Self-Publishing Part Three: Publishing Day

Once you've proofed and purchased everything you need... it's time to publish! Technically, you've done what you need to do, but there is more you can do to make it a bigger success.

Hopefully, you've set a date. Mine is March 23rd, 2025 - today!! This way, you keep yourself accountable and on track, but the files don't go live before you're ready for them to. Make sure you're careful about which files are published and which aren't - I actually just messed up pretty badly, causing several people around the world to receive unillustrated, unedited copies of The Otherfolk before the publishing date. If you received a copy of The Otherfolk that does not contain any illustrations, please use the Contact form to let me know.

You'd think all you have to do is wait, but that's not exactly true. There are lots of other things you can do before and after publishing day to make sure it's a huge success.

First of all, you'll want a website. You should probably try to have this before your files are uploaded so that you can put the link in the book (at the end, the beginning, under the copyright, etc. - you're a new author, you need your name out there!). You'll want to pick something simple and predictable - you want people to find you easily. If you don't want to hire someone to do it, you can use Wordpress or Wix (I recommend Wordpress for quick and easy blogs and Wix for more customizable websites). It's probably worth it to pay to own your domain, but that's a choice for you to make based on your resources. My website is zoecottrell.com.

You might also want to start a social media account for your book. If you're a young author and your parents don't let you have social media, I totally get that. Mine don't let me, either. However, they did make an exception for publishing - my best friend and I run an Instagram account for my book. You can find it here. I also have a Pinterest account I'm working on here. You can post about your characters, about what your book will feature (synopsis reveals, illustration reveals, etc.), what the process was, and tons more.

Something else I've found - everyone around you thinks you're amazing. And it's true - if you're self-publishing, especially as a young author, you're doing something not a lot of people have done. It's fantastic, and a ton of people are very ready to act on that. Tell your friends, and tell them to tell their friends. Tell teachers at your school. I have connections that are going to land me an article in my school's newspaper. Tell the people at your church, who will most likely jump at the chance to support you. Tell your youth leaders, your grandparents, old family friends, people you don't talk to anymore who don't even know they inspired you.

The last thing I'd say to think about is pre-orders. If you aren't publishing through Amazon or a very similar service, you're most likely able to get the books for just printing + sales tax + shipping. No retailers (Amazon, B&N, etc.) take a cut of your money, so you'll get the most profit from people ordering it directly from you.

Here's the way I'm doing it. I've collected 10 preorders, which is about $160 (some people paid me more than $15). My profit from that is a little over $80. But I'm not going to keep that $80 - it's going to go back into preordering more books. $80 pays for around 12 books wholesale, so I can order 12 books plus the 10 that were preordered. This way, when people buy the extras off me, I'll get to keep the money and not have to worry about ordering it and paying expensive shipping costs.

Websites are almost a necessity, but if you're not looking to make a large profit, I suppose you don't need one. Social media isn't necessary at all, but it can help you market a lot. You can do pre-orders however you like, or not do them at all. But whatever you do to make it a bigger launch, remember that no matter what the outcome, you put a lot of work into it, and what you're doing is amazing!