If you have published a book and are interested in selling that book directly through your own website but aren’t sure how to get started, I have some good news—you already know the process!

Confused? Let me explain. The other day I was considering what type of content we could create to help folks get started with selling their books directly and as I was going through best practices, i.e, do your research, know your audience, find your niche, build an online presence…it hit me. These are the exact same steps you have to go through to successfully publish your book!

Not convinced? That’s good because that was just the intro. Come along, dear reader. I will prove it!

There are five basics for successfully publishing a book and today we’ll cover the first two. Let’s find out how they can be applied to creating a successful ecommerce business!

Do your research

It all starts here. Before you can successfully publish your book and reach the sales goals you want—or even set your goals, for that matter—you need to do your research. You might have a great idea for a book or online store and you’re raring to get out there and put the pedal to the metal, but it will all be a waste if you don’t take the time to learn about the landscape you’re getting into. For books—say you want to write a thriller about a beloved college professor who’s also a serial killer. Good idea. Before you dive in, here are a list of questions to help you adequately position your book:

• What other books are out there that are similar?
•  Have they been successful?
• What kind of reviews did they get?
• What are readers saying they want more (or less) of?
• How long did it take the authors to write the books and how did they promote them?
• What kind of social media strategies are they employing?

These are just a handful of the questions you can use as a guide through the research for your book to ensure you’re creating something that hasn’t been done before but people will be receptive to.

Okay, now let’s apply this to your online store. Maybe you want to sell all kinds of things, not just your awesome thriller novels. Here’s an idea of some of the questions you’ll want to answer before getting started:

• What other brands are doing this?
• When you’re shopping online, what websites make the experience enjoyable and which are you immediately closing out of because there’s too much going on or the process is too overwhelming?
• Are you drawn to a simple aesthetic or do you like bold designs?
• How are these websites making the shopping process easier or harder for you?
• What do you wish they would do, and what do you wish they would stop doing? Keep note of all these things and see if you can implement the pros and eliminate the cons from each experience.
• Another pro tip here would be to sign up for email lists for the websites and brands you enjoy. See what the onboarding experience is like for new customers and if you think it could work for you.

After you spend some time online really thinking about what makes a pleasurable and unique shopping experience versus an infuriating one, you can start to design your website and optimize your customer journey.

At this point you might be thinking, “What customers?” That’s a good question. And to find the answer to that, we move on to…

Know your audience

Who is your audience? Who is your store even for? And don’t say everyone. It’s not. Think about your three favorite people. Or least favorite people. Do they all shop at the same places and do the same things? Probably not. So you need to be really clear on who you’re selling to. Who is your ideal customer?

Back to your thriller novel. Now that you know what else is out there that’s similar and how readers have responded, you can dig a bit deeper and ask yourself questions like:

• Where are these people going to find new books to read?
• What websites are they frequenting to learn more about the latest in the thriller genre?
• What newsletters are they signing up for?
• What blogs are they reading?
• What other authors are they following and what social media platforms are they most active on?
• What conferences and events do they attend to get their fill of thrill?

When you’re working on your book, it’s helpful to create a reader persona to really understand who your audience is and how to best connect with them. And it’s the same for your ecommerce store! Now that you’ve done some research to determine what you will be selling and how to create an optimal shopping experience for your customers, you can use the same questions outlined above, but tweaked slightly:

• Where are these people going to find new products similar to yours?
• What websites are they frequenting to buy these items currently?
• What pain points are they experiencing?
• What do they love about these websites?
  1. This information can be gleaned pretty easily from online reviews and sites like TrustPilot.
• What newsletters are they signing up for?
• What blogs are they reading?
• What other brands are they following and what social media platforms are they most active on?

Find your niche

• Here comes the good part! Now that you’ve found your audience, where they spend time and what they like and dislike, you can home in on what sets you apart! For books, this could be a sub-genre or obscure subject matter. For your brand, this could be unique graphics or bold designs and aesthetics. It could be that you do a YouTube video or Instagram Live every time you drop a new product, or maybe you have a quirky mascot like a manatee riding a motorcycle that everyone loves. I’m not here to tell you what it is (however I would be delighted to see that manatee come to life) but once you have done the research on the market and your ideal audience, you’ll know what’s already out there and what you can leverage that’s unique about you and your brand to carve out your piece of the market share.

These steps are essential in creating a successful foundation for your book, or your ecommerce business. Be sure to spend adequate time really understanding the competitive landscape you’re entering into, and who you are serving by entering into it. In our next post, we will dive into how to use this information to create something truly unique—and successful! Keep an eye out for part 2 in October and until then, happy researching!

Chelsea Bennett is the Brand Engagement Manager for Lulu.com and is constantly researching and developing new resources for independently published authors. Her areas of expertise include self-publishing, Print-on-Demand technology, building an author brand, direct sales and marketing for authors and entrepreneurs.When not thinking about publishing, Chelsea can be found playing disc golf with her husband or having in-depth conversations about the universe with her cat, Batman.

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