Ever thought about how you can write fiction? You are about to go over some basic steps to write that fiction book that you have been thinking about writing.

Know What and Why

The very first step is to determine what are you writing and why. You should have a clear idea as to what genre you will be writing in and the motive behind it. Some authors decide to write in a genre that they deem profitable while others decide to write in a genre that they like. Likewise, some decide to write to make a profit while others do it out of joy. During this initial phase, you should also consider your audience. Will this book be for young or mature audiences?

Once you have decided this, think about books that you have read in the genre you chose and ask yourself what do you like and don’t like about those books? This will help you avoid some of the pitfalls and will guide you as to what good habits you should pick on.

Writing Place and Schedule

Now that you have established your audience and genre, it is time to begin the writing process. It is recommended that you find a space where you can write away from distractions and interruptions. This will help you concentrate fully on your project and accomplish more each time you work on it. Fiction comes from your imagination; therefore, it is important that you have a place where you can let your ideas flow.

You should also set up a writing schedule to stay consistent with content creation. There have been many stories that have died before they are even born due to procrastination. If you set up a writing schedule, it will help you with accountability. Include goals and deadlines in your schedule to put some pressure on yourself to keep you on track. Accomplishing small goals will also keep you motivated to continue, making you a more consistent writer as a result.

Given that fiction writing flows from ideas, it is important to always carry a small notebook where you can jot down thoughts about setting, characters, plot, dialogue, etc. One of my professors in college suggested to always have a small notebook next to my bed in case ideas just flow before going to bed, and trust me, they do. If you do not like the thought of a small notebook, use your phone to create voice notes instead. Do whatever it takes to avoid losing those moments of spark that come out of nowhere because sometimes they are some of the best.

Write Your Story

It is now time for you to write down the components of your story. Briefly, write down your setting (where the story will take place), the plot (what the story will be about), and your characters (who will be the protagonist and the antagonist of the story). During this step, you can also determine the point of view (will your story be written in first person? Narrated?).

The next step will be for you to create an outline for your story. Divide your story into three main categories: your introduction, your body, and your resolution. Divide each category into chapters. This will make the writing process so much easier. It is important to introduce your characters early in the story to engage the reader. As the story unfolds, the characters will develop.

You now have a general idea as to what your story will be about, which leads to the next and longest step: writing your story. Try to find what inspires you and create an optimal writing atmosphere. Some people like to listen to music to let their thoughts flow. Others like to read a bit before writing. Find out what works for you and capitalize on it. If for some reason you are having a hard time writing, I suggest not to force it. A story should flow naturally and should never feel like it was rushed or forced. Stand up and take a walk to clear your mind. Come back to writing after you feel rested and refreshed. Ideas will flow better with a clear mind. It is important to describe your story. This means, do not tell the reader what is happening, show the reader what is happening. Paint a picture instead of just saying exactly what characters do.

Edit Your Story

Once you have finished your first draft, read it aloud. This will allow you to pick up any disruptions in the flow of the story and, most important, it will help you with the flow of the dialogue among characters. During this step, you will be able to identify any typos. You will also get rid of things in the story that do not fit or develop the story more in parts where needed.

Although editing the story yourself is recommended, it is important to have a professional editor go through your final draft. Remember that it is important to provide a high-quality story. Fiction readers tend to be high consumers and they can easily identify when a story is poorly written. You do not want to drive away readers due to poor editing. A very good story can be tarnished by typos, which can eventually lead to its failure. Therefore, before publishing, ask for feedback. Have a few people read your story and ask them to share their thoughts with you.

Title and Cover

Now that your story is complete, all you need to do is to come up with the title for your book and your cover. Have someone with experience create your book cover. This will be one of the most important marketing materials that you will invest on. If a cover is not attractive enough to spark interest on the reader, it will not sell.

Congratulations, you have now learned how to write fiction.

Happy writing!

To learn how to write non fiction, click here.

The post HOW TO WRITE FICTION – A BASIC GUIDE appeared first on Project Online Publishing.

If you are someone who loves writing as much as I do, there is a big chance that the thought of publishing a book has crossed your mind. However, this can seem like a very daunting task. There are so many components to consider when publishing a book than just writing it; from deciding what your cover would look like, to choosing your publishing platform and price, to ultimately promoting it. Nevertheless, if you want to see your dream of becoming an author come true, you must learn the ins and outs of the business.

I have written this blog to give you an idea of what it takes to publish an eBook on Kindle. Keep in mind that this blog is for beginners and it contains basic information that will be helpful to those who are not yet familiar with Kindle publishing.

