I was thinking of writing a series of posts about it here, but I'm happy to help you out!
The main platform I used was Leanpub. It is really easy to get started with, developer-friendly, free, and plays nicely with other tools you'll need.
To write my book I used an application called Highland 2 which is Mac only, and I wrote using Markdown. To motivate me through the process of writing I signed up for NaNoWriMo and then told everyone that I was going to write a book. In April of 2019 I wrote 52,000 words. That is close to 200 pages.
The rest of the steps are kind of specific in terms of cover designs, editors, ISBNs, and getting into Amazon.
If I could go back I would have started marketing before I wrote my first word.
I am going to lean on email marketing as my primary method of getting my book out.
So I started a newsletter!
I work to attract people to sign up to it, and then I make it a point to send something helpful to the people who do sign up. I wind up with a community of people who trust and vouch for me and will then buy this book, future books, classes, etc.
If I had started that first, I could have vetted the contents as I wrote, tested pricing, collected more stories from everyone, etc. When my book was done more than likely most of the people would have happily bought it.
FYI: The total cost for me to self publish was around $900. I got off lucky at that price.
Sounds like a good strategy for a book. 🙂 Did you learn email marketing somewhere? Or you're just figuring it out as you go?
And where can I sign up for your newsletter? 🤓
I was introduced to Tim Grahl's material on book marketing. I've been working through it. I will say that most of his easy to get material is very high level, so it takes some thought to fill in the blanks.
I was thinking of writing a series of posts about it here, but I'm happy to help you out!
The main platform I used was Leanpub. It is really easy to get started with, developer-friendly, free, and plays nicely with other tools you'll need.
To write my book I used an application called Highland 2 which is Mac only, and I wrote using Markdown. To motivate me through the process of writing I signed up for NaNoWriMo and then told everyone that I was going to write a book. In April of 2019 I wrote 52,000 words. That is close to 200 pages.
The rest of the steps are kind of specific in terms of cover designs, editors, ISBNs, and getting into Amazon.
If I could go back I would have started marketing before I wrote my first word.
Anyway, reach out and I'm happy to help!
Thanks a lot, Ryan! That's just the tools I was looking for! 😊
What sort of marketing would you have done before starting? And how do you do your marketing now?
I am going to lean on email marketing as my primary method of getting my book out.
So I started a newsletter!
I work to attract people to sign up to it, and then I make it a point to send something helpful to the people who do sign up. I wind up with a community of people who trust and vouch for me and will then buy this book, future books, classes, etc.
If I had started that first, I could have vetted the contents as I wrote, tested pricing, collected more stories from everyone, etc. When my book was done more than likely most of the people would have happily bought it.
FYI: The total cost for me to self publish was around $900. I got off lucky at that price.
Sounds like a good strategy for a book. 🙂 Did you learn email marketing somewhere? Or you're just figuring it out as you go?
And where can I sign up for your newsletter? 🤓
I was introduced to Tim Grahl's material on book marketing. I've been working through it. I will say that most of his easy to get material is very high level, so it takes some thought to fill in the blanks.
One place you can sign up for my newsletter is here.