Fast Self-Publishing Online

Publish a Book for Free?

The question as to whether or not you can publish a book for free is often debated. My simple answer is -Yes. It is absolutely possible to publish a book for free. 

How do you do it?

We live in amazing times. The internet has transformed the world of publishing. Mainstream publishing houses have been challenged by new concepts such as print-on-demand (POD), electronic books, fast self-publishing, and online distribution and selling.

No longer do authors have to try to find a publisher because they can now self-publish the fast way and profit from publishing their own books. The alternative way of publishing means authors can do it themselves.

Steps

1. Authors create their manuscript
2. Authors prepare their manuscript for publication
3. Authors set up a free account on amazon.com with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
4. Authors list their book on KDP and then publish

Preparing a manuscript for publication

Editing the manuscript, formatting it, and designing a cover are the elements of publishing that self-publishers usually have to pay for.

Editing

It’s the editing that can be very costly. However, it is possible either to reduce these costs or to do it for no cost.

Self-editing

To edit for no cost then make sure you do an advanced self-edit. 

Ask yourself.

• Have you paid attention to the text’s detail?
• Are your words precise rather than general? 
• Are you up to date with grammar and language usage?
• Have you consulted a style manual?
• Have you refined the manuscript and tried to remove inconsistencies like varied capitalisation and punctuation?
• Have you avoided clichés?
• Have you used the same words or sentences on a regular basis? 
• Has the same information been repeated?  
• Is the meaning of a sentence clear?
• Do you need to delete content to produce a more coherent and complete manuscript?
• Have you tweaked, polished, and fine-tuned your content?
• Have you read the manuscript a few times and done a meticulous review?

Self-editing software

When you can get your manuscript to an advanced state and you are happy with it run it through some self-editing software like Grammarly.

Manuscript editing software programs have built-in spelling and grammar checkers. They can clean up mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation; and some even have suggestions for improving your language. 

Beta readers

Find other people to read your manuscript. Fresh, unbiased eyes can see mistakes and errors that you have missed.

Set up a system of beta readers. They can read your manuscript, give you their feedback, and identify errors that have slipped through. Independent readers can give you honest feedback about your manuscript.

It’s helpful to have a fresh set of eyes looking at what you have written because you will always miss things when you read the manuscript yourself.

Make connections in the book industry and identify people who can edit books. You may be able to trade editing services with a service that you can provide.

Formatting

When you publish with Amazon KDP you can format your print or eBook using KDP resources. These are all free. 

You have to format and upload two files: a manuscript file, which is the interior of your book including the front matter, body matter, and back matter, and a cover file, which is the outside of your book including the front, back, and spine.

KDP offers free tools, guides and webinars to help you and outlines how to go about formatting your files.

Book cover design

Book covers can be created for free using the KDP Cover Creator or you can build a cover on the free version of Canva.

Outsourcing your book cover design to a graphic designer has become a thing of the past. With the Canva software, you the author, become the graphic designer and you can create a vast array of graphics with unequalled professionalism.

When starting out with Canva register for the free version. This has plenty of uses and things it can do which never fail to disappoint.

Publish 

KDP on Amazon is a free site that allows you to publish paperbacks, hardcovers and eBooks without paying a single penny.

Even if you use the IngramSpark platform which charges $49 to publish both print and eBooks it is possible to get a promotional code and publish for free.

In conclusion, by mastering how to DIY it is possible to publish your book for free.

Even if you decide that you’d like to outsource the formatting, for example, it is possible to publish your book for a very low cost.

Marji Hill

Author and Coach

Join Facebook Group: Fast Self-Publishing Online

4 Useful Resources for Authors

To help writers on their creative book writing and publishing journeys I’m sharing just 4 useful resources for authors. The ones that I’ve chosen I believe to be indispensable and they are tools that I personally use myself.

Fiverr  

Fiverr is an outsourcing marketplace. An author needing digital freelance services can get help for publishing a book.  Fiverr provides instant access to a global network of freelancers.

On Fiverr, find specialists who create book covers, do artwork, provide editing services, offer to format, create “sell sheets”, build websites,  perform web development, and much more. It is easy to find freelancers who offer the services you want.

