Tips to reach your readers.
Writer and a story-teller.
Don’t write if you just have to write something, always write if you have something to write. People these days often get confused between a writer and a storyteller. A writer may be a person with adequate knowledge of English language, grammar and vocabulary, but an author, the person who writes fiction, must be a person who has or develops a habit of imagination, regardless of how good your English is. Everyone has a story, and that maybe special and unique, but before penning it down one should always question ourselves some straightforward questions. Why would someone read my story? What's so special in it that it will interest readers?
Kindle
Most of the published authors already know this but just for the budding ones, Kindle is a small electronic device for e-book reading, developed and distributed by Amazon, an American multinational technology company that focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming etc. Kindle books are available on Amazon website and one can also read e-books in PDFs format. These days Kindle books are trending as one can carry thousands of books in a pocket.
Why Kindle?
There was a time when the literary world was known for its trust and values, but soon a day will come when those times will only be in the stories. No doubt, many traditional publishers, even till today, work with the same morals and honesty, but there are also some publishers whose only goal to publish is profit, pure business, and in that process, innocent authors get cheated. In return for a vexatious publishing fee, the author doesn’t even get promised royalty, name, or even book sales figures. In addition, after a few months of the book release, he’s forced to buy his own books, just because the publishers fails to market as promised, before signing the contract. To any author, a book is like a child, and that’s the reason why authors don’t report these frauds because whatever the result is, his/her book is only the thing that gets affected, and no author wants that.
Kindle on the other hand, is the only platform where the author gets full rights of his/her book. One can track book sales, reaches, and even pages read on Kindle, and in addition to that, Amazon offers royalty up to 70% of MRP, a thing that traditional publishing can never offer.
How to be a bestseller:
1. Research
This is the most important thing to do before we start to write. Search for other Kindle books on the same topic and Google about the subject. Even though you have a story that you think is out of the league, but there might be a thousand other books already written in the same theme. Try not to duplicate because critics will get you someday or other.
2. Write something out of the league
As we discussed above, don’t just write something too common but only write if you have some extraordinary. It may be a fiction, biography, autobiography, or even topics related to motivation, and social issues. A good book will always be a good book, regardless of its sales or publicity.
3. Editing and feedback
One of the most important things an author must do is editing. Regardless of how great your writing style is, nothing is perfect. No matter who you are, out of thousands of words you write, there will always be some spelling and grammar mistakes which could be rectified in two-three phase of serious editing by professionals. Believe me, readers will definitely point out half a dozen mistakes in two fifty-odd pages so editing is one of the most important things every author must do.
After the editing process, proofreading by atleast five different readers is equally important. Their views, like what part of book is boring, what’s important, what needs to be elaborated, is a necessary aspect.
4. Marketing
It's always great if you already wrote a book, but wait, it's only half of what needs to be done. Writing a book and becoming a best-seller is the same as graduating and getting a good job. Yes, your book is complete and it's also great, but who will read it and how will they know about it?
Here is when marketing strategy pops. You must market your book to make it a best seller, but before that, you need to make strategies. Publishing in kindle is free, but marketing isn’t. For starters, you can use your social presence for initial sales. Promotion on Insta, Facebook and Watsapp is too common but it’s equally important but the most important promotional strategy is getting reviews on Amazon. The more the reviews, the more is the visibility so after getting published, try to get as many reviews as you can. Knock every door, poke every friend for the same but don’t try to get biased reviews. Honest reviews are something that will take your book to new heights. Connecting with bloggers and professional reviewers is also a way to get visibility because bloggers already have lots of subscribers, readers. You can search for them on Facebook.
Write Write Write
Every great author once started with the first word. The destination doesn’t matter, the way does and where there’s a will, there’s a way. It’s not important of how you write but it’s important of what you write. Keep imagining, keep writing. Stay focused, let the ink bleed and there will be a day my friend when the time will do wonders.