How to Self-Publish a Book and Make Money: 7 Insider Secrets

Do you want to end up on the best-selling list but do not want a literary agent to decide if your work is worth publishing? What if we tell you you can make the decision for yourself if you go the self-publishing way? 

Self-publishing your work comes with lots of benefits. It's no coincidence that the number of self-published books has grown by 264% in the past five years.

In this article, you are about to find out

• Is self-publishing right for you?
• How can you self-publish a book and earn money?
• How much does it cost to self-publish a book? 

To ensure you can self-publish your work the best way possible, we asked Angelica Northon, a successful author-entrepreneur, to share her best practices with you. 

Should you do self-publishing? 

If you are an author wanting your book to end up in the hands of your favorite readers, you have two ways to go. You can choose between traditional publishing and self-publishing. 

With traditional publishing, you have to go through a selection process. Meaning, there is always someone to judge whether or not your manuscript can be published. And what happens in most cases is that these literary agents can influence your self-esteem in such a way that you even stop trying. Yet, there SHOULD be a way for you to publish your work as freely as you have written it! 

And now, we are speaking about self-publishing. Self-publishing is when you publish your work (whether that is music, design, work of art, or book) independently without using a traditional publishing house. You become the one handling the editing, design, marketing, and distribution yourself or hire services to do so. 

There are a number of reasons why authors decide to self-publish. For example, Angelica Norton prefers to self-publish her works because of the full control it provides.

“I love self-publishing because we learn a lot about ourselves when we do the work for ourselves. Another reason is that it releases this opportunity to really believe in yourself and believe in the written work in which you're providing your audience and your readers when otherwise someone else is making the decision if your work is worthy”.  

Angelica Norton

Author-entrepreneur 

Pros of self-publishing

1. The number one benefit for you if you decide to self-publish is that you have full control over the whole process. You have the autonomy to make all the decisions about your work. For example, this might be choosing the cover design, formatting, illustrations, and overall style. You can write about any topic, use your unique voice, and present your ideas exactly as you envision them without any alterations imposed by traditional publishers. By full control, we mean not only creative control but financial control as well. 
2. Another benefit over traditional publishing, is that you keep a larger share of the profits since there are no middlemen. Traditional publishers often give authors a royalty of about 10-15%, but with self-publishing, you can keep 60-70% of the sales revenue. And if your goal is to make legit money and not just share your wonderful work with the readers, you can earn a better income with self-publishing.  
3. Since you are the one deciding when you should begin which step, you can release your book much faster than you could with traditional publishing. Traditional publishing takes too long, sometimes over a year, from the moment your manuscript is accepted to the actual release of your book. On the other hand, you can publish your book as soon as it is ready while self-publishing. 

Cons of self-publishing 

1. With lots of freedom also comes lots of responsibility. You become responsible for every stage of taking your book from a manuscript to the actual published version. And if you are not in your best entrepreneurial spirit, perhaps it is better to choose traditional publishing in the long run. 
2. Having to take all the burden alone, or even with a little bit of help, you may start doubting yourself. For example, you might question the quality or marketability of your work. However, self-publishing should not sound overwhelming at all! That is why we will need the assistance of professionals to help you on the way.

“One of the things that a lot of first-time authors experience is self-doubt. You start to doubt your ability. You start to doubt if anyone would even be interested in your written work. And if it's possible that you can be successful, you start to question everything. That’s one of the challenges of self-publishing. You have to be able to rise above doubting everything about what you feel that you have to offer”.

Angelica Norton

Author-entrepreneur 

7 Helpful tips to guide you through self-publishing 

In order to have your book self-published, you need to first write a sales-worthy book, go through editing, formatting, designing, publishing, and, most importantly, marketing. Now, let’s analyze all the steps in more detail. 

The first two steps are equally important for both routes, traditional and self-publishing. 

Make your book sales-worthy 

It’s not quite a secret that for your book to be successful you need to provide good content. You may think that the actual writing stage has nothing to do with successful self-publsihing and sales. Yet, the selling stage starts right when you put down your idea.

By good content, we mean creating something your readers actually care about. And if you want to end up in the best-seller list one day, make sure your book inlcludes something your readers can relate to. 

So, before coming to publishing itself, make sure you have already

• Identified people with whom you are sharing your story.  For example, let’s say you are writing a self-growth or an inspirational book. Your people are the ones who have been experiencing the same things as you. That means they are the people who may have gone through similar stages as you. So, reflecting on your personal experience, you can write something your readers actually care about.
• Created the outline of your book. Again, going back to the example of self-help books, Angelica Norton recommends picking the stages of your own self-development as the chapters of the book. Later, you can eliminate some chapters or see if that particular stage can be covered in a bigger chapter. 

“I would suggest writing down some of the main lessons in which you have learned throughout your experience. So, for instance, if you are sharing a book on divorce and, you know, going through a divorce or being widowed and losing a loved one, you want to write down between 5 to 7 lessons that you learned throughout that journey, and you want to highlight those”.

