The 3 Best Ways to Publish a Book in 2023

Yes, you can publish your book in 2023! It’s easier than ever to make your manuscript available to the public in a polished format. In this episode of the Writing Momentum podcast, Chris and Gena discuss a few avenues available to publish your book – and why now is the time. (Plus, get your free goal-setting for authors ebook!)

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Links:

• Get your FREE Move the Needle goal-setting for authors ebook at https://www.writingmomentum.com
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episode 53 Transcription:

[00:00:13].810] - Chris
Hey, and welcome to Writing Momentum, the podcast where you can discover how to have writing momentum. That's great. I'm Christopher Maselli. I'm here with my wife, Gena. How's it going today, Gena?

[00:00:24].950] - Gena
It's going really well. We're at the end of our day, but we wanted to make sure we got down here so that we I say down here because we are in our office, but we're ready to record and share the three best ways to publish a book in 2023.

[00:00:39].450] - Chris
Three best ways to publish a book in 2023. Yeah, this is really good. This is probably one of the most common questions we get right is how do I publish my book? And the truth is, there are three ways that you might do it. But before we get to that, we just want to cover a few things. One, you need to make sure your book is written I think that goes without saying, fully written. You want to make sure it's edited right. It's all ready to go, that it reads well. Now, if you go with certain kinds of publishing, they may have editors that go over your manuscript for you. But in order to sell your book to a publisher, it still needs to be edited and read well. And then you may even want to format it if you're going to self publish and we're going to talk about those things. So if you're trying to get into that groove, having your book written, edited, and formatted, we highly recommend that you just set some goals for every six weeks is what we like to do. And to help you do that, we have a free ebook.

[00:01:36].470] - Chris
It's called "Move the Needle". And it's six weeks to your next major accomplishment. Just go WritingMomentum.com, and you can download that ebook. And what it does is it guides you through how to set smart goals as an author so that you can make sure that you're writing your material, you're editing your material, you're formatting it, you're getting it ready to go in a very condensed period of time. And it really works, doesn't it?

[00:02:02].140] - Gena
It does. And I think the thing is, when we talk about smart goals, a lot of people, when they think about smart goals, if they've been in the business world, they have thought of those in terms of business strategy and that kind of thing. We are applying that same technique and that same strategy to a writing writing your book, writing your having a writing business. Because we truly believe that if you are an author, then you are a business and you need to have a strategy for that. So that's what we're doing. We've taken something from the business world, and we hope that authors and writers, and I say authors, but writers as well. If you're a blogger, if you're someone who's wanting to get into building a successful freelance business in whatever way that you want to do your writing, we really encourage you to think about it as though you are a business. So this is what we hope would be a benefit to you.

[00:02:55].940] - Chris
Sometimes we use these goal periods to do business type goals, marketing and that sort of thing. But usually we start off setting goals for just getting that book done. So if you feel like you're having a hard time getting traction, download this free PDF. It's pretty short. It's really just a guide to help you say, okay, I'm going to get down my goals for this coming year. This is a great time to do it because at the beginning of the year, it's called "Move the Needle: Six Weeks to Your Next Major Accomplishment". And it's on WritingMomentum.com. So grab that. Now let's talk about the different kinds of publishing, Gena, and how we can get published in 2023. So what's the first kind?

[00:03:37].300] - Gena
The first kind is the one that a lot of people think of, and that's the traditional publishers, of the traditional large publishers, where you usually need an agent in order to even have anybody look at your manuscript. And so there's different kind of roadblocks or maybe ways that I say challenges, but it's also ways that for them, that they're kind of narrowing down to make sure that they get a product on their desk that is really strong. So you have to get an agent. So first enough, you have to get out of the agent slush pile to be considered to be represented. And usually the agents, when they accept your project, they will sometimes have something in mind of, I know there's this publisher that's looking for this kind of work, and so I think they might be interested in this. So that's where that goes. And then getting it to the right, the agent will get it to the right editor, the right house to hopefully get you the contract and the representation and everything that you need.

