3 Things I Learned From Publishing My First Ebook

I published my first Ebook, for the third time.

I have a good feeling this time, and a better plan.

These are the three biggest things I learned from my attempts at publishing an Ebook.

Interesting title and cover.

The first version of this book I wrote was called abstract.

I don’t even know what that means; coupled with my weird, Avant guard cover, neither did anyone else.

Although I did sell two copies of Abstract, one of them was to my mom.

The second title I tried sold zero copies. Now I’m on to the third title and cover combo.

The new title is a little more descriptive and intriguing to the reader.

I used the same approach that I do with writing titles and subtitles for articles on medium.

I also used a cover that I thought was cool and funny. If you’re curious what the new book looks like here is a link.

Sales Upfront

Another thing I learned from doing a little research after my first failed attempt was the importance of sales in the beginning.

There are thousands of books being published on Amazon every day.

One of the ways the algorithm sorts books is by engagement, just like articles on Medium.

So if your book doesn’t sell or get any attention when it’s released, it begins to fall into the abyss of the internet.

The easiest way to get sales ups front is to market it to your email list or followers.

Since I don’t have a big email list or money to promote my book I have to try some other options. More on that later.

Importance of editing

I thought I edited the story the first time.

I wrote it and went back and revised it, I thought it was good.

When I went back and made some changes for the second launch of the book I noticed spelling and grammar errors I missed the first time.

I was embarrassed, I want to be a writer and that is what I put out?

In the third edition of the book, I went back again, this time with a fresh set of eyes.

It’s been a few months since I wrote the first draft and I still like it but noticed many things I wanted to change and improve.

That included improving the beginning and ending to make the whole book more coherent and interesting.

Rereading and revising are good for fixing errors but also adding and improving upon the book itself.

As I mentioned before I don’t have money to promote my book, so here is what I plan to do.

I’m starting by posting articles about it to all the places I already post.

I am going to write this article with links to the book as well as chapters of the book.

I will release each chapter as a single post on Medium and other social media with links to a free preview of the book.

The idea being by giving them a taste of the book with a link to a sample people will have enough of an idea of what the book is about they will be interested in reading more.

Although I feel better about the book itself as well as my marketing strategy, only time will tell.

I’ll post a follow-up article in a week or two to see how it’s going.

Thanks for reading, if you want to read a preview of the book click this link. Or click one of the links below to read other articles I wrote on Medium.