I have written two well-received books. 

For one of these, I even received an order bigger than most books sell in their lifetime, even before I wrote the book.

For this book, which was my second, I even started a publishing company because it was an unusual book. No standard publisher would have published the high-quality book I wanted to produce.

Before becoming an author, I was part of a team that saw the creation of books for Amazon’s first publishing imprint.

I know a thing or two about publishing a book.

I am sharing the critical components of publishing for anyone in the process of writing and publishing a book (either on their own or as a publisher).

Here are five constituents of publishing a book:

1/ Production: Turning your book manuscript into an enticing, readable product. This can be a digital or print book.

2/ Marketing: Making your prospective readers aware that your book exists (this ideally starts during writing, much before production).

3/ Sales: Get those who know your book exists to press the buy button

4/ Distribution: Ensuring the book is available where your audience can see it.

5/ Risk: This is discussed infrequently but is integral to the publishing process. Either you or your publisher takes the risk by investing their money and time in editing, designing, marketing, and distributing the book. You can reduce the risk by writing a good book and building an audience platform before writing the book.

You need all these to work in your favor for publishing good work.

You alone may not take care of these as an author so ensure you have a kick-ass team or an experienced advisor to guide you with these if you want your book to work and make an impact.