I ve also written an entire book that covers best practices for creating a book that sells.

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2 T H E U LT I M AT E A M A Z O N S E L F - P U B L I S H I N G C H E C K L I S T I know how daunting the task of self-publishing your own book can be, especially if you are new to the business. Not only do you need to come up with an awesome idea and unique selling point, but then there s the overwhelming process of writing, publishing and marketing to tackle too. Just like any self-published author, I ve had my failures and my successes; I ve learned through trial and era. But after over a dozen book launches, I ve learned a few things about how to self-publish a book. To help make the process as smooth and successful as possible for you, I ve created this 29 step checklist to self-publishing on Amazon. I ve outlined each action point to take you from the initial idea right through to the published and marketed product.

3 Keep a copy of this list and tick each item off as you go along your publishing process. If you follow the steps and get everything aligned, you can see amazing results. I ve also written an entire book that covers best practices for creating a book that sells.

4 #1. Come up with a book idea Every great book starts off as an idea. You can start with what you are an expert in, what the customers of your business want to read, or what there is demand for on Amazon. You ll learn more about how to identify demand later in this checklist. #2. Gauge the potential profit of your book Not all ideas are worth their weight in gold. Do some research into your niche s demands, look up your competitors, and determine just how much money your proposed book could make. There are some great tools for this such as and K-Lytics. #3. Brainstorm the talking points Aim to create a book that provides value to people. Write down what your book s value propositions are; what your main topics are, as well as what personal anecdotes you can use to exemplify them. These will become the sections and subsections of your book. Already a frame is coming #4. Identify the keywords In addition to the keywords you can use in your title, subtitle and description, Amazon allows you to select up to 7 keywords;

5 optimize this feature fully. Keywords help yourtarget readers to actually find your book and choosing the most relevant and optimal ones can boost your ranking on Amazon. To find the best ones to include, I use Google Keyword Planner and Merchant Words and I analyze other books in my category. #5. Identify your unique selling point Readers buy books for one reason alone - perceived value. Condense down to one sentence what your book s unique selling point is. What separates it from competitors and what one-of-a-kind value are you offering readers? Pinpoint your readers problems and construct your book on delivering a solution. This analysis will help inform your book description, cover, title and marketing. #6. Outline the chapters Before you get too stuck into the actual writing, you should have a very clear outline for your book. Having the chapters sketched out with relevant information and knowing which bit goes where, will help keep you on track when you actually start writing. #7. Write the first draft

6 This is the chance to let your creativity and words flow. Get everything out on paper and worry about editing later. Make the task less daunting by recording your thoughts first and for yourself and sticking to a set schedule. I know how hard it can be to get going so I ve written a you find the time and focus to start writing. to help #8. Hire an editor to edit and proofread The more eyes you can get on your work the better. Hire a professional editor to read over your first draft, make necessary edits and suggestions, and whip it up into a coherent second draft. It s easy to miss spelling errors and grammar mistakes if you ve read over something too many times and an editor will help check for consistency and flow. I often hire mine through #9. Get feedback from your readers before publishing Always keep in mind who you are writing for - your readers. Their opinion is what counts most as they will be the ones buying your book. Get feedback from a small trusted circle and make changes as necessary. Make sure you book is valuable so that you will get good reviews on Amazon and so that people will buy it in the first place.

7 #10. Finalize the title Make your title catchy and unique: pique your reader's curiosity. Be scant on the keywords if it makes your title clunky and save them rather for the subtitle which should explain the unique value of your book. You can use sites such as Mechanical Turk or PickFu to get feedback on your proposed titles before settling on one. #11. Commission the cover design Your title and your cover design are two of the most important elements that draw potential readers to your book. It s well worth it to invest in a professional designer. Throw a line out to your network and see who can help out, this has worked really well for me in the past. Otherwise you can try Upwork or 99designs. #12. Flesh out the first and last pages Include a table of contents, author bio and additional resources to build your list. Use the bio section to put a face to

8 the book and lend some credibility to your words. Use a call to action at the end; ask readers to write a review, head over to your author page, buy a related book etc. Consider linking to a free book offering in the front and back of your book, this is a great list building strategy. #13. Send to a book formatter Before publishing, it s vital to check that your book reads well on Kindle devices and in paperback format. I use Upwork to find professional formatters for both Kindle and paperback. #14. Write a sales description for Amazon This is your chance to really sell your book. Focus on what value readers will get from reading it. Identify their problem and then tell them exactly how your book will solve it. #15. Create a cover for CreateSpace

9 T H E U LT I M AT E A M A Z O N S E L F - P U B L I S H I N G C H E C K L I S T Don t forget that some readers still prefer the feel of a paperback book. It s best to cater to as many readers as possible so I use to turn my books into a print version. You can use Fiverr to convert your Kindle cover into Createspace format. #16. Submit print version to CreateSpace Once you have created your cover, submit a print version of your book to CreateSpace. I get more sales through Kindle but having a paperback helps to improve the professional look of my author page. Readers can see I m not only offering just another Kindle book.

