If you’ve never published a book before, get ready to take a deep sigh. Several times. Be sure to have your Nespresso geared up. Have a financial cushion available, and prepare yourself for hiccups.

If you do all of this, when you run into these skin-flaming steps of the process, you’ll be mentally ready to face, and crush, them.

I say this in advance because getting to the finish line of any marathon is always the toughest, and publishing is no different.

Just because it sounds easy, doesn’t mean it is. However, I’ve laid out some great tools that will lessen the head-to-wall banging that can ensue.

I’ve tried these tools myself throughout the years. Use them! They will be of great service to you, and seriously push you ahead in your authorial career. Your toolbox will thank you!

In the last article, Your Self-Publishing Toolbox for Authorial Success: Editing Tools, we discussed the tools I highly recommend for the writing phase of an author’s publishing journey. 

In this article, I’ll dive deep into what I personally recommend for the publishing phase of your journey as an author.

Publishing Tools

Cover Design: Miblart

Miblart is a web and graphic design company that offers professional book cover design services for indie authors: illustrated, ebook, and print covers, and interior book design.

I have used miblart for years. They’re fast, with affordable investment, and top tier quality. They’re not just for book covers, but they’re also great for other services like: typography, author branding, and more.

I myself have used the book cover services, as well as typography services. I’ve also booked the formatting service for both the paperback and hardcover print versions of my books.

I can attest that their customer service is wonderful! Their designers will do what it takes to get you the cover you need, and overall you’ll leave satisfied.

Is this service for every book you will publish? Of course not. But if you need low overhead, a quick turnaround, and quality art? This is the company to go to at the outset.

If, and when, you use them, be sure to tell Tania I sent you. She’s a sweetheart, and I guarantee you’ll appreciate her kindness.

Cover Design: Professional Designers and Illustrators

Let’s be clear about cover design. You know that saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover?”

It’s a lie. A bonafide L I E.

We all judge books by their cover. And your readers will judge yours, too, if you don’t invest in high quality book design. Don’t even bother DIY’ing this part. What it will cost you in the long run isn’t worth it.

After miblart, I seriously recommend working with professional designers and illustrators.

Now, here’s the rub. These professionals are everywhere, their schedules are the cesspools of chaos, and their work, plus 1:1 service to you, can sometimes be a hit or miss.

To this date I’m sitting on illustrations that will never see the light of day. However, just because one designer fell short, doesn’t mean all of them will.

I have worked with fabulous illustrators and designers throughout the years that have blessed my career with their art.

Keys to finding a good artist? Check their street cred!!!

Beyond the beautiful fotos you see on Instagram and TikTok. Beyond what they say authors are saying. Ask around. Ask in author communities. Read the comments section on their posts. Look on Amazon for the supposed art they claim they have done. Check who has resposted them.

Do. Your. Research.

Some are pretty obvious they’re professional and a go to, while others you’ll have to take a chance on. 

I still recommend this route.

Be sure to message them in advance. They may require full payment upfront. They may be booked out for half the year, or even up to an entire year. They may only do a certain kind of illustration or design. They may be available, but take 6 months to finish the artwork and you need to publish in 4.

Again. Do your research.

I highly recommend working with professional artists from around the world who specialize in covers for your genre to design your cover so you have a higher chance of success!

Formatting: Vellum

Vellum is a book creation tool for Mac that allows you to professionally format books for publication. This software is free to download and use, but you’ll need to purchase a package to actually export your files to publish.

Ya’ll. If you have a Mac, buying Vellum is a must.

No. 

But. 

Seriously.

Vellum is a formatting tool that makes getting your book publish-worthy an entire dream! You can format hundreds, or even thousands, of pages in mere minutes to hours.

It’s as simple as uploading your book’s word doc into the software, choosing your header images and the book’s dimensions, adding in your front and back matter, then presto! Click export, and you now have several book files to upload on every platform you plan to publish on.

Sounds too good to be true? I promise you it’s not. This software is the real deal for formatting.

Currently it’s only available for Mac users, but if you can manage to get your hands on this tool anyway, I can’t shout its praises enough!

