If you’ve always had a passion for writing and would like to share your creativity with the world, it may be your dream to become a published author. If so, you’re certainly not alone – many people have ‘a book in them’, whether that’s a memoir, a work of fiction or a children’s story.
And I want to encourage you to go after your dream because it doesn’t need to take as much time or money as you may expect. Here are some tips to help you get started:
Get writing
Writing a book takes time and it’s difficult to find the time when you’re working and have family life, chores, health, wellbeing and friends to include in your schedule. This perceived lack of time can put people off from ever getting started.
You may think that you’ll have the time when you’ve changed jobs, or when the kids are older, or when you’ve retired, but even then I bet you won’t find the time! There will always be something else you need to do – that is, until you decide that writing your book is THE most important thing. If it’s going to help you fulfil your dream, you must prioritise it and start writing. Even if no one ever sees it, at least you know that you’ve given it your best shot.
I read recently that just 17 minutes a day adds up to 100 hours in a year. At the ‘average’ time it takes to write a book, that would mean your manuscript will be finished in about a year and a half by only writing a little bit every day. If you can find 17 minutes to scroll through social media, you can definitely find 17 minutes to put towards your dream goal!
I know that the hardest part of writing a book is actually doing the writing. But it can also be the easiest – some days the words will just flow but at other times you might feel stuck. On those days, just do some character notes, storyline planning or a rough chapter outline – anything that moves you slightly closer to your goal.
And when you get going, I’m sure those 17 minutes will fly by – you’ll be looking at the clock wondering where that hour went. And your book will be finished even sooner!
Creating a physical book
Often, the ultimate dream for an unpublished author is to finally see their book in print. In truth, it can be very difficult to break into the publishing industry and there is a lot of pressure on authors to already have an established audience, to do their own marketing to achieve pre-sales targets, hit big numbers on publication day and rise up the bestseller charts.
That’s a kind of pressure I personally wouldn’t want and it can be something that puts off potential writers from ever starting to follow their dream. I know many writers are introverts and are much more comfortable sharing their writing privately and don’t want to have to be so visible while promoting their offerings.
So, if you let go of the idea of being picked up by a book publisher you won’t have to go through the process of submitting your work multiple times, following deadlines, making endless rounds of edits and so on. Instead, self-publishing frees you up to publish your book as soon as you are ready to.
It’s easy to turn your manuscript into a physical book through a hardback book printing service online – and you can choose a company that are short-run specialists, offering flexible order quantities starting from just 10 copies.
This provides an affordable way to get your book ‘out there’ without having to commit to buying boxes and boxes of books – thereby making it a thrifty option for publishing your book and also a practical solution as you won’t need to find space to store them.
You can sell them through your own website or other retailers online (I personally buy children’s books by local authors on Etsy) or you can take them to book fairs and creative markets. That’s an especially fun idea in the run-up to Christmas; just imagine going to an arts and crafts fair, sipping hot chocolate and having people complete their Christmas shopping with a copy of your book.
Develop an ebook or audiobook
Nowadays, it’s much more likely that your book will be downloaded or listened to by your audience so you may want to go down the digital publishing route. Once you have your manuscript, all you need to do is to correctly format it for e-reading devices, such as Kindles (there are plenty of formatting guides online to help you do this) then it can be made available for digital download.
You may find that ebooks or audiobooks command lower prices than physical books BUT I see that as a bonus – a low price will encourage more sales and a higher quantity of readers will be more likely to take a chance on an unknown author if they don’t have to invest too much money into buying the book.
Just think about it – 100 physical books at £10 is the same profit as 1000 downloads at £1 and I bet it’ll be easier to get 1000 downloads in the ebook market. No one would quibble at spending £1 to be entertained by your book – and then you’ll build up a loyal following of readers who will be willing to buy your next book too.
Plus, you haven’t had to put any of your own money towards the printing costs so it’s a no-risk strategy. By the way, this blog you’re reading is technically self-published, so you could always self-publish your own work as a series on a blog or personal website, releasing one chapter each week and building anticipation for the next instalment. It’s another idea..!
I hope these ideas have given you a little boost if you want to get started on your journey to becoming an author. Let me know in the comments below if you’re working towards writing your own book and I’d love to hear your tips if you’ve already self-published or finished your manuscript!
Good luck with your writing. 🙂
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