Do These 5 Important Things Before You Publish Your Book
By: Kary Oberbrunner
Tags: Authors, Writing Tips, Books, Publishing

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Every author wants success, but most authors have no idea how to achieve it. No matter how you publish or what you publish, there are five essential elements that will put you on in the fast lane on the road to success.

1 — Write a great book.

Whether you’re writing a novel, a nonfiction book, a memoir, or a children’s book, the first step in writing a good book your readers will want to read is coming up with a great idea. These ideas can come from:

Your hobbies, interests, career, or business

Something you’ve experienced in your life

A philosophy or theory you have about religion, life, or success

A proven way you’ve created to solve a problem

Something that’s happened in the news

… or sometimes, our ideas seem to materialize out of thin air.

And over time, you’ll work to develop that idea into an engaging narrative. For some, it only takes weeks, but it’s also okay if it takes you several months or years to finish writing your book.

2 — Revise, edit, and polish your manuscript.

Through alpha readers, beta readers, professional editors, and proofreaders, you’ll receive valuable feedback on exactly what needs to be polished and how you can easily tackle those issues. But you’ll ultimately have the final say on what the final draft of your book looks like. It’s your voice and your style, and anyone who helps you edit or revise your manuscript should try to protect that at all costs. With that, comes a caveat, however. If the majority of your readers find a similar issue in your book, you are the one who controls whether to acknowledge that or ignore it. The author holds the responsibility for the final product.

3 — Choose a title and cover that represents the book you’ve written.

These two elements of the entire package of your book are critical to get right because they combine to give your potential readers a first impression of who you are as an author and what your book might be about. If the title is uninspiring or there are five other books out there with the same title, you haven’t done the work to set yourself apart. (If you need help choosing the perfect title, make sure you utilize my PINCH method. Watch the FREE video here.)

Your book cover must be well-designed, unique, and match both the genre you are writing for and the book you have written. The first two elements work to grab a potential reader’s attention right away, and the last two can make or break whether that reader buys another one of your books. For instance, if your cover looks like a romance novel, but it’s actually a mystery novel, some readers may not get past the first few chapters. If you do some market research before the design process, you won’t have to worry about that.

4 — Set clear and measurable goals for your writing success.

Think about why you wanted to become a writer in the first place. Was it to make money, see your name in print, or prove yourself wrong? Decide right now what will make you feel like a success before you publish so you know you have a goal to work toward. That doesn’t need to be your only goal, though. You can have five goals … or ten … or even twenty! And those goals can and will change as your progress through your writing career.. Life as an author is a wide world of discovery, and you can’t possibly know everything … yet. So, don’t think you have to set those goals in stone, and you won’t feel like a failure if you need to change them.

5 — Publish the right way.

There is no one right answer to this dilemma. Whether you plan to pursue self-publishing, traditional publishing, or publishing with Author Academy Elite, you must find an option that fits your vision for your future writing career. Like many of you reading this blog post, the authors at Author Academy Elite knew very little about the publishing process before they joined us. That’s why we created a program to guide them through every stepping stone along the way — writing, revising/editing, the design process, publishing, book launches, and marketing/promoting to help them reach their publishing goals sooner. And we can help you do that, too!

Click here to sign up for our next free webinar.

If you know anyone who could benefit from joining you in attending our next free webinar, please share this post with them and leave us a comment below. We look forward to meeting you along your find to finding publishing success!