7 Self-Publishing Tips From a New York Times Bestselling Author by Candace Waller

Every writer has the dream. You know the one ’cause we all have it. It is the dream that our book will become a bestseller.   Unfortunately for most of us, this isn’t reality and we are lucky if we sell a few hundred books.

I had the opportunity to sit in on the Self-Publish Like A Pro seminar facilitated by Eva Lesko Natiello at the Morristown Book Festival. Her book, The Memory Box,  was published in 2014 and has gone on to be a mega top seller. 
The Memory Box is a suspense thriller about a woman who Googles herself and learns shocking details of her past that she doesn’t remember.  I had not heard of Eva or the book but I was intrigued when she started talking. How exactly did this woman sells thousands of copies of her book and make USA and New York Times bestsellers lists?
Eva is funny and she gave a few simple tips of what she did to sell 200,000 copies worldwide. Eva sold more copies of her book than many authors who had gone through traditional publishing. 
The first thing Eva did was write the best book she could. “There is no way to learn to write a book without writing the book.”
Completing a book manuscript is a big accomplishment and Eva wanted a traditional publishing contract. Most major publishing houses won’t consider an author until they have an agent so Eva started writing letters to agents. She tried for three years to go the traditional route. The outcome was 81 rejections, zero offers from agents and publishers, and enough paper (she printed all the rejections and emails) to create and endless chain around a room.
Discouraged Eva decided to take stock of her life. She believed that she had written a good book but she couldn’t get it published. 
“I spent six months to a year really feeling sorry for myself. Then I heard about a book called Gone Girl,” she said. Gone Girl was also a suspenseful thriller that was doing well. Eva realized she had two choices do nothing or learn about self-publishing.
“I decided to bypass the traditional agents and publishers and bring it straight to the reader. Self-publishing isn’t hard as it is time-consuming,” Eva said. “Don’t make my mistake and being passive waiting for agents.”
Eva said that the stigma that comes from being a self-published author is gone and many writers who have traditional contracts are also self-publishing.
“I believe today it is strength to self-publish,” Eva said. “There are many benefits to self-publishing. Self-published authors have a lot of power. They own rights to their work, they can pick out the title they want, decide on the editing and pricing. Self-publish can also release their books to the market faster than a traditional publisher.”
Keep reading for more of her tips.
#1 Find Beta Readers: A beta reader is someone who reads your book before your book is released. “I recommend no more than eight,” Eva says. “Make sure they like your genre. Ask beta readers not to share details about the book before it is released.” Once this is done and the writer has made final edits turn the manuscript to an editor.
#2 Make Sure that Manuscript is Professional Edited
Eva says it is important to hire a freelance book editor to make sure that there are no mistakes. Readers are annoyed when they see a lot of typos. In addition to copy editing, a writer wants to make sure that the facts in the story are accurate. Pay attention to details that readers will look at as obvious not true.
#3 Have the Best Cover Design as Possible
Please don’t get a friend or someone who isn’t experienced in creating book covers to design your book cover.  ” The book cover is the most powerful marketing tool for your book,” Eva says. Eva made her book look indistinguishable from those printed by the major publishers.
#4 Get Your Own ISBN number
ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number and is the specific set of numbers for each book. “Always pay for your own ISBN and use it,” Eva says. “If you use the free number that Amazon gives they become the publisher of your book and many other outlets won’t carry your book,” Eva suggests coming up with a name for your own imprint and using it with your titles. Bowker sells ISBN’s for $125.
#5 Use KDP Select and Ingram SparkWhen authors use KDP Select, Amazon has a 90-day exclusive right to sell the book online. After that time, a writer can list the book for sale on other online publishers. This listing does not concern print book sales. It has been estimated that Amazon handles more than 50% of all online book sales. The KDP program offers incentives to list with them that will help a writer get the attention of readers. After the 90-day hold, Eva suggests making your book available everywhere
  Ingram SparkIngram Spark supplies bookstores, libraries, and schools. This is another huge market that Eva suggests that writers make sure that their book is available. She said to make sure that the trim size a writer uses is available for Ingram Spark and KDP.
#6 Do Your Marketing Research “Get a list of books with comparison titles and research their marketing strategy,” Eva says. Eva suggested going into a bookstore to see what other authors in your genre is writing about, what the covers look like and the information on the book. She studied the marketing of other authors and created a plan similar to them. For example, if she saw that a publication featured an author that wrote a similar book she would approach them as well.
#7 Be a Rockstar Your Own TownEva spent lots of time doing a signing at various places in her town and visiting book clubs. There are thousands of book clubs looking for books. A writer who can connect to the right group can push sales. “Go grassroots, start out in your own community, get people talking about you. They want to see you succeed.”

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