Tag: KDP

How do I know if my book is ready for publishing?

Published on by Michael McCandlessLeave a comment

A wise friend reminds me that “Done is better than perfect.” Sometimes it is better to go ahead with a new venture and just see what happens. Counting the benefits and costs of this is important.

Be kind to yourself and realize that having your book live on Amazon or wherever will have several immediate bonuses:

  1. There is no substitute for “seeing your name in lights,” as it were. Pressing the “Publish” button in KDP will produce a live product page for your book on amazon.com. Since this is familiar territory for Amazon shoppers, you should feel a mild rush of pride or maybe apprehension (Am I an imposter?) about see your book suddenly for sale in the world’s largest store. Savor the moment and then get on with promotion, because just having your book on Amazon does not mean automatic best-seller status.
  2. Your book on Amazon plants a stake in the ground of your writing/publishing career. This is a forever milestone. Use it to get a new sense of what you’re about with this writing thing.
  3. If you’ve created an effective title, description, categories, and key words in your KDP setup process, you may make some sales, especially if your book is nonfiction and well-aimed at a specific reader group.
  4. With your book on Amazon, you now have someplace to send friends, family, well-wishers, Facebook friends, LinkedIn connections, etc. to show them what you’ve been up to. Send them an email, message, or tweet and ask for their feedback and if they’re inclined, a positive review. This can help kick-start your book’s marketing.

Having made the case for self-publishing on KDP, I will balance my enthusiasm for this with the caution than wile done is better than perfect, perfection is a variable concept. Make sure to edit out typos, spelling errors, bad grammar, and obvious mistakes. In other words, respect the process and make sure to do a creditable job of editing and formatting. While KDP will make sure your book and cover meet their manufacturing standards, it won’t tell you that you have mistaken “there” for “their” or split your infinitives. Publish a creative product you will take pride in.

All in all, I strongly recommend self-publishing using the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) service. It will introduce you to publishing as something you can do yourself at very low cost. You won’t tie yourself forever to one publisher or process, which means maintaining your freedom of choice down the road. Most important, self-publishing with KDP will get your book out there, pushed gently out of its nest, ready for the world to take notice. After all, done IS better than perfect.

Contact us at Touchwood Press if you’d like to talk through your project, get some coaching, or use us as your project manager.

Best tools for my project? There are so many!

Published on by Mike McCandless1 Comment
A_logo

Is this your first self-publishing project? Assuming it is, I say, “Keep it simple!” Lucky for us, we can start at the top, as it were, by starting our self-publishing journey in Amazon-land, using Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Why lucky? Because Amazon already sells more than 70% of all e-books and can give you access to just about any market or reader audience segment. So, the tool/platform I recommend, especially for starters, is Kindle Direct Publishing.

This doesn’t really answer the question, though, does it? As you already have seen, there are dozens, at least, of tools, platforms, distribution channels, and publishing services providers to choose from. I’m just saying if the leading provider of just about everything is free/cheap and easy to use and you get all its massive marketing machine working for you, why not start there? There’s plenty of time to get deeper into the marketplace and engineer the perfect set of capabilities and resources for you. Whatever you decide, best of luck to ya’!