How to Self Publish a Book to Grow Your Business

Wow, learning how to self publish a book was not as hard as I thought it would have been.

Actually, I've self published 4 books now and the process got easier and easier each time I did it.

In this article, I'm going to walk you through the entire process how to self publish a book and everything I learnt in the process.

Steps How to Self Publish A Book

1. Plan – Figure out what your audience will want before you write your book.
2. Production – Write the book with the end in mind teaching all the steps to get the reader to the end result or conclusion
3. Pre-Launch – Get others ready to buy, review, share, and promote your book
4. Launch – Put all your efforts behind your book to get more people to read and more importantly, buy your book
5. Post Launch – This is when the actual promotion begins by going on podcasts to talk about your book, sharing it all over the place, and engage with your readers

Writing and self-publishing a book can be one of the best ways to grow your other businesses.

Business is all about influence and how much you can have over your potential customers. It doesn’t matter what type of business you already have, by learning how to self publish a book, you are doing much more for your business than you can imagine.

When a customer is presented with two different options, they will always go with the one that they perceive will give them the most of what they desire.

Customers want to be assured that their money will not be wasted and that they will get what they paid for.

Your goal is to give your customer as many reasons as possible to choose you over your competitor.

 

Steps for How to Self Publish a Book for Passive Income

As I have been increasing my passive income streams, book writing has been a joy for me to learn and build a business around.

I really never thought I would ever write a book but now, I actually have 3 books and have plans for at least 8 more in the future.

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If you went to high school and learned how to write a report, you basically have already learned the process to create a book.

There are some key areas of book writing AND how to self publish a book. Just because you wrote a book doesn’t mean that people will buy it or even find it to buy.

Again, here are the main steps how to publish a book (we will learn all about it in a little bit)

1. Plan
2. Production
3. Pre-Launch
4. Launch
5. Post Launch

I’ll focus on the plan and production since it is where you must start to create your book business. If you are like me, then you need a to-do list that will help you walk through the processes step by step.

 

Plan Your Book For Your Audience

Find the premise of the book and what you want your audience to learn.

Each book needs a focus or a main theme. What is it that you want to share with the world? I find that it is easier to write about the things you are passionate about and enjoy sharing with others. The theme of your book is important as it will determine the way it is to finish.

Do you love to talk about how to raise your puppies to be healthy, mature, obedient, and protective? Then a possible non-fiction book on the subject could be a winner for you.

Another example could be that you love to rock climb and enjoy encouraging others to start in the sport.

Then a book on “Getting Started with Rock Climbing” could be your first book.

 

Make Your Theme Very Specific

There is a saying, “The Riches are in the Niches”. This means that the more specialized your book is, the more likely you will attract your target audience.

Try to make your theme to be very specific. Actually, the more specific the theme of your book is the better.

For example, the niche that I am going after with www.masterpassiveincome.com is helping people to quit their job with passive income. That is it. Plain and simple. It is not fancy, catchy, or creative, just straight to the point.

People know what I’m about and those who are interested will know what to expect from me.

Don’t worry about trying to reach EVERYONE with your book. There are enough people in the world that will be interested in your niche to buy your book.

 

Determine the End Result the Book Should Convey

 

Now that you have your specific theme for your book, figure out what is the ultimate outcome you want your reader to walk away with.

In my book “How to Quit Your Job with Passive Income” my goal is to teach people that passive income will allow you to quit your job. Since I had the end in mind, I was able to work my way back from their.

To go back to our example of the rock climbing book, the end goal could be to have the reader to just start climbing. You may want them to experience the adrenaline, fun, and excitement of rock climbing so your goal is to get them on the mountain.

 

Work Your Way Backwards to the Beginning

With that end result in mind, you can work your way backwards. Obviously there are many steps to getting to the end. Here are some examples of possible chapters from key points in the process.

Equipment, Training, Don’t Be A Newbie, Mindset, Focus, Mentors, Bouldering, Indoor, Outdoor, Knots, Skills, Hand holds, Terminology

This is just a list that I came up with on the top of my head. I have never rock climbed so I bet there are many other things an actual rock climber could add or take away from this list.

As you can see though, there are many things that a reader could learn as you walk them through the process.

The bottom line is that you know your theme and what you want the reader to learn, and can fill in the sections in between. With the main points covered, you have the main structure of your book already lined out!