But you may ask, why Kindle?

There is no secret that Amazon is considered one of the largest, if not the largest, online retailer in the world. It provides a platform that is optimal for seasoned and beginning authors alike, since millions of people visit Amazon daily. This means that your book can potentially be exposed to these visitors, increasing your changes to sell. Amazon is widely known for its Kindle store, which is the go-to place to buy eBooks for many readers. Amazon also has a program called Kindle Unlimited where buyers have access to over one million titles and thousands of audio books. There is no limit as to how many eBooks and audibles a buyer can access. The publishing process is also fairly easy, making this platform attractive to many authors.

Writing or Outsourcing?

The very first question that you need to ask yourself is if you will be writing your own content or if you will be outsourcing it. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. For instance, if you plan on writing your own content, you are limited to the amount of work you can produce. On the other hand, outsourcing gives you the opportunity to scale your business and expand your book collection.

If you decide to go for the outsourcing route, you can hire a ghostwriter on websites like Fiverr or Upwork. The rates vary from writer to writer; some offer their services starting at two cents per word while others charge a few dollars. You need to do some research to make sure you are getting quality content and always request examples of the work to make sure that is up to your standards.

If you decide to write your own book, the very first thing that you need to do is to find a niche. This means that you need to find what type of content you will be providing in your eBook, what type of audience will the eBook be for, and under what category you will be selling your eBook in.

This process can be broken down into two options:

1) You can write under a category that you have an expertise in. This will make the writing process easier and faster. However, the downfall is that you might not have enough readers interested in this topic.

2) You can research what is popular, research the topic and write your eBook. For instance, fiction has a large pool of readers who like to consume multiple eBooks and at a fast rate. This provides a good opportunity for your eBook. However, competition is high due to high demand.

Once you have decided what to write about and after you have done the necessary research (if applicable), you need to write your first draft. Please, do not be picky at this point. This is only your first draft. You need to write your ideas down as they come. The more you can write, the better.

After you have done your first draft, make sure to give your eBook a title that is keyword optimized. This means that the title contains words that people search for when browsing through the eBooks selection. For instance, if you want to write an eBook about how to lose weight, do not just name it “How to Lose Weight.” Instead, go a bit more specific like “How to Lose Weight and Live Healthier in Just a Week.” When you start typing on the search bar, Amazon suggests topics for you. Writing in these topics will give you a better chance to expose your content to readers since they are already looking for these specific topics.

Once you have come up with the title, make sure you read your eBook thoroughly to look for any errors, misspelled words, and correct punctuation. This second draft should then be given to an editor who can carefully go through your eBook to pick up any additional errors that you may have missed.

Cover Page

While your eBook is in the editing process, you can work on your cover page. This can either be done by yourself if you have graphic design experience or it can be outsourced. If you are planning on outsourcing your cover page, you can find graphic designers on websites like Fiverr and 99designs. Again, ask the designer for examples of their previous work to make sure their work is of quality.

Your cover page is one of your most powerful marketing tools. Have you ever heard the phrase “do not judge a book by its cover”? Well, guess what? People do it all the time. If the cover is not appealing to the reader, chances are, they won’t be interested in your book. You could have written a masterpiece but if the cover is not attractive enough to spark some interest in readers, your eBook won’t sell. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of having a high-quality cover for your book.

I also suggest that you do some research in your niche for reference. Look at what other authors have done with their covers and pay attention to the ones that sell well. Some writers design their covers totally different from their competitors to stand out but this can also result in readers not being interested, since many stick to books with similar covers and content. At the end of the day, the choice is yours but I do suggest that your eBook cover follows a style like those eBooks that are selling.

For better results, make sure that you follow Amazon’s guidelines when designing your cover page. The ideal dimensions should be 2,560 X 1,600 pixels and as a JPEG or TIFF file. The image should also be less than 50MB and avoid compressing the image.

Format Your Book

When you receive your final draft, after all corrections, along with your cover page, you will be ready to format your eBook for Kindle. Most writers use a Microsoft Word file for their eBooks and then follow the formatting guidelines to convert it to a kindle-friendly format. You can find the formatting guidelines here. Before you decide to upload the file to publish, double-check how the entire eBook displays to make sure you provide your readers with the best reading experience.

