Having an idea for a book is easy, but writing a book to get that idea out into the world is daunting. Do you contact an agent or mail your submission to a traditional publishing company? Do you try to self-publish, and if so how does that work?
WestBow Press, a self-publishing division of Thomas Nelson, says the first step to getting your book published is to know your goals. They list 11 potential goals for you to consider for writing a book.
Determine Your Goals for Writing a Book
No author’s goal is to just publish a book: your goal is to change lives. The question is how do you want to go about that? Maybe you travel and speak regularly or have a church community you want to get your thoughts in front of. Or maybe you dream of your book breaking out of the thousands of self-published online books and becoming a bestseller. Maybe you have a thriving social media presence and need help leveraging it toward buying your book.
The truth is there are dozens of options worth considering about your book, including everything from “do I want color print” to “should I have a professional promotional video to promote it?”
There are no wrong answers here, just different paths toward fulfilling your specific needs. So step 1 is for you to identify what you want your book to be.