A good tip is that these key sections can be your chapters for your book. This allows you to flesh out the book and gives you the ability to see the flow of the book as a reader will see it.

With learning how to self publish a book, don’t worry about content right now. We will cover that in a little bit.

 

Create an Outline of the Major Ideas of Your Book (these will become your chapters)

Now that you have your theme, end goal, and main points for your reader to learn, it is now time to put it all into an outline.

You remember doing an outline in high school right? For me, it was something that I was pretty good at because that is how my mind works. Anyways, take what you have and create an outline with it.

1. Mindset
2. Focus
3. How not to Act and Climb Like A Newbie
4. Training
5. Equipment
6. Technical Gear
7. Advanced Gear
8. Safety and Protection
9. Bouldering
10. Mentors
11. Knots

 

Create Sub Points and Further Sub Points In Your Book that Explain the Major Ideas

Next create sub points for each one of your main points. These will help develop your chapters better for the reader to truly understand.

Inside each of your main points, there has to be sub-points that the reader needs to know.

Let’s take the first one on the list: Equipment

Here is some things that I found from a quick internet search on the subject of rock climbing equipment:

Clothing, Personal Gear, Technical Gear, Advanced Gear, First Aid, Long Multi-Pitch Climbs, Before the Climb, After the Climb

This is how an outline for this book could look with the points and sub-points:

1. Mindset
2. Focus
3. How not to Act and Climb Like A Newbie
4. Training
5. Equipment
   1. Clothing
      1. Before the Climb
      2. After the Climb
   2. Personal Gear
      1. Climbing Pack
      2. Lunch
      3. Sunglasses
6. Technical Gear
   1. Shoes
      1. Hiking shoes to get you to the climb
      2. Climbing shoes
   2. Climbing Harness
   3. Helmet
7. Advanced Gear
8. Safety and Protection
   1. First Aid
   2. Safety communication devices
9. Bouldering
10. Mentors
11. Knots

I did not fill this outline in fully but you can see the how to create the outline of the book. As you fill in the outline, don’t worry about what you are going to say at that moment.

Just get all your thoughts down on paper as you plan how to self publish a book.

This will help you not forget some points as well as allow you to make sure your chapters and sub points flow well together.

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Make sure the book flows well and leads the reader to the end result you want them to reach

The last thing you want is for the reader to get confused and discouraged from reading the rest of your book AND future books you write. Walk through your outline with someone you trust. Allow them to pick a part your outline to see if there are any holes, gaps, or miss-aligned parts to it.

If someone reading your outline (which will be your table of contents) can completely understand it, you are on the right track. Make sure he or she can understand the following well:

1. Your Theme
2. End goal of the book
3. The steps it takes to get there
4. That the end goal is possible
5. They will achieve success at the end of the book

Imagine your readers right now. The first thing they will do after they see your cover is look at your table of contents. If your table of contents is clear and answers the above list, then your reader will absolutely know if they want to buy the book or not.

You don’t want to leave your reader confused and decide not to purchase your book because it doesn’t make sense to them.

 

Get creative with your content to help your reader engage with your book

Add stories, examples, fun quotes, etc. to make your book enjoyable as well as insightful. In doing this, you will help the reader to desire to read more.

Here is an example:

In the equipment section, imagine you want people to understand the importance of wearing a helmet. You had the experience of banging your head when you fell on a climb.

Start the section on the importance of a helmet by telling your story of the time you were thankful you had a helmet.

I personally like to add quotes into each chapter that help point to where the chapter is going. Again, if it is for equipment, maybe find a quote where someone said how important equipment is.

Here is an example I found with a quick internet search:

 

Fill in the Outline With Your Content As If You Were Talking To A Friend

Now that your outline is the way you want it, now it is time to fill in the rest of the book. This is the time to create the guts of the book. A good book will have content that explains each chapter, point, and sub point well.

A good tip is to actually write the content it as if you are talking to someone. Because you ARE talking to someone through your book.

Think of it as a one-on-one conversation that you are having sharing the thing you are passionate about.

Another tip is to take each section at a time. Try not to jump back and forth between sections and focus on one point at a time. This will also help you achieve little goals throughout the creation of the book.

Writing a book takes a long time. If your goal is to complete a book, it may be too large of a goal for you. To break it down in smaller goals, tackle one chapter at a time.

