There will come a time when you find yourself in need of some helpful tips to keep you encouraged, energized, and focused. I did, too. This compilation of tips and encouragements are for you, whatever stage of self-publishing you’re in.

Remember, keep God in the center of your work, always turning to Him whether things are going good or messing up. He’s always with you (Hebrews 13:5b).

Seek counsel from parents, grandparents, and wise friends. You don’t have all the answers, and that’s okay. Ask them every question you can think of. They may surprise you with the knowledge they have, or the things you can learn together. My parents, siblings, and friends helped me tremendously, and I can’t thank them enough.

Feel free to play around. Just because you’re in the self-publishing process doesn’t mean you don’t have time to play around with your style and voice, the formatting features, blogging ideas, marketing concepts, and more. This is great fun! Better yet, it helps you begin developing necessary tactics and skills for future projects. God has developed all kinds of ideas and convictions in me during the times I was “playing around.”

Be patient and persevere. Patience isn’t easy to practice, but this journey provides plenty of opportunities. Self-publishing can feel like it’s taking forever. Just when you think you’re down the final stretch, you remember the ten other things on the list without checkmarks. Don’t worry about it (Philippians 4:6). Patiently wait on the Lord’s timing as you persevere in the work before you. It will be good in the end, honest.

Take time in between editing and publishing to do something fun! This is a way to ward of fatigue and discouragement from pressing yourself too hard. When we aren’t patient, we are pressing to get everything done as fast as possible. That’s the surest way to burn out. So, plan something fun with family and friends at least twice a week. Take as many breaks as necessary.

When you take breaks, try to find something to do that doesn’t involve screens, words, or numbers. Because that’s probably what you’ve been looking at consistently for some time. Take a nature walk. Go to the park. Talk face-to-face with a friend. Go fishing. Play a sport. Basically, do something to get you active, in God’s creation, and interacting in relationship.

Set a timer to avoid spending too much time editing. It’s better to work many short days than a few long days. It will definitely help keep away frustration, discouragement, fatigue, and headaches. It will also help us keep living in such a way as to not be engrossed in anything passing away (1 Cor. 7:31).

Save and close your work at the end of each day. Bookmark pages that are hard to get to before closing them. Rebooting the systems often help them work faster, especially if it uses the internet.

Save copies of all your work. Whether that’s on a backup thumb drive or external hard drive, save a copy. Also, if you’re working with InDesign or any other formatting program, save copies of each file on the computer and on a backup drive. That way, if anything crashes in the middle of your work, you have the last milestone to work up from again. Not all is lost!

Take notes. Any useful information you receive or find while researching about self-publishing, write it down in one place. You don’t want to do that research twice.

Keep lists. Even if you’re not a list person usually (like me) this can save you time. For instance, I wrote a list for every step I needed to take to format individual chapters. When I went into the program, I could follow the steps and breeze through the process.

Snack! You probably already knew this, but snacks are very helpful to keep you going. Food can help increase your joy, gratitude, and emotional capacity. All things we definitely need in self-publishing! This tip ought really to come after “eat consistently,” but that rarely needs to be said.

Play music in the background. Some work in self-publishing can be monotonous. Playing music that shifts and changes in the background can help take off the grinding edge of repetitious work.

Save up stories. As you go about this tedious, wonderful process, take note of the special experiences God gives you. Save the stories to share with family and friends. Because this gives you and them something to look forward to and builds joy. It presents a really good opportunity to talk about and praise God for all He has done. Also, it allows your family and friends to talk about and praise God for what He is doing in their lives, which keeps life in focus.

“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His steadfast love endures forever!”(Psalm 136:1.)

Blessed book making, friend!

Comment below! Which tip did you find most helpful or encouraging? Also, share a tip or encouragement you have!