Angelica Norton

Author-entrepreneur 

Now that your manuscript corresponds to the standards of your market, you can move to editing. 

Improve and edit your manuscript  

If you chose the traditional publishing way, an editor would have reviewed your work to see if your book has that structure. And as you are self-publishing, that does not mean you should not edit the book. If you skip this part, your work may end up not being worthy of your readers. 

Before you hire a professional editor, it is always a good idea to finetune your work yourself. For example, check if the story flows and if you answered all the questions in your plot. Also, check for grammatical errors and punctuation mistakes. To do so, you can use tools such as Grammarly, Hemingway Editor, yWriter, Ulysses, etc. 

After making sure your story flows the way you imagined it to, you can turn to a professional editor. There are different editors, such as structural editor, proofreader, picture editor, developmental editor, etc. Angelica Norton recommends working with a developmental editor. 

The developmental editor is the one who will help you understand whether your message is conveyed clearly, whether you need to dig deeper into some of the ideas, or, on the contrary, eliminate something. So, the discussions with your developmental editor will enlighten you on what areas of your work need improvement so your readers have a smooth reading experience.

How to find a developmental editor

Now, the question is, where can you find a professional editor? You can look through

• Platforms, such as Upwork, Fiver, Guru
• Professional organizations, such as Editorial Freelancers Association
• Writing communities and forums, for example, Absolue Writers, and Scribophile

And if you have an account on LinkedIn, why not ask your network. 

Pro Tip from Angelica: Do not ask a family member or a friend to do the editor’s job.

Firstly, their feedback might be biased. Secondly, it is the editor who is professional in commenting on your structure, grammar, and story so that your manuscript meets high standards. 

Besides the editor, you can also ask for feedback directly from your audience. Your readers will help you finalize the content as well. 

Start building an audience 

The last thing you want to do is publish the book, sit down, and wait for readers to magically appear, all excited to get the book. This is how we wish it was! 

But the truth is that you need to start building an audience, aka connect with potential readers, the moment you have the book idea. Especially, if this is going to be your first book, you need to position yourself as an author and build anticipation for your book at the same time. 

How can you attract readers and build an author platform? Angelica Norton recommends implementing the questioning strategy. It is a powerful way to build an audience as a self-publishing author, as you can connect with your readers on a personal level. 

So, ask questions that relate to the themes and experiences in your book. Suppose you are writing something about overcoming a significant personal challenge, such as a major career change. In this case, you could ask your audience, "How many of you have experienced a major shift in your career?". By proposing these questions, you'll attract responses from people who have faced similar experiences or know someone who has.

Such interaction not only helps you understand your audience better but also creates a sense of belonging. That is why people are more likely to follow your work and spread the word about your book if they feel personally connected to the content and you as an author. 

Where do you connect with your audience as an author? 

Here are a few ways you can connect with your readers.  

• First, of course, is social media. You can pick one or two main accounts you want to develop, whether it is Facebook or Instagram. And if you are trying to appeal to a younger audience, TikTok is an excellent place to start. BookTok will not let your book collect dust, for sure! The key point here is to just post regularly and find ways to connect with your readers as we discussed in the example above. Angelica Norton recommends starting a platform on which you already have some following. 

“I don't believe in recreating the will. So, if you have a built-in audience on Facebook, start there. That's the best place to start. One of the hardest things is to start a new platform where no one knows you, and you're getting ready to put out a book, but you already have a large audience on Facebook or LinkedIn”. 

Angelica Norton

Author-entrepreneur 

• Your professional website. This is where your readers can learn more about you and your work, download your digital works, sign up for your events, etc. Which bring us to our next point. 
• Offline and online events that you host or just participate in. If you want an easy way to build loyal fans, you can host offline events and do the speaking round. However, if you are not a fan of stages and performances, live online events will also do the job. 

Work on a good book design  

You only get one opportunity to make the first impression. And your book design & cover are what help you make a great impression. People will judge your book by the cover, whether you like it or not. All you need to do is make sure that judgment works in your favor. 

Now, the question is, should you hire a professional or do it all by yourself? If you confide in your skills, you can create the design using online tools. Canva and Adobe Spark have some user-friendly templates you can use if you are a beginner. Here are a few simple tips to take into consideration when designing your book cover. 

• The key point here is to keep everything simple. You do not want to make your book cover look crowded and overwhelming to the eye. 
• Choose only a few elements, images, or colors that represent the key ideas of your book. At the same time, be conscious! Sometimes, book covers contain text or visual information that spoils the book for the reader. So, try to keep the balance here. 
• And, of course, do not forget about the spine of your book. Usually, front cover is what comes to mind when you think of your book design. The spine is of no less importance. We, the readers, care about what the book looks like on our bookshelves. 

“Choose colors that represent your story. That brings out the best in what you want the readers to receive at the end of their reading experience. So colors, font, pictures, all of that play a major role in your cover design”. 