If that is still too big, go after one point or sub point at a time. This will really help you get many “Wins” under your belt as you go through the book.

If you complete one point in a chapter a day, after one month, you will most likely have a finished draft of your book!

 

Plan Your Next Book in Your Niche

Yes, that’s correct. In a book writing business, the key is to continually write. The more books you write on a subject, the more chances your niche will be seen by others.

For example, I have two books for my passive income niche. The first book I wrote was “How to Quit Your Job with Rental Properties” My second book is called “How to Quit Your Job with Passive Income”. My next book will be “How to Quit Your Job Writing Books”.

My brand of Master Passive Income will have many other “How to Quit Your Job with…” books that will point to each other. The more books I have, the more readers will have the ability to find my business.

If you were to continue writing about rock climbing, your next book could be on the “Intermediate Rock Climbing” and “Advanced Rock Climbing” and even “Rock Climbing is Better with Others”

You know your niche much better than I do so let your mind go.

A good tip is to not pack too much into your book. You want to keep your book “To the point” and no more.

Don’t add extra sections to you book because you feel it “Needs” more to make it a good book. Write enough to get your end result for the book accomplished.

I wrote a marriage book called “Lasting Marriage – Discovering God’s Meaning and Purpose for Your Relationship” I had so many ideas of what I could put into the book that it was going to be 120,000 words long! That is 5 times the size of my first book “How to Quit Your Job with Rental Properties”.

I decided to cut the book into 3 smaller books. Not that I made it into a series of books but rather, made two other completely separate books with the content. This will mean that I have 3 books on marriage rather than one.

If you think about it, most people will spend less than $12 for a book. It really doesn’t matter how big it is.

If I wrote the 120,000 word book and sold it, the most I could effectively charge for it is $12.99. But, if I were to break it into 3 books, I can sell all three for $12.99 each and hopefully make three sales instead of one.

 

The Length of the book should be 18,000 to 28,000 words

Yep, don’t count how many pages your book is. There are so many different page sizes, margins, font size, etc. that page count doesn’t really matter.

Your goal should be to make your book hit in the middle of rage of 18,000 words to 28,000 words.

I have found books over 18,000 words does two things:

1. Is an adequate amount of words to properly convey your thoughts to the reader well.

2. Is enough words that your reader will not feel like they wasted their money on your book.

Both of these things are very important for your book writing business. If you don’t accomplish both of these, your readers may be unhappy and leave your terrible reviews.

If your book goes over 28,000 consider breaking the book up into multiple books. I only broke this rule once with my “Lasting Marriage” book.

In order to properly explain the premise of the book, 63,000 words was necessary. Even though the book is 63,000 words, I still have enough content for 3-4 more books.

 

Programs to Use to Write Your Book

There are two programs I use in writing my book.

Microsoft Word is, as always, a good reliable word processing program. I use it for my main writing. I won’t go into too much detail on this because most people already know much about this program.

The second program I use for writing is called Scrivener.

It is a great program that is designed for writers. The program works very well to organize your thoughts into a full book. I use it to organize the book in a logical flow.

Here is what I do.

1. Outline the book in Scrivener
2. Write the content for each section, point, and sub-point, in Word
3. Copy and paste it back into Scrivener

This is just scratching the surface of a book writing business and how to write a book. There is so much to learn, as there is with any business. I'll continue to share what I am learning with you and help you to NOT make the mistakes I have made.

Now that I have walked you through how I write my books, what are you passionate about enough to write a book about it?

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How to Self Publish a Book Will Grow Your Business

 

Very few people were visiting my site and it felt lonely. Then I decided to write a book as another way to reach my customers. I already had the content written out in blog posts so I thought, “Why not turn it into a book”?

This was one of the best ideas I could have had and things turned around dramatically.

Before I get to my website traffic, let me share the details about my most recent launch of my 3^rd business book.

“Successfully Unemployed” was launched on June 26^th 2017. To launch it well, I used many free and paid promotions with online book promotions sites. Monday the 26th was a hard push for as many downloads as possible. It went excellent!

The first day had the most free downloads at 3,123 digital book downloads. (Not including paperback and audiobook sales) This was basically 3,123 new customers that would now find my blog and become future customers for other items I produce.

