Publishing Your Own Book Successfully For Free

Anyone can publish a book easily. Since the early 2000s there have been web sites in operation that enabled anyone to publish just about any written material at no cost. However the trick is to make people aware of your book so you can actually sell it. This tutorial will provide you with the necessary steps for basic marketing of your written work(s).

Step 1. Use the right tool to author your book with first.

The only tool you need to write your book is the OpenOffice suite. And in particular the Writer application which is very similar to Microsoft Word.

Why OpenOffice over MS Word? The reason is because formatting-wise, self-publishing web sites “like” the OpenOffice format better than MS Word. In addition, all it takes to publish a PDF is one click inside OpenOffice. The button for it is immediately visible in OpenOffice Writer.

When using OpenOffice you’ve got your document editor and PDF creation utility all-in-one – for zero dollars.

Why is it important to submit a PDF to a self-publishing site rather than a “straight” DOC or ODT? The reason is because your PDF will look exactly the way you want it to when printed. There is zero guesswork when using PDF and that’s why it’s so important to use.

The only thing you need to learn in OpenOffice is how to create a Table of Contents (which is easy) and how to have page numbers appear in your document (also easy). This information is readily available in the Help section of Writer and easy to follow.

Step 2. Chose a self-publishing site and stick with it.

For this tutorial I will give you two sites you can check out:

1. CafePress
2. Lulu

Both sites have been established for quite some time on the internet so you don’t have to worry about them disappearing tomorrow.

I personally use Lulu because they make receiving payments easy via PayPal or printed check, you can sell via printed and/or paid download and the terms of use are written in plain English (very important).

Step 3. Demographics.

With internet there are millions of people out there trying to make a buck and you’re one of them.

The incorrect maneuver is to try to market your book to the entire internet. The audience is far too large and you are unlikely to see any immediate results (if any at all).

The correct maneuver is to identify the demographics of your audience and target them appropriately without spamming.

Demographics in a nutshell: Identifying who would want to read your book and why. The who is something like “Men ages 35-55 with children.” The why is something like “This book will show a guy how to buy a boat on the cheap.”

Step 4. Create a blog and update it once a week.

Head over to WordPress and start a blog. Make this blog specifically about your book and write an entry at least once a week. Have the blog link to the place where the book can be bought.

The purpose of the blog is so that search engines index it so people can find it.

When blogging do not make the site look like nothing but a sales pitch even though it is. The way to write and not sound salesperson-like is to simply take a topic from your book and expound on it without giving away too much information (else nobody will buy the book).

Make sure when blogging to purposely use specific words people would be searching for concerning your authored work. If the book is “How to buy a boat”, mention that phrase. You could also use “boat buying”, “boat launch”, “yacht” and so on. These are all terms related to the subject matter of the book.

Step 5. Always offer a lower-cost PDF of your book.

If you’re using Lulu this is stupidly easy as the admin panel allows you to make any of your printed books available as PDF paid-download versions.

You will always want a PDF paid-download version for two reasons:

1. International sales. Having anything shipped outside the USA to a foreign country will make your printed-version book prohibitively expensive. Offering the download gives your international customers a way to save a buck.
2. Lower cost to the customer. Even if the customers are local, many will opt for the paid-download version for instant gratification. It’s true you don’t make as much, but hey, a sale is a sale. Take whatever you can get.

Step 6. Comment on blogs related to the subject matter of your book.

This is where you can utilize the demographics you identified earlier. Head over to blogsearch.google.com and do a quick search for stuff related to your book. Find blogs and write comments on articles written. In the field where you can enter in your web site, point that to your blog (a-ha!).

General rule of thumb: If you comment on enough blogs in a “non-spammy” fashion, the link back to your blog will usually garner enough traffic to get some sales coming in.

Google LIKES it when you do stuff like this because the place where you’re commenting directly relates to the material on your blog.

In addition, HUMANS are more likely to click over as well so you don’t have to solely rely on search engine traffic.

Final notes

Yes, this does take some effort to get rolling – however – the hardest part is writing the book itself. Once done, getting the blog and targeting other blogs for comment territory only requires maybe 15 to 30 minutes a day.

After a few weeks of this you’ll probably start to get some sales. If not, consider revising your demographics.