Angelica Norton

Author-entrepreneur 

With all this in mind, we would recommend investing in a good design with a professional designer. By discussing the main message of your book with a graphic designer, you will be able to get a book cover that communicates the ideas in your book in the best way possible. 

You can find designers for your budget looking on freelancing platforms like Upwork and Fiver. 

Think about the proper formatting 

Formatting the book means making it ready for publication. It’s the final stage to make your book look professional, especially if you want to print it. In this stage, you want the inside book to look as professional as its cover. 

To make your book reader-friendly:

• Check the page numbers and if they are placed the way you intended to
• Try to make your layout more engaging. For instance, let’s say your book contains quotes. In this case, you can perhaps have a dedicated box on the side for them. 
• Also, never overlook the headers and footers. For example, where would your title or chapter name appear? Is it in the header? What would ou put in the footer?
• Pay attention to the dimensions and size because it will affect your text, especially if you are going to print your book. 

Once the inside looks clean, think about the actual format you want to present the final version is. For example, will it be available as an eBook, audiobook, or just the printed version? 

So, if you want to convert the manuscript to these versions, you need to take into consideration the specifics of the format. Keep in mind that the format also depends on which platform you want to publish the manuscript on.

Find your ideal self-publishing platform 

At this point, your book should be completely ready for the launch. And if you have ever launched a product, launching a book is no different. The question is, where do you want your book self-published?

If you are thinking about self-publishing your book, you are sure to have heard about Amazon. You can publish your book there using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). The greatest thing about it is that you do not print thousands of copies and wait for them to be sold. Instead, they handle the printing the moment it is ordered. So you do not have to bother yourself with taking the orders, printing, and shipping the copies. Plus, the way you earn money is through royalties.

“When you start to self-publish and put your book on Amazon, you receive a royalty. So if you set your book at 24, 99. Amazon may give you $7.16 per book that's sold. That means that Amazon is now representing your traditional publisher”.

 Angelica Norton

Author-entrepreneur 

Besides Amazon, you may also consider IngramSpark. On this platform, you can publish both print and eBooks. In this case, you will have access to Ingram’s global distribution network. This means that it will be easier for you to get your book into bookstores, libraries, and online retailers worldwide. 

If you want to mainly focus on eBooks you can consider Smashwords. With this platform you will be able to distribute your book to Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, etc. 

Whichever platform you choose to publish your manuscript on, make sure you are completely aware of the terms. 

Pro tip from Angelica: Make sure that the publishing company is not receiving any royalties and that the publishing cost is the final cost.

Drive sales through marketing and branding 

And if you would like to have an army of loyal readers someday, remember to work on your personal brand as an author. With a recognizable brand, your official channels will be the go-to sources for your readers.  That way, they will be looking forward to finding and purchasing your works. 

To achieve that level of trust, engage with your readers on social media constantly. For example, you can share updates about your writing process, upcoming releases, and personal insights. 

It is interesting to note that your one and only book cannot make you the author you want to be. That is why you need to consider working on your next book and enter the vicious circle of writing and publishing. For example, if you have presented a story in book one, why not make it a book series and develop the stories further? And when you notice your book becoming popular even with a small circle of readers, perhaps you can create merchandise and sell it along with your book. 

FAQs 

Is it possible to earn a living by self-publishing your own book? 

Yes, it is totally possible to make money from self-publishing your own book. Self-publishing requires a lot of work and responsibility. So, the amount of financial success you achieve largely depends on your efforts and decisions. With all this in mind, with a well-written book and a strong marketing strategy, you can achieve financial success if you choose the self-publishing route.  

What proportion of self-published authors actually earn money from their books?

However sad it might sound, the percentage of self-published books that make significant money is relatively low. Only 10-20% of self-published books earn substantial income. According to statistics, 20% of self publishing authors say they do not make an income at all. 

Is there a minimum age requirement to publish a book?

Like we have discussed above, self-publishing offers more flexibility. So, if you are a young author, you would have more freedom when it comes to publishing your work. 

In most cases, there is no strict minimum age requirement to publish a book. Many self-publishing platforms, like Amazon KDP or Barnes & Noble Press, do not set a minimum age for authors. Some traditional publishers may have age restrictions, but self-publishing does not set any limitations. 

Begin your self-publishing journey with Uteach! 

Now that you are familiar with the process of self-publishing, becoming a successful author is up to you! Unlike traditional publishing, where the publisher handles most of the tasks, succeeding with self-publishing largely depends on you. 

So, if you choose this particular route, it is always a great idea to share your book on as many platforms as possible. The best platform to start is, of course, your author website. So, if you are looking for a platform that helps you build your website and sell your books at the same time, you can consider Uteach. 

Uteach is an all-in-one platform allowing you to create a professional website with the help of ready-made templates and sell your digital products, courses, training, and more. After you set up your website, you can sell your book in an eBook format using the marketing tools Uteach offers. Learn more about Uteach Fteaures and start your 14-day free trial to share your book today.