Where do you look for inspiration?
Life! The world around me! Personal experience! When I embarked on this writing journey, I used my pen to express my feelings through poetry. At that time, I was 14 years old, so poetry and my love for stanzas made storytelling intriguing. However, as I got older, and life started happening — college life, motherhood, marriage bliss, divorce blues, finding myself, etc. — my inspiration went from pretty flowers to “Lord, help me!”
If this is your first book, and you want it to be successful, here are a few steps:
1. Learn the industry and what publishing method would be best for you.
2. Know the genre of your book and list at least three sub-genre categories it can fall under with your distributor.
3. Make sure your story is needed and necessary in today’s marketplace. What problem does your book solve? What entertainment values does your book offer?
4. Hire a professional editor and typesetter. The quality of your book is a reflection of you as an author. Do not create a bad image for yourself as an author by publishing a book with glaring typos and unaligned margins.
5. Make sure your cover is attractive and eye-catching.
6. Make sure your book is competitively priced with books in the same genre and around the same page count.
7. Select a release date that does not share the same date as a book that a celebrity or other high-profile individuals will release.
8. Begin marketing at least 3 to 6 months before the release day.
9. Most importantly, have fun!
