
Overdrive
Bibliotheca
Hoopla (has long processing times).

Wait for Feedback from Self-Publishers
If you followed all the steps, you will get a congratulations your book is available message from Amazon in your email after a day or two.

For Smashwords and Okada Books, your buy links are instantly generated! There is no waiting period.

For D2D, you can monitor the channels on which your book have been published via your Author Dashboard page.

In the past, they sent emails every time your book was published on each channel. But this has not happened in recent times.

Now your book is published, what next?
Good question, writer! The next phase of your workload begins with PROMOTION.

You have to promote your published book.

If you don't promote your book online, readers are not going to find it. Imagine you walk into a bookstore and your book is not on the shelf. If your book isn't even on the bookshelf, how can readers find it to buy?

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Also to come in the Writing Tips series are:
Creating Book Covers.
Book Promotion.

Click the JOIN button on the right so you don't miss any of my posts.

I wish you the very best in your writing journey.

Let me know if this post was helpful.

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To God's glory, my New Book titled; Longing for You: A BWWM Sweet & Steamy Romance has been Amazon #1 New Release in African Literature since June 1st 2020, a day after its release.