Self-Publish Your Book This Year

Want to self-publish a book? Start the new year with some writing goals! These goals should keep you focused, on track, and excited about your book. Make 2019 the year you publish a book. It’s about time.

It’s the first month of 2019, which means you may be feeling inclined to set not only life goals and resolutions for 2019, but writing goals as well. If you’re interested in self-publishing a book, we recommend setting writing goals to help you achieve your dream. Writing goals are a great way to keep track of your progress and hold you accountable. Writing a book takes time and dedication, and choosing to self-publish means you need to be your own editor and motivator.

The following are some writing goals we believe will help you achieve your dream of self-publishing a book in 2019. What better time to start than now?

The most important reason to have realistic goals is so that you do not burn yourself out. Writing is an incredibly rewarding profession – both creatively and emotionally – but it can also be draining. There are, at minimum, fifty thousand words in a novel. That’s a lot of work!

This is why we recommend small writing goals to build up your tolerance. What starts as a few hundred words a day may grow into a few thousand. Or, it may not. Some days you’ll be more productive than others; some days you may not get any words on the page at all. It’s important to not let your writing be defined by these days. In any profession, there are going to be bad days. Writing is not exempt from this.

Our suggestion? Find what works best for you and your schedule, whether this is a thousand words a day or a hundred. Each writer is going to be different. Some have day jobs and so must write at night or early morning. Some have families to take care of, which can cut into creative time considerably. Others may be in school or may travel a lot for work. Each writer’s life will impose some kind of limit to their creativity and goals. Curate your writing goals to match your lifestyle.

Read this blog to learn more about setting realistic deadlines. Read this blog to learn more about word counts.

Think of creativity as muscle: in order for it to grow, it needs to be worked and pushed. You don’t grow from doing the same thing over and over again. You grow from adding a little more weight each time. In order to strengthen your writing skills, you need to explore and push yourself. One way to do this is to set the writing goal of trying a new genre in 2019. If you normally write romance, why not try fantasy? If you’ve never strayed far from fiction, try nonfiction!

Trying a new genre in 2019 doesn’t mean that you must give up your original genre choice. If you try something new, and find it doesn’t work as well or you don’t enjoy it as much, you can stop. Pushing your limits as a writer is important, because you may find you’re good at something you never imagined you’d be. Switching it up and writing poetry when you normally write fiction can prove to be the right move. Branching out and writing a horror novel may be your best career move. You never know until you try it, and if it doesn’t work out, then nothing is truly lost.

Read this blog to learn more about exploring other genres.

Another important way to make your writing better? Read more! Reading can make your writing better in so many ways. This is why we recommend following a reading list or challenge.

Whether you select classic novels or newly self-published books, having a reading list will keep you on track.

Reading lists or reading challenges will:

Each self-publishing company will have a different approach to the book printing process. Here are DiggyPOD, we try to make it as easy as possible for you, the author and publisher, to learn how to self-publish a book. Just because you’re self-publishing doesn’t mean you need to go it alone.

The first step of the DiggyPOD process (after, of course, finishing your book) is to convert your files to print-ready PDFs and send it off to our prepress department. Here, your book will go through an extensive quality check to ensure it’s print-perfect.This step takes about 45-60 minutes, and from there, if there are no errors, staff will upload a proof of your book. This is where you’ll have the final say. If all looks well, then the process continues, and you’re one step closer to holding your book in your hands.

After you approve the proof of your book, it heads off to the printing, binding, trimming, and packaging department. Then, your order ships out!

Throughout the entire book production process, you receive email updates on the progress of your order. You’re always in the loop. If you ever have any questions about your order, call (877) 944-7844 to speak with a live person here in our office who is happy to help.

The printing happens because of DiggyPOD, but everything else is because of you, the author and publisher. From idea conception to writing the book to editing it, you will work hard to achieve this dream, and your 2019 writing goals will help you get there.