How to Write your First Book, Publish it & Make Sales from Scratch – The Beginners Guide

Like every new author, one of your dreams is to write your first book and sell it with a bang but, according to statistics, 90 percent of self published authors barely make up to 100 sales. It gets worse in certain countries.

But, there are also a number of new self published authors who have gone ahead to become best sellers in their respective niches.

I know for a fact that anyone can achieve this feat because I’ve worked with some of these authors. And as someone who had to struggle with their first published book, in tis guide I’ll be sharing with you some of the lessons I learned during my journey, and how you’re going to use this lessons to make your publishing journey a success.

Find Out your Why

So, why exactly do you want to write? Have you even bothered to ask yourself this question?

This is the most important questions you need to ask yourself before you write your first book.

A lot of authors write because they are writers and they just can’t help it. Some people write a book because they want to sell it and make money writing.

There are also a number of authors I know that write books because they want to demonstrate their expertise and become recognized as thought leaders in their niche or inspire others with their stories.

Apart from these reasons, some of the authors I’ve worked with consider writing a book as a milestone in their life or career. And with their book, they want to get their stories heard and probably make money out of it.

I have also seen a lot of authors whose goals is just to have their books published, regardless of whether they can make money with the books or not.

As an aspiring writer, you have to know exactly why you want to write if you really want your book to be successful.

Why you need to decide on why you want to write

Deciding why you want to write will completely influence the types of books you write and the result you get with the book.

If for example, if your sole purpose of writing a book is to make money as an author, you’ll have to reconsider the kind of topics you choose to write about.

To achieve this goal, you have to research the money making topics and then work on creating your book around such fast selling topics.

If on the other hand your goal for writing a book is to become a thought leader in your niche, then you have to choose a topic in the particular niche, do your research and get your experiences to give the book thought provoking opinion and ideas that will create talking points in the niche.

In whatever industry you are, knowing why you want to write is a very important step in your writing journey. It’ll get you started on the right footing.

Choose the Right Topic

Now that you’ve decided on your writing goal or the reason you want to write, it’s time to choose a topic to write about.

When I wrote my first book, choosing the theme I needed to write about was not too difficult because I knew what I’d always wanted to write about. And who I wanted to reach with my work.

Before you get started choosing your book’s theme, you want to go back and reflect on why you wanted to write the book in the first place, the audience that will be interested in it and then choose a theme that aligns with these.

Now, before you write your first book, you have to get your research right. Start with finding out conversations around important topics in the niche you want to write about.

Find out, how your target audience reacts to these topics. What part of these topics intrigues them the most?

Choosing a book topic can be quite challenging but one of the first step to take after finding out what appeals to your audience is to find out the unique message you want to get across to them.

Remember your audience is very important, regardless of your goal.

So, if you want to make an impact as thought leader, ask yourself, what unique perspective do I have that I can bring into this topic that can be very beneficial to others?

In a situation where your overall goal is to make money with your book then you might not necessarily need to have a specific experience on a topic, before writing about it.

PS: Note that there’s a difference between your book topic and a book title. While the former is the central idea about the book, the latter is the name of your book.

Write your Book

After finding a topic for your book, it’s time to settle down and get the job done. Begin to write your book.

Yes, writing a book is hard for some people. You might need to garner enough research, dig into your experiences and reach out to certain people to get enough and relevant content.

But, like I said earlier, writing is doable and there are steps to go about it.

To make things easier, start with chunking down the overall idea into sections or chapters, from the first to the last chapter; based on specific areas you want to focus on.

Don’t worry. You can always change a section into a different chapter, if the need arises. The only reason you’re doing this is to simplify the task for your mind so it doesn’t get too overwhelming.

After this, begin to write the book based on how you’ve divided it.

Use the words, phrases and writing style that aligns with your niche and target audience. This is very important.

Also, try to create as much connection as possible and make your story relatable from the beginning. This is very crucial.

