SELF-PUBLISH A
B O O K
How to
by Guy Kawasaki

I N T R O D U C T I O N
In the old days, the only way for writers to publish a book was
through a publisher. This meant finding an agent, pitching
editors, and hoping that one of them likes it. Then writers would
lose control of their books because the editor and publisher
would oversee content, interior design, cover design, sales, and
marketing.
Those days are gone because of the rise of self-publishing.
Now writers can publish their own books and
control their own destiny.

F O R T H E R I G H T
R E A S O N S
Write

4 G O O D R E A S O N S T O W R I T E
(a) You have accumulated knowledge
that merits sharing;
(b) You want to further an idea that
benefits mankind;
(c) You want to entertain, amuse, or
inspire people;
(d) You want conquer the intellectual
challenge of writing a book.

T H E R I G H T
T O O L S
Use

T H E S E A R E T H E T O O L S I U S E
(a) Microsoft Word (writing)
(b) Adobe InDesign (layout)
(c) Evernote (collecting anything)
(d) Dropbox (backing up)

The single biggest mistake authors
make is waiting until their book is
done to start working on social media.

M A R K E T I N G P L A T F O R M
S O C I A L M E D I A
Build a
Start immediately!

K I N D L E P L A T F O R M
A M A Z O N ' S
Start with

O N
D E M A N D
UsePrint

Paying more for print on demand sure
beats eating 900 copies when your
sales don’t meet your expectations.

T H E
C R O W D
Tap

T A P T H E C R O W D
The crowd is a beautiful thing. It has helped me
complete my outlines, provided me with stories to
illustrate my concepts, content edited, copyedited,
reviewed for Amazon, and evangelized my books. If I
had to put a number to it, I’d guesstimate that feedback
from the crowd makes my books 50 percent better.

Your goal should be to produce
a book that is better than a
New York publisher’s.

P R O F E S S I O N A L S
Hire

H I R E A P R O
There are three ways that a book can scream,
“self-published by an amateur:”
Your goal should be to produce a book that is
better than a New York publisher’s—think
“artisanal publishing.”
(a) Lousy interior design
(b) Crude fonts
(c) Poor copyediting

P O S T A G E S T A M P
Think

T H I N K P O S T A G E S T A M P
There is a fourth way that a book can scream “self-published,”
and that’s a lousy cover. Canva, the company that I work for,
offers a series of free templates to help you design a
professional looking cover. You can also hire a professional for
$1,000 to design your cover, but I encourage you to at least
try making your cover from one of our templates. The most
important thing about your cover is that it looks great when
it’s the size of a postage stamp because that’s the format that
people will see most of the time.

Y O U R
e B O O K
Test

You cannot quit your way to success.

But you’ll never know unless you try, and you
never give up.
My last piece of advice is don't give up.
It may take years to be a successful author.
You cannot quit your way to success..

Good luck on your self-
publishing journey!

D E S I G N E D i n
Create your own presentation at Canva.com