How Do I Self-Publish a Book and Build My Brand?

Are you asking Google how you can self-publish a book to build your brand and make your audience fall in love with your message? Are you expecting this to be the magic answer you’ve been searching for to create a huge following of loyal customers and super-fans? You’re asking the wrong first question.

It’s not a wrong question entirely. It’s just not the first question to ask.

Of course you want to attract more customers and position yourself as an expert. And of course a book is a great way to do that. It’s low cost to the reader and is incredibly shareable in its format. But going straight to asking ‘how do I publish a book?’ is not the place to start.

It’s a great question for a later part of the process. I can recommend a company that will publish your book for you, help you publicise it, design your cover – all the whistles and bells. Or you can do it yourself through a platform like Amazon. Different options suit different writers. But don’t START with the ‘how do I publish’ question.

Position yourself as the expert

Your customers expect the book you write to engage their attention, to be relevant to their needs and to give them the means to start solving their problem. When you show them you can give them that, then they will believe in you.

This means putting your ego to one side. It means not making yourself the hero of the book you write. It means making your reader the hero instead. It means placing the focus on the kind of person you really want to help… your ideal client… and then going ahead and helping them.

When you actually help your ideal client in this way, that’s how you can end up achieving your own goals. Whether that’s positioning yourself as the expert, attracting more customers, growing your following or getting your message to resonate with people so they need to share it, you only get what YOU want by pleasing the people reading your book. You won’t achieve those goals by shouting about yourself and dazzling people into working with you. You can achieve them by being genuinely useful.

Thinking of writing and self-publishing a book to help, lead or coach others? I’m a writer. My coaching will help you write a book that’s good enough to make people believe in you, work with you, and spread your message on your behalf.