Stages of Self-Publishing a Nonfiction Book – Part 1

In this week’s blog post, we will be looking at one possible process for publishing a nonfiction book. This is not the only order you can use, so there is some flexibility according to what suits you and your book. Of course, some stages do have to be done in a particular order; for example, you will have to write your book before it can be edited!

As we will be taking an in-depth look at the self-publishing process, this guide will be split over two blog posts for clarity. Part one focuses on everything from the initial idea up to finishing writing your book, while part two considers editing to distribution. We will start now with the very first step in writing a nonfiction book – having an idea to write about.

Initial Idea

Naturally, you need to have an idea of what you plan to write about before you start. Your next task is to expand on this and give yourself a full blueprint for your book, including title, selling points and what you hope to get out of writing it. You can look back to this over the writing and marketing stages. This will help you to stay on track as you continue with the self-publishing process and remind you of your original goals.

So, what do you need to consider before creating your plan? Once you have your idea, the first thing to ask yourself is who the target audience is and why they would be interested in your book. You also need to think about whether you will be able to reach your target audience and how to market your book to them. Consider what you are hoping to get out of self-publishing in relation to your own goals.

Your final plan should include the title of your book and the exact target audience you will be pitching to. You need to identify the issue that your book is aiming to address and how it will help your readers with this. Finally, what is the book going to do for you? Do you hope to make a profit, gain new clients or simply boost your profile?

Start Marketing Now

Once you have the basic idea established and know that you will be writing this book, it is time to get started on marketing. Don’t think that you need to have written and edited the book first – start as soon as you have a fixed idea. If you wait until your book is nearly ready to be published (or actually is published), you’ll run out of time to do any meaningful launch or gather momentum before publication. You want people to be eager to get your book as soon as it is released, not unaware of it until it’s been out for a while.

You’ll probably also want to start early for your own convenience, too. Marketing is a lot of work, so giving yourself plenty of time is a good plan! Starting early should also help to make sure you approach it with your full attention and the most energy possible. It is too easy to leave it until later in the publishing process and be too tired to do anything with it. There are many ways to market before you even know what your book will be, just by starting to market yourself as an author.

So, how can you market your book? You need to build up your audience as much as possible, which you can do in a few different ways. A mailing list is a great start, as these are people that you know are interested in your work and that you can send news and release dates directly to. You should also create an author website, with a blog if you have time. You can then use this to write about your niche and give sneak peeks of how your book is progressing. It is also a good idea to reach out to your network and let them know you are writing a book. They may then also tell their own network, expanding your reach.

Writing

Now it is time to actually write your book! There are many different ways of doing this so you will have to decide what works best for you, but you will usually want to at least start with an outline. From this, you will then start writing the first draft. This can be as messy as you like – you will need multiple drafts before it is ready to be edited.

If you wish, you can join writing groups to help you at this stage. They may be able to offer advice on any questions you have and writing tips. More than this, they can support you and give encouragement if you lose motivation. Depending on what sort of writer you are, this may be an excellent way to ensure you keep writing.

Wrapping Up

I hope that this helps you to self-publish your nonfiction book. In my next blog post, we will be looking at the next stages in the process, so come back in two weeks for that!

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