indiepub

self publishing on a budget

3 Clever Tips for Self-Publishing on a Budget

Tself publishing on a budgethinking about self-publishing but worried about the cost?

Very few of us have the resources to compete with the big five publishers. Even if we aim to publish the highest quality book possible, we must watch our spending very carefully.

Publishing budgets vary wildly. I've heard some authors bragging that they spent nothing on their books - which frankly makes me regard their books a bit dubiously. I've seen beautiful, well-edited indie books published for between $1,000 and $3,000. And of course, I've seen jaw-droppingly gorgeous books produced for many times that amount.

Do you want to limit how much money you spend on self-publishing your book?

Here are 3 clever tips for self-publishing on a budget:

1. Use free eBook formatting software. If your book has already been professionally edited and you are not looking for custom design, you can use free tools to create high-quality book interiors. Personally, I've been very impressed with the Reedsy Book Editor. I also am a big fan of Vellum - which isn't free, but allows you to create lovely books without a designer.

2. Scrappy cover design. A poorly-designed cover will repel readers. A custom cover by a professional designer can cost upwards of $800. Before you spend the big bucks, check out alternative cover sources. Use Fiverr for $5 prototypes. Contact artists directly on Deviant Art, Renderosity or Epilogue to request custom art or use of work already created. Use a service like 99Designs to run a cover design contest for $299.

3. Skill share. First, sort everything that needs to be done into three categories - things you can do yourself (at a professional level), things you need to pay someone else to do, and things you can barter with friends. Most of the writers I know have other professional skills. For example, you may be a top artist and perfectly capable of designing your own cover, while a friend of yours may be an eagle-eyed editor. Work together! Trade a cover design for a copy edit.

Would you like more information on how to get all your editing, formatting and design done on a tight budget? Sign up for my online class How to Self-Publish Your First Book. You'll gain a wealth of resources for your indie publishing projects - plus tools to help you set and manage your budget.

Do you know any other great sources for budget-minded authors? Hit reply and let me know! I'd love to share them with my students.

The give and take of social media marketing (Plus my golden rule of self-promotion.)

giveandtakeofsocialmediaWant to avoid irritating the crap out of your Twitter followers, but still need to make sure the time you spend on the platform results in traffic and sales? Here’s my golden rule for self-promotion on Twitter:

Don’t exceed a 3:1 ratio of "gives" versus promotion.

What does this mean? This means for every single time I talk about myself, or my books, or classes, I talk about something completely unrelated to me at least three times.

Give. Give. Give. Take.

This 3:1 ratio is a bit high on the promotion side. I only talk about myself this much when I have something I am pushing hard. When I don’t have anything new, that ratio drops down to more like 10:1, or even 20:1.

Guy Kawasaki, who was my mentor and advisor during my Writer.ly years, told me his ratio might even be much higher on the “give” side. He manages aggregate news sites and tweets a huge volume of content. For mere mortals, the 10:1 or 3:1 goal is more achievable.

How does this play out? Let’s say I am promoting a new free class. Even though the class is technically a “give” as a free resource, it’s a “take” as I’m talking about myself and asking people to give me their emails when they sign up.

I know that to meet my signup goals, I need to tweet about the class about three times a day. I will use Hootsuite to schedule my tweets for prime times (early in the morning, one in the afternoon, one late in the evening). I make sure to change the tweets so that they don’t all say the same thing.

Once my promo tweets are scheduled, I fill up the space between with at least 3 high-interest “gives”.

What counts as a give? A give can be an article, a quote, a writing prompt, a recommendation, a joke, or links to other people’s events or books. As long as the gives are appropriate and interesting to my audience, no one seems to mind the tweets about my class. Most of my followers will miss them all, even though I spread them throughout the day.

The take is just as important as the give if you are on Twitter for business or audience purposes. If all you post are “gives”, then your efforts will not feed your email list or sales. If you have nothing in particular you are promoting, you can at least schedule out occasional tweets for people to come back and look at your most popular blog posts, or to sign up for your wonderful email newsletter.

