 Working words together to create beautiful poetry or prose is something that comes naturally to you. Social media can now help you make it a well-paying gig. Hello everyone and welcome back to Start It Up. In today's video, we tell you how you can go from being a writer on Instagram to becoming a published author. From Rupi Kaur to Bo Tappling, the rise of Instagram writers has been a big talking point in literary circles all across. What started with a simple experimentation of putting small snippets in the form of aesthetically pleasing square pictures is now a full-blown industry. If you do believe your writing has what it takes to go out there and make people spend, here's a little guide that would help you along. One of the most important reasons why things work or do not work on Instagram is how you present yourself and build an image in front of your followers. The very first step to doing this is creating a username that resonates and is easy to recall. It must reflect the kind of work people could expect from you or should depict your personality. So your bio is another place where you would like to be careful. Don't put too many details but just enough along with the contact details that would help you connect to relevant people when you grow. And while it is true that there can be artistic blocks, make sure that your posts are regular if you're to build a brand that continues to grow. Your writing may be exceedingly great but unless you're posting something regularly, some of the fickle followers might decide to unfollow and of course there's the case of Instagram's algorithms reducing your read. With the option for Instagram stories, even if you don't post every day, we would recommend you that you regularly interact with your followers. Do live videos, polls, giveaways and Q&A sessions which would help drive engagement metrics. Last, ensure that your feed looks aesthetically pleasing. Yes, we've been asked not to judge a book by its cover but on social media that's what most people end up doing. Publishing over the years has become not only easier but cheaper as well. So to get your books to the maximum possible audience, it no longer requires you to go to a big publishing house, hoping that they decide to take you in the traditional way. While it is still a good option, it takes a lot longer considering the volumes of manuscripts that they get and the minuscule amount that they end up choosing. There are plenty of new age publishers that have come up and are helping authors self-publish with little to no investment. So this brings us to how much you will have to spend to publish a book. Publishers like Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing allows you to have your own book for free if you have everything from the book design to the cover ready. On the other hand, there are paid options from companies such as NotionPress which guides you through the process with packages as it is about 17,000 rupees. While Amazon KDP does give a free ISBN, we recommend you that you get your own if you want to sell across platforms. All you need to do is go to any of their online portals, put your details and there would be tools for help. So other than spending on any of the paid packages, you may need to also spend a bit on marketing your Instagram presence in the initial days. It may vary depending on your budget and how many people you want to reach. But it is recommended that you start with about 3 to 5,000 rupees per month. Videos are also a quick way to get recognition. A lot of Instagram poets put out videos of them reading their written pieces, sometimes performing them at open mics and those who may not be reading may be hooked to audio visuals. Making such videos with the help of a freelancer can cost you about 4 to 5,000 rupees. In terms of earnings, self-publishing tools give you better margins, but it really depends on the publisher that you decide to go with. For example, a 200-page black and white paperback priced at about 200 rupees can earn you 30 to 40 rupees per book if you're selling on e-commerce sites. On Amazon KDP, you can earn up to 60% of your list price. Average royalty for traditional publishing is 10 to 15% of selling price. So that's about today's start of video. Stay tuned and log on to www.entrepreneur.com for more business ideas. And if you want to boost your existing business, then look up at entrepreneurplus.in.