How To Publish A Book On Amazon

Welcome to hero TV! Today we’ve got Michelle McCullough and I’ve asked her to talk to us about how to publish a book on Amazon because I’ve just watched you do that. It was amazing to see. So I’m excited to have you share that with Hero TV! Hello! I’m so excited to share with you some simple tips and tricks about publishing your book on Amazon. But before hand, I want to say congratulations! As someone who has self coalition also worked with a traditional publisher, I know how much work goes into creating a book, whether it’s fiction or nonfiction. So I’m excited for you as you go to this next step in the process. Now I’m going to assume that if you’re watching this videos, that you’ve already written your book and that you’re ready to get published on Amazon. If that’s not the case, you might want to take some time to finish your book or finish working through that last individual pieces. Getting an editor, whatever else you need so that you truly can be ready to publish your book. Now, there are lots of different options and publishing directly on Amazon, but I’m going to share with you two main specific ways. The first is through createspace if you have a specific book that you want to publish.

Now I’m talking about physical publishing. This works for both fiction and on fiction books, but you can physically publish using a service called create space. And I just go to createspace.amazon.com, I will create a login, I actually use the very same one that I used actually buy books on Amazon so that I don’t have to remember to. And then I login to create space. In there, there’s a whole bunch of different tools and abilities but there’s a great button called, “getting started” and if you click on the getting started button, they’ll walk you through every step of the process to publish your book through Amazon. Now, through the create space process, they’re going to ask you to either upload a book, or you’ll be able to design your own front cover. You’ll also be able to upload your manuscript but the one thing that you might need to know before you start this process, is there is a specific file type that Amazon requires for you to upload your book to create space or also through Kindle when we talk about that in just a minute. If you don’t have that file, it’s pretty easy to create using the most recent versions of whatever word processor you’re using, but if you’re struggling with that and you need help transitioning that, just ask your friends. One of your friends for sure has it or you can use an outside third-party service, maybe through upwork. Where you can go in and do that file transfer but it will not take very long. I got caught on that for a little while and then I realized it wasn’t that hard but it should be easy. But just know that you might not be able to upload a doc to create space. Now, as you go through that process that helps you every step of the way from creating the categories that you’ll best use so that people can find your book, through creating the description for your book and also for you up to create your own pricing. There are a few different options and while I won’t go through all of the options for pricing on your books, I’ll let you decide what’s best for you. My best recommendation in this category is to do a little bit of research on Amazon with other books that are similar to yours in either your fiction genre, or in your nonfiction categories and see if you can be comparable based on the number of pages that you have, the type of content that you’re providing, or the type of book that you’re creating. Now as you go through this process that start to sound a little bit like a checklist but stay with me because I’m also going to share with you how to make the most out of selling your book through Amazon. But once your book is up through create space, you have the option to print your own copies, have them come to you, or they’ll just sell them online for you. Now the Kindle process is pretty similar. You can go through KDP which they call, “Kindle direct publishing”. Which will give you the option to both, do both the printed version, and the Kindle version at the same time. Some people do 100% Kindle, some people do 100% physical book, some people do both. And so you do have that option through Amazon you’ll just need to specify how that works. Now for me, I have one book that is a hundred percent Kindle and I have other books that are physical as well. I didn’t use create space to publish them in that case I used Amazon to publish via Kindle but then I printed through a different third-party source and then I sell to Amazon and they sell them that way so that’s also an option. But create space is super easy. I have done one create space book that was with a mix and multitude of authors and so it’s been fun to walk through that process.

Now part of publishing on Amazon is committing to the long term marketing process. Which is really where I get super jazzed. And now that I’ve produced my third book through Amazon, I have some special tips that I’m going to share with you to make the best of your experience to being a published author on Amazon. The first thing that I want to share with you, is that while it can be really exciting to get caught up in the launch period of your book, know that your book will live long after your launch. So take time to create a long term strategy that will work best for you in your book. If you plan to create multiple books on a similar subject, you’ll just create a system for completing that. But that also might be part of your launch. If you’re a fiction author who’s going to have a trilogy, make sure that you’re including that as part of your overall strategy. But now I want to share with you some of my favorite tips in marketing your book when it’s ready to hit go. Now, number one, just like anything else, I think it’s important for you to create a marketing plan to publish your book. Sit down and figure out what you want to accomplish. How many books do you want to sell? Is being a number one Amazon bestseller in your category important to you? well that might take some strategy and planning. So don’t do yourself a disservice. Where with one of my books after 30 days, I thought to myself, I should have done that a different way. But I learned through that process and so now I’m going to share with you so that you don’t feel like your first launch was a waste. Now, as you create that plan also consider other people who can help you and who can interact with you and who can help promote your book. I recommend providing some individual copies that you can do media releases for those who are willing to review your book upfront. Nobody likes to feel like a guinea pig and everybody wants to know if your book is really good, even your best friends want to know if your book is really good. So find some people to read the book for you and review it in advance, so that you have some little clips that you can use as part of your marketing. Either in physical form, in digital form, or even as part of a book trailer. Now some people produce multi-million dollar book trailers and some people will just create a little SlideShare for their book. That can be fun. Truth be told, I have never done a book trailer. I probably should have, but I didn’t. I did one informational video about my book coming out but it wasn’t really a book
trailer. But that can be really easy to do now. You can create your own book trailer utilizing your phone and maybe even getting some help through a third-party source that will help you put those final pieces together. So a book trailer can also work. And utilizing some of those reviews in your book trailer can be really helpful. But whether you do the book trailer or not, just create content strategy that you can use up front.

