I. Book Idea Validation

Before you even write your book, you need to make sure there is a market for it, and that you’re aware of the competition you]re facing for it. Follow these steps to ensure that, when you publish, you actually stand a chance to make sales.

Identify Your Target Market

Define your target audience by crafting “proto-personas,” i.e., ideal target readers for your book. If your book isn’t aimed at a specific, existing market, it won’t sell.

Determine if Your Market is Big Enough

Research Amazon categories and keywords related to your book and make sure there is a demand for your book idea. (check their rankings)

Analyze the Competition

Check which books are ranking #1, #2, and #3 on Amazon for your target keywords/categories. Determine if you can realistically compete with them.

Write an Awesome Book Idea

Once you have a clear idea of whom you’re writing for, and what you want to write, it’s time to sit down and put pen to paper. But that is another subject, so we’ll skip straight to the editing stage.

II.       Editing

When you’ve produced a manuscript draft that you can’t take any further on your own, it’s time to seek the help of professional editors. The editing process takes place in several stages, and the editors you work with will be in charge of keeping your ship on track, making any course adjustments when necessary.

Editorial Assessment

The editor reads through the entire manuscript and provides thoughtful, in-depth feedback concerning elements such as plot, characterization, structure, consistency and style.

Developmental Editor

Once the story is well-defined, a developmental editor examines all the elements of your writing, from the structure to the content, and provides both line-level edits and feedback on overarching structure and style.

Copy Editing

Copy editors go through your manuscript word by word, focusing on the little things we tend not to think about: quotes and number formatting, grammar, spelling mistakes, and glaring inconsistencies.

Proofreading

Proofreading is the ultimate polish on the manuscript before it goes to the printer or digital press. It’s a last check to catch anything the copy editor may have missed.

III.    Book Cover Design

Your cover design is your greatest sales tool, or your largest burden. With this in mind, consider the following before settling on a final design:

- Does you cover capture the tone and genre of your book?

- Does it differentiate your work from other books in the genre?

- Can you easily read the title on the cover, even as a thumbnail?

- Do you need a cover for a print book, an e-book, or both?

- Does it look amateurish, and will it stick out like a sore thumb on a

bookstore shelf?

IV.   Book Interior Design

The design of your book’s interior will determine the way readers experience your content. Every small decision matters, from your choice of fonts and spacing to the styling of your chapter headings.

Formatting decisions will differ depending on your book:

- Whether it contains illustrations, graphics, charts and graphs.

- Whether it’s an illustrated, technical or children’s book.

V.         Marketing and Promotion

With so many books out there, one of the hardest parts of self-publishing is making your book stand out. There are plenty of strategies available for marketing your book and it’s easy to get lost is a sea of tweeting, blogging and e-mailing to no avail. Plus, marketing is an on-going task and building an audience can take time. You want to build up a readership by the time you launch your book, so you should start marketing your book even while you’re writing it.

- Networking. Interact with other authors, influencers, and journalists in your area. Read and comment on their works, and let them know you’re working on a book of your own as well.

- Create social media accounts

- Set up Mailing List. Use Mailchimp or Mailerlite and start growing your list through content(blogs) or giveaways.

- Build your Street Team and send ARCs. Put together a “street team” to launch the book and garner reviews. Send you street team ARCs (Advanced Review Copies) so that they leave you reviews at launch.

- Build Your Author Website. Set up your author website. Your website should include an author promotion page, a contact page, direct links to your social media, and a sign-up button to register for your mailing list.

- Get Press Coverage.

VI.      Pre-Launch Marketing Strategy

- Newsletter. Define your newsletter strategy and content schedule. If you are considering a long-term author career, engaging in e-mail marketing is essential for keeping your readers up-to-date.

- Reader Magnets. Having your readers sign up to your newsletter or leave a review of your book is crucial. Once you have a book out there, an easy way to build a following is to create a “reader magnet” that you advertise both on your website and in the front and back matter of your books.

- Price Promotions. As soon as your book is published, plan a limited-time price promotion and advertise it through your own sites and through price promotion sites: Bookbub, Bargainbooksy/Freebooksy, Kindle Nation Daily, The Fussy Librarian, BookGorilla, Booksends, etc.

- Amazon Optimization. Keep testing new blurbs, keywords, and categories. Link your different books together through their metadata.

- Blogging and Social Media. Blogging tends to be more effective in the non-fiction realm. It’s a good way to keep your readers engaged with new content even when not releasing new books.

- Advertising. Define a Facebook and Amazon advertising strategy and start testing with budget as low as $5/day. In parallel, build a spreadsheet to keep track of your key metrics and adjust your ad strategy accordingly.