Because of my huge push for free downloads, the book broke into the top 100 in the free store on Amazon. This is the first time I got into the top 100 and ended up getting to #56. (didn’t get a screen shot of it)

Next was to transition the book to the paid store and that went terrific as well. With paid and free promotions, the total sales topped at 66 copies sold at $0.99. Again, more future customers!

On top of that, my book was put in a prominent placement by Amazon on the Hot New Releases you’re your book gets here, this is basically free promotion by Amazon and will just help you sell even more books.

One more great thing came with the success of the launch. Successfully Unemployed reached “Best Seller” status along with my other two business books! So, I can actually say that I am a best selling author! ?

With all this publicity, the traffic to my site increased greatly. Actually, with the publishing of each of my business books, the traffic increased over and over again.

Here is the timeline for publishing my 3 business books:

September 2015: “How to Quit Your Job with Rental Properties”
November 2016: “How to Quit Your Job with Passive Income”
June 2017: “Successfully Unemployed”

 

Each time I launched a book, the traffic to my site grew. You can see from the chart that each book launch caused a large up-swing in traffic. With each book launch, the total sales of each other books increased as well.

Currently, I am turning my first book, “How to Quit Your Job with Rental Properties” into an online course for all my customers.

There is such a demand for a course that I’d be a fool to not create it. For my book writing business, I have three more books planned out and I hope to get two of them done in 2018.

So, after all that, here are the great benefits that I found to benefit you and your current business by writing and how to self publish a book.

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Establishes You as an Authority in Your Business

There is something powerful about a book that you hold in your hands. Books have been around for centuries and there are not a lot of people who are publishing books.

Since there are only a select few who actually do publish a book, those who do are admired because of their accomplishment.

On top of that, the author is seen as someone who knows enough about a subject that he put it into a book to help others learn what he knows.

Whatever your business is, writing a book will help you become an instant authority in what you write about.

For example, let’s say your business is being a hunting and fishing guide in Alaska. Those who desire to experience a “once in a lifetime” hunting and fishing trip in Alaska would read your book and learn exactly how to do it. How to get there, how to find the right guides, how to travel, how to tip, etc.

This is something that your reader never knew how to do before. Since you have all the details explained and itemized out, you show your authority because you know something your reader didn’t. You are also sharing your thoughts and ideas with the reader, helping them to be successful in their hunting and fishing trip.

With my book “How to Quit Your Job with Rental Properties”, I share how I quit my job by investing in real estate and making passive income. This established me as an authority because I share something that my readers want to know about.

They are curious how I quit my job and want to do the same. I tell my reader, “Hey, I did it, so can you”! This really resonates with the reader and elevates you as an authority teaching others how to do something they couldn’t do in the past.

 

When You How to Self Publish a Book Builds Credibility

Along with being an authority in your business, you also develop credibility by proving you have the knowledge about something others want to know. As you outline the steps it takes to attain a desired outcome, your reader will perceive you as one that has all the answers.

Questions I am asked constantly resemble this: “How do I start investing in real estate and how do I buy my first property”?

My first response is: “I would love to help you do achieve your goal. First, read my book. In it I answer all the questions many others, just like you, have asked before they got started investing.

When you are done, you will have many questions answered but many more will come up. Reach out to me then and I’ll help you from that point forward”.

Can you can see what I did there?

I showed them that I have credibility because the book has:

1. Answers many questions people already asked when they started.
2. The book led others to start investing in real estate rental properties.
3. They can do the same thing too by reading the book.
4. They are invited to learn more from me after they are done.

This could lead into further books, courses, mentoring, etc.

 

Learning How to Self Publish a Book Is Passive Income

Today, learning how to self publish a book is super easy and relatively inexpensive. By self publish a book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Audible, etc. you are able to also make money from the sale of your books.

It surprised me how much passive income I made when I published my fourth book “Successfully Unemployed”. It may be that the title grabbed readers attention successfully, but the book sold extremely well and continues to sell well.

Each book makes me passive income.

This means that I do the work one time and I continue to make money without doing any more work. Once the book is written, Amazon and other retailers do all the work to sell the books.

Even when I am sleeping, my books make me money passively.

 

Re-Purpose the Content You Already Have to a New Medium and Reach More People

Writing a book, or how to self publish a book, is a great way to re-purpose the content you already have written or thought through to reach even more people.

