If you’ve ever wanted to self-publish a book, there’s no time like the present to start your journey. “The secret to getting ahead is getting started” –  Mark Twain.

So, if you’re reading this article, there’s a strong chance that you, the reader, are thinking about publishing a book or you know someone who’s expressed thoughts on this subject. So to that, I say congratulations, yes, congratulations, because you are considering embarking on a task that millions and millions and millions of people will not do because of fear. This article aims to share some helpful hints to ensure you don’t make the mistakes I’m sure many others have made. 

The Self-Publishing Journey

I recently just published my first book. Yes, I have my hands on my hips and am quite proud of myself. Now, I did things a little off the beaten path, so do not copy my way. I hope the article will encourage you to kick fear in the teeth and publish your work anyway. 

To be clear, I will shed light on some of my experiences in self-publishing my first book. By no means nor stretch of the imagination in any way am I an expert or subject matter authority on self-publishing or even just publishing a book. 

OK, all disclaimers are written and documented. Let us dive into this very important topic. I pray that you, the reader, get some good takeaways and find encouragement to publish the work of art in your heart and your head. Let’s go.

We will cover topics like using AI or don’t use AI. Do I publish or self-publish? What the fire truck (If you’re familiar with my book, you know why I put this and not the actual “F” word) is an ISBN? And the most important thing is, what if nobody buys or reads my book?

Now, we will go over a few more topics. Still, that last one is why the best book ever created, a world-changing book written right now, is in the desk drawer of someone who is too afraid of no one reading or liking their book.

Overcoming Roadblocks

If you look back at history, most of the inventions, innovations, and books you’ve read are because that person decided I don’t care what the world thinks. I’m going to do it anyway.

So, the very first thing that you need to come to terms with is your fear. After reading this article, I hope your fear, determination, and persistence are smaller.

The best message a friend of mine sent me on Facebook was: “I am not promoting myself. I am promoting a message that needs to be heard.” Now, you may write a book on 100 ways to do a Rubik’s cube upside down, Standing on your head. Sometimes, that message that “needs to be heard” is “I didn’t let fear stop me from doing something I wanted to do.”

As soon as you write the book, even with the best marketing known to humanity, book clubs worldwide will buy your book, and all these great things will happen. A hard truth. However, here are some facts and why it is important that you do it because you want to do it. Your friends and family will support you. However, they might not leave a review, or they might not share your social media post to promote your book, or they may, after a week, forget to tell their closest friends that their loved ones wrote this awesome book. 

If you get only one thing from this article, it’s that you promote your book. You had the guts, courage, and bravery; you did what most can’t or won’t do. My friend wrote and published a book. OK, first part.

Do I use AI to self-publish my book

OK, yes, when I said that title, I had the Terminator theme music playing in the back of my head. OK, let’s get back to the article.

I know people who have published their books and utilized an artificial intelligence help engine, and it worked great for them. Now I’m not going to go. All “Skynet is the end of the world” is a John Connor-type mentality; however, I will be honest and say that I lean more towards old-school writing from your heart. If you are going to use artificial intelligence, I ask you. Please double- and triple-check to make sure that what you’ve written ends up being what gets put out by AI. 

The second part is to go with a publisher or self-publish.

Option 1: Use A Publisher 

I believe the difference will always come down to money. I have heard from some people who have written books with publishers that the several thousand dollars that they paid were not worth it; however, if you look in any Barnes & Noble, there’s a strong chance that a considerable portion of those come from a publishing house which had a publisher, editor, formatting person, etc., at their disposal. 

The bottom line is that you will pay a significant amount of money if you use a publisher. I don’t know enough about the pros and cons of using a publisher. I would love to hear feedback from you, the reader, on what you found out about the pros and cons of going with or without a publisher. When I first started to think about writing my book. I was all gung ho about a publisher. It was brought to my attention how much money the bare minimum would be beyond my Budget. So, like I said, if you use a publishing company, expect to pay some dollars.

Option 2 Self-publish

OK, there is a 90% chance that you will use Amazon for your Self-publishing. I can’t think of any other way to self-publish today, and I don’t use Amazon. It’s that simple. The publishing part of Amazon is called KDP, and it is Kindle direct publishing. As I am not a computer-friendly, technology-sound guy, I was thankful I had a dear friend who had already published a book with Amazon to walk me through most of this. 

They make it relatively easy to follow steps, and getting the book published is not that difficult. They have a great chat/help system, which is AI-driven to answer almost any question you could come up with. Whether you hire a publisher or self-publish, you must be concerned about the following. 

Front Cover, content, formatting, back cover, copyright page. (Don’t forget that one)

You wrote the book and published it. Now what? ( promoting and the minutiae world of millions upon millions of books)

Reviews

Never more than now have “reviews “been so important. Suppose there’s one less I have learned, dear friends. In that case, it’s this: should you publish a book in this day and age, the terms “five stars”  and “leave a review”  are two of the essential aspects, and Oh, it hurts my heart to say this in having a successful book launch.

So make sure that you get 20 or 30 of your closest friends and have them ready to not only buy the book but have them ready to write reviews and leave five stars.

My friend, here is a little taste of a realistic and complex reality. All of your friends, family, and people in your social media community will tell you they will buy and support your creation. And I believe deep in their heart of hearts, they mean it. However, for you, the creator, your book, your creation is your little ecosystem in which you know everything happening at every moment.

In the meantime, the rest of the world continues to move on in their day. Suppose it is not at the forefront of their eyes at that exact moment. In that case, you are competing, sadly, my friend, with thousands and thousands of different things, places, and situations. I don’t say these things to discourage you; I say these things to enlighten you and show grace to those in your circle. 

Please don’t create your book, your beautiful work of art, with the expectation that everybody around you will be as excited as you are when it goes live. Please don’t do that to yourself. I speak truthfully from my own experience on this subject.

In closing

As you can see in the article, I will have repeated this many times. When you write a book, write it for you. Please find peace with the mentality, “Regardless of whether I sell one book or 1 million books, I’m content.”

Cause folks, I don’t know if your book will hit the New York Times best seller. I don’t know if your book will sell more than 10 copies. You invested in yourself and showed courage in sharing your part with the world. It doesn’t matter if the world appreciates what you share; it matters that you showed yourself and the world that you have the courage and bravery to write, publish, and produce a work of art. 

The world must have more art and more creativity. It is the backbone of the future of our humanity. A bit dramatic, yes, we need engineers. We need people to build structures, cars, technology, and spaceships. However, the creativity of art, books, and poetry is vital for our ongoing healthy evolution as a species. 

So get off your buttocks and grab your phone, laptop, iPad, or spiral notebook ( my fellow seasoned human beings understand this one) and start letting that creativity that you were blessed without!

May your creations bless you and all those who get the opportunity to witness and embrace them.