[00:04:42].760] - Chris
Yeah. So that's being published through a traditional publisher. You might want to go down that route if you want to have someone else pretty much do the whole publishing process for you except for write the book. A traditional publisher will help you do that. Now, the downside to it is that to get really noticed by a traditional publisher today, you already have to have an audience, right. A group of people who want to buy your book, very large group of people. They like social media numbers. They like you to be speaking a lot. And that keeps a lot of us, maybe from entering that field. But if you are one of us who does that, then it'll work. And it's also a good way to get published. If you have an in the industry, right, with someone, you've got connections. Or if you just attend a lot of writers conferences, a lot of times you can sit down right across from an agent or an editor and pick your book and get published traditionally.

[00:05:35].990] - Gena
And that is the best way to do it. If you can sit face to face with an agent or an editor and pitch your book, they can put a face to the name. They can put a personality to a project. And there are times I know, Chris, for you, and I think we've talked about this before, but you sat down across from the vice president of a well known publishing house, pitched your book, he took it back to his editor and said, we love this, and then came back to you and said what?

[00:06:10].050] - Chris
Said, hey, first of all, I said, we love this. We're going to fly you up to our place. You are going, you meet our marketing team, you're going to pitch your book there and let them see what it is. So we did all that. They ended up buying it. And then after they ended up buying the book, they came back to me and said, okay, it's great. Now we just want you to change who all the characters are in the book and a bit of the book's plot. Sometimes that's what we want you to.

[00:06:33].090] - Gena
Add a whole subplot into it because they were trying to make it work with an existing line. And that's what happens with traditional publishers as well. They may take your book exactly as is, but they may also say, we love it. And like, for Chris, they said, we love your main character. We love the way you write. Here's how we need you to change it and to make it work for us. And that was a whole rewrite for you. It was worth it. You ended up getting eight books out of that. But they're the boss at that point, so they make that determination.

[00:07:05].790] - Chris
That's what happens when you go with traditional publishers. Then, like we said, they take care of everything. Now, a balance between that and self publishing, which we're going to talk about in a minute, are what we call hybrid publishers, okay? A hybrid publishers is a second way to get published in 2023. And what a hybrid publisher does is they essentially, I like to say it like this, they will self publish your book for you. So they go through and they'll format the book, and they'll create the cover and they'll create the inside of the book and they'll put it out there to where it's available to the masses. Not in the same way a traditional publisher will, where it's on bookstore bookshelves, but in a way that if you then can go out and let people know about it, you can sell it. So it's a way to essentially pay someone else to self publish it for you. There's a lot of good hybrid publishers out there. And if you've got the means for that, the cash for it, and you want it on a silver platter, that is the way to do it. And there's nothing wrong with that.

[00:08:09].800] - Chris
We know a lot of people who do that. But that's called hybrid publishing. Now, the third kind, which is probably my favorite right now, because this is where it seems like the publishing industry going, is self publishing.

[00:08:21].960] - Gena
But we also like to call independent publishing. And this is when you, as the author, are in the driver's seat. You are not only writing the project, but it's like the difference between if you're building a house and you hire a general contractor and he or she knows all the people, they already have the electricians, the plumbers, the drywallers, the painters, everything that's the hybrid. But in the publishing world, if you are going to go independently, you are the general contractor. You are hiring the editors, and you want it edited more than once, probably. You want it edited, you want it proofed. If you're in fiction and we've talked about this, we probably need to have Renee Gutteridge on again to help us understand the different types of editors in the fiction world. But you hire different types of editors. You hire proofers. It is all on you to make sure that it is a pristine project by the time it goes out the door. You're also hiring your designers. You're hiring your formatters or doing it yourself. And we do know people who have done it themselves. They've learned the product or the software to do it.

[00:09:38].790] - Gena
But again, you also still have the control of it. And the benefit of that on the other side is if you can sell it, you also get a bigger cut of the profits. The profits are yours after you pay your overhead and everything, the rest of it's yours. Where with a traditional publisher, you're going to be splitting that.

[00:09:59].040] - Chris
You get about 15% of the sale as opposed to about 80% or off.

[00:10:03].730] - Gena
Of the yeah, off of the net sale.

