One of my favorite personal finance books was written by a friend of mine several years ago. One of the most interesting things about that book is that she self-published it (I’ll share a link at the bottom of this post). When I asked her if readers were put off by the fact that she’d self-published, or if she’d gotten any negative feedback about that she emphatically said NO! What has happened, though, is that she’s been able to leverage that book to help her audience, grow her brand, and make money. So, if you’re worried about whether or not you should self-publish. Read on as I share why you should self-publish to build your brand.
*In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. Please read my disclosure here.*
Thinking about starting a blog?
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Grab This Resource!
Do you have 20 minutes later in your day? Watch the 20 minute workshop “Why Now is the Time to Publish Your First Book.” Click the link in the show notes to take the workshop. If you’ve already decided to write that first book and need support and resources, join the Make Money with Ebooks Academy. Gain ongoing access to the following:
- A supportive author community
- Ongoing access to resources for your self-publishing journey
- Twice a month live office hours
- Author hot seats
- In-depth coverage of the following topics:
- Book writing and productivity
- Marketing
- Building your author brand
- Pricing and more
Clarify Your Message
Online content creators connect with their audience in a number of different spaces. Whether it’s via their Instagram account, Facebook feed, Twitter feed, Podcast, or Youtube profile it’s easy accidentally confuse your audience about who you are and what you do-especially in the beginning stages of building your brand.
Self-publishing a book gives influencers an opportunity to sit down and really think deeply about the following questions related to what they’re trying to do.
- Are you trying to entertain, educate, or inspire with your content?
- Who are you trying to reach?
- What is the purpose of what you’re doing?
- Do you have a quick and easy tagline that helps clarify what it is you do and who you serve?
- What is it that you’re passionate about? You can be multi-passionate, but it’s helpful if those interests are contained very clearly in their own digital homes. For example: I also run a website about Colorado. I decided that having blog posts about Colorado on the Michelle is Money Hungry website wasn’t a cohesive fit so I gave that project its own home.
- What is the ultimate goal that you’re working towards with your brand and platform? This may evolve and change over time. My current personal goal is: to help people make money online selling what they already know.
Writing and self-publishing your first book will help you get in front of the people that you’re trying to serve much more quickly than waiting for a traditional publishing deal.
Traditional Publishing vs. Self-Publishing
One of the things that I find so interesting is how unwilling so many people are to self-publish. It’s as if by self-publishing there is the belief that you’re automatically disqualified from traditional publishing deals. Here are some things to consider.
- Your self-published book may be the reason your approached to do a traditional publishing deal. By publishing your own book, you do the following:
- Show that you can actually get the work done to publish an actual book.
- Validate your expertise.
- Reassure traditional publishers that you’ll get the work done on a traditional book.
- Show that you have a platform for your books. Basically, that there are people who are excited to buy stuff from you.
- Regardless of how you publish your book (traditional vs. self-publishing) you will have to market it aggressively and get it in front of people to purchase and read it. I’ve heard numerous stories of people who were traditional published and ended up discovering that the bulk of the publicity landed on them.
- Self-publishing eliminates the “middle-man” Instead, you can connect directly with your readers and have your audience validate your work.
- Depending on where you self-publish you have the power to dictate what you would like to charge for your work.
- You don’t have to worry about navigating the “gate-keepers” in traditional publishing who may keep you from getting in front of the decision makers who can say yes or no to your book.
- As a self-published author you can go directly to your readers to validate your book idea vs. hoping a traditional publisher will say “yes” to your work. This is especially important for people in underrepresented communities looking to get their works read in the world.
- Example: If you’re thinking about writing a young adult dystopian novel featuring an African-American female lead, validate that idea by connecting directly with the audience that you would like to have read your books.
Build Your Brand
By self-publishing your book, you placing a metaphorical stake in the ground and declaring that you’re sharing your voice with the world. Once that book is published you can do so many things with it. Here are some examples below:
- Use your book to pitch speaking gigs (virtual and in-person after the Rona)
- Negotiate better paying speaking gigs because published authors get paid more!
- Use your book as a way to help you stand out from the crowd.
- Help your audience get to know like and trust you before they decide to purchase a higher priced offering from you such as coaching or a course.
- Self-sponsor your projects with your book. If you have a podcast/blog/or vlog share your book often with your audience.
Ultimately, if you’re in the process of sharing your skills, ideas, and passions you’re inspiring, exciting, and educating other people. Help make it easy for them to know how to support what you’re doing. Self-publishing is accessible to everyone and now is always the best time to get started on your book writing and self-publishing journey.
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Loving this kind of post
Thanks Giulia! I’m working on a several of these posts.