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How To Become A Successful Author In Nigeria (Super-fast Guide)

January 29, 2020/ Chukwuma Okeke / Bestselling Author, Book Publishing And Marketing, Design / 4 comments

Read this post before you write anything (workbook included)

Introduction

The purpose of this guide is to show the main thing to do to get you started on the journey of becoming a successful author: connect with real people, build relationships and provide value. See it is as real work. I will try to make this guide as short as this introduction. It will lead you to pick your pen and start writing, and of course, making money. How use the workload. Bring a notepad and be ready to be ready to answer the questions i will be throwing! Who told you self-publishing a book in Nigeria is going to be easy?! Let’s get start.

Build a platform

We usually get calls from prospective clients who want to publish their book. The first question I ask them is who and where do they want to sell the books on. Do you have any fan base or readers? Who will buy this book you want to publish now? The answers are always blank or no answer at all. The good news is that you have a platform already. If you are on social media, then you have a platform. The challenge is how to have your social media fans your readers and those who will be willing to buy and recommend your books to their friends. The first step is to start. Take a look at your social media connection. Do you think your current association are useful to your new journey of becoming a successful author? You can’t know unless you start. The first is high-quality content and where to put it to get a maximum return. There’s Facebook, Twitter, blog, Instagram, etc. You can be writing quality content and posting on Facebook without likes and comment but the same material, when displayed on blogs or a site like Nairaland, will get massive traffic back to your site and social media handles. Let me tell you a story of an author we published and a strategy she used to build a platform and now is a successful author, travelling the around and charging thousands to promote big companies product and services. This is her simple strategy. She started a blog. She blogs mostly her everyday life, and she makes it funny. Then she opens an account on Nairaland and started posting on the literature section. The readers and moderators begin to like her stories then began to push it to the front page; then millions of people are exposed to her content. The readers will go to her blog already linked under the post, and then her Twitter and Instagram are linked to the blog them BOOM! They begin to follow her. She has thousands of readers on her social media and has sold thousands of printed and e-book. The author is not posting on Nairaland again. Now you see the strategy-entry and exit.

You can see from this story that your book must have a market waiting to buy. Do not write a book, and then try to find a market for it or make people read it. It mostly won’t sell. Sorry. Read this post and get more ideas how to build a platform and this one one on blogging

When you are publishing?

I don’t know what you are writing, but I know if you don’t know when it is going to come out then you better forget about the idea of seeing your name on a book cover. The purpose of publishing a book is a serious venture. Many people see it as a hobby, and many of them end up not succeeding it. You have to draw up a start and finish plan with date and time deadline.

What is the cost of publishing and printing a book in Nigeria?

This is the first question to ask. The answer depends on what you are willing to pay to get the best. Everything depends on quality. How much are you willing to pay to get the best cover design? How much are you willing to pay a good editor? What is your quality or thickness of the paper?Do know the cost of isbn in Nigeria? What colorful do you what the cover to be? Are you going to launch the book? And many more question. We in Harmony publishing can help solve many of the questions or challenges you are going face as an author. I can say that cost of publishing 200 page with us usually around N500,000 to N700,000 and sometimes to N1m. It all depends on what the client wants.

Concept

What are you doing? Are you wring a fiction or non-fiction. Who is your target audience? How will they receive your book? How want the book cover to look like? You need to think through about everything about the book before anything is written down. Use the question below to form the idea of yours. This is where the workbook comes in. Start writing down answers to these questions

What is the title of your book ? How do know to how come with book title that will sell? Read this post

What are the subtitles ?

Who do you want your book to look like? Which book is your favourite on your shelf or a book you have read or seem and love it? Write it down

What is your book size? Standard book size is A5. Most of the book is this size. School Textbook is on A4 scale. The size of your normal office sheet paper.

What is your word count? How many words do they think your book be? Or how many pages do you have in mind? Many papers in Nigeria are under 200 page. Standard books should be at least 100 page

What paper quality do you want your book to be? We have white, cream, glossy and malt papers.

White and cream bond papers are used in the production of typical books like novels, motivational, Christian and business books. While gloss and malt papers are used for magazines, brochures, birthday and burial information booklet.

How many copies do you want to do in the first publications? Mostly, 1000 copies are recommended because the cost per copy is reduced while anything less makes per copy price more expensive. It is advised to do 1000 copies and make a significant effort to sell them.

