From Manuscript to Market: A Step-by-Step Guide to Self-Publishing Your Christian Book
You don't have to walk the self-publishing road alone. Our team is here to help you see your book in print!
The book publishing landscape will continue to evolve, which means self-publishing will only grow in popularity through the years. Right now it may feel like navigating the self-publishing process can be overwhelming, but we don’t want it to be.
Today, we’re sharing a comprehensive guide to walk you through each stage of self-publishing, focusing on considerations specific to Christian content and audiences, from planning to marketing your book.
Here’s our full step-by-step guide to writing, publishing, and marketing your Christian book.
1. Planning Your Manuscript
Before you begin writing, take the time to clarify your book’s purpose and target audience. Are you writing a devotional guide? A fiction novel with Christian themes? Or are you writing a theological study?
Understanding your primary goal will shape your manuscript and help you connect with your intended readers.
Once you have your book’s purpose and target audience set, produce a detailed outline of your book’s content. For nonfiction, this could simply be your chapter headings and key points you want to hit for each section. For fiction, develop a plot outline, character sketches, and setting descriptions.
A well-structured outline serves as a roadmap, ensuring your writing stays focused and organized.
This next step is extremely important, but often not discussed. This is the time to set a budget and establish a realistic timeline for your book. Your budget should cover all necessary expenses, including professional services, printing, and marketing efforts. Being financially prepared will help you more effectively manage the process. Establishing a realistic timeline for completing each stage of the self-publishing process, includes understanding the timeline for writing, editing, design, and marketing tasks.
2. Writing Your Manuscript
Now that planning and some business tasks are accounted for, it’s time to write. As you write, ensure that your Christian message is seamlessly woven into your narrative or content. Whether you’re exploring themes of grace, redemption, or moral living, your message should be integral to the story or argument—not tacked on as an afterthought.
With writing, you also want to remain authentic and sincere with your words. Your unique voice and perspective as a Christian author should shine through. Avoid cliches and generic expressions of faith. Instead, offer genuine reflection and insights that can deeply resonate with your readers.
Your first draft won’t be the final draft of your work, so once you have the draft on paper, it’s time to make revisions. Give yourself a few days (or weeks) before diving back in to make revisions. Fresh eyes will better help you identify areas for improvement. Use your revisions to focus on clarity, coherence, and consistency in your message. Ensure that your Christian themes are thoughtfully presented and that your writing is engaging and accessible.
Once you’ve made all the revisions you can, you’re ready to send your manuscript to a few beta readers. These readers provide valuable feedback on how your message lands on readers and whether your content is engaging. Look for beta readers who are familiar with Christian literature or who align with your book’s theme.
3. Editing Your Manuscript
Editing takes place in a minimum of two parts. The first step is self-editing. This step will take place once your revisions and beta reading stages are complete. Self-edits help refine your manuscript. This is when you look for grammatical errors, awkward phrasing, and structural issues. Ensure that your Christian content is accurate and respectfully presented.
You can use tools like Grammarly or ProWritingAid to help guide your self-editing, but don’t rely solely on software. Human eyes are essential to catch nuanced errors.
When you’ve edited your book as much as you possibly can, it’s time to send your manuscript to a professional editor. If you decide to work with Xulon Press, you can rest assured that all of our editors have experience in all book genres and are supportive of Christian content. Professional editing ensures your manuscript is polished and ready for publication.
4. Designing Your Book
This is when publishing a book starts to get really fun! Your book cover is often the first impression readers will have of your book, so do your research. Walk the aisles of a bookstore and take photos of book covers you love. When you get home, scroll through the images and write notes on why you liked each cover and what you’d change if it was yours. You can then use this information to more easily communicate your cover inspiration to a book cover designer.
For Christian books specifically, keep in mind that the design should reflect both the book’s genre and message. Incorporate elements that resonate with your theme, whether it’s a serene image for a devotional or a compelling graphic for a novel.
Just as your cover needs to be designed, your manuscript needs to be formatted into book layout. This layout is dependent on the trim size, font, font size, and line spacing you choose for your book text. The interior layout includes formatting the text for readability and visual appeal. Professional formatting ensures that your book looks polished in both print and digital formats.
When you work with us, our Production team does all the work for you to obtain an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) for your book. Every published book version receives an ISBN, which is essential for distribution and sales tracking. For instance, if you publish a hardcover, paperback, and eBook version of your book, each of those book formats will have its own ISBN.
Our team also registers every author’s copyright information, which protects their work from unauthorized use.
Both steps are crucial for self-publishing and ensure that your rights are secured.
5. Publishing Your Book
Let me make this note first. If you publish with our team, as an author you will not need to worry about the steps in this section. Our team handles publishing and printing, they offer guidance to help you determine the right price for your book, and they also pay out your royalties.
If you decide to handle all aspects of the publishing process yourself, you can expect to be responsible for the following.
You’ll also need to decide where you will publish your book. Do-it-yourself (DIY) publishing platforms include Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), IngramSpark, and Barnes & Noble Press.
You’ll need to follow your selected platform’s guidelines for uploading your manuscript and cover. Pay close attention to formatting requirements and preview your book to ensure everything appears as expected. Make any necessary adjustments before finalizing your submission.
You’ll also have to determine the pricing for your book, which means you should factor in production costs, market trends, and your target audience. Be mindful to set royalty rates according to options set by the publishing platform you chose.
6. Marketing Your Christian Book
I see too many authors wait until their book is at the printer to begin creating an online presence to use for book marketing. The sooner you can create a website, blog, and social media profiles, the sooner you can begin sharing content related to your book’s themes and grow an audience to sell your book to.
You’ll also want to consider joining faith-based communities and forums where you can connect with potential readers.
Regarding your book marketing strategy, seek out Christian organizations, churches, and book clubs for opportunities to promote your book. Offer to speak at events, participate in interviews, or provide guest blog posts. You should also consider partnering with influencers who can enhance your book’s visibility within the Christian community.
Before your book goes to print, develop a strategic plan to launch your book. Set up a book launch team, offer freebies to people who pre-order your book, and request early readers leave a review for your book on Goodreads and Amazon. Utilize social media, email newsletters, and promotional campaigns to spread the word. These are all successful ways to generate excitement and initial sales.
Finally, encourage all of your readers to leave reviews. Positive reviews not only enhance your book’s credibility but also increase its visibility to potential readers. Take time to leave a comment on every review you receive to express gratitude for their support.
Final Thoughts
Self-publishing your Christian book is a rewarding journey that requires careful planning, diligent effort, and a clear focus. Follow the steps laid out in this article to successfully navigate the self-publishing process and share your Christian message with the world.
Remember to stay true to your purpose, seek professional guidance (from the Xulon Press team), and engage with your audience to make a lasting impact. With dedication and perseverance, your manuscript can move from draft to market, and reach readers who are eager for faith-driven content.
You are reading Xulon Press Substack, a weekly newsletter about writing, self-publishing, author branding, and creative living from Content Manager, Erika Bennett. You can also find us on Pinterest, Instagram, the Xulon Press blog, and our website.