Publishing: IngramSpark

IngramSpark is an award-winning independent publishing platform, and an online self-publishing company that allows you to print, globally distribute, and manage your print and ebooks!

I’ll say this now, this platform comes with an upfront cost that will result in backend fruit.

What this means is, through IngramSpark you’ll need to purchase ISBN’s, bar codes, and pay a book-set-up fee when you’re ready to publish. 

However, your author copy purchases will be less. And might I add, when you’re ready to ship directly to your readers, while Amazon has you waiting several weeks for your books to arrive, with IngramSpark, your books will take days.

This platform is for those who are willing to spend a little more on the front end, and take a little longer to get their books live, but want long term security for book success and reader satisfaction.

Publishing: Kindle Direct Publishing

Kindle Direct Publishing is a platform to self-publish eBooks and paperbacks for free and reach millions of readers on Amazon.

KDP is often a go to for authors, especially if they’re publishing for the first time, and I completely understand why.

You pay for nothing upfront. Bar codes, ISBN’s, and even a cover generator, are all provided by Amazon’s self-publishing platform. All you need to do is upload your manuscript in the appropriate book file and you’re good to go.

If you’re an author wanting to take the approach of solely publishing on Amazon for now, go for it! Many authors have done this and carved out 6, and 7, figure businesses for themselves.

There are many perks to publishing through KDP and being exclusive to Amazon. I myself have used this service for years, even in the golden hour when it used to be Create Space (Where my OG’s at?). I love the ability to publish a book, with zero stress, in literally minutes.

I highly recommend the KDP platform for publishing your book. Not only you’ll find it simple and easy to use, but you’ll also find great success in using it.

Publishing: Draft2Digital

Draft2Digital is a digital publishing aggregator offering conversion and distribution services for authors. The platform is aimed at authors “going wide” and selling the books in as many places as possible.

Friend, if you’re an author with a vision of having your published book everywhere, Draft2Digital is for you. I used to publish solely on Amazon, and for a time this served me well. 

However – not all my readers like to buy their books on Amazon. What, with them not wanting to constantly feed the Bezos and all that…

Anywho. Some readers are still loyal to Barnes and Noble. Indie Bound. iBooks and the like.

If you know you want to build a “wide” audience, by having your books published on all platforms, in all markets, I encourage you to upload your books to Draft2Digital. It’s quick, easy, simple, and oh yeah, it doesn’t cost you a dime upfront.

I’ll admit. The publishing leg of the authorial process is a bit of a journey with moving parts. However, once you know what to expect, you can make sure you have the publishing tools you need to accomplish your dreams and be successful. 

These are not end all, be all publishing tools. But they’re a wonderful start, and have been tried and tested by me throughout the years. I love and highly recommend them all.

Tell us below: Are you ready to publish your novel? Which of these publishing tools do you plan to use?

Stephanie BwaBwa is a Fantasy Universe Builder, Author, and Entrepreneur. She’s the creator of Elledelle, the universe filled with angels, adventure, romance, and magic. She’s the author of the fantasy series: The Seraphim Resistance  and The Transcendents, as well as the writing guide, Fantasy Fundamentals. Stephanie co-hosts a podcast for indie authors called: Indie Author Lifestyle with her fantasy partner-in-madness, Angela J. Ford, and is a self-publishing columnist for DIY MFA. You can usually catch her going for a walk through a park, or simply binging anything creatively juicy with too many snacks. Get in contact with Stephanie directly at: stephaniebwabwa.com.

The post Your Self-Publishing Toolbox for Authorial Success: Publishing Tools appeared first on DIY MFA.

You are not alone!

While writing books comes naturally to us, marketing seems so vague and complicated. And yet it’s a necessary evil that must be overcome if we want to be successful indie authors. We scour the internet, listen to a bunch of podcasts, and watch enough videos that our heads explode. And marketing our books still doesn’t make sense.

What if I told you that not only could you understand how to market yourself but actually enjoy it? As someone who writes fiction and does marketing for a living, the key is to approach marketing in a way authors can relate to.

Here are five marketing tips for indie authors by an indie author.