Authors can buy pretty much anything and even find ghostwriters to write their books. 

To help an author select a freelancer on Fiverr, there is a seller review system that will assist in helping you decide whether or not a special freelancer is for you.

Canva     

Canva, which was founded in Australia, is a graphic design platform. With Canva authors can create anything they want: book covers, invitations, flyers, social media posts, logos, illustrations, YouTube thumbnails, Pinterest pins, and illustrations for your book’s interior  – just to mention a few.

It’s an indispensable tool for authors who self-publish. Not only do authors have to create wonderful books they have to do their own marketing as well.

No more do authors have to find a graphic designer. With Canva they can generate a vast array of graphic designs that look very professional.

Tangent Templates

Tangent Templates is a software suite designed for authors who want to make low-content books. But its applications apply to other books as well.

Tangent Templates is a template system that comes with lots of tools. For instance, its KDP Helper gives you the perfect cover and interior dimensions with perfectly sized cover templates, clearly laid out to use with tools like Adobe, Powerpoint, Keynote and Canva. 

When designing a book cover on Canva the cover helper works out all the exact dimensions with exact pixel sizes for any cover an author chooses to design.

If an author wants to publish a book on Amazon KDP, Tangent Templates helps them create a book and then list it quickly on KDP. Usually, the book will be available for sale on Amazon within 24 hours so that very quickly an aspiring author becomes a published author!

There is no subscription for Tangent Templates so it is available just for a one-off fee.

Publisher Rocket

Publisher Rocket is an amazing piece of book marketing software. It helps authors with their research into keywords and categories when listing their books on Amazon.

This research, if done manually, can take hours and hours but the great advantage of Publisher Rocket is that it speeds up the process.

There are four main tools within Publisher Rocket that help an author with their book listing. The features include

1. Keyword Search
2. Competition Analyzer
3. Category Search
4. AMS Keyword Search

The keyword research feature, for example, helps an author understand how readers use Amazon and choose the books they buy.

Personally, the benefit that I love is the way Publisher Rocket can assist with market research and with validating an idea. Even before an author starts writing they can research categories to find out which ones would be best to help an author discover a profitable niche and one that is not too competitive.

Publisher Rocket gives me the data that I need to increase my sales and to publish bestselling books.

Publisher Rocket helps an author get the most out of Amazon. It has the power to transform book marketing with just a few searches.

In my effort to be fully transparent some of the links above are affiliate links and I want to emphasise that these are all resources that I use personally in my own publishing journey.

Marji Hill

Author and Coach

Join Facebook Group: Fast Self-Publishing Online

Graphic Design For Authors

Graphic design for authors is easy with Canva.  

Canva, which was founded in Australia, is an amazing online graphic design tool that you can easily learn to create and design anything you want.

From an author’s point of view, Canva must be one of the most important inventions of our time.

Many authors say that they just want to write.  These days, however, it doesn’t matter whether you publish with a traditional publisher or publish independently, you need to invest as much effort into marketing as you do in actually writing the book.

Authors that self-publish are not only responsible for creating wonderful books but they are responsible for their own marketing.

Creating graphics

As promoters of their books, authors need to be able to create their own graphic images to market on social media. They need to make book covers,  design “sell sheets” or promotional flyers, make social media banners, Youtube thumbnails, or anything that is requiring graphics.

Canva makes creating graphic design easy and it is user-friendly with its drag-and-drop interface, a library of stock images, and an endless array of templates.

Gone are the days of having to hire a graphic designer. Outsourcing your graphic design work is a thing of the past.

With the Canva software, you the author, become the graphic designer and you can create a vast array of graphics with unequalled professionalism.

Authors can use Canva to create:

• book covers
• book launch invitations
• flyers
• social media posts
• logos
• Illustrations for your book’s interior, and
• much more.

I love Canva

Personally, I love Canva. With Canva I create my own book covers, my social media posts, and illustrations for my book interiors.  I can have fun creating my own book marketing images which look as if they’ve been done by a true professional.

I’m excited by Canva’s unlimited creative marketing possibilities. For instance, I can take a quote from one of my books, add an image, customise a template, and share it on platforms like Pinterest or other social media platforms. 

