Five under-the-radar self-publishing tips

1. Start marketing your book (really) early
2. The power of the book proposal
3. The importance of accurate and complete metadata
4. Maximise profit with offset print runs
5. Always leave something in the tank

You’ve been swimming steadily for what feels like years, but you’re almost at the shoreline. With the sand at your fingertips, you heave yourself onto shore and gaze skyward, elated… until someone hands you a bicycle and tells you to start pedalling.

Hot on the heels of writing, self-publishing your book can feel like a genuine literary triathlon.

After completing your manuscript, you shift into publishing, and finally into promotion. Each stage requires a different set of skills and muscles. If you’re a writer who has just finished your manuscript, you want to keep that momentum going, but not at the expense of your long-term stamina.

(Don’t worry: this tortured metaphor has now concluded.)

From editing and design to promotional coaching and worldwide distribution, we at FriesenPress (the sponsors of this post) have published over 10,000 titles – including bestsellers like Paul Alexander’s Three Minutes for a Dog and many award winners – since our founding in 2009. As an employee-owned publishing services provider, we know what it takes to keep authors motivated and supported on the winding path to self-publishing success.

So, we asked our team for actionable and strategic insights that sales-seeking authors might want to know. Here are our top tips!

1. Start marketing your book (really) early

When it comes to book marketing, having even a small following by the time you publish can put you much further ahead. This is particularly helpful for new or first-time authors; you may have a valuable message or story to share with your would-be readers, but you might not have the brand name recognition of traditional publishers or higher profile authors.

The good news is that it’s truly never too early to get started. In fact, you can start marketing your book even before it’s been written; all you need to start book marketing is an idea that you’re passionate about.

Assuming you have a sense of your book’s genre or topic, start staking out your reputation as an authoritative voice on that subject. (You can’t spell ‘authority’ without ‘author’, after all.) This serves to demonstrate why potential readers should see you as someone whose message and/or story are worth reading.

Social media is a great place to start establishing yourself in this way.

Participate in discussions around your book’s genre and/or subject matter, start blogging or vlogging, monitor chatter around comparable titles, and network with individuals who share your interests on your favourite social media platform(s).

Follow like-minded individuals, post content relating to your book topic, and start conversations of your own.

In doing so, you’ll start to build trust with your budding audience and lay a foundation that may well turn into book sales down the road.

2. The power of the book proposal

If you’ve ever tried to get a traditional publishing deal, you might have heard the term ‘book proposal’ bandied about.

Book proposals are documents used to convince a publisher to take on a (usually non-fiction) book project. They are, essentially, business plans; they must coherently and convincingly present the core concepts and reason for the prospective book’s existence. Proposals often include information about the target audience, a chapter outline, and share why the author is the right person for authoring the book.

We find that book proposals are an excellent and under-utilised guiding light for self-publishing writers. The benefits of a book proposal transcend genre and experience level; they get you thinking about your target audience before you write. What’s in it for your readers? How are you going to find them? How are you going to make them want your book?

The earlier you begin to consider your book’s building blocks and marketing strategy, the better. You don’t need to have all the answers; a book proposal leads to stronger writing, which leads to a higher chance of success.

We created an easy-to-follow template for writers of fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books, which you can download free from our website (www.friesenpress.com/publishing-guides). Whether you’re in the idea phase or almost finished your first draft, your proposal will be a helpful signpost throughout the writing and revision processes, and well into publishing.

3. The importance of accurate and complete metadata

We are huge proponents of book discoverability here at FriesenPress.

Discoverability means making your book easy for people to find and purchase. As a self-publishing author working to establish and improve your brand name recognition, appearing and ranking high in key searches around your book’s topic is important – and potentially even game-changing – for growing your readership.

Online searches feel like magic but they actually rely on metadata: a series of keywords and codes embedded in an online listing that allows search engines to efficiently search and sort results. Ensuring your book is published with full and complete metadata perhaps isn’t the most glamorous aspect of publishing your book, but it is nonetheless very helpful in getting your book found by readers, librarians, and booksellers.

