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How to become a successful Author in Nigeria
For most aspiring authors, one of the biggest reasons to become
an author is the deep seated sense of fulfillment that comes
with having pages of your books read by thousands or even
millions of people around the world.
Getting your work published in Nigeria needs careful thought and
research. Traditional publishing, independent publishers, and
digital platforms all have different chances for authors.
Exploring each one helps you find what works best for your
writing and improves your chances of getting published.
It’s one of the most powerfully gratifying feelings every
potential author wishes to have.
Knowing the transformational influence your book can have in the
lives of people around the world and how this will impact your
own life is one of the biggest motivational boosters that can
set any writer on fire to start their next publishing project.
But sometimes, finding your way through the whole publishing
journey can get any aspiring author feeling all worked up and
discouraged.
To become an author, the first thing you need to do is to decide
why you want to write a book.
Find out, why exactly do you want to publish that book you have
in mind?
Is it because you want to make money selling books or you want
to leave a legacy. Or is it just about becoming published?
Whatever it is, your goal for writing a book is very important.
And you need to figure this out in time.
Because it’s going to influence the book you want to write
about, the genre or even the niche you want to write on.
Your inability to sort out ”why you want to write” in time,
might affect the success of your book and in turn, your ability
to make widespread impact as an author.
Pick out your Story: After sorting out your goal, the next thing
you need to do to become a published author is to figure out
your story.
Here’s where you have to answer the question, what do I have to
share?
You see, a lot of people have stories to share. As an aspiring
author, at some point you may believe that this story you plan
to share with the world is actually your own one million dollar
story that will definitely become a best seller. But truth is,
not all stories are worth sharing.
So, to get the right stories out, you need to identify the idea
you want to write about in your book.
Whether you’re writing fiction or non fiction, to become a
published author, you must identify your audience and the story
that matters to them.
And since you’ve already identified your goal in the first step
above, what you need to do at this point is to align your story
with your goal.
If your goal is to make money selling your book, then your book
and ideas will revolve around your target audience and what they
want to buy.
This is where you’ll have to identity your target audience,
figure out the niche and the kind of books they patronize. And
then work on making your book idea to fall along these lines.
If you’re writing a legacy book on the other hand like a memoir,
bio, etc. You may not need to go through the rigorous process of
finding an audience.
Reason is because the goal is not to make money but to share
your story and ideas with the world.
So, instead of focusing on what the audience wants, you will
rather focus on understanding your audience and writing in a way
they can understand and relate to your story.
Do a Market Research: As soon as you figure out your story, you
need to find out if there’s a market for that story.
This is exclusively for people intending to make money selling
their books as published authors. To become an author and a
successful one at that, you have to be able to sell your books.
So, to ensure that this is possible you have to find out if
there’s a market for the book idea before you even get to write
it.
I have seen a lot of authors who’ve gone ahead to write books
without doing any market survey yet they expect to make huge
sales. This is very wrong. And it often times led to very poor
or zero sales. Because, selling a book is not a matter of guess
work. It’s something you do intentionally, from the get go.
If you want to become an author that sells or a best selling
author then you need to write a book that will sell.
PS: Market research extends beyond finding out if there are
going to be buyers for your book. It also involves finding out
the right title, sub title, book cover etc. So, even as someone
who’s not intending to write for money, you can still do some
market survey to get these things right.
Brush up your Writing Skills: One of the most powerful ways to
become an author is to write. And to write, you need to have
writing skills.
So the question is, do you have the skills to write a book?
Usually, it’s not compulsory that you should be the one writing
your book.
If your book is within a niche you’re not familiar with, you may
want to do some brushing up to familiarize yourself with the use
of phrases, words and tenses in the niche. If you have zero
writing skills, you might need to learn how to write or hire a
professional to write your book for you, based on your idea.
Although there are some niches where it will be more suitable
for you as the original author to write the book yourself.
Where you find yourself in such a situation, you might want to
learn the basics of writing and then write out the book in your
own way while giving it out to experts to edit it for you.
Just as much as it’s heart warming to publish a book, writing a
book can be very tasking.
To make things easier, some authors start with writing out their
book title first.
Although you may not sometimes end up using the title exactly as
you wrote it down at this point but writing it down here will
serve as a guide throughout the book creation process.
There are a handful of authors that only create their book title
after they would have written out the whole book.
This is mostly observable with fiction books. And it works
fairly well in that niche.
However, for non fiction authors, getting it done this way might
be quite tasking especially when it comes to breaking down your
idea into chapters.
So, as a non fiction author, you’ll be better off, starting out
with sorting your title. Although in any case, I always
encourage authors to use any approach that boosts their
creativity.
Now, after writing your title, begin to chunk down your idea
into chapters. To make it easy to develop a central chapter
theme that will still link back to the general theme of your
book.
Doesn’t matter if you didn’t start out writing down your idea.
Getting out your chapter headings will make it easy for your
brain to identify what to write about as you get to each stage
of the writing process.
After writing your book, the next step on the journey to
becoming an author is to publish your book. So, here’s the time
to decide the platform you want to publish with. Before we
proceed, understand there are two popular publishing options
available for all authors.
