The word “publishing” is often associated with literary agents, manuscripts, revisions, and printed books. However, the clichés in the publishing world are slowly changing as we venture and develop not only the traditional publishing but also the self publishing realm. Many authors, both start-up and established ones, opt for the latter because of convenience, creative freedom, accessibility, control, and longer shelf life.

Indeed, there are already loads of self-published books conquering the market. But have you ever wondered how self-publishing works? Here’s how.

Create a schedule of activities

Before anything else, you should outline everything. When you opt to self-publish, there are many to consider and timelines to follow. So, start getting your planner and list the essential things from the writing process, revisions, and other deadlines to the launching, promotion, and marketing processes. It is best to have a timeline on everything to meet target dates and increase efficiency. This will also give you the chance to create a writing habit.

Write your story

The story is the essential aspect of this whole process. Thus, make sure to allocate some time in developing your book idea from one element to another. It is vital to write a story filled with meaningful and outstanding aspects, from storyline to characters. Don’t forget to spice things up by maximizing the different literary devices and focusing on building imagery. Also, pay attention to both the grandest and littlest details of your story to ensure the strength of the plot.

Evaluate your drafts

Writing a book is not only for sparking creativity or expressing ideas. It could also be a learning process that many had the opportunity to go through. Thus, it is already common knowledge that every manuscript goes through different stages of polishing. So, once you finish your story, make sure to evaluate the first drafts and the following drafts until it is good enough for publishing.

Hire an editor and illustrator

In contrast to traditional publishing, you are definitely needed to either self-edit and illustrate or hire some professionals. Put in mind that this is another investment that you need to jump on for the sake of your book. With an editor, it will be guaranteed that your manuscript will be error-free because the professional will conduct different types of editing based on your needs. When hiring a professional illustrator, your book will surely catch more attention with the eye-catching book cover and amazing illustrations embedded in the story.

Decide a name

This is when it gets more technical and serious. Basically, opting to self-publish your book means that you have to cater to every task that a publishing company would do. You can come up with your name, especially if you want to commit to this setup for a long time. It must be something related to the industry for prospects to get more captivated, such as the outstanding self-publishing companies Kindle Direct Publishing, ReadersMagnet, and more. But if you want to be under the mentioned companies, then study the pros and cons before signing.

Work on the format

The format is integral, especially if your story is in the form of an e-book. You should be more meticulous and adhere to the e-book format. Given that many prefer reading digitally, then you should ensure to give them the best reading experience. Check on every page to see if there were no jumble pages, look into the font if they are readable, and the likes. For audiobooks, listen to the draft first before launching it online. This is to ensure that each word is clear and comprehensible.

Maximize online platforms for book exposure

Before, during, and after are the three important things that you should remember. Jumpstart your book journey by using different digital marketing tactics and dominate social media platforms to increase your book exposure and author visibility. Make sure that prior, during, and following the book release, there should be social media hypes, article releases, book features, and other techniques to increase exposure and gain readers.