[00:10:05].500] - Chris
So 15% from traditional as opposed to about 80% from the self publishing. Usually you get about 50 or 60% from hybrid publishers. Depends on there's a lot of different kinds of hybrid publishers. So if you're willing to learn how to publish your own book, if you're willing to get into the details, if you like all the computers and the electronics and all that stuff, and you want to get into the apps and really do a lot of that formatting and the editing and that sort of thing yourself or hire people to help you with it. And you're on a budget. Self publishing is very viable for you. Or independent publishing. You can publish narrow through Kindle direct publishing, which is what a lot of authors do. It's very easy. It's about a three page process where you fill in the blanks as you upload your file and then it's live. It's live within minutes after you upload it. And so it's really nice. Or if you want to publish wide, you can use a service like Direct Digital or Publish Drive to very popular options. Also, personally, I like the simplicity of publishing narrow through KDP because everything is in one place and that's where most books are sold anyway.

[00:11:10].280] - Chris
But whatever you choose, you have options. You have options in 2023, if you want to publish your book, don't let yourself give yourself an excuse for why you can't be published this year. You absolutely can. Whether you go through traditional publishing, maybe you go to a writer's conference, or if you've gotten in somewhere and you want to convince an editor or an agent that your book is worth publishing. And if they take you on, if you've got an audience, that may be the way to go. If you've got a bit of cash flow and you want to pay someone to do it for you, you can use hybrid publishers. Or if you want to do it yourself, you've got independent publishing. But all of them are viable options and all of them are ways you can get published this year, aren't they?

[00:11:49].960] - Gena
Absolutely. This is such a great time for writers in general. We have more options and we can pursue different things. We talk to people who are sold on traditional publishing. They think that traditional publishing is where it's at. They feel like they've got a safety net there. They feel like the traditional publishers have the distribution channels in place, which is very true. We've also talked to people who said, I've got a really good mailing list. Why do I need to share my profits with a traditional publisher when they're pretty much just going to sell to my people anyway?

[00:12:28].530] - Chris
They're going to make you market it anyway.

[00:12:30].100] - Gena
Exactly. And then we've also talked to other people who have said, I do need the safety net, but I still want the control, so I'm going to go hybrid. So I'm going to pay a place that already has editors and proofers and designers and formatters and they have all of that. Some of them even have distribution channels. Check that out. And they say, I don't necessarily want to go traditional, but I don't necessarily want to go independent either. So they look for hybrids. The field is wide open for whatever your need is. And so I say go for it.

[00:13:03].260] - Chris
Go for it. And so while you're planning, don't forget we have that really cool PDF writingmomentum.com called "Move the Needle". Go ahead and download that now. It's completely free. We created it because we want to help you get that book published. And we just love doing that. And you'll go ahead and get that and you can fill in the blanks and it really hopefully will help guide you along the way.

[00:13:25].080] - Gena
And it's a six week, but that's use it for six weeks, and then.

[00:13:28].160] - Chris
You reuse it, you do it again.

[00:13:31].250] - Gena
This is a process that Chris has been using for a few years now with one of his mastermind groups, where they each set goals for six weeks. So this is a proven strategy for moving that needle and getting things done.

[00:13:47].630] - Chris
Absolutely. All right. Thank you so much for joining us. If you've enjoyed this podcast today, will you please rate, review, subscribe to it so you never miss another one, and share it with another writer, let them know that we're out here, that we're helping, and let them know what this podcast means to you, because that's how we can help more writers get their message out there. And that's what this is all about. And I guess that's it. We look forward to the next two weeks are going to be really fun. Gena and I are each going to talk about how we write books, the tools and apps that we use to get our stuff done. What's really neat about it is that we go about our writing in almost completely different ways. We use different apps. We use different techniques. I definitely get a lot more into a lot of apps than Gena does. And yet we both get our writing done, don't we? It's interesting to see how different people do this kind of thing. So if you're interested in that, go ahead and subscribe today so you can hear those episodes.

[00:14:44].490] - Gena
And I will say again, it's not just for book writing. Chris and I do a lot of writing. We do ghost writing. We do marketing writing. We do blogging. We do a lot of different types of writing. So when we're talking about the apps that we use or the systems that we use, we're going to be sharing those with you. But don't think that, oh, I don't have a book. So that doesn't apply to me. Trust me. Most of my work that I do is not book work. Most of it is are smaller projects that I have to work through, some larger, but a lot of them are smaller. And so I'm going to share how I use or what I use and how I use it to get my work done.

[00:15:27].240] - Chris
And we'll even share some of the apps we use for marketing. So please go ahead and listen. We look forward to joining with you again next week. And just remember that we got to keep doing this together, because together what, Gena?

[00:15:40].020] - Gena
We have writing momentum.