How to create an Indie Book

A Basic Guide For New Or Beginner Indie Authors 

Introduction

Well, this is a bit different from my usual posts. As some of you may know, I'm an indie author. I've made mistakes, and some of my books are better than others, but I've grown a lot in the past year. I want to share my knowledge, so maybe you don't make the same mistakes. This is the nearly free way to put out an indie book. The only thing I recommend paying for is a cover for your book. But if you decide to make your book cover, I'll provide you with some resources I've found which may help. If you've only put out one or two books, or you're thinking about putting out your first book, I hope this basic guide can help save you from the mistakes I've made.

Each section will give you a basic overview of how to get things done. If I can, I'll share resources with you, which has also helped me improve over this past year. Let's get right into it!

Twitter

"Twitter? Why are you telling me to start with twitter?" There is a very specific reason for this, and that's the #WritingCommunity. If you're on twitter, I encourage you to join the #WritingCommunity. It's a group of writers from around the world where we all come together around the topic of writing.

Interact with others and ask questions. People can be very friendly to new writers. If you have a specific question, it can be a decent place to get an answer. Also, you'll meet some cool people and make writer friends from around the world.

During the writing phase of this process, give updates on the writing community. Set your writing goals and post them. It's a good way to keep yourself accountable to your writing schedule.

Also, if someone else asks a question you may know the answer to, reply. And again, don't forget to make friends!

Book Ideas

This might be the shortest section in this guide. You've probably already come up with an idea, and if you have, then skip to the next section. If you're trying to come up with an idea, it's best to write something you're familiar with. What interests you? If you're into dark fantasy or if you're into thrillers, try to come up with an idea centered around a genre you know. Think of who your characters are and the conflict. If you're having trouble coming up with a conflict, then one way to fix this is to look through history. "History? Why history?" you may be thinking. Well young one, let me explain. Human history is filled with stories. If you already enjoy the topic, this will be interesting. If you don't, well, you had a bad teacher at one point and I don't blame you. But if you have a basic idea of where you want your story to go, try to find similar historical events that happened. Then apply some of it to your idea, and then dramatize the hell out of it. Unless you're talking about an outrageous event, then it might be best to go with that.

Let's take an example we could work with for this guide. Fantasy is always a popular genre these days. Let's craft an Epic Fantasy novel. If you already read Epic Fantasy, which you should (or whichever genre you're writing) then you might have envisioned your main character (from now on will be referred to as MC). You know what he/she looks like, their background, and what they do. Next, envision your villain. Who is he/she? Are they a dark lord? An evil emperor? A ferocious dragon? Now all you have to do is get the MC to the villain. At this point, I'd recommend taking a look through Middle Ages history. See if you can find similar circumstances your MC will face. Even for world-building, this can help.

So, at this point, you should know who your MC is, your villain, and the basic conflict. Now, what do you do? You write the outline.

Outlining 

Outlining your book is one of the worst experiences you can have as a writer. You want to get right to it and skip this step. Oh, I know you want to skip this step. There's a reason why you shouldn't though, and that's writer's block. Ah yes, the dreaded writer's block, we've all been there one time or another. It sucks, and it makes your life harder. It doesn't have to be though. If only you took the time to outline your book, you'd already know what was supposed to happen!

You get where I'm going with this. Outlining will save you loads of time down the road if you take an hour or two to write it now. Plotting out your whole story makes you think about the elements you want to add. Should you kill off a character early or later? Should their death be a fake-out? Or is it real? Why is your MC going on this journey? These are all important questions to ask for your story, but it's best to get them all out in your outline.

There are many different methods and guides which can help you with outlining. If you've considered writing an outline before, you've scoured youtube searching for the best way to plot out your novel. Sure some guides are better than others, but it's hard to find an in-depth guide which will give you what you're looking for.

I present to you, Derek Murphy. This guy has tons of fantastic information on his youtube channel. And guess what? He even has a guide for writing an outline! Below I've posted his outlining video. What you'll want to do is grab a few sheets of paper and a pen, or open an empty page on your writing software, and follow along. Go and get everything set up and then come back and watch the video provided. It's long, but it will save you time in the long run. After you finish your outline, continue to the next step.

