Your Book Is Finished, What Comes Next?

Summary

The article discusses post-writing strategies for authors, emphasizing the importance of choosing the right distribution and marketing channels beyond Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) to maximize reach and control over their work.

Abstract

The author reflects on the challenges of writing a book and the subsequent need to focus on distribution and marketing. While Amazon KDP is a popular choice, it may not accept books derived from previously published content, such as blog posts. The article suggests considering aggregating services for broader distribution, including both online and physical bookstores. The author shares their personal experience using Smashwords for ebook distribution and Blurb for physical copies, highlighting the benefits of on-demand printing and the potential for profit when selling directly through an author's website. The article also emphasizes the value of engagement and building relationships with readers, suggesting that direct sales and personalized services can lead to better customer connections and opportunities for upselling other services.

Opinions

The author views Amazon KDP's exclusivity requirements as overly restrictive and not necessarily the most profitable route for authors.
Choosing an aggregating service is seen

Distributing your book

Writing and editing your book, regardless of its length, is not easy. It comes with many long days and sleepless nights. Missed deadlines and unexpected tasks are also part of the journey. You may be focusing on that completion date and crossing the finish line a winner. Actually, you’ll just be getting started on a whole new aspect of your book’s life: distribution and marketing.

A lot of authors choose to go the KDP route (Amazon). But did you know that if your book comes from blog posts or is a collection of work you previously published elsewhere, it will most likely be rejected? That happened to me, because my book started as stories here on Medium, and it was a blessing.

Choosing Amazon is very restrictive if you decide on the Select option, where you get a bigger cut of the sale. They want exclusive content. They want to control pricing, and they will eventually choose your market through their algorithms if you solely rely on them. You worked too hard to build your book. Why give all that away for a few pennies. Therefore, on Amazon, choose the less restrictive, smaller profit split. And cross your fingers that they don’t disqualify you for some reason buried in their terms and conditions.

Instead, you may want to consider using an aggregating service. Much like podcasts, an aggregating service will send your book to a large network of stores both online and brick and mortar. While the distribution channel I chose for my ebook doesn’t reach Amazon, the physical book does. On top of that, my ebook is available in Apple’s iBook, Barnes & Noble, and Rakuten’s Kobo, just to name a few. The physical book will eventually be available on Amazon, and in the Ingram book catalog (Ingram provides books to traditional bookstores and libraries across the US).

While a search on the net will bring up many distributors, or aggregators, that you can choose from, I selected Smashwords for my ebook and Blurb for the physical one. Then, I did something I hadn’t anticipated.

Smashwords is built for distributing your ebook from a word document. While this is not a professional solution, it does convert that into all the formats you need for universal availability. I uploaded a .epub version. That is the standard for many non-Kindle electronic readers. And it received wide distribution as well. Though my research showed that getting an ebook through Smashwords is not easy for technology-challenged readers.

Blurb prints on-demand, and their pricing is similar to Amazon’s. However, you’ll get a discount for orders of over 20 books. So, if you want to sell the books yourself, that is a good deal. I found that an order of 20 or more books is the sweet spot for making a profit, considering the shipping and other expenses incurred in getting your book to market.

As I approached the book design phase, I was enamored with the Amazon model. However, once I got into their review process, I did an about-face and decided to sell books from my website. Since I encourage people to visit there to read my posts already, and I am working to build an online business on my site (synergypersonaldevelopment.com), why not allow myself to cut out the middlemen and add to my list of customers at the same time?

I did a Facebook ad campaign, sending people to Smashwords. While I was happy with my $50 investments (over 6,000 impressions and 350 clicks) I realized that just sending people to someone else’s bookstore was a missed opportunity to engage. As a first-time author, engagement is the key to starting and building a relationship with customers that you hope goes beyond a single purchase.

If those 350 people had visited my site instead of an online bookstore, they would know me a lot better. They could sample other posts I wrote and see if my style resonated with them. They could even book a free consultation and talk to me about the book and how it would help them. No other retailer offers that level of personalized service. I could even upsell prospective readers to coaching services.

So let the next phase of the journey begin. I am proud of the book I’ve written, and if you are writing a book, you should be too. It’s a calling card of sorts, presenting insight into my thinking, coaching style, and experiences. My goal with Win the Day is to open the door to new opportunities and reach a broader audience. Managing this book like an investment is allowing me to do that.

So go out boldly and present your book to the world. That is why you wrote it in the first place, isn’t it?