How to publish your novel to Kindle

In the second part of Alice Castle’s guide to writing and publishing a novel, Alice explains the process of publishing to Kindle…

Yesterday I gave you my top tips for writing a book. Once you’ve got that little chore out of the way, you’ll want the rest of the world to be able to see your baby and love it as much as you do. Now you need to be thinking of how to get yourself out there as a published author.

The traditional route.

The traditional route involves an agent, as I described before, who will then do all the hard work for you – finding a publisher, negotiating your fee or ‘advance’ – in exchange for 10 to 15 per cent of the money you make.

Or self-publishing!

But, nowadays, there are other routes you can go down. Vanity publishing used to be sniffed at – well, it says it all in the name, doesn’t it? But these days, people view self-publishing a lot more kindly, thanks to Kindle successes like vampire novelist Amanda Hocking, who has made millions from novels rejected by countless publishers.

Royalties are better from self-publishing.

One of the best things about Kindle, from an author’s point of view, is that you can get up to 70 per cent of the royalties from each book sold. This is dramatically more than a traditional publisher will offer. Deals vary enormously, of course, but the royalty percentages on my German book were printed in such weeny type in my contract that I’m not sure to this day what it all means – except that I won’t be rich any time soon.

Self-publishing immediately offers a global customer base.

On Kindle, you can also sell your book all over the world simultaneously, instead of getting your agent to negotiate painstaking deals with various different publishers based in other countries. It’s quicker, it’s as easy as checking a tick box and, in theory, Kindle publishing can be much more lucrative – as long as people know your book is out there.

But there are challenges.

With millions of volumes now available from the Kindle store, getting people to find your book is probably the biggest challenge you will face. You are allowed to select various categories in order to get your story on the right ‘bookshelf’, but those shelves are now overloaded. What will make your book stand out?

Designing the cover.

Cover design takes on a whole different meaning when you publish for Kindle. In a bookshop, people interested in chicklit will gravitate happily towards the pastel covers with cartoonish women in high heels having hilarious mishaps. In Kindle, all you see of a novel’s cover is a thumbnail a few centimetres across.  Pastel is wishy-washy and cartoons are just incomprehensible. That’s why my book has a radically different cover online, with strong, clear colours and easy-to-read type. I’m hoping it’ll really stand out. It’s something you’ll need to think about.

Work your networks!

You’ll also have to consider how to engage your potential readership. As a BritMums member, you have a head start as you are already running a blog, which provides you with a platform. You’ll probably have Facebook and Twitter as well. Any extra publicity you can drum up will really help – I’ve had an article in the local press and I’m hoping to arrange a tie-in with a big supermarket. I also asked other bloggers with books on Kindle for help – Tania at Larger Family Life and Amanda at Diaries of a Mummy Misfit were both incredibly supportive and offered lots of tips.

Be ready for the technical side.

As you’re a blogger, you’ll probably have a fair degree of technical savvy, so loading your book to Kindle won’t present too many hurdles. There are already a host of sites and blogs offering tips to get you over the glitches. I must admit my heart sank into my boots when I saw the instruction, ‘ get a command prompt.’ It took me right back to the dreadful dark ages of crashing Amstrads and messages flashing across my screen saying ‘fatal error.’ I shamelessly leaned on my blog designer and my partner at this point and we bludgeoned our way through. I’m told the problem was that I was converting from a Mac to Kindle, which is less straightforward than a PC. Anyway, it was nothing that three grown-ups couldn’t solve with a bit of swearing and a lot of alcohol patience.

It’s a good feeling having my book out there, being read and, I very much hope, being enjoyed.

Go for it!

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BritMums is the UK’s original collective of lifestyle bloggers and digital influencers, fueling the country’s most influential social content. We lead the online conversation with members who are parent social influencers creating content on topics ranging from food, parenting, travel, politics, style and more.

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