So, instead of just saying “buy my book”, tell people why they should buy your book. Tell people a little about the story. Or if it’s nonfiction, tell them the kinds of things they will learn by reading your book. Just like marketing a business or product or even a service, you need to create a narrative around the book that you’re producing. And if it’s a story then that becomes a little bit easier than if it’s a nonfiction. But tell people the story of the book. How it got started? why it’s important? and what it will do for them? Well, many people will claim that they’re avid readers, because they are. There are so many books sitting on their bookshelf. And if they’re anything like me, they’ve got ten sitting on their nightstand waiting for their attention. So what you need to do is you need to give them the reasons of, why your book needs to be there next read. And you can do that through reviews but you can also do that by sharing with them, why it’s important for them to read it next. That’s all part of the marketing process as you move forward with your book. Now, also, here are some little secrets that I learned not until I produced my third book with a publisher. Amazon loves reviews. Now you probably already knew that. You probably watch some other videos on this but I found some magical thresholds that Amazon tends to use. The first threshold is 25. If you can get 25 reviews within the first two weeks of your book being released and published, well then they see that that book might have the potential to become a best-seller. Either short-term, or long-term. The second threshold is a hundred. And 100 reviews are hard for individual publishers. Even if you have thousands of people read your book, it’s really hard to get a hundred people to come back and leave a review. But if you can create a system for that over time, you’ll find that it will give you the best benefits. I found that once I hit the 25 review mark on my most recent book, Amazon increased the way that they promote my book to people who had never even heard of me. And once you hint into the hundred range, while your book whether it hits a best-seller or not, Amazon sees it as a viable book because they know that reviews are only a percentage of sales. So make those your goal and create in advance the strategy and structure that you’ll get there. Do you want to personally reach out and invite a hundred people to review your book for you? or do you want to hope that your readers will just come on and grab it? Whatever it is, create a system or strategy. Now I never recommend that you pay for reviews, I never recommend that you ask people to give you a review at a specific level. In fact, I’m really careful in my language. If somebody reaches out to me and says that they love my book, I’ll respond with a gracious message that says, “thank you so much I would love for you to share your experience with other people on Amazon so that they can make the best buying decision for them” And I actually say the words. I’m not asking for a five-star review. I want your honest feedback so that every person with their individual likes and views as they read your review, will make the best decision for them. So while I love creating a whole strategy around reviews just make sure you do it in a in a good and ethical way because you would hate to get reported and have Amazon pull your book all the way. But that said, reviews can be the fuel that make your book last well beyond your initial launch period. Now we didn’t talk about the beginning and we probably should have. But what is the goal for your book? For some people, they want their book to make the millions of dollars just on sales. For other people, they want their book to be part of their platform or something else they do. For others, it’s because they’re going to build a long term fiction authorship like JK Rowling or someone else that you love and have followed for many years. Whatever that is, the purpose for your book exists as the biggest part that walks you through every step of the publishing process. Know your endgame. Well, I had one book that was out there purely for income. One of my books serves purely to get me clients, another one of my books serves purely at the center to help me get speaking engagements. And while I know that the content is great and I would never write a book subpar just for another purpose, but if I clear on that purpose it makes it a lot easier for me to go through the publishing and the marketing process. So again, I’ll leave with how I began. Congratulations as you walk through this and while you might get a few bumps on the road, stay committed because book authorship is really exciting. And watching your book grow and help and change and entertain others is really rewarding. So I wish you all the best in this process as you publish your book on Amazon and hope you’ll keep us posted and let us know. Feel free to leave in the comments below a little bit about your book that’s either in process are completed because we’d love to celebrate and cheer you on there. Have a great day! Thanks for watching Hero TV today and thanks Michelle for sharing your wisdom with us and experience. This is the book. This is the one that she just launched. I’ll put some details in the description below so you can check it out. Remember to live on purpose, be… wait. Be the hero What was the second one? Make a difference and be the hero!