Being able to create a flyer for my new book by selecting an appropriate template and adding a “buy now” button and putting it on my website or Facebook page is so liberating.

Free version

When starting out with Canva register for the free version. This has plenty of uses and things it can do which never fail to disappoint. Become familiar with the software and then as you become more experienced you may consider upgrading to Canva Pro which is the paid plan.

Canva Pro gives you additional functionality and premium templates and design elements. It takes you to a whole new level of professional design. 

Become the professional designer you always dreamed about without having to learn and negotiate complex and expensive editing tools.

What do you think? Are you ready to give Canva a try? If so click the link below.

Marji Hill

Author and Coach

Join Facebook Group: Fast Self-Publishing Online

Speed Up Research

Putting together the metadata for your book’s listing on Amazon can be time-consuming but you can speed up research by using special software.

When publishing on Amazon the idea is to enter metadata that will increase the discoverability of your book to get more sales.

Research into categories

Putting together your metadata involves research into categories and keywords. This research can be done manually and is time-consuming.

My personal experience when researching the best ten (10) categories for a book is that it can take hours and hours of time.

But don’t sweat. There is an excellent software tool that can help you speed up research.

This software is called Publisher Rocket, an excellent tool that helps you:

• save time
• saves you the frustration of keyword research
• helps with selecting categories
• provides data on what customers are typing into the Amazon search bar
• discover your competitors
• find best-selling book categories
• identify profitable keywords for Amazon Ads

What I really love about Publisher Rocket it is the way it can help with research into categories. When listing your book on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) ie. Amazon’s publishing platform you are asked to select two categories.

But did you know that you can actually put your book into 10 categories? You may wonder how you do this when you are only asked to select two.

As soon as your book is published you can contact Amazon and ask them to put your book into 10 categories.

This means doing a lot of research into categories and as I mentioned before it can take hours and hours of research.

With Publisher Rocket you can speed up research.

Market research

Another great benefit is that Publisher Rocket helps with market research and assists with validating your idea. Even before you start writing your book you can research categories to find out which ones would be suitable – categories that could help your book become a best seller. You are able to discover a profitable niche but one that is not too competitive.

Keyword research

In addition, Publisher Rocket helps with keyword research. It helps to discover keywords that customers are typing into the Amazon search bar.

It gives you monthly earnings for books with appropriate keywords, it estimates how many books are competing for a keyword and you can find out low competition keywords that can be allocated to your book. With the competitive score Publisher Rocket tells you whether or not its a good keyword for your book.

So in summary Publisher Rocket helps you to:

• do research
• get quick results
• saves time
• get ideas
• validate ideas.

Important note: Publisher Rocket applies to the United States marketplace. It also has the capacity to switch to the UK or German markets. While it does not cater for the Australian marketplace it is an indispensable piece of software. After all, if you promote your book in Australia, at the same time you’ll want to market it in the United States as well.

If you’d like to learn more about Publisher Rocket or would like to purchase the software for a one-off payment (under US$100) press the button below for my affiliate link. This means I do get a commission on any purchases.

Marji Hill

Author and Coach

Join Facebook Group: Fast Self-Publishing Online

What No One Told You

A new series of books that explores Australia’s hidden past has been released.

Telling the truth about what went on in Australia’s past brings to light the colonial conflict and near dispossession of First Nations people.

Not only what happened to the First Nations people, but the Chinese presence on the goldfields also gave birth to racist, and anti-Chinese sentiment resulting in race-based migration restrictions and the White Australia policy.

Many in Australian society today don’t understand the facts of our history.

It’s only by acknowledging the truth of our past that we can heal the wounds. Only then can we move forward together into a better future.