Not everyone reads books, but not everyone reads blogs or listens to podcasts. Writing a book is another net that you cast out along with your blog, podcast, advertising, etc. to reach more people. By not how to self publish a book, you are potentially missing out on many customers that only consume content through books.

Each of your customers consume information differently. Some you can reach by marketing and advertising. Others you can reach through word of mouth.

Still others you can reach by creating a website or podcast. Another medium to reach more people for your business is by

How to Self Publish a Book Will Grow Your List Quickly

.

More than likely you already have content that you have wrote about or thought about in your business. You know your business in and out and can sell it to anyone because you already know everything about it. Take that content that you already know and put it into a book to reach more people.

 

Help More People to Grow Your Business

They say that the way to make money is to do one of two things: 1. Increase someone’s pleasure. 2. Decrease someone’s pain.

In business, the best way to make money is to help people by doing one of those two things. People pay for things that benefit them. Not things that benefit you. Your customers will only spend their money on their needs and their concerns. By helping people with those, you are gaining a customer.

My book “Lasting Marriage” I teach how to have a successful marriage. Most people who read a marriage book are looking for help to make their marriage better.

This would possibly be to decrease someone’s “pain” in their marriage, whatever that is.

My goal is to help as many people as possible to learn how to be successful in marriage and apply it to their lives. The passive income is great, but that is not my main reason for writing the book. As long as it helps others have a better marriage, I count that a success.

 

How to Self Publish a Book Will Grow Your List Quickly

The end goal is not to have just one sale of a book to a reader. The end goal is to point my readers to the rest of my online businesses that offer even more help for the reader.

If you think of a non-fiction book as a way to make money, you are correct. Another added benefit is that people find you and your other businesses through your books. “How to Quit Your Job with Rental Properties” is by far my most valuable tool to grow my email list and find my blog.

My blog, www.MasterPassiveIncome.com, is my main business that my books point to. When a reader buys my book, they learn about me AND my online business where I teach even more about the subject of investing in real estate.

Throughout the book I share about my blog and how people can learn much more about investing by visiting my site.

 

Grow Your Email List

A great way to get people to your site is to give them an incentive to do so. In my book “Successfully Unemployed”, I give away a bonus lesson AND workbook that the reader can download after they visit my site and give me their email address.

Your email list is your gold mine for future sales and marketing. These are people that already believe in what you have written AND liked it enough to give you their email address.

When you publish a new book, you can email your newsletter subscribers letting them know of your new book and how they can get a copy of it.

Also, if you are launching, online courses, tools, or whatever it is, you will be able to inform people who have already bought from you in the past that you have something else that will benefit them that they have the opportunity to purchase.

 

Launch a New Area of Business

Writing a book is also a great way to launch a new area of your business. An online course is a natural extension of your book for all your customers.  For example, my rental property book has been turned into a podcast, online course, mentoring, and coaching.

The content that is shared in a non-fiction book can be an outline for your online course. Obviously, you will show more, teach more, and do more hand holding in the online course but you have the foundation already set. If your book sells well and people give good feedback, then you are on track to having a successful online course.

My online courses are natural extension to my books. Those who have already purchased my book know that I have already been successful in real estate investing so they want to learn more. The next step for them is it to purchase my course which I sell for $997. The course is very robust and the customer should have a rental property at the end of the course if they apply what I teach.

 

Increase Traffic to Your Blog/Website

As my book helps my customers to find my website, they continue to visit my site to gain more knowledge that the book does not (and cannot) give.

My customers keep coming back to my site as well as share my content with their friends and social media outlets. The power of social media sharing will dramatically increase the exposure of your business to potential customers. Since those who already bought my book like what I write about, they are more inclined to share it with people they know.

Another traffic generator is sites like Google and other search engines. These companies love to promote sites that people desire to visit. With each new visitor to my site, those search engines see that my site is valuable to their customers who search for content on real estate investing so they send more people to my site.

Success breeds more success and the same goes with search engines. The more people find your site, the more it will be promoted to other potential customers. If you have good content and can attract these potential customers, you can turn them into paying customers.

 

Now that you know that a book is a fantastic tool for you in your current business, start today to plan a book that will help you as we just discussed.

The sooner you get the book published, the sooner it can work for you, building your business and making you money.