Description

The next step after you have uploaded your eBook is to create a good description that will attract readers. Your description, just like your cover, is a very important marketing tool. You have to make sure it is written in such a way that it leaves the reader wanting for more. Think of your description as the equivalent of a movie trailer. You want to highlight the important aspects of your eBook. If you are writing non-fiction, explain what solutions the reader will receive in order to solve the problems they currently face. If your book is fiction, give them a glimpse of what your main character will be facing. Make sure that your description is clear, catchy and inciting enough. Keep in mind that this is your eBook’s preview, the sales pitch, and it will determine whether a reader decides to buy it.

Royalty

Setting your royalty might seems like a simple task. However, you might be faced with questions such as, what should be the right price for my work? Should I enroll in Kindle Unlimited? I should go for a high price since it took me a long time to write this eBook that contains a lot of quality, right?

Let me just give you some guidelines to help you decide what route to take.

You have two options when it comes to royalties, you can either make 35% of the sales of your eBook and have absolute control on what to price your eBook at, or you can enroll your eBook in Kindle Unlimited where you give Amazon exclusive rights to sell your eBook and make 70% of the royalties, but with this option, you must price your eBook between $2.99USD and $9.99USD. Another thing to consider when choosing the 70% royalty option is that if you are planning on selling hard copies, you must price your eBook at least 20% below the hard copy price.
For more detailed information on royalty, please check out Amazon’s royalty rates here.

Publish and Promote

Once you have finalized all previous steps, it is time to publish your eBook and to promote it. The very first eBook you publish will be the one that helps you build your list, if you do not have one yet. For you to build a list, you must provide a good incentive for people to sing up. This could be a sneak peek of book number two if you have a series or perhaps access to a special offer. This should be included at the beginning and at the end of your eBook in the form of a call to action.

You should also use social media to promote your eBook. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are good platforms to utilize to promote your eBook. They are free and allow you to reach audiences beyond your immediate social circle. You can also invest on marketing strategies to increase exposure, but for your first eBook I suggest that you utilize organic traffic. Why? Simple, you will make a lot of mistakes with your first eBook. Publishing is a learning process, the more you do it, the better you become at it. You need to identify what works and what does not. Once you have had some experience and know what works, you can then venture into paid marketing.

One tip that I strongly suggest to grow your list is to give your first eBook for free. This will allow readers to become familiar with your quality of work. The free eBook should direct them to sign up to your list in exchange for something of good quality. It should also direct them to your other eBooks and personal blog. If you do not have a blog yet, please start one. You want to start building a brand outside of Amazon so that you do not solely depend on it.

Other Formats

Kindle eBooks are just one format that Amazon offers. I would suggest for you to explore its other two formats to increase your sales. These two formats are print-on-demand books though Createspace and audio books through Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX).

Createspace offers authors the opportunity to print on demand to avoid the hassle of carrying an inventory. No more having to buy 100 books and store them in your garage in the hopes of selling them to family and friends, and just about everybody else that you meet. There are about 15 trim sizes for black and white books with a minimum page requirement of 24 to a maximum of 828, depending on the trim size. For colored books, the minimum page requirement is 24 with a maximum of 480, again, depending on the trim size. Createspace royalties are determined by a number of factors such as interior type, number of pages and trim size. For more information on Createspace’s royalties, click here.

ACX offers three different royalty options: royalty share with exclusive distribution to Audible, pay for production (which comes in a way of a flat fee) with exclusive distribution, and pay for production (flat fee as well) without exclusive distribution rights. For the first option, the royalties are the same for the producer and the rights holder. They both earn 20% of the sales. For the second option, the rights holder pays a one-time flat fee to the producer and earns 40% of the sales. The third option works like the second option in regards to payment to the producer but earns only a 20% of the sales. If you decide to go exclusive with Audible, keep in mind that the term for exclusive distribution is seven years. This means that you cannot have your audible book anywhere else besides Amazon for the duration of the term. For more information on ACX, click here.

Conclusion

To conclude, I would like to outline this blog post in eight simple steps:

• Kindle is a great platform to publish due to Amazon’s reach to potential customers
• Decide whether you want to write your eBook or outsource it
• Write quality content, proofread it and edit it
• Create an attractive cover page
• Format your book for Kindle
• Write a compelling description
• Set up your royalties
• Publish and promote

If you are planning on publishing a book, Kindle is a great platform to do it on. It is currently the go-to place for eBooks for millions of customers. It also offers three different platforms to choose from: eBooks, print-on-demand, and audible. Do not limit yourself to eBooks only!

I hope this introductory post was helpful to you. I will continue to share what I have learned in this Kindle Publishing journey in posts to come. Happy publishing!

The post Kindle Publishing – How to Publish an eBook appeared first on Project Online Publishing.