Ok, so you’ve read the title and you’re thinking, there’s no way I can do that! Let me tell you that it is entirely possible to write and publish a book for free. It’s going to take time and effort, but if you’re not afraid of commitment and seeing a project through to the end, then it’s totally doable.
This post was inspired by my Instagram Live chat with Laura Poole of The Rebel Business School where we discussed how I wrote and self-published my book. If you missed it, you can catch it here. It was great fun and a timely reminder that I should push myself out of my comfort zone more often. Something which I intend to do.
So if you’d like to know how to write and publish a book for free, then read on.
Write it
This may seem like an obvious point to start with, but you’d be amazed at how many people fall into the trap of trying to figure out how to publish their book before they’ve written it. My top tip is to write it first. The rest will come later.
I wrote Seasons of Change in 30 days. I didn’t intend to, but once I’d started writing, the words flowed (see my blog post here). Here are some tips on how to create a writing habit:
- Write daily: Set aside some time every day to write. Take the weekends off if you wish but apart from that make sure that you show up and write at least 5 times a week.
- Put it in your diary: Choose a time and place to write and stick to it. Put it in your diary if you have to. It’s easier to do something that’s already in your schedule than trying to find time for something that isn’t. I write for an hour a day from 7.00-8.00am as I find that it works best for me. If you’re already thinking that you don’t have time, go into your phone settings and look at your screen time. Then reallocate some of your time spent scrolling to writing (Confession time, mine’s already above 2 hours for the day!). If you’re one of those rare unicorns that hardly ever idles away their time, consider getting up earlier to write.
- Don’t censor yourself: At this stage just write. Don’t re-read your work or get caught up in editing, that will come later.
Edit your work
Once you have your first manuscript it’s time to re-read it. There are a few things you can do to make your manuscript ‘world ready’:
- Re-read it: Go through your work and make any tweaks and changes that feel right. Correct any errors that you spot, swap any repetitive words you notice and add any details that you’ve missed. If there’s bits you don’t like, remove them. I always made sure I saved my edited version under a different file name just in case I decided that I wanted to retrieve anything at a later date.
- Run it through Grammarly: I only installed Grammarly on my computer while working on Seasons of Change but I love it. It picked up on the punctuation and spelling errors that I’d missed when editing my work and for a free piece of software, I’m seriously impressed. If you’re serious about writing, I highly recommend adding Grammarly to your toolkit – you can download it here. (Psst, I’m not an affiliate or linked to them in any way, just an impressed customer).
- Find some preoofreaders: Now this bit made me nervous – sharing my book with others was a scary process. But I asked my friends if any of them would be kind enough to read it and give me honest feedback and I got a few volunteers. It’s worth giving a timescale that you’d like feedback within to help keep things moving forwards.
Writing a blurb
While your book is being proofread, there are a few things you can be getting on with. One of those is writing a blurb. Confession time, writing a blurb felt so much harder than writing the book as you basically have to summarise the essence of the book in a few short paragraphs. Your blurb should also make people want to buy it, so it needs to be catchy.
Even if you intend to publish your book as an eBook with no back cover, you still need a blurb as this will become your book description when you publish it. I used this brilliant article from Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur to help me write my blurb. I’m so pleased I discovered it, as without it my blurb would have literally been a summary of my book chapters.
Creating a cover
You can create your book cover for free on Canva. Here’s how to get started:
- Download your cover template from Kindle Direct Publishing here. For Seasons of Change I used the 5 x 8 template but your size may vary depending upon the type of book you are creating.
- Use the book cover dimensions planner to get the measurements you need to create your Canva template.
- Click ‘create a design’ in Canva and type in the width and height dimensions in inches. Then click create.
- You should now have a blank page. Click the button to create a duplicate page and upload your KDP template to Canva. Then copy and paste the template into the blank page. This will help you check that your book cover design stays within the specified boundaries.
- Now you’re ready to create your book cover. You can look through the ones already on Canva for inspiration but make sure not to copy them – your cover needs to be original. If you use any images from Canva, be sure to check the small print for copyright rules.
- Once you’ve completed your cover, download it and you’re ready to go.
Typesetting your book
Reedsy Book Editor is a great, free resource you can use to typeset your book. I wrote my book in Microsoft Word and then copied and pasted each chapter into Reedsy. If you wanted to, you could type it straight into Reedsy and it will automatically save it as you go along.
There are so many great things about the Reedsy Book Editor. You can grab the tabs for each chapter and rearrange them, the ‘front matter’ section helps you create a copyright page and you can download your typeset book file in both paperback and eBook format.
If you download a file and notice a mistake or want to change something, you can amend it and download it again. It’s so easy. The files are emailed to you within minutes and for a free service, it’s amazing!
Hit publish!
The final step is to publish your book. If you’re looking to publish it through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), then you’ll need to create an account. You can do that here.
Just fill in the details, upload your cover and pages and hit publish. The Amazon team can take up to 72 hours to review it, although I’ve had books go ‘live’ within hours.
And that’s it – you’re now a published author. Go celebrate!
Need more help?
If you’re a visual learner like me and would prefer a more in-depth guide to self-publishing, here’s the course I started out with. Publishing for Profits is packed with videos and step by step examples to show you how to create your books. Although it’s for low-content books (notebooks, planners etc.), it’s a goldmine of information and saved me hours of time trying to find the information online. For the price, it’s an absolute bargain too.
Alternatively, the Self-Publishing bundle includes the above course, as well as a course on publishing higher content books and a host of other goodies for just $10 more (price correct at the time of writing). So if you’re looking for more of an in-depth, step by step guide, I highly recommend you start with this… You could even put it on your Christmas list.
Take action
So now you know how to write and publish a book for free, it’s time to get started. Yes, it seems like a lot to take it at first, but by breaking it down into small steps and staying consistent, you’ll have your first book published in no time.
Have fun on your writing journey – I hope you love every minute of it.
And if you get stuck, drop me an email using my contact form and I’ll do my best to help.
Happy writing!
Psst…If you’d like to know more about Laura, go check out her blog, Love Your Damn Self.
Image courtesy of Hello I’m Nik
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