Generating complete, high-quality metadata is part art and part science (and a speciality of ours). But if you want to sell in the US and Canada, and only want to focus on one thing, make sure it’s BISAC codes.

BISAC – which stands for Book Industry Standards and Communications – codes are a series of US-standard industry-agreed upon identifiers that capture key aspects of a book’s genre and intended audience.

These codes – comprising a 3-letter prefix and a 6-digit sequence – enable bookstores, libraries, and online databases to easily organise books based on topic categories. These categories make it much easier for readers to find books on the topic they’re looking for.

If you flip open a recent book on your shelf, you may see a BISAC code printed on the copyright page. Some books even have multiple codes included. What you may not see is that each book’s online listing has its BISAC codes saved in its metadata.

It’s worth taking the time to dig into the current BISAC code list to home in on the most appropriate codes for your target audience. BISAC codes are one of the first ways readers find new books to read – even if they didn’t know it).

4. Maximise profit with offset print runs

The rise of self-publishing as a viable publishing model has been greatly enabled by breakthroughs in print-on-demand (POD for short) technology.

Long gone are the days when self-published authors had to manage storage logistics, mail-order selling, and personally shipping mass quantities of their book. Thanks to POD, books are printed as they’re ordered, rather than in large print run batches, virtually eliminating the need for an offset print run of hundreds (or thousands) of copies that sit in the author’s basement or closet.

Although you don’t need to fund an offset run to self-publish successfully, we find that many of our most successful authors are those leveraging POD and print runs to maximise their profits and return on investment.

Like anything else you buy in bulk, your cost per unit decreases as the quantity of books you have printed increases. Commissioning a print run with a professional book manufacturer (like award-winning Friesens) unlocks significant volumetric discounts and equates to higher profits if you’re selling your book to readers directly.

You can then either ship your books from the printer and store them yourself until purchase or you can page to leverage a printer’s climate-controlled storage facilities (again, like Friesens) and ship books out by the case.

Adopting a combination of convenient POD-powered sales through online channels like Amazon and the immediacy of direct-to-reader sales at events and tradeshows (or from the boot of your vehicle) is often a winning strategy for self-publishing authors.

As part of Friesens, Canada’s largest independent book printer, FriesenPress authors have a direct line to the same expert staff and equipment that produce more than 30 million books annually for the likes of Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, and many others.

5. Always leave something in the tank

Fittingly, our final overlooked success driver is the importance of pacing yourself.

As this article illustrates, there are a whole lot of layers and detail to the self-publishing process!

Even with the direct support of our team, authors can feel overwhelmed with the sheer number of creative, technical, strategic, and financial decisions that go into creating a great book for the world to read.

Whether you choose a publishing partner like FriesenPress or fly solo on your publishing journey, don’t be afraid to take some time for yourself if you find that you’re starting to flag during the process.

Do something for you. Try shifting your headspace out of the minute details and remind yourself why you’re publishing your book in the first place. (This might be a good time to revisit your book proposal!) Returning to your ‘why’ might be just what you need to propel yourself through publishing and into promotion.

With more than 15 years’ experience in the industry, we know the payoff that comes from all the hard work: an almost indescribable feeling of accomplishment in knowing you’ve published a book that you’re proud to sign. Pace yourself, focus on one step at a time, and trust that success will follow.

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FriesenPress is the world's only 100% employee owned publishing services provider. Our expert team is proud to have partnered with thousands of authors on publishing over 10,000 book titles since our founding in 2009.

Our unique process combines the professionalism and care of traditional publishing with the creative agility (and high author royalties) of DIY self-publishing. The result is a professionally bound and published book that’s 100% owned by the author.

From editing and book design to production, distribution, and promotion support, FriesenPress is the clear path to better books.

For more information:
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +1 800-792-5092
www.friesenpress.com