Lean Publishing Tip of the Day: Enjoy Yourself!

Writing and self-publishing a book is a very rewarding form of very hard work, typically carried out over a long timeline.

So maybe it makes sense that when an author is finally finished writing their book, and they finally hit the publish button, they think their work is done.

But that is absolutely not the case!

When you publish your book, you need to put all the time you previously devoted to writing it, into promoting it.

Now, that sounds tough, and it is. But if you’ve written a book, you can definitely do this.

One of the biggest mistakes authors make at this point is thinking that they need to do a bunch of unpleasant stuff they’ll hate doing and be embarrassed by - specifically, marketing and self-promotion.

(If those two things come naturally to you and you actually enjoy them, you can probably skip the rest of this article and start marketing your Leanpub book now!)

Now, you absolutely do have to do marketing and self-promotion, but the important thing is to make sure you do things you enjoy.

People will know if you don’t like what you’re doing, and it will absolutely affect your success in promoting your book.

So, first, make a list of things you like to do that can count as book marketing.

Do you like posting on social media about interesting topics? Get on social media and post about things you cover in your book.

Do you like talking to people? Apply to speak at a meetup, or a conference, or ask to be a guest on a relevant podcast.

Maybe you like meeting interesting people? Introduce yourself with an email to someone whose work you admire, making sure to explain why you’re reaching out, and give them a coupon link for a free copy of your book.

And don’t forget to get out of your comfort zone from time to time - you can’t really know whether or not you’ll enjoy something until you try it!