I’m Lorie Freeman, founder of the BookLocker publisher and author platform. Over the years I’ve helped hundreds of authors publish their books and grow their audiences. If you’re looking to publish your own e-book, I’d love to help.
The great thing about e-books is they’re relatively easy to write and can be published at any time. That being said, this also makes them much more vulnerable to ripping off. It’s easy for someone to copy and paste your e-book’s content and sell it as their own. If you’re worried about this, you can always lock down the rights to your e-book and ensure the person you’re publishing it for actually owns the copyright.
But let’s get back to the fun part – publishing your own e-book. Once you’ve got your content ready to go, the next step is to figure out a way to get people to read it. And what better way to do that than through traditional publishing and the world’s largest online reading platform, Amazon.
Here’s where things get a little tricky. Unless you’re actively pursing book sales, it’s extremely unlikely you’ll make any money from your e-book. Sure, you might earn a few bucks here and there from ads, but that’s about it. With most people making only a few hundred bucks or less per month from passive income, it’s hard to see how even the most devoted e-book reader could possibly make a living publishing and selling e-books. At least not in the near future.
This is where platforms like Authorea, Smashwords, and Kindle Direct come in. These platforms allow you to upload your book’s digital copy to the internet for free. As a publisher, all you have to do is find a way to get people to the website where they can download your book.
What’s great about these platforms is they take all the financial worries out of the equation. You don’t have to promote your book and worry about selling enough copies to make back your investment. The income comes from traffic and affiliate revenue. That being said, just because the platforms take care of the marketing and the sales doesn’t mean you don’t have to put in the work to grow your audience and earn revenue. In this article, we’ll walk you through the steps to publish your e-book with Amazon and take advantage of their online marketing tools.
The 30-Day Exercise Rationing Scheme
To write an e-book in 30 days, you’re going to need to set some strict parameters. Why? It’s easy to get distracted by the excitement of writing a book and lose track of time. But you’ve got only so much time and so many nights of sleep to make this project happen. So you might as well prioritize what you need to get done.
For the purposes of this exercise, I’m going to assume you’ve got a computer or a smart phone with Microsoft Word installed. If you don’t, don’t worry, you can download a free version from Microsoft here. Or you can use a writing app like Scrivener, which is what I recommend to my students. It’s available for Macs, iPhones, and Androids.
Set Your Budget
The first thing you need to do is set your budget. How much are you willing to spend on this project? Is it a gift for a friend, family member, or are you investing in this as a business venture? The answer to these questions will determine the kind of content you can afford to put into your book. Remember, this is your spending limit, you’re not allowed to spend more than you’ve set aside. If you don’t mind spending a little more than what’s been set as a limit, you might be able to include some of your best materials and most informative images without reproducing the same content over and over. Which would make your book unique and interesting to read. Better yet, if you’ve got a specific goal in mind, like making back your investment or earning a profit, setting a limit will motivate you to work harder.
Choose A Publishing Platform
Now that you’ve got your budget in mind and have some semblance of a timeline in mind, it’s time to choose a publishing platform. And what better place to start than Amazon? It might surprise you to know that they offer a proprietary writing platform called Kindle Writing which was specifically designed for eBook authors. Not only do they provide you with a place to upload your book’s digital copy for free, but they also offer you a variety of tools to help you market and sell your book once it’s published. Which, in turn, makes it much easier for readers to find and access your book if they wish to. One great thing about Kindle is their user-friendly interface. You don’t have to be a tech wizard to operate it – anyone can do it. Simply open your Kindle app on your phone or computer, and then navigate to the Amazon website where you’ve published your book. From there, you can either download a free Kindle reader app for your phone or use your web browser to access your book’s content.