The series

All five (5) books in the series were written by myself.  The five books in Gold! Hidden Stories of Australia’s Past are:

• The Gates of Gold: The Discovery of Gold, its Legacy and its Contribution to Australian Identity
• Shadows of Gold: Eureka and the Birth of Australian democracy
• Gold and the Chinese: Racism, Riots and Protest on the Australian Goldfields
• Ghosts of Gold: The Life and Times of Jupiter Mosman
• Blood Gold: Native Police, Bushrangers and Law and Order on the Goldfields

Truth-telling themes

• FIND OUT how in the lead-up to the discovery of gold with the trailblazing of the British into Victoria and beyond the lives of First Nations people were irrevocably changed.
• LEARN about the Chinese presence on the goldfields, and whose migration to Australia gave birth to racist, anti-Chinese sentiment resulting in race-based migration restrictions and the White Australia policy.
• DISCOVER how Australia became like a whirlpool of molten gold sucking in men and women from all over the world creating a population explosion with diverse communities and religions, different races, and different ideologies.
• EXPLORE the seeds of the Australian uprising and how the Eureka Stockade on the goldfields in 1854 was a battle inspired by political purpose, a fight for democratic rights that cemented the nature and direction of relationships between citizens and governments in Australia forever.
• UNCOVER a legendary past of bushrangers, whose memories had to do with their daring exploits, their amazing horsemanship, their ability to survive and hide in the bush, and their challenge to colonial authorities.

The books are available in both paperback and eBook formats – the  Kindle eBook being available on amazon.com.au for a very limited time at a special launch price.

You will also find these books on Barnes & Noble, Booktopia, Book Depository, eBay and other big online retailers.

If you want to find out how to write and publish your own books you may find it useful to be part of my Facebook group: Fast Self-Publishing Online.

Marji Hill

Author and Coach

5 Books in 8 Months

I have just finished writing 5 books in 8 months. Let me tell you how I did this.

Career

In my career as an author, I explore themes to do with Australian history: Black/white relations, reconciliation, Eureka, the landscape, and gold. Not only have I written about these themes, but they have also been central to my art. 

Series

My plan was to write and publish a series.  When I wrote for commercial publishers like Macmillan Education and Heinemann I created sets of books which were published as a series. I was used to creating series; they were in my psyche.

I brainstormed the possible content for a series with a friend who had been in the book industry for many years. We spent an afternoon nutting out ideas and then I had to decide if these ideas would be viable for a series of books.

The series Gold! Hidden Stories of Australia’s Past was the outcome.

Planning

The next thing I did was to come up with the titles and sub-titles for each of the 5 books.

1. Gates of Gold: The Discovery of Gold, its Legacy and its Contribution to Australian Identity
2. Shadows of Gold: Eureka and the Birth of Australian Democracy
3. Gold and the Chinese: Racism, Riots and Protest on the Australian Goldfields
4. Ghosts of Gold: The Life and Times of Jupiter Mosman
5. Blood Gold: Native Police, Bushrangers, and Law and Order on the Goldfields

I then outlined the chapter headings and did a rough outline of the content for each book. 

My goal was to have these books published by September 2022.  Each book was to be 10,000-12,000 words and was to include some of my artwork and graphics which I would create myself.

The writing

Once the planning had been done I started to write. This first draft was very, very rough and the process involved doing the research as well (although a lot of research had already been done). I documented the sources and got a lot of raw content written.

When I got the content pretty much worked out I seriously got into the writing. 

I did a number of drafts for each of the stand-alone books – usually four or five drafts during which I refined the writing. 

Time management

My goal was to complete a book each month. Surprisingly, I stayed on track and produced a manuscript ready for publication each month.

I worked on the manuscripts every morning seven days a week. I only took an occasional break here and there.  Each writing session was 3 hours and I did this each day before breakfast. 

It is simply amazing how if you consistently do a quota of writing each day, how you can move forward exponentially. My daily word goal was approximately 1500 words.

That meant I was able to create a draft for a 10000-12000 word manuscript in approximately 7 to 10 days.

By maintaining a strict schedule I then had time each month for the rewriting and reworking of the manuscripts. By the time each manuscript was finalised and ready for publishing the manuscripts had undergone several drafts.

Not only did I refine the writing but I had to create the graphics and illustrate the books. The illustrations consisted either of my own paintings that I had made in the past or else I created new works of art specially designed for this series of books.

Yes. I did it. In a period of 8 months, I am happy to say that I created the manuscripts for a series of five books on the theme of Gold! Hidden Stories of Australia’s Past.

Marji Hill

Author and Coach

Join Facebook Group: Fast Self-Publishing Online