Is self digital publishing dead?

 One of the most well known platforms for digital publishing is Amazon's Kindle digital publishing - anyone can publish a book here -It simply means authors can sell their digital version works on Amazon.com. For the writers who already have a dedicated following, it would be a good idea to utilize the audience source to publish and sell books. In this case, self-publishing may present long-term challenges to book publishers, as they are now losing those potential and probably profitable works.

The problem with this is that it is often not the best writers who are the most successful here, but rather the best at handling marketing. I've lost count of the amount of times I've read a massive selling author, only to discover that the books are cliched, badly written and hardly engaging. Still these books seem to attract scores of reviews and sell like crazy. Go figure!

That's not to say there are not some great writers out there who have mastered selling through Kindle - there are many many of them. but the fact remains that it is getting increasingly difficult to get noticed in the crowded digital marketplace. There are some excellent books out there that have yet to achieve the sales they deserve.

Writers going down the digital publishing route need to beware.

• A lot of small presses will say “we want to publish your book” but actually make you pay for some of the services or split the costs.
• A lot of small presses have good intentions but actually know nothing about book design or book marketing, which means you’re giving them the lion’s share of profits but they can’t help you sell the book.
• Nobody is going to give up their own time and money to support your dreams, nor should they. (But there are “book coaches” who will take thousands of dollars and help along the path… they may be helpful for finishing a great book, but you really need to hire the best editor, best cover designer, etc rather than leave it up to one “expert”).

Though with the right approach self publishing can work -  you should do everything you can to do it well. Set a goal of 5,000 copies, and treat your writing and publishing like a business.

That means, stop asking for help and support. Stop desperate, largely useless marketing tactics like spamming Facebook or blasting Twitter. It would be nice if all your Facebook friends bought a copy of your book, but believe me they wont.

To sell 5,000 copies, you need to reach about 50,000 readers in your target genre or topic, get their attention with amazing content, and then convince them they need to read your book. You can do this with:

Reviews

Blurbs and testimonials

An amazing cover design

A great book description.

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