When it comes to learning something new, the overabundance of information available to us in the digital age can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, we have the world of information literally at our fingertips. But on the other hand, with so much information available, it can be difficult to sort through what’s right and what’s wrong, and stitch together the often-disparate perspectives on a given topic into a comprehensible approach.
This is especially true when it comes to self-publishing. You can essentially learn every aspect of the publishing process online, but you’ll probably have to sift through hundreds of articles and videos along the way.
That’s why online publishing courses can be so useful.
Publishing your book might sound simple at first, but there are many tiny details that are important to get right if you want to ensure the most professional product and properly set yourself up for the greatest chance of success.
So here are 7 reasons to consider taking an online publishing course:
7 Reasons to Take an Online Publishing Course
1. You’ll get all the info you need in one place
At some point, I’m sure you’ve had the experience of spending seemingly-endless hours researching a particular topic, bouncing between how-to videos on Youtube and “Ultimate Guides” posts that Google delivers, only to find you’re confused, overwhelmed or still missing the answers to a crucial question or step in the process. It leaves you feeling frustrated, burnt out, and many people just give up. In our opinion, this is often one of the best reasons to invest in an online course. When it comes to self-publishing your book, we highly advise finding a course that covers all the necessary steps with the least amount of frustration and the highest possible success rate.
2. The course should be step by step
Most online courses are organized chronologically by the order of operations. This makes it easy for the learner to follow along and actually implement the steps as they learn them. We highly recommend looking for a course that takes you along every step of the way, and acknowledges that no tiny step is too small to be overlooked. What happens when you’re setting up your account and you aren’t sure if you should check a certain box? The course should cover every detail, including something that might seem obvious. When we create courses, we try our best to step back into the amateur’s shoes and remember that everything, when seen for the first time, can be confusing.
3. You’ll learn how to set up your accounts properly
When you become a self-published author, you become an entrepreneur. In fact, the term for this is “authorpreneur.” What this means is you need to think of your publishing company like a business, even if it’s just you behind the scenes. Some authors choose to operate in a sole proprietorship, and others create a business name or a DBA (doing business as) name to operate under an entity other than themselves. There’s no right or wrong way to do it, but it’s important that you set up your accounts with the correct information. Some platforms, like Bowker Identifier Services, where many authors purchase and register the ISBN (or barcode number) for their book, don’t let you change the name of your company later, and when you publish your title on Amazon, it must match exactly.
Keep in mind that ebook-only authors do not need to purchase an ISBN, which can simplify the process, but understanding when you do and don’t need an ISBN can help you make the best choice for your book. A good self-publishing course should explain these intricacies in detail.
4. You’ll earn the highest profit per sale possible
When setting up your title on your own, Amazon’s backend can be confusing (did you know you need to login to a separate distribution platform called KDP?). The set up process isn’t exactly straight forward, and there isn’t a lot of detail explaining things like pricing and royalties, so it’s easy for authors to accidentally set their books up for failure by not charging a proper retail price and/or not setting up the royalty structure in their favor. Any course focused specifically on Amazon Kindle publishing, or Amazon self-publishing in general, should discuss this in detail.
5. You can revisit the material easily again
Some courses, like ours, offer lifetime access, which means that if you want to publish again in the future and you want to revisit the step-by-step guide, you can easily access the course. We’ve also promised all of our course enrollees that their lifetime access will include any updates we make to the course, so you can ensure the information will be accurate whenever you decide to take it.
6. You (might) have access to our instructor
We can’t promise that all publishing courses will offer direct access to your instructor, but it can be a huge perk of taking a course to help you self-publish. If you’re in the middle of your title set up, for example, and you have a question preventing you from moving on, you can reach out to your instructor via our community group and easily get feedback. You can’t do that with Youtube or Google!
7. They’re affordable
While it’s hard to beat the price of free, and we’re not denying that most of the information you need to learn is on the web for free in some capacity or another, the time it will take you to piece it all together will likely cost you more than paying for an online publishing course that you can easily access on demand. Time is money, and now that you’re thinking like an authorpreneur, it’s important to consider how much your time is worth to you. Only you can decide, but we know most self-published authors also have other exciting things going on on, and it’s probably more fruitful to focus your efforts on the things that bring you joy and money, and invest in yourself and your business to save time on the rest.
Now that we’ve convinced you of the importance of taking an online course for your publishing adventure, it’s time to do your research! Which course is the best for your book? This article explains what to look for in an online course.
If you’re not yet sure you want to self-publish, take the first module of our self-publishing course for free here.
