If you are like most aspiring authors, you may just want to write. However (like most authors), you’ll soon realize that when you decide to self-publish your work, you become the CEO of your own startup – the business of writing, producing, and publishing your own books. And to do so successfully, you need a plan. In this post, my friend and fellow author, Laini Giles, shares her self-publishing plan for success. 

It’s hard when you’re a writer and you have no idea what to do with your books, other than write them. The whole marketing business is a big mysterious deal. Why do some books seem to get a huge push and others just sit there?

After 176 rejections, I finally decided that I was going to self-publish my novel The Forgotten Flapper. But I had no idea what to do, so I created a plan.

So many self-published books I saw were badly done—badly written, typos, awful covers, and other amateurish characteristics that I didn’t want to emulate. If I was going to self-publish, I was going to kick ass at it. I was going to create my own new genre, and I was going to succeed at it.

My Goals:

• I would self-publish at a high standard (professional editing and covers that are indistinguishable from professionally published books at big bookstores).
• I would create a well-coordinated marketing plan.
• I would establish a solid foundation for future books.
• I would eventually earn a liveable income as a writer.

My Challenges:

• That I was working in a relatively narrow genre.
• That I was working with limited resources.
• That I had one year to learn everything I needed to know.

I gave myself a year to learn everything I needed to know about self-publishing. But when it came to thinking about marketing, about 6 months out from the release day I’d picked, I knew I’d need to come up with a well-coordinated plan, and put it into play. Here’s what I did. Maybe it can help some of you! [Read more…]