10 T H E U LT I M AT E A M A Z O N S E L F - P U B L I S H I N G C H E C K L I S T #17. Create a cover for ACX On the same lines, some readers prefer listening to audiobooks rather than reading. to turn my books into audio. Your cover is what draws potential customers to your audiobook; I create my covers using Fiverr. #18. Create an audio version using ACX I use ACX to hire a professional narrator and producer to convert my books into audiobooks. Check out this guide I ve written to take you through the whole process.

11 T H E U LT I M AT E A M A Z O N S E L F - P U B L I S H I N G C H E C K L I S T #19. Plan your book marketing It s vital to have you book marketing plan pinned down before launch. There are a number of sites that promote self-published books that you can submit your book to to get huge results. In addition, guest blogging, sending it to your list, and getting reviews so that Amazon will promote you can be very effective. #20. Set a launch date You ll need to know this so you can coordinate all your promotional tactics at the right time. It s important to get a lot of downloads in the first week. This will encourage Amazon to promote your book to more readers. Getting onto the customers who bought this item also bought list is key to having a long-term bestseller on Amazon. #21. Upload your book to KDP

12 T H E U LT I M AT E A M A Z O N S E L F - P U B L I S H I N G C H E C K L I S T Now it s time to upload your book to KDP. I ve gone through this process many times before, so to make it as easy as possible for you, I ve created this step-by-step guide to take you through it from start to finish. #22. Link to your author page You want as many potential readers to lay eyes on your author page as possible. Connect your book page to your author page so that people can click through to your author page from your book. Vice versa, this also means that when people view your author page they can view your book. #23. Launch your book This is it! All your hard work is about to pay off.

13 T H E U LT I M AT E A M A Z O N S E L F - P U B L I S H I N G C H E C K L I S T To make sure everything goes smoothly, get all your preparation done before the day. Alert your channels, set up free promotions, do everything you can to let people know your book is launching. Remember, Amazon is a business, if your book is successful, they make money too. They want your book to sell, so use this leverage to your advantage. #24. Book promotion sites There are a lot of sites out there you can promote your book on like Fussy Librarian, Buck Books, James Mayfield, Bknights etc. Rather than going the traditional method of publishing to each site on consecutive days, boost your number of downloads within a short time frame. Grab Amazon s attention and make your book known by publishing on a wide range of book promotion sites all on the same day. Getting featured on BuckBooks (screenshot below) helped me sell about 100 books in one day.

14 T H E U LT I M AT E A M A Z O N S E L F - P U B L I S H I N G C H E C K L I S T #25. Send to your list As a self-published author, one of the most crucial steps to establishing your brand and audience is building a list of subscribers. If you don t have one already, I highly suggest you start building one now. Send a personal to your list with a link to download your book. By now your hard promotional work should be paying off and they ll be really excited to get their hands on a copy. #26. Offer free days through KDP Select I found this method to work quite well for me as I was starting. I often see a spike in downloads and am able to direct more potential readers to my list. Increased book downloads can help increase your paid ranking on Amazon. It can also help you get more subscribers and reviews. Free days are a good time to get your friends to order your book and give you an honest review.

15 Offer a link in your book to your list; I do this to give away an ebook on a related topic. That way you can build up your list and have even more force behind your next launch. #27. Create a KDP Ads campaign If you ve enrolled in KDP Select (which I do suggest) now s the time to launch your KDP Ads campaign. This way you can really target your book at your intended audience. Here is a KDP ads summary for my book Your First $1k: How to Start a Successful Blog and Make Money Doing it.

16 #28. Evaluate launch campaign So you ve launched your book, you ve put a marketing plan into action, you ve done all you can to generate sales. How s it going? Use Amazon Associates links to check the clicks and conversions. What generated the most sales? How many reviews did you get? What outside platforms brought in the most traffic? Take a look at what s worked, what s fallen short, how you can rectify it, and what you can do better next time. #29. Continue marketing Marketing is an ongoing gig. If you want a steady stream of sales you have to spread the word about your book. Ask friends or fellow authors who have bought it to write honest reviews and explore other marketing avenues you might not have thought of yet such as podcasts, guest blogging or Youtube. #30. Write your next book You ve published and launched your book, congratulations! Give yourself a reward and then then get straight back to work creating your next book. Not all books are a success, so it s best to give yourself many chances to succeed. You can use this next book to market your current book and, the

17 more books you write, the more opportunity you have to build your list. The bigger your list, the more powerful your book launches get and the more successful you become as a self-published author. Your Next Step