Know Your Ideal Reader

Before you even start drawing up marketing plans or creating social media accounts, you need to know who your book is for. Authors who excel at marketing cater everything they do to that person who will buy every book they write. Just look at some of the most popular authors out today:

●  Stephen King fans want a book that will scare their socks off.

●  James Patterson readers want thrillers with savvy detectives and larger-than-life villains.

●  JK Rowling caters to readers who want to escape to magical places

That’s why you need to know your ideal reader just as well as the main character in your book. What types of settings does this reader love to read about? Where do they hang out online? Who are other authors they love? How do they recommend books to others?

When deciding what online platforms you should be on, whether to start a blog, or even what to write in an email you can always go back to this research. No matter what type of marketing you do, it has to connect with your ideal reader.

Have a Strong Author Brand

If you go back to those authors we mentioned earlier, there’s something else you may notice — they all have strong brands. You hear their names and you automatically know the kind of books they write.

From your Instagram feed to your author website, when readers discover you they should be able to tell right off the bat who you are, what you’re about, and the genre you write in.

Jay Baer, the author of Convince and Convert, defines a brand as “the art of aligning what you want people to think about you with what people actually do think about you.” Think about what you want to be known for. Do you want to be known for penning epic fantasy stories? Do you want readers to see you as an authority in the self-help space?

When thinking about the content you want to share online — social media posts, emails, videos, your website — think about how it will back up the author brand you want to create.

Connect With Readers Through Your Personal Story

Whether you have one book out or twenty, sharing your story can really resonate with your audience. Marketing these days is all about connecting with people on a human level, and our books are no different. We all want to connect with others that either share similar experiences with us, know what we’re going through, share our struggles, hobbies, and even fandoms.

What happens when readers feel you could be friends in real life? They will buy anything you write and rave about your work to their friends.

Think about your personal story and what shaped your life as a writer. What got you into writing? Why is it a passion for you? Was it because you wanted to write the stories you wanted to read? Did you start writing late in life? The key to sharing your story in a way that furthers your book marketing is to make sure your audience can relate to it. 

Take Your Reader On A Journey

Instead of looking at content marketing as something that’s stiff and uncreative, think of it as taking your reader on a journey of discovering you as a writer and the stories you tell. In Marketing Land, it’s called the buyer’s journey–companies create valuable and entertaining content for their audience as they make their way to buying their products. Since you already know how to tell an engaging and entertaining story,  you can apply that same approach to your marketing.

When you’re first starting out, you want to attract your ideal reader to you and your author brand. Like the opening chapters of your book, you have to make a great impression and entice your reader to keep reading.

Once they’ve accepted your call to adventure (i.e. followed you on Instagram or subscribed to your email newsletter), you want to keep them around. Doing weekly Instagram live videos, participating in Instagram book challenges, or sending out monthly newsletters are just a few things you can do to keep your new followers engaged and coming back for more.

Finally, when your reader is ready to complete their journey (i.e. buy your book), that’s when you can create marketing content that focuses your book. Giveaways, challenges, and blog tours work well at this stage because you already have a tribe who loves what you’re about and are ready to support you.

Never Lose Sight of Writing the Next Book

As indie authors, we turned our passion into a business. Like any other product-based business, the more products you have the more profitable you will be. That’s why we can never lose sight of writing the next book. There’s no better way to market yourself than publishing another book.

If you’re spending way more time marketing than writing, it’s time to take a step back and evaluate. Maybe you need to cut back on posting to social media or move your emails from twice a week to once a month. What can you schedule out ahead of time? Don’t be afraid to go back and modify your marketing tasks to free up more time to write.

While the thought of marketing yourself is enough to send you running in the other direction, think of it as a fun way to interact with your future readers. Besides, you already have a leg up in the marketing game compared to other types of solopreneurs — you know how to write, you know how to tell a story, and you have an amazing imagination.

You got this!

Margaret “MJ” McGriff is a YA fantasy author who writes about pirates, magic, monsters, and treasure-hunting nuns. She’s also a content marketing strategist for fiction authors, giving them the tools and resources they need to rock their book marketing.

You can learn more about MJ’s books at mmcgriff.com, her fiction author services at margaretmcgriff.com, and nerd out with her on Instagram at @MJ_McGriff.

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