Self-Publishing Essentials in 2023 and Beyond: Part I

For many authors, writing the book is the easiest part of the process—particularly for self-published authors. That isn’t to say that writing a polished, market-ready book is an easy thing. Far from it. The only thing harder than writing a great book is helping it stand out in a crowded marketplace. 

Whether your self-published book debuts in 2023 or 2043, there are certain essentials you must plan for to have a successful book launch. Before you can get started, you’ll need to define what success looks like for you—an author hoping to make the New York Times bestseller list is going to approach their book launch very differently from someone hoping to win literary awards or someone using non-fiction books to bolster their professional credibility. Once you’ve determined what your personal goals are, then you’re ready to begin planning your book launch.

Every author needs to work with at least a few editors and designers to ensure the book is ready for the public eye; after so many rereads, it can be difficult to spot what in your novel is working, and what isn’t. And even if you have the best self-published book on the market, your novel may never connect with your readers without certain foundational marketing materials.

Marketing — Research Similar Novels

There’s no book just like yours. But there are bound to be dozens of novels that share key aspects to your work, whether in setting, theme, genre tropes, or your central conflict. Even quite dissimilar books can share similar themes—for example, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Marquez and Maria Escampon’s L.A. Weather are both family sagas by Latinx authors. If you can’t identify any books similar to yours, that’s a sign you need to think more broadly about your work.

Once you’ve settled on two or three titles, you have your comparative (comp) titles. They’ll help your book find its audience out in the wild by providing a reference point for booksellers and reviewers to recommend your book to the most interested readers. To that end, there are several guidelines you should follow when choosing which books to add to your comp title list.

• Comp titles should have been published in the last three to five years, even if you’ve written a historical fiction novel.

  • It can be tempting to compare yourself to the classics but resist the urge. Classics were written for yesterday’s literary tastes—your book needs to stand out in today’s market.

• Don’t compare yourself or your book to Colleen Hoover, or Harry Potter, or Prince Harry’s memoir. Booksellers use comp titles to identify your book’s niche and its intended audience. Cast your net too wide and you will only risk looking as though you don’t understand your novel’s place in the market.

• Instead, look for midlist titles that have performed well enough to be attractive to booksellers, but not so meteoric that you look out of touch with the book industry.

Marketing — Understand your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

Next, you’ll need to take a look at your comp title list and the market as a whole to explore how your book is different. Let’s say, for example, you’ve written a historical fiction novel set during World War II in Paris. It’s your job to explain to readers why they should invest their time in it. How is your novel different from books like Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, for example, or Kelly Rimmer’s The Things We Cannot Say? Perhaps your book is informed by letters your grandfather sent your grandmother during that time, or illuminates an aspect of the conflict that has not been addressed in commercial fiction. 

Once you identify what makes your book unique, you’ll have what’s commonly known as your hook. You’ll use this as the basis for your book marketing—the blurb that goes on the back of your book cover, the book’s description on its GoodReads page, your author website, any press you choose to write for PR, and on and on and on. So, you’ll need to make sure it’s short, punchy, and likely to resonate with readers of your comp titles.

Editing: Invest in a Good Editor

While you are keeping busy with marketing research, send your book to a trusted, professional editor for review. There are multiple different types of editors, all with differing standard rates of pay. Take a hard look at your work to identify where your weaknesses are. Are you able to spot a typo a mile away, or do you rely on tools like spell check and Grammarly to catch your mistakes?

• Proofreaders are the ones who are focused on catching those errant commas or misused homonyms. For most writers, that’s the first thing they think of when they think of an editor… but proofreaders should be the final type of editor you engage with.

• First, you should focus on structural edits. This is done by a developmental editor who looks at the big picture of your novel to ask if, for example, you’ve focused on the right point-of-view (POV) characters or if your subplot is a distraction that needs to be deleted.

• Once these edits have been addressed to your satisfaction, move on to a line edit. When revising your novel with structural edits from the previous step in mind, you may inadvertently introduce problems with flow or style. A line editor will help smooth over any wrinkles so your novel provides a frictionless experience for the reader.

• Copy editors can then bring your work into line with the rules of standard English and ensure that you are internally consistent in the way you treat, for example, units of measure or the styling of your footnotes. After these edits have been incorporated, your book will be ready for the proofreader.  

For writers exploring cultures outside of their own lived experience, a sensitivity reader or diversity reader may also be necessary. Twitter is a great resource for finding sensitivity readers from various backgrounds. They can help identify your cultural blind spots, so your novel delivers its message in the way you intend. The critiques they provide are typically more structural, so if you decide to engage with one, be sure to do so early on. 

Note that not all novels—or writers—will necessarily need all of these types of editors. For self-publishing authors on a budget, assess your work and your writing style critically and follow up with the appropriate editors. For example, I’ve worked in professional copywriting and marketing all of my adult life, so the idea of adhering to a style guide to maintain consistency is almost second nature to me. But I can sometimes struggle with zooming out to answer questions about which characters are really moving the story forward, and which ones are holding it back.

Editing: Formatting Matters

It might seem silly to pay for a cover designer when you can just use a stock photo and template from Canva. But designers do so much more than simply choose a font or slap a photo on the front cover. They are attuned to the standards of the book industry, and know exactly how to signal the contents of your book to its intended readers. Like it or not, people do still judge a book by its cover. Having professionally done design work ensures you put your best foot forward. 

Another common practice is to hire a book designer for the interior of your novel. Your novel’s font, margins, and layout may seem like an afterthought to you, but careful selection and design helps ensure your readers aren’t annoyed by words spaced a little too closely together or irregular margins. Some fonts can cause eye fatigue more quickly than others, while others pose challenges to people with visual processing disorders like dyslexia, and still others may feel cold and create a tone that conflicts with the text of your book. The best formatting feels invisible… but that doesn’t mean the work isn’t being done. Proper formatting lays the foundation of your reader’s experience with your story, so getting it right can make or break your book’s chances of getting read all the way through.

Other Considerations in Self-Publishing

There are many different aspects to self-publishing, of which this post has only just scratched the surface. You’ll also want to consider things like what business structure you’d like to have, how you’ll account for taxes, what your social media and website presence will look like, where you will market your book, and much more.

You’ll also need to consider how much of your time, money, and personal skills you can dedicate to your book launch. This will help you determine how much of the work you’ll be able to do on your own and what you’ll need outside help for. 

The key is to start with your product itself and develop a basic understanding of how it fits into the market as a whole to lay a foundation for an overarching marketing strategy. Then, set aside some time to consult with business professionals over the structure of your writing business for compliance, and you will be much more prepared for the rest of your self-publishing journey.

Final Thoughts: Self-Publishing in 2023 & Beyond

Self-publishing may seem quick and easy, but if you want to give your book the best chance for success, you’ll need to plan ahead and get the right professionals in place to support you. It truly takes a village to publish a novel that sells, whether your goal is to have the best-selling book of 2023 or an award-winning novel that resonates deeply with readers in a very specific niche. 

Have you self-published? What unexpected things did you learn?