As a self-published author, if you’ve already had some success with writing and selling ebooks, and are making a profit, you might be thinking of the next step – growth of your business, which in turn will boost your income and career. Below we’ve gathered 7 ways to boost your business as a self-published author and take it to the next level.
1. Hire a virtual assistant
You really don’t need to do everything yourself. And as your indie publishing business grows, this is a tell-tale sign you need to get other people on board to help you. Why not hire a virtual assistant for a couple of hours a day to help relieve the burden of administrative tasks, such as responding to fan mail? Or get a marketing person to do your daily social media activities. By getting others to help out in areas, which you don’t have time for, or you find are not your strong points, you can focus on what you do best – writing stories.
2. Write more books
There are so many books you’re competing with and a constant need to make yours stand out from the rest. This issue will continue as your business expands. Therefore, you need to strive to keep increasing your digital footprint. How do you do this? Raise your output. Write more, enthralling, high quality books to help increase the likelihood of readers finding your work. The most successful self-published authors swear by this approach. By taking on staff like in point number 1 above, you give yourself the space to write more books.
3. Co-author a book
As an author, you’ve most likely got lots of other author friends and contacts. Why not help each other out, and leverage one another’s audience and readers by co-authoring a book? This will take a lot of work, and they’re will be legalities to sort out in terms of ownership and royalties. However, many authors have co-authored a book before and so can you.
4. Don’t limit yourself to digital
If you’ve been writing just ebooks exclusively up until now, there’s a market for your books who want to access your work in print, which you could be missing out on. By doing this, you could be limiting the audience you could be reaching, and leaving money on the table by doing so. There are platforms such as CreateSpace, which will allow you to self-publish work in print through a print-on-demand approach and distribute it for free.
5. Marketing should always be a priority
Remember how much marketing effort was needed to sell the first dozen of your maiden ebook, or book? Perhaps you got interviewed by blogs, did a virtual book tour, and conducted a couple of free days through Amazon KDP Select, or swamped Facebook and Twitter? Well, these activities aren’t just a one-time thing! They need to carry on, always. The good thing is you will have already built a network of fellow writers and readers, who you can call upon to spread the word through their own online and offline contacts channels.
6. Move into other genres
Remember, this article is all about growing your self-publishing business. Chances are you’ve already got a decent name writing fantasy stories or steampunk novels, for instance. Carving out a niche in a particular genre or two makes perfect sense when just starting your self-publishing journey. However, writing in other genres will give you more scope, as you create the potential to reach out to a wider number of readers who read books in the genre(s) you’re planning to write in.
7. Publish your work traditionally
The more successful you become as a self-published author, the more you will get recognised in the industry, and you may actually want to approach an agent to represent your next book. Alternatively, you might end up having an agent knocking on your door who wants to work with you, or have a publisher approach you, wanting to publish your book. That’s not a bad place to be in and is totally possible.
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[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/hv1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Hiten Vyas is the Founder and Managing Editor of eBooks India. He is also a prolific eBook writer with over 25 titles to his name.[/author_info] [/author]