Top 3 Strategies to Make Your Book a Success When You’ve Been Burned Before
When you’ve experienced financial hardship, especially when it comes to putting your writing out into the world, it can be difficult to get back in the saddle again and attempt to publish your next book. However, with just a little bit of elbow grease, some luck, and a lot of planning, you can make your dreams a reality and get over the hurdle of your past setbacks.
The Loft shares some things you should keep in mind as you pursue rebuilding your lifelong goal of owning and operating your own (successful) writing business and selling the book you’ve worked so hard to finish.
Put your setback in perspective
In order to move forward with your dreams, you first need to re-evaluate what happened to your previous venture and why it didn’t turn out the way you wanted. Now that you have more experience, some perspective, and a cushion of time between now and the previous setback, ask yourself: What happened? What can you do differently this time? What avenues will you pursue that you didn’t in the past?
Get back to the basics
You’ve written the book, but now what do you do? Self-publishing your own book is much like owning and operating a business where the product is you. So you need to make sure you look at publishing your novel from a business perspective. The Writing Cooperative points out that self-publishing affords you a lot of control over the process, from start to finish, but you will have to be involved every step of the way, no matter how trivial it sounds.
For instance, forming a limited liability company (LLC) could be advantageous for a small-business owner, which is what you will be, even as a writer, because you are selling a product: your work! LLCs offer several benefits you should be aware of: tax advantages, limited liability, and less paperwork than a traditional solo corporation filing are only some of the most common. Using a formation service can make the experience even more painless. Just make sure to check your state’s regulations before moving forward with the filing. ZenBusiness can help.
Invest in marketing from the beginning
Any beginner business person knows that the success of a business rises and falls on the back of the marketing you have behind it. The same can be said for selling your novel, memoir, or reference guide—no matter what you’ve written or where your passions lie, you must put the full force of marketing behind it from the beginning if you want it to sell.
There are several key ways to accomplish this goal. Make sure you are plugged into all the social media channels (Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook at the very minimum) and actively engage with the book writing and publishing communities there. Leverage your own blog to promote the book—if you haven’t started one yet, do it now! And don’t forget to land key reviews of the book for once it’s out because those first reviews, especially if they’re from notable artists that people will recognize, are critical to your early success. So The Author’s Guild suggests building those relationships now before your book’s launch!
The main thing: Don’t give up!
Authors know that they need to keep at it in order to be successful. The success of your next book is all up to you—and that means you can’t give up now!