Writing a book or a paper can be one of the most difficult things somebody does in their life. It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. The worst part is that some authors do not know if anybody is even going to end up reading what they wrote.
There is good reason to be concerned about that. There are over four million books that get published every year.
With that in mind, you have to make sure that your publication stands out.
How do you do that? What publishing options do you have? How long does it take?
This is your guide.
Have an Idea
Before you can do anything, you need to come up with an idea. Whether this is for a fiction book that you want to write, a biography about someone inspirational, or even just an educational paper, you have to have some sense of direction before you get started.
This may begin by just being a random idea in your head. Then, you may expand on this and realize that you can turn it into a book or a big paper.
When you have this realization, you need to start writing down your ideas immediately. Try to connect the ideas and see if you have a plausible outline or not. If you think you do, try to pitch it to a friend or a professional and see what they think.
From there, you need to expand on your idea as much as possible. That means adding more details, doing more research, devoting time to make this idea grow, and more. In other words, you have to be fully committed to this idea if you want to try to make something out of it.
Find a Publisher
The next thing that you need to do is find a publisher. This can be big for an author of a book or a paper because they are the people that are going to provide you funding sooner rather than later.
The problem is that since there are four million books published every year, it is easier said than done to have a book published. This is especially the case when you realize three million of those people self-published their books. We will talk more about that later.
That is why this can be difficult for new authors or unknown authors. Sometimes, authors that are more famous get a publishing deal just on reputation alone. Newer authors or struggling authors need a brilliant idea for a book or paper to get close to that same treatment.
When it comes to advances, this depends on how much promise a publisher thinks your book or paper has. Advances are typically a reflection of how many copies your publisher thinks your book will sell within the first year of publication.
They are taking a risk on you and want to see some return. So, if they expect your book to sell $50,000 worth of copies, they may give you a $5,000 advance.
If your book does better than publishers expect, then you can start collecting the royalties from your additional copy sales. When it comes to most advances, they cover a certain amount of books sold. After that, an author gets what is essentially a bonus with the extra royalties.
Consider Self-Publishing
If you fail to find a good deal or any deal from an established publisher, you do still have other options. One of the best options at your disposal in this situation is to self-publish your book.
This means that you have no one backing you when it comes to trying to promote and sell your book. You will also have to pay certain costs such as the copyright fee, cost to produce hard cover books, and more.
So, what is the good news? The main positive of this arrangement is that you get a much higher cut of the royalties.
Some platforms will only charge you a percentage of the royalties for listing your book on their platform.
Let’s look at Amazon, for example. If you want to self-publish a book on Amazon, you can keep up to 70% of the royalties you get from your book copies sold there. That means that if you sell a book for $20 on Amazon, $14 of that goes into your pocket.
Considering that authors that team up with publishers tend to get a much smaller cut, this can be a big deal if your book takes off.
However, you do have to remember one risk that comes along with this route. That risk is that you typically have no advance. So, if your book does not sell, you are not making any money.
Start Writing
You have thought of an idea, and you have figured out how you are going to publish that idea. Now, you have to focus on writing the actual material.
Depending on how long your book or paper is, this can take a while. Some authors can finish a book in as little as a few weeks, while others can take years to work on a good book or paper.
Have an idea of how long you think it will take to write the book. After that, plan a little extra time in case you hit a roadblock.
In this stage of the process, just focus on writing a coherent story and allow your writing energy to flow. Remember, this is just a first draft. So, you do not have to worry about dotting all of your i’s and crossing all of your t’s.
Focus on writing a compelling story and focus on the big picture to identify what your book or paper is going to be. If you have this locked down, the rest of the process will be a piece of cake.
Editing Your Piece
Now that you are done writing your book or paper, you are going to want to look at it from a full perspective. You may end up hating what you wrote, or you could be too blind to see what your flaws are.
Either way, this is not uncommon for authors. What you need to do here is get a fresh set of eyes to look at your book or paper. Ideally, this person can help give you an unbiased perspective, and they are a good enough editor to correct some minor mistakes along the way.
Editors are not just looking to correct punctuation or misspelled words here. These editors are trying to get an idea of what your story is about and how it flows as it moves along.
While they typically are not going to change major plot points in a story, they could give suggestions on how you express certain events in your book. Normally, the goal here is to try to make it flow smoothly.
Once the final edits have been made, you are very close to publishing your book or paper.
Promoting Your Piece
Finally, you need people to know that your book or paper exists. If you are going to go the self-publishing route, this can be a bigger challenge because you have nobody to help you.
First of all, you need to determine how big of a budget you have to do this. If you feel like you are just short of your ideal budget, work on getting that money together first.
Something that can help you once you have the funds is to put out a press release about your book or paper. This can help create a buzz for your piece and start a conversation among the people that are curious about your piece.
All businesses allocate a portion of their revenue to marketing. Writing a book or a paper is no different if you want it to get the attention that it deserves.
Time this carefully. Ideally, it should be just before it is published. You need to make sure it is not early enough that people forget about it or not late enough that you can’t take advantage of that buzz.
Get Help With Your Publication
This is the typical process authors go through when it comes to getting a book or a paper published. Obviously, you need to come up with an idea and dedicate the time to writing it up.
Do not underestimate the editing process, and make sure you know what publishing route you are going to go.
Either way, you are going to have to promote your publication. Do you need help with this? Message us to see how we can help you.