You can be a paid author!
Love to write? You can become a paid author! Thanks to a boom in self-publishing, you can get your story out there—no agent or book deal required! Even better? It doesn’t cost you a thing to get started!
✔ PICK YOUR TOPIC!
With self-publishing, you connect directly with readers who buy your work— and the average self-publisher makes about $1,000 a year, with some of the more successful writers earning much more! Romance novels are always a top seller. Also popular? Guidebooks. That means whether you’re a yard-sale pro or a crochet queen, you likely have a topic that’s perfect for a how-to— just think about what people tend to come to you for advice about!
✔ PUBLISH IT THE EASY WAY!
The trick to making money self-publishing? Use Amazon. com’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select, reveals Karen Dimmick, author of 47 Mind Hacks for Writers and host of The
Book Marketing Summit
(Bookthority.com). “That way, you get paid when people with Kindle Unlimited read your book.” It’s free to publish and easy to do: Visit Kdp.amazon.com/select, click “enroll now” and follow the instructions. You can set your own prices and keep up to 70% of each sale. Another option? Createspace. com, a free service that lets you print hard copies of your book on demand, plus ships them directly to buyers for you— and you get a cut of the profits.
✔ INCREASE YOUR SALES!
“Boosting sales begins by getting your work out there— get some reviews by offering your book for free in exchange for an honest review to about 20 people,” Dimmick says. Follow up with promotions to get people onto your Amazon page or wherever you’re selling your book— for instance, try posting reviews for books of a similar genre. “Once a bunch of people start visiting your book’s page, Amazon will automatically take over promoting it by suggesting it to people!” Dimmick adds.
✔ GENERATE BUZZ!
Whether you’re just starting to write or have a book in the bag, Wattpad.com can help you drum up an audience—think of it as Facebook for book lovers! Register for free to create a profile much like you would for Facebook. Then connect to other authors and readers by joining clubs related to your genre, posting excerpts from your book and more—you’ll get valuable feedback, plus build an audience for your works!