How much do you want your book to be? This is very important unless you are doing charity or distributing books for your birthday. Harmony Publishing has done albums for clients who didn’t intend to sell but to use their books as birthday gifts to their friends and family. If that’s not your purpose, then put a price on your paper

Marketing

Some people wait until their book is published before they begin to market it and tell people about it. It is a mistake. You have a platform then why do you want to hide your book from the people who will mostly buy it from it. Don’t be do like the legally married Nigerian couple that hides their pregnancy like a top-secret but post the child on the social media immediately it is coming out of the womb. Your book is for the readers. Marketing it beforehand gives your fans enough time to save money and create space in their mind to accommodate your book. Create a book cover. That’s the first step. Please don’t do it yourself. Get a professional graphic designer. Post it on your page and post-lunch date.

Start writing now. Fast

Then it is time to start typing. I believe you must have created a timeline. Now you are going to structure the book. Some people called it outlining. The purpose of the structure is to create a blueprint to follow. Some people’s writing style is to write as the inspiration flows than one day it seems the something has blocked the flow they said they were having a writer’s block or whatever. This is how not to have any writer’s block. See yourself budding a house. Do you start missing cement and sand begin to

Make sure to edit thoroughly

This is very important. When we started Harmony Publishing, authors always tell us that their books have been edited and we believed. But after printing, then we see errors, and we feel terrible for thinking the book on face value. Don’t feel too proud about your writing that there’s no mistake. Trust me: there’s always one frequent or where a full stop is missing or mix of US English and British English. It takes a professional editor to see those mistakes. We have noticed many authors are trying to save cost by either self-editing or using non-professional editors may be done by their friends or family member.

We in Harmony Publishing do cross-check even the author said the book had been edited. Below are questions to ask before you intrusted your book to any editor

Is he or she a professional editor? Ask for a degree. Good editors usually have a degree in English, literature, linguistics

How long have they been editing? Sometimes, years in the profession doesn’t mean competent. I know one or two editors I thought they were good editors until we run their edited work through another editor and find out our assumed good editors were using editing software, so we have to terminate our relationship. Excellent and great editors don’t use the software; they go through line by line and recommend some changes in your manuscript.

Publish your book

Many people drive cars and don’t know how it works. They are just interested in putting the key in the ignition and on their on the pad and the gear on a drive then that’s all. You need to under the process of publishing a book to appreciate the art. This is what we do in Harmony Publishing when you submit your paper for printing. We go through the manuscript and establish that it is indeed adequately edited. If it is not sufficiently edited, we will reply to you with the places that need to be attended to. The next step is the book cover design.

We designed samples and send you for approval then you can begin to market the book with that book cover while we enter the next phase, which is the interior design which is called formatting.

Sell

Remember, in the beginning, and we said you need to provide value. To sell your book well, we believe you must have taken thine to write a good book of value. Did you ask yourself ‘how I can get more book sales? Or “how can I create a book so valuable that tones of people will naturally want to buy it’ We discussed been strategic in your book writing. Don’t write any book with the belief that it is the best thing after sliced bread. Discover a market for a book then write the book to fill that need you see. See your book as a product that enters the market to fulfil the needs of customers and make them happy and of course, recommend to their friends. Let me assume you have done all these leg work of creating a valuable book then you want to reach more people. How do we get started? As usual, let’s brainstorm different strategies together;

You have a fantastic book cover. How do you know if it is incredible? Ask strangers on the social media platform to choose a cover. Don’t ask your friends and family; they are your worst enemy. Which of your friends or family member can boldly tell you that your book cover is terrible and stupid? No, they don’t want to offend you.

Post your book covers online

Post your book online

What did they say?

Your book must include a hot-selling description. You must spend the energy you use a book in writing the book description. Write your book description here. Read this post on write a better book description.

Write another book

In Nigeria, many enter the career of authorship half-minded. They write because others are writing or they meanly want their name on a book cover. So their job ends before it starts. I hope you are not interested in following this path? Writing a book is a business. It is calling. It is a responsibility to humanity. Why would you die with all the knowledge and experience you have gathered? Don’t you think it is selfish? On the business side, you can be lucky and write one book, become an international bestseller, retire and live still you die on the sales of that one beautiful book. You know it is impossible. Even international bestsellers again write more books after millions of previous titles. Why? The answer is that you make more money when you have books as an author. See how to write books faster

To be Continued… Go here to publish your ebook online now

Harmony Publishing plays a pivotal role in publishing in Nigeria, is a provider of self-publishing services aimed at helping authors realise their dreams while minimising the encumbrances associated with getting published. Getting published has never been more convenient and better professionally handled than you get at Harmony Publishing, as we offer high-quality writing, editorial and production services at affordable rates. Our publishing services cover professional editing, illustrations, graphic designs and generation, as well as and print production. Each service is delivered to give you more value for your money.

For more enquiries, kindly call 07032212481 or send mail to publish@harmonypublishing.com.ng. Visit our site to get started and click on get published to submit your manuscript and begin your publishing dream.