This includes using a traditional publisher and a publishing
agent or making your book available via self publishing. At this
point, you need to decide which of these available options
you’ll want to use. As a matter of fact, for someone on a
budget, the self publishing option might be your way to go. And
with that, you may have to choose whether to self-publish on
with an offline traditional publisher or to publish online on a
self-publishing platform like Amazon.
If you’re planning to publish with top notched traditional
publishers, bear in mind that you’ll need to have some notoriety
to your name before you can get published with some leading
firms. Also, you may need to submit your book ideas to them for
review before getting started and the ideas will have to be
approved by them before you begin writing your book. If you’re
planning to self publish your book online, you can read this
guide.
Promote your Book; Becoming an author does not start and end
with writing and publishing a book. After writing and publishing
your book, to make a decent success, you also have to promote
the book effectively. Even If you’re published by traditional
publishers who are doing the promotion on your behalf, as an
author, you still have a role to play in order to drive massive
sales and get your books out there to buyers.
To start with, you need to create a brand for yourself as an
author. Based on your brand, create social media pages where you
can interact with your audience and potential buyers.
Beyond social media, you can also get to partner with other
authors in a way that will promote your book. Create promotional
sales and other activities to boost visibility for the book.
This is the first question to ask. The answer depends on what
you are willing to pay to get the best. Everything depends on
quality. How much are you willing to pay to get the best cover
design? How much are you willing to pay a good editor? What is
your quality or thickness of the paper?Do know the cost of isbn
in Nigeria? What colorful do you what the cover to be? Are you
going to launch the book? And many more question.
The cost of publishing 200 page with us usually around N1M to
N2M and sometimes to N3m. It all depends on what the client
wants.
What is the title of your book ? How do know to how come with
book title that will sell? Read this post
What are the subtitles ?
Who do you want your book to look like? Which book is your
favourite on your shelf or a book you have read or seem and love
it? Write it down
What is your book size? Standard book size is A5. Most of the
book is this size. School Textbook is on A4 scale. The size of
your normal office sheet paper.
What is your word count? How many words do they think your book
be? Or how many pages do you have in mind? Many papers in
Nigeria are under 200 page. Standard books should be at least
100 page
What paper quality do you want your book to be? We have white,
cream, glossy and malt papers.
White and cream bond papers are used in the production of
typical books like novels, motivational, Christian and business
books. While gloss and malt papers are used for magazines,
brochures, birthday and burial information booklet.
How many copies do you want to do in the first publications?
Mostly, 1000 copies are recommended because the cost per copy is
reduced while anything less makes per copy price more expensive.
It is advised to do 1000 copies and make a significant effort to
sell them.
How much do you want your book to be? This is very important
unless you are doing charity or distributing books for your
birthday.
Marketing
Some people wait until their book is published before they begin
to market it and tell people about it. It is a mistake. You have
a platform then why do you want to hide your book from the
people who will mostly buy it from it. Don’t be do like the
legally married Nigerian couple that hides their pregnancy like
a top-secret but post the child on the social media immediately
it is coming out of the womb. Your book is for the readers.
Marketing it beforehand gives your fans enough time to save
money and create space in their mind to accommodate your book.
Create a book cover. That’s the first step. Please don’t do it
yourself. Get a professional graphic designer. Post it on your
page and post-lunch date.
Then it is time to start typing. I believe you must have created
a timeline. Now you are going to structure the book. Some people
called it outlining. The purpose of the structure is to create a
blueprint to follow. Some people’s writing style is to write as
the inspiration flows than one day it seems the something has
blocked the flow they said they were having a writer’s block or
whatever. This is how not to have any writer’s block. See
yourself budding a house. Do you start missing cement and sand
begin to
Make sure to edit thoroughly: This is very important. When we
started Harmony Publishing, authors always tell us that their
books have been edited and we believed. But after printing, then
we see errors, and we feel terrible for thinking the book on
face value. Don’t feel too proud about your writing that there’s
no mistake. Trust me: there’s always one frequent or where a
full stop is missing or mix of US English and British English.
It takes a professional editor to see those mistakes. We have
noticed many authors are trying to save cost by either
self-editing or using non-professional editors may be done by
their friends or family member.
Rejections can actually teach you valuable lessons and help you
grow as a writer. So, the next time you receive a rejection, see
it as an opportunity to learn and improve. Remember, the
publishing industry is subjective; another editor might accept
what one rejects. Maintain positivity, have faith in your work,
and let rejections fuel your pursuit of publishing in Nigeria.
Remember, every successful author out there has faced rejection,
but their persistence and determination made all the difference.
Learn from the feedback you receive, keep refining your writing,
and never stop submitting your work.
Eventually, when the right opportunity presents itself, you’ll
see your hard work pay off with a published piece in Nigeria.
Write another book
Take the first step by polishing your writing skills and honing
your craft. Attend writing workshops, join writing communities,
and seek feedback from experienced writers. Find your unique
voice and stay dedicated to improving your work.
Get our Practical Guide on How to Become an Author in Nigeria.
You will get the
proven strategies, lessons and steps you can take to become and
author and get your books read by audiences around the world. We
also offer high-quality writing, editorial and production
services at affordable rates. Our publishing services cover
professional editing, illustrations, graphic designs and
generation, as well as and print production. Each service is
delivered to give you more value for your money.
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