PS: If you can’t get to write a book on your own, there are a handful of professional ghostwriters who can take up your ideas and write a book for you at a fee.

Choose a Publishing Platform

When you’re planning to write your first book, one of the key things you want to decide on as soon as possible, is your publishing platform.

If you’re planning to work with a traditional publisher in some cases, you might have to reach out to them to approve your book idea and decide whether they want to publish it or not before you proceed.

If you’re planning to self-publish your book offline through a traditional publisher, you also need to decide on the publisher at this stage, the extent of the publishing services they are going to provide for you and the cost.

Finally, where you want to publish your book online, you need to decide on the particular online publishing platforms will serve your needs. There are a handful of them.

Although Amazon is the leading online publishing platform for self-publishing, you have to consider your target audience and writing niche, before choosing a publishing platform.

PS: As a first time author, you might want to cut your teeth with self-publishing before embarking on other alternatives, if you’re publishing on a budget.

Edit & Format your Book

After writing your book, the next thing you want to do is to edit, proof read vigorously and format the book for publishing, based on the standards decided by your preferred publishing platform.

Editing and proof reading your book is very important. You can either do the editing yourself or get it over to some professionals to have it edited for you.

Even where you go with a professional editor, it’s still important you have a look through your final draft before getting it published. This is to ensure that it maintains the tone of voice and other details you’ll expect.

After editing your book, you need to format it and get it all set for publishing. If you’re planning to publish online, here’s a guide on how to format your book for online publishing.

Whether you’re self-publishing or not, to make a mark, pay attention to editing and formatting your book to meet industry publishing standards.

PS: At this stage you may also have to consider whether you’ll opt for a paid ISBN or an online issued ISBN, if you’re publishing with Amazon KDP.

Design a Book Cover

One of the first things that will attract a person to your book is the book cover itself.

Besides the fact that your book needs to have a great content for the right audience, if you want your book to sell, you need to attract the right audience.

And one of the first steps to do this is to design a book cover that sells.

To get a selling book cover, your cover design has to be compelling. The words and images, used in the design have to be captivating to a potential viewer with a narrative that clearly captures their interest while describing the content of your book.

While choosing your cover design imagery for example, be very conscious about your book topic, your target audience and the idea you want to project about the book.

When you write your first book, use only words and imagery that will appeal to your audience, their religious or social inclinations and other sentiments in your cover design. This is very important.

Publish & Promote

You’re done with everything and it’s time to finally publish and tell the world about your first book.

So, where have you decided to publish the book? Is it online, offline or a blended publishing? A lot of authors prefer the latter.

Although you don’t need to pay anything to publish on most online publishing platforms, using both online and offline publishing platforms will definitely cost you a bit more than using one, especially where you choose to promote the book online.

IF you do not have enough money to go on paid self-publishing offline, you can still utilize an online publisher like Amazon, to publish your book without paying upfront publishing fees.

After publishing, be sure to promote the book. I didn’t promote my first book because I felt the goal was not to make money. And I know how it turned out.

When you write your first book, remember that doesn’t matter whether you want to make money out of the book or not, you must make conscious effort to promote your book if you want to make sales or impact.

This is very important.

A lot of new authors will always write, publish and wait for buyers to flock in. But, that’s not how it works. You need to push out your book to get the words out. Especially if you’re self-publishing.

There are several options to do this via paid and organic promotions. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re using a paid platform or not, always remember as the author, you’re one of the best person to promote your book.

Final Words

You can write your first book, publish it anywhere and make sales with a bang, using these strategies. But, you can’t get anything done, until you get started.

So, it’s time to get started writing your book. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re a beginner or you’re an expert writer, there are tools and resources that can get you started until you’re all ready to get your book published.

As experienced online publishers, we offer services that can get your books from ideas to published books. And you can contact us if you need any help.

Now, it’s your turn. What are your challenges when it comes to writing and publishing a book? Drop your comments below.