It’s more of an art than a science. I break my own rules occasionally and do not always follow my own advice. Luckily, Twitter has a short term memory. It’s easy for my followers forgive my occasional over-excitement for my own projects thanks to the all the other wonderful content I curate for their benefit and enjoyment.

Do you need help using Twitter more effectively?

Sign up for my 3-Day course "How to Get More Followers on Twitter." It's free and delivered via email, so you can complete it on your own schedule.

>> Sign up here. <<

This is day three of my week of social savvy posts. Check back tomorrow to learn more about how to use Twitter to achieve your promotion goals.

VIDEO: Crowdfunding for Authors Tutorial with Pubslush

RECORDED WEBINAR: Crowdfunding for authors

How to raise funds to publish your book led by Amanda Barbara of Pubslush

It used to be that writers publishing futures were completely controlled by the publishing house gods. You would develop your craft, write your book, send it off to an agent and pray for the best. That path to publishing remains an option. However, for those of you with the interest and energy to take your publishing fate into your own hands, crowdfunding offers an attractive alternative.

To learn more about crowdfunding, I invite you to watch the recorded webinar above. Amanda Barbara of Pubslush generously shared her crowdfunding tips with me and the Writer.ly community.

You'll learn:

  • What is crowdfunding is and how it can help authors?
  • How to create and conduct a successful crowdfunding campaign.
  • How to use your successful campaign for book sales and promotion.

PERSONAL NOTE - You can choose from numerous crowdfunding platforms to raise the money to publish your book. Pubslush is unique in that they are created specifically to support writers and publishing projects. Not only that, the Pubslush team have proven again and again to be the most accessible, helpful crew around.

About Amanda:
Amanda L. Barbara is the vice president of Pubslush, a global crowdfunding platform only for books. Authors can raise funds, understand their audience, and self-publish or traditionally publish their work. A philanthropist at heart, she serves on the board of directors for the Pubslush Foundation, which supports children's literacy initiatives worldwide, and is a founder and director of The Barbara Family Foundation, an organization committed to assisting charities and children in need. Amanda is an advocate for crowdfunding in the publishing world and has spoken at various conferences, such as Writer's Digest, Tools of Change, Crowdfunding East Conference, and the Digital Publishing Innovation Summit, and has served as an ambassador and speaker at CONTEC at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

 

VIDEO: How to Plan a Book Launch

RECORDED WEBINAR: How to plan a book launch

Do you have a new book coming out? Congratulations! Now is the time to start planning your book launch.

In this recorded, one-hour webinar, I discuss key components of a successful book launch including; prepping your author platform, branding, social media, live events, free and paid advertising, beta readers and lining up reviews.

After completing this webinar, you'll be able to create your own well-documented plan of action for using PR, social media and other marketing techniques to support your book launch.

TIP: Don't forget to download the book launch countdown checklist.

VIDEO: 10 Things to Do before You Publish

Recorded Webinar: 10 Things to Do Before You Publish

Want to know what you can do before publishing to improve your chances of success?

This one-hour recorded workshop teaches you ten things you can do before you send your book to an agent, or before you self-publish your book.

It doesn't matter if you plan to publish independently or through a traditional publisher. To give your books the best chance for success, take the time to get your author platform in order, your community hopping and your identity as an author established.

Publishers and agents alike take a good look at an author's online presence, social media and website, network and community when deciding to take a chance on a new author. Luckily, with all the free tools and resources out there, it isn't hard to build a respectable author platform with minimal investment of money and time.

In this workshop, I walk your through ten things you must do before you publish your book to increase your odds of attracting an agent or reaching a big audience.

Starting from scratch? No problem! Let me illuminate a publishing path.

Already have an author platform established? You're ahead of the game! Come to pick up some new tips on how to optimize your online presence and get the most out of your real-life community.

BONUS: I also share insights on how I was able to raise $9,800 on Kickstarter to fund my non-fiction book project and attract an agent at the same time.