Self-Publishing in Retirement
Finding a hobby and a purpose in retirement is crucial. It gives you something to do with your time, but it’s more than just that. When you were in the workforce, it was easy to know what you were supposed to do. You had goals, you had targets, and you had work that needed to get done on a timeline. When you retire, a lot of that goes away. It can leave some people feeling lost.
At the same time, you’re aging. This is the point in your life where you may start wanting to leave a legacy behind. Sometimes, that means making sure future generations can learn your life history, your stories, and your philosophies. In other cases, you may have knowledge to impart. This might mean detailing what you know about local history or sharing what you’ve learned in your career or from your hobbies. For other people, this time in life can be incredibly creative. If you’ve had fictional stories you’ve been turning over in your mind for years, now you have time to tell them. If you’ve always wanted to tell fantastic tales, this could be your chance.
No matter your situation or what you want to tell the world, writing and self-publishing can be excellent retirement hobbies. You may even be able to earn some income from the books you create. However, if you want to do that, you’ll need to do it right.
Getting Started
Writing your own book can seem incredibly overwhelming. However, it’s easier and more accessible today than it has ever been. Even just a decade or so ago, you had to have an agent and a publisher and a large budget to get a book published. Today, you can do much of it on your own.
However, first you need to write the book. It may sound less interesting than jumping right into the story, but a good way to get started is by organizing everything. A little bit of planning at the beginning makes the entire process easier. If you get everything structured at the start, you’ll always have a guide to turn to and you’ll be less likely to write without a purpose or find yourself wondering what to say next.
Think of your audience when writing, as well. Who are you directing your book towards? The way you write and how you structure your book will be different depending on who the target market is, so it’s good to identify this at the outset, since it will affect every other step in the creative process.
All About Kindle Direct Publishing
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is Amazon’s self-publishing platform. The technology is available for free and lets you create and publish paperback and hardcover books along with e-books.
Amazon is a huge bookseller, especially when it comes to e-books, so it makes sense to start with an Amazon platform that’s designed to make it easy to sell on their site.
The process is designed to be user friendly and accessible, so you likely won’t have much of a problem with it. You’ll be able to upload the text of your book, title the book, add a book cover, and even include the categories and keywords you’d like to use to help your book get noticed. The platform also lets you set a price for your book. Once you’ve published it, it will be available for purchase.
One thing you’ll need to remember when self-publishing your book is that, without an editor or a publisher, quality control falls to you. There will be no one to tell you that you wrote “there” instead of “they’re” for instance, or that the formatting makes the text difficult to read.
This might make you feel a little anxious at first, but it’s a problem that can be resolved with a little extra attention to detail. If you’d like, you can also get a friend or family member to read over your book before its published. There’s also the option of hiring an editor, proofreader, or graphic designer to help you with the cover. This will cost you money, but it can also help your book feel more professional and complete.
Getting a second set of eyes on your work is always helpful. However, if they offer suggestions or revisions, know that you don’t necessarily have to take them. This is your work and it’s perfectly fine if you want to publish it exactly the way you’d like.
If you’ve decided that you want to sell physical books (either hardcover or paperback), one major advantage to using Kindle Direct Publishing is that it’s a print on demand service. That means books are only produced when they’re ordered. This saves you from having to estimate how many books you’ll sell and ordering a stack of physical books from the printer.
When selling physical copies of your book, you can even determine the size of the book and the book’s margins. This means the space that goes around your text. There are standard size options available in KDP, but it will be up to you to decide which size and format works best for your writing and the subject you’ve chosen.
There are also options to publish in color (which can be helpful if you’re including images in your book) and you can even pick the type of paper you’d like to use.
There are fixed costs involved with printing and royalties, but you don’t have to pay any costs upfront. These costs are deduction when a book is sold.
Amazon Marketing
Once you’ve written your book and got it published, you’ll want to start marketing. One of the potential downsides of the fact that it’s easier than ever to publish a book, is that there’s more competition on Amazon than there was in the past. Don’t let that discourage you, however. There are a lot of ways to promote your book, both on Amazon and in other locations.
One of the best ways to market on Amazon is to use Author Central. This allows you to create an author page where you list information about yourself, your experiences, your knowledge, and much more. You can include links to your website, blog, social media, or other relevant sites. You can also write author updates to keep people engaged with what you’re doing and interact with readers by answering questions or responding to reviews. People like to know about the authors they read. Author Central also organizes all the books you’ve written in one place and Amazon members can follow authors they like.
Another way to promote your book through Amazon is to take advantage of promotions, limited time offers, and preorders. People love deals and exclusive offers, so why not take advantage of these options?
Amazon also runs an advertising program for KDP books. You can purchase ads that will appear on the Amazon store, and they’ll show up while users are browsing for books, often alongside related titles.
Off of Amazon, some of the best ways to advertise are through social media. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms help you build an audience, connect with others, and promote your book. You can even hold contests or offer sample chapters for free to get people excited about what you’ve written.
The process may sound complicated and even a bit overwhelming at first, but it’s a great retirement hobby and it can even earn you some income. By dedicating time and effort in the right places, you’ll have a great creative outlet to share your message.
