Over the past 30 years, I have written and amassed a
treasure trove of non-client-specific information, including articles,
checklists, an app and a wealth of other content I wrote and own. I realized
that I can re-purpose it into a book for Amazon. So we recently compiled and
wrote, and then published
my first book on Amazon. Below are five practical lessons learned,
beyond simply writing an informative and useful book.
- Do research – When undertaking a new, never-done-before project (like publishing a book on Amazon for the first time), many of us start by Googling. We spent a lot of time doing that and conducting other research (including buying and reading several “How To” books from Amazon). But as of December 2018, Amazon’s online publishing platform Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon KDP) is still in the process of merging with CreateSpace (a print and distribution service). As a result, much of the information, tips and how-tos found by Googling and in recently published books on the subject are no longer valid, work like they used to, or no longer apply. Much of the information available on the internet is still valid, but not all information is correct. Once we realized this, we made our own process chart and detailed to-do lists for our book launch and updated them as the project progressed.
- Assemble a top-notch team – As with many worthwhile projects, writing and publishing a book on Amazon takes considerable time and effort. And it takes a village. Team members critical to the successful launch of our first book published on Amazon KDP include an experienced book editor (we used more than one), a skilled graphic designer, an experienced and detail-oriented book formatter (one who knows how to format eBooks, paperbacks, and hard covers), a dedicated and exceptional assistant, and a skilled videographer. Depending on the author’s skill set, availability and bandwidth, there may be other professionals needed to get the project completed.
- Create a schedule, to-do list, budget and marketing plan in writing – Looking back, one of the best things we did from the start was draft a detailed schedule, to-do list, marketing plan and budget, then we updated them as the project progressed. Notice I wrote the word “draft.” This is because we had never done this before, and there were many moving parts, so there was a lot we did not know or expect, which leads me to my next (and probably the most important) lesson learned.
- Plan for extra time – In our initial timeline, we added approximately 10 days to two weeks into each major stage of this project, including getting the draft finalized, formatting the paperback and eBook versions, launching on Amazon KDP, and marketing tactics. In fact, due to the changes and updates being made to Amazon KDP because of their absorbing CreateSpace, getting books launched for the first time takes a bit longer than anticipated, and the unexpected happens.
- Be ready to adapt – Doing something worthwhile for the first time incurs risk, which means we needed to remain flexible, adaptable, open to the unknown and learning new things. Even with all the research and preparation we did (which was a lot), things happened that we did not expect, anticipate, know about or have control over. For example, initially, to find a book formatter, we used one of the freelance “work for hire” websites and thought we did a good job vetting our candidates. Yet the one we initially hired oversold their experience and capability and was unable to finish the project. So we had to find and hire a new one. Another example is the unexpected, unplanned human error factor. Registering ISBNs is required for paperback books, yet we inadvertently used an “and” instead of an ampersand in our title when registering our ISBN, which caused issues and delays.
If you or your firm plans to publish books
on Amazon, I hope the lessons learned in this article are of
To
check out Julie Savarino’s new book on Amazon (which is a #1 Amazon Best
Seller), please click
here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: In addition to
being a #1 Best-Selling Author on Amazon, for over 30 years Julie
Savarino has worked with leading lawyers, law firms, and other
professional services firms helping develop client relationships and new
business in a focused, authentic, and effective manner. She has held in-house
business development positions at Grant Thornton, Dickinson Wright and Butzel
Long. For more information, visit her website.
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