Introduction: How to Sell Your Novels Online
If you want to sell your novels online but have no idea how to self publish your book so that it is the finished the product that you’ve always dreamed it would be, I will outline some tricks of the trade and resources for you in this article.
I have personally self-published 2 of my own books (currently working on a third) and have helped others to as well. Although my own novel writing and publishing journey only began a year ago I discovered the most inexpensive, easiest and effective way to get an extremely well-made copy of my work into my hands.
For some, it’s about the money. Many authors have gone the route of e-books as they are the cheapest and easiest way to get your novel into people’s hands. And that’s great. I made those too.
Want to know what I discovered? People actually prefer the physical copy of my book! I was astounded that I sold more copies of my book in physical print than I have in e-book.
I get it personally, I prefer real books too. Although I won’t discount the ease of having something delivered directly to my Kindle, so I go both ways.
Regardless of which direction you’d like to go, these are the resources you can use to sell your novels online.
How to Self Publish Your Book
First: Be Sure It Is Ready To Publish!
I can’t emphasize this enough. If you are going to self publish your book, make sure it has been edited, proofread and formatted before you even think about handing it out for public consumption. I personally freelance in this area, so if you need help at a modest price please contact me, I’d be happy to help you get your book ready for printing.
Second: Cover Art
The words are one thing. But a cover, and particularly a very well-crafted cover is essential. This is the image people see first, make sure it is eye-catching. It has been proven that a good book cover will outsell the competition in its sleep, regardless of the quality of the book itself! *cough* I also do cover art…just sayin’. If you need help there, here is a sample of my work.
Third: Formatting
For formatting you’ll need to figure out which devices you are wanting to submit to, they are all different. If you were like me, well I wanted my book everywhere, so I formatted it for everything. Including for PRINT, using CreateSpace. I made it simple by using the following places to distribute my book.
– CreateSpace
– Kindle Direct Publishing
– Smashwords
Smashwords was great because you can submit one “clean” word document of your novel and they will “prepare” it for all devices – including the Nook. But if you don’t want to use Smashwords for whatever reason, the same program that prepares it for Kindle can prepare it for the other devices too. And you guessed it…I can help with that too, if ya like.
I learned how to do all of these things so that I could save money. By doing it all yourself the act of self publishing your book will cost you… $0. Except for the small shipping cost to get a proof of your book from Amazon before you make it “live”. And I tell you, what a feeling that is after all of the hard work you’ve put into it!
What To Do After You’ve Published:
Once you’ve published your book it is now for sale in the marketplace. You’ll need to market your own material if you actually want it to do something. Otherwise, chances are it’ll just get lost out there, sad but true. If you’d like to learn some very effective ways of marketing so that your book has a chance to really be seen, read my review of the best and FREE place to learn online marketing.
There are a few other places you can use to have your book printed, I’ve personally used Lulu as well for a few other projects, but I really preferred the ease of CreateSpace and KDP as they are already attached to the #1 place to sell your novels online: Amazon.
If you have any questions at all about the process of self publishing your novel, please do not hesitate to leave me a comment below or contact me HERE.
Here are some links to a couple of projects I have worked on:
Wishing you all the best!
Kat
Owner – OnlineStayatHomeJobs.com