It all started when I was at a wedding and met a chap of a similar age to me who had just landed a two-book publishing deal.
He wasn’t anyone particularly connected (or so he claimed, I’ve no idea) and just seemed like an ordinary guy that had just managed to do it, solely off his own back.
Before then, I’d written a load of notes for a story but had never gotten around to actually tying them all up or doing anything with it.
This guy inspired me to give it a proper go, so I went away and ended up writing The Physics of the Dead – albeit about five years later!
Determined to pursue my publishing goal I spent some time trying to get a book deal. Unfortunately, I faced a number of rejections by traditional publishers due to the competitive nature of the industry.
I therefore decided to look for other avenues through which I could get my book out there in the public domain.
It was as part of this process that I discovered Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) – Amazon’s self-publishing platform.
The great thing about this is that it lets you publish a book for free straight onto the Kindle store and get up to 70 per cent of the royalties, while still holding onto the copyright.
It doesn’t matter if your customers have a Kindle or not either, as your book can be downloaded via the free Kindle app available all mobile tablet and smartphone devices, PCs and Macs.
You can also use Amazon’s Createspace service to create a physical book to sell on the site too!
I’ve been self-publishing Kindle books on Amazon for nearly three years now and have not looked back.
In that time, I’ve released three novels (one being a long one that I divided up into a serial) and a novella.
I also took advantage of KDP Select, which lets you can put your work straight onto Amazon’s global site and can use their free promotional tools like Kindle Countdown to help boost sales.
While I’m not dining out on the spoils every day, I’ve now reached a stage where it’s a nice little supplement to my income.
I always like to say that if, on a scale of one to ten – one being a guy who just finished his first book and put it on Amazon – and ten being Stephen King level success, I’m probably at about a four.
That’s taken a couple of years, but who’s to say that your book couldn’t be one of the overnight successes?
If you’ve ever thought about writing a book, but didn’t bother because you think you’ll never be published, then think again. It’s certainly changed my life, as dramatic as that may sound.
Don’t get me wrong I still work as a singer / musician to pay the bills, but I have taken a few steps down the road towards this one day being my full-time job.
If you’re interested in trying out Kindle Direct Publishing then have a little look below at some tips that I have personally found useful in the self-publishing process on Amazon.
CONNECT WITH YOUR READERS: The single most important thing above all else is not to be frightened to ask for reviews.
Write an afterword – it’s that simple! If you don’t tell people how much you need them, remember, 99.1 per cent of them aren’t going to; you need to let them know that it’s necessary.
The amount of reviews I have that start something like ‘I don’t normally leave reviews, but I really enjoyed this book and the author’s afterword made me realise that …’
So ask, but tell them who you are at the same time. Be open. It’s important to respect your readers too; they’re the people who’ve been decent enough to take the time to help you when 99.1 per cent of people don’t even bother.
PAY TO GET YOUR BOOK PROFESSIONALLY PROOF-READ BEFORE YOU PUBLISH IT: This is absolutely vital.
One of the things that has come up time and time again in reviews and has even people to drop their star rating is typos.
You’re looking at around 200 quid for less than 100,000 words, but trust me, it’ll be money well spent.
You CAN’T do it yourself, no matter how good you might be, as it’s your own work (any pro-author will tell you that it’s almost impossible) your friends aren’t trained to do it (unless they are , of course) and if you don’t it’ll bite you in the butt.
Don’t do what I did, and wait until you have to shell out to get three novels done at once. Ouch. Oh, and redraft, too; it’s a real pain, but it’s utterly necessary.
MAKE SURE ALL OF YOUR SECONDARY MEDIA IS READY BEFORE HAND: Again this may sound obvious to you lot now, only in hindsight for me.
Make sure you set up a Facebook page, Twitter account, website, mailing list sign-up form and blog. And then plug them for all you are worth in your book.
THESE ARE EASY TO SET UP, EVEN IF YOU’RE NO GOOD WITH COMPUTERS. Failing that, get a teenager to do it for you. Mailchimp is the mailing list website that I use, and it’s excellent.
REMEMBER IT’S A MARATHON, NOT A SPRINT: You could be a hit overnight, true … but most of you will have to grind it out. And I’m horrendously impatient – just ask every barber that’s ever had the misfortune of having me in the chair – so if I can stick it out, you can. Keep perspective, keep faith, keep going, and focus on the horizon.
Good luck with it folks.
Contact me at www.lukesmitherd.com or follow me on @ lukesmitherd and let me know how you’re doing.
In the meantime, my book The Stone Man is available both in print and for Kindle on Amazon.com – just 76p for the Kindle!
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