 

Writing The Book

Okay, you have your outline, and now it's time to write the book. You don't need any specific software to write your book. If you have Microsoft Word, it will work. If you have Apple's Pages, it will be fine. Now if you want to put out your book fast, then you should aim to write around 2000 words per day. "2000 words per day!" I hear you shout. Yes dear reader, 2000 words per day. 2000 words are roughly eight pages. If you wrote 2000 words a day for 25 days straight, you'd have a 50,000-word book, or about 200 pages long. Take a deep breath, this is doable.

If you're not used to writing I'd suggest starting by writing 250 words per day. It doesn't have to be exact, but close. Get comfortable writing, and make it a habit. You don't have to write your book as quick as I suggested, but I want you to know, with enough practice, you can do it.

At this point, don't worry about grammar mistakes, or anything like that. What I want you to do is finish the book. Make it a goal, and finish the first draft. It will be long, it will be hard, but keep going. Every time you hit a new goal, think about how far you've come. For example, let's say, you've never written 10,000 words before in your life. Once you hit 10,000 words pause. Think about how you wrote more words in one document than you ever have before. It's a proud moment in your writing life. Savor these moments and pat yourself on the back.

Now, if your goal is 50,000 words, it may seem daunting. One trick I've found which helps me is only thinking about getting to the next 10,000 words. For example, if you got to 20,000 words and your goal is to hit 30,000 in a week, then break it down further. Hit the 2k word goal a day, and you've reached 30,000 words by Friday.

It seems like it'll take forever to finish writing your book. It won't if you keep working at it. Get the first draft done.

Editing 

Grab the scalpel, this is not going to be pleasant. Editing your work is one one the most difficult things about writing. You spent so much time and energy into crafting your Manuscript. You have to trim it down to size.

Not to fear! I have a few tricks up my sleeve! It's nothing fancy, but it will help you with your editing process. I recommend doing this chapter by chapter, as it should yield better results. The first thing you'll do is set aside your book for a few days. I'd say three days should be enough time. Then, go back to chapter one and... read your writing.... dun dun dun! You'll notice many grammar and spelling mistakes. Unless you're some sort of flawless writer, then lucky you. Go through the chapter and make sure to deep dive through your writing. Once you think you've finished with the chapter, then we turn to online editing.

You've seen those pesky ads for Grammarly? Turns out, Grammarly is pretty decent. However, don't run your chapter through Grammarly first. No, what you're going to do is run it through a free website (as of writing this) called Hemingway App. This is one of those sites which you may or may not have heard of. It's a coin toss. Now one of the beautiful things about Hemingway App is that it points out your adverbs and your longer sentences. Here's a tip, if you can cut back on adverbs, do it. If you cut back on adverbs, you'll see a vast improvement in your writing. After you make your preferred edits in the Hemingway App, then you move onto Grammarly. I suggest using the free version, to try things out. Correct any grammar mistakes, then your chapter should be done. Rinse and repeat for each chapter.

Once you've finished going through your book. Set it aside again for a few more days, and repeat the same process until you think you're satisfied with your book. You're getting close to being done with your final draft, but there's one more thing you have to do first.

Beta Readers

Getting beta readers can be tough if you're just starting. It'll be the first time you're throwing your work out into the world. Well, not in totality, but still, it's a process which needs to be done. If you've made some friends on the #WritingCommunity, you could ask if they would be interested in beta reading your book. If you do ask, be honest about your book. Tell them what genre it is and how long it is. If they ask for more details, it's okay to give a synopsis of your story. Discuss it with them if they're interested and figure out how to get a copy to them.

In the event, someone says no, don't take it personally. They're human too and have other things which might be pressing at the time.

Also, it is polite if someone asks you to be a beta reader, for you to do it, especially if they were a beta reader for you. It's cyclical and beneficial for everyone.

When you get feedback, try to stay objective. Constructive criticism is a good thing. Your book is not perfect, and that's okay. Listen to your beta readers. Take their advice, especially if they have experience publishing before. Take the wisdom from your, "elders" young one.

Book Cover

Congrats! You've finished your final draft! Now it's time to get or make a book cover. This can be as simple or difficult as you'd like. I'll knock the free option out of the way first. If you're making your cover, the first thing you want to do is make sure either the image(s) your using are ones you own, or they're in public domain.

There are two different editing sites I've come across for making book covers. One is the more common one which most people are familiar with, and that's Canva. Canva is a very simple editor and it's great for making simple designs. It's been a while since I've used the site, but if I remember, they do have images you can use for free, and a few paid ones too. If you want to make a super simple cover, I'd recommend Canva. It's easy to use, and it's a quick learning curve.

The other editor takes a little more time to get used to than Canva, but there are more features for editing. I'd say it's between Canva and Photoshop on how useful it is. This site I'm talking about is called Photopea. Photopea is great for taking your image editing skills to the next level. I'd recommend playing around with it a bit before making your book cover.

Now onto the paid option, and this is the only paid option I'll mention in this post. If you want someone else to make your cover, I'd suggest using Fiverr. I'm talking from personal experience here so use it at your own volition. When looking for book cover designers, I recommend doing a thorough search. Message cover designers to see if they are the right fit for you.

Publishing

One of the most popular places to publish for indie authors is Amazon. This is the one I'm most familiar with myself. I've gone exclusive at the moment with Amazon. There are benefits to going exclusive with Amazon's KDP Select program. Unless they change their terms, as of writing this, your book is placed in Kindle Unlimited, and during one enrollment period, you can either do a countdown deal or a Free 5 day Book Promotion. You don't have to do the 5 days consecutively during the period. The drawbacks with going exclusive with Amazon is the fact that you can't publish your book anywhere else so long as the book is in KDP Select. It's a trade-off, but as of writing this, Amazon is one of the largest places for people to acquire books.

The process is pretty simple and it doesn't take very long to learn how to use Amazon's publishing platform. I enjoy it myself, and I would recommend it to a friend if they were looking to publish a book. 

Now there are other places you could publish your book, but I'm less familiar with them. I'll list them off, but you'll have to look into them further if you want to publish elsewhere. So here's the list: Barnes & Nobel Press, iBooks Author, Lulu.

Whichever platform you pick, do your research on first, and make sure it's a right fit for you. Each platform has its advantages and disadvantages. 

Promoting Your Work

Okay, I've said things were tough before in this post, and they are, but this is the toughest challenge you'll face as an indie author. Marketing/Self Promotion is the one thing you MUST become a student. But try not to spam, nobody likes spam. 

If you enrolled your book into KDP Select, and you're doing a 5-day promo, then I would recommend going over to Reddit and placing it on r/FreeBOOKS. Make sure to follow their rules and be respectful. Don't create a Reddit account for the sole purpose of self-promotion. It's frowned upon on Reddit and could get you banned from certain communities. Join different subreddits and interact with people. But, if your book is up for a free promo, r/FreeBOOKS might be a good place to check out. Remember to follow their rules. 

The best way to get sales from my experience is to get reviews. Based on my own experiences, most people won't write a review. Consider yourself lucky if you get multiple reviews in a short amount of time. If you get negative reviews, don't take it personally. Not everyone will like your work. Some will, some won't, it's the way it is.

Another way to promote your book is to pay for ads. Realize you probably won't make your money back on your first few ad sets. You could advertise through Facebook, Podcasts, Fiverr, or a plethora of other places as well. Be very careful if you decide to buy an ad and do your homework on the person/company you go with. Make sure they're the right match for you and they're reputable. 

As a disclaimer, none of this is financial advice. It's only based on experience and personal research. 

Conclusion

I hope this beginners guide has given you some insight if you're starting. It's a tough market out there and you have loads of competition. Remember to make friends, and write, write, write. Build a network of people where all of you can help each other in your self-publishing journey. I didn't go in-depth into everything. But this should have provided some basic helpful information. I hope you got something useful out of this, and happy writing!

P.S.

If you enjoyed this article and you'd like to help me out so I can keep putting out more content, please read and provide an honest review of my book, The Quest For The